3709. 'It wilt not be (a case of) come-kiss-me.' Chaucer has _ba_, to kiss, D. 433; and _come-ba-me_, i. e. come kiss me, is here used as a phrase; so that the line simply means 'you certainly will not get a kiss!' Observe the rime with _bla-me_. _Bas_ also meant to kiss, and Skelton uses the words together (ed. Dyce, i. 22):-- 'With _ba, ba, ba_, and _bas, bas, bas_, She cheryshed hym, both cheke and chyn'; i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find: '_bas me_, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): '_bas me_, swete Parrot, _bas me_, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, _come-kiss-me-now_, mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old _crux_ was first given by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng. [110] Pronunciation, p. 715, who notes that the reading _com ba me_ is fairly well supported; see his Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into _compame_, which is clearly due to the influence of the familiar word _companye_, which repeatedly ends a line in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks--'_Com ba me!_ was probably the name of a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was very well known at the time.' The curious part of the story is that, in 1889, I adopted the same reading independently, and for precisely similar reasons. But Mr. Ellis was before me, by nineteen years. See l. 3716 below. The following MSS. (says Mr. Ellis) read _combame_; viz. Harl. 7335--Camb. Univ. Library, Ii. 3. 26--Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 3--Rawl. MS. Poet. 141. Bodl. 414 has _cum bame_; whilst Rawl. Misc. 1133 and Laud 739 have _come ba me_. 3713. Lit. 'in the way to twenty devils'; hence, in the name of twenty devils. 'In the twenty deuyll way, _Au nom du grant diable_'; Palsgrave (1852), p. 838. See ll. 3134, 4257. 3721-2. These two lines are in E. only; Tyrwhitt omits them. But the old black-letter editions retain them. 3723. He knelt down, because the window was so low (3696). 3725. Cf. 'For who-so kissing may attayne'; Rom. Rose, 3677; and Ovid, Ars Amatoria, i. 669. 3726. _thyn ore_, thy favour, thy grace; the words 'grant me' being understood. It is not uncommon. 'Syr Lybeaus durstede [thirsted] sore, And seyde, Maugys, _thyn ore_, To drynke lette me go.' Ritson, Met. Romances, ii. 57. 'I haue siked moni syk, lemmon, _for thin ore_'; Böddeker's Altengl. Dichtungen, p. 174. See Specimens of E. Eng., Part I; Glossary to Havelok; &c. 3728. _com of_, i. e. be quick; like _Have do_, have done! We now say 'come on!' But strictly, _come on_ means 'begin,' and _come off_ means 'make an end.' 3751. 'If it be not so that, rather than possess all this town, I would like to be avenged.'