Avoid, "Avoid, good brother!" (M[5],d)—"avoid! I charge thee" (R[254],d), begone, make room, depart, "get out." "I shall make you avoid soon."—Youth, Anon. Pl. 2 Ser. (E.E.D.S.), 94,b.
Avoidance, "as for mine avoidance" (N[52],a), departure: see Avoid.
Avore, "I chil wait avor you" (R. passim), afore: there are numerous examples of v for f in this play: also of z for s.
Avoutry, "taken in avoutry" (passim), adultery: see other volumes of this series.
Ayenst, "ayenst thy sores" (N[121],d), against. " ... whan he wente in batayle ayenst them...."—Invention of the Holy Cross (ed. Morris), p. 159.
Ba, "ba me" (M[19],d), kiss: cf. basse or buss.
Badge, "bear on my bryst the badge of mine arms" (M[15],b), badge. Princes, noblemen, and other gentlemen of rank had formerly, and still retain, distinctive badges, and servants and dependants wore these cognisances on their liveries. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare (1839), pp. 205-7, says: "The history of the changes which badges have undergone is interesting. In the time of Henry IV. the terms livery and badge seem to have been synonymous. A badge consisted of the master's device, crest, or arms on a separate piece of cloth, or sometimes on silver in the form of a shield fastened to the left sleeve. In Queen Elizabeth's reign the nobility placed silver badges on their servants. The sleeve badge was left off in the reign of James I., but its remains are still preserved in the dresses of porters, firemen, and water-men, and possibly in the shoulder-knots of footmen. During the period when badges were worn the coat to which they were affixed was, as a rule, blue, and the blue coat and badge still may be seen on parish and hospital boys."
Baggage, "the baggage, the trash," etc. (R[183],c), rubbish, refuse, trumpery, scum. "Fill an egg-shell newly emptied with the juice of singreen, and set it in hot embers; scum off the green baggage from it, and it will be a water."—Lupton, Thousand Notable Things (1579).
Bags, "the names of my bags" (R[221],a), purses: those carried by Avarice were probably, for the sake of "business," more like small sacks; he is represented as hugging them ([216],a), as hauling them ([215],d), and as dragging them out ([225],d). " ... see thou shake the bags Of hoarding abbots; imprison'd angels Set at liberty."—Shakespeare, King John (1596), iii. 3.
Bale blisses (JE[355],c), probably blisses which are evil, and the reverse of blisses; with an eye on A.S. bale = "fiery"; as in bale-fire, etc. "... bring me forth toward blisse with se bale here."—MS. Cott., Titus, D. xviii., f. 146b.