p. [88]. The adder. “The nedder,” as the text puts it quaintly, in the old, correct form. The serpent in Genesis.
p. [88]. Mysloset. Apparently from the root lose; hence, to lose amiss, i.e., to lead astray; but the form appears to be passive, not active. Perhaps the idea is that the serpent himself was lost for his wickedness; but this seems far-fetched.
p. [89]. Solace ... makes. One of the many traces of Scotch. The original rhyme must have been mas.
p. [90]. St. Ambrose. Archbishop of Milan, 340-97. He wrote an ethical treatise De Officiis Ministrorum, in imitation of Cicero’s De Officiis; but whether or not this injunction is found therein, it occurs in almost the same words in Liber Faceti:—
“Si videas aliquem casurum siue cadentem,
Non ride: sed ei te prebe compatientem.”
p. [90]. More and less. If at means that, the sense is, that everybody understands it; but the context seems to call for the meaning: that you yourself do not fully understand.
p. [91]. Opens his lip. Text:—
“Lest men say to gossip or couth (friend),
Yonder is a man without mouth.”