hogshead a large barrel or cask holding from 63 to 140 gallons (238 to 530 liters)
“less Byronic than Shelleyan” less passionate than spiritual in inclination.
Champaigns plains; level open country.
“those who are true…” list of virtues comes from Paul; Philippians 4:8.
springe [Now Rare] a snare consisting of a noose attached to something under tension, as a bent tree branch.
capricious subject to caprices; tending to change abruptly and without apparent reason; erratic; flighty.
baily in England, a steward or manager of a farm or estate.
penitential expressing penitence for having sinned or done other wrong and willing to atone.
banns the proclamation, generally made in church on three successive Sundays, of an intended marriage.
license written permission from a bishop in place of a banns.
“her mother’s ballad of the mystic robe” from “The Boy and the Mantle,” in which a robe betrays Queen Guenever, the wife of King Arthur.
ostler (dialect) hosteler.
Felloes rims of a spoked wheel, or segments of the rim.
Partie carree party of four, from French.
cumbrous cumbersome.
Friar Lawrence from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene 6, Line 9).
Skein a quantity of thread or yarn wound in a coil; something like this, as a coil of hair.
summut (dialect) somewhat.
Withy-bed stand of willows.
night-rail a loose dressing-jacket or dressing gown.
trencher-woman a woman who eats much and heartily
Aldebaran or Sirius two of the brightest stars in the sky.
Integer Vitae phrase from Roman poet Horace is in an ode translated in the lines quoted as “upright life.”
