'I am a Flemying, what for all that, Although I wyll be _dronken_ otherwhyles _as a rat_.' Andrew Boorde, ed. Furnivall, p. 147. Cf. 'When that he is _dronke as a dreynt mous_'; Ritson, Ancient Songs, i. 70 (Man in the Moon, l. 31). 'And I will pledge Tom Tosspot, till I be _drunk as a mouse-a_'; Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iii. 339. See also Skelton, Colin Clout, 803; and D. 246. 1262. This is from Boethius, De Consolatione, lib. iii. pr. 2: 'But I retorne ayein to the studies of men, of whiche men the corage alwey reherseth and seketh the sovereyn good, al be it so that it be with a derked memorie; but he not by whiche path, _right as a dronken man not nat by whiche path he may retorne him to his hous_.'--Chaucer's Translation of Boethius; vol. ii. p. 54, l. 57. 1264. _slider_, slippery; as in the Legend of Good Women, l. 648. Cf. the gloss--'_Lubricum_, slidere'; Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 7. 1279. _pure fettres_, the very fetters. 'So in the Duchesse, l. 583, _the pure deeth_. The Greeks used [Greek: katharos] in the same sense.'--Tyrwhitt. [69] 1283. _at thy large_, at large. Cf. l. 2288. 1302. 'White like box-wood, or ashen-gray'; cf. l. 1364. Cf. 'And pale as box she wex'; Legend of Good Women, l. 866. Also 'asshen pale and dede'; Troil. ii. 539. 1308. Copied in Lydgate's Horse, Sheep, and Goose, 124:--'But here this schepe, rukkyng in his folde.' '_Rukkun_, or cowre down'; Prompt. Parv. In B. 4416, MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. have _rouking_ in place of _lurking_. 1317. _to letten of his wille_, to refrain from his will (or lusts). 1333. Cf. the phrase 'paurosa gelosia'; Tes. v. 2. 1344. _upon his heed_, on pain of losing his head. 'Froissart has _sur sa teste, sur la teste_, and _sur peine de la teste_.'--T. 1347. _this questioun._ 'An implied allusion to the medieval courts of love, in which questions of this kind were seriously discussed.'--Wright. 1366. _making his mone_, making his complaint or _moan_. 1372. 'In his changing mood, for all the world, he conducted himself not merely like one suffering from the lover's disease of Eros, but rather (his disease was) like _mania_ engendered of melancholy humour.' This is one of the numerous allusions to the four humours, viz. the choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine, and melancholic. An excess of the latter was supposed to produce 'melancholy madness.' _gere_, flighty manner, changeableness; 'Siche _wilde gerys_ hade he mo'; Thornton Romances, Sir Percival, l. 1353. See note to l. 1536. 1376. _in his celle fantastyk._ Tyrwhitt reads _Beforne his hed in his celle fantastike_. Elles. has _Biforn his owene celle fantastik_. 'The division of the brain into cells, according to the different sensitive faculties, is very ancient, and is found depicted in medieval manuscripts. The _fantastic cell_ (_fantasia_) was in front of the head.'--Wright. Hence _Biforen_ means 'in the front part of his head.'