Note 607 — INDEX TO THE NOTES.

return his purchase back, i.e. ‘give up his spoil,’ or (as in the MS.) ‘release his new-got prey.’ To purchase (Fr. pour-chasser) originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or foul: it thus came to mean ‘to steal’ (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, and Shakespeare), and ‘to buy’ (its current sense). See Trench, Study of Words; Hen. V. iii. 2. 45, “They will steal anything, and call it purchase”; i. Hen. IV. ii. l. 101, “thou shalt have share in our purchase.”