"The first two leaves of the Oriel copy are misplaced inside out at the
end; but this is not the only misarrangement. The poem has evidently
been copied into this MS. from an older copy having a leaf capable of
containing _six stanzas at a time_; which leaves were out of order.
Hence the poem in the Oriel MS. is written in the following order, as
now bound up, Stanzas 11 (l. 5)-18, 25-30, 37-42, 19-24, 49-54, 31-36,
43-48, 55-76, 8-11 (l. 4), 4 (l. 5)-7, 1-4 (l. 4)."

As an instance of a word improved by the Oriel text, may be cited the
'_brecheles_ feste' of Caxton's and Hill's texts, l. 66, and l. 300,

ffor truste ye well ye shall you not excuse
ffrom _brecheles feste_, & I may you espye
Playenge at any game of rebawdrye.--_Hill_, l. 299-301.

Could it be 'profitless,' from A.-Sax. _bréc_, gain, profit; or
'breechless,' a feast of birch for the boy with his breeches off? The
latter was evidently meant, but it was a forced construction. The Oriel
_byrcheley_ set matters right at once.

Another passage I cannot feel sure is set at rest by the Oriel text.
Hill's and Caxton's texts, when describing the ill-mannered servant
whose ways are to be avoided, say of him, as to his hair, that he is

Absolon with disheveled heres smale,
lyke to a prysoner of saynt Malowes,[1]
_a sonny busshe able to the galowes_.--_Hill_, l. 462.

[Footnote 1: An allusion to the strong castle built at St Malo's by
Anne, Duchess of Bretayne.--Dyce.]