“It’s really Middle English, you know.”
“No, I don’t. See here, what does a choice morsel like this signify?” She read, in a manner unknown to linguists, the following lines:
“Ye men that has wifis whyls they ar’ yong,
If luf youre lifis chastice thare tong:
Me thynk my heart ryfis both levyr and long
To se sich stryfis wedmen emong.
That looks as if it might mean something.”
“Yes, Noah was very wroth with his wife.”
“His wife? His missus?”
“She was a scold, and Noah, as the gloss of Professor Pollard says, bids husbands chastise their wives’ tongues early.”
“Not so hot, not so hot,” remarked Lib, apparently in disparagement. “Where do all the other folks come in?”
“Oh, there’ll be parts for everyone. Noah’s family was large, and there were plenty of animals to go round. . . . He beats her a bit later on,” I added hopefully.
She clapped the covers to. “This is too rough for me. It’s not ladylike. I’m not crazy about—say, what goes on in there?”