Ye shall them bete and bynde,”
says Robin Hood, in an old ballad. Perhaps, however, thus is to be taken not in a literal, but in a figurative sense from the binding and beating of wheat: for as all rich men were Robin’s harvest, the bishops and archbishops must have been the finest and fattest ears among them, from which Robin merely proposes to thresh the grain when he directs them to be bound and beaten: and as Pharaoh’s fat kine were typical of fat ears of wheat, so may fat ears of wheat, mutatis mutandis, be typical of fat kine.]
6 (return)
[ Alcofribas Nasier: an
anagram of Francois Rabelais, and his assumed appellation.]
VARIANTS IN THE TEXT
Changes in spelling, use of capitals, punctuation and type are not recorded.
P. 15, ll. 12-13. and the bishops: and bishops 1822.
P. 46, l. 12. united: re-united 1822.
P. 63, l. 14. a posse of men: fifty men 1822.
P. 74, l. 6. privation: imprisonment and privation 1822.
P. 80, l. 29. tone: toll 1822.
P. 153, ll. 21-23. daily of bad wine... more fastidious relish: every day I grow more intolerant of bad, and have a keener and more fastidious relish of good wine 1822.
P. 159, l. 20. passed: past 1822.