Note E81 — 17.
Reading edition
"A nads" = an adze, an instance (like a nall = an awl, above) of the n of the article being joined to the following vowel. Similarly we have "atte nale" = at the ale-house, a corruption of A.S. æt þan ale.—See Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. Text, Prologue, l. 43. So in Sir Thomas More's Workes, 1557, p. 709, we have "A verye nodypoll nydyote" for idiot. Other instances of the prefixed n are "nonce, a nother, nagares (= augers)." Cf. "One axe, a bill, iiij nagares, ij hatchettes, an ades," etc.—Shakspereana Genealogica, 1869, p. 472.