But he cold neither runne soe fast,[568]
Nor away soe fast cold ryde,[568]
But Litle John with an arrowe soe broad,[568]235
He shott him into the 'backe'-syde.[568]
⁂ The title of Sir was not formerly peculiar to knights, it was given to priests, and sometimes to very inferior personages.
Dr. Johnson thinks this title was applied to such as had taken the degree of A. B. in the universities, who are still stiled, Domini, "Sirs," to distinguish them from Undergraduates, who have no prefix, and from Masters of Arts, who are stiled Magistri, "Masters."
FOOTNOTES:
[480] See Thoresby's Ducat. Leod. p. 576. Biog. Brit. vi. 3933.
[481] Stukeley, in his Palæographia Britannica, No. II. 1746.
[482] See also the following ballad, v. 147.
[483] Num. D. 5. 2.