Note 606 — Chapter VIII · THE MAY-GAME
Reading edition
Dyer, 278; Drake, 86; Brand-Ellis, i. 157; Cutts, Parish Priests, 317; Archaeologia, xii. 11; Stubbes, i. 150; F. L. x. 350. At an ‘ale’ a cask of home-brewed was broached for sale in the church or church-house, and the profits went to some public object; at a church-ale to the parish, at a clerk-ale to the clerk, at a bride-ale or bridal to the bride, at a bid-ale to some poor man in trouble. A love-ale was probably merely social.