A kind of gloomy countenance. ↩
Good manners. ↩
Thrive. ↩
Dissatisfied. ↩
Mandates, summonses. ↩
Civil, gentle. ↩
Pay him off. ↩
Assuredly. ↩
Once on a time. ↩
Churchwardens. ↩
Sort of. ↩
Caught. ↩
People who did not pay their full tithes. Mr. Wright remarks that “the sermons of the friars in the fourteenth century were most frequently designed to impress the ahsolute duty of paying full tithes and offerings.” ↩
Troubled, put to shame. ↩
They got off with no mere pecuniary punishment. ↩
Espionage. ↩
Furious, mad. ↩
Stews. ↩
Care. ↩
Whistle; bawl. ↩
Informers. ↩
Won. ↩
Ignorant. ↩
Alehouse; inn-ale, a house for ale. ↩
Small. ↩
What was owing him. ↩
Plunder, pluck. ↩
Cause thee to be struck. ↩
Black. ↩
It is needful. ↩
Dog attending a huntsman with bow and arrow. ↩
Better. ↩
The name of a musical instrument; applied to an old woman because of the shrillness of her voice. ↩
Wore a short doublet. ↩
Shade. ↩
By the gods. ↩
Dear. ↩
Please. ↩
Great thanks. ↩
Chattering. ↩
Butcherbirds; which are very noisy and ravenous, and tear in pieces the birds on which they prey; the thorn on which they do this was said to become poisonous. ↩
Seek, visit. ↩
Medieval legends located hell in the North. ↩
Inform. ↩
Conceal nothing from me. ↩
Niggardly. ↩
Whether. ↩
Do. ↩
Unless. ↩
Were it not for. ↩
Tricks. ↩
Confessed, shriven. ↩
Curse. ↩
Confessors. ↩
What I can gain in my sole revenue. ↩
Thought. ↩
At home; in your natural state. ↩
Make it seem to you. ↩
Know. ↩
Skill, cunning. ↩
Apply myself. ↩
Because. ↩
Against it. ↩
Catch. ↩
The witch, or woman, possessed with a prophesying spirit; from the Greek, Πνθια. Chaucer of course refers to the raising of Samuel’s spirit by the Witch of Endor. ↩
Set no value upon. ↩
Jest. ↩
Assuredly. ↩
Know. ↩
Learn. ↩
Learn to understnd what I have said. ↩
Both poets who had in fancy visited Hell. ↩
Briskly. ↩
Seeking what we may pick up. ↩
Shaped, resolved. ↩
Go. ↩
Mad. ↩
As sure. ↩
Suffered, endured; thole is still used in Scotland in the same sense. ↩
As if nothing were the matter. ↩
Whispered. ↩
Seize. ↩
Horses. ↩
Whit. ↩
Believest. ↩
Stop. ↩
Pulled; for twitched. ↩
Gray; elsewhere applied by Chaucer to the hairs of an old man. So Burns, in the “Cotter’s Saturday Night,” speaks of the gray temples of “the sire”—“His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare.” ↩
Dwells. ↩
Used like “ribibe,”—as a nickname for a shrill old scold. ↩
Mad. ↩
Trot; a contemptuous term for an old woman who has trotted about much, or who moves with quick short steps. ↩
Upon. ↩
Surely. ↩
Cannot help myself. ↩
Paineth. ↩
Question me about, lay to my change. ↩
Little. ↩
Surely. ↩
Show your charity. ↩
Ruined, put to death. ↩
Die. ↩
Unless. ↩
Polecat. ↩
Secrets. ↩
Seized. ↩
Frighten, horrify. ↩
Relate. ↩
That. ↩
On the watch; French, aux aguets. ↩
Seize. ↩
Furious. ↩
Quaked, trembled. ↩
Then. ↩
A great ship of burden used by the Portuguese; the name is from the Italian, cargare, to load. ↩
Immediately. ↩
In a company, crowd. ↩
By his
