She sholde noght han walked on that welthe · so was it thred-bare.
(Vision, Passus V. vol. 1, l. 2859-70, ed. Wright.)
In the Kinge and Miller, Percy Folio MS., p. 236 (in vol. ii. of the print), when the Miller proposes that the stranger should sleep with their son, Richard the son says to the King,
“Nay, first,” quoth Richard, “good fellowe, tell me true,
hast thou noe creepers in thy gay hose?
art thou not troabled with the Scabbado?”
The colour of washerwomen’s legs was due partly to dirt, I suppose. The princess or queen Clarionas, when escaping with the laundress as her assistant, is obliged to have her white legs reduced to the customary shade of grey:
Right as she should stoupe a-douñ,
The quene was tukked wel on high;
The lauender perceiued wel therbigh