Line 408. As true as Helen, etc.—Cf. the professions of Pyramus and Thisbe (where, however, no irony is intended), Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, 200-203.
Line 413. Loves.—So MS. for love.
Line 413. I am ore shooes in it.—Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1, 23:
"That's a deep story of a deeper love,
For he was more than over shoes in love."
Line 414. Mountenance, quantity, amount. The translation of the Romaunt of the Rose, attributed to Chaucer, has—"The mountenance of two fynger hight."
Line 422. Never ioyd it since.—Cf. 1 Henry IV. ii. 1, 13: "Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him."
Line 426. Pay = beat (still used dialectically):
"They with a foxe tale him soundly did pay."
(The King and a poore Northerne Man, 1640.)
Line 440. Scummer.—The meanings of this word appear to be either various or obscure. Halliwell gives "Scummer, wonder; Somerset." In Elworthy's West Somersetshire Wordbook the definitions stand thus: (1) row, disturbance; (2) confusion, upset; (3) mess, dirty muddle. Wright, in his Provincial Dictionary, gives the meaning as ordure, without referring the word to any special locality. Obviously, this scummer is not to be confounded with M. E. scumer, a rover or pirate.