3380. _mede_, reward, money; distinct from _meeth_, mead, in l. 3378. The sense of _mede_ is very amply illustrated in P. Plowman. L. 3380 intimates that, as she lived in a town, she could spend money at any time. 3382. A side-note, in several MSS., says: 'Unde Ouidius: Ictibus agrestis.' But the quotation is not from Ovid. 3384. The parish-clerks often took part in the Mystery Plays. The part of Herod was an important one; cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 15. [105] 3387. 'I presume this was a service that generally went unrewarded.'--Wright. It was like 'piping in an ivy-leaf'; see A. 1838. 3389. _ape_, dupe; as in A. 706. 3392. Gower has the like, ed. Pauli, i. 343:-- 'An olde sawe is: who that is sligh, In place w[h]ere he may be nigh, He maketh the ferre leve loth Of love; and thus ful ofte it goth.' Hending, among his Proverbs, has--'Fer from eye, fer from herte,' answering to the mod. E. 'out of sight, out of mind.' Kemble cites: 'Quod raro cernit oculi lux, cor cito spernit,' from MS. Trin. Coll., fol. 365. Also 'Qui procul est oculis, procul est a lumine cordis,' from Gartner, Dict. 8 b. 3427. _deyde_, should die; subjunctive mood. 3430. _that ... him_ is equivalent to _whom_. Cf. A. 2710. 3445. _kyked_, stared, gazed; see l. 3841. Cf. Scotch _keek_, to peep, pry; Burns has it in his Twa Dogs, l. 58. 3449. The carpenter naturally invokes St. Frideswide, as there was a priory of St. Frideswide at Oxford, the church of which has become the present cathedral. The shrine of St. Frideswide is still to be seen, though in a fragmentary state, at the east end of the cathedral, on its former site near the original chancel-arches and wall of her early stone church. In this line, _seint-e_ has the fem. suffix. 3451. _astromye_ is obviously intentional, as it fills up the line, and is repeated six lines below. The carpenter was not strong in technical terms. In like manner, he talks of 'Nowelis flood'; see note to l. 3818. The reading _astronomy_ just spoils both lines, and loses the jest. 3456. 'That knows nothing at all except his Creed.' 3457. This story is told of Thales by Plato, in his Theaetetus; it also occurs, says Tyrwhitt, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, no. 36. It has often been repeated, and may now be found in James's edition of Æsop, 1852, Fable 170. 3469. Nearly repeated from A. 545. 3479. 'I defend thee with the sign of the cross from elves and living creatures.' At the same time, the carpenter would make the sign over him. _Wightes_ does not mean 'witches,' as Tyrwhitt thought, but 'creatures.' Cf. l. 3484.