1668. _goost biforn,_ goest before, dost anticipate. _of_, by. The eighth stanza of the Seconde Nonnes Tale (G. 50-56) closely resembles ll. 1664-70; being imitated from the same passage in Dante. 1677. _Gydeth_, guide ye. The plural number is used, as a token of respect, in addressing superiors. By a careful analysis of the words _thou_ and _ye_ in the Romance of William of Palerne, I deduced the following results, which are generally true in Mid. English. '_Thou_ is the language of a lord to a servant, of an equal to an equal, and expresses also companionship, love, permission, defiance, scorn, threatening: whilst _ye_ is the language of a servant to a lord, and of compliment, and further expresses honour, submission, or entreaty. _Thou_ is used with singular verbs, and the possessive pronoun _thine_; but _ye_ requires plural verbs, and the possessive _your_.'--Pref. to Will. of Palerne, ed. Skeat, p. xlii. Cf. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, sect. 231. 1678. _Asie_, Asia; probably used, as Tyrwhitt suggests, in the sense of Asia Minor, as in the Acts of the Apostles. 1679. _a Iewerye_, a Jewry, i. e. a Jews' quarter. In many towns there was formerly a Jews' quarter, distinguished by a special name. There is still an _Old Jewry_ in London. In John vii. 1 the word is used as equivalent to _Judea_, as also in other passages in the Bible and in Shakesp. Rich. II, ii. 1. 55. Chaucer (House of Fame, 1435) says of Josephus-- 'And bar upon his shuldres hye The fame up of the _Jewerye_.' [176] Thackeray uses the word with an odd effect in his Ballad of 'The White Squall.' See also note to B. 1749. 1681. _vilanye._ So the six MSS.; Hl. has _felonye_, wrongly. In the margin of the Ellesmere MS. is written 'turpe lucrum,' i. e. vile gain, which is evidently the sense intended by _lucre of vilanye_, here put for _villanous lucre_ or _filthy lucre_, by poetical freedom of diction. See Chaucer's use of _vilanye_ in the Prologue, A. 70 and A. 726. 1684. _free_, unobstructed. People could ride and walk through, there being no barriers against horses, and no termination in a _cul de sac_. Cf. Troilus, ii. 616-8. 1687. _Children an heep_, a heap or great number of children. _Of_ is omitted before _children_ as it is before _quad yere_ in B. 1628. For _heep_, see Prologue, A. 575.