240. The celebrated Nine Worthies; see notes to IV. 281, XII. 86.
243. Cf. 'and furred wel with gray'; A. L. 305.
252. henshmen, youths mounted on horseback, who attended their lords. See numerous quotations for this word in A Student's Pastime, §§ 264, 272, 415-8. Each of them is called a child, l. 259.
253. For every on, it is absolutely necessary to read the first upon;
for the sense. Each of the nine worthies had three henchmen; of these three, the first bore his helmet, the second his shield, and the third his spear.
257. Bell and Morris alter nekke to bakke; but wrongly. The shields were carried by help of a strap which passed round the neck and over the shoulders; called in Old French a guige. The convenience of this arrangement is obvious. See note to C. T., A 2504 (vol. v. p. 88).
272. In Lydgate's Temple of Glas, 508, we are told that hawthorn-leaves do not fade; see ll. 551-3 below.
274. Read hors, not horses; hors is the true plural; see l. 293.
275. Cf. 'trompes, that ... blowen blody sounes'; C. T., A 2511-2.
286-7. 'That to beholde it was a greet plesaunce'; A. L. 59. And again—'I you ensure'; A. L. 52.