'My purchas is theffect of al my rente'; D. 1451. 'To winne is alway myn entent, _My purchas is better than my rent_.' Romaunt of the Rose, l. 6837; where the F. original has (l. 11760)--'Miex vaut mes porchas que ma rente.' 257. _as it were right_ (E. Hn. &c.); _and pleye as_ (Hl.). The sense is--'and he could romp about, exactly as if he were a puppy-dog.' 258. _love-dayes._ 'Love-days (_dies amoris_) were days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to law or violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the principal share in the management of these transactions, which, throughout the Vision of Piers Ploughman, appear to be censured as the means of hindering justice and of enriching the clergy.'--Wright's Vision of Piers Ploughman, vol. ii. p. 535. [29] 'Ac now is Religion a rydere, and a rennere aboute, A ledere of _love-dayes_,' &c. Piers Ploughman, A. xi. 208, ed. Skeat; see also note to P. Pl. ed. Skeat, B. iii. 157. The sense is--'he could give much help on love-days (by acting as umpire).' See ll. 259-261. As to _loveday_, see Wyclif, Works, ed. Matthew, pp. 172, 234, 512; and the same, Works, ed. Arnold, ii. 77; iii. 322; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 496; Titus Andronicus, i. 1. 491. In the Testament of Love, bk. i. (ed. 1561, fol. 287, col. 2) we find--'What (quod she) ... maked I not a _louedaie_ betwene God and mankind, and chese a maide to be nompere [_umpire_], to put the quarell at ende?' 260. _cope_, a priest's vestment; a cloak forming a semicircle when laid flat; the _semi-cope_ (l. 262) was a short cloak or cape. Cf. Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ll. 227, 228:-- 'His _cope_ that biclypped him, wel clene was it folden, Of _double-worstede_ y-dyght, doun to the hele.' This line is a little awkward to scan. _With a thred-_ constitutes the first foot; and _povre_ is _povr'_ (cp. mod. F. _pauvre_). 261. 'The kyng or the emperour myghtte with worschipe were a garnement of a frere for goodnesse of the cloth'; Wyclif's Works, ed. Matthew, p. 50. 263. _rounded_, assumed a round form; used intransitively, _presse_, the mould in which a bell is cast; cf. l. 81. 264. _lipsed_, lisped; by metathesis of _s_ and _p_. See footnote to l. 273. _for his wantownesse_, by way of mannerism. THE MARCHANT. 270. _a forked berd._ In the time of Edward III. _forked beards_ were the fashion among the franklins and bourgeoisie, according to the English custom before the Conquest. See Fairholt's Costume in England, fig. 30. 271. _In mottelee_, in a motley dress; cf. l. 328. 273. _clasped_; fastened with a clasp fairly and neatly. See l. 124. 274. _resons_, opinions. _ful solempnely_, with much importance.