parte 510

Of the quatriuials, Nor yet of triuials, Nor of philosophy, Nor of philology, Nor of good pollycy, Nor of astronomy, Nor acquaynted worth a fly With honorable Haly, Nor with royall Ptholomy, Nor with Albumasar, 520 To treate of any star Fyxt or els mobyll; His Latyne tonge dothe hobbyll, He doth but cloute and cobbill In Tullis faculte, Called humanyte; Yet proudly he dare pretende How no man can him amende: But haue ye nat[187] harde this, How an one eyed man is 530 Well syghted when He is amonge blynde men? Than, our processe for to stable, This man was full vnable To reche to suche degre, Had nat[188] our prynce be Royall Henry the eyght, Take him in suche conceyght, That he set him on heyght, In exemplyfyenge 540 Great Alexander the kynge, In writynge as we fynde; Whiche of his royall mynde, And of his noble pleasure, Transcendynge out of mesure, Thought to do a thynge That perteyneth to a kynge, To make vp one of nought, And made to him be brought A wretched poore man, 550 Whiche his lyuenge wan With plantyng of lekes By the dayes and by the wekes, And of this poore vassall He made a kynge royall, And gaue him a realme to rule, That occupyed a showell, A mattoke, and a spade, Before that he was made A kynge, as I haue tolde, 560 And ruled as he wolde. Suche is a kynges power, To make within an hower, And worke suche a myracle, That shall be a spectacle Of renowme and worldly fame: In lykewyse now the same Cardynall is promoted, Yet with lewde condicyons cotyd,[189] As herafter ben notyd, 570 Presumcyon and vayne glory, Enuy, wrath, and lechery, Couetys and glotony, Slouthfull to do good, Now frantick, now starke wode. Shulde this man of suche mode Rule the swerde of myght, How can he do ryght? For he wyll as sone smyght His frende as his fo; 580 A prouerbe longe ago. Set vp a wretche on hye In a trone triumphantlye, Make him a great astate, And he wyll play checke mate With ryall[190] maieste, Counte him selfe as good as he; A prelate potencyall, To rule vnder Bellyall, As ferce and as cruell 590 As the fynd of hell. His seruauntes menyall He dothe reuyle, and brall, Lyke Mahounde in a play; No man dare him withsay: He hath dispyght and scorne At them that be well borne; He rebukes them and rayles, Ye horsons, ye vassayles, Ye knaues, ye churles sonnys, 600 Ye rebads, nat[191] worth two plummis, Ye raynbetyn beggers reiagged, Ye recrayed ruffyns all ragged! With, stowpe, thou hauell, Rynne, thou iauell! Thou peuysshe pye pecked, Thou losell longe necked! Thus dayly they be decked, Taunted and checked, That they ar so wo, 610 They wot not whether to go. No man dare come to the speche Of this gentell Iacke breche, Of what estate he be, Of spirituall dygnyte, Nor duke of hye degre, Nor marques, erle, nor lorde; Whiche shrewdly doth accorde, Thus he borne so base All noble men shulde out face, 620 His countynaunce lyke a kayser. My lorde is nat[192] at layser; Syr, ye must tary a stounde, Tyll better layser be founde; And, syr, ye must daunce attendaunce, And take pacient sufferaunce, For my lordes grace Hath nowe no tyme nor space To speke with you as yet. And thus they shall syt, 630 Chuse them syt or flyt, Stande, walke, or ryde, And his layser abyde Parchaunce halfe a yere, And yet neuer the nere. This daungerous dowsypere, Lyke a kynges pere; And within this xvi. yere He wolde haue ben ryght fayne To haue ben a chapleyne, 640 And haue taken ryght gret payne With a poore knyght, What soeuer he hyght. The chefe of his owne counsell, They can nat[193] well tell Whan they with hym shulde mell, He is so fyers and fell; He rayles and he ratis, He calleth them doddypatis; He grynnes and he gapis, 650 As it were iack napis. Suche a madde bedleme For to rewle this reame,[194] It is a wonders[195] case: That the kynges grace Is toward him so mynded, And so farre blynded, That he can nat[196] parceyue How he doth hym disceyue, I dought, lest by sorsery, 660 Or suche other loselry, As wychecraft, or charmyng; For he is the kynges derlyng, And his swete hart rote, And is gouerned by this mad kote: For what is a man the better For the kynges letter? For he wyll tere it asonder; Wherat moche I wonder, How suche a hoddypoule 670 So boldely dare controule, And so malapertly withstande The kynges owne hande, And settys nat[197] by it a myte; He sayth the kynge doth wryte And writeth he wottith nat[198] what; And yet for all that, The kynge his clemency Despensyth with his demensy. But what his grace doth thinke, 680 I haue no pen nor inke That therwith can mell; But wele I can tell How Frauncis Petrarke, That moche noble clerke, Wryteth how Charlemayn Coude nat[199] him selfe refrayne, But was rauysht with a rage Of a lyke dotage: But how that came aboute, 690 Rede ye the story oute, And ye shall fynde surely It was by nycromansy, By carectes and coniuracyon, Vnder a certeyne constellacion, And a certayne fumygacion, Vnder a stone on a golde ryng, Wrought to Charlemayn the king, Whiche constrayned him forcebly For to loue a certayne body 700 Aboue all other inordinatly. This is no fable nor no lye; At Acon it was brought to pas, As by myne auctor tried it was. But let mi masters mathematical Tell you the rest, for me they shal; They haue the full intellygence, And dare vse the experyens, In there obsolute consciens To practyue[200] suche abolete sciens; 710 For I abhore to smatter Of one so deuyllysshe a matter. But I wyll make further relacion Of this isagogicall colation, How maister Gaguine, the crownycler Of the feytis of war That were done in Fraunce, Maketh remembraunce, How Kynge Lewes of late Made vp a great astate 720 Of a poore wretchid man, Wherof moche care began. Iohannes Balua was his name, Myne auctor writeth the same; Promoted was he To a cardynalles dygnyte By Lewes the kyng aforesayd, With hym so wele apayd, That he made him his chauncelar To make all or to mar, 730 And to rule as him lyst, Tyll he cheked at the fyst, And agayne all reason Commyted open trayson And[201] against his lorde souerayn; Wherfore he suffred payn, Was hedyd, drawen, and quarterd, And dyed stynkingly marterd. Lo, yet for all that He ware a cardynals hat, 740 In hym was small fayth, As myne auctor sayth: Nat[202] for that I mene Suche a casuelte shulde be sene, Or suche chaunce shulde fall Vnto our cardynall. Allmyghty God, I trust, Hath for him dyscust That of force he must Be faythfull, trew, and iust 750 To our most royall kynge, Chefe rote of his makynge; Yet it is a wyly mouse That can bylde his dwellinge house Within the cattes eare[203] Withouten drede or feare. It is a nyce reconynge, To put all the gouernynge, All the rule of this lande Into one mannys hande: 760 One wyse mannys hede May stande somwhat in stede; But the wyttys of many wyse Moche better can deuyse, By theyr cyrcumspection, And theyr sad dyrrection, To cause the commune weale Longe to endure in heale. Christ kepe King Henry the eyght From trechery and dysceyght, 770 And graunt him grace to know The faucon from the crow, The wolfe from the lam, From whens that mastyfe cam! Let him neuer confounde The gentyll greyhownde: Of this matter the grownde Is easy to expounde, And soone may be perceyued,[204] How the worlde is conueyed. 780 But harke, my frende, one worde In ernest or in borde: Tell me nowe in this stede Is maister Mewtas dede, The kynges Frenshe secretary, And his vntrew aduersary? For he sent in writynge To Fraunces the French kyng Of our maisters counsel in eueri thing: That was a peryllous rekenyng!— 790 Nay, nay, he is nat[205] dede; But he was so payned in the hede, That he shall neuer ete more bred. Now he is gone to another stede, With a bull vnder lead, By way of commissyon, To a straunge iurisdictyon, Called Dymingis Dale, Farre byyonde Portyngale, And bathe his pasport to pas 800 _Ultra Sauromatas_, To the deuyll, syr Sathanas, To Pluto, and syr Bellyall, The deuyls vycare generall, And to his college conuentuall, As well calodemonyall As to cacodemonyall,[206] To puruey for our cardynall A palace pontifycall, To kepe his court prouyncyall, 810 Vpon artycles iudicyall, To contende and to stryue For his prerogatyue, Within that consystory To make sommons peremtory Before some prothonotory[207] Imperyall or papall. Vpon this matter mistycall I haue tolde you part, but nat[208] all: Herafter perchaunce I shall 820 Make a larger[209] memoryall, And a further rehersall, And more paper I thinke to blot, To the court why I cam not; Desyring you aboue all thynge To kepe you from laughynge Whan ye fall to redynge Of this wanton scrowle, And pray for Mewtas sowle, For he is well past and gone; 830 That wolde God euerychone Of his affynyte Were gone as well as he! Amen, amen, say ye, Of your inward charyte; Amen, Of your inward charyte. It were great rewth, For wrytynge of trewth Any man shulde be 840 In perplexyte Of dyspleasure; For I make you sure, Where trouth is abhorde, It is a playne recorde That there wantys grace; In whose place Dothe occupy, Full vngracyously, Fals flatery, 850 Fals trechery,[210] Fals brybery, Subtyle Sym Sly, With madde foly; For who can best lye, He is best set by. Than farewell to thé, Welthfull felycite! For prosperyte Away than wyll fle. 860 Than must we agre With pouerte; For mysery, With penury, Myserably And wretchydly Hath made askrye And outcry, Folowynge the chase To dryue away grace. 870 Yet sayst thou percase, We can lacke no grace, For my lordes grace, And my ladies grace, With trey duse ase, And ase in the face, Some haute and some base, Some daunce the trace Euer in one case: Marke me that chase 880 In the tennys play, For synke quater trey Is a tall man: He rod, but we ran, Hay, the gye and the gan! The gray gose is no swan; The waters wax wan, And beggers they ban, And they cursed Datan, _De tribu Dan_, 890 That this warke[211] began, _Palam et clam_, With Balak and Balam, The golden ram Of Flemmyng dam, Sem, Iapheth, or Cam. But howe comme to pas, Your cupbord that was Is tourned to glasse, From syluer to brasse, 900 From golde to pewter, Or els to a newter, To copper, to tyn, To lede, or alcumyn? A goldsmyth your mayre; But the chefe of your fayre Myght stande nowe by potters, And suche as sell trotters: Pytchars,[212] potshordis, This shrewdly accordis 910 To be a cupborde[213] for lordys. My lorde now and syr knyght, Good euyn and good nyght! For now, syr Trestram, Ye must weare bukram, Or canues of Cane, For sylkes are wane. Our royals that shone, Our nobles are gone Amonge the Burgonyons, 920 And Spanyardes onyons, And the Flanderkyns. Gyll swetis, and Cate spynnys, They are happy that wynnys; But Englande may well say, Fye on this wynnyng all way! Now nothynge but pay, pay, With, laughe and lay downe, Borowgh, cyte, and towne. Good Sprynge of Lanam 930 Must counte what became Of his clothe makynge: He is at suche takynge, Though his purse wax dull, He must tax for his wull By nature of a newe writ; My lordys grace nameth it A _quia non satisfacit_: In the spyght of his tethe He must pay agayne 940 A thousande or twayne Of his golde in store; And yet he payde before An[214] hunderd pounde and more, Whiche pyncheth him sore. My lordis grace wyll bryuge Downe this hye sprynge, And brynge it so lowe, It shall nat[215] euer flowe. Suche a prelate, I trowe, 950 Were worthy to rowe Thorow the streytes of[216] Marock To the gybbet of Baldock: He wolde dry vp the stremys Of ix. kinges realmys,[217] All ryuers and wellys, All waters that swellys; For with vs he so mellys That within Englande dwellys, I wolde he were somwhere ellys; 960 For els by and by He wyll drynke vs so drye, And suck vs so nye, That men shall scantly Haue peny or halpeny. God saue his noble grace, And graunt him a place Endlesse to dwell With the deuyll of hell! For, and he were there, 970 We nede neuer feere Of the fendys blake: For I vndertake He wolde so brag and crake, That he wolde than make The deuyls to quake, To shudder and to shake, Lyke a fyer drake, And with a cole rake Brose[218] them on a brake, 980 And bynde them to a stake, And set hell on fyer, At his owne desyer. He is suche a grym syer, And suche a potestolate, And suche a potestate, That he wolde breke the braynes Of Lucyfer[219] in his chaynes, And rule them echone In Lucyfers trone. 990 I wolde he were gone; For amonge vs is none That ruleth but he alone, Without all good reason, And all out of season: For Folam peason With him be nat[220] geson; They growwe very ranke Vpon euery banke Of his herbers grene, 1000 With my lady bryght and shene; On theyr game it is sene They play nat[221] all clene, And it be as I wene. But as touchynge dyscrecyon,[222] With sober dyrectyon, He kepeth them in subiectyon: They can haue no protectyon To rule nor to guyde, But all must be tryde, 1010 And abyde the correctyon Of his[223] wylfull affectyon. For as for wytte, The deuyll spede whitte! But braynsyk and braynlesse, Wytles and rechelesse, Careles and shamlesse, Thriftles and gracelesse, Together are bended, And so condyscended, 1020 That the commune welth Shall neuer haue good helth, But tatterd and tuggyd, Raggyd and ruggyd, Shauyn and shorne, And all threde bare worne. Suche gredynesse, Suche nedynesse, Myserablenesse, With wretchydnesse, 1030 Hath brought in dystresse And moche heuynesse And great dolowre Englande, the flowre Of relucent honowre, In olde commemoracion Most royall Englyssh nacion. Now all is out of facion, Almost in desolation; I speke by protestacion: 1040 God of his miseracyon Send better reformacyon! Lo, for to do shamfully He iugeth it no foly! But to wryte of his shame, He sayth we ar to blame. What a frensy is this, No shame to do amys, And yet he is ashamed To be shamfully named![224] 1050 And ofte prechours be blamed, Bycause they haue proclamed His madnesse by writynge, His symplenesse resytynge, Remordynge and bytynge, With chydyng and with flytynge,[225] Shewynge him Goddis lawis: He calleth the prechours dawis, And of holy scriptures sawis He counteth them for gygawis, 1060 And putteth them to sylence And[226] with wordis of vyolence, Lyke Pharao, voyde of grace, Dyd Moyses sore manase, And Aron sore he thret, The worde of God to let; This maumet in lyke wyse Against the churche doth ryse; The prechour he dothe dyspyse, With crakynge in suche wyse, 1070 So braggynge all with bost, That no prechour almost Dare speke for his lyfe Of my lordis grace nor his wyfe, For he hath suche a bull, He may take whom he wull, And as many as him lykys; May ete pigges in Lent for pikys, After the sectes of heretykis, For in Lent he wyll ete 1080 All maner of flesshe mete That he can ony[227] where gete; With other abusyons grete, Wherof for[228] to trete It wolde make the deuyll to swete, For all priuileged places He brekes and defaces, All placis of relygion He bathe them in derisyon, And makith suche prouisyon 1090 To dryue them at diuisyon, And fynally in conclusyon To bringe them to confusyon; Saint Albons to recorde Wherof this vngracyous lorde Hathe made him selfe abbot, Against their wylles, God wot. All this he dothe deale Vnder strength of the great seale, And by his legacy, 1100 Whiche madly he dothe apply Vnto an extrauagancy Pyked out of[229] all good lawe, With reasons that ben rawe. Yet, whan he toke first his hat, He said he knew what was what; All iustyce he pretended, All thynges sholde be amended, All wronges he wolde redresse, All iniuris he wolde represse, 1110 All periuris he wolde oppresse; And yet this gracelesse elfe, He is periured himselfe, As playnly it dothe appere, Who lyst to enquere In the regestry Of my Lorde of Cantorbury, To whom he was professed In thre poyntes expressed; The fyrst to do him reuerence, 1120 The seconde to owe hym obedyence,[230] The thirde with hole affectyon To be vnder his subiectyon: But now he maketh obiectyon, Vnder the protectyon Of the kynges great seale, That he setteth neuer a deale By his former othe, Whether God be pleased or wroth. He makith so proude pretens, 1130 That in his equipolens He iugyth him equiualent With God omnipotent: But yet beware the rod, And the stroke of God! The Apostyll Peter Had a pore myter And a poore cope Whan he was creat Pope, First in Antioche; 1140 He dyd neuer approche Of Rome to the see Weth suche dygnyte. Saynt Dunstane, what was he? Nothynge, he sayth, lyke to me:[231] There is a dyuersyte Bytwene him and me; We passe hym in degre, As _legatus a latere_. _Ecce, sacerdos magnus_, 1150 That wyll hed vs and hange vs, And streitly strangle vs And[232] he may fange vs! Decre and decretall, Constytucyon prouincyall, Nor no lawe canonicall, Shall let the preest pontyficall To syt _in causa sanguinis_. Nowe God amende that is amys! For I suppose that he is 1160 Of Ieremy the whyskynge rod, The flayle, the scourge of almighty God. This Naman Sirus, So fell and so irons, So full of malencoly, With a flap afore[233] his eye, Men wene that he is pocky, Or els his surgions they lye, For, as far as they[234] can spy By the craft of surgery, 1170 It is _manus Domini_. And yet this proude Antiochus, He is so ambicious, So elate, and so vicious, And so cruell hertyd, That he wyll nat[235] be conuertyd; For he setteth God apart, He is nowe so ouerthwart, And so payned with pangis, That all his trust hangis 1180 In Balthasor, whiche heled Domingos nose that was wheled; That Lumberdes nose meane I, That standeth yet awrye; It was nat[236] heled alderbest, It standeth somwhat on the west; I meane Domyngo Lomelyn, That was wont to wyn Moche money of the kynge At the cardys and haserdynge: 1190 Balthasor, that helyd Domingos nose[237] From the puskylde pocky pose,[238] Now with his gummys of Araby Hath promised to hele our cardinals eye; Yet sum surgions put a dout, Lest he wyll put[239] it clene out, And make him lame of his neder limmes: God sende him sorowe for his sinnes! Some men myght aske a question, By whose suggestyon 1200 I toke on hand this warke, Thus boldly for to barke? And men lyst to harke, And my wordes marke, I wyll answere lyke a clerke; For trewly and vnfayned, I am forcebly constrayned, At Iuuynals request, To wryght of this glorious gest, Of this vayne gloryous best, 1210 His fame to be encrest At euery solempne feest; _Quia difficile est_ _Satiram non scribere_. Now, mayster doctor, howe say ye, What soeuer your name be? What though ye be namelesse, Ye shall nat[240] escape blamelesse, Nor yet shall scape shamlesse: Mayster doctor in your degre, 1220 Yourselfe madly ye ouerse; Blame Iuuinall, and blame nat[241] me: Maister doctor Diricum, _Omne animi vitium_, &c. As Iuuinall dothe recorde, A small defaute in a great lorde, A lytell cryme in a great astate, Is moche more inordinate, And more horyble to beholde, Than any other a thousand folde. 1230 Ye put to blame ye wot nere whom; Ye may weare a cockes come; Your fonde hed in your furred hood,[242] Holde ye your tong, ye can no goode: And at more conuenyent tyme I may fortune for to ryme Somwhat of your madnesse; For small is your sadnesse To put any man in lack, And say yll behynde his back: 1240 And my wordes marke truly, That ye can nat[243] byde thereby, For _smegma non est cinnamomum_, But _de absentibus nil nisi bonum_. Complayne, or do what ye wyll, Of your complaynt it shall nat[244] skyl: This is the tenor of my byl, A daucock ye be, and so shalbe styll.

_Sequitur Epitoma_ _De morbilloso Thoma,_ _Necnon obscœno_ _De Polyphemo, &c._

_Porro perbelle dissimulatum_ _Illum Pandulphum,[245] tantum legatum,_ _Tum formidatum nuper prælatum,_ _Ceu Naman Syrum nunc elongatum,[246]_ _In solitudine jam commoratum,_ _Neapolitano morbo gravatum,_ _Malagmate, cataplasmate stratum,[247]_ _Pharmacopolæ[248] ferro foratum,_ _Nihilo magis alleviatum,_ _Nihilo melius aut medicatum,_ 10 _Relictis famulis ad famulatum,_ _Quo[249] tollatur infamia,_ _Sed major patet insania;_ _A modo ergo ganea_ _Abhorreat ille ganeus,_ _Dominus male creticus,_ _Aptius dictus tetricus,_ _Fanaticus, phreneticus,_ _Graphicus sicut metricus_ _Autumat._ 20 _Hoc genus dictaminis_ _Non eget examinis_ _In centiloquio_ _Nec centimetro_ _Honorati_ _Grammatici_ _Mauri._

[115] _Here after foloweth a lytell boke, &c._] From the ed. by Kele, n. d., collated with that by Wyght, n. d., with that by Kytson, n. d., and with Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568.

[116] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[117] _The relucent mirror, &c.... by Skelton_] So Marshe’s ed. Not in other eds.

[118] _All noble men, &c._] These twenty-eight introductory lines, which are found in all the eds. of this poem, are also printed as a distinct piece, in the various editions of _Certaine bokes compyled by Mayster Skelton, &c._, n. d., and in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568.

[119] _in_] _Certayne bokes, &c._, and the distinct piece in Marshe’s ed., “of.”

[120] _Sapyence_] Eds. of Kytson, and (in both places) Marshe, and all eds. but one of _Certaine bokes, &c._, “Pacyence” (with various spelling).

[121] _Thorow_] So (with various spelling) _Certaine bokes, &c._, and the distinct piece in Marshe’s ed. Other eds. “Through.”

[122] _And_] _Certaine bokes, &c._, and the distinct piece in Marshe’s ed., “That.”

[123] _mille_] Other eds. “_in ille._”

[124] _cannat_] Other eds. “_can_not.”

[125] _So_] Other eds. “To.”

[126] _reconed_] Other eds. “recouered.”

[127] _a_] Not in eds. of Kytson, and Marshe.

[128] _some_] Not in other eds.

[129] _ben_] Other eds. “be.”

[130] _The_] Eds. “They.”

[131] _males_] Eds. “wales.” See notes.

[132] _do_] Not in eds. of Kytson, and Marshe.

[133] _crauynge_] Kele’s ed. “crauyne.” Other eds. “crauyng.”

[134] _Scot_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “scote.”

[135] _his_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “hes.”

[136] _Bothombar_] Other eds. “Bothambar.”

[137] _made_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “mad.”

[138] _lent_] Marshe’s ed. “sent.”

[139] _to_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “in _to_.”

[140] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[141] _made_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “mad.”

[142] _vrcheons_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “heons.”

[143] _They_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “Thy.”

[144] _Starres_] Kele’s ed. “sterres.” Other eds. “sters” and “stars.”

[145] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[146] _Hood_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “hode.”

[147] _Philargerya_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “Philargera.”

[148] _damosell_] Other eds. “damsell.”

[149] _ypocras_] Kele’s ed. “ypocrus.” Other eds. “ipocras.”

[150] _capons_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “copons.”

[151] _&c._] Not in other eds.

[152] _newes_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “news” here, but not in the earlier part of this, nor in the next line.

[153] _the_] Eds. of Wyght, and Marshe, “that.”

[154] _Guilliam_] Other eds. “Gilliam.”

[155] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[156] _grugyd_] Other eds. “grudge.”

[157] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[158] _hoste_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “hoost.”

[159] _crack_] Other eds. “crake.”

[160] _they_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “the.”

[161] _that_] So other eds. Not in Kele’s ed.

[162] _Nat_] Other eds. “Not.”

[163] _Rynne_] Other eds. “Runne.”

[164] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[165] _at dur_] Other eds. “a _dur_.”

[166] _maketh them to_] Other eds. “make to.”

[167] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[168] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[169] _must_] Not in Marshe’s ed.

[170] _stalworthy_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “tall worthy.”

[171] _There_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “her” and “Her.”

[172] _hyder_] Other eds. “hither.”

[173] _Nat_] Other eds. “Not.”

[174] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[175] _Ones_] Other eds. “Once.”

[176] _nat_] Other eds, “not.”

[177] _canon_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “conon.”

[178] _By_] Marshe’s ed. “But.”

[179] _kyng_] Kele’s ed. “dkeyng.” Other eds. “king.”

[180] _and_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “an.”

[181] _into_] Marshe’s ed. “in.”

[182] _a cæciam_] Eds. “_Acisiam_:” see a similar misprint in v. 476. Compare v. 472. The Rev. J. Mitford conjectured “_acrisiam_” (_judicii inopiam_).

[183] _a Mamelek_] Eds. “Amamelek.”

[184] _the_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “they be.”

[185] _togeder_] Other eds. “together.”

[186] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[187] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[188] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[189] _cotyd_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “noted.”

[190] _ryall_] Other eds. “royall.”

[191] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[192] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[193] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[194] _reame_] Other eds. “realm.”

[195] _wonders_] Other eds. “wonderous.”

[196] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[197] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[198] _wottith nat_] Other eds. “wot not.”

[199] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[200] _practyue_] Other eds. “practique.”

[201] _And_] Perhaps ought to be thrown out. Compare v. 1062.

[202] _Nat_] Other eds. “Not.”

[203] _eare_] Marshe’s ed. “eares.”

[204] _perceyued_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “perceyuid.”

[205] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[206] _cacodemonyall_] Eds. (with various spelling) “cac_a_demonyall:” but compare the preceding line.

[207] _prothonotory_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “prothonetory.”

[208] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[209] _larger_] Marshe’s ed. “large.”

[210] _trechery_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “terchery.”

[211] _warke_] Other eds. “worke.”

[212] _Pytchars_] The Editor of 1736 printed “_Pytchars_ and”—without the authority, I believe, of any old ed.

[213] _cupborde_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. here (but not previously, see v. 898) “copborde.”

[214] _An_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “And.”

[215] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[216] _of_] Not in other eds.

[217] _realmys_] Marshe’s ed. “realme.”

[218] _Brose_] Other eds. “Bruse.”

[219] _Lucyfer_] Kele’s ed. “Lucyfers.” Other eds. “Lucifer.”

[220] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[221] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[222] _dyscrecyon_] Eds. of Kele, Wyght, and Kytson (with various spelling), “dystrectyon.” Marshe’s ed. “discretion.”

[223] _his_] Other eds. “him.”

[224] _named_] Marshe’s ed. “name.”

[225] _flytynge_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “fiting.”

[226] _And_] Perhaps ought to be thrown out. Compare v. 735.

[227] _ony_] Other eds. “any.”

[228] _for_] Not in eds. of Kytson, and Marshe.

[229] _of_] Not in Marshe’s ed.

[230] _obedyence_] Kele’s ed. “obedynce.” Other eds. “obedience.”

[231] _me_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “we.”

[232] _And_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “That.”

[233] _afore_] Eds. of Kytson, and Marshe, “before.”

[234] _they_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “the.”

[235] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[236] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[237] _nose_] Marshe’s ed. “pose.”

[238] _pose_] Kytson’s ed. “nose.”

[239] _put_] Wyght’s ed. “but.”

[240] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[241] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[242] _hood_] So other eds. Kele’s ed. “hode.”

[243] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[244] _nat_] Other eds. “not.”

[245] _Pandulphum_] Other eds. “_pandulohum_.”

[246] _elongatum_] Marshe’s ed. “_longatum_.”

[247] _cataplasmate stratum_] Eds. “_cataplasmati statum_.”

[248] _Pharmacopolæ_] Eds. (with various spelling) “_Pharmacapoli_.”

[249] _Quo_] Marshe’s ed. “_Quod_.”

DECASTICHON VIRULENTUM IN GALERATUM LYCAONTA MARINUM, &c.

_Proh dolor, ecce, maris lupus, et nequissimus ursus,_ _Carnificis vitulus, Britonumque bubulcus iniquus,_ _Conflatus vitulus vel Oreb, vel Salmane vel Zeb,_ _Carduus, et crudelis Asaphque Datan reprobatus,_ _Blandus et Achitophel regis, scelus omne Britannum,_ _Ecclesias qui namque Thomas confundit ubique,_ _Non sacer iste Thomas, sed duro corde Goleas,_ _Quem gestat mulus,—Sathane, cacet,[250] obsecro, culus_ _Fundens asphaltum, precor! Hunc versum lege cautum;_ _Asperius nihil est misero quum surget in altum.[251]_ 10

[250] _cacet_] Other eds. “_caret_.”

[251] _quum surget in altum_] Not in Marshe’s ed.

APOSTROPHA AD[252] LONDINI CIVES (CITANTE[253] MULUM ASINO AUREO GALERATO) IN OCCURSUM ASELLI,[254] &c.

_Excitat, en,[255] asinus mulum,[256] mirabile visu,_ _Calcibus! O vestro cives occurrite asello,_ _Qui regnum regemque regit, qui vestra gubernat_ _Prædia, divitias, nummos, gazas, spoliando!_

_Dixit alludens, immo illudens, paradoxam de asino aureo galerato._

_xxxiiii._

_Hæc vates ille,_ _De quo loquuntur mille._

[252] _ad_] Eds. “_an_.”

[253] _citante_] Eds. “_citanto_” and “_citando_.”

[254] _aselli_] Eds. “_aguile_:” compare the second line. The Editor of 1736 printed “_asini_.”

[255] _en_] Eds. “_eu_.”

[256] _mulum_] Other eds. “_multum_.”

SKELTON, LAUREATE, &c.

HOWE THE DOUTY DUKE OF ALBANY,[257] LYKE A COWARDE KNYGHT, RAN AWAYE SHAMFULLY, WITH AN HUNDRED THOUSANDE TRATLANDE SCOTTES AND FAINT HARTED FRENCHEMEN, BESIDE THE WATER OF TWEDE, &c.

Reioyse, Englande, And vnderstande These tidinges newe, Whiche be as trewe As the gospell: This duke so fell Of Albany, So cowardly, With all his hoost Of the Scottyshe coost, 10 For all theyr boost, Fledde lyke a beest; Wherfore to ieste Is my delyght Of this cowarde knyght, And for to wright In the dispyght Of the Scottes ranke Of Huntley banke, Of Lowdyan, 20 Of Locryan, And the ragged ray Of Galaway. Dunbar, Dunde, Ye shall trowe me, False Scottes are ye: Your hartes sore faynted, And so[258] attaynted, Lyke cowardes starke, At the castell of Warke, 30 By the water of Twede, Ye had euill spede; Lyke cankerd curres, Ye loste your spurres, For in that fraye Ye ranne awaye, With, hey, dogge, hay! For Sir William Lyle Within shorte whyle, That valiaunt knyght, 40 Putte you to flyght; By his valyaunce Two thousande[259] of Fraunce There he putte backe, To your great lacke, And vtter shame Of your Scottysshe name. Your chefe cheftayne, Voyde of all brayne, Duke of all Albany, 50 Than shamefuly He reculed backe, To his great lacke, Whan he herde tell That my lorde amrell Was comyng downe, To make hym frowne And to make hym lowre, With the noble powre Of my lorde cardynall, 60 As an hoost royall, After the auncient manner, With sainct Cutberdes banner, And sainct Williams also; Your capitayne ranne to go, To go, to go, to go, And brake vp all his hoost; For all his crake and bost, Lyke a cowarde knyght, He fledde, and durst nat fyght, 70 He ranne awaye by night. But now must I Your Duke ascry Of Albany With a worde or twayne In sentence playne. Ye duke so doutty, So sterne, so stoutty, In shorte sentens, Of your pretens 80 What is the grounde, Breuely and rounde To me expounde, Or els wyll I Euydently Shewe as it is; For the cause is this, Howe ye pretende For to defende The yonge Scottyshe kyng, 90 But ye meane a thyng, And ye coude bryng The matter about, To putte his eyes out And put hym downe, And set hys crowne On your owne heed Whan he were deed. Such trechery And traytory 100 Is all your cast; Thus ye haue compast With the Frenche kyng A fals rekenyng To enuade Englande, As I vnderstande: But our kyng royall, Whose name ouer all, Noble Henry the eyght, Shall cast a beyght, 110 And sette suche a snare, That shall cast you in care, Bothe Kyng Fraunces and thé, That knowen ye shall be For the moost recrayd Cowardes afrayd, And falsest forsworne, That euer were borne. O ye wretched Scottes, Ye puaunt pyspottes, 120 It shalbe your lottes To be knytte vp with knottes Of halters and ropes About your traytours throtes! O Scottes pariured, Vnhaply vred, Ye may be assured Your falshod discured It is and shal be From the Scottish se 130 Vnto Gabione! For ye be false echone, False and false agayne, Neuer true nor playne, But flery, flatter, and fayne, And euer to remayne In wretched beggary And maungy misery, In lousy lothsumnesse And scabbed scorffynesse, 140 And in abhominacion Of all maner of nacion, Nacion moost in hate, Proude and poore of state. Twyt, Scot, go kepe thy den, Mell nat with Englyshe men; Thou dyd nothyng but barke At the castell of Warke. Twyt, Scot, yet agayne ones, We shall breke thy bones, 150 And hang you vpon polles, And byrne you all to colles; With, twyt, Scot, twyt, Scot, twyt, Walke, Scot, go begge a byt Of brede at ylke mannes hecke: The fynde, Scot, breke thy necke! Twyt, Scot, agayne I saye, Twyt, Scot of Galaway, Twyt, Scot, shake thy dogge,[260] hay! Twyt, Scot, thou ran away. 160 We set nat a flye By your Duke of Albany; We set nat a prane By suche a dronken drane; We set nat a myght By suche a cowarde knyght, Suche a proude palyarde, Suche a skyrgaliarde, Suche a starke cowarde, Suche a proude pultrowne, 170 Suche a foule coystrowne, Suche a doutty dagswayne; Sende him to F[r]aunce agayne, To bring with hym more brayne From Kynge Fraunces of Frauns: God sende them bothe myschauns! Ye Scottes all the rable, Ye shall neuer be hable With vs for to compare; What though ye stampe and stare? 180 God sende you sorow and care! With vs whan euer ye mell, Yet we bear away the bell, Whan ye cankerd knaues Must crepe into your caues Your heedes for to hyde, For ye dare nat abyde. Sir Duke of Albany, Right inconuenyently Ye rage and ye raue, 190 And your worshyp depraue: Nat lyke Duke Hamylcar, With the Romayns that made war, Nor lyke his sonne Hanyball, Nor lyke Duke Hasdruball Of Cartage in Aphrike; Yet somwhat ye be lyke In some of their condicions, And their false sedycions, And their dealyng double, 200 And their weywarde trouble: But yet they were bolde, And manly manyfolde, Their enemyes to assayle In playn felde and battayle; But ye and your hoost, Full of bragge and boost, And full of waste wynde, Howe ye wyll beres bynde, And the deuill downe dynge, 210 Yet ye dare do nothynge, But lepe away lyke frogges, And hyde you vnder logges, Lyke pygges and lyke hogges, And lyke maungy dogges. What an army were ye? Or what actyuyte Is in you, beggers braules, Full of scabbes and scaules, Of vermyne and of lyce, 220 And of all maner vyce? Syr duke, nay, syr ducke, Syr drake of the lake, sir ducke Of the donghyll, for small lucke Ye haue in feates of warre; Ye make nought, but ye marre; Ye are a fals entrusar, And a fals abusar, And an vntrewe knyght; Thou hast to lytell myght 230 Agaynst Englande to fyght; Thou art a graceles wyght To put thy selfe to flyght: A vengeaunce and dispight On thé must nedes lyght, That durst nat byde the sight Of my lorde amrell, Of chiualry the well, Of knighthode the floure In euery marciall shoure, 240 The noble Erle of Surrey, That put thé in suche fray; Thou durst no felde derayne, Nor no batayle[261] mayntayne Against our st[r]onge captaine, But thou ran home agayne, For feare thou shoulde be slayne, Lyke a Scottyshe keteryng, That durst abyde no reknyng; Thy hert wolde nat serue thé: 250 The fynde of hell mot sterue thé! No man hath harde Of suche a cowarde, And such a mad ymage Caried in a cage, As it were a cotage; Or of suche a mawment Caryed in a tent; In a tent! nay, nay, But in a mountayne gay, 260 Lyke a great hill For a wyndmil, Therin to couche styll, That no man hym kyll; As it were a gote In a shepe cote, About hym a parke Of a madde warke, Men call it a toyle; Therin, lyke a royle, 270 Sir Dunkan, ye dared, And thus ye prepared Youre carkas to kepe, Lyke a sely shepe, A shepe of Cottyswolde, From rayne and from colde, And from raynning of rappes, And suche after clappes; Thus in your cowardly castell Ye decte you to dwell: 280 Suche a captayne of hors,[262] It made no great fors If that ye had tane Your last deedly bane With a gon stone, To make you to grone. But hyde thé, sir Topias, Nowe into the castell of Bas, And lurke there, lyke an as, With some Scotyshe [l]as, 290 With dugges, dugges, dugges: I shrewe thy Scottishe lugges, Thy munpynnys, and thy crag, For thou can not but brag, Lyke a Scottyshe hag: Adue nowe, sir Wrig wrag, Adue, sir Dalyrag! Thy mellyng is but mockyng; Thou mayst giue vp thy cocking, Gyue it vp, and cry creke, 300 Lyke an huddypeke. Wherto shuld I more speke Of suche a farly freke, Of suche an horne keke, Of suche an bolde captayne, That dare nat turne agayne, Nor durst nat crak a worde, Nor durst nat drawe his swerde Agaynst the Lyon White, But ran away quyte? 310 He ran away by nyght, In the owle flyght, Lyke a cowarde knyght. Adue, cowarde, adue, Fals knight, and mooste vntrue! I render thé, fals rebelle, To the flingande fende of helle. Harke yet, sir duke, a worde, In ernest or in borde: What, haue ye, villayn, forged, 320 And virulently dysgorged, As though ye wolde parbrake, Your auauns to make, With wordes enbosed, Vngraciously engrosed, Howe ye wyll vndertake Our royall kyng to make His owne realme to forsake? Suche lewde langage ye spake. Sir Dunkan, in the deuill waye, 330 Be well ware what ye say: Ye saye that he and ye,— Whyche he and ye? let se; Ye meane Fraunces, French kyng, Shulde bring about that thing. I say, thou lewde lurdayne, That neyther of you twayne So hardy nor so bolde His countenaunce to beholde: If our moost royall Harry 340 Lyst with you to varry, Full soone ye should miscary, For ye durst nat tarry With hym to stryue a stownde; If he on you but frounde, Nat for a thousande pounde[263] Ye durst byde on the grounde, Ye wolde ryn away rounde, And cowardly tourne your backes, For all your comly crackes, 350 And, for feare par case To loke hym in the face, Ye wolde defoyle the place, And ryn your way apace. Thoughe I trym you thys trace With Englyshe somwhat base, Yet, _saue[264] voster grace_, Therby I shall purchace No displesaunt rewarde, If ye wele can regarde 360 Your cankarde cowardnesse And your shamfull doublenesse. Are ye nat frantyke madde, And wretchedly bestadde, To rayle agaynst his grace, That shall bring you full bace, And set you in suche case, That bytwene you twayne There shalbe drawen a trayne That shalbe to your payne? 370 To flye ye shalbe fayne, And neuer tourne agayne. What, wold Fraunces, our friar, Be suche a false lyar, So madde a cordylar, So madde a murmurar? Ye muse somwhat to far; All out of ioynt ye iar: God let you neuer thriue! Wene ye, daucockes, to driue 380 Our kyng out of his reme? Ge heme, ranke Scot, ge heme, With fonde Fraunces, French kyng: Our mayster shall you brynge I trust, to lowe estate, And mate you with chekmate. Your braynes are ydell; It is time for you to brydell, And pype in a quibyble; For it is impossible 390 For you to bring about, Our kyng for to dryue out Of this his realme royall And lande imperiall; So noble a prince as he In all actyuite Of hardy merciall actes, Fortunate in all his faytes.[265] And nowe I wyll me dresse His valiaunce to expresse, 400 Though insufficient am I His grace to magnify And laude equiualently; Howe be it, loyally, After myne allegyaunce, My pen I will auaunce To extoll his noble grace, In spyght of thy cowardes face, In spyght of Kyng Fraunces, Deuoyde of all nobles, 410 Deuoyde of good corage, Deuoyde of wysdome sage, Mad, frantyke, and sauage; Thus he dothe disparage His blode with fonde dotage. A prince to play the page It is a rechelesse rage, And a lunatyke ouerage. What though my stile be rude? With trouthe it is ennewde: 420 Trouth ought to be rescude, Trouthe should nat be subdude. But nowe will I expounde What noblenesse dothe abounde, And what honour is founde, And what vertues be resydent In our royall regent, Our perelesse president, Our kyng most excellent: In merciall prowes 430 Lyke vnto Hercules; In prudence and wysdom Lyke vnto Salamon; In his goodly person Lyke vnto Absolon; In loyalte and foy Lyke to Ector of Troy; And his glory to incres, Lyke to Scipiades; In royal mageste 440 Lyke unto Ptholome, Lyke to Duke Iosue, And the valiaunt Machube; That if I wolde reporte All the roiall sorte Of his nobilyte, His magnanymyte, His animosite, His frugalite,[266] His lyberalite, 450 His affabilite, His humanyte, His stabilite, His humilite, His benignite, His royall dignyte, My lernyng is to small For to recount them all. What losels than are ye, Lyke cowardes as ye be, 460 To rayle on his astate, With wordes inordinate! He rules his cominalte With all benignite; His noble baronage, He putteth them in corage To exployte dedes of armys, To the domage and harmys Of suche as be his foos; Where euer he rydes or goos, 470 His subiectes he dothe supporte, Maintayne them with comforte Of his moste princely porte, As all men can reporte. Than ye be a knappishe sorte, _Et faitez a luy grant torte_, With your enbosed iawes To rayle on hym lyke dawes; The fende scrache out your mawes! All his subiectes and he 480 Moost louyngly agre With hole hart and true mynde, They fynde his grace so kynde; Wherwith he dothe them bynde At all houres to be redy With hym to lyue and dye, And to spende[267] their hart blode, Their bodyes and their gode, With hym in all dystresse, Alway in redynesse 490 To assyst his noble grace; In spyght of thy cowardes face, Moost false attaynted traytour, And false forsworne faytour. Auaunte, cowarde recrayed! Thy pride shalbe alayd; With sir Fraunces of Fraunce We shall pype you a daunce, Shall tourne you to myschauns. I rede you, loke about; 500 For ye shalbe driuen out Of your lande in shorte space: We will so folowe in the chace, That ye shall haue no grace For to tourne your face; And thus, Sainct George to borowe, Ye shall haue shame and sorowe.

_Lenuoy._

Go, lytell quayre, quickly; Shew them that shall you rede, How that ye are lykely 510 Ouer all the worlde[268] to sprede. The fals Scottes for dred, With the Duke of Albany, Beside the water of Twede They fledde full cowardly. Though your Englishe be rude, Barreyne of eloquence, Yet, breuely to conclude, Grounded is your sentence On trouthe, vnder defence 520 Of all trewe Englyshemen, This mater to credence That I wrate with my pen.

SKELTON LAUREAT, OBSEQUIOUS ET LOYALL.[269]

TO MY LORDE CARDYNALS RIGHT NOBLE GRACE, &c.

_Lenuoy._

Go, lytell quayre, apace, In moost humble wyse, Before his noble grace, That caused you to deuise This lytel enterprise; And hym moost lowly pray, In his mynde to comprise Those wordes his grace dyd saye Of an ammas gray.

_Ie foy enterment en sa bone grace._

[257] _Howe the douty Duke of Albany, &c._] From Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568.

[258] _so_] Qy. “sore?”

[259] _thousande_] Ed. “thausande.”

[260] _thy dogge_] Qy. “thé, dogge?” but see notes.

[261] _Nor no batayle, &c._] The Editor of 1736 chose to give this passage thus;

“Nor _a_ batayle mayntayne _With our_ stronge captayne _For you_ ran,” &c.

[262] _hors_] Ed. “fors.”

[263] _pounde_] Ed. “pouned.”

[264] _saue_] Ed. “_saua_.”

[265] _faytes_] Qy. “factes?”

[266] _frugalite_] Ed. “fragalite.”

[267] _And to spende, &c._] This line and the next transposed in ed.

[268] _worlde_] Ed. “worlds.”

[269] _Skelton Laureat, obsequious et loyall_] Perhaps these words are a portion of the superscription to the _Lenuoy_ which follows. The _Lenuoy_ itself does not, I apprehend, belong to the poem on the Duke of Albany. See _Account of Skelton, &c._

NOTES TO VOLUME I.

OF THE DEATH OF THE NOBLE PRINCE, KYNGE EDWARDE THE FORTH.

Page 1. “Indeed if he well weighed that Epitaph of King Edward the fourth, made by Skelton, which I find inserted amongst the vnprinted Workes of Lydgate, he would be more modest in this kinde.” _Qvaternio_, 1633, p. 239, by Nash, who cites a considerable portion of this poem from a MS.—Lydgate could not have been alive at the period of Edward’s decease: see Warton’s _Hist. of E.P._ ii. 51. ed. 4to. (note), Ritson’s _Bibl. Poet., &c._

Edward the Fourth died April 9th, 1483, in the 41st year of his age and the 23d of his reign: see Sir H. Nicolas’s _Chron. of Hist._ pp. 325, 349, sec. ed. These lines were probably composed soon after the king’s death—_per Skeltonidem laureatum_ having been subsequently added to the title.

v. 8. _lykynge_] i. e. joy, pleasure.

Page 2. v. 22. _a chery fayre_] If this is to be understood as _cherry-fair_ (which I think doubtful), the line ought to be pointed,

“Not certayne, but as a chery fayre, full of wo.”

The first of the following parallel passages is cited by Richardson in his _Dict._ under _Cherry_ (as also from the same work of Gower,

“And that endureth but a throwe, Right as it were a _cherie feste_.”

B. vi. fol. cxxxiii. ed. 1554).

and Mr. Halliwell has obligingly forwarded to me a letter from one of his friends, who states that “cherry-wakes or _cherry-fairs_ used not long since to be held in Worcestershire on Sunday-evenings after divine service, and that in his own village there were three in the season, one for the early cherries, and two others for those of later growth.”

“For all is but _a cherie feire_ This worldes good, so as thei tell.”

Gower’s _Conf. Am._, Prol. fol. 3. ed. 1554.

“This worlde ys but _a chyrye feyre_, whan ȝe be heyest ȝe mowe aslake.”

Lydgate’s verses entitled _Make Amendes_,—_MS. Cott. Calig._ A ii. fol. 67.

“Reuoluyng als this liif _a chere fayre_ To loke how sone she deyde the fayrist wight.”

_Poems_ by C. Duke of Orleans,—_MS. Harl._ 682. fol. 42.

“Thys werld hyt turnys euyn as a whele, All day be day hyt wyl enpayre, And so, sone, thys worldys wele, Hyt faryth but as _a chery fare_.”

_How the wise man taught his son_,—_Pieces of An. Pop. Poetry_, p. 90. ed. Ritson.

Page 2. v. 28. _to contribute Fraunce_] i. e. to take tribute of France. In 1475 Edward withdrew from France with his army on condition that Louis should pay him immediately 75 thousand crowns, settle on him an annuity for life of 50 thousand more, &c. See Lingard’s _Hist. of Engl._ v. 303. ed. 8vo.

v. 35. _as who sayth_] A not unfrequent expression in our early poetry, equivalent to—as one may say, as the saying is.

Page 3. v. 37. _I se wyll, they leve that doble my ȝeris_] i. e. I see well, that they live that double my years.

v. 38. _This dealid this world_] i. e. Thus dealed this world. Skelton elsewhere, like many of our old poets, uses _this_ for _thus_; as in his _Ware the Hauke_;

“Where Christis precious blode Dayly offred is, To be poluted _this_.”

v. 179. vol. i. 161.

v. 40. _Had I wyst_] i. e. Had I known,—the exclamation of one who repents of a thing done unadvisedly. It is very common in our early poetry. In _The Paradyse of daynty deuises_, 1576, the second copy of verses is entitled _Beware of had I wyst_.

v. 52. _occupy_] i. e. possess,—or, rather, use: “Surgyons _occupy_ oyntmentes, &c., Vulnarii medici _vtuntur_,” &c. Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. I. vi. ed. 1530.

v. 53. _I made the Tower stronge_] “Edward iv ... fortified the Tower, and _made it strong_.” Stow’s _Survey_, B. i. 79. ed. 1720.

v. 54. _I purchased Tetersall_] I have not found elsewhere any mention of Edward the Fourth having possessed Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire. “It does not appear into whose hands the Tattershall estate fell after the death of the Lord Treasurer Cromwell [in 1455], until the year 1487, when Henry VII. granted the manor to his mother Margaret Countess of Richmond,” &c. _Hist. of the County of Lincoln_, ii. 73.

v. 55. _I amendid Douer_] “K. Edw. iv., by the advice of Lord Cobham, expended 10,000_l._ in repairing and fortifying the several works, and beautifying the apartments in it [Dover Castle].” Hasted’s _Hist. of Kent_, iv. 63.

Page 3. v. 56. _And London I prouoked to fortify the wall_]—_prouoked_, i. e. incited, caused.—“In the Seventeenth of Edward iv., Ralph Josceline, Maior, caused part of the Wall about the City to be repaired, to wit, between Aldgate and Aldersgate,” &c. Stow’s _Survey_, B. I. 10. ed. 1720.

v. 57. _I made Notingam a place full royall_] Leland, describing Nottingham Castle, says; “But the moste bewtifullest Part and gallant Building for lodgyng is on the Northe side, wher Edward the 4. began a right sumptuus pece of Stone Work, of the which he clerely finichid one excellent goodly Toure of 3. Hightes yn Building, and brought up the other Part likewise from the Foundation with Stone and mervelus fair cumpacid Windoes to layyng of the first soyle for Chambers and ther lefte.” _Itin._ i. 107. ed. 1770.

v. 58. _Wyndsore_] “The present magnificent fabrick [St. George’s Chapel at Windsor], which exhibits one of the most beautiful specimens in this or any other kingdom, of that richly ornamented species of architecture, which prevailed towards the close of the fifteenth and the commencement of the 16th century, was begun by King Edward IV., who having found it necessary to take down the old chapel on account of its decayed state, resolved to build another on the same site, upon a larger scale, and committed the superintendence of the building to Richard Beauchamp, bishop of Salisbury. The work was not completed till the reign of King Henry VIII.,” &c. Lysons’s _Berkshire_, p. 424: see too p. 468 of the same volume.—An account of the manors, &c., granted by Edward to Windsor College, will be found in Pote’s _Hist. of Wind. Castle_, p. 107.

—— _Eltam_] “K. Edw. iv. repaired this house [Eltham Palace] with much cost, and inclosed Horne-Park,” &c. Hasted’s _Hist. of Kent_, i. 51.

Page 4. v. 64. _solas_] i. e. sport, amusement.

v. 66. _Lady Bes_] Edward married, May 1st, 1464, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, widow of Sir John Grey, and daughter of Wydevile Lord Rivers by Jacquetta (or Jacqueline) Duchess of Bedford.

v. 70. _But Windsore alone, now I haue no mo_]—_mo_, i. e. more.—“He [Edward IV.] lies buried at Windsor, in the new Chappel (whose Foundation himself had laid, being all the Works of Piety by him left) under a Monument of Steel, polish’d and gilt, [iron gilt—see Lysons’s _Berkshire_, p. 210.], representing a Pair of Gates, betwixt Two Towers, all of curious transparent Workmanship after the Gothick Manner, which is placed in the North-Arch, faced through with Touch-Stone, near to the High-Altar.” Sandford’s _Geneal. Hist._ p. 413. ed. 1707.

Page 4. v. 73.

_Why should a man be proude or presume hye?_ _Sainct Bernard therof nobly doth trete,_ _Seyth a man is but a sacke of stercorry,_ _And shall returne vnto wormis mete._ _Why, what cam of Alexander the greate?_ _Or els of stronge Sampson, who can tell?_ _Were not wormes ordeyned theyr flesh to frete?_ _And of Salomon, that was of wyt the well?_ _Absolon profferyd his heare for to sell,_ _Yet for al his bewte wormys ete him also_]

—_stercorry_, i. e. dung: _frete_, i. e. eat, devour: _heare_, i. e. hair.—In cap. iii. of _Meditationes piissimæ de cognitione humanæ conditionis_, a piece attributed to Saint Bernard, we find, “_Nihil aliud est homo, quam_ sperma fœtidum, _saccus stercorum, cibus vermium.... Cur ergo superbis homo.... Quid superbis_ pulvis et cinis,” &c. Bernardi _Opp._ ii. 335-36. ed. 1719. In a _Rythmus de contemptu mundi_, attributed to the same saint, are these lines;

“Dic _ubi Salomon_, olim tam nobilis? Vel _ubi Samson_ est, dux invincibilis? Vel _pulcher Absalon, vultu mirabilis?_ ... _O esca vermium_! O massa pulveris! O roris vanitas, _cur sic extolleris?_”

_Opp._ ii. 913-14. ed. 1719.

(This _Rythmus_ is printed by Mr. Wright among _The Latin Poems attributed to Walter Mapes_, p. 147.) So also Lydgate in a poem on the mutability of human affairs;

“And _wher is Salomon_ moost soueryn of konnynge, Richest of bildyng, of tresour incomparable? Face of _Absolon_ moost fair, moost amyable? ... And _wher is Alisaundir_ that conqueryd al?”

_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 4, 5.

—_of wyt the well_: so in _Cæsar Augustus_;

“_Of witt_ art thou _the welle_.”—_Townely Mysteries_, p. 68.

v. 85. _I haue played my pageyond_] i. e. I have played my pageant,—my part on the stage of life. Compare

“Theyr _pageandes_ are past And ours wasteth fast Nothynge dothe aye last But the grace of God.”

Feylde’s _Contrav. bytwene a louer and a Iaye_, sig. B iii. n. d. 4to.

“_Playis heir thair padyanis_, syne gois to graif.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, i. 213. ed. Laing.

“To playe this parte or _padgeant_.” Palsgrave’s _Acolastus_, 1540, sig. S.—The word _pageant_ was originally applied to the temporary erections (sometimes placed upon wheels) on which miracle-plays were exhibited, afterwards to the exhibition itself. See Sharp’s _Diss. on Coventry Pag. and Myst._, p. 2; Collier’s _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet._, ii. 151.

Page 4. v. 86. _yeld_] i. e. eld, age.

Page 5. v. 87. _This_] i. e. Thus: see note on v. 38.

SKELTON LAUREATUS LIBELLUM SUUM, &c.

Page 6. v. 3. _leonis_] See note on v. 109 of next poem.

VPON THE DOLOUR[U]S DETHE AND MUCHE LAMENTABLE CHAUNCE OF THE MOST HONORABLE ERLE OF NORTHUMBERLANDE.

This elegy must have been written soon after the earl’s murder: see v. 162.—“The subject of this poem ... is the death of Henry Percy, fourth earl of Northumberland, who fell a victim to the avarice of Henry vii. In 1489 the parliament had granted the king a subsidy for carrying on the war in Bretagne. This tax was found so heavy in the North, that the whole country was in a flame. The E. of Northumberland, then lord lieutenant for Yorkshire, wrote to inform the king of the discontent, and praying an abatement. But nothing is so unrelenting as avarice: the king wrote back that not a penny should be abated. This message being delivered by the earl with too little caution, the populace rose, and, supposing him to be the promoter of their calamity, broke into his house, and murdered him, with several of his attendants, who yet are charged by Skelton with being backward in their duty on this occasion. This melancholy event happened at the earl’s seat at Cocklodge, near Thirske, in Yorkshire, April 28, 1489. See Lord Bacon, &c. If the reader does not find much poetical merit in this old poem (which yet is one of Skelton’s best [?]), he will see a striking picture of the state and magnificence kept up by our ancient nobility during the feudal times. This great earl is described here as having, among his menial servants, KNIGHTS, SQUIRES, and even BARONS: see v. 32, 183, &c., which, however different from modern manners, was formerly not unusual with our greater Barons, whose castles had all the splendour and offices of a royal court, before the Laws against Retainers abridged and limited the number of their attendants.” PERCY.

Page 6. v. 4. _Of the bloud royall descending nobelly_] “The mother of Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, was Mary daughter to Henry E. of Lancaster, whose father Edmond was second son of K. Henry iii. The mother and wife of the second Earl of Northumberland were both lineal descendants of K. Edward iii. The Percys also were lineally descended from the Emperour Charlemagne and the ancient Kings of France, by his ancestor Josceline de Lovain (son of Godfrey Duke of Brabant), who took the name of Percy on marrying the heiress of that house in the reign of Hen. ii. Vid. Camdeni Britan., Edmondson, &c.” PERCY.

v. 6. _again_] i. e. against.

Page 7. v. 14. _Elyconys_] i. e. Helicon’s.

v. 16. _astate_] i. e. estate, high rank.

v. 20. _nobles_] i. e. nobless, nobleness.

v. 21. _dites_] i. e. ditties.

v. 24. _hastarddis_] “i. e. perhaps, hasty, rash fellows.” PERCY.—Jamieson gives “_Hastard_. Irascible.” _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._

—— _tene_] i. e. wrath.

v. 26. _Confetered_] i. e. Confederated.

v. 27. _slee_] i. e. slay.

v. 30. _ken_] i. e. know.

v. 34. _karlis of kind_] i. e. churls by nature.

v. 35. _slo_] i. e. slay.

Page 8. v. 40. _bode_] i. e. abode.

v. 41. _glose_] “i. e. set a false gloss or colour.” PERCY.

v. 43. _redouted_] i. e. dreaded.

v. 45. _great estates_] i. e. persons of great estate or rank.

—— _lowted_] i. e. bowed, made obeisance.

v. 46. _mayny_] i. e. train, company, set.

v. 48. _paues_] i. e. shield (properly a large shield covering the body).

v. 49. _mot_] i. e. may.

v. 51. _fyll_] i. e. fell.

v. 53. _agayne_] i. e. against.

v. 59. _worshyp_] i. e. honour, respectability.

v. 62. _againe_] i. e. against (and so in the next line).

v. 63. _slee_] i. e. slay.

Page 9. v. 71. _fals packing_] i. e. false dealing (_packing_ is—iniquitous combination, collusion, for evil purposes, for deceiving, &c.).

v. 73. _occupied_] i. e. used: see note, p. 86, v. 52.

—— _shilde_] i. e. shield.

v. 78. _renyed_] i. e. refused.

v. 81. _buskt them_] “i. e. prepared themselves, made themselves ready.” PERCY. Rather,—hied.

Page 9. v. 81. _bushment_] i. e. ambushment.

—— _baile_] i. e. sorrow, trouble.

v. 82. _Againe_] i. e. Against.

—— _wring_] “i. e. contend with violence.” PERCY.

v. 84. _forsed_] i. e. regarded.

v. 87. _Presed_] i. e. Pressed.

v. 88. _faught them agagne_] i. e. fought against them.

Page 10. v. 96. _whose_] i. e. whoso.

v. 98. _sort_] i. e. set, band.

v. 100. _wode_] i. e. frantic, wild.

v. 102. _gode_] i. e. good.

v. 106. _spylt_] i. e. destroyed.

v. 109. _The myghty lyon_] “Alluding to his crest and supporters.” PERCY.

—— _doutted_] i. e. dreaded.

v. 115. _shoke_] i. e. shook.

Page 11. v. 118. _mysuryd_] “i. e. misused, applied to a bad purpose.” PERCY.

v. 123. _sleest_] i. e. slayest.

v. 125. _enharpit of mortall drede_] “i. e. hooked, or edged with mortal dread.” PERCY.

v. 126. _kit_] i. e. cut.

v. 128. _aureat_] i. e. golden, excellent.

—— _ellumynynge_] i. e. embellishing.

v. 131. _fuyson_] i. e. abundance.

v. 134. _Paregall_] i. e. Equal (thoroughly equal).

v. 135. _Surmountinge_] i. e. Surpassing.

v. 136. _reporte me_] i. e. refer.

v. 142. _enkankered_] i. e. corroded.

v. 143. _worshiply_] i. e. honourably.

v. 145. _supprised_] i. e. overpowered, smitten.

—— _lust_] i. e. liking, desire.

Page 12. v. 151. _Tretory_] i. e. Traitory, treachery.

v. 152. _holl_] i. e. whole.

v. 154. _sle_] i. e. slay.

v. 155. _hole quere_] i. e. whole quire.

v. 160. _holy_] i. e. wholly.

v. 162. _yonge lyon_] See note on v. 109. The fifth Earl of Northumberland was only eleven years old at his father’s death.

v. 166. _Agayn_] i. e. Against.

v. 172. _faytors_] “i. e. deceivers, dissemblers.” PERCY.—“_Faytoure_, Fictor, Simulator.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

Page 12. v. 176. _chere_] i. e. countenance, or (as it may mean here) spirit.

Page 13. v. 179. _Algife_] i. e. Although.

—— _thorow saught_] i. e. sought through.

v. 181. _complayne_] i. e. lament for.

v. 186. _worshyply_] i. e. honourably.

v. 195. _finaunce_] i. e. fine, forfeiture.

v. 196. _from the fendys pray_] “i. e. from being the prey of the fiends.” PERCY.

v. 199. _eterminable_] i. e. interminable.

Page 14. v. 212. _hole sorte_] i. e. whole company.

v. 213. _mot_] i. e. may.

—— _ad magistrum Rukshaw_] The person here addressed was perhaps “William Rowkshaw, priest,” by whom a letter, dated from the Gilbertine priory of Watton in the east riding of Yorkshire, is printed among the _Plumpton Correspondence_, p. 82. Camd. Soc. ed.

AGAYNSTE A COMELY COYSTROWNE, THAT CURYOWSLY CHAWNTYD, AND CURRYSHLY COWNTRED, &c.

Page 15. _Coystrowne_ (which Skelton uses again in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c., v. 171. vol. ii. 73., and has Latinized in his _Speke, Parot_, v. 125. vol. ii. 7.) is written by Chaucer _quistron_;

“This God of Loue of his fashion Was like no knaue ne _quistron_, [_Ne resembloit pas un garçon_].”

_Rom. of the Rose_, fol. 113,—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

Urry renders it—a beggar (Fr. _questeur_); but Tyrwhitt observes, “I rather believe it signifies a scullion, _un garçon de cuisine_.” _Gloss. to C.T._—Douce says that Tyrwhitt’s explanation is correct, citing the words “_un quistron de sa cusyne_” from the prose French chronicle of the Brut of England, and Caxton’s version of them, “a knave of his kychen.” See _Gloss._ to Weber’s _Met. Rom._—Roquefort has “_Questron_: bâtard, enfant d’une prostituée.” _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._—In Scottish poetry _custroun_ occurs several times: see Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ and _Suppl._, where are various conjectures on the derivation and meaning of the word.

In _Prompt. Parv._ we find “_Cowntryn_ in songe. Occento.” ed. 1499. To _counter_ is properly—to sing an extemporaneous part upon the plain chant. Skelton uses the word in other places, and perhaps not always in its strict sense.

v. 4.

_In peuyshnes yet they snapper and fall,_ _Which men the viii dedly syn call_]

_Snapper_ is commonly explained—stumble; but Palsgrave makes a distinction between the words: “I _Snapper_ as a horse dothe that tryppeth, _Ie trippette_. My horse dyd nat _stumble_ he dyd but _snapper_ a lytell, _Mon cheual ne choppyt poynt il ne fit que tripetter vng petit._” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccclxv. (Table of Verbes.)—Compare the following lines;

“Not say y this but wel parcas that y In _pevisshe synne_ myght happe me ī aseven _Which is the viii synne_ to synnes vii.”

_Poems_ by C. Duke of Orleans,—_MS. Harl._ 682. fol. 145.

Page 15. v. 6. _prendergest_] A word (probably the origin of the surname _Prendergast_) which I am unable to explain.

v. 8. _bayardys bun_] i. e. horse-loaf, a sort of bread formerly much used for feeding horses: _bayard_ is, properly, a bay horse.

v. 9. _sumdele_] i. e. somewhat.

v. 11. _maunchet_] Properly, a small loaf of fine white bread.

—— _morell_] Properly, a dark-coloured, a black horse.

v. 13. _carp_] Which generally means—speak, talk,—is sometimes found applied to music, and here, perhaps, is equivalent to—make a noise.

v. 14. _Lo, Jak wold be a jentylman!_] So in Heywood’s _Dialogue_;

“_Iacke would be a gentleman_, if he could speake French.”

Sig. D 2,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.

See also Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 124. ed. 1768.

v. 15.

_Wyth, Hey, troly, loly, lo, whip here, Jak,_ _Alumbek sodyldym syllorym ben!_ _Curyowsly he can both counter and knak_ _Of Martyn Swart and all hys mery men_]

_Hey, troly, loly_, Ritson observes, is a chorus or burden “of vast antiquity;” see _Anc. Songs_, ii. 8. ed. 1829: _counter_; see note on title of the poem: _knak_, i. e. triflingly, or affectedly shew off his skill in singing about, &c. In _A very mery and Pythie Commedie, called The longer thou liuest, the more foole than art_, &c. _Newly compiled by W. Wager_, 4to. n. d. (written in the early part of Elizabeth’s reign), Moros sings, among other fragments of songs,

“_Martin swart and his man, sodledum sodledum,_ _Martin swart and his man, sodledum bell._”

Sig. A 3.

and in a comparatively recent drama we find;

“The Beare, the Boare, and Talbot with his tuskish white, Oh so sore that he would bite, The Talbot with his Tuskish white, _Soudledum Soudledum_; The Talbot with his Tuskish white, _Soudledum bell_. The Talbott with his Tuskish white, Oh so sore that he would bite, _Orebecke soudledum, sing orum bell_.”

_The Varietie_ (by the Duke of Newcastle), 1649. 12mo. p. 41.

Martin Swart, “a noble man in Germany, and in marciall feactes verye expert,” (Hall’s _Chron._ (_Henry VII._) fol. ix. ed. 1548), headed the auxiliaries sent by the Duchess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel, and fell, fighting with great valour, at the battle of Stoke.

Page 15. v. 19. _pohen_] i. e. pea-hen.

Page 16. v. 21. _An holy water clarke_] _Aquæbajulus_; an office generally mentioned with contempt.

v. 23. _solfyth to haute_] i. e. solfas too haughtily,—highly.

v. 25. _to sharp is hys my_] “The syllable Mi used in solmisation.” Hawkins’s _Hist. of Music_, iii. 41.

v. 26. _pyrdewy_] Compare _Hycke Scorner_;

“Than into loues daunce we were brought, That we played _the pyrdewy_.”

Sig. A v. ed. W. de Worde.

and _Colkelbie Sow_;

“Sum _Perdowy_ sum Trolly lolly.”

v. 303. Laing’s _Early Pop. Poet. of Scotland_.

v. 27. _besy_] i. e. busy.

v. 29. _a lewde lewte_] i. e. a vile lute.

—— _Roty bully joyse_] “The initial words of some old song.” Hawkins’s _Hist. of Music_, iii. 41.—In our author’s _Magnyfycence_, Courtly Abusyon exclaims,

“_Rutty bully_, ioly rutterkyn, heyda!”

v. 757, vol. i. 249.

Perhaps the same air is alluded to in _Colkelbie Sow_;

“Sum _Rusty bully_ with a bek.”

v. 320.—Laing’s _Early Pop. Poet. of Scotland_.

v. 33. _and he wyst_] i. e. if he knew.

v. 34. _sped_] i. e. versed.

—— _tauellys_] “_Tauell_ an instrument for a sylke woman to worke with.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxix. (Table of Subst.)

v. 36. _a payre of clauycordys_] i. e. a clavichord (so, formerly, an organ was called _a pair of organs_); of which see an engraving in Hawkins’s _Hist. of Music_, ii. 443.

v. 43. _jet_] Is explained in modern dictionaries—strut.—“I _Get_ I vse a proude countenaunce and pace in my goyng, _Ie braggue_.” “I _Iette_ with facyon and countenaunce to set forthe myselfe, _Ie braggue_.” “I Go a _iettynye_ or a ryottynge, _Ie raude_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fols. ccxlvi, cclxv, ccli. (Table of Verbes.)

Page 16. v. 47. _dumpys_] i. e. dumps.

v. 48. _prycke songe_] i. e. music _pricked_ or noted down; when opposed (see v. 54) to _plain song_, it meant counter-point, as distinguished from mere melody.

v. 49. _a larg and a long_] Characters in old music: one _large_ contained two _longs_, one _long_ two breves, &c.

v. 50. _iape_] i. e. jest, joke.

v. 51. _solayne_] i. e. sullen.

Page 17. v. 53. _fayne_] Palsgrave gives, “I _feyne_ in syngyng, _Ie chante a basse voyx_. We maye nat synge out we are to nere my lorde, but lette vs _fayne_ this songe,” &c. _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxxxv. (Table of Verbes.) But here, I apprehend, _fayne_ can only mean—sing in falsetto. Our author, in _The Bowge of Courte_, has

“His throte was clere, and lustely coude _fayne_.”

v. 233. vol. i. 39.

v. 55. _Thys docter Deuyas commensyd in a cart_] So again Skelton in his _Colyn Cloute_,

“Auaunt, syr _doctour Deuyas_!”

v. 1159. vol. i. 356.

Compare a much later writer: “What, a graue Doctor, a base Iohn Doleta the Almanack-maker, _Doctor Deuse-ace_ and Doctor Merryman?” Nash’s _Haue with you to Saffron-Walden_, 1596. sig. L 3.—_commensyd_, i. e. who took his degree.

v. 60. _ne_] i. e. nor.

v. 61. _wark_] i. e. work, business.

v. 62. _walk, and be nought!_] Equivalent to—away, and a mischief on you!

v. 68. _Take thys in worth_] “I _Take in worthe_ or I take in good worthe, _Ie prens en gré_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccclxxxiiii. (Table of Verbes.)

v. 69. _Wryten at Croydon by Crowland in the Clay_] Concerning this line, the Rev. Joseph Hunter has obligingly remarked to me: “I was in hope of finding ‘Croydon by Crowland in the Clay’ by looking in Ingulphus and his Continuator, where all the places are mentioned in which the Abbey of Crowland (Croyland) had estates. No such name as Croydon appears; and as it is not in Speed’s maps, I see little chance of meeting with the place so called by Skelton. It would be a very bold emendation to read,—

‘Wryten _in Hoyland_ by Crowland in the Clay:’

the parts of Lincolnshire in which Crowland is situated are called Holland or formerly Hoylande.”—To G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., author of the _Hist. of Croydon_, I am indebted for the following observations: “The passage has been a puzzle to me. The distance is very great between Crowland and Croydon in Cambridgeshire; and in Croydon in Surrey there is no such place as Crowland, though I can point out to you ‘the Clays’ there. The manor of Crou_ham_ is in the Surrey Croydon, but far away from ‘the Clays.’”

Page 18. _Qd_] i. e. Quod, quoth.

VPPON A DEEDMANS HED, &c.

_couenable_, i. e. befitting: _sentence_, i. e. sense, meaning. The pointing perhaps ought to be thus;—“_in Englysh couenable, in sentence commendable_,” &c.

v. 13. _shyderyd_] i. e. split, splintered.

v. 18. _fell_] i. e. skin.

Page 19. v. 24. _mell_] i. e. meddle.

v. 29.

_Oure days be datyd,_ _To be chekmatyd_ _With drawttys of deth_]

_Checkmate_, the term at chess when the king is made prisoner, and the game consequently finished, is often used figuratively by our early writers. With the present lines compare the following passages:

“_Wyth a draght_ he was _chek mate_.”

_Kyng Roberd of Cysylle_,—_MS. Harl._ 1701. fol. 93.

“But she had taken suche cold for the defaute of helpe that depe _draughtes of deth_ toke her, that nedes she must dye,” &c. _Morte d’Arthur_, B. viii. c. i. vol. i. 247. ed. Southey.

v. 36. _brynnyng_] i. e. burning.

v. 40. _rew_] i. e. have pity.

v. 43. _shylde_] i. e. shield.

v. 45. _dyne_] i. e. dun, dark.

v. 46. _boteles bale_] i. e. remediless sorrow.

v. 48. _fendys blake_] i. e. fiends black.

v. 54. _solace_] i. e. pleasure.

“WOMANHOD, WANTON, YE WANT,” &c.

Page 20. v. 4. _recheles_] i. e. reckless.

v. 6. _draffe_] i. e. refuse: in our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 171. vol. i. 100, it means hog-wash,—the coarse liquor, or brewers’ grains, with which swine are fed.

Page 20. v. 13. _pohen_] i. e. peahen.

v. 18. _auayle_] i. e. advantage, profit.

v. 19. _shayle_] Is several times used by Skelton. “_Schayler_ that gothe awrie with his fete _boytevx_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxi. (Table of Subst.) “I _Shayle_ as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his legges: _Ie vas eschays_. It is to late to beate him for it nowe, he shal _shayle_ as longe as he lyueth ... _il yra eschays_ ... I _Shayle_ with the fete, _Ientretaille des pieds_.” _Id._ fol. cccxlviii. (Table of Verbes). “_A shayle_ with yᵉ knees togyther and the fete outwarde: _A eschays_.” _Id._ fol. ccccxxxvii. (Table of Aduerbes).

v. 20. _pyggysny_] “The Romans,” says Tyrwhitt, “used _oculus_ as a term of endearment, and perhaps _piggesnie_, in vulgar language, only means _ocellus_; the eyes of that animal being remarkably small.” Note on Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, v. 3268.—In confirmation of this etymology, Todd (_Johnson’s Dict._ in v. _Pigsney_) has shewn that the word was occasionally written _pigs eie_.

v. 21. _quyte_] i. e. requite.

Page 21. v. 26. _doute_] i. e. fear.

v. 28. _all beshrewde_] i. e. altogether cursed.

v. 29. _that farly swete_] i. e. that strange sweet one.

v. 30. _wonnes_] i. e. dwells.

—— _Temmys strete_] i. e. Thames’ street.

DYUERS BALETTYS AND DYTIES, &c.

_solacyous_] i. e. pleasant, amusing.

Page 22. v. 2. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 4. _hardely_] i. e. boldly, with confidence.

v. 7. _kepe_] i. e. heed, regard, care.

v. 8.

_With ba, ba, ba, and bas, bas, bas,_ _She cheryshed hym both cheke and chyn_]

i. e. With kissings,—with, kiss me.

“Come ner my spouse, and let me _ba_ thy cheke.”

Chaucer’s _Wif of Bathes Prol._ v. 6015. ed. Tyr.

“I wald him chuk, _cheik and chyn_, and _cheris_ him so mekill.”

Dunbar’s tale of _The Tua Maryit Wemen and the Wedo_,—_Poems_, i. 71. ed. Laing.

v. 10. _wyst_] i. e. knew.

v. 11. _He had forgoten all dedely syn_] Compare our author’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_, v. 1080. vol. i. 84.

v. 13. _He trusted her payment, and lost all hys pray_] In the note below the text I inconsiderately queried if “_pray_” should be “pay.” Compare the last of Skelton’s _Poems against Garnesche_;

“And thus there ye _lost yower pray_ [i. e. prey].”

v. 61. vol. i. 128.

Page 22. v. 15. _rowth_] i. e. rough.

—— _waters wan_] Many passages of our early poetry might be cited where this epithet is applied to water: see note on _Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 887, where a wrong reading has misled H. Tooke and Richardson.

v. 18. _halsyd_] i. e. embraced (round the neck).

v. 19. _cought_] i. e. caught.

Page 23. v. 20. _lefe_] i. e. dear.

—— _rowtyth_] i. e. snoreth.

v. 21. _I wys_] i. e. truly, certainly (_i-wis_, adv.).

v. 23. _lust and lykyng_] “_Luste_ pleasure _delyt ... volupté._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlvi. (Table of Subst.): _lykyng_; see note, p. 85. v. 8. This somewhat pleonastic expression (used again more than once by Skelton) is not uncommon in our old writers: “Allas my swete sones thenne she sayd, for your sakes I shalle lese my _lykynge and lust_.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. xi. c. x. vol. ii. 174. ed. Southey. Nay, in the interlude of _The Worlde and the Chylde_, 1522, one of the characters bears the name of _Lust and Lykynge_.

v. 24. _blowboll_] “Blowbole _yuroigne_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xx. (Table of Subst.).

“To _blowe in a bowle_, and for to pill a platter,” &c.

Barclay’s _First Egloge_, sig. A iiii. ed. 1570.

“Farewell Peter _blowbowle_ I may wel call thee.”

_Enterlude of Kyng Daryus_, 1565. sig. B.

Among the contents of MS. Rawlinson marked C. 86., Bodl. Libr., is a ludicrous poem entitled _Colyne Blowbols Testament_: see Sir F. Madden’s Introd. to _Syr Gawayne_, &c. p. lxvi.

v. 25. _luggard_] i. e. heavy fellow, sluggard.

v. 28. _powle hachet_] So again in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_;

“_Powle hatchettis_, that prate wyll at euery ale pole.”

v. 613. vol. i. 386.

—— _bleryd thyne I_] (I—eye) i. e. imposed on, put a cheat on you.

_Qd._] i. e. Quod, quoth.

v. 4. _pastaunce_] i. e. pastime.

v. 7. _corage_] i. e. heart.

Page 23. v. 8. _fauorable_] i. e. well-favoured, beautiful.

v. 11. _Menolope_] In a “ballade” entitled _The IX. Ladies Woorthie_, printed among Chaucer’s _Workes_, the writer, after celebrating the eighth, “Quene Semiramys,” concludes thus;

“Also the ladie _Menalip_ thy sister deere, Whose marcial power no man coud withstand, Through the worlde was not found her pere, The famous duke Thes[e]us she had in hand, She chastised hym and [conquered] all his land, The proude Greekes mightely she did assaile, Ouercame and vanquished them in battaile.”

fol. 324. ed. 1602.

Compare Hawes;

“There was quene Phantasyle with penalape Quene helayne and quene _menalape_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. T iii. ed. 1555.

v. 16. _curtoyl_] i. e. curtal.

—— _set nowght by_] i. e. set no value, or regard, on.

Page 24. v. 17.

_Gup, morell, gup,_ _With jayst ye_——]

_morell_; see note, p. 93. v. 11.—_Gup_ and _jayst_ are exclamations applied to horses; compare our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 390. vol. i. 107., and his third _Poem against Garnesche_, v. 13. vol. i. 120. So too in _Camelles Rejoindre_ to Churchyarde (fol. broadside);

“Then _gip_ fellowe asse, then _jost_ fellowe lurden.”

v. 19. _corage_] i. e. heart, affection, inclination.

—— _haggys_] I know not in what sense Skelton uses this word: so again in his _Colyn Cloute_;

“I purpose to shake oute All my connyng bagge, Lyke a clerkely _hagge_.”

v. 50. vol. i. 313.

and in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c.;

“For thou can not but brag, Lyke a Scottyshe _hag_.”

v. 294. vol. ii. 76.

v. 20. _Haue in sergeaunt ferrour_] i. e. Bring in sergeant farrier. “_Ferrour._ Ferrarius. Ferrator.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. The title _sergeant_ belongs properly to certain of the king’s servants: so in an unpublished _Liber Excerpt. Temp. Hen. vii. et Hen. viii._ in the Chapter-house, Westminster;

(xix. of “Item payd to the _sergeant_ plummer and } Hen. vii.) bartram opon their indentures for grenewiche } _xxli._”

Page 24. v. 23. _keylyth_] i. e. (perhaps) cooleth—but I do not understand the passage.

v. 24. _neuer a dele_] i. e. not a bit.

v. 25. _wrenche_] “_Wrenche_, a wyle _gauche_, _ruse_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxvi. (Table of Subst.).

v. 30. _dyntes_] i. e. blows.

v. 31. _He bresyth theyr braynpannys_] i. e. He bruiseth, breaketh their skulls, heads: “_Pan_ of the hede. _Cranium._” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 32. _all to-brokyn_] A writer in the new ed. of Boucher’s _Gloss._ (in v. _All_) justly observes that it is a mistake to suppose that in such expressions _all_ is coupled with _to_, and that it becomes equivalent to _omnino_ from being thus conjoined. The augmentative _to_ is connected with the following word as a prefix, and often occurs without being preceded by _all_: so in our author’s _Bowge of Courte_,

“A rusty gallande, _to-ragged_ and _to-rente_.”—v. 345. vol. i. 43.

—— _clappys_] i. e. strokes.

v. 33. _to lepe the hach_] i. e. to run away:—(_hatch_—the fastened half or part of the door, the half-door).

“I pretende [i. e. intend] therefore _to leape ouer the hatche_.”

_The Triall of Treasure_, 1567. sig. E ii.

v. 34. _By theyr conusaunce knowing how they serue a wily py_] _Conusaunce_ is cognizance,—a badge worn by servants; _py_ is magpie: there seems to be some allusion to armorial bearings.

v. 36. _It can be no counsell that is cryed at the cros_] i. e. It can be no secret that is proclaimed at the market-place.

v. 38. _furst_] i. e. first.

—— _los_] May mean _loss_, but, rather, it would seem, “_Loos_ or bad name. Infamia.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 39. _warke_] i. e. work.

_Qd_] i. e. Quod, quoth.

Page 25. v. 3. _Corage wyth lust_] See notes, p. 98. v. 23., p. 99. v. 19: but the whole stanza is very obscure.

v. 7. _surmountyng_] i. e. surpassing.

v. 8. _Allectuary_] i. e. Electuary.

—— _arrectyd_] i. e. perhaps, considered sovereign; to _arrect_ is to impute: or it may simply mean—raised up; our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_ begins

“_Arectyng_ my syght towarde the zodyake.”—vol. i. 361.

—— _redres_] i. e. relieve, remedy.

v. 9. _axys_] i. e. fits, paroxysms.

“Yet I haue felt of the sicknesse through May Both hote and cold, and _axes_ euery day.”

Chaucer’s _Cuckow and Nightingale_,—_Workes_, fol. 316. ed. 1602.

“Ther comyth a _quarteyn_, seith in his gret _accesse_,” &c.

Lydgate’s verses _Against Self-love_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 8.

“Help _feuerous_ folk that tremble in ther _accesse_.”

Lydgate’s _Prayer to St. Leonard_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 114.

In some parts of England and Scotland _access_ is still used to denote the ague.—Lest any reader should think this note unnecessarily long, I may observe that in two recently published works the word “_axes_” is erroneously explained,—aches.

Page 25. v. 10. _Of thoughtfull hertys plungyd in dystres_] Skelton borrowed this line from Lydgate, whose _Lyf of our Lady_ begins

“O _thoughtful herte plungyd in distresse_.”

In the _Bibl. Poet._ p. 82, Ritson gives these words as the commencement of a poem by Lydgate, _Cott. Ap._ viii., not knowing that this reference is to a MS. of the _Lyf of our Lady_.—_Thoughtfull_ is anxious, heavy, sad.

“For _thought_ and woe pyteously wepynge.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. iv. sig. T v. ed. 1555.

v. 13. _Herber_] Warton appears to limit the signification of this word in old poetry to “an herbary for furnishing domestic medicines,” which, says he, “always made a part of our ancient gardens;” note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 231. ed. 4to. But Jamieson observes, that it would seem to be used for arbour by James I., _Kings Quair_, ii. 12, 13., and in the romance of _Sir Egeir_, v. 356. _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ (in v. _Herbere_). See also _The Flower and the Leaf_, and _The Complaint of the Black Knight_, by Chaucer.

v. 14. _lusty somer_] i. e. pleasant summer.

v. 16. _ruddys_] i. e. ruddy tints of the cheek, complexion.

v. 17. _Saphyre of sadnes_]—_sadnes_, i. e. steadiness, constancy:

“For hit is write and seide how _the safere_ _Doth token trowthe_.”

_Poems_ by C. Duke of Orleans,—_MS. Harl._ 682. fol. 44.

—— _enuayned with indy blew_] _enuayned_, i. e. enveined. “_Inde._ Fr., Azure-coloured.” Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss. to Chaucer’s Cant. Tales_. “Inde, _ynde_: couleur de bleu foncé, d’azur, _indicum_.” Roquefort’s _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ So again our author in his _Magnyfycence_;

“The streynes of her vaynes as asure _inde blewe_.”

v. 1571. vol. i. 276.

See too his _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 478. vol. i. 381. Compare Hawes;

“Lyke to a lady: for to be moost trewe She ware a fayre: and goodly garment Of moost fyne veluet: al of _Indy blewe_ With armynes powdred: bordred at the vent.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. K iiii. ed. 1555.

and Nevil, son of Lord Latimer, in a poem of great rarity;

“On the gates two scryptures I aspyed Theym for to rede my mynd than I applyed Wryten in gold and _indye blewe_ for folkes fortheraunce.”

_The Castell of pleasure_, sig. A v. 1518.

Chaucer has

“Of grasse and floures, _Inde_ and Pers.”

_Romaunt of the Rose_,—_Workes_, fol. 109. ed. 1602.

(monstrously explained in Urry’s ed. “Indian and Persian”): and Lydgate,

“Nor stonys al by nature, as I fynde, Be not saphires that shewethe _colour ynde_.”

_The Chorle and the Bird_,—_MS. Harl._ 116. fol. 150.

Sir John Mandeville says that the beak of the Phœnix “is coloured blew as _ynde_.” _Voiage and Travaile_, &c., p. 58. ed. 1725.

Page 25. v. 20. _Geyne_] i. e. Against.

———— _the emeraud comendable;_ _Relucent smaragd_]

_Emeraud_ (emerald) and _smaragd_ are generally considered as synonymous; but here Skelton makes a distinction between them. So too Drayton in his _Muses Elizium_, 1630. p. 78; and Chamberlayne in his _Pharonnida_, 1659. B. ii. c. 4. p. 150. And so R. Holme: “The _Emrauld_ is green.”—“The _Smaradge_ is of an excellent fresh green, far passing any Leaf.” _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. pp. 39, 41. James I. in his _Quair_ mentions

“The _panther_ like unto the _smaragdyne_.”

Chalmers’s _Poet. Rem. of Scot. Kings_, p. 85.

v. 22. _perspectyue_] Which generally signifies a glass to look through, seems here, from the context, to mean some sort of reflecting glass.

v. 23. _Illumynyd_] i. e. Adorned.

v. 26. _Gayne_] i. e. Against.

Page 25. v. 29. _Remorse_] Means commonly in early writers,—pity; but that sense is unsuited to the present passage: it seems to be used here for—remembrance, recollection.

—— _most goodlyhod_] i. e. perfect goodness.

v. 33. _praty_] i. e. pretty.

Page 26. v. 40. _mastres_] i. e. mistress.

v. 41. _nys_] i. e. ne is—is not.

v. 43. _more desyrous_] i. e. more desirable.

_Qd_] i. e. Quod, quoth.

v. 11. _rede_] i. e. advise.

v. 12. _fals poynt_] “This _fals poynt_ ... Hæc _fraus_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. s viii. ed. 1530.

v. 13. _fell_] i. e. skin.

Page 27. v. 15. _lesard_] In the Latin above, the corresponding word is _anguis_: long after Skelton’s time, the poor harmless lizard was reckoned venomous; so in Shakespeare’s _Third Part of Henry VI._, act ii. sc. 2., “_lizards’_ dreadful stings.”

v. 1. _rasyd_] i. e. torn, wounded. Skelton in his _Woffully Araid_ has

“See how a spere my hert dyd _race_.”

v. 45. vol. i. 142.

v. 3. _vaynys_ i. e. veins.

—— _blo_] i. e. livid. “_Blo_, blewe and grene coloured, as ones body is after a drie stroke, _iaunastre_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxiiii. (Table of Adiect.).

v. 5. _ouerthwart_] i. e. cross, perverse, adverse.

v. 7. _dyscure_] i. e. discover.

MANERLY MARGERY MYLK AND ALE.

Skelton mentions this piece among his works, in the _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1198. vol. i. 409. Sir John Hawkins, who printed it together with the music, says that it “appears to have been set by William Cornish of the Chapel Royal in the reign of Henry vii.” _Hist. of Music_, iii. 2.

Page 28. v. 1. _besherewe yow_] i. e. curse you,—confound you!

—— _be my fay_] i. e. by my faith.

v. 2. _This wanton clarkes be nyse all way_] i. e. These wanton scholars be always foolish, inclined to folly, to toyish tricks: compare our author’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_;

“Phyllyp, though he were _nyse_, In him it was no vyse,” &c.

v. 173. vol. i. 56.

Page 28. v. 3. _Avent_] i. e. Avaunt.

—— _popagay_] i. e. parrot.

v. 5. _Tully valy_] Or _Tilly vally_—an exclamation of contempt, the origin of which is doubtful.

v. 6. _Gup_] See note, p. 99. v. 17.

—— _Cristian Clowte_] Compare our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;

“He coud not syng himselfe therout But by the helpe of _Christyan Clout_.”

v. 880. vol. i. 345.

—— _Jak of the vale_] So our author in his _Magnyfycence_; “some iangelynge _Jacke of the vale_,” v. 260. vol. i. 234. Compare two pieces of a much later date;

“I am not now to tell a tale Of George a Greene, or _Jacke a Vale_.”

_The Odcombian Banquet_, 1611. sig. C 3.

“And they had leauer printen _Jacke a vale_ Or Clim o Clough,” &c.

J. Davies,—_Other Eglogues_ annexed to _The Shepheards Pipe_, 1614. sig. G 4.

v. 8. _Be_] i. e. By.

—— _praty pode_]—_praty_, i. e. pretty: _pode_, i. e., perhaps, toad. Compare Roy’s satire, _Rede me, and be nott wrothe_, &c.;

“A littell, _pratye_, foolysshe _poade_.”

_Harl. Miscell._ ix. 19. ed. Park.

v. 10. _Strawe, Jamys foder, ye play the fode_] The meaning of _Jamys foder_,—and whether “fode” is used here in the sense of—deceiver, one who feeds another with words (compare our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1719. vol. i. 281.),—I must leave the reader to determine.

v. 12. _bole_] i. e. (I suppose) bull.

v. 15. _I wiss_] i. e. truly, certainly (_i-wis_, adv.).

v. 17. _piggesnye_] See note, p. 97. v. 20.

v. 19. _Be_] i. e. By.

—— _hardely_] i. e. assuredly.

v. 20. _japed bodely_] See Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cclxv. (Table of Verbes); Puttenham’s _Arte of English Poesie_, B. iii. c. xxii. p. 212. ed. 1589; and the Prologue to the anonymous old play, _Grim the Collier of Croydon_.

Page 29. v. 27. _thought_] i. e. sadness, grief: see note, p. 101. v. 10.

THE BOWGE OF COURTE.

“It is a _bouge of courte_. _Ceremonia aulica_ est.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. s iii. ed. 1530. “_Bouche à Court._ _Budge-a-Court_, diet allowed at Court.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._ “The Kings Archers ... had _Bouch of Court_ (to wit, Meat and Drink) and great Wages of six Pence by the Day.” Stow’s _Survey_, B. vi. 49. ed. 1720.

“The poem called the BOUGE OF COURT, or the _Rewards of a Court_, is in the manner of a pageaunt, consisting of seven personifications. Here our author, in adopting the more grave and stately movement of the seven lined stanza, has shewn himself not always incapable of exhibiting allegorical imagery with spirit and dignity. But his comic vein predominates.” Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 347. ed. 4to.

“_Bouge of court_, a corruption of _bouche_, Fr. An allowance of meat and drink for the tables of the inferior officers, and others who were occasionally called to serve and entertain the court. Skelton has a kind of little drama called _Bouge of Court_, from the name of the _ship_ in which the dialogue takes place. It is a very severe satire, full of strong painting, and excellent poetry. The courtiers of Harry must have winced at it.” Gifford, note on Ben Jonson’s _Works_, vii. 428.

Page 30. v. 7. _to werre hym dyde dres_] i. e. did address, apply himself to war.

v. 15. _rede_] i. e. conceive, consider.

Page 31. v. 17. _aforce_] i. e. attempt.

v. 18. _dyscure_] i. e. discover.

v. 20. _illumyne_] i. e. embellish a subject.

v. 21. _Auysynge_] i. e. Advising.

v. 22. _he so_] i. e. who so.

v. 23. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge.

v. 30. _ne wyste_] i. e. knew not.

v. 31. _sore enwered_]—_enwered_ means simply—wearied. Richardson (_Dict._ in v. _En_) observes that “Skelton appears to have wantoned in such compounds.”

v. 33. _I me dreste_] i. e. I addressed, applied myself.

v. 36.

_Methoughte I sawe a shyppe, goodly of sayle,_ _Come saylynge forth into that hauen brood,_ _Her takelynge ryche and of hye apparayle_]

Of this passage Mr. Wordsworth has a recollection in one of his noble Sonnets;

“_A goodly Vessel_ did I then espy Come like a giant from a _haven broad_; And lustily along the bay she strode, _Her tackling rich, and of apparel high_.”

_Works_, iii. 34. ed. 1836.

Page 31. v. 39. _kyste_] i. e. cast.

v. 40. _what she had lode_] i. e. what she had been freighted with.

Page 32. v. 44. _prece_] i. e. press,—the throng.

v. 49. _hyghte_] i. e. is called.

v. 50. _estate_] i. e. high rank, dignity.

v. 54. _chaffre_] i. e. merchandise.

v. 58. _traues_] Means here a sort of low curtain or screen.—Hall, describing the preparations for combat between the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, tells us that the former, having entered the lists, “set hym doune in a chayer of grene veluet whiche was set in a _trauers_ of grene and blewe veluet,” &c.; and that the latter “satte doune in his chayer whiche was Crimosen Veluet, _cortened_ [curtained] aboute with white and redde Damaske.” _Chron._ (_Henry IV._) fol. iii. ed. 1548.—At a later period, curtains, which were used on the stage as substitutes for scenes, were called _traverses_. See also Singer’s note on Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_, p. 167. ed. 1827, and Sir H. Nicolas’s note on _Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York_, p. 259.

v. 60. _trone_] i. e. throne.

v. 61. _spere_] i. e. sphere.

v. 63. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge,—skill.

Page 33. v. 71. _prese_] i. e. press.

v. 72. _she trowed that I had eten sause_] Compare our author’s _Magnyfycence_;

“Ye haue _eten sauce, I trowe_, at the Taylors Hall.”

v. 1421. vol. i. 271.

v. 78. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 80. _glome_] i. e. glum,—sullen look, frown.

v. 82. _daynnously_] i. e. disdainfully.

—— _fro me she dyde fare_] i. e. from me she did go.

v. 83. _mased_] i. e. amazed, confounded.

v. 87. _Abasshe you not_] i. e. Be not abashed.

—— _hardely_] i. e. confidently.

v. 88. _Auaunce_] i. e. Advance.

v. 89. _chaffer_] i. e. merchandise.

v. 90. _I auyse you to speke, for ony drede_] i. e. I advise you to speak, notwithstanding any dread you may feel. Compare Lydgate;

“And _for_ al strengthe that gad yaf hym [Samson] before, Thei hym captived.”

_The prohemy of a mariage_, &c.,—_MS. Harl._ 372. fol. 48.

Page 33. v. 92. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

Page 34. v. 94. _And this an other_] i. e. And this is another reason.

v. 95. _not worth a bene_] _Bene_ (bean) is frequently used by our early poets to express any thing worthless:

“I yeue not of her harme _a bene_.”

Chaucer’s _Rom. of the Rose_,—_Workes_, fol. 137. ed. 1602.

v. 96. _lene_] i. e. lend, furnish with.

v. 100. _cheuysaunce_] i. e. achievement,—profit, gain.

v. 101. _nys_] i. e. ne is,—is not.

v. 106. _werne_] i. e. warn.

v. 107. _styreth_] i. e. steereth, directeth.

v. 108. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 114. _luste_] i. e. pleasure, liking.

Page 35. v. 117. _casseth_] “_Casser_ ... to _casse_, cassere, discharge, turne out of service, deprive of entertainment.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._

v. 120. _route_] i. e. company, crowd.

v. 122. _thronge_] i. e. thronged.

v. 134. _Fauell_] Our author in his _Magnyfycence_ has,

“My tonge is with _fauell_ forked and tyned.”

v. 737. vol. i. 249.

Some readers need not be told how _Fauel_ figures in _Pierce Plowman_. Ritson (_An. Pop. Poetry_, p. 77) explains the word by deceit, referring to the present passage of _The Bowge of Courte_; but Mason (note on Hoccleve’s _Poems_, p. 42) observes that here “_Favel_ and _Disceyte_ are distinct personages, though the latter (for the sake of rhyme,) is first called _Subtylte_,” and considers that Carpentier, in his Sup. to Du Cange, gives the truest explanation of _Favel_ by _Cajolerie_. See also _Supplement_ to Roquefort’s _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ in v. _Favelle_. The origin of the word, after all that has been written on it, seems still uncertain.

v. 137. _Mysdempte_] i. e. Misdeemed.

v. 138. _Haruy Hafter_] Eds., as already noticed, have “_Haruy_ Haster;” and in the fourth of Skelton’s _Poems against Garnesche_, v. 164. vol. i. 131, the MS. gives the name with the same error. Compare our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_;

“Hauell and Haruy _Hafter_.”

v. 94. vol. ii. 29.

and his _Magnyfycence_;

“Nowe, _benedicite_, ye wene I were some _hafter_.”

v. 259. vol. i. 233.

“Craftynge and _haftynge_ contryued is by me.”

v. 707. vol. i. 248.

“For to vse suche _haftynge_ and crafty wayes.”

v. 1698. vol. i. 280.

“And from crafters and _hafters_ I you forfende.”

v. 2485. vol. i. 307.

The sense in which Skelton employs these words is fully illustrated by the following passages of Hormanni _Vulgaria_, ed. 1530: “This was a subtyle and an _haftynge_ poynt. Astus fuit, et _versatilis ingenii_ argumentum. He is a _hafter_ of kynde. Est _versutiæ_ ingenitæ homo.” sig. N vi. “A flaterynge _hafter_ is soone espyed of a wyse man. Sedulus _captator_,” &c. sig. O ii. “There is nothynge more set by nowe than subtyle _hafters ... callidis_.” sig. O iii. “There is an _haftynge_ poynt, or a false subtylte. _Stellionatus crimen_ est.” sig. n iiii. “—— _haftynge ... dolus malus_.” sig. s viii.

Page 35. v. 138. _male_] i. e. bag, wallet, pouch.

Page 36. v. 143. _auaunce_] i. e. advance.

v. 144. _solace_] i. e. sport.

v. 149. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge.

v. 150. _Deynte to haue with vs suche one in store_] In Chaucer’s _Clerkes Tale_, v. 8988, Tyrwhitt explains (and rightly, I believe) “_it was deintee_”—it was a valuable thing. But both in the present passage, and in a subsequent stanza of the same poem—

“Trowest thou, dreuyll, I saye, thou gawdy knaue, That I haue _deynte_ to see thé cherysshed thus?”

v. 337—

“deynte” seems to be equivalent to—pleasure: compare

“Bycause that he hath ioye and great _deintye_ To reade in bokes of olde antiquitye.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_ (_Prologue_), sig. B i. ed. 1555.

“Adew, dolour, adew! my _daynte_ now begynis.”

Dunbar’s tale of _The Tua Maryit Wemen and the Wedo_,—_Poems_, i. 76. ed. Laing.

v. 154. _it is surmountynge_] i. e. it is surpassing, it excels.

v. 155. _ony_ i. e. any.

Page 37. v. 173. _lewde cok wattes_]—_lewde_, i. e. ignorant, vile. Compare our author’s third copy of verses _Against venemous tongues_;

“Than ye may commaunde me to gentil _Cok wat_.”—vol. i. 132.

and his _Magnyfycence_;

“What canest thou do but play _cocke wat_?”

v. 1206. vol. i. 264.

Is _cock wat_ only another form of _cockward_, i. e. cuckold? See _Arthur and the King of Cornwall_, p. 279,—_Syr Gawayne_, &c., edited by Sir F. Madden.

Page 37. v. 174. _hardely_] i. e. assuredly.

v. 175. _but no worde that I sayde_] i. e. but mention not a word that I said.

v. 180. _reboke_] i. e. belch, cast up.

“As grunting and drinking, _reboking_ vp agayne.”

Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 229. ed. 1570.

v. 181. _at a brayde_] i. e. at a start, at a turn, on a sudden, forthwith.

v. 183. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 184. _lete_] i. e. hinder.

v. 186. _Twyst_] i. e. Tush.

—— _ne reke_] i. e. reck not.

v. 187. _a soleyne freke_]—_soleyne_, i. e. sullen: _freke_ is here equivalent to—fellow. See Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v. _Freik_, for the various senses in which the word was used.

v. 189. _Ye_] i. e. Yea.

v. 191. _whom and ha_] i. e. hum and ha.

v. 193. _quoke_] i. e. quaked.

Page 38. v. 198. _commaunde_] i. e. communed, conversed.

—— _party space_] May mean—a short space; but (as I have noticed _ad loc._) “_party_” is probably a misprint for “_praty_” (pretty).

v. 199. _auowe_] i. e. vow.

“That hyr _auowe_ maad of chastyte.”

Lydgate’s _Lyf of our Lady_, sig. b i.

v. 210. _auyse_] i. e. advice.

v. 215. _shryue me_] i. e. confess myself, tell my mind.

v. 216. _plenarely_] i. e. fully.

v. 219. _dyscure_] i. e. discover.

v. 221. _with all my besy cure_] i. e. with all my busy care,—a common expression in our early poetry.

Page 39. v. 225. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 226. _all and some_] Another expression frequently used by our early poets. “All and some: _Tout entierement_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxlviii. (Table of Aduerbes).

v. 228. _he wolde be come_] i. e. he would go.

v. 231. _lyghte as lynde_] So in _Annunciacio_;

“A, what, I am _light as lynde_!”

_Towneley Myst._ p. 80.

and in Chaucer’s _Clerkes Tale_;

“Be ay of chere _as light as_ lefe on _linde_.”

v. 9087. ed. Tyr.

_Lynde_ is properly the linden or lime-tree,—used for a tree in general.

Page 39. v. 232. _a versynge boxe_] Does it mean—a dice-box?

v. 233. _fayne_] See note, p. 95. v. 53.

v. 234. _foxe_] i. e. fox-skin.

v. 235. _Sythe I am no thynge playne_] i. e. Since I, &c.—the commencement of some song.

v. 236. _pykynge_] i. e. picking, stealing.

—— _payne_] i. e. difficulty.

v. 239. _sadde_] i. e. grave, serious.

v. 243. _auowe_] See note on v. 199.

v. 245. _and ye wolde it reherse_] i. e. if you would recite it.

Page 40. v. 252. _Heue and how rombelow_] A chorus of high antiquity, (sung chiefly, it would seem, by sailors):

“They sprede theyr sayles as voyde of sorowe Forthe they rowed saynt George to borowe For ioye theyr trumpettes dyde they blowe And some songe _heue and howe rombelowe_.”

_Cocke Lorelles bote_, sig. C i.

“Synge _heaue and howe rombelowe_, trolle on away.”

Burden to the Ballad _On Thomas Lord Cromwell_,—Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._, ii. 64. ed. 1794.

Varied thus:

“Wit[h], _hey, howe, rumbelowe_.”

Skelton’s _Epitaphe_, &c., v. 61. vol. i. 171.

“They rowede hard, and sungge thertoo, With _heuelow and rumbeloo_.”

_Richard Coer de Lion_,—Weber’s _Met. Rom._ ii. 99.

“Maydens of Englande sore may ye morne For your lemmans ye haue loste at Bannockys borne, Wyth _heue a lowe_. What weneth the king of England So soone to haue wone Scotland, Wyth _rumbylowe_.”

Scottish Song on the Battle of Bannockburn,—Fabyan’s _Chron._, vol. ii. fol. 169. ed. 1559.

“Your maryners shall synge arowe _Hey how and rumby lowe_.”

_The Squyr of Lowe Degre_,—Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ iii. 179.

“I saw three ladies fair, singing _hey and how_, Upon yon ley land, hey: I saw three mariners, singing _rumbelow_, Upon yon sea-strand, hey.”

Song quoted _ibid._, iii. 353.

“Where were many shippes and maryners noyse with _hale & how_.”

_Morte d’Arthur_, B. vii. c. xv. vol. i. 209. ed. Southey.

“Hope, Calye, and Cardronow, Gathered out thick-fold, With _heigh, and how, rumbelow_, The young fools were full bold.”

_Peblis to the Play_,—Chalmers’s _Poet. Rem. of Scot. Kings_, p. 108.

“Robin Hood and Little John They are both gone to fair O! And we will go to the merry green wood, To see what they do there O! With _Hel-an-tow_ _And Rum-be-low_,” &c.

Cornish Song,—_Gent. Mag._ for Dec. 1790. vol. lx. (part sec.) 1100.

Among the songs enumerated in _The Complaynt of Scotland_ is “Sal i go vitht zou to _rumbelo_ fayr,” p. 101. ed. Leyden: and in _Hycke Scorner_ mention is made of

“the londe of _rumbelowe_ Thre myle out of hell.”

Sig. A vii. ed. W. de Worde.

Page 40. v. 252. _row the bote, Norman, rowe!_] A fragment of an old song, the origin of which is thus recorded by Fabyan: “In this. xxxii. yere [of King Henry the Sixth] Jhon Norman foresaid, vpon the morowe of Simon and Judes daie, thaccustomed day when the newe Maior vsed yerely to ride with greate pompe vnto westminster to take his charge, this Maior firste of all Maiors brake that auncient and olde continued custome, and was rowed thither by water, for the whiche yᵉ Watermen made of hym a roundell or song to his greate praise, the whiche began: _Rowe the bote Norman, rowe_ to thy lemman, and so forth with a long processe.” _Chron._ vol. ii. fol. 457. ed. 1559.

v. 253. _Prynces of yougthe can ye synge by rote?_] The meaning of this line seems to be—Can you sing by rote the song beginning, _Princess of youth_? Skelton, in his _Garlande of Laurell_, calls Lady Anne Dakers

“_Princes of yowth_, and flowre of goodly porte.”

v. 897. vol. i. 398.

Page 40. v. 254. _Or shall I sayle wyth you a felashyp assaye_] i. e., I suppose,—Or try, of good fellowship, (or, perhaps, together with me,) the song which commences _Shall I sail with you?_ Compare the quotation from _The Complaynt of Scotland_ in preceding page.

“Nowe, _of good felowshyp_, let me by thy dogge.”

Skelton’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1095. vol. i. 260.

“_Yng._ But yf thou wylt haue a song that is good I haue one of robynhode The best that euer was made.

_Hu._ Then _a feleshyp_ let vs here it.”

_Interlude of the iiii Elementes_, n. d. sig. E vii.

v. 259. _bobbe me on the noll_] i. e. beat me on the head.

v. 261. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge.

v. 262. _gete_] i. e. got.

v. 269. _wyste_] i. e. knew.

v. 275. _vnneth_] i. e. scarcely, not without difficulty.

Page 41. v. 276. _But I requyre you no worde that I saye_] i. e. But I beg you not to mention a word of what I say.

v. 277. _ony_] i. e. any.

v. 278. _agayne you_] i. e. against you, to your disadvantage.

—— _wetynge_] i. e. knowledge, intelligence.

v. 283. _wonderly besene_] i. e. of strange appearance, or array. “Well _bysene_: Bien _accoustré_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxlvi. (Table of Aduerbes).

v. 284. _hawte_] i. e. haughty.

v. 285. _scornnys_] i. e. scorns.

v. 286. _hode_] i. e. hood.

v. 287. _by Cockes blode_] i. e. by God’s blood (_Cock_ a corruption of _God_). “The Host’s oath in Lydgate,” says Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 349. ed. 4to. It occurs often in other writers.

v. 288. _bote_] i. e. bit.

v. 289. _His face was belymmed, as byes had him stounge_] i. e. His face was disfigured, as if bees had stung him.—In a fragment of Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces, MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 97, we find

“So that a _by_ myght close hem both two Vnder his wynges;”

where Wayland’s ed. (B. ii. leaf li.) has “a _Bee_.”

v. 290. _jape_] i. e. jest, joke.

Page 41. v. 294. _this comerous crabes hyghte_] i. e. (I suppose) this troublesome crab was called.—Warton (_Hist. of E. P._ ii. 350) cites, without the authority of any ed., “—— crab is _hyghte_.”

v. 297. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 298. _euyll apayed_] i. e. ill satisfied, ill pleased.

v. 301. _Dawes_] Equivalent to—simpleton; the _daw_ being reckoned a silly bird: so again, in the next line but one, “doctour _Dawcocke_.”

Page 42. v. 302. _in conceyte_] i. e. in the good opinion, favour of our Lady Fortune: compare v. 270.

v. 303. _hyghte_] i. e. is called.

v. 304. _sleyte_] i. e. sleight, artful contrivance.

v. 311. _layne_] i. e. conceal.

v. 312. _beyte_] i. e. bait.

v. 315. _And soo outface hym with a carde of ten_] “A common phrase,” says Nares, “which we may suppose to have been derived from some game, (possibly _primero_), wherein the standing boldly upon a _ten_ was often successful. _A card of ten_ meant a tenth card, a ten.... I conceive the force of the phrase to have expressed originally the confidence or impudence of one who with a ten, as at brag, _faced_, or _outfaced_ one who had really a faced card against him. To face meant, as it still does, to bully, to attack by impudence of face.” _Gloss._ in v. _Face it_, &c. “The phrase of _a card of ten_ was possibly derived, by a jocular allusion, from that of _a hart of ten_, in hunting, which meant a full grown deer, one past six years of age.” _Ibid._ in v. _Card of ten_.

v. 316. _assawte_] i. e. assault.

v. 317. _meuyd all in moode_] i. e. moved all in anger.

v. 318. _fawte_] i. e. fault.

v. 320. _I wende he had be woode_] i. e. I thought he had been mad.

v. 327. _hayne_] i. e. (perhaps) hind, slave, peasant.

v. 329. _suche maysters to playe_] i. e. to play such pranks of assumed superiority. Compare v. 341. See Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v. _Maistryss_.

Page 43. v. 330. _I am of countenaunce_] i. e. perhaps, I am a person of credit, good means, consequence (see Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, ii. 111).

v. 332. _dyspleasaunce_] i. e. displeasure.

v. 334. _no force_] i. e. no matter.

v. 336. _auenture_] i. e. adventure.

v. 337. _dreuyll_] i. e. drudge, low fellow. “_Dryuyll_ seruaunt.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499; and see also Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._ in v. _Drivel_.

Page 43. v. 338. _have deynte_] See note on v. 150. p. 108.

v. 340. _Well, ones thou shalte be chermed, I wus_] i. e. Well, one time or other thou shalt be charmed (quelled, as if by a charm), certainly (_I wus—i-wis,_ adv.).

v. 344. _Ryotte_] “Is forcibly and humorously pictured.” Warton, _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 348. ed. 4to.

v. 345. _A rusty gallande, to-ragged and to-rente_] i. e. A shabby gallant, utterly ragged and tattered: see note on v. 32. p. 100.

v. 346. _bones_] i. e. dice.

v. 348. _by saynte Thomas of Kente_] i. e. by saint Thomas a Becket:

“Thought I, _By saint Thomas of Kent_,” &c.

Chaucer’s _House of Fame_,—_Workes_, fol. 267. ed. 1602.

The picture of Ryotte in the present passage and in v. 389 sqq. gave birth no doubt to the following lines in a poem called _Syrs spare your good_;

No by my faith he saide incontinente But by saint Thomas of Kente I woulde haue at the hasarde a cast or two For to learne to caste the dyce to and fro And if here be any body that wyll for money playe I haue yet in my purse money and pledges gaye Some be nobles some be crownes of Fraunce Haue at all who wyll of this daunce One of them answered with that worde And caste a bale of dyce on the borde,” &c.

I quote from _Brit. Bibliog._ ii. 371, where are extracts from an ed. of the poem printed by Kytson, n. d.: it originally appeared from the press of W. de Worde; see _Cens. Liter._ i. 55. sec. ed.

v. 349. _kyst I wote nere what_] i. e. cast I know never (not) what.

v. 350. _His here was growen thorowe oute his hat_] i. e. His hair, &c. Compare Barclay’s _Argument of the first Egloge_;

“At diuers holes _his heare grewe through his hode._”

Sig. A i. ed. 1570.

and Heywood’s _Dialogue_;

“There is a nest of chickens which he doth brood That will sure _make his hayre growe through his hood_.”

Sig. G 2.,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.

Ray gives, “_His hair grows through his hood_. He is very poor, his hood is full of holes.” _Proverbs_, p. 57. ed. 1768.

Page 43. v. 351. _how he dysgysed was_] i. e. what a wretched plight he was in:

“Ragged and torne, _disguised_ in array.”

Chaucer’s _Court of Loue_, fol. 329,—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

v. 352. _watchynge ouer nyghte_] i. e. over-night’s debauch:

“Withdraw your hand fro riotous _watchyng_.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. ix. fol. xxxi. ed. Wayland.

v. 354. _ne couer myghte_] i. e. might not cover.

v. 355. _he wente so all for somer lyghte_]—_somer_, i. e. summer.

Compare;

“For he sente hem forth selverles, in _a somer garnement_.”

_Peirs Plouhman_, Pass. Dec. p. 153. ed. Whit.

“It semed that he caried litel array, _Al light for sommer_ rode this worthy man.”

Chaucer’s _Chanones Yemannes Prol._ v. 16035. ed. Tyr.

See too Bale’s _Kyng Iohan_, p. 34. ed. Camd. Soc.; and our author’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_, v. 719. vol. i. 73.

v. 356. _His hose was garded wyth a lyste of grene_] i. e. his breeches were faced, trimmed with, &c. “There was an affectation of smartness in the trimming of his hose.” Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 348. ed. 4to.

Page 44. v. 359. _Of Kyrkeby Kendall was his shorte demye_] Kendal, or Kirkby in Kendal, was early famous for the manufacture of cloth of various colours, particularly green. Here the word “Kendall” seems equivalent to—green: so too in Hall’s _Chronicle_, where we are told that Henry the Eighth, with a party of noblemen, “came sodainly in a mornyng into the Quenes Chambre, all appareled in shorte cotes of Kentishe _Kendal_ ... like outlawes, or Robyn Hodes men.” (_Henry viii._) fol. vi. ed. 1548.—_demye_; i. e., says Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 348. ed. 4to., “doublet, jacket:” rather, I believe, some sort of close vest,—his “cote” having been mentioned in the preceding line.

v. 360. _In fayth, decon thou crewe_] The commencement of some song; quoted again by our author in _A deuoute trentale for old Iohn Clarke_, v. 44. vol. i. 170, and in _Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 63. vol. ii. 28.

v. 361. _he ware his gere so nye_] i. e., I suppose, he wore his clothes so near, so thoroughly. But Warton explains it “his coat-sleeve was so short.” Note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 348. ed. 4to.

v. 363. _whynarde_] i. e. a sort of hanger, sword.

Page 44. v. 363.

—— _his pouche_, _The deuyll myghte daunce therin for ony crouche_]

—_ony crowche_, i. e. any piece of money,—many coins being marked with a _cross_ on one side. “The devil might dance in his purse without meeting with a single sixpence.” Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 348. ed. 4to. So in Massinger’s _Bashful Lover_;

“The devil sleeps in my pocket; _I have no cross_ _To drive him from it_.”

_Works_ (by Gifford), iv. 398. ed. 1813.

v. 365. _Counter he coude O lux vpon a potte_]—_Counter_; see note, p. 92:—i. e. he could sing _O lux_, playing an accompaniment to his voice on a drinking-pot. _O lux beata Trinitas_ was an ancient hymn, “which,” says Hawkins, “seems to have been a very popular melody before the time of King Henry viii.” _Hist. of Music_, ii. 354. In a comedy by the Duke of Newcastle is a somewhat similar passage: “I danced a Jig, while Tom Brutish whistled and _play’d upon the head of a pint pot_.” _The Humorous Lovers_, 1677, act i. sc. 1. p. 5.

v. 366. _eestryche fedder_] i. e. ostrich-feather.

v. 367. _fresshely_ i. e. smartly.

v. 368. _What reuell route_] Compare;

“And euer be mery lett _reuell rought_.”

_A Morality,—Anc. Mysteries from the Digby MSS._ p. 187. ed. Abbotsf.

“Then made they _revell route_ and goodly glee.”

Spenser’s _Mother Hubberds Tale_,—_Works_, vii. 428. ed. Todd.

—— _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 370. _Felyce fetewse_]—_Felyce_, i. e. Phillis: _fetewse_, i. e. feateous; “_Fetyce_ and prety. Paruiculus. Elegantulus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 371. _klycked_] i. e. fastened. In Chaucer’s _Marchantes Tale_, v. 9991. ed. Tyr., “_clicket_” means a key. Todd (_Johnson’s Dict._ in v.) cites Cotgrave and Skinner for its having the signification of the ring, knocker, or hammer of a door. Richardson (_Dict._ in v.) remarks that the word was “applied to any fastening which was accompanied by a _clicking_, snapping noise.”

v. 372. _rebaudrye_] i. e. ribaldry.

v. 375. _in the deuylles date_] An exclamation several times used by Skelton.—In _Pierce Plowman_, a charter, which is read at the proposed marriage of Mede, is sealed “_in the date of the deuil_,” sig. C i. ed. 1561.

v. 378. _auowe_] i. e. vow: see note on v. 199. p. 109.

Page 44. v. 380. _done_] i. e. do.

v. 382. _wake_] See note on v. 352. p. 115.

—— _none_] i. e. noon.

v. 383. _mone_] i. e. moon.

Page 45. v. 386. _Plucke vp thyne herte vpon a mery pyne_] “Vpon a mery pynne: _De hayt_, as _Il a le cueur de hayt_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxlvi. (Table of Aduerbes). The expression occurs often in our early poetry; and is found even in one of Wycherley’s comedies.

v. 387. _And lete vs laugh a placke or tweyne at nale_]—“plucke,” as I have observed _ad loc._, seems to be the right reading, though the word occurs in the preceding line: compare _Thersytes_, n. d.

“Darest thou trye maystries with me a _plucke_.”

p. 60. Rox. ed.

and a song quoted in the note on our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 757;

“A stoupe of bere vp at _a pluk_.”

_at nale_, (_atten ale_, _at then ale_; see Price’s note, Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 501. ed. 1824), i. e. at the ale-house.

v. 389. _of dyce a bale_] i. e. a pair of dice.

v. 390. _A brydelynge caste_] An expression which I am unable to explain. It occurs (but applied to drinking) in Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Scornful Lady_;

“Let’s have _a bridling cast_ before you go. Fill’s a new stoop.”

act ii. sc. 2.

—— _male_] i. e. bag, wallet, pouch.

v. 391. _burde_] i. e. board.

v. 393. _the dosen browne_] Is used sometimes to signify thirteen; as in a rare piece entitled _A Brown Dozen of Drunkards_, &c., 1648. 4to., who are _thirteen_ in number. But in our text “the dosen browne” seems merely to mean the full dozen: so in a tract (_Letter from a Spy at Oxford_) cited by Grey in his notes on _Hudibras_, vol. ii. 375; “and this was the twelfth Conquest, which made up the Conqueror’s _brown Dozen_ in Number, compared to the twelve Labours of Hercules.”

v. 394. _pas_] Seems here to be equivalent to—stake; but I have not found _pass_ used with that meaning in any works on gaming. See _The Compleat Gamester_, p. 119. ed. 1680.

v. 397. _in my pouche a buckell I haue founde_] So in our author’s _Magnyfycence_, after Foly and Fansy have exchanged purses, the latter says

“Here is nothynge but _the bockyll of a sho_, And in my purse was twenty marke.”

v. 1120. vol. i. 261.

Page 45. v. 398. _The armes of Calyce_] In our author’s _Magnyfycence_ is the same exclamation;

“By _the armes of Calys_, well conceyued!”

V. 685. vol. i. 247.

Whether Calais in France, or Cales (Cadiz) be alluded to, I know not.

—— _crosse_] See note on v. 363. p. 116.

v. 399. _renne_] i. e. run.

v. 401. _To wete yf Malkyn, my lemman, haue gete oughte_] i. e. To know if Malkin, my mistress, has got aught:—whether _Malkin_ is the diminutive of _Mal_ (Mary) has been disputed.

v. 406. _Bordews_] i. e. Bordeaux.

v. 408. _auenture_] i. e. adventure.

v. 411. _curtel_] i. e. curtal.

v. 412. _lege_] i. e. allege.

v. 413. _haue here is myne hat to plege_] Marshe’s ed., as I have noticed _ad loc._, omits “is:” but compare our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_;

“_Haue here is_ for me, A cloute of London pynnes.”

v. 563. vol. i. 113.

“_Haue._ i. take the this torne or thredebare garment.” Palsgrave’s _Acolastus_, 1540. sig. U ii.

Page 46. v. 414. _rybaude_] i. e. ribald.

v. 418. _kyste_] i. e. cast.

v. 420. _sadde_] i. e. serious, earnest.

v. 423. _stede_] i. e. place.

v. 425. _Me passynge sore myne herte than gan agryse_] For the reading of all the eds. “aryse,” I have ventured to substitute “agryse,” i. e. cause to shudder. Compare;

“_Sore_ might _hir agrise_.”

_Arthour and Merlin_, p. 34. ed. Abbotsf.

“Of his sweuen _sore him agros_.”

_Marie Maudelein_, p. 226,—Turnbull’s _Legendæ Catholicæ_ (from the Auchinleck MS.).

“The kinges _herte_ of pitee _gan agrise_.”

Chaucer’s _Man of Lawes Tale_, v. 5034. ed. Tyr.

“Swiche peines, that your _hertes_ might _agrise_.”

Chaucer’s _Freres Tale_, v. 7231. ed. Tyr.

v. 426. _I dempte and drede_] i. e. I deemed and dreaded.

v. 428. _Than in his hode, &c._]—_hode_, i. e. hood.—This passage is quoted by Warton, who observes, “There is also merit in the delineation of DISSIMULATION ... and it is not unlike Ariosto’s manner in imagining these allegorical personages.” _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 349. ed. 4to.

Page 46. v. 431. _coost_] i. e. coast, approach.

v. 433. _I sawe a knyfe hyd in his one sleue_]—_sleue_, i. e. sleeve.—This picture somewhat resembles that of False Semblant;

“But _in his sleue he gan to thring_ _A rasour sharpe_.”

Chaucer’s _Rom. of the Rose_,—_Workes_, fol. 141. ed. 1602.

v. 434. _Myscheue_] i. e. Mischief.

v. 436. _spone_] i. e. spoon.

v. 437. _to preue a dawe_] i. e. to prove, try a simpleton: see note on v. 301. p. 113.—Warton, who gives the other reading, “_to preye_ a dawe,” explains it—to catch a silly bird. Note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 349. ed. 4to.

v. 438. _wrete_] i. e. writ.

Page 47. v. 440. _His hode was syde, his cope was roset graye_] i. e. His hood was long (or full), his cope was russet grey.

v. 445. _a connynge man ne dwelle maye_] i. e. a wise, a learned man may not dwell.

v. 448. _that nought can_] i. e. that knows nothing.

v. 454. _clerke_] i. e. scholar.

v. 455. _in the deuylles date_] See note on v. 375. p. 116.

v. 456. _longe_] i. e. belong.

v. 457. _lewde_] i. e. wicked.

v. 460. _herte brennynge_] i. e. heart-burning.

v. 464. _It is a worlde_] Equivalent to—It is a matter of wonder.

Page 48. v. 466. _A man can not wote where to be come_] i. e. A man cannot know whither to go: compare v. 228.

v. 467. _I wys_] i. e. truly, certainly (_i-wis_, adv.).

—— _home_] i. e. hum.

v. 470. _frere_] i. e. friar.

v. 471. _agayne_] i. e. against.

v. 476. _shall wene be hanged by the throte_] i. e. (I suppose) shall think themselves hanged, &c.

v. 477. _a stoppynge oyster_] Compare Heywood;

“Herewithall his wife to make vp my mouth, Not onely her husbands taunting tale auouth, But thereto deuiseth to cast in my teeth Checks and _choking oysters_.”

_Dialogue_, sig. E,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.

v. 477. _poke_] i. e. pouch.

v. 484. _teder_] i. e. toder, t’other.

v. 486. _dreuyll_] See note on v. 337, p. 113.

Page 48. v. 488. _on flote_] i. e. flowing, full.

v. 490. _hode_] i. e. hood.

v. 491. _but what this is ynowe_] i. e. but that this is enough.

Page 49. v. 502. _Sterte_] i. e. Started.

v. 504. _nobles_] i. e. the gold coins so called.

v. 508. _His hode all pounsed and garded_]—_hode_, i. e. hood: _pounsed_, i. e. perforated, having small holes stamped or worked in it, by way of ornament—_garded_, i. e. adorned with _gards_, facings.

v. 510. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 513. _rounde_] i. e. whisper,—or, rather, mutter, for Skelton (_Garlande of Laurell_, v. 250. vol. i. 372) and other poets make a distinction between _whisper_ and _round_:

“Me lyste not now. whysper _nether rowne_.”

Lydgate’s _Storye of Thebes, Pars Prima_, sig. b vii. ed. 4to. n. d.

“Whisper _and rounde_ thinges ymagined falsly.”

Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 208. ed. 1570.

“They’re here with me already, whispering, _rounding_.”

Shakespeare’s _Winter’s Tale_, act i. sc. 2.

v. 521. _hafte_] See note on v. 138. p. 108.

v. 522. _payne_] i. e. difficulty.

Page 50. v. 525. _shrewes_] i. e. wicked, worthless fellows.

v. 527. _confetryd_] i. e. confederated.

v. 528. _lewde_] i. e. vile, rascally.

v. 529. _slee_] i. e. slay.

v. 530. _hente_] i. e. seized.

v. 536. _Syth_] i. e. Since.

PHYLLYP SPAROWE

Must have been written before the end of 1508; for it is mentioned with contempt in the concluding lines of Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, which was finished in that year: see _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

The _Luctus in morte Passeris_ of Catullus no doubt suggested the present production to Skelton, who, when he calls on “all maner of byrdes” (v. 387) to join in lamenting Philip Sparow, seems also to have had an eye to Ovid’s elegy _In mortem Psittaci, Amor_. ii. 6. Another piece of the kind is extant among the compositions of antiquity,—the _Psittacus Atedii Melioris_ of Statius, _Silv_. ii. 4. In the _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Socraticæ Joco-seriæ_, &c., of Dornavius, i. 460 sqq. may be found various Latin poems on the deaths, &c. of sparrows by writers posterior to the time of Skelton. See too Herrick’s lines _Upon the death of his Sparrow, an Elegie, Hesperides_, 1648. p. 117; and the verses entitled _Phyllis on the death of her Sparrow_, attributed to Drummond, _Works_, 1711. p. 50.

“Old Skelton’s ‘Philip Sparrow,’ an exquisite and original poem.” Coleridge’s _Remains_, ii. 163.

Page 51. v. 1. _Pla ce bo, &c._] Skelton is not the only writer that has taken liberties with the Romish service-book. In Chaucer’s _Court of Loue_, parts of it are sung by various birds; _Domine, labia_ by the nightingale, _Venite_ by the eagle, &c., _Workes_, fol. 333. ed. 1602: in a short poem by Lydgate “dyuerse foules” are introduced singing different hymns. _MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 37: and see too a poem (attributed, without any authority, to Skelton) called _Armony of Byrdes_, n. d., reprinted (inaccurately) in _Typog. Antiq._ iv. 380. ed. Dibdin; and Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Complaynt of the Papingo, Works_, i. 325. ed. Chalmers. In _Reynard the Fox_ we are told that at the burial of “coppe, chanteklers doughter,”—“Tho begonne they _placebo domino_, with the verses that to longen,” &c. Sig. a 8. ed. 1481. Compare also the mock _Requiem_ printed (somewhat incorrectly) from _MS. Cott. Vesp._ B. 16. in Ritson’s _Antient Songs_, i. 118. ed. 1829; Dunbar’s _Dirige to the King at Stirling, Poems_, i. 86. ed. Laing; and the following lines of a rare tract entitled _A Commemoration or Dirige of Boner_, &c., by Lemeke Auale, 1569,—

“_Placebo_. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. _Heu me_, beware the bugge, out quod Boner alas, _De profundis clamaui_, how is this matter come to passe. _Lævaui oculos meos_ from a darke depe place,” &c.

sig. A viii.

Other pieces of the kind might be pointed out.

v. 6. _Wherfore and why, why?_] So in the _Enterlude of Kyng Daryus_, 1565;

“Thys is the cause _wherfore and why_.”

sig. G ii.

v. 7. _Philip Sparowe_] _Philip_, or _Phip_, was a familiar name given to a sparrow from its note being supposed to resemble that sound.

v. 8. _Carowe_] Was a nunnery in the suburbs of Norwich. “Here [at Norwich],” says Tanner, “was an ancient hospital or nunnery dedicated to St. Mary and St. John; to which K. Stephen having given lands and meadows without the south gate, Seyna and Leftelina two of the sisters, A.D. 1146, began the foundation of a new monastery called Kairo, Carow, or Carhou, which was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and consisted of a prioress and nine Benedictine nuns.” _Not. Mon._ p. 347. ed. 1744. In 1273, Pope Gregory the Tenth inhibited the Prioress and convent from receiving more nuns than their income would maintain, upon their representation that the English nobility, whom they could not resist, had obliged them to take in so many sisters that they were unable to support them. At the Dissolution the number of nuns was twelve. The site of the nunnery, within the walls, contained about ten acres. It was granted, with its chief revenues, in the 30th Henry viii. to Sir John Shelton, knight, who fitted up the parlour and hall, which were noble rooms, when he came to reside there, not long after the Dissolution. It continued in the Shelton family for several generations.

This nunnery was during many ages a place of education for the young ladies of the chief families in the diocese of Norwich, who boarded with and were taught by the nuns. The fair Jane or Johanna Scroupe of the present poem was, perhaps, a boarder at Carow.

See more concerning Carow in Dugdale’s _Monast._ (new ed.) iv. 68 sqq., and Blomefield’s _Hist. of Norfolk_, ii. 862 sqq. ed. fol.

Page 51. v. 9. _Nones Blake_] i. e. Black Nuns,—Benedictines.

v. 12. _bederolles_] i. e. lists of those to be prayed for.

Page 52. v. 24. _The tearys downe hayled_] So Hawes;

“That euermore the salte _teres downe hayled_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. Q viii. ed. 1555.

v. 27. _Gyb our cat_] _Gib_, a contraction of _Gilbert_, was a name formerly given to a male cat:

“_Gibbe our Cat_, That awaiteth Mice and Rattes to killen.”

_Romaunt of the Rose_,—Chaucer’s _Workes_, fol. 136. ed. 1602.

In _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, 1575, “_Gib our cat_” is a person of consequence. Shakespeare (_Henry iv. Part First_, act i. sc. 2.) has the expression “gib cat;” and how his commentators have written “about it and about it” most readers are probably aware.

v. 29. _Worrowyd her on that_] So Dunbar;

“He that dois _on_ dry breid _wirry_.”

_Poems_, i. 108. ed. Laing.

v. 34. _stounde_] i. e. moment, time.

v. 35. _sounde_] i. e. swoon.

v. 37. _Vnneth I kest myne eyes_] i. e. Scarcely, not without difficulty, I cast, &c.

v. 42. _Haue rewed_] i. e. Have had compassion.

Page 52. v. 46. _senaws_] i. e. sinews.

Page 53. v. 58. _frete_] i. e. eat, gnaw.

v. 69. _marees_] i. e. waters.

v. 70. _Acherontes well_] i. e. Acheron’s well. So,—after the fashion of our early poets,—Skelton writes _Zenophontes_ for _Xenophon_, _Eneidos_ for _Eneis_, _Achilliedos_ for _Achilleis_, &c.

v. 75. _blo_] i. e. livid: see note, p. 103. v. 3.

v. 76. _mare_] i. e. hag.—“_Mare_ or witche.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 77. _fende_] i. e. fiend.

v. 78. _edders_] i. e. adders.

v. 82. _sowre_] In Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, is “_Sower_ of smellyng,” fol. xcvi. (Table of Adiect.),—a sense of the word which Skelton has elsewhere (third poem _Against Garnesche_, v. 146. vol. i. 124), and which therefore probably applies to the present passage. But qy. does “sowre” signify here—foul? “_Sowre_ filthe. Fimus. Cenum. Lutum.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “_Sowry_ or defiled in _soure_ or filth,” &c. _Id._

“The riuer cler withouten _sour_.”

_Arthour and Merlin_, p. 320. ed. Abbotsf.

v. 87. _outraye_] “I _Outray_ a persone (Lydgate) I do some outrage or extreme hurt to hym. _Ie oultrage_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cccxi. (Table of Verbes).

“The childe playes hym at the balle, That salle _owttraye_ zow alle.”

_The Awntyrs of Arthurs_, p. 110. (_Syr Gawayne, &c._)

where Sir F. Madden explains it “injure, destroy.”—In our text, “outraye” is equivalent to—vanquish, overcome; and so in the following passages;

“The cause why Demostenes so famously is brutid, Onely procedid for that he did _outray_ Eschines, whiche was not shamefully confutid But of that famous oratour, I say, Whiche passid all other; wherfore I may Among my recordes suffer hym namyd, For though he were _venquesshid_, yet was he not shamyd.”

Skelton’s _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 155. vol. i. 368.

(Richardson, in his valuable _Dictionary_, v. _Out-rage_, &c., says that, in the stanza just cited, _outray_ “is evidently—to exceed, to excel;” but the last line of the stanza, together with the present passage of _Phyllyp Sparowe_, and the annexed quotations from Lydgate, shew that he is mistaken.)

“Whom Hercules most strong and coragious, Sumtime _outraid_, and slewe hym with his hand.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. i. leaf xxvii. ed. Wayland.

“Al be that Cresus faught long in hys defence, He finally by Cyrus was _outrayed_, And depriued by knyghtly vyolence, Take in the felde,” &c.

_Id._ B. ii. leaf lviii.

“But it may fall, a dwerye [i. e. dwarf] in his right, To _outray_ a gyaunt for all his gret might.”

_Id._ B. iii. leaf lxvii.

Page 54. v. 98. _Zenophontes_] i. e. Xenophon: see note on v. 70, preceding page.

v. 107. _thought_] See notes, p. 101. v. 10. p. 104. last line.

v. 114. _go_] i. e. gone.

v. 115. _fole_] i. e. fool.

v. 116. _stole_] i. e. stool.

v. 117. _scole_] i. e. school, instruction.

v. 118.

_For to kepe his cut,_ _With, Phyllyp, kepe your cut!_]

Compare Gascoigne in a little poem entitled _The praise of Philip Sparrow_;

“As if you say but _fend cut_ phip, Lord how the peat will turne and skip.”

_Workes_ (_Weedes_), p. 285. ed. 1587.

Sir Philip Sidney in a sonnet;

“Good brother Philip, I haue borne you long, I was content you should in fauour creepe, While craftily you seem’d your _cut to keepe_, As though that faire soft hand did you great wrong.”

_Astrophel and Stella_, p. 548. ed. 1613.

Brome in _The Northern Lasse_, 1632;

“A bonny bonny Bird I had A bird that was my Marroe: A bird whose pastime made me glad, And Phillip twas my Sparrow. A pretty Play-fere: Chirp it would, And hop, and fly to fist, _Keepe cut_, as ’twere a Vsurers Gold, And bill me when I list.”

Act iii. sc. 2. sig. G 2.

and in _The New Academy_; “But look how she turnes and _keeps cut like my Sparrow_. She will be my back Sweet-heart still I see, and love me behind.” Act iv. sc. 1. p. 72. (_Five New Playes_, 1659).

Page 55. v. 125.

_Betwene my brestes softe_ _It wolde lye and rest_]

So Catullus, in the beginning of his verses _Ad Passerem Lesbiæ_, (a distinct poem from that mentioned at p. 120);

“Passer, deliciæ meæ puellæ, Quicum ludere, _quem in sinu tenere_,” &c.

v. 127. _It was propre and prest_] Compare v. 264, “As _prety_ and as _prest_,” where “prety” answers to “propre” in the present line. “_Proper_ or feate. _coint_, _godin_, _gentil_, _mignot_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._ 1530. fol. xciii. (Table of Adiect.):—_prest_, which generally means—ready, seems here to be nearly synonymous with _propre_; and so in a passage of Tusser,—“more handsome, and _prest_,”—cited by Todd (_Johnson’s Dict._ in v.), who explains it “neat, tight.”

v. 137. _gressop_] i. e. grasshopper.—“_Cicada_ ... anglice _a gresse hoppe_.” _Ortus Vocab._, fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d.

v. 138. _Phyp, Phyp_] See note on v. 7. p. 121.

v. 141. _slo_] i. e. slay.

v. 147. _dome_] i. e. judgment, thinking.

v. 148. _Sulpicia_] Lived in the age of Domitian. Her satire _De corrupto statu reipub. temporibus Domitiani, præsertim cum edicto Philosophos urbe exegisset_, may be found in Wernsdorf’s ed. of _Poetæ Latini Minores_, iii. 83.

v. 151. _pas_] i. e. pass, excel.

v. 154. _pretende_] i. e. attempt.

Page 56. v. 171. _perde_] i. e. _par dieu_, verily.

v. 173. _nyse_] i. e. foolish, inclined to folly, to toyish tricks: compare our author’s _Manerly Margery_, &c., v. 2. vol. i. 28.

v. 176. _To pyke my lytell too_]—_too_, i. e. toe.—In a comedy (already mentioned, p. 93. v. 15), _The longer thou liuest, the more foole thou art_, &c., n. d., by W. Wager, Moros sings

“I haue a prety tytmouse Come _picking on my to_.”

sig. D ii.

v. 186. _ryde and go_] A sort of pleonastic expression which repeatedly occurs in our early writers.

Page 57. v. 192. _Pargame_] i. e. Pergamus.

v. 198. _wete_] i. e. know.

v. 205. _be quycke_] i. e. be made alive.

Page 57. v. 211. _the nones_] i. e. the occasion.

v. 213. _My sparow whyte as mylke_] Compare Sir P. Sidney;

“They saw a maid who thitherward did runne, To catch her sparrow which from her did swerue, As shee a black-silke Cappe on him begunne To sett, for foile of his _milke-white_ to serue.”

_Arcadia_, lib. i. p. 85. ed. 1613.

and Drayton;

“I haue two Sparrowes _white as Snow_.”

_The Muses Elizium_, p. 14. ed. 1630.

v. 216. _importe_] i. e. impart.

v. 218. _solas_] i. e. amusement.

Page 58. v. 227. _hear_] i. e. hair.

v. 230. _kest_] i. e. cast.

v. 242. _bederoule_] See note on v. 12. p. 122.

v. 244. _Cam, and Sem_] i. e. Ham, and Shem.

v. 247. _the hylles of Armony_]—_Armony_, i. e. Armenia.—So in _Processus Noe_;

“What grownd may this be? _Noe. The hyllys of Armonye._”

_Townley Myst._ p. 32.

See also Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. i. leaf iiii. ed. Wayland, and Heywood’s _Foure P. P._, sig. A i. ed. n. d.

v. 248.

_Wherfore the birdes yet cry_ _Of your fathers bote_]

The reading of Kele’s ed., “bordes,” (as I have already observed _ad loc._) is perhaps the true one;—(compare _Pierce Plowman_;

“And [God] came to Noe anone, and bad him not let Swyth go shape a shype of shydes and of _bordes_.”

Pass. Non. sig. M ii. ed. 1561.)—

and qy. did Skelton write,—

“_Whereon_ the _bordes_ yet _lye_?”

v. 253. _it hyght_] i. e. it is called.

Page 59. v. 264. _prest_] See note on v. 127, preceding page.

v. 272. _hardely_] i. e. assuredly.

v. 273. _vengeaunce I aske and crye_] Compare _Magnus Herodes_;

“_Venjance I cry and calle._”

_Townley Myst._ p. 149.

v. 281. _Carowe_] See note on v. 8. p. 121.

v. 282. _carlyshe kynde_] i. e. churlish nature.

v. 283. _fynde_] i. e. fiend.

Page 59. v. 284. _vntwynde_] i. e. tore to pieces, destroyed: so again in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_;

“This goodly flowre with stormis was _vntwynde_.”

v. 1445. vol. i. 418.

Page 60. v. 290. _Lybany_] i. e. Libya.

v. 294. _mantycors_] “Another maner of bestes ther is in ynde that ben callyd _manticora_, and hath visage of a man, and thre huge grete teeth in his throte, he hath eyen lyke a ghoot and body of a lyon, tayll of a Scorpyon and voys of a serpente in suche wyse that by his swete songe he draweth to hym the peple and deuoureth them And is more delyuerer to goo than is a fowle to flee.” Caxton’s _Mirrour of the world_, 1480. sig. e vii. See also R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 212.—This fabulous account is derived from Pliny.

v. 296. _Melanchates, that hounde, &c._] See the story of Actæon in Ovid’s _Metam._;

“Prima _Melanchætes_ in tergo vulnera fecit.” iii. 232.

v. 305.

_That his owne lord bote,_ _Myght byte asondre thy throte!_]

—_bote_, i. e. bit.—So in _Syr Tryamoure_;

“He toke the stuarde by the _throte_, And _asonder_ he it _botte_.”

_Early Pop. Poetry_ (by Utterson), i. 28.

v. 307. _grypes_] i. e. griffins.

v. 311. _The wylde wolfe Lycaon_] See Ovid’s _Metam._ i. 163 sqq. for an account of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, being transformed into a wolf. I ought to add, that he figures in a work well known to the readers of Skelton’s time—_The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_.

v. 313. _brennynge_] i. e. burning.

Page 61. v. 325. _gentle of corage_]—_corage_, i. e. heart, mind, disposition. So in our author’s _Magnyfycence_; “Be _gentyll_ then _of corage_.” v. 2511. vol. i. 308.

v. 329. _departed_] i. e. parted. So in our old marriage-service; “till death us _depart_.”

v. 336. _rew_] i. e. have compassion.

v. 345.

_And go in at my spayre,_ _And crepe in at my gore_ _Of my gowne before_]

“_Cluniculum_, an hole or a _spayre_ of a womans smoke.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d. (In ed. 1514 of that work—“_spayre_ of a womans kyrtell”). “_Sparre_ of a gowne _fente de la robe_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxvi. (Table of Subst.). “That parte of weemens claiths, sik as of their gowne or petticot, quhilk vnder the belt and before is open, commonly is called the _spare_.” Skene, quoted by Jamieson, _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v. _Spare_.——“_Lacinia_ ... anglice a heme of clothe or a _gore_.” _Ortus. Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d. (ed. 1514 of that work adds “or a trayne”). “_Goore_ of a smocke _poynte de chemise_.” Palsgrave, _ubi supra_, fol. xxxvii. (Table of Subst.). Jamieson (_ubi supra_), in v. _Gair_, says it was “a stripe or triangular piece of cloth, inserted at the bottom, on each side of a shift or of a robe,”—a description which agrees with that of R. Holme, _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. iii. p. 95.

Page 61. v. 351. _myne hert it sleth_]—_sleth_, i. e. slayeth.—So Chaucer;

“Thise rockes _slee min herte_ for the fere.”

_The Frankeleines Tale_, v. 11205. ed. Tyr.

Page 62. v. 360. _Phyppes_] See note on v. 7. p. 121.

v. 361. _kusse_] i. e. kiss.

“And if he maie no more do, Yet woll he stele a _cusse_ or two.”

Gower’s _Conf. Am._ lib. v. fol. cxix. ed. 1554.

v. 362. _musse_] i. e. muzzle,—mouth.

v. 366. _this_] i. e. thus: see note, p. 86. v. 38.

v. 375. _Gyb_] See note on v. 27. p. 122.

v. 383. _bederolle_] See note on v. 12. p. 122.

Page 63. v. 387.

_To wepe with me loke that ye come,_ _All maner of byrdes in your kynd, &c._]

—_loke_, i. e. look. Compare Ovid (see note on title of this poem, p. 120);

“Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab Indis, Occidit: exequias ite frequenter, aves. Ite, piæ volucres, et plangite pectora pennis, Et rigido teneras ungue notate genas. Horrida pro moestis lanictur pluma capillis, Pro longa resonent carmina vestra tuba.”

_Amor._ lib. ii. El. vi. 5. 1.

v. 396. _ianglynge_] i. e. babbling, chattering—an epithet generally applied to the jay by our old poets.

v. 397. _fleckyd_] i. e. spotted, variegated.

v. 403. _the red sparow_] i. e. the reed-sparrow.

“The _Red-sparrow_, the Nope, the Red-breast, and the Wren.”

Drayton’s _Polyolbion_, Song xiii. p. 215. ed. 1622.

“The _Red Sparrow_, or Reed Sparrow.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 246.

Page 63. v. 406. _to_] i. e. toe.

v. 407. _The spynke_] i. e. The chaffinch. In the _Countrie Farme_, the “spinke” is frequently mentioned (see pp. 886, 890, 891, 898, 900. ed. 1600); and in the French work by Estienne and Liebault, from which it is translated, the corresponding word is “pinçon:” in Cotgrave’s _Dict._ is “Pinson. _A Spink_, _Chaffinch_, or Sheldaple;” and in Moor’s _Suffolk Words_, “_Spinx. The chaffinch_.” R. Niccolls, in a poem which contains several pretty passages, has

“The speckled _Spinck_, that liues by gummie sappe.”

_The Cuckow_, 1607. p. 13.

v. 409. _The doterell, that folyshe pek_] The dotterel is said to allow itself to be caught, while it imitates the gestures of the fowler: _pek_, or _peke_, seems here to be used by Skelton in the sense of—contemptible fellow; so in his _Collyn Cloute_;

“Of suche _Pater-noster pekes_ All the worlde spekes.”

v. 264. vol. i. 321.

In Hormanni _Vulgaria_ we find: “He is shamefast but not _pekysshe_. Verecundus est sine _ignauia_.” sig. N i. ed. 1530.—And see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._, and Richardson’s _Dict._ in v. _Peak_.

v. 411. _toote_] i. e. pry, peep, search.

v. 412. _the snyte_] i. e. the snipe.

v. 415. _His playne songe to solfe_] See note, p. 95, v. 48: _solfe_, i. e. solfa.

v. 418.

_The woodhacke, that syngeth chur_ _Horsly, as he had the mur_]

—_woodhacke_, i. e. woodpecker. “_Wodehac_ or nothac byrde. Picus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499: _mur_, i. e. a severe cold with hoarseness. Compare Lydgate;

“And at his feete lay a prykeryd curre He rateled in the throte _as he had the murre_.”

_Le Assemble de dyeus_, sig. b i. n. d. 4to.

v. 420. _lusty_] i. e. pleasant.

v. 421. _The popyngay_] i. e. The parrot.

Page 64. v. 422. _toteth_] Or _tooteth_; see note on v. 411.

v. 424. _The mauys_] Is properly the song-thrush, as distinguished from the missel-thrush: see note on v. 460, p. 131.

v. 425. _the pystell_] i. e. the Epistle.

v. 426. _a large and a longe_] See note, p. 95. v. 49.

Page 64. v. 427.

_To kepe iust playne songe,_ _Our chaunters shalbe the cuckoue_]

See note, p. 95. v. 48. So Shakespeare mentions “_the plain-song cuckoo_ gray.” _Mids. Night’s Dream_, act iii. sc. 1.

v. 430. _puwyt the lapwyng_] In some parts of England, the lapwing is called _pewit_ from its peculiar cry.

v. 432. _The bitter with his bumpe_] “The _Bitter_, or Bitterne, _Bumpeth_, when he puts his Bill in the reeds.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 310.

v. 434. _Menander_] Means here _Mæander_: but I have not altered the text; because our early poets took great liberties with classical names; because all the eds. of Skelton’s _Speke, Parrot_, have

“Alexander, a gander of _Menanders_ pole.”

v. 178. vol. ii. 9.

and because the following passage occurs in a poem by some imitator of Skelton, which is appended to the present edition;

“Wotes not wher to wander, Whether to _Meander_, Or vnto _Menander_.”

_The Image of Ipocrisy_, Part Third.

v. 437. _wake_] i. e. watching of the dead body during the night.

v. 441. _He shall syng the grayle_]—_grayle_, says Warton (correcting an explanation he had formerly given), signifies here “_Graduale_, or the _Responsorium_, or _Antiphonarium_, in the Romish service.... He shall sing that part of the service which is called the _Grayle_, or _graduale_.” _Obs. on the F. Queen_, ii. 244. ed. 1762. See too Du Cange in v. _Gradale_, and Roquefort in v. _Gréel_.

v. 442. _The owle, that is so foule_]—_foule_, i. e. ugly. The Houlate, (in the poem so called, by Holland), says,

“Thus all the foulis, for my _filth_, hes me at feid.”

Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, iii. 149.

v. 444. _gaunce_] i. e. gaunt.

v. 445. _the cormoraunce_] i. e. the cormorant.

v. 447. _the gaglynge gaunte_] In _Prompt. Parv._ is “_Gant_ birde. Bistarda.” ed. 1499. Palsgrave gives “_Gant_ byrde,” without a corresponding French term. _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xxxv. (Table of Subst.). Our author in his _Elynour Rummyng_ has—

“In came another dant, Wyth a gose and a _gant_.”

v. 515. vol. i. 111;

where _gant_ is plainly used for gander. In the present passage, however, _gaunte_ must have a different signification (“The gose and the _gander_” being mentioned v. 435), and means, I apprehend,—wild-goose: Du Cange has “_Gantæ_, Anseres silvestres,” &c.; and see Roquefort in v. _Gans._ But Nares, MS. note on Skelton, explains _gaunte_—gannet.

Page 64. v. 449. _The route and the kowgh_] The Rev. J. Mitford suggests that the right reading is “The _knout_ and the _rowgh_,”—i. e. the knot and the ruff.

v. 450. _The barnacle_] i. e. The goose-barnacle,—concerning the production of which the most absurd fables were told and credited: some asserted that it was originally the shell-fish called barnacle, others that it grew on trees, &c.

v. 451. _the wilde mallarde_] i. e. the wild-drake.

Page 65. v. 452. _The dyuendop_] i. e. The dabchick or didapper.

v. 454. _The puffin_] A water-fowl with a singular bill.

v. 455. _Money they shall dele, &c._] According to the ancient custom at funerals.

v. 458. _the tytmose_] i. e. the titmouse.

v. 460. _The threstyl_] Or _throstle_, is properly the missel-thrush: see note on v. 424. p. 129.

v. 461. _brablyng_] i. e. clamour, noise—properly, quarrel, squabble.

v. 462. _The roke_] i. e. The rook.

—— _the ospraye_ _That putteth fysshes to a fraye_]

—_fraye_, i. e. fright. It was said that when the osprey, which feeds on fish, hovered over the water, they became fascinated and turned up their bellies.

v. 464. _denty_] i. e. dainty.

v. 468. _The countrynge of the coe_]—_countrynge_; see note, p. 92: _coe_, i. e. jack-daw; “_Coo_ birde. Monedula. Nodula.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 469.

_The storke also,_ _That maketh his nest_ _In chymneyes to rest;_ _Within those walles_ _No broken galles_ _May there abyde_ _Of cokoldry syde_]

The stork breeds in chimney-tops, and was fabled to forsake the place, if the man or wife of the house committed adultery. The following lines of Lydgate will illustrate the rest of the passage:

“a certaine knight Gyges called, thinge shameful to be tolde, To speke plaine englishe, made him [i. e. Candaules] cokolde. Alas I was not auised wel beforne, Vnkonnyngly to speake such langage, I should haue sayde how that he had an horne, Or sought some terme wyth a fayre vysage, To excuse my rudenesse of thys gret outrage: And in some land Cornodo men do them cal, And some affirme that _such folke haue no gal_.”

_Fall of Prynces_, B. ii. leaf lvi. ed. Wayland.

Page 65. v. 478.

_The estryge, that wyll eate_ _An horshowe so great_]

—_estryge_, i. e. ostrich: _horshowe_, i. e. horse-shoe.—In _Struthiocamelus_, a portion of that strange book _Philomythie_, &c., by Tho. Scot., 1616, a merchant seeing an ostrich, in the desert, eating iron, asks—

“What nourishment can from those mettals grow? The Ostrich answers; Sir, I do not eate This iron, as you thinke I do, for meate. I only keepe it, lay it vp in store, To helpe my needy friends, the friendlesse poore. I often meete (as farre and neere I goe) _Many a fowndred horse that wants a shooe_, Seruing a Master that is monylesse: Such I releiue and helpe in their distresse.”

Sig. E 7.

v. 482. _freat_] i. e. gnaw, devour.

Page 66. v. 485. _at a brayde_] Has occurred before in our author’s _Bowge of Courte_; see note, p. 109. v. 181; but here it seems to have a somewhat different meaning, and to signify—at an effort, at a push. “_At a brayde, Faysant mon effort, ton effort, son effort_, &c.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxxxviii. (Table of Aduerbes). “_I Abrayde_, I inforce me to do a thynge.” ... “I _Breyde_ I make _a brayde_ to do a thing sodaynly.” _Id._ fols. cxxxvi. clxxii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 487. _To solfe aboue ela_]—_solfe_, i. e. solfa: _ela_, i. e. the highest note in the scale of music.

v. 488. _lorell_] i. e. good-for-nothing fellow (see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_): used here as a sportive term of reproach.

v. 491.

_The best that we can,_ _To make hym our belman,_ _And let hym ryng the bellys;_ _He can do nothyng ellys_]

“_Sit campanista, qui non vult esse sophista_, Let him bee a bellringer, that will bee no good Singer.” Withals’s _Dict._ p. 178. ed. 1634.

Page 66. v. 495.

_Chaunteclere, our coke,_ ... _By the astrology_ _That he hath naturally, &c._]

So Chaucer;

“But when _the cocke_, commune _Astrologer_, Gan on his brest to beate,” &c.

_Troilus and Creseide_, B. iii. fol. 164.—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

See also Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. i. sig. D v. ed. 1555; and his copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue _Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues_), _MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 132.

v. 499. _cought_] i. e. caught: compare the first of our author’s _Balettys_, v. 19. vol. i. 22.

v. 500. _tought_] i. e. taught. “Musyke hath me _tought_.” Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. G iiii. ed. 1555.

v. 501. _Albumazer_] A famous Arabian, of the ninth century.

v. 503.

—— _Ptholomy_ _Prince of astronomy_]

The celebrated Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian: “Il fleurit vers l’an 125 et jusqu’à l’an 139 de l’ère vulgaire.” _Biog. Univ._—In _The Shepherds Kalendar_ (a work popular in the days of Skelton) a chapter is entitled “To know the fortunes and destinies of man born under the xii signs, after _Ptolomie, prince of astronomy_ [i. e. astrology].” “_Astronomy_, and _Astronomer_, is the Art of, and the foreteller of things done and past, and what shall happen to any person, &c.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 438.

v. 505. _Haly_] Another famous Arabian: “claruit circa A. C. 1100.” Fabr. _Bibl. Gr._ xiii. 17.

v. 507. _tydes_] i. e. times, seasons.

v. 509. _Partlot his hen_] So in Chaucer’s _Nonnes Preestes Tale_; Lydgate’s copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue _Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues_), _MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 132; and G. Douglas’s Prol. to the xii Booke of his _Eneados_, p. 401. l. 54. ed. Ruddiman, who conjectures that the name was applied to a hen in reference to the ruff (the _partlet_), or ring of feathers about her neck.

Page 67. v. 522. _thurifycation_] i. e. burning incense.

Page 67. v. 524. _reflary_] As I have already noticed, should probably be “reflayre,”—i. e. odour. See Roquefort’s _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ in v. _Flareur_, and _Suppl._ in v. _Fleror;_ and Cotgrave’s _Dict._ in v. _Reflairer_. In _The Garlande of Laurell_ our author calls a lady “_reflaring_ rosabell.” v. 977. vol. i. 401.

v. 525. _eyre_] i. e. air, scent.

“Strowed wyth floures, of all goodly _ayre_.”

Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. D iiii. ed. 1555.

See too _The Pistill of Susan_, st. viii.—Laing’s _Early Pop. Poetry of Scot._

v. 534. _bemole_] i. e. in B molle, soft or flat. So in the last stanza of a poem by W. Cornishe, printed in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568;

“I kepe be rounde and he by square The one is _bemole_ and the other bequare.”

v. 536.

_Plinni sheweth all_ _In his story naturall_]

See _Historia Naturalis_, lib. x. sect. 2.

v. 540. _incyneracyon_] i. e. burning to ashes.

v. 545. _corage_] i. e. heart,—feelings.

Page 68. v. 552. _the sedeane_] Does it mean subdean, or subdeacon?

v. 553. _The quere to demeane_] i. e. to conduct, direct the choir.

v. 555. _ordynall_] i. e. ritual.

v. 556. _the noble fawcon_] “There are seuen kinds of Falcons, and among them all for her _noblenesse_ and hardy courage, and withal the francknes of her mettell, I may, and doe meane to place the Falcon gentle in chiefe,” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 25. ed. 1611.

v. 557. _the gerfawcon_] “Is a gallant Hawke to behold, more huge then any other kinde of Falcon, &c.” _Id._ p. 42.

v. 558. _The tarsell gentyll_] Is properly the male of the gosshawk; but Skelton probably did not use the term in its exact meaning, for in the fifth line after this he mentions “the goshauke.” It is commonly said (see Steevens’s note on _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 2.) to be called _tiercel_ because it is a _tierce_ or third less than the female. But, according to Turbervile, “he is termed a _Tyercelet_, for that there are most commonly disclosed three birds in one selfe eyree, two Hawkes and one Tiercell.” _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 59. ed. 1611.

v. 560. _amysse_] i. e. amice—properly the first of the six vestments common to the bishop and presbyters. “Fyrst do on the _amys_, than the albe, than the gyrdell, than the manyple, than the stoole, than the chesyble.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. E iiii. ed. 1530.

Page 68. v. 561. _The sacre_] A hawk “much like the Falcon Gentle for largenesse, and the Haggart for hardines.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 45. ed. 1611.

v. 563. _role_] i. e. roll.

v. 565. _The lanners_] “They are more blancke Hawkes then any other, they haue lesse beakes then the rest, and are lesse armed and pounced then other Falcons be.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 47. ed. 1611.

—— _the marlyons_] Or _merlins_,—the smallest of the hawks used by falconers.

v. 566. _morning gounes_] i. e. mourning-gowns.

v. 567. _The hobby_] “Of all birdes of prey that belong to the Falconers vse, I know none lesse then the Hobby, unles it be the Merlyn.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 53. ed. 1611.

—— _the muskette_] i. e. the male sparrow-hawk. “You must note, that all these kind of hawkes haue their male birdes and cockes of euerie sort and gender, as the Eagle his Earne ... and the Sparrow-hawke his _Musket_.” _Id._ p. 3. “The male sparrow hawke is called a _musket_.” _The Countrie Farme_, p. 877. ed. 1600.

v. 568. _sensers_] i. e. censers.

—— _fet_] i. e. fetch.

v. 569. _The kestrell_] A sort of base-bred hawk.

—— _warke_] i. e. work, business.

v. 570. _holy water clarke_] See note, p. 94. v. 21.

Page 69. v. 590. _And wrapt in a maidenes smocke_] Spenser seems to have recollected this passage: he says, that when Cupid was stung by a bee, Venus

—— “tooke him streight full pitiously lamenting, _And wrapt him in her smock_.”

See a little poem in his _Works_, viii. 185. ed. Todd.

v. 595. _Lenger_] i. e. Longer.

v. 600.

—— _the prety wren,_ _That is our Ladyes hen_]

So in a poem (attributed, on no authority, to Skelton) entitled _Armony of Byrdes_, n. d., and reprinted entire in _Typogr. Antiq._ iv. 380. ed. Dibdin;

“Than sayd _the wren_ I am called _the hen_ _Of our lady_ most cumly.”

p. 382.

Wilbraham, in his _Cheshire Gloss._, p. 105, gives the following metrical adage as common in that county;

“The Robin and _the Wren_ Are _God’s_ cock and _hen_, The Martin and the Swallow Are God’s mate and marrow.”

In the _Ballad of Kynd Kittok_, attributed to Dunbar, we are told that after death she “wes _our Ledyis henwyfe_,” _Poems_, ii. 36. ed. Laing.—An Elysium, very different from that described in the somewhat profane passage of our text, is assigned by the delicate fancy of Ovid to the parrot of his mistress, in the poem to which (as I have before observed, p. 120,) Skelton seems to have had an eye;

“_Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondens_,” &c.

_Amor._ ii. 6. 49.

Page 69. v. 609. _asayde_] i. e. tried—tasted: compare our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 397. vol. i. 108.

v. 610. _Elyconys_] i. e. Helicon’s.

Page 70. v. 616.

_As Palamon and Arcet,_ _Duke Theseus, and Partelet_]

See Chaucer’s _Knightes Tale_, and _Nonnes Preestes Tale_.

v. 618.

—— _of the Wyfe of Bath_, _That worketh moch scath_, &c.]

See Chaucer’s _Wif of Bathes Prologue_.—_scath_, i. e. harm, mischief.

v. 629. _Of Gawen_] Son of King Lot and nephew of King Arthur. Concerning him, see the _Morte d’Arthur_ (of which some account is given in note on v. 634),—_Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt_, in _MS. Cott. Nero_ A. x. fol. 91,—_Ywaine and Gawin_, in Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ vol. i.,—the fragment of _The Marriage of Sir Gawaine_, at the end of Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._,—_The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyn_, in Laing’s _Early Pop. Poetry of Scot._, (the same romance, from a different MS., under the title of _Sir Gawan and Sir Galaron of Galloway_, in Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, vol. iii.),—_The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane_, reprinted at Edinburgh in 1827 from the ed. of 1508, (the same romance, under the title of _Gawan and Gologras_, in Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, vol. iii.),—and the romance of _Arthour and Merlin_, from the Auchinleck MS., published by the Abbotsford Club, 1838.

I had written the above note before the appearance of a valuable volume put forth by the Bannatyne Club, entitled _Syr Gawayne; A collection of Ancient Romance-Poems, by Scotish and English Authors, relating to that celebrated Knight of the Round Table, with an Introduction, &c., by Sir F. Madden_, 1839.

—— _syr Guy_] In _The Rime of Sire Thopas_, Chaucer mentions “_Sire Guy_” as one of the “romaunces of pris.” For an account of, extracts from, and an analysis of, the English romance on the subject of this renowned hero of Warwick, see Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ (_Dissert._) i. xcii., Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ i. 169. ed. 4to., and _Ellis’s Spec. of Met. Rom._ ii. I must also refer the reader to a volume, issued by the Abbotsford Club (while the present sheet was passing through the press), entitled _The Romances of Sir Guy of Warwich, and Rembrun his son. Now first edited from the Auchinleck MS._ 1840.

Page 70. v. 631.

—— _the Golden Flece,_ _How Jason it wan_]

_A boke of the hoole lyf of Jason_ was printed by Caxton in folio, n. d. (about 1475), being a translation by that venerable typographer from the French of Raoul le Fevre. A copy of it (now before me) in the King’s Library, though apparently perfect, has no title of any sort. Specimens of this prose-romance, which is not without merit, may be found in Dibdin’s _Biblioth. Spenc._ iv. 199.—The story of Jason is also told by Chaucer, _Legend of Hipsiphile and Medea_; by Gower, _Conf. Am._ Lib. v.; and, at considerable length, by Lydgate, _Warres of Troy_, B. i.

v. 634.

_Of Arturs rounde table,_ _With his knightes commendable,_ _And dame Gaynour, his quene,_ _Was somwhat wanton, I wene;_ _How syr Launcelote de Lake_ _Many a spere brake_ _For his ladyes sake;_ _Of Trystram, and kynge Marke,_ _And al the hole warke_ _Of Bele Isold his wyfe_]

—_warke_, i. e. work, affair.—Concerning the various romances on the subject of Arthur, Lancelot, Tristram, &c. see Sir F. Madden’s Introduction to the volume already mentioned, _Syr Gawayne, &c._—In this passage, however, Skelton seems to allude more particularly to a celebrated compilation from the French—the prose romance of _The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of Kyng Arthur_, &c., commonly known by the name of _Morte d’Arthur_. At the conclusion of the first edition printed in folio by Caxton (and reprinted in 1817 with an Introd. and Notes by Southey) we are told “_this booke was ended the ix. yere of the reygne of kyng Edward the Fourth by syr Thomas Maleore, knyght_”.... “_Whiche booke was reduced in to Englysshe by Syr Thomas Malory knyght as afore is sayd and by me_ [Caxton] _deuyded in to xxi bookes chaptyred and emprynted and fynysshed in thabbey Westmestre the last day of July the yere of our lord_ MCCCCLXXXV.”

In the _Morte d’Arthur_, the gallant and courteous Sir Launcelot du Lake, son of King Ban of Benwyck, figures as the devoted lover of Arthur’s queen, Gueneuer (Skelton’s “_Gaynour_”), daughter of King Lodegreans of Camelard. On several occasions, Gueneuer, after being condemned to be burnt, is saved by the valour of her knight. But their criminal intercourse proves in the end the destruction of Arthur and of the fellowship of the Round Table. Gueneuer becomes a nun, Launcelot a priest. The last meeting of the guilty pair,—the interment of Gueneuer’s body by her paramour,—and the death of Launcelot, are related with no ordinary pathos and simplicity.

The same work treats fully of the loves of Sir Trystram, son of King Melyodas of Lyones, and La Beale Isoud (Skelton’s “_Bele Isold_”), daughter of King Anguysshe of Ireland, and wife of King Marke of Cornwall, Trystram’s uncle.—(Trystram’s wife, Isoud La Blaunche Maynys, was daughter of King Howel of Bretagne).—The excuse for the intrigue between Trystram and his uncle’s spouse is, that their mutual passion was the consequence of a love-potion, which they both drank without being aware of its nature.

“In our forefathers time,” observes Ascham, somewhat severely, “when Papistrie, as a standing poole, couered and ouerflowed all England, fewe bookes were red in our tonge, sauing certayne bookes of Chiualrie, as they sayd for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in Monasteries, by idle Monkes, or wanton Chanons: as one for example _Morte Arthur_: the whole pleasure of which booke standeth in two speciall pointes, in open mans slaughter, and bolde bawdrye: in which booke, those bee counted the noblest knights, that doe kill most men without any quarell, and commit fowlest aduoulteries by sutlest shifts: as Sir Launcelote, with the wife of king Arthure his maister: Sir Tristram, with the wife of King Marke his uncle: Syr Lamerocke, with the wife of king Lote, that was his own aunte. This is good stuffe, for wise men to laugh at, or honest men to take pleasure at. Yet I knowe, when Gods Bible was banished the Court, and _Morte Arthure_ receaued into the Princes chamber.” _The Schole Master_, fol. 27. ed. 1571.

Page 71. v. 649.

—— _of syr Lybius,_ _Named Dysconius_]

See the romance of _Lybeaus Disconus_ (_Le beau desconnu_), in Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ ii.; also Sir F. Madden’s note in the volume entitled _Syr Gawayne_, &c. p. 346.

v. 651.

_Of Quater Fylz Amund,_ ... ... _how they rode eche one_ _On Bayarde Mountalbon;_ _Men se hym now and then_ _In the forest of Arden_]

The English prose romance on the subject of these worthies came originally from the press of Caxton, an imperfect copy of his edition n. d. folio, being in Lord Spencer’s library; see Dibdin’s _Ædes Althorp._ ii. 298: and that it was also translated from the French by Caxton himself, there is every reason to believe; see Dibdin’s _Bibliog. Decam._ ii. 438. According to the colophon of Copland’s ed., this romance was reprinted in 1504 by Wynkyn de Worde; see _Typ. Antiq._ ii. 116. ed. Dibdin. Copland’s edition has the following title: _The right plesaunt and goodly Historie of the foure sonnes of Aimon the which for the excellent endytyng of it, and for the notable Prowes and great vertues that were in them: is no les pleasaunt to rede, then worthy to be knowen of all estates bothe hyghe and lowe, M.CCCCC.LIIII._ folio.

The names of the brothers were “Reynawde, Alarde, Guycharde, and Rycharde, that were wonderfull fayre, wytty, great, mightye, and valyaunte, specyally Reynawde whiche was the greatest and the tallest manne that was founde at that tyme in al the worlde. For he had xvi. feete of length and more.” fol. i. ed. Copl. The father of this hopeful family was Duke of Ardeyne.

_Bayarde_—(properly a bay horse, but used for a horse in general)—“was suche a horse, that neuer was his like in all the world nor neuer shall be except Busifal the horse of the great Kinge Alexander. For as for to haue ronne. xxx. myle together he wolde neuer haue sweted. The sayd Bayard thys horse was growen in the Isle of Boruscan, and Mawgys the sonne of the duke Benes of Aygremount had gyuen to his cosin Reynawde, that after made the Kynge Charlemayne full wrothe and sory.” fol. v. Reynawde had a castle in Gascoigne called Mountawban; hence Skelton’s expression, “_Bayarde Mountalbon_.” A wood-cut on the title-page represents the four brothers riding “_eche one_” upon the poor animal. “I,” says Reynawde, relating a certain adventure, “mounted vpon Bayarde and my brethern I made to mount also thone before and the two other behynde me, and thus rode we al foure vpon my horse bayarde.” fol. lxxxii.

Charlemagne, we are told, made peace with Reynawde on condition that he should go as a pilgrim, poorly clothed and begging his bread, to the holy land, and that he should deliver up Bayard to him. When Charlemagne had got possession of the horse,—“Ha Bayarde, bayarde,” said he, “thou hast often angred me, but I am come to the poynt, god gramercy, for to auenge me;” and accordingly he caused Bayarde to be thrown from a bridge into the river Meuse, with a great millstone fastened to his neck. “Now ye ought to know that after that bayarde was caste in the riuer of meuze: he wente vnto the botom as ye haue herde, and might not come vp for bicause of the great stone that was at his necke whiche was horryble heuye, and whan bayarde sawe he myghte none otherwise scape: he smote so longe and so harde with his feete vpon the mylle stone: that he brast it, and came agayne aboue the water and began to swym, so that he passed it all ouer at the other syde, and whan he was come to londe: he shaked hymselfe for to make falle the water fro him and began to crie hie, and made a merueyllous noyse, and after beganne to renne so swyftlye as the tempest had borne him awaie, and entred in to the great forest of Ardeyn ... and wit it for very certayn that the folke of the countrey saien, that he is yet alyue within the wood of Ardeyn. But wyt it whan he seeth man or woman: he renneth anon awaye, so that no bodye maye come neere hym.” fol. cxlv.

Page 71. v. 661. _Of Judas Machabeus_] “Gaultier de Belleperche Arbalestrier, ou Gaultier Arbalestrier de Belleperche, commença _le Romans de Judas Machabee_, qu’il poursuiuit jusques à sa mort.... Pierre du Riez le coutinua jusques à la fin.” Fauchet’s _Recveil de l’origine de la langue et poesie Françoise_, &c., p. 197.

v. 662.—_of Cesar Julious_] In the prologue to an ancient MS. poem, _The boke of Stories called Cursor Mundi_, translated from the French, mention is made of the _romance_

“Of _Julius Cesar_ the emperour.”

Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ i. 123, note, ed. 4to.

v. 663.

—— _of the loue betwene_ _Paris and Vyene_]

This prose romance was printed by Caxton in folio: _Here begynneth thystorye of the noble ryght valyaunt and worthy knyght Parys, and of the fayr Vyēne the daulphyns doughter of Vyennoys, the whyche suffred many aduersytees bycause of theyr true loue or they coude enioye the effect therof of eche other_. Colophon: _Thus endeth thystorye of the noble_, &c. &c., _translated out of frensshe in to englysshe by Wylliam Caxton at Westmestre fynysshed the last day of August the yere of our lord MCCCCLXXXV, and enprynted the xix day of decembre the same yere, and the fyrst yere of the regne of kyng Harry the seuenth_.

Gawin Douglas tells us in his _Palice of Honour_, that, among the attendants on Venus,

“Of France I saw thair _Paris and Veane_.”

p. 16. Bann. ed.

Page 71. v. 665. _duke Hannyball_]—_duke_, i. e. leader, lord.—So Lydgate;

“Which brother was vnto _duke Haniball_.”

_Fall of Prynces_, B. ii. leaf xlv. ed. Wayland;

and in a copy of verses entitled _Thonke God of alle_, he applies the word to our Saviour;

“The dereworth _duke_ that deme vs shalle.”

_MS. Cott. Calig._ A ii. fol. 66.

v. 667. _Fordrede_] i. e. utterly, much afraid.

“To wretthe the king thai were _for dred_ [_sic_].”

_Seynt Katerine_, p. 170,—Turnbull’s _Legendæ Catholicæ_ (from the Auchinleck MS.).

v. 668. _wake_] i. e. watch,—besiege.

v. 673.

_Of Hector of Troye_ _That was all theyr ioye_]

See the _Warres of Troy_ by Lydgate, a paraphrastical translation of Guido de Colonna’s _Historia Trojana_: it was first printed in 1513. See too the _Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_. Compare Hawes;

“Of the worthy _Hector that was all theyr ioye_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. P iii. ed. 1555.

v. 677.

—— _of the loue so hote_ _That made Troylus to dote_ _Vpon fayre Cressyde, &c._]

See Chaucer’s _Troilus and Creseide_.

Page 72. v. 682. _Pandaer_] Or _Pandare_ as Chaucer occasionally calls Pandarus.

—— _bylles_] i. e. letters: see Chaucer’s _Troilus and Creseide_.

v. 686. _An ouche, or els a ryng_] “_Nouche_. Monile.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “_Ouche_ for a bonnet _afficquet_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. li. (Table of Subst.). “He gaue her an _ouche_ couched with perles, &c.... _monile_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. k iii. ed. 1530.—Concerning _ouche_ (jewel, ornament, &c.), a word whose etymology and primary signification are uncertain, see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._, to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, v. _Nouches_, and Richardson’s Dict. in v. _Ouch_.—Here, perhaps, it means a brooch: for in the third book of Chaucer’s _Troilus and Creseide_, Cressid proposes that Pandarus should bear a “blew ring” from her to Troilus; and (_ibid._) afterwards the lovers

“enterchaungeden her _ringes_, Of which I can not tellen no scripture, But well I wot, a _broche_ of gold and azure, In which a Rubbie set was like an herte, Creseide him yaue, and stacke it on his sherte.”

Chaucer’s _Workes_, fol. 164. ed. 1602.

After Cressid becomes acquainted with Diomede, she gives him _a brooch_, which she had received from Troilus on the day of her departure from Troy. _Id._ fols. 179, 181. In Henrysoun’s _Testament of Creseide_ (a poem of no mean beauty), Cressid, stricken with leprosy, bequeathes to Troilus _a ring_ which he had given her. _Id._ fol. 184.

Page 72. v. 700. _That made the male to wryng_] So Skelton elsewhere;

“That ye can not espye Howe the _male_ dothe _wrye_.”

_Colyn Cloute_, v. 687. vol. i. 337.

“The countrynge at Cales _Wrang_ vs on the _males_.”

_Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 74. vol. ii. 29,

and so Lydgate;

“Now al so mot I thryue and the, saide he than, I can nat se for alle wittes and espyes, And craft and kunnyng, but that _the male so wryes_ That no kunnyng may preuayl and appere Ayens a womans wytt and hir answere.”

_The prohemy of a mariage_, &c.,—_MS. Harl._ 372. fol. 50.

I do not understand the expression. In Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, besides “_Male_ or wallet to putte geare in,” we find “_Mayle_ that receyueth the claspe of a gowne in to it ... _porte_,” fol. xlvi. (Table of Subst.).

v. 702. _The song of louers lay_]—_lay_ seems here to mean—law.

“Of _louers lawe_ he toke no cure.”

_Harpalus_ (from pieces by uncertain authors printed with the poems of Surrey),—Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._ ii. 68. ed. 1794.

Page 73. v. 716. _kys the post_] So Barclay;

“Yet from beginning absent if thou be, Eyther shalt thou lose thy meat and _kisse the post_,” &c.

_Egloge_ ii. sig. B iiii. ed. 1570.

The expression is found in much later writers: see, for instance, Heywood’s _Woman Kilde with Kindnesse_, sig. E 2. ed. 1617.

v. 717. _Pandara_] So in Chaucer (according to some copies);

“Aha (quod _Pandara_) here beginneth game.”

_Troilus and Creseide_, B. i. fol. 147,—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

Page 73. v. 719. _But lyght for somer grene_] See note, p. 115. v. 355.

v. 727. _ne knew_] i. e. knew not.

v. 728. _on lyue_] i. e. alive.

v. 732. _make_] i. e. mate.

v. 735. _proces_] i. e. story, account. So again in this poem “_relation_” and “_prosses”_ are used as synonymous, vv. 961, 969; and in our author’s _Magnyfycence_ we find

“Vnto this _processe_ brefly compylyd.”

v. 2534. vol. i. 308.

and presently after,

“This _treatyse_, deuysyd to make you dysporte.”

v. 2562. p. 309.

The 15th chap. of the first book of Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_ is headed “A _processe_ of Narcissus, Byblis, Myrra,” &c.

v. 736.—_of Anteocus_] Whom Chaucer calls “the cursed king Antiochus.” _The Man of Lawes Prol._ v. 4502. ed. Tyr. His story may be found in Gower’s _Confessio Amantis_, lib. viii. fol. clxxv. sqq. ed. 1554.

v. 739.

—— _of Mardocheus,_ _And of great Assuerus, &c._]

“Even scripture-history was turned into romance. The story of Esther and Ahasuerus, or of Amon or Hamon, and Mardocheus or Mordecai, was formed into a fabulous poem.” Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 178. (where some lines of the romance are quoted from a MS.) ed. 4to.

v. 741. _Vesca_] i. e. Vashti.

v. 742. _teene_] i. e. wrath: see the Book of _Esther_.

v. 745. _Of kyng Alexander_] See Weber’s _Introduction_, p. xx. sqq., and the romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_ in his _Met. Rom._ i.; also _The Buik of the most noble and vailȝeand Conquerour Alexander the Great_, reprinted by the Bannatyne Club, 1831.

v. 746.—_of kyng Euander_] As the lady declares (v. 756) that she was slightly acquainted with Virgil, we may suppose that her knowledge of this personage was derived from _The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_, and Caxton’s _Boke of Eneydos_.

Page 74. v. 751. _historious_] i. e. historical.

v. 752. _bougets and males_] i. e. budgets and bags.

v. 754. _sped_] i. e. versed in.

v. 760. _mo_] i. e. more.

v. 766. _Phorocides_] i. e. Pherecydes.

v. 767. _auncyente_] i. e. antiquity.

Page 74. v. 768. _to diffuse for me_] i. e. too difficult for me to understand. “_Dyffuse_ harde to be vnderstande, _diffuse_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxvi. (Table of Adiect.).

“What quoth Doctryne where is he now That meued this mater straunge and _dyffuse_.”

Lydgate’s _Assemble de dyeus_, sig. f ii. n. d. 4to.

“Whyche is _defuse_, and right fallacyous.”

Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. H i. ed. 1555.

“But oft yet by it [logick] a thing playne, bright and pure, Is made _diffuse_, vnknowen, harde and obscure.”

Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 53. ed. 1570.

v. 775. _enneude_] “I _Ennewe_ I set the laste and fresshest coloure vpon a thyng as paynters do whan their worke shall remayne to declare their connyng, _Je renouuelle_. Your ymage is in maner done, so sone as I haue _ennewed_ it I wyl sende it you home,” &c. Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxxvi. (Table of Verbes).

“Ylike _enewed_ with quickenes of coloure, Both of the rose and the lyly floure.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sig. I ii. ed. 1555.

“And the one shylde was _enewed_ with whyte, and the other shelde was reed.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. iii. c. ix. vol. i. 81. ed. Southey.

v. 776. _pullysshed_] i. e. polished.

—— _lusty_] i. e. pleasant, beautiful.

v. 779. _frowardes_] i. e. frowardness.

Page 75. v. 788. _sped_] i. e. versed.

v. 791. _Solacious_] i. e. affording amusement.

v. 792. _alowed_] i. e. approved.

v. 793. _enprowed_] In the Glossary to Fry’s _Pieces of Ancient Poetry_, 1814, where a portion of the present poem is given, _enprowed_ is rendered “profited of:” the whole passage is very obscure.

v. 799. _warke_] i. e. work.

v. 804.

—— _Johnn Lydgate_ _Wryteth after an hyer rate_]

Lydgate, however, disclaims all elevation of style: see his _Fall of Prynces_, Prol. sig. A iii. ed. Wayland; his _Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sigs. F ii, K. ii, B. v. sigs. E e i. ii. iii. ed. 1555.

v. 806. _dyffuse_] i. e. difficult: see note on v. 768, _supra._

v. 807. _sentence_] i. e. meaning.

v. 809. _No man that can amend_, &c.] So Hawes, speaking of the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate;

“Whose famous draughtes _no man can amende_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. G iiii. ed. 1555.

Page 75. v. 811. _faute_] i. e. fault.

v. 812. _to haute_] i. e. too high, too loftily.

Page 76. v. 817. _In worth_] See note, p. 95. v. 68.

v. 841. _Joanna_] See note, p. 122.

Page 77, v. 860.

_If Arethusa wyll send_ _Me enfluence to endyte_]

Skelton recollected that Virgil had invoked this nymph as a Muse;

“Extremum hunc, _Arethusa_, mihi concede laborem.”

_Ecl._ x. 1.

v. 869. _lust_] i. e. pleasure.

v. 872. _enbybed_] i. e. made wet.

v. 873. _aureat_] i. e. golden.

v. 875. _Thagus_] i. e. Tagus.

Page 78. v. 882. _remes_] i. e. realms.

v. 886. _Perce and Mede_] i. e. Persia and Media.

v. 896.

_She floryssheth new and new_ _In bewte and vertew_]

So Lydgate:

“And euer encrecyng _in vertue new and newe_.”

_The Temple of Glas._, sig. b vii. n. d. 4to.

See also his _Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sig. II i. B. iii. sig. S i. ed. 1555; and Chaucer, _The Pardoneres Tale_, v. 12863. ed. Tyr.

v. 903. _askry_] i. e. call out against, raise a shout against: see note on v. 1358, p. 152.

v. 905. _odyous Enui, &c._] Here Skelton has an eye to Ovid’s picture of Envy:

“Pallor in ore sedet; macies in corpore toto: Nusquam recta acies: livent rubigine dentes: Pectora felle virent: lingua est suffusa veneno. Risus abest, nisi quem visi movere dolores. Nec fruitur somno, vigilacibus excita curis: Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo, Successus hominum: carpitque et carpitur una: Suppliciumque suum est.”

_Met._ ii. 775.

See too the description of Envy in _Pierce Plowman_, sig. F ii. ed. 1561.

v. 908. _ledder_] i. e. leather, leathern.

Page 79. v. 912. _crake_] i. e. creak.

v. 913. _Leane as a rake_] From Chaucer;

“As _lene_ was his hors _as is a rake_.”

_Prol. to Cant. Tales_, v. 289. ed. Tyr.

Browne has the expression,—_Britannia’s Pastorals_, B. ii. S. 1. p. 18. ed. 1625.

Page 79. v. 915. _vnlusty_] i. e. unpleasant, unseemly.

v. 919. _wronge_] i. e. wrung.

v. 930. _bete_] i. e. agitated; or, perhaps, inflamed (the expression to _bete a fire_, to mend it, to make it burn, is a common one).

v. 931. _frete_] i. e. eaten, gnawed.

v. 936. _semblaunt_] i. e. semblance, appearance.

Page 80. v. 947. _slo_] i. e. slay.

v. 963. _agayne_] i. e. against.

v. 968. _dres_] i. e. address, apply.

v. 969. _prosses_] Equivalent to “_relation_” in v. 961: see note on v. 735, p. 143.

v. 970. _ken_] i. e. instruct.

v. 973. _As hym best lyst_] i. e. As best pleases him.

Page 81. v. 980. _bedell_] i. e., I apprehend, servitor: but Nares, MS. note on Skelton, explains it—beadsman.

v. 999. _sort_] i. e. set, assemblage.

v. 1002. _fauour_] i. e. appearance, look—or, perhaps, beauty,—in which sense the word occurs v. 1048.

v. 1003. _Ennewed_] See note on v. 775, p. 144.

Page 82. v. 1014.

_Her eyen gray and stepe_ ... _With her browes bent_]

“_Gray_ coloured _as ones eyes be vair_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxviii. (Table of Adiect.):—_bent_, i. e. arched. Compare Hawes;

“Her forehead _stepe with_ fayre _browes ybent_ _Her eyen gray_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. S i. ed. 1555.

I may just observe that these passages (and many others which might be cited) shew how unnecessarily Ritson substituted “brent” for “bent” in _The Squyr of Lowe Degre_; see his note, _Met. Rom._ iii. 351.

v. 1019. _Polexene_] i. e. Polyxena, the daughter of Priam,—celebrated by Lydgate in his _Warres of Troy_, and by others.

v. 1031. _The Indy saphyre blew_] _Indy_ may perhaps be used here for—Indian; but I believe the expression is equivalent to—the azure blue sapphire (Skelton in his _Garlande of Laurell_ has “_saphiris indy blew_,” v. 478, vol. i. 381); see note, p. 101. v. 17.

v. 1032. _ennew_] See note on v. 775. p. 144.

Page 82. v. 1034. _lere_] i. e. skin.

v. 1035. _lusty_] i. e. pleasant, beautiful.

—— _ruddes_] i. e. ruddy tints of the cheek, complexion.

Page 83. v. 1048. _with fauour fret_]—_fauour_, i. e. beauty; so Skelton has “feturs _fauorable_,” in the second of his _Balettys_, v. 8, vol. i. 23: _fret_, I believe, does not here mean fraught (see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_), but is equivalent to—wrought, adorned,—in allusion to fret-work; so in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_,—

“_Fret_ all with orient perlys of Garnate.”

v. 485, vol. i. 381.

v. 1052.

_The columbine commendable,_ _The ielofer amyable_]

_Ielofer_ is perhaps what we now call gillyflower; but it was formerly the name for the whole class of carnations, pinks, and sweetwilliams. So Graunde Amoure terms La Bell Pucell;

“The gentyll _gyllofer_ the goodly _columbyne_.”

Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. N i. ed. 1555.

v. 1065. _denayd_] i. e. denied.

v. 1069. _conuenyently_] i. e. fittingly, suitably.

Page 84. v. 1077. _sker_] i. e. scar: see v. 1045.

v. 1078. _Enhached_] i. e. Inlaid: our author has the word again in his _Garlande of Laurell_;

“_Enhachyde_ with perle and stones preciously.”

v. 40. vol. i. 363.

v. 1081. _To forget deadly syn_] Compare the first of our author’s _Balettys_, v. 11. vol. i. 22.

v. 1096. _pastaunce_] i. e. pastime.

v. 1097. _So sad and so demure_]—_sad_, i. e. serious, grave, sober: so afterwards, “_Sobre_, demure Dyane.” v. 1224.

v. 1100. _make to the lure_] A metaphor from falconry: “_Lure_ is that whereto Faulconers call their young Hawks, by casting it up in the aire, being made of feathers and leather, in such wise that in the motion it looks not unlike a fowl.” Latham’s _Faulconry_ (_Explan. of Words of Art_), 1658.

v. 1102. _hole_] i. e. whole.

Page 85. v. 1105. _crased_] i. e. crushed, enfeebled.

v. 1106. _dased_] i. e. dazzled.

v. 1116.

_And to amende her tale,_ _Whan she lyst to auale_]

—_auale_ is generally—to let down, to lower: but I know not how to explain the present passage, which appears to be defective.

Page 85. v. 1118.

_And with her fyngers smale,_ _And handes soft as sylke,_ _Whyter than the mylke,_ _That are so quyckely vayned_]

—_quyckely vayned_, i. e. lively veined. Compare Hawes;

“By her propre _hande, soft as any sylke_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. H iiii. ed. 1555.

“_Her fingers small_, and therto right longe, _White as the milke, with blew vaynes_ among.”

_Id._ sig. S i.

v. 1124. _Vnneth_] i. e. Scarcely, not without difficulty. Here again the text seems to be defective.

v. 1125. _reclaymed_] A metaphor from falconry. “_Reclaming_ is to tame, make gentle, or to bring a Hawk to familiarity with the man.” Latham’s _Faulconry_ (_Explan. of Words of Art_), 1658.

Page 86. v. 1146. _tote_] i. e. look, gaze: see note on v. 411, p. 129.

v. 1147. _fote_] i. e. foot.

v. 1148. _hert rote_] i. e. heart-root.

v. 1151.

_She is playnly expresse_ _Egeria, the goddesse,_ _And lyke to her image,_ _Emportured with corage,_ _A louers pilgrimage_]

I must leave the reader to form his own idea of the meaning of the last two lines, which are beyond my comprehension.

v. 1157. _Ne_] i. e. Nor.

—— _wood_] i. e. mad, furious.

Page 87. v. 1170.

_So goodly as she dresses,_ _So properly she presses_ _The bryght golden tresses_ _Of her heer so fyne,_ _Lyke Phebus beames shyne._ _Wherto shuld I disclose_ _The garterynge of her hose?_]

—_Phebus beames shyne_, i. e. the shine of Phœbus’ beams. Compare Hawes;

“_Her shining here so properly she dresses_ Alofe her forehed with fayre _golden tresses_ ... Her fete proper, _she gartered well her hose_.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. S i. ed. 1555.

v. 1177. _to suppose_] i. e. to be supposed.

Page 87. v. 1178. _were_] i. e. wear.

v. 1179. _gere_] i. e. dress, clothes.

v. 1180. _fresshe_] i. e. gay.

v. 1184. _lusty somer_] i. e. pleasant summer.

v. 1194. _kyrtell_] “_Kyrtell_ a garment _corpset_, _surcot_, _cotelle_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xliii. (Table of Subst.). It has been variously explained (see notes on _Henry IV_.