Chapter V: Part 5

“_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_. Part ii. act ii. sc. 4, _Shakespeare_ by Malone and Boswell, xvii. 98, 99, Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._, and Nares’s _Gloss._), petticoat,—safe-guard or riding-hood,—long cloak,—long mantle, reaching to the ground, with a head to it that entirely covered the face, and usually red,—apron,—jacket,—and loose gown!!! The following note by Gifford on _Cynthia’s Revels_ (Jonson’s _Works_, ii. 260) gives the most satisfactory account of a kirtle: “Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commentators on our old plays as this; and all for want of knowing that it is used in a two-fold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the one or the other: but our ancestors, who wrote when this article of dress was everywhere in use, and when there was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves with the simple term (kirtle), leaving the sense to be gathered from the context.”

v. 1199. _let_] i. e. hinder.

Page 88. v. 1205. _pullysshed_] i. e. polished.

v. 1223. _Jane_] See note, p. 122.

v. 1225. _hyght_] i. e. called.

Page 89. v. 1242. _saynt Jamys_] i. e. Saint James of Compostella: see note on _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 354.

v. 1243. _pranys_] i. e. prawns.

v. 1244. _cranys_] i. e. cranes.

v. 1250. _sadly_] i. e. seriously, soberly.

v. 1251. _gyse_] i. e. guise, fashion.

Page 90. —— _an adicyon_] Though found in all the eds. of _Phyllyp Sparowe_ which I have seen, it was not, I apprehend, originally published with the poem. It is inserted (and perhaps first appeared) in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1261. vol. i. 412, where he tells us that some persons “take greuaunce, and grudge with frownyng countenaunce,” at his poem on Philip Sparrow,—alluding probably more particularly to Barclay; see note, p. 120, and _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

v. 1269. _ianglynge iayes_] See note on v. 396, p. 128.

Page 90. v. 1274. _depraue_] i. e. vilify, defame. “Thus was syr Arthur _depraued_ and euyl sayd of.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. xxi. c. i. vol. ii. 433. ed. Southey.

v. 1289. _estate_] i. e. high rank, dignity.

Page 91. v. 1291. _Hercules that hell dyd harow_]—_harow_, i. e. lay waste, plunder, spoil,—overpower, subdue,—Hercules having carried away from it his friends Theseus and Pirithous, as well as the dog Cerberus. The _harrowing of hell_ was an expression properly and constantly applied to our Lord’s descent into hell, as related in the Gospel of Nicodemus. There were several early miracle-plays on this favourite subject; and Lydgate strangely enough says that Christ

“Took out of helle soulys many a peyre
Mawgre Cerberus and al his cruelte.”

_Testamentum_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 49.

I may add, that Warner, speaking of Hercules, uses the words “harrowed hell.” _Albion’s England_, p. 23. ed. 1612.

v. 1293. _Slew of the Epidaures, &c._] Qy. is not the text corrupted here?

v. 1295. _Onocentaures_] i. e. Centaurs, half human, half asses. See Ælian _De Nat. Anim._ lib. xvii. c. 9. ed. Gron., and Phile _De Anim. Prop._ c. 44. ed. Pauw. Both these writers describe the onocentaur as having the bosom of a woman. R. Holme says it “is a Monster, being the Head and Breasts of a Woman set upon the Shoulders of a Bull.” _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 208.

v. 1296. _Hipocentaures_] i. e. Centaurs, half human, half horses.

v. 1302. _Of Hesperides withhold_] i. e. Withheld by the Hesperides.

v. 1314. _rounses_] i. e. common hackney-horses (though the word is frequently used for horses in general).

v. 1318.

_He plucked the bull_
_By the horned skull,_
_And offred to Cornucopia_]

The “bull” means Achelous, who, during his combat with Hercules, assumed that shape:

“rigidum fera dextera cornu
Dum tenet, infregit; truncaque a fronte revellit.
Näides hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum,
Sacrarunt; divesque meo bona Copia cornu est.”

Ovid. _Met._ ix. 85.

Page 92. v. 1322. _Ecates_] i. e. Hecate’s.

Page 92. v. 1326.

—— _the venemous serpent,_
_That in hell is neuer brent_]

—_brent_, i. e. burned. A somewhat profane allusion to the scriptural expression “the worm dieth not;”—(_worm_ and _serpent_ were formerly synonymous).

v. 1332. _infernall posty_]—_posty_, i. e. power. So Lydgate;

“Of heuene and erthe and _infernal pooste_.”

_Testamentum_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 47.

v. 1333. _rosty_] i. e. roast.

v. 1335. _wood_] i. e. mad, wild.

v. 1340. _frounsid_] i. e. wrinkled.

v. 1344. _Primo Regum_] i. e. _The First Book of Kings_, or, as it is now called, _The First Book of Samuel_, chap, xxviii.

“_Primo regum_ as ye may playnly reade.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. ii. leaf xxxix. ed. Wayland.

v. 1345.

_He bad the Phitonesse_
...
_But whether it were so,_
_He were idem in numero,_
_The selfe same Samuell, &c._]

—_Phitonesse_, i. e. Pythoness, witch,—the witch of Endor.

“And speke as renably, and faire, and wel,
As to the _Phitonesse_ did Samuel:
And yet wol som men say it was not he,” &c.

Chaucer’s _Freres Tale_, v. 7091. ed. Tyr.;

and see his _House of Fame_, B. iii. fol. 267, _Workes_, ed. 1602.

“And of Phyton that Phebus made thus fine
Came _Phetonysses_ that can so deuyne,” &c.

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sig. K vi. ed. 1555.

“And secretelye this Saule is forth gone
To a woman that should him rede and wisse,
In Israell called a _phytonesse_.
...
To diuines this matter I commit,
...
_Whether it was the soule of Samuell_,” &c.

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. ii. leaf xl. ed. Wayland.

See also Gower’s _Conf. Am._ B. iv. fol. lxxiii. ed. 1554; Barbour’s _Bruce_, B. iii. v. 982. ed. Jam.; G. Douglas’s Preface to his Virgil’s _Æneados_, p. 6, 1. 51. ed. Rudd.; and Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Monarchie_, B. iv. _Works_, iii. 151. ed. Chalmers.

Page 92. v. 1346. _dresse_] i. e. address, apply.

v. 1351. _condityons_] i. e. qualities. But in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_, where this “adicyon” is given, the passage according to Fake’s ed., and rightly perhaps (compare the preceding lines), stands thus;

“And by her supersticiouns
_Of_ wonderfull condiciouns.”

v. 1343. vol. i. 414.

Page 93. v. 1352. _stede_] i. e. place.

v. 1358. _ascry_] Has occurred before in this poem, see note on v. 903. p. 145. Palsgrave has “I _Askry_ as fore riders of an armye do their enemyes whan they make reporte where they haue sene them: _Je descouures_.... Whose company dyd _askry_ them first .... _les descouuryt_.” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cliii. (Table of Verbes). But in the present passage “ascry” seems to mean assail (with a shout). In Langtoft’s _Chronicle_ we find,

“Edward was hardie, the Londres gan he _ascrie_.”

p. 217. ed. Hearne,—

(who in Gloss. renders “_ascrie_”—cry to). The original French has,

“Sir Eduuard fiz le rays, les loundrays _escrye_.”

_MS. Cott. Jul._ A v. fol. 122.

Roquefort gives “_Escrier_: Faire entendre son cri d’armes dans une bataille ... marcher à l’ennemi, l’attaquer,” &c. _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ (_Sup._).

v. 1360. _my selfe dyscharge_] i. e. unburden myself,—open my mind.

v. 1365. _shene_] i. e. shine.