Note E389 — 63.

"In Bridewell a number be stript," etc. Although all the editions I have been able to examine read "lesse worthie than theefe to be whipt," I suspect the correct reading to be "lesse worthie than theese to be whipt." The mistake might easily occur through the similarity of the old s and f. The meaning, as the lines read at present, is not very clear, but if we adopt the suggested reading, the sense becomes at once apparent:—"In Bridewell many are stripped for flogging who do not deserve it so much as these."