759. gigges, concubines; see Stratmann. Roquefort has: 'Gigues, fille gaie, vive.' Cf. giglot in Shakespeare. (Initial g is here sounded as j.)
760. 'And provide them with fine clothes.'
773. Here all the 'seven sins' are mentioned except gluttony.
780. 'The wisdom of such willers is not worth a needle.'
791. jay; so also in Chaucer, C. T., A 642.
801. maynteyners, abettors of wrongdoers; see note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 90.
827. brent, burnt; still more strongly put in l. 1234. That heretics were sometimes burnt before 1401, is certain from Wyclif's Sermons, ed. Arnold, vol. i. pp. x, 205, as compared with p. 354. There is a case given in Bracton of a man who was burnt as early as in the reign of
Henry III. See the whole subject discussed in my edition of P. Plowman (E. E. T. S.), in the Pref. to B-text, p. v, Pref. to C-text, pp. xi-xiv, and the note to B. xv. 81, where Langland has 'ledeth me to brennynge.' Observe that the king is here spoken of as not presuming to burn heretics.
855. The seven sacraments of the Romish church; cf. l. 875.
856. Compare—'And also y sey coveitise catel to fongen'; P. Pl. Crede, 146.