The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168376   Message #4068395
Posted By: Cattia
14-Aug-20 - 04:36 PM
Thread Name: Clerk Saunders Herd's Manuscripts
Subject: RE: Clerk Saunders Herd's Manuscripts
I found other points difficult to interpret.
The first: "And take the sword from out my scabbard,
You can use it to lift the pin "
the stratagem that Saunders suggests is to lift the door stop, that is to leave the door open, so "technically" she won't be the one to let him in since the door is open. However, the dynamics of the operation are not clear to me: why a sword? And why must it be she who is inside to lift the "pin"?
“This night”, she said, “the sleepiest man
That ever my two eyes did see,
Has lain by me and sweat the sheets,
And you know that’s a shame to see "
Does she scold him for doing nothing but sleeping chastely, wetting the sheets with sweat?
Here too we have the nightmare of pigs (I dreamed my bower was full of swine) and I imagine pigs hanging by their paws and quartered.