533. _Hermengild_; spelt _Hermyngild_ in Trivet; answering to A. S. _Eormengild_ (Lappenberg, Hist. England, i. 285). Note that St. Hermengild was martyred just at this very time, Apr. 13, 846. 543. _plages_, regions; we even find the word in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, pt. i. act iv. sc. 4, and pt. ii. act i. sc. 1. The latter passage is--'From Scythia to the oriental _plage_ Of India.' 552. 'Eyes of his mind.' Jean de Meun has the expression _les yex de cuer_, the eyes of the heart; see his Testament, ll. 1412, 1683. 578. _Alla_, i. e. Ælla, king of Northumberland, A.D. 560-567; the same whose name Gregory (afterwards Pope) turned, by a pun, into Alleluia, according to the version of the celebrated story about Gregory and the English slaves, as given in Beda, Eccl. Hist. b. ii. c. 1. [157] 584. _quyte her whyle_, repay her time; i. e. her pains, trouble; as when we say 'it is worth _while_.' _Wile_ is _not_ intended. 585. 'The plot of the knight against Constance, and also her subsequent adventure with the steward, are both to be found, with some variations, in a story in the Gesta Romanorum, ch. 101; MS. Harl. 2270. Occleve has versified the whole story'; Tyrwhitt. See vol. iii. p. 410, for further information. Compare the conduct of Iachimo, in Cymbeline. 609. See Troil. iv. 357. 620. _Berth hir on hond_, affirms falsely; lit. bears her in hand. Chaucer uses the phrase 'to bere in hond' with the sense of false affirmation, sometimes with the idea of accusing falsely, as here and in the Wyf of Bathes Prologue, D. 393; and sometimes with that of persuading falsely, D. 232, 380. In Shakespeare the sense is rather--'to keep in expectation, to amuse with false pretences'; Nares's Glossary. Barbour uses it in the more general sense of 'to affirm,' or 'to make a statement,' whether falsely or truly. In Dyce's Skelton, i. 237, occurs the line--'They bare me in hande that I was a spye'; which Dyce explains by 'they accused me, laid to my charge that,' &c. He refers us to Palsgrave, who has some curious examples of it. E.g., at p. 450:--'_I beare in hande_, I threp upon a man that he hath done a dede or make hym beleve so, _Ie fais accroyre_ ... I beare hym in hande he was wode, _Ie luy metz sus la raige_, or _ie luy metz sus quil estoyt enragé_. What crime or yuell mayest thou beare me in hande of'; &c. So also: 'Many be borne an hande of a faute, and punysshed therfore, that were neuer gylty; Plerique facinoris _insimulantur_,' &c.; Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. m. ii. ed. 1530. In Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Courte, l. 449, _bereth on hand_ simply means 'persuades.' 631-58. Not in the original. A later insertion, of much beauty. 634. 'And bound Satan; and he still lies where he (then) lay.' In the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ descends into hell, and (according to some versions) binds him with chains; see Piers Plowman, B. xviii. 401. 639. _Susanne_; see the story of Susannah, in the Apocrypha.