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

:4 ^NOTES.1 48. More eth, easier; from A.S. ea'S, easy.151. To set all on aflusbe at ones, to flood (men) all at once; a metaphorfrom the sudden opening wide of floodgates.164. Sad, discrcLCt, steady, settled.1 76. Qiiod yourfrend, says your friend to me. This is as if he werewriting a letter to a person whose friend is present with him. See theconcluding words of the extract.182. X. li., i.e. decern librce, ten pounds. Twenty marks wouldunount to a little more, viz. to about 13/. 6s. Sd., reckoning a mark.u I.v. 4ii.193. For, probably for/or^, an abbreviation of before. For god answersto the older English parde, which is so plentifully sprinkled over theworks of our old authors. It was probably a mere expletive, to whichliltlemeaning was really attached.200. To kepe a gtioflibet, cs;c. A qiiodibet or quodlibet means zuhat youplease, and I take the phrase to kepe a qnotlibet upon to mean ' to sit uponwhilst discoursing about what you please ; ' or, as we should say, ' whilsttalking about things in general.' It is certainly odd that men shouldchoose a big book to sit upon, but this is distinctly asserted below. Apot parliament is probably a talk in which the speakers are assisted bysomething to drink.275. For his sadnes, on account of his discreet and careful behaviour;>nfor bis wantonness means on account of his carelessness.For cutting, for fear of cutting. This use of for is common in OldEnglish. Cf. 'for catching cold ' in Two Gent, of Verona, i. 2. 136.287. Pi>de, epistle. Unless More here refers to some subsequentletter, he must mean the book entitled 'Assertio Septem Sacramentorumadveisus Martinum Lutcrum,' of which the first edition was printed inLondon, 1521, and the second at Antwerp, in 1522. It was drawn up in1 lenry's own name by his chaplain, Edward Lee. Luther replied to itin violent terms. 'Two years ago (he says) I published a little bookcalled. The Captivity of the Church in Babylon. It horribly vexed andconfounded the papists, who spared neither lies nor invective in replyingto it. . . And now, quite recently, the lord Henry, not by the grace of(ioil king of England, has written in Latin against my treatise. Thereare some who believe that this pamphlet of the king's did not emanatefrom the king's own pen; but whether Henry wrote it, or Hal, or thedevil in hell, is nothing to the point. He who lies is a liar ; and I fearhim not. be he who he may. This is my own notion about the matter:that Henry gave out an ell or two of coarse cloth, and that then thisI'ituitous Thomist. Lee, this follower of the Thomist herd, who, in hispresumption, wrote against Erasmus, took scissors and needle and made