3682. On 'itching omens,' see Miss Burne's _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, p. 269. 'If your right hand itches, you will receive money; ... if your nose itches, you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed.'
3684. Cf. 'If [in a dream] you see many loaves, it portends joy'; A. S. Leechdoms, iii. 215.
3689. _at point-devys_, with all exactness, precisely, very neatly; cf. As You Like It, iii. 2. 401. O. F. _devis_, 'ordre, beauté; _a devis_, _par devis_, en bel ordre, d'une manière bien ordonnée, à gré, à souhait'; Godefroy. See F. 560; Rom. of the Rose, 1215.
3690. _greyn_, evidently some sweet or aromatic seed or spice; apparently cardamoms, otherwise called _grains of Paradise_ (New E. Dict.) '_Greynys_, spyce, _Granum Paradisi_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note. Cf. Rom. of the Rose, 1369, and the note (vol. i. p. 428).
3692. _trewe-love_, (probably) a leaf of herb-paris; in the efficacy of which he had some superstitious belief. _True-love_ is sometimes used as an abbreviation of _true-love knot_, as in the last stanza of the Court of Love; and such is the case here. True-love knots were of various shapes; see pictures of four such in Ogilvie's Dictionary. Some had four loops, which gave rise to the name _true-love_ as applied to herb-paris. Gerarde's Herball, 1597, p. 328, thus describes herb-paris (_Paris quadrifolia_):--At the top of the stalk 'come foorth fower leaves directly set one against another, in manner of a Burgonnion crosse or a true love knot; for which cause among the auncients it hath beene called herbe _Truelove_.' It is still called _True Love's Knot_ in Cumberland.
3700. Note the rime of _tó me_ with _cinam-ó-me_.
3708. _Iakke_, Jack, here an epithet of a fool, like _Iankin_ (B. 1172); and see note to B. 4000. Cf. E. _zany_.
3709. 'It wilt not be (a case of) come-kiss-me.' Chaucer has _ba_, to kiss, D. 433; and _come-ba-me_, i. e. come kiss me, is here used as a phrase; so that the line simply means 'you certainly will not get a kiss!' Observe the rime with _bla-me_. _Bas_ also meant to kiss, and Skelton uses the words together (ed. Dyce, i. 22):--
'With _ba, ba, ba_, and _bas, bas, bas_, She cheryshed hym, both cheke and chyn';
i. e. with repeated kisses on cheek and chin. So again (i. 127) we find: '_bas me_, buttyng, praty Cys!' And so again (ii. 6): '_bas me_, swete Parrot, _bas me_, swete, swete!' Further illustration is afforded by Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pt. 3. sec. 2. mem. 4. subsec. 1: 'Yea, many times, this love will make old men and women ... dance, _come-kiss-me-now_, mask, and mum.' This complete explanation of an old _crux_ was first given by Mr. Ellis, in 1870, in his Early Eng. [110] Pronunciation, p. 715, who notes that the reading _com ba me_ is fairly well supported; see his Critical Note. Several MSS. turn it into _compame_, which is clearly due to the influence of the familiar word _companye_, which repeatedly ends a line in Chaucer. Mr. Ellis well remarks--'_Com ba me!_ was probably the name of a song, like ... the modern "Kiss me quick, and go, my love." It is also probable that Absolon's speech contained allusions to it, and that it was very well known at the time.'