[1049] Dy. assumes that "something ... has dropt out"; but this is not necessary. Erestus, who says below that he 'speaks in riddles,' knows the errand of the brothers, and asks the question abruptly. He plays the part of Merlin in Childe Rowland.
[1050] The spell is important, solemn, and is therefore repeated. No particular tale of The White Bear of England's Wood is known, but similar cases of transformation are plentiful.
[1051] Dy. prints ''chanting'; needlessly.
[1052] Below 'mend,' Sig. B iii.
[1053] B. notes that "St. Luke's Day (18th October) was the day of Horn Fair; and St. Luke was jocularly regarded as the patron saint of cuckolds. St. Andrew was supposed to bring good luck to lovers." ...
[1054] The reference is to the tale preserved in several versions, and known as "The Three Heads of the Well," Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, p. 222. "The Well of the World's End," p. 215, however, has the incident of filling a sieve.
[1055] So "God ye good night, and twenty, sir!" In Middleton's Trick to Catch the Old One—"A thousand farewells." Compare the well-known forms of greeting, as "Grüss' mir mein Liebchen zehntausend mal!" or the elaborate message at the opening of the ballad Childe Maurice.
[1056] See Appendix [B] on this Song.
[1058] The 'Booby' is later called 'Corebus' or 'Chorebus.' See Harvey, The Trimming of Thomas Nashe, Grosart, III. 29: "Thou mayest be cald the very Chorœbus of our time, of whom the proverbe was sayde, more foole than Chorœbus: who was a seely ideot, but yet had the name of a wise man." ...