Part 6

"She, while she was, (that was, a woful word to sayn!) For beauty's praise and pleasance had no peer; So well she couth the shepheards entertain With cakes and cracknels, and such country cheer: Ne would she scorn the simple shepheard's swain; For she would call him often heme, And give him curds and clouted cream. O heavy herse! Als Colin Clout she would not once disdain; O careful verse!

"But now such happy cheer is turn'd to heavy chance, Such pleasance now displac'd by dolor's dint; All music sleeps, where Death doth lead the dance, And shepheards' wonted solace is extinct. The blue in black, the green in gray, is tinct; The gaudy garlands deck her grave, The faded flowers her corse embrave. O heavy herse! Mourn now, my Muse, now mourn with tears besprint; O careful verse!

"O thou great shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy grief? Where be the nosegays that she dight for thee? The coloured chaplets wrought with a chief,[20] The knotted rush-rings, and gilt rosemary? For she deemed nothing too dear for thee. Ah! they be all yclad in clay; One bitter blast blew all away. O heavy herse! Thereof nought remains but the memory; O careful verse!

"Ah me! that dreary death should strike so mortal stroke, That can undo Dame Nature's kindly course; The faded locks fall from the lofty oak, The floods do gasp, for dried is their source, And floods of tears flow in their stead perforce: The mantled meadows mourn, Their sundry colours turn. O heavy herse! The heavens do melt in tears without remorse; O careful verse!

"The feeble flocks in field refuse their former food, And hang their heads as they would learn to weep; The beasts in forest wail as they were wood, Except the wolves, that chase the wand'ring sheep, Now she is gone that safely did them keep: The turtle on the bared branch Laments the wound that Death did launch. O heavy herse! And Philomele her song with tears doth steep; O careful verse!

"The water nymphs, that wont with her to sing and dance, And for her garland olive branches bear, Now baleful boughs of cypress do advance; The Muses, that were wont green bays to wear, Now bringen bitter elder branches sere; The Fatal Sisters eke repent Her vital thread so soon was spent. O heavy herse! Mourn now, my Muse, now mourn with heavy cheer; O careful verse!

"O trustless state of earthly things, and slipper hope Of mortal men, that swink and sweat for nought, And, shooting wide, doth miss the marked scope; Now have I learn'd (a lesson dearly bought) That n'is on earth assurance to be sought; For what might be in earthly mould, That did her buried body hold? O heavy herse! Yet saw I on the bier when it was brought; O careful verse!

"But maugre Death, and dreaded Sisters' deadly spite, And gates of hell, and fiery Furies' force, She hath the bonds broke of eternal night, Her soul unbodied of the burdenous corse. Why then weeps Lobbin so without remorse? O Lobb! thy loss no longer lament; Dido is dead, but into heaven hent. O happy herse! Cease now, my Muse, now cease thy sorrows' source, O joyful verse!

"Why wail we then? why weary we the gods with plaints, As if some evil were to her betight? She reigns a goddess now among the saints, That whilome was the saint of shepheards light, And is installed now in heavens' height, I see thee, blessed soul! I see Walk in Elysian fields so free. O happy herse! Might I once come to thee, (O that I might!) O joyful verse!

"Unwise and wretched men, to weet what's good or ill, We deem of death as doom of ill desert; But knew we, fools, what it us brings until, Die would we daily, once it to expert! No danger there the shepheard can assert; air fields and pleasant lays there bene; The fields aye fresh, the grass aye green. O happy herse! Make haste, ye shepheards, thither to revert. O joyful verse!

"Dido is gone afore; (whose turn shall be the next?) There lives she with the blessed gods in bliss, There drinks she nectar with ambrosia mixt, And joys enjoys that mortal men do miss. The honour now of highest gods she is, That whilome was poor shepheards' pride, While here on earth she did abide. O happy herse! Cease now, my song, my woe now wasted is; O joyful verse!"

THE. Ay, frank shepheard, how be thy verses meint With doleful pleasance, so as I ne wot Whether rejoice or weep for great constraint! Thine be the cosset, well hast thou it got. Up, Colin, up, enough thou mourned hast; Now 'gins to mizzle, his we homeward fast.

COLIN'S EMBLEME. _La mort ny mord._ (Death has lost its sting.)

[Illustration: DECEMBER AEGLOGA DUODECIMA

COLIN'S EMBLEME]

DECEMBER. ÆGLOGA DUODECIMA.[21] ARGUMENT.

This Æglogue (even as the first began) is ended with a complaint of Colin to god Pan; wherein, as weary of his former ways, he proportioned his life to the four seasons of the year; comparing his youth to the spring time, when he was fresh and free from love's folly. His manhood to the summer, which, he saith, was consumed with great heat and excessive drouth, caused through a comet or blazing star, by which he meaneth love; which passion is commonly compared to such flames and immoderate heat. His ripest years he resembleth to an unseasonable harvest, wherein the fruits fall ere they be ripe. His latter age to winter's chill and frosty season, now drawing near to his last end.

The gentle shepheard sat beside a spring, All in the shadow of a bushy brere, That Colin hight, which well could pipe and sing, For he of Tityrus his song did lere: There, as he sat in secret shade alone, Thus gan he make of love his piteous moan.

"O sovereign Pan! thou god of shepheards all, Which of our tender lambkins takest keep, And, when our flocks into mischance might fall, Dost save from mischief the unwary sheep, Als of their masters hast no less regard Than of the flocks, which thou dost watch and ward;

"I thee beseech (so be thou deign to hear Rude ditties, tun'd to shepheard's oaten reed, Or if I ever sonnet sung so clear, As it with pleasance might thy fancy feed,) Hearken a while, from thy green cabinet, The rural song of careful Colinet.

"Whilome in youth, when flower'd my joyful spring, Like swallow swift I wander'd here and there; For heat of heedless lust me so did sting, That I of doubted danger had no fear: I went the wasteful woods and forest wide, Withouten dread of wolves to be espied.

"I wont to range amid the mazy thicket, And gather nuts to make my Christmas-game, And joyed oft to chase the trembling pricket, Or hunt the heartless hare till she were tame. What recked I of wintry age's waste?-- Then deemed I my spring would ever last.

"How often have I scaled the craggy oak, All to dislodge the raven of her nest? How have I wearied, with many a stroke, The stately walnut-tree, the while the rest Under the tree fell all for nuts at strife? For like to me was liberty and life.

"And for I was in thilk same looser years, (Whether the Muse so wrought me from my birth, Or I too much believ'd my shepheard peers,) Somedele ybent to song and music's mirth, A good old shepheard, Wrenock was his name, Made me by art more cunning in the same.

"Fro thence I durst in derring to compare With shepheard's swain whatever fed in field; And, if that Hobbinol right judgment bare, To Pan his own self pipe I need not yield: For, if the flocking nymphs did follow Pan, The wiser Muses after Colin ran.

"But, ah! such pride at length was ill repaid; The shepheard's god (perdie, god was he none) My hurtless pleasance did me ill upbraid, My freedom lorn, my life he left to moan. Love they him called that gave me check-mate, But better might they have behote him Hate.

"Then gan my lovely spring bid me farewell, And summer season sped him to display (For Love then in the Lion's house did dwell,) The raging fire that kindled at his ray. A comet stirr'd up that unkindly heat, That reigned (as men said) in Venus' seat.

"Forth was I led, not as I wont afore, When choice I had to choose my wand'ring way, But whether luck and love's unbridled lore Would lead me forth on Fancy's bit to play: The bush my bed, the bramble was my bower, The woods can witness many a woful stowre.

"Where I was wont to seek the honey bee, Working her formal rooms in waxen frame, The grisly toadstool grown there might I see, And loathed paddocks lording on the same: And, where the chanting birds lull'd me asleep, The ghastly owl her grievous inn doth keep.

"Then as the spring gives place to elder Time, And bringeth forth the fruit of summer's pride; All so my age, now passed youthly prime, To things of riper season self applied, And learn'd of lighter timber cotes to frame, Such as might save my sheep and me fro shame.

"To make fine cages for the nightingale, And baskets of bulrushes, was my wont: Who to entrap the fish in winding sale Was better seen, or hurtful beasts to hont? I learned als the signs of heaven to ken, How Phœbus fails, where Venus sets, and when.

"And tried time yet taught me greater things; The sudden rising of the raging seas, The sooth of birds by beating of their wings, The power of herbs, both which can hurt and ease, And which be wont t' enrage the restless sheep, And which be wont to work eternal sleep.

"But, ah! unwise and witless Colin Clout, That kydst the hidden kinds of many a weed, Yet kydst not one to cure thy sore heart-root, Whose rankling wound as yet does rifely bleed. Why livest thou still, and yet hast thy death's wound? Why diest thou still, and yet alive art found?

"Thus is my summer worn away and wasted, Thus is my harvest hastened all-to rathe; The ear that budded fair is burnt and blasted, And all my hoped gain is turn'd to scathe. Of all the seed, that in my youth was sown, Was none but brakes and brambles to be mown.

"My boughs with blooms that crowned were at first, And promised of timely fruit such store, Are left both bare and barren now at erst; The flattering fruit is fallen to ground before, And rotted ere they were half mellow ripe; My harvest, waste, my hope away did wipe.

"The fragrant flowers, that in my garden grew, Be withered, as they had been gathered long: Their roots be dried up for lack of dew, Yet dewed with tears they have been ever among. Ah! who has wrought my Rosalind this spite, To spoil the flowers that should her garland dight?

"And I, that whilome wont to frame my pipe Unto the shifting of the shepheard's foot, Such follies now have gathered as too ripe, And cast them out as rotten and unsoote. The looser lass I cast to please no more; One if I please, enough is me therefore.

"And thus of all my harvest-hope I have Nought reaped but a weedy crop of care; Which, when I thought have thresh'd in swelling sheave, Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley, bare: Soon as the chaff should in the fan be fin'd, All was blown away of the wavering wind.

"So now my year draws to his latter term, My spring is spent, my summer burnt up quite; My harvest hastes to stir up Winter stern, And bids him claim with rigorous rage his right: So now he storms with many a sturdy stour; So now his blust'ring blast each coast doth scour.

"The careful cold hath nipt my rugged rind, And in my face deep furrows eld hath pight: My head besprent with hoary frost I find, And by mine eye the crow his claw doth write: Delight is laid abed; and pleasure past; No sun now shines; clouds have all overcast.

"Now leave, ye shepheards' boys, your merry glee; My Muse is hoarse and weary of this stound: Here will I hang my pipe upon this tree, Was never pipe of reed did better sound: Winter is come that blows the bitter blast, And after winter dreary death does hast.

"Gather together, ye my little flock, My little flock, that was to me so lief; Let me, ah! let me in your folds ye lock, Ere the breme winter breed you greater grief. Winter is come, that blows the baleful breath, And after winter cometh timely death.

"Adieu, delights, that lulled me asleep; Adieu, my dear, whose love I bought so dear; Adieu, my little lambs and loved sheep; Adieu, ye woods, that oft my witness were: Adieu, good Hobbinol, that was so true, Tell Rosalind, her Colin bids her adieu."

COLIN'S EMBLEME. _Vivitur ingenio: cætera mortis erunt._ (The creations of genius live; other things shall be the prey of death.)

EPILOGUE.

Lo! I have made a Calender for every year, That steel in strength, and time in durance, shall outwear; And, if I marked well the stars' revolution, It shall continue till the world's dissolution, To teach the ruder shepheard how to feed his sheep, And from the falser's fraud his folded flock to keep. Go, little Calender! thou hast a free passport; Go but a lowly gate amongst the meaner sort: Dare not to match thy pipe with Tityrus his style, Nor with the Pilgrim[22] that the ploughman play'd a while; But follow them far off, and their high steps adore; The better please, the worse despise; I ask no more.

MERCE NON MERCEDE. (For recompense, but not for hire.)

NOTES.

_Page xviii, note 1._--The name of the writer of this letter is unknown.

_Page 5, note 2._--"Hobbinol:" the author's friend Gabriel Harvey.

_Page 10, note 3._--"Good Friday:" Good Friday is said to frown, as being a fast-day.

_Page 16, note 4._--Thenot's emblem means, in substance, that God, who is aged Himself, being without beginning of days, makes those whom He loves, to be aged, like Himself; and that it is a mark of His favour to be old. Cuddie's emblem is, "No old man fears God"--a sarcasm against Thenot.

_Page 29, note 5._--"Tawdry:" is here used in its primitive sense, denoting something bought at the fair of St. Ethelred, or St. Awdrey.

_Page 30, note 6._--"This poesy is taken out of Virgil, and there of him used in the person of Æneas to his mother Venus, appearing to him in likeness of one of Diana's damsels; being there most divinely set forth. To which similitude of divinity Hobbinol comparing the excellency of Elisa, and being through the worthiness of Colin's song, as it were, overcome with the hugeness of his imagination, bursteth out in great admiration, (_O quam te memorem virgo!_) being otherwise unable, than by sudden silence, to express the worthiness of his conceit. Whom Thenot answereth with another part of the like verse, as confirming by his grant and approvance, that Elisa is no whit inferior to the majesty of her, of whom the poet so boldly pronounced, _O dea certe!_"--E. K.

_Page 35, note 7._--"Algrind:" Archbishop Grindall.

_Page 37, note 8._--"Fox," "Kid:" "By the Kid may be understood the simple sort of the faithful and true Christians; by his dam, Christ, that hath already with careful watchwords (as here doth the Goat) warned her little ones to beware of such doubling deceit; by the Fox, the false and faithless Papists, to whom is no credit to be given, nor fellowship to be used."--E. K.

_Page 41, note 9._--"Sir John:" a name applied to a Popish priest.

_Page 47, note 10._--"Tityrus:" Chaucer is meant.

_Page 53, note 11._--"Morrell:" supposed to be Elmer, or Aylmer, Bishop of London.

_Page 53, note 12._--"The sun:" the sun enters Leo in July.

_Page 59, note 13._--"An eagle:" the same story is told of the death of Eschylus.

_Pages 68, 69, note 14._--"The meaning hereof is very ambiguous: for Perigot by his posy claiming the conquest, and Willie not yielding, Cuddie the arbiter of their cause, and patron of his own, seemeth to challenge it, as his due, saying, that he is happy which can; so abruptly ending; but he meaneth either him, that can win the best, or moderate himself being best, and leave off with the best."--E. K.

_Page 77, note 15._--"Saxon king:" King Edgar, in whose reign wolves are said to have disappeared in England.

_Page 84, note 16._--"Elisa:" Queen Elizabeth; the "Worthy" is the Earl of Leicester.

_Page 87, note 17._--This emblem is portion of a Latin verse, expressing the thought of the pastoral, that poetry is a fervid glow of inspiration which animates and kindles.

_Page 91, note 18._--"Fishes:" the sun enters the constellation Pisces in November.

_Page 92, note 19._--"Dido" and "great shepheard" both refer to real persons unknown.

_Page 94, note 20._--"Wrought with a chief:" wrought into a head, like a nosegay.

_Page 101, note 21._--Translated freely from the French of Marot.

_Page 107, note 22._--"The pilgrim:" perhaps the author of the "Visions of Pierce Ploughman."

GLOSSARY.

Accloyeth, _encumbereth_. Accoyed, _daunted_. Adawed, _daunted_. Adays, _every day_. Albe, _although_. Alegge, _assuage_. Algate, _at all events_. All, _although_. All be it, _although it be_. All-to, _entirely_. All-to rathe, _too early_. Als, _also_. Arede, _declare_, _repeat_, _explain_. Assayed, _affected_. Assert, _befall_. Assot, _stupid_. As weren overwent, _as if we were overcome_. At erst, _at last_. Attone, _also_. Attones, _at same time_. Availe, _bring down_, _lower_. Availes, _is lowered_.

Babes, _dolls_. Bale, _ruin_. Balk, _miss_. Bate, bated, _fed_. Bedight, _affected_. Behight, behote, _called_. Belive, _promptly_. Bellibone (_belle et bonne_), _good and beautiful one_. Bend, _band_. Bene, _are_. Benempt, _named_, _mentioned_. Bent, _obedient_. Besprint, besprent, _besprinkled_. Betight, _betide_, _happened_. Bett, _better_. Bidding base, _game of prison base_. Biggen, _cap_. Bin, _be_. Black bower, _i.e._, _hell_. Bloncket liveries, _gray coats_. Blont, _unpolished_. Borrell, _rustic_. Borrow, _pledge_, _surety_, _Saviour_. Brace, _compass_. Brag, bragly, _proudly_. Breme, _sharp_. Brent, _burnt_. Brere, _brier_. Brocage, _pimping_. Bugle, _beads_. But, _unless_. Buxom, _yielding_.

Can, _knows_. Careful, _sorrowful_. Careful case, _unhappy condition_. Cark, _sorrow_. Chaffred, _sold or exchanged_. Chamfred, _wrinkled_. Charm, _temper_, _tune_. Chevisance, _performance_, _result_, _bargain_. Chips, _fragments_. Collusion, _cunning_. Con, _know_. Cond, _learned_. Confusion, _destruction_. Contempt, _contemned_. Convenable, _conformable_. Corb, _crooked_. Cosset, _lamb_. Cote, _sheepfold_. Courage, _mind_. Couth, _knew how_, _could_. Cracknels, _biscuits_. Crag, _neck_. Crank, _courageous_. Crumenall, _purse_.

Dapper ditties, _pretty songs_. Deed, _doing_, _composing_. Defast, _defaced_. Dempt, _deemed_. Depeincten, _painted_. Derring, _manly deeds_. Derring-do, _daring deeds_. Devoir, _duty_. Dight, _adorn_, _prepare_; _adorned_, _prepared_, _dealt with_. Dint, _pang of grief_. Dirk, _darkly_. Dirks, _darkens_. Disease, _disturb_. Dole, dool, _sorrow_, _grief_. Doom, _judgment_. Doubted, _redoubted_. Drent, _drowned_, _perished_.

Eath, _easy_. Eft, _quickly_, _soon_. Eftsoons, _immediately_. Eked, _increased_. Eld, _age_. Embrave, _adorn_. Emprise, _enterprise_. Enaunter, _lest_, _lest that_. Enchased, _engraved_. Encheason, _occasion_. Entrailed, _intwined_. Erst, _before_, _at once_. Expert, _experience_.

Faitours, _villains_, _vagabonds_. Falsers, _deceivers_. Fay, _faith_. File, _defile_. Fined, _sifted_. Fon, _fool_. Fond, _foolish_. Fondness, _folly_. Fonly, _foolishly_. Foresaid, _banished_. Foreslow, _impede_, _obstruct_. Forestall, _prevent_. Forhaile, _distress_. For-say, _forsake_. Forswat, _spent with heat_. Forswonk, _overlaboured_. Forthy, _therefore_, _on that account_. Frenne, _stranger_. Frorne, _frozen_. Frowy, _musty_.

Galage, _wooden shoe_. Gang, _go_. Gars, _makes_. Gastful, _dreary_. Gate, _way_. Gelt, _a gilded girdle_. Giant, _Atlas_. Giusts, _tournaments_. Go, _gone_. Gree, _degree_. Greet, _weep_; _mourning_. Gride, gryde, _pierced_. Gross, _whole_.

Harbrough, _habitation_. Hask, _basket_. Haveour, _demeanour_. Heme, _home_. Hent, _took_, _taken_. Hentst, _takest_. Herdgrooms, _herdsmen_. Herie, hery, _honour_, _praise_. Herse, _rehearsal_, _tale_. Heydeguys, _dances_. Hidder and shidder, _him and her_. Hight, _purports_; _was named_. Hote, _mentioned_; _was called_.

If, _unless_. Ilk, _the same_. Inly, _inwardly_. Inn, _abode_.

Jovisance, _joyousness_.

Keep, _care, charge_. Ken, _know_. Kend, _known_. Kenst, _knowest_. Kerns, _farmers_. Kirk, _church_. Knack, _trick_. Knaves, _servants_. Kydst, _knowest_.

Laid, _faint_. Larded, _fattened_. Latched, _caught_. Lays, _leas_, _fields_. Leasing, _falsehood_, _lies_. Lere, _lore_, _lesson_; _learn_. Lever, _rather_. Levin, _lightning_. Lewd, _foolish_. Lewdly, _foolishly_. Lief, _dear_, _beloved_. Lig, ligg, liggen, _lie_. Loord, _fellow_. Lope, _leaped_. Lorn, _left_, _lost_. Lorrell, _ignorant, worthless fellow_. Louted, _did honour_. Lust, _wishest_. Lustihed, _pleasure_. Lustless, _languid_.

Maintenance, _behaviour_. Make, _versify_. Maugre, _in spite of_. May, _maid_. May-buskets, _May-bushes_. Mazer, _bowl_. Medle, _mingle_. Meint, _mingled_. Melling, _meddling_. Men of the lay, _laymen_. Ment, _mingled_. Merciable, _merciful_. Mickle, _much_. Miller's round, _a dance_. Mirk, _very obscure_. Miscreance, _unbelief_. Misgone, _gone astray_. Missay, _say evil_. Mister men, _kind of men_. Mister saying, _kind of speech_. Miswent, _gone astray_. Mizzle, _to rain a little_. Mochell, _much_. Moe, _more_. Most what, _affairs_. Most-what, _for the most part_. Musical, _music_.

Narre, _nearer_. N'as, _has not_. Newell, _novelty_. Nighly, _nearly so much_. Nill, _will not_. N'is, _is not_. N'ote, _know not_. Nought seemeth, _is unseemly_. Nould, _would not_.

Overcrawed, _overcrowed_. Overgone, _surpassed_. Overhale, _draw over_. Overture, _open place_.

Paddocks, _toads_. Pained, _exerted himself_. Paramours, _lovers_. Paunce, _pansy_. Perdie, _in truth, truly_. Peregall, _equal_. Perk, _pert_. Pert, _open_. Pieced, _imperfect_. Pight, _put_, _placed_. Plainful, _lamentable_. Prick, _mark_. Pricket, _buck_. Prief, _proof_. Prime, _spring_. Primrose, _chief flower_. Pumie, _pumice_. Purchase, _obtain_. Purpose, _conversation_.

Quaint, _strange_. Quell, _abate_. Queme, _please_. Quick, _alive_. Quit, _deliver_.

Rathe, _early_. Rather, _born early_. Record, _repeat_. Rede, _saying_; _advise_, _tell_. Reliven, _live again_. Ribaudry, _ribaldry_. Rife, _frequent_. Rifely, _abundantly_. Rine, _rind_. Romish Tityrus, _Virgil_. Ronts, _young bullocks_. Roundel, _roundelay_. Routs, _companies_. Roved, _shot_.

Sale, _wicker net_. Sam, _together_. Sample, _example_. Saye, _silk_. Scope, _mark aimed at_. Seely, _simple_. Sheen, _bright_. Shend, _disgrace_. Shepheard, _Abel_, _p. 56_; _Endymion_, _p. 55_; _Orpheus_, _p. 84_; _Paris_, _p. 57_. Shield, _forbid_. Sib, _related_. Sich, _such_. Sicker, siker, _surely_, _truly_. Sike, _such_. Site, _situation_. Sithence, sithens, _since_, _since that time_. Siths, _times_. Sits, _becomes_. Sits not, _is not becoming_. Skill in making, _in writing poetry_. Slipper, _slippery_, _uncertain_. Smirk, _nice_. Snebbe, _revile_. Somdele, _somewhat_, _in some degree_. Some quick, _something alive_. Sommed, _feathered_. Soote, _sweetly_. Sooth, _soothsaying_. Sops-in-wine, _a flower_. Sovenance, _remembrance_. So well the wed, _of such sound morals_. Sperr, _shut_. Spill, _spoil_, _ruin_, _injure_. Stank, _weary_. State, _stoutly_. Steven, _noise_. Stound, _effort_; _hour_. Stounds, _pains_; _occasions_. Stour, _assault_. Stoure, _occasion_. Stoures, _attacks_. Stowre, _affliction_, _violence_. Strain, _imbody in strains_. Strait, _strict_. Strow, _display_. Stud, _trunk_. Sullen, _sad_. Surquedry, _pride_. Swink, _toil_.

Tabrere, _taborer_. Teen, _sorrow_. That, _that which_. Thereto, _also_. Thick, _thicket_. Thilk, _this_, _these_, _this same_, _that same_.

Tickle, _uncertain_. Tinct, _coloured_. Tityrus, _Chaucer_. Tod, _thick bush_. To-force, _perforce_. Tooting, _looking about_. Totty, _wavering_. Trace, _go_. Trains, _snares_. Trode, troad, _tread_, _path_. Truss, _bundle_. Tway, _two_.

Uncouth, _unknown_. Underfong, _tamper with_, _undertake_. Undersay, _say in contradiction_. Uneath, _scarcely_. Unkempt, _unpolished_. Unkent, _unknown_. Unlustiness, _feebleness_. Unnethes, _scarcely_. Unsoot, _unsweet_. Uprist, _uprisen_. Utter, _put forth_.

Venteth, _snuffeth_. Vetchy, _of pease straw_. Virelays, _songs_.

War, _worse_. Warre, _ware_. Weanel wast, _weaned youngling_. Weed, _dress_. Weet, _know_. Weighed, _esteemed_. Weld, _wield_, _bear_. Welked, _decreased_, _shortened_. Well apaid, _in good condition_. Wellaway, _alas!_ Wend, _go_. What, _matter_, _thing_. What is he for a lad? _what sort of lad is he?_ Whilome, _formerly_. Widder, _wider_. Wight, _active_. Wightly, _quickly_. Wimble, _nimble_. Wisards, _learned men_. Wist, _knew_. Witen, _blame_. Wonned, _dwelt_. Wood, _mad_, _wild_. Worthy wite, _deserved blame_. Wot, wote, _know_. Wot ne, _know not_. Woundless, _unwounded_. Wrack, _violence_. Wroken, _avenged_.

Yblent, _blinded_. Yconned, _conned_. Yede, _go_, _went_. Yeven, _given_. Yfere, _together_. Ygo, ygoe, _gone_. Yode, _went_. Yond, _yonder_. Ypent, _pent_, _confined_. Yshend, _disparage_. Ytake, _taken_, _overcome_. Ytost, _be harassed_. Ywis, _truly_.

[Illustration: Chiswick Press]

Transcriber's Notes:

Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained except in obvious cases of typographical error: