130 Notes (3. 10—4. 58). 



was to clear the mould-board from any stiff earth which might cling to it while 

 the plough was at work ' ; Rogers, as above, p. 539. This was originally held 

 in the right hand (see my notes to P. Plowman) ; but I think it likely that, 

 when a second handle, or stilt, came into use, the plough-staff was given up. 

 Wright's Prov. Glossary gives ^^ mell,mellet, a square piece of wood fitted with 

 a handle, a mallet." 



ID. I. R. says of the sharbeame, that "in some Countries it is called the 

 plough-head." Fitzherbert has already said this, see 2. 10. 



12. O/i'f] Oake or Ashe ; I. R. 



15. I. R. says of the plough-tayle, that "in many Countries [it is] called the 

 Plough-hale, of which they haue two, but the other is fastened to the rough 

 staues and the shelboard." The other hale is i\\& plough-stilt, 



25. sheldbrede] Shelboard ; I. R. 



27. fenbrede] Senbred ; I. R. This is wrong. 



32. to coitie pasiX compasse ; I. R, 



34. roitghe] long ; I. R. 



49. bende, i.e. bent] broad ; I. R. This is inappropriate, for it is somewhat 

 narrow, viz. of the breadth of three inches ; see line 52. 



55. plough-mall Plough Maule ; I. R. As to the parts of a plough, cf. Tusser's 

 Husbandry, 17. 10, 11 ; and see above, note to 3. I. 



4. 14. slot-wedges'] flote wedges ; I. R. I. R. does not seem to have under- 

 stood it, as he alters slote ioflaite in the two lines following. 



19. After erthe, I, R. has — "so that it may, as the best experienced Plow-men 

 say, kill a worme, or els it goeth not truly." Worme is clearly right. He 

 further inserts — " The poynt of your Culture, and the poynt of your Share, must 

 runne both in one leuell, so that they may cutte both in one instant, chiefely if the 

 ground be stiffe and tough ; but if it be in a light land, then if the point of your 

 Culture be a little longer it shall be so much the better, and in such light groundes, 

 let your Culture be somwhat sickell-wise bowed, for the finer cutting, but in 

 tough Clay ground it ought to be as straight as may be." 



26. payreth] hurteth ; I. R. This is a gloss. 

 29. praclyue\ practise; I. R.' 



33. betide"] band. But bende probably means ' bent piece. ' 



35. he] you (throughout). This shews that this idiomatic use of he was obso- 

 lescent in 1598. 



46. coke] Cocke. 



58. I. R. adds — "In diuers Countries, as namely in Cambridgshiere, Hunting- 

 ton, Hartford, Bedford, and Northamton, the share is alwayes nayled with certaine 

 nayles vnto the shelboard, to which I am not so well affected, because by that 

 meanes the shelboard can neuer be turnd, or after he is once worne be [sic] for 

 other purpose, whereas in the Northerne partes of this Land, the share being only 

 fastned in his socket to the Plough-head, which may at ease be done with a 

 crooked home of a Ramme, which being put ouer the poynt of the share, may be 

 knocked fast at ones pleasure, the shelboard being worne at the one end may be 

 taken off, and the other end set forward, which will as sufficiently serue as euer it 

 did before, yeelding to the Plough-man a double profit." 



' I shall in future drop the initials " I. R." in these collations. It will be understood that 

 these various readings are all from the same source. 



