v. 8. _Carowe_] Was a nunnery in the suburbs of Norwich. “Here [at Norwich],” says Tanner, “was an ancient hospital or nunnery dedicated to St. Mary and St. John; to which K. Stephen having given lands and meadows without the south gate, Seyna and Leftelina two of the sisters, A.D. 1146, began the foundation of a new monastery called Kairo, Carow, or Carhou, which was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and consisted of a prioress and nine Benedictine nuns.” _Not. Mon._ p. 347. ed. 1744. In 1273, Pope Gregory the Tenth inhibited the Prioress and convent from receiving more nuns than their income would maintain, upon their representation that the English nobility, whom they could not resist, had obliged them to take in so many sisters that they were unable to support them. At the Dissolution the number of nuns was twelve. The site of the nunnery, within the walls, contained about ten acres. It was granted, with its chief revenues, in the 30th Henry viii. to Sir John Shelton, knight, who fitted up the parlour and hall, which were noble rooms, when he came to reside there, not long after the Dissolution. It continued in the Shelton family for several generations. This nunnery was during many ages a place of education for the young ladies of the chief families in the diocese of Norwich, who boarded with and were taught by the nuns. The fair Jane or Johanna Scroupe of the present poem was, perhaps, a boarder at Carow. See more concerning Carow in Dugdale’s _Monast._ (new ed.) iv. 68 sqq., and Blomefield’s _Hist. of Norfolk_, ii. 862 sqq. ed. fol. Page 51. v. 9. _Nones Blake_] i. e. Black Nuns,—Benedictines. v. 12. _bederolles_] i. e. lists of those to be prayed for. Page 52. v. 24. _The tearys downe hayled_] So Hawes; “That euermore the salte _teres downe hayled_.” _The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. Q viii. ed. 1555. v. 27. _Gyb our cat_] _Gib_, a contraction of _Gilbert_, was a name formerly given to a male cat: “_Gibbe our Cat_, That awaiteth Mice and Rattes to killen.” _Romaunt of the Rose_,—Chaucer’s _Workes_, fol. 136. ed. 1602. In _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, 1575, “_Gib our cat_” is a person of consequence. Shakespeare (_Henry iv. Part First_, act i. sc. 2.) has the expression “gib cat;” and how his commentators have written “about it and about it” most readers are probably aware. v. 29. _Worrowyd her on that_] So Dunbar; “He that dois _on_ dry breid _wirry_.” _Poems_, i. 108. ed. Laing. v. 34. _stounde_] i. e. moment, time. v. 35. _sounde_] i. e. swoon. v. 37. _Vnneth I kest myne eyes_] i. e. Scarcely, not without difficulty, I cast, &c. v. 42. _Haue rewed_] i. e. Have had compassion. Page 52. v. 46. _senaws_] i. e. sinews. Page 53. v. 58. _frete_] i. e. eat, gnaw. v. 69. _marees_] i. e. waters. v. 70. _Acherontes well_] i. e. Acheron’s well. So,—after the fashion of our early poets,—Skelton writes _Zenophontes_ for _Xenophon_, _Eneidos_ for _Eneis_, _Achilliedos_ for _Achilleis_, &c.