[1039] See [Critical Essay] for the folk-tales in question.
[1040] handsome.
[1041] 'he' keeps (frequents, lives), i.e. the young man. Omission of subject is common in the ballads.
[1042] The conjurer.
[1043] See the [Critical Essay] for this "play within the play."
[1044] The princes, of course, talk in metre when the "high style" is needed, but in familiar prose with Erestus (= "Senex"). The repetitions in this blank-verse are characteristic.
[1045] B. omits. Dy. proposes to omit 'faire.' Neither omission is necessary.
[1046] Reminds one of nursery tales with bits of rhyme,—the cante-fable of folk-lore.
[1047] So Milton's famous "grey hooded Even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed" ...
[1048] Below 'gold,' Sig. B ii.