BACK SIDE, at the back of the house, backyard. BALD, short for bald-head, bald-pate: a generic term of abuse. BALKS, beams, rafters, an overhead rack used for storing bacon. BEDLAM, a crazy beggar, real or assumed: properly a convalescent from Bethlehem Hospital, an asylum for lunatics since 1547. Many of these unfortunates, being either unable or unwilling to work, adopted vagrancy as a profession, the Simon Pures being avouched by an official arm-badge. These were considerably augmented by the often deserving (but more frequently spurious) poor who had, until the dissolution of the monasteries, been the special care of the religious. BET, the old past tense of _beat_: still dialectical. BLEST, bliss. BODY-LOUSE, proud, conceited, fine. Later we get _"brisk as a body-louse"_ (Ray). BONABLE, abominable. BOOTS, avails, profits, is of advantage, matters. BORROW, pledge, security. BOULOGNE, _Our dear Lady of Boulogne,_ the image of the Virgin Mary at Boulogne, formerly in so much reverence that pilgrimages were made to it. BRAWL, brat, offspring. BREAD AND SALT, a common sixteenth-century oath, probably as symbolising the necessaries of life. BURSTING, breaking. BY AND BY, immediately. CALLET, a lewd woman, drab, scold. CANDLE, "a _candle_ shall they have a piece." In all cases of distress it was usual with Roman Catholics to promise their tutelary saints to light up candles at their altars. CHAD, see Cham. CHAM, I am. The rustic dialect in the piece is conventional, but its general peculiarities are those of the south-western counties: _iche_ = I, reduced to _ch_ in _cham_, _chould_, or _chwold_ (I would), _chwere_, &c. The south-western _v_ for _f_ is not generally used, but occurs in _vylthy_, _vast_, and in _vathers_; _glaye_ (p. 5) for clay is probably not genuine dialect. CHANNOT, see Cham. CHAVE, see Cham. CHILL, see Cham. CHOLD, I hold. _To hold a noble_ = to wager or bet. CHOPE, see Cham. CHWOLD, see Cham. CLOTH, "painted on a _cloth_," the cloth hangings of taverns on which were depicted such popular themes as the Nine Worthies, the Prodigal Son, and, as in this case, Friar Rush (_q.v._). COAT, see Walk. COCK'S BODY, COCK'S PASSION, COCK'S PRECIOUS, &c., a corruption of God: euphemistic. COCK'S MOTHER (p. 44), see previous entry: the reader must not fall into the error of thinking that Gammer Gurton is here meant. COLOGNE, "the three kings of _Cologne_." These are supposed to have been the wise men who travelled to Bethlehem by the direction of the star. To these kings have been given the names of Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.