"Lordings, ther is in Engelond, I gesse,
A mersschly land called Holdernesse,
In which there went a lymytour aboute,
To preche and eek to begge, it is no doubte."
Chaucer's Sompnour's Tale; Works, ed. Bell. ii. 103.
[197] Scrowl.
[198] In orig. and in Singer this is printed as prose, according to the usual practice. The same is the case with the line below.
[199] Narrative or account. In its original signification, libel merely implied libellus, a little book or volume, a pamphlet, but not necessarily one of an offensive kind.
[200] Silly and licentious talk. Taylor the Water-Poet, at the end of his Wit and Mirth, 1622 (Works, 1630, folio I. p. 200), uses the expression Ribble-rabble of Gossips, which seems to be a phrase of very similar import.
[201] Padua.
[202] Hovered. This form of the word is used by Gower and Spenser. See Nares (ed. 1859), voce Hove.
[203] Rustic.
[204] Inn.
[205] See Introduction vi.