He that Doth Wend Her
He that Doth Wend Her
Original Text
John Rastell, An Exposition of certaine difficult and obscure wordes, and termes of the lawes of this Realme, newly set foorth & augmented, both in French and English, for the helpe of such yonge Studentes as are
desirous to attaine the knowledge of the same (London: Richard Tottell, 1579): 112v. K R2294 E813 Robarts Library
Notes
1] wend: change the character of (OED "wend" v. 1, no. 3). Under the old English custom of gavelkind, a widow was entitled to half her deceased husband's lands and tenements as long as she remained unmarried and bore no child. John Rastell's An Exposition of Certaine Difficult and Obscure Wordes (London, 1579), fol. 112v, explains: "if she when she is deliuered of child, & the infant be herde cry, & that the hue & crie, be raised, & the country assembled, and haue the viewe of the child so borne, and the mother: then let her loose her dower wholy, and otherwise not, so longe as shee holdeth her a widow,whereof it is sayde in kentish.
He that doth wende her,Back to Line
Let him lende her."
2] lend: give money, support. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1525
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
Rhyme
Form