A twelve moneth, and excuse him atte fulle.
This passage gives us a remarkable trait of the character of the ribald, or harlot, who formed a peculiar class of middle-age society. Among some old glosses in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ (vol. i, p. 7), we find "scurra, a harlotte." In the Coventry Mystery of the Woman taken in Adultery (p. 217), it is the young man who is caught with the woman, and not the woman herself, who is stigmatised as a harlot.
harpen (A.S.) to harp. pret. pl. harpeden, [394]
harrow (A.N.) [430], an exclamation, or rather a cry, said to have been peculiar to the Normans, the origin and derivation of which have been the subject of much discussion among antiquaries. It was the cry which every one was bound to raise and repeat, when any murder, theft, robbery, or other violent crime, was attempted or perpetrated, in order that the offenders might be hindered or secured. It was afterwards used in any great tumult or disorder, and became a general exclamation of persons wanting help. (See Ducange, in v. Haro.) In the Towneley Mysteries (p. 14), when Cain finds that his offering will not burn, he cries:—
We! out! haro! help to blaw!
It wille not bren for me, I traw.
haspen (A.S.) to clasp. y-hasped, [26]
hastilokest (A.N.) [424], most quickly, speedily, hastily
haten (A.S.) to call, order. pres. s. I hote. pret. s. highte, heet, [445]. part. pas. y-hote, hoten, hote, called, ordered
haten (A.S.) to be called or named. pres. s. hatte, is called, I hatie, [260], am called. pret. s. highte, was called