Note 290 — The Table. (continued 2)

It is scarcely necessary to mention that formerly all priests were styled Sir. One of John Heywood's interludes is called: A Play between Johan the Husband, Tyb the Wife, and Sir Johan the Prest. In an old ballad in the Ashmole Collection, beginning, "Adew! my pretty pussy," there is this passage:—

"But the gyrld ys gon, syr, With a chokynge bon, syr, For she hath got Syr John, syr, And ys oure vyckars wyff."