Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

392 NOTES.!fish393. Serwis our Lady, serves our Lady. This seems to mean, eatsto day, out of reverence to our Lady.399. Wliom dost thou thouV ' i.e. to whom dost thou use the wordthoxi 1 In addressing a superior, it was proper to say ye ; thou savouredof familiarity or contempt. The Englishman began it ; see 1. 389.Before that, Wallace had ' meekly' said ye; see 1. 385. Many examplesof the difference between thou and ye are given in William of Paleme, ed,Skeat, p. xli, and in Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, third ed. p. 153.Serwis, deservest. The verb serue in Old English does duty bothfor serve and deserve.402. To pout is to poke about. A poutnet is a round net fastened totwo poles, by means of which the fishers poke the banks of rivers, andforce the fish out of their holes.A poutstaffxs one of the poles thus used.404. With such good ' will, that he shook (was thrown) :— off his feet.'407. Awhwart, athwart, crosswise, as in Bk, ii. 1. 109 ' Ane othirawhvart a large straik tuk he thar;' i.e. he hit another cross\\d5e asevere blow.Gawe, gave, sc. a blow. In Scottish we often find w for v; so in thenext line drawe is for drove, and in 1. 369 we have Erev/yti for Irvine.409. Be that, by that, by that time.416. Qubill, till. Can ly, did lie, lay.418. Was last, who was last.430. Foule mote ^owfall, may evil befall you433. Beis, shall be. This northern form of the verb generally has^. future sense, as in Anglo-Saxon.435. ' He took their horses, and the gear that was left there, and gaveover that craft, and went to fish no more.' Hors is the same both inthe singular and plural in Old English; hence our phrase, a troop ofhorse; to match which, we further speak of a company of foot, thoughthis may be short for foot-soldiers.437. Dede. The MS. has drede, but the old editions have deid ordeed.'This is more in character, than to suppose that Wallace, afterso chivalrous an achievment, should run to his uncle and tell him inwhat terror he was for the vengeance of the English. The term hereused, indeed, seems to reduplicate on the phrase which occurs in 1.434,this worihi werk:'— Jamieson.438. And he, for woe, well near began to go mad.'•446. Gud, good, i.e. money. Cum, come fetch enough from me,borrow what you like.The reader may find more specimens of the 'Wallace' in Warton'sHistory of English Poetry, vol. ii. pp. 1 13-120, ed. 1S40; vol. iii. p. 256,ed. 1871. Warton puts the poem a century too early, having been