200. _Stafford blew_: from the context this line might mean 'you are a scaremonger', for blue is the recognized colour of fear, and it might be supposed that 'Stafford blue' represents a material like 'Lincoln green'. But Mätzner is certainly right in interpreting the line 'you deserve a beating'. _Stafford blew_ would then be the livid colour produced by blows. The reference, unless there is a play on _staff_, is obscure. 202. _led_: 'treated'. 211. _sory_: the rime requires _sary_. 220. _Mary_: the later _marry!_ = 'by (the Virgin) Mary!' cp. l. 226. So _Peter!_ 367 = 'by St. Peter!' 246. _to knaw_: 'to confess'. 247-8. _daw to ken_: 'to be recognized as stupid', 'a manifest fool'. 272. _castell_: note the rime with _sayll_: _nayll_: _fayll_, which may be due to suffix substitution on the analogy of _catail_ beside _catel_ 'cattle'. For _take_ see note to 137. 281. _chambre_: the rime points to a by-form _chamb(o)ur_, but the uninflected form is awkward. Cp. _thre chese chambres_ 'three tiers of chambers' 129, where the construction is the same as the obsolete _three pair gloves_. 289-92. Read _lider_, _hider_, _togider_. 292. _must vs_: cp. l. 334 and note to VI 192. 298. 'There is other yarn on the reel', i.e. there is other business on hand. 320. _brether sam_: 'brothers both'. Some editors prefer to read _brother Sam_ 'brother Shem'. 336 ff. Chaucer refers to the quarrels of Noah and his wife in the _Miller's Tale_ (ll. 352 ff.):— _'Hastou nat herd', quod Nicholas, 'also The sorwe of Noe with his felaweshipe Er that he myghte brynge his wyf to shipe? Hym hadde be levere, I dar wel undertake, At thilke tyme, than alle his wetheres blake, That she hadde had a shipe hirself allone.'_ The tradition is old. In the splendid tenth-century Bodleian MS. Junius 11, which contains the so-called Caedmon poems, a picture of the Ark shows Noah's wife standing at the foot of the gangway, and one of her sons trying to persuade her to come in. 370. _Yei_ is defensible; cp. l. 353. _Þe_ 'the' has been suggested. 383. _Wat Wynk_: an alliterative nick-name like _Nicholl Nedy_ in l. 405. 400. _emong_: OE. _gemang_, here rimes as in Modern English with _u_ (OE. _iung_: _tunge_: _lungen_), cp. note to VI 109 ff.; but in ll. 244-7 it rimes with _lang_: _fang_: _gang_—all with original _a_. 417. <_floodis_>. Some such word is missing in the MS. Cp. ll. 454 f. and 426. 461. _How_: MS. _Now_. The correction is due to Professor Child. Initial capitals are peculiarly liable to be miscopied. 463. _grufe_: a Northern and Scottish form of the verb _grow_. The sb. _ro_ 'rest' 237 sometimes has a parallel form _rufe_. 525. _stold_: for _stalled_ 'fixed'. Note the rime words, which all have alternative forms _behald_: _bald_: _wald_. APPENDIX THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY