109-11. 'I <well> believe that there is great courtesy and charity among you.' The construction of the next line (which conveys an apology, cp. l. 62) is not clear owing to the following gap in the MS.; nor is it easy to guess the missing rime word, as emong can rime with OE. -ung- (e.g. with ȝonge, ll. 114, 175), or with OE. -ang-; see the note to XVII 400.
116. stronge may be adj. 'violent' with worlde, but is more likely adv. 'severely'.
124-5. Note the cumulation of negatives. cowþeȝ has a double construction: 'You never knew how to please God nor pray to Him, nor <did you know even> the Paternoster and Creed.' The Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed were prescribed by the Church as the elements of faith to be taught first to a child.
137. Matthew xx. 1-16.
139. 'He represented it very aptly in a parable.'
141. My regne... on hyȝt, 'My kingdom on high'.
145. þys hyne: the labourers. This, these are sometimes used in early English to refer to persons or things that have not been previously mentioned, but are prominent in the writer's mind. Cp. XV b 4, 19; and the opening of Chaucer's Prologue to the Franklin's Tale quoted in the note to II 13.
150. pené: in ME. the final sound developed from OFr. -é (e) fell together with the sounds arising from OE. -ig, OFr. ie, &c. Hence pené or peny 186 (OE. penig); reprené 184 for repreny; cortaysé 120, 121, beside cortaysye 72, 84, 96. The acute accent is editorial.
153. 'At midmorning the master goes to the market.' totȝ (= tǭs) = tās, contracted form of takes 'betakes himself'; cp. tone = taken V 91. The spelling and rimes with o (which cannot develop normally from ă lengthened in open syllables because this lengthening is everywhere later than the change ā ≻ ǭ) are usually explained as artificial. It is assumed that as Northern bān corresponded to Midland bǭn, so from Northern tá 'take' an unhistorical Midland tǭ was deduced. But it is possible that the contraction of tăke(n), and consequent lengthening tá(n), is older than the ordinary lengthening tăke ≻ táke, and also older than the development of ā to ǭ in North Midland.
164. I yow pay: note the survival of the old use of the present to express future tense.