Pricket's sister

• pricket: a male fallow deer in its second year. A pricket is a two-year old buck, with horns that are straight and unbranched. A herd of fallow deer is kept in Dublin's Phoenix Park, hence this phrase refers to the second province Leinster → cf. other species of hoofed ruminants in this passage: Dik Dik, Eland, Elk, Hind → Horns are a sign of a cuckold

• prick: (slang) like dick, this is coarse slang for "penis"

• prick: one of several types of small dots used in writing (e.g. jots, tittles, diacritics, the vowels in Hebrew, etc) → in FW Issy is often alluded to by two dots (for example, -ii-), which represent her "eyes"

• Prickette’s Tower: a tower in the old walls of Dublin → hence this phrase refers to the second province Leinster

• pricket's sister: a female fallow deer in its second year → Issy

Commentary

young pricket by pricket's sister nibbleth on returned viridities

This phrase identifies the second of Ireland's "five fifths" or provinces, Leinster, which includes Prickette's Tower and the prickets or fallow deer of the Phoenix Park.

Ireland has only four provinces today – Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht – but in the early Christian centuries there were five provinces or fifths, the Middle Irish word coiced (Modern Irish: cúigiú) meaning both fifth and province. The fifth province was the royal province that included Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. It corresponds roughly to the modern counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford, with parts of Dublin, Offaly and Louth, all of which are now considered to be part of Leinster.