Chapter VII: Part 7

—— _ien_] i. e. eyne, eyes.

v. 39. _passe_] i. e. excel.

v. 40. _Howkyd as an hawkys beke, lyke Syr Topyas_] i. e. Hooked, &c. The allusion is to Chaucer’s _Sire Thopas_, who “had a semely nose.” v. 13659. ed. Tyr.

v. 41. _buske_] i. e. prepare, or rather, perhaps, hie.

v. 42. _fole_] i. e. fool.

_Be_] i. e. By.

_gorbelyd_] i. e. big-bellied.

_Godfrey_] Concerning this person, who assisted Garnesche in his compositions, and is afterwards called his _scribe_, I can give the reader no information.

Page 118. v. 2. _[Your] gronynge, ȝour grontynge, your groinynge lyke a swyne_] Skelton has elsewhere;

“Hoyning like hogges that _groynis_ and wrotes.”

_Against venemous tongues_, vol. i. 132.

“The Gruntyng and the _groynninge_ of the gronnyng swyne.”

_Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1376. vol. i. 415.

To _groin_ is explained to groan, to grunt, to growl; but perhaps our author may have used it like the French “_Groigner_. To nuzle, or to root with the snout.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._

v. 3. _alle to peuiche_] See note, p. 100. v. 32.

v. 4. _mantycore_] See note, p. 127. v. 294.

—— _maltaperte_] i. e. malapert, (perhaps an error of the transcriber).

v. 5. _lere_] i. e. complexion, skin.

—— _gresyd bote_] i. e. greased boot.

Page 118. v. 6.

_Ye cappyd Cayface copious, your paltoke on your pate,_
_Thow ye prate lyke prowde Pylate, be ware yet of chek mate_]

—_Cayface_, i. e. Caiaphas: _copious_ is perhaps an allusion to some sort of cope, in which that personage might have figured on the stage. The usual explanations of _paltock_ (“_Paltok._ Baltheus,” _Prompt. Parv._; “a short garment of the doublet kind,” Strutt’s _Dress and Habits_, &c. ii. 352) do not seem to suit the present passage. In Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr_., 1530. fol. lii. (Table of Subst.) we find “_Paltocke_ a patche _palleteau_;” and see what immediately follows in this poem: _Thow_, i. e. Though: _chek mate_; see note, p. 96. v. 29.

Compare _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4)

“Thow irefull attircop, _Pylat_ appostata.”
...
...“_Cayphass_ thy fectour.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 85, 86. ed. Laing.

v. 8. _Hole_] i. e. Whole, healed.

—— _Deu[ra]ndall_] Was the celebrated sword of Roland: see (among other works which might be referred to) Caxton’s _Lyf of Charles the Grete_, &c., 1485, “How Rolland deyed holyly after many martyres and orysons made to god ful deuoutely, and of the complaynte maad for _hys swerde durandal_.” Sig. m i.

—— _awne_] i. e. own.

v. 11. _Ye countyr vmwhyle to capcyously, and ar ye be dysiryd_]—_countyr_; see note, p. 92: _vmwhyle_, i. e. some time: _to_, i. e. too: _ar_, i. e. ere.

v. 12. _all to-myryd_] See note, p. 100. v. 32,—meaning, I suppose, all befouled.

v. 15. _Gabionyte of Gabyone_] So in his _Replycacion agaynst certayne yong scolers_, &c. Skelton calls them “_Gabaonitæ_,” vol. i. 218.

—— _gane_] “I _Gane_ or gape.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxliii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 16. _Huf a galante_] Compare;

“_Hof hof hof a frysch galaunt._”

_Mary Magdalene,—An. Mysteries from the Digby MSS._ p. 85. ed. Abbotsf.

“Make rome syrs and let vs be mery
With _huffa galand_ synge tyrll on the bery.”

_Interlude of the iiii. Elementes_, n. d. sig. B ii.

In some _Glossary_, to which I have lost the reference, is “_Huff_, a gallant.”

Page 118. v. 16. _loke_] i. e. look.

v. 17. _Lusty_] See note on title of the next poem, p. 183.

—— _jet_] i. e. strut; see note, p. 94. v. 43.

—— _jaspe_] Does it mean—wasp?

v. 19. _that of your chalennge makyth so lytyll fors_] i. e. that maketh (make) so little matter of your challenge.

Page 119. v. 22. _Syr Gy_, _Syr Gawen_, _Syr Cayus_, _for and Syr Olyuere_] Concerning the two first see notes, p. 136. v. 629: _Cayus_, or Kay, was the foster-brother of King Arthur; see the _Morte d’Arthur_, &c. &c.: _for and_ is an expression occasionally found in much later writers; see Middleton’s _Fair Quarrel_, act v. sc. 1., _Works_, iii. 544. ed. Dyce; and Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Knight of the Burning Pestle_,—

“_For and_ the Squire of Damsels, as I take it.”

Act ii. sc. 2. [sc. 3.],—

a passage which the modern editors have most absurdly altered: _Olyuere_ was one of the twelve peers of France.

v. 23. _Priamus_] Perhaps the personage so named, who fought with Gawayne, and was afterwards made a knight of the Round Table; see _Morte d’Arthur_, B. v. ch. x. xii. vol. i. 148 sqq. ed. Southey.

v. 24. _Arturys auncyent actys_] An allusion, perhaps, more particularly to the _Morte d’Arthur_; see its other title in note, p. 137. v. 634.

v. 25. _fysnamy_] i. e. physiognomy. So in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4.)

“—— thy frawart phisnomy.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 68. ed. Laing.

v. 26. _to hawte_] i. e. too haughty.

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

v. 29. _Godfrey_] See note on title of this poem, p. 180.

—— _gargons_] i. e. Gorgon’s.

v. 30. _Syr Olifranke_] Qy. a mistake of the transcriber for _Syr Olifaunte_, the giant mentioned in Chaucer’s _Sire Thopas_?

—— _splay_] i. e. display.

v. 31. _Baile_] Seems to mean—howl, cry. “I _Balle_ as a curre dogge doth, _Ie hurle_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. clvii. (Table of Verbes).

—— _folys_] i. e. fools.

v. 32. _ȝe_] i. e. ye.

Page 119. v. 36. _Gup_] See note, p. 99. v. 17.

—— _gorbellyd_] i. e. big-bellied.

v. 37. _turney_] i. e. tourney, contend.

—— _to fare to seke_] i. e. too far at a loss, inexperienced,—unable.

v. 38. _whypslovens_] A term which I do not understand.

—— _a coke stole_] i. e. a cucking-stool, a chair or stool fixed at the end of a long pole, used for the punishment of scolds and brawlers by plunging them in the water.

v. 39. _mantycore_] See note, p. 127. v. 294.

—— _marmoset_] A kind of ape, or monkey.

Page 120.—— _lusty Garnyche welle be seyn Crysteouyr_] Both these epithets allude to his dress: “_Lusty_ or fresshe in apparayle _frisque_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xci. (Table of Adiect.): _welle be seyn_; see note, p. 112. v. 283.—Compare Dunbar;

“Gife I be _lusty in array_,
Than luve I paramouris thay say
...
Gife I be nocht _weill als besene_,” &c.

_Poems_, i. 185. ed. Laing.

v. 1. _lewde_] i. e. ignorant, vile.

v. 3. _skrybe_] Printed by mistake in the text “skryke”—means Godfrey; see note on title of the preceding poem, p. 180, and compare v. 90 of the present.

v. 6. _I caste me_] i. e. I project, design.

v. 9. _fauyr_] i. e. appearance, look.

v. 11. _cousshons_] i. e. cushions.

v. 12. _condycyonns_] i. e. qualities, dispositions, habits. “_Condycions_ maners _meurs_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, fol. xxv. (Table of Subst.). “Whan a man is set in autoryte, than shall his _condycyons_ be spyed ... _Mores_ deprehenduntur.” “Thy _good condycyons_ ... _virtutes_ tuas.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. N i. ed. 1530.

v. 13. _Gup, marmeset, jast ye, morelle_] See notes, p. 93. v. 11. p. 99. v. 17, and this page, v. 39.

v. 14. _lorelle_] i. e. good-for-nothing fellow (see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_).

v. 15. _Lewdely_] i. e. Badly, (as in v. 18 _lewdnes_, i. e. badness); but in v. 19 it is to be understood in its more original meaning—ignorantly.

v. 18. _awne_] i. e. own.

v. 20. _ȝe_] i. e. ye.

v. 21. to _wyde_] i. e. too wide.

Page 120. v. 26. _dryvyll_] See note, p. 113. v. 337.

v. 27. _your nose dedde sneuylle_] So in _The Flytyng of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4);

“Out! out! I schowt, upon _that snout that snevillis_.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 86. ed. Laing.

v. 30. _fonne_] i. e. fool.

v. 31. _A gose with the fete vponne_] i. e. a goose with its feet on.

Page 121. v. 32. _slvfferd vp_] i. e. slabbered up.

—— _sowse_] “Succiduum. anglice. _sowce_.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d. (and so _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499). “_Souce trippes._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxv. (Table of Subst.). And see Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._ and Richardson’s _Dict._ in v.

v. 34. _xulde_] i. e. should: a provincialism (see, for instance, the _Coventry Mysteries_ passim), to be attributed not to Skelton, but to the transcriber.

v. 36. _bawdy_] i. e. foul; see note, p. 161. v. 90.

v. 38. _haftynge_] See note, p. 107. v. 138.

—— _polleynge_] i. e. plundering.

v. 40. _Gynys_] i. e. Guines.

v. 41. _spere_] i. e. spire, shoot,—stripling.

v. 42. _lewdly_] i. e. vilely, meanly.

—— _gere_] i. e. apparel.

v. 46. _dud frese_] i. e. coarse frieze.

v. 52. _ȝe_] i. e. ye.

v. 53. _warde_] i. e. wardrobe.

v. 54. _kyst a shepys ie_] i. e. cast a sheep’s eye.

v. 56. _gonge_] i. e. privy.

v. 62. _bassyd_] i. e. kissed.

Page 122. v. 68. _pyllyd garleke hed_] Palsgrave has both “_Pylled_, as one that wanteth heare,” and “_Pylled_ scalled.” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xciii. (Table of Adiect.). Compare the next poem _Against Garnesche_;

“Thow callyst me _scallyd_, thou callyst me mad:
Thow thou be _pyllyd_, thow ar nat sade.”

v. 116. vol. i. 130.

_Pilled-garlick_ was a term applied to a person whose hair had fallen off by disease; see Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._ in v.

v. 69. _hocupy there no stede_] i. e. occupy there no place, stand in no stead,—avail nothing.

v. 70. _Syr Gy of Gaunt_] So our author again, in his _Colyn Cloute_;

“Auaunt, _syr Guy of Gaunt_.”

v. 1157. vol. i. 355.

In _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (which, as already shewn, strongly resembles the present pieces _Against Garnesche_ in several minute particulars) we find—

“thow _spreit of Gy_.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 72. ed. Laing.

and at p. 37 of the same vol., in _The Droichis Part of the Play_, attributed to Dunbar,—

“I wait I am _the spreit of Gy_.”

So too Sir D. Lyndsay in his _Epistill to the Kingis Grace_ before his _Dreme_,—

“And sumtyme, lyke _the grislie gaist of Gy_.”

Works, i. 187. ed. Chalmers,—

who explains it “the well-known Sir Guy of romance.” But both Dunbar and Lyndsay allude to a story concerning the ghost of a person called Guy, an inhabitant of Alost. There is a Latin tract on the subject, entitled _De spiritu Guuidonis_, of which various translations into English are extant in MS. One of these is now before me, in verse, and consisting of 16 closely written 4to pages: _Here begynnyth a notabyll matere and a gret myracule don be oure lord ihesus cryst and shewyd In the ȝeer of his incarnacion MCCCXXIII._ [printed Latin tract now before me has MCCCXXIIII.] _and in the xvi day of decembyr in the Cete of Aleste. Whiche myracule ys of a certeyn man that was callyd Gy. and deyde and aftyr viii days he apperyd to his wyf aftyr the comaundment of god. of whiche apperyng she was aferd and oftyn tyme rauysshid. Than she toke conseyl and went to the ffreris of the same cete and tolde the Pryor ffrere Iohnn goly of this mater, &c._ As _Gaunt_ is the old name of Ghent, and as Alost is about thirteen miles from that city, perhaps the reader may be inclined to think,—what I should greatly doubt,—that Skelton also alludes to the same story.

Page 122. v. 71. _olyfaunt_] i. e. elephant.

v. 72. _pykes_] i. e. pickaxe. “_Pykeys._ Ligo. Marra.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

—— _twybyll_] “_Twybyll_ writis instrument. Bisacuta. Biceps.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “Twybill or mactok. Marra. Ligo.” _Ibid._ “Bipennis ... a _twyble_ or axe, a twall.” _Ortus Vocab._ ed. 1514. (in the earlier ed. fol. n. d. W. de Worde, the English explanation is less full). “_Twyble_ an instrument for carpentars _bernago_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxi. (Table of Subst.).

Page 122. v. 75. _wary_] Is frequently found in the sense of curse,—

(“Who so the _waris wared_ be he.”

_Isaac_,—_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 43)—

but here, I apprehend, it means—war, contend.

v. 79. _eldyr steke_] i. e. elder-stick.

v. 87. _sowtters_] i. e. shoemakers, cobblers.

v. 88. _seche a nody polle_] i. e. such a silly head, ninny.

v. 89. _pryste_] i. e. priest.

v. 90. _your scrybys nolle_] i. e. your scribe’s head,—Godfrey’s; see note on title of the preceding poem, p. 180.

v. 91. _fonde_] i. e. foolish.

v. 93. _make_] i. e. compose verses.

v. 94. _dawpate_] i. e. simple pate, simpleton; see note, p. 113. v. 301.

Page 123. v. 101. _Bolde bayarde_] The proverbial expression, “as bold as blind bayard,”—(_bayard_, properly a bay horse, but used for a horse in general),—is very ancient, and of very frequent occurrence in our early literature; its origin is not known:

“For _blynde bayarde_ caste peryll of nothynge,
Tyll that he stumblyng fall amydde the lake.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. v. sig. E e ii. ed. 1555.

v. 102. _kynde_] i. e. nature.

v. 108.

_Ye wolde be callyd a maker,_
_And make moche lyke Jake Raker_]

i. e. You would be called a composer of verses, or poet, and you compose much in the style of Jack Raker. So again our author;

“Set _sophia_ asyde, for euery _Jack Raker_
And euery mad medler must now be a maker.”

_Speke, Parrot_, v. 165. vol. ii. 8.

“He maketh vs _Jacke Rakers_;
He sayes we ar but crakers,” &c.

_Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 270. vol. ii. 35.

So too in the comedy by Nicholas Udall, entitled _Ralph Royster Doyster_;

“Of Songs and Balades also he is a maker,
And that can he as finely doe as _Jacke Raker_.”

Act ii. sc. 1. p. 27. (reprint.)

Mr. Collier (_Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet._ ii. 448) speaks of Jack Raker as if he really had existed: I rather think that he was an imaginary person, whose name had become proverbial.

v. 110. _crakar_] i. e. vaunter, big talker.

Page 123. v. 114. _despyghtyng_] “I _Dispyte_ I grutche or reprime agaynst a thing.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxiiii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 115. _nat worthe a myteyng_]—_myteyng_ (which occurs in our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_ as a term of endearment, v. 224. vol. i. 102) is here perhaps equivalent to “_Myte_ the leest coyne that is _pite_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlviii. (Table of Subst.).

v. 117. _scole_] i. e. school.

v. 118. _occupyed no better your tole_] i. e. used no better your tool, pen: see note, p. 86. v. 52.

v. 119. _Ye xulde haue kowththyd me a fole_] i. e. You should have made me known for, shewn me to be, a fool.

v. 121. _wyse_] i. e. think, intend.

v. 122. _xall_] i. e. shall.

v. 123. _Thow_] i. e. Though.

—— _Sarsens_] i. e. Saracen’s.

v. 124. _Row_] i. e. Rough.

—— _here_] i. e. hair.

v. 125. _heuery_] i. e. every.

v. 127. _peson_] i. e. pease.

v. 129. _geson_] i. e. scarce, scanty.

v. 131.

_Your skyn scabbyd and scuruy,_
_Tawny, tannyd, and shuruy_, &c.]

—_shuruy_, i. e., perhaps, “_shrovy_, squalid.” Forby’s _Vocab. of East Anglia_. With this passage compare _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4);

“Fy! skolderit skyn, thow art bot skyre and skrumple.”
...
“Ane crabbit, _skabbit_, evill facit messane tyk.”
...
“Thow lukis _lowsy_.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 70, 84, 72. ed. Laing.

Page 124. v. 139. _Xall kyt both wyght and grene_] i. e. Shall cut both white and green,—an allusion to the dress which our author appears to have worn as Laureat; see _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

v. 140. _to grett_] i. e. too great.

v. 143. _puauntely_] i. e. stinkingly, strongly.

v. 155. _crawes_] i. e. crops, stomachs.

v. 157. _perke_] i. e. perch.

v. 158. _gummys_] i. e. gums.

Page 124. v. 159. _serpentins_] “His campe was enuironed with artilerie, as fawcones, _serpentynes_, cast hagbushes,” &c. Hall’s _Chronicle_ (Henry viii.), fol. xxviii. ed. 1548.

v. 160. _bynde_] i. e. bend; so in the next poem we find “_wyll_” for “_well_,” and “_spynt_” for “_spent_,” peculiarities to be attributed to the transcriber, not to Skelton.

v. 162. _scorpyone_] So in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4) “_scorpion_ vennemous.” Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 75. ed. Laing.

v. 163. _bawdy babyone_] i. e. filthy baboon; see note, p. 161. v. 90.

v. 165. _mantycore_] See note, p. 127. v. 294.

v. 168. _gresly gargone_] i. e. grisly Gorgon.

—— _glaymy_] i. e., I suppose, slimy, clammy.

v. 169. _seymy_] i. e. greasy.

Page 125. v. 170. _murrionn_] i. e. Moor; see note, p. 178. v. 22.

—— _mawment_] “_Mawment._ Idolum. Simulacrum.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “_Maument marmoset, poupee._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlvii. (Table of Subst.). “_Mawment_, a puppet.” Brockett’s _Gloss. of North Country Words_.—(_Mawmet_, i. e. Mahomet.)

v. 172. _marmoset_] A sort of ape or monkey.

v. 173. _I wyll nat dy in they det_]—_they_, i. e. thy; as in the next poem.—Compare _Cocke Lorelles Bote_;

“Yf he call her calat she calleth hym knaue agayne
She _shyll not dye in his dette_.”

Sig. B i.

v. 175. _xulddst_] i. e. shouldst.

v. 176. _xall_] i. e. shall.

v. 177. _hole_] i. e. whole.

v. 178. _Soche pelfry thou hast pachchyd_] I do not understand this line: _pelfry_ is, perhaps, pilfery; but does it not rather mean—petty goods,—which Garnesche had _pachchyd_, fraudulently got together? “Muche of theyr fishe they do barter with English men, for mele, lases, and shoes, and other _pelfery_.” Borde’s _Boke of knowledge_, sig. I, reprint. “Owt of whyche countre the sayd Scottys fled, and left mych corne, butters, and other _pylfre_, behinde theim, whyche the ost hade.” Letter from Gray to Crumwell, _State Papers_, iii. 155,—the Vocabulary to which renders _pylfre_, pillage—wrongly, I believe.

v. 179. _houyr wachyd_] i. e. over watched.

v. 180. _thou xuldyst be rachchyd_] i. e. thou shouldest be stretched—have thy neck stretched. So in _The Flytyng of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4);

“For substance and geir thow hes _a widdy_ teuch
On Mont Falcone, about _thy craig to rax_.”

Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 79. ed. Laing.

Page 125. v. 182. _be bedawyd_] Does it mean—be daunted? or, be called simple fellow? see note, p. 113. v. 301.

v. 183. _fole_] i. e. fool.

v. 184. _gronde_] i. e. ground.

v. 186. _Syr Dalyrag_] So our author elsewhere;

“Let syr Wrigwrag wrastell with _syr Delarag_.”

_Speke, Parrot_, v. 91. vol. ii. 6.

“Adue nowe, sir Wrig wrag,
Adue, _sir Dalyrag_!”

_Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c. v. 297. vol. ii. 76.

v. 187. _brag_] i. e. proud, insolent.

v. 189. _kyt_ ... _to large_] i. e. cut ... too large.

v. 190. _Suche pollyng paiaunttis ye pley_] i. e. Such plundering pageants, thievish pranks, you play. The expression to “play a pageant”—to play a part,—has before occurred, see note, p. 88. v. 85. With the present passage compare: “This one _pageant_ hath stayned al other honest dedes ... _flagitium_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. N v. ed. 1530. “That was a wyly _pageaunt_ ... _commentum_.” Id. sig. N vi. “Thou gatest no worshyp by this _pageant_ ... _facinore_.” _Id._ sig. P v. “He had thought to playe me a _pagent_: _Il me cuyda donner le bont._” _Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cccxvii. (Table of Verbes). “A felowe which had renued many of Robin Hodes _Pagentes_.” Fabyan’s _Chron._ vol. ii. fol. 533. ed. 1559. “After he had _plaied_ all his troublesome _pageants_,” &c. Holinshed’s _Chron._ (Hen. viii.) vol. iii. 830. ed. 1587.

v. 191. _poynt_] i. e. appoint, equip.

—— _fresche_] i. e. smart.

v. 192. _he_] i. e. Godfrey; see note on title of the second of these poems, p. 180.

v. 193. _rowllys_] i. e. rolls.

v. 194. _sowllys_] i. e. souls.

v. 197.

_That byrd ys nat honest_
_That fylythe hys owne nest_]

—_fylythe_, i. e. defileth. This proverb occurs in _The Owl and the Nightingale_ (a poem of the 12th century), p. 4. Rox. ed.

v. 199. _wyst what sum wotte_] i. e. knew what some know.

Page 126. v. 204. _Jake a thrum_] In his _Magnyfycence_ our author mentions “_Jacke a thrommys_ bybyll,” v. 1444. vol. i. 272 (also in his _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 209. vol. i. 370); and in his _Colyn Cloute_ he uses the expression,—

“As wyse as _Tom a thrum_.”

v. 284. vol. i. 322,—

where the MS. has “_Jacke_ athrum.”—Compare: “And therto acordes too worthi prechers, _Jacke a Throme_ and Ione Brest-Bale.” _Burlesques,—Reliquiæ Antiquæ_ (by Wright and Halliwell), i. 84.

_goliardum_] Equivalent, probably, to buffoon, or ridiculous rhymer. See Du Cange’s Gloss. in v., Tyrwhitt’s note on Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, v. 562, and Roquefort’s _Gloss._ in v. _Goliard_.

_lusty Garnyshe well beseen Crystofer_] See note on title of the third of these poems, p. 183.

Page 126. v. 1. _gargone_] i. e. _Gorgon_.

v. 3. _Thowthe ye kan skylle of large and longe_] i. e. Though you be skilled in large and long; see note, p. 95. v. 49.

v. 4.

_Ye syng allway the kukkowe songe:_
...
_Your chorlyshe chauntyng ys al o lay_]

—_o lay_, i. e. one strain. So Lydgate;

“_The cokkowe syng can_ than _but oon lay_.”

_The Chorle and the Bird_,—_MS. Harl._ 116. fol. 151.

v. 12. _Cicero with hys tong of golde_] So Dunbar speaking of Homer and _Tully_;

“Your _aureate tongis_ both bene all to lyte,” &c.

_Poems_, i. 13. ed. Laing.

v. 17. _xalte_] i. e. shalt.

—— _warse_] i. e. worse.

v. 18. _They_] i. e. Thy; as in the preceding poem.

Page 127. v. 23. _lest good kan_] i. e. that knows the least good.

v. 25. _wylage_] i. e. village.

v. 28. _Lothsum as Lucifer_] So in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4), “_Luciferis_ laid.” Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 75. ed. Laing.

v. 29. _gasy_] i. e. gaze, look proudly.

v. 30. _Syr Pers de Brasy_] i. e. Pierre de Brézé, grand-seneschal of Anjou, Poitou, and Normandy, and a distinguished warrior during the reigns of Charles vii. and Lewis xi.: he fell at the battle of Montlhéry in 1465.

v. 31. _caytyvys carkes_] i. e. caitiff’s carcass.

v. 32. _blasy_] i. e. blaze, set forth.

v. 33. _Gorge Hardyson_] Perhaps the “George Ardeson” who is several times mentioned in the unpublished _Bokis of Kyngis Paymentis Temp. Hen._ vii. _and_ viii., preserved in the Chapter-House, Westminster: one entry concerning him is as follows;

“[xxiii. of Hen. vii.]

_George Ardeson_ and Domynicke Sall er }
bounden in an obligacion to pay for the }
lycence of cccl buttes of malvesey viˢ viiiᵈ }cxviˡⁱ xiiiˢ.”
for euery but within iii monethes next }
after they shalbe layde vpon lande }

Page 127. v. 34. _habarion_] i. e. habergeon. “_Haburion._ Lorica.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 35. the _Januay_] i. e. the Genoese. “The _ianuays_ ... Genuenses.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. k iii. ed. 1530.

v. 36. _trysyd hys trowle away_] i. e. (I suppose) enticed away his trull.

v. 37. _paiantes_] See note, p. 189. v. 190.

v. 39. _gate_] i. e. got.

—— _gaudry_] i. e., perhaps, trickery. In the _Towneley Mysteries_, _gawde_, trick, occurs several times.

v. 41. _Fanchyrche strete_] i. e. Fenchurch Street.

v. 42. _lemmanns_] i. e. mistresses.

v. 43. _Bas_] i. e. Kiss.

—— _buttyng_] A term of endearment, which I do not understand.

—— _praty_] i. e. pretty.

v. 47. _Bowgy row_] i. e. Budge Row: “This Ward [Cordwainers Street Ward] beginneth in the East, on the West side of Walbrooke, and runneth West, thorow _Budge row_ (a street so called of the Budge Furr, and of Skinners dwelling there),” &c. Stow’s _Survey_, B. iii. 15. ed. 1720.

v. 50. _mow_] i. e. mouth,—mock.

Page 128. v. 54. _lust_] i. e. liking, inclination.

v. 55. _broke_] i. e. badger.

v. 56. _Gup, Syr Gy_] See notes, p. 99. v. 17. p. 184. v. 70.

v. 57. _xulde_] i. e. should.

v. 59. _herey_] i. e. hairy.

v. 60. _on Goddes halfe_] See note, p. 174. v. 501.

v. 61. _pray_] i. e. prey.

v. 63. _auncetry_] i. e. ancestry.

v. 66. _askry_] See notes, p. 145. v. 903. p. 152. v. 1358.

v. 68. _Haroldis_] i. e. Heralds.

v. 69. _Thow_] i. e. Though.

v. 73. _brothells_] i. e. harlots. “_Brothell pailliarde putayn._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xxii. (Table of Subst.).

Page 128. v. 75. _Betweyn the tappett and the walle_] A line which occurs again in our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1249. vol. i. 265: _tappett_, i. e. tapestry, hangings.

v. 76. _Fusty bawdyas_] An expression used again by Skelton in his _Garlande of Laurell_;

“Foo, _foisty bawdias_! sum smellid of the smoke.”

v. 639. vol. i. 387.

It occurs in the metrical tale _The Kyng and the Hermyt_;

“When the coppe comys into the plas,
Canst thou sey _fusty bandyas_, [_baudyas_]
And think it in your thouht?
And you schall here a totted frere
Sey _stryke pantnere_,
And in ye [the] cope leve ryht nouht.”

_Brit. Bibliogr._ iv. 90.

and several times after, in the same poem.

v. 77. _harres_] Equivalent to—collection. Fr. _haras_, a stud. “_Haras_ of horse. Equicium.” _Prompt. Parv._,—_MS. Harl._ 221.

v. 78. _clothe of Arres_] i. e. tapestry; so called from Arras in Artois, where the chief manufacture of such hangings was.

v. 79. _eylythe_] i. e. aileth.

—— _rebawde_] i. e. ribald.

v. 82. _Auaunsid_] i. e. Advanced.

v. 83. _hole_] i. e. whole.

v. 85. _lorell_] See note, p. 183. v. 14.

—— _to lewde_] i. e. too ignorant, vile.

v. 86. _Lythe and lystyn_] i. e. Attend and listen—a sort of pleonastic expression common in our earliest poetry.

—— _all bechrewde_] See note, p. 97. v. 28.

Page 129. v. 88. _pointyd_] i. e. appointed.

v. 89. _semyth_] i. e. beseemeth.

—— _pyllyd pate_] See note, p. 184. v. 68.

v. 91. _scryue_] i. e. write.

v. 92. _cumys_] i. e. becomes.

v. 93. _tumrelle_] i. e. tumbrel.

v. 94. _melle_] i. e. meddle.

v. 95. _The honor of Englande_] i. e. Henry the Eighth.

v. 97. _wyl_] i. e. well; as afterwards in this poem.

—— _parcele_] i. e. part, portion.

v. 98. _yaue_] i. e. gave.

v. 99. _Eliconys_] i. e. Helicon’s.

v. 101. _commyth_] i. e. becometh.

Page 129. v. 101. _remorde_] Fr. “_Remordre._ To bite again; also, to carpe at, or find fault with.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._ The word is frequently used by Skelton (see, for instance, vol. i. 188, where he introduces it with other terms nearly synonymous,—“reprehending” and “rebukynge”).

v. 102. _creaunser_] i. e. tutor: see _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.—Erasmus, in his _Paraph. in Epist. Pauli ad Galat._ cap. 4. v. 2,—_Opp._ vii. 956. ed. 1703-6, has these words; “sed metu cohibetur, sed alieno arbitrio ducitur, sub _tutoribus_ et actoribus agens,” &c.: which are thus rendered in _The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testament_, vol. ii. fol. xiii. ed. 1548-9; “but is kept vnder with feare, and ruled as other men wyll, passyng that tyme vnder _creansers_ and gouernours,” &c. (Fr. _creanser_.)

v. 105. _primordialle_] i. e. original, earliest.

v. 106. _rybawde_] i. e. ribald.

—— _reclame_] i. e. tame,—a metaphor from falconry; see note, p. 148. v. 1125.

v. 111. _warlde_] i. e. world.

v. 114. _bawdy_] i. e. foul; see note, p. 161. v. 90.

Page 130. v. 117. _Thow_] i. e. Though.

—— _pyllyd_] See note, p. 184. v. 68.

—— _sade_] i. e. sad,—sober, discreet,—wise (see the preceding line).

v. 120. _Thowth_] i. e. Though.

v. 122. _throw_] i. e. little while, moment.

v. 125. _thé froo_] i. e. from thee.

v. 127. _lewde_] i. e. ignorant.

—— _shrow_] i. e. curse.

v. 132. _Prickyd_] i. e. Pointed.

v. 133.

_I wold sum manys bake ink horne_
_Wher thi nose spectacle case_]

—_manys_, i. e. man’s: _bake_, i. e. back: _Wher_, i. e. Were. Compare our author’s poem against Dundas, v. 37. vol. i. 194, and Bale’s _Kynge Iohan_, p. 35. Camden ed.

v. 135. _wyll_] i. e. well; as before in this poem.

v. 136. _ouyrthwarthe_] i. e. overthwart,—cross, perverse, cavillous, captious.

v. 144. _steuyn_] i. e. voice.

v. 145. _follest_] i. e. foulest.

v. 146. _lyddyr_] Or _lither_,—is—sluggish, slothful, idle; but the word is often used in the more general meaning of wicked, evil, depraved.

Page 130. v. 146. _lewde_] i. e. ignorant.

v. 147. _well thewde_] i. e. well dispositioned, well mannered.

Page 131. v. 148. _Besy_] i. e. Busy.

v. 149. _Syr Wrig wrag_] A term several times used by Skelton; see note, p. 189. v. 186.

v. 151. _slyght_] i. e. trick, contrivance.

v. 153. _to mykkylle_] i. e. too much.

v. 154. _I xulde but lese_] i. e. I should but lose.

v. 155. _tragydese_] i. e. tragedies. Skelton does not mean here dramatic pieces: compare his piece _Against the Scottes_, v. 72. vol. i. 184. So Lydgate’s celebrated poem, _The TRAGEDIES, gathered by Iohn Bochas, of all such Princes as fell from theyr estates_, &c.

v. 157. _my proces for to saue_]—_proces_, i. e. story; see notes, p. 143. v. 735. p. 146. v. 969. So our author in his _Why come ye nat to Courte_;

“Than, our _processe for to stable_.”

v. 533. vol. ii. 43.

v. 158. _xall_] i. e. shall.

v. 162. _a tyd_] i. e. betime.

v. 164. _Haruy Haftar_] See note, p. 107. v. 138.

v. 166. _xulde_] i. e. should.

v. 170. _hay ... ray_] Names of dances, the latter less frequently mentioned than the former:

“I can daunce _the raye_, I can both pipe and sing.”

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

v. 171. _fonde_] i. e. foolish.

v. 173. _lewdenes_] i. e. ignorance, baseness, worthlessness.

v. 176. _spynt_] i. e. spent, employed.

v. 180. _I xall thé aquyte_] i. e. I shall requite thee.

AGAINST VENEMOUS TONGUES.

Page 132. _Psalm cxlij._] _Vulg._ cxix. 3.

_Psal. lxvii._] _Vulg._ li. 7.

v. 4. _Hoyning_] “_Hoigner._ To grumble, mutter, murmure; to repine; also, to whyne as a child or dog.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._ “_Hoi_, a word vsed in driuing hogges,” says Minsheu; who proceeds to derive it “a Gr. κοΐ, quod est imitatio vocis porcellorum.” _Guide into Tongues_.

—— _groynis_] See note, p. 180. v. 2.

—— _wrotes_] i. e. roots.

Page 132. v. 2. _made ... a windmil of an olde mat_] The same expression occurs again in our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1040. vol. i. 258.

v. 4. _commaunde_] i. e. commend.

—— _Cok wat_] See note, p. 108. v. 173.

Page 133. v. 2. _lack_] i. e. fault, blame.

v. 3. _In your crosse rowe nor Christ crosse you spede_]—_crosse rowe_, i. e. alphabet; so called, it is commonly said, because a cross was prefixed to it, or perhaps because it was written in the form of a cross. See Nares’s _Gloss._ in v. _Christ-cross_. _Christ crosse you spede_ alludes to some other elementary form of instruction:

“How long agoo lerned ye _Crist crosse me spede_?”

Lydgate’s _Prohemy of a mariage_, &c.,—_MS. Harl._ 372. fol. 50.

and see title of a poem cited p. 167. v. 296.

v. 7. _cognisaunce_] i. e. badge.

v. 1. _scole_] i. e. school, teaching.

—— _haute_] i. e. high, lofty.

v. 2. _faute_] i. e. fault.

v. 2. _faitours_] Has been explained before (see p. 91. v. 172)—deceivers, dissemblers; and is rendered by Tyrwhitt (_Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_), lazy, idle fellows; but here the word seems to be used as a general term of reproach,—scoundrels.

—— _half straught_] i. e. half in their senses.

v. 4. _liddrous_] See note, p. 193. v. 146.

—— _lewde_] i. e. ignorant, vile.

v. 3. _vale of bonet of their proude sayle_]—_vale_, i. e. lower: _bonet_ means a small sail attached to the larger sails.

v. 4. _ill hayle_] See note, p. 176. v. 617.

Page 134. v. 4. _vntayde_] i. e. untied, loose.

—— _renning_] i. e. running.

v. 7. _lewdly alowed_] i. e., perhaps, ignorantly approved of.

v. 9. _vertibilite_] i. e. variableness.

v. 10. _folabilite_] i. e. folly.

v. 12. _coarte_] i. e. coarct, constrain.

v. 13. _hay the gy of thre_] Perhaps an allusion to the dance called _heydeguies_ (a word variously spelt).

v. 2. _Pharaotis_] i. e. (I suppose) Pharaoh.

v. 1. _vnhappy_] i. e. mischievous.

Page 135. v. 2. _atame_] i. e. tame.

v. 1. _tratlers_] i. e. prattlers, tattlers.

v. 3. _Scalis Malis_] i. e. Cadiz. “The tounes men of Caleis, or _Caleis males_, sodainly rong their common bell,” &c. Hall’s _Chronicle_ (Hen. viii.), fol. xiii. ed. 1548. “His fortunatest piece I esteem the taking of _Cadiz Malez_.” _A Parallel of the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Buckingham_,—_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, p. 177. ed. 1672.

Page 135. v. 4. _nut shalis_] i. e. nutshells.

v. 7. _ren_] i. e. run.

—— _lesinges_] i. e. falsehoods.

v. 8. _wrate suche a bil_] i. e. wrote such a letter.

v. 10. _ill apayed_] i. e. ill pleased, ill satisfied.

v. 1. _hight_] i. e. is called.

v. 2. _quight_] i. e. requite.

v. 5. _Although he made it neuer so tough_] The expression, _to make it tough_, i. e. to make difficulties, occurs frequently, and with several shades of meaning, in our early writers; see R. of Gloucester’s _Chronicle_, p. 510. ed. Hearne, and the various passages cited in Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_ in v. _Tough_. Palsgrave has “I _Make it tough_ I make it coye as maydens do or persons that be strange if they be asked a questyon.” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxcii. (Table of Verbes).

ON TYME.

Page 137. v. 5. _hym lyst_] i. e. pleases him.

v. 6. _couenable_] i. e. fit.

v. 10. _sad_] i. e. serious.

v. 17. _trauell_] i. e. travail, labour.

v. 21. _prease_] i. e. press, throng.

Page 138. v. 23. _lacke_] i. e. blame.

v. 24. _rotys_] i. e. roots.

—— _vere_] i. e. spring.

_Quod_] i. e. Quoth.

PRAYER TO THE SECONDE PARSON.

Page 139. v. 7. _Agayne_] i. e. Against.

v. 8. _woundis fyue_] A common expression in our early poetry;

“Jhesu, for _thi woundes five_,” &c.

Minot’s _Poems_, p. 5. ed. Ritson.

See too Dunbar’s _Poems_, i. 229. ed. Laing.

Page 140. v. 10. _blo_] i. e. livid; see note, p. 103. v. 3.

WOFFULLY ARAID

Is mentioned by our author as one of his compositions in the _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1418. vol. i. 417.

With the opening of this piece compare Hawes’s _Conuercyon of Swerers_, where Christ is made to exclaim,

“They newe agayne do hange me on the rode,
They tere my sydes, and are nothynge dysmayde,
My woundes they do open, and deuoure my blode:
I, god and man, moost _wofully arayde_,
To you complayne, _it maye not be denayde_;
Ye nowe to lugge me, ye tere me at the roote,
Yet I to you am chefe refuyte and bote.”

and a little after,

“Why arte thou _harde herted_,” &c.

Sig. A iii. ed. n. d. 4to.

Barclay too has,

“Some sweareth armes, nayles, heart, and body,
Tearing our Lorde worse then the Jewes him _arayde_.”

_The Ship of Fooles_, fol. 33. ed. 1570.

_Woffully araid_ is, I believe, equivalent to—wofully disposed of or treated, in a woful condition. “_Araye_ condicion or case _poynt_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xviii. (Table of Subst.)—(and see note, p. 164. v. 163).

“_Isaac._ What have I done, fader, what have I saide?
_Abraham._ Truly, no kyns ille to me.
_Isaac._ And thus gyltles shalle be _arayde_.”

_Abraham_,—_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 40.

—“His [Tybert’s] body was al to beten, and blynde on the one eye. Whan the kynge wyste this, that tybert was thus _arayed_, he was sore angry, &c.” _Reynard the Fox_, sig. b 8. ed. 1481. Again in the same romance, when Isegrym the wolf has received a kick on the head from a mare, he says to Reynard, “I am so foule _arayed_ and sore hurte, that an herte of stone myght haue pyte of me.” Sig. f 4.

“Who was wyth loue: more _wofully arayed_
Than were these twayne.”

Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. I iiii. ed. 1555.

“I am fowle _arayed_ with a chyne cowgh. _Laceor_ pertussi.”—“He was sore _arayed_ with sycknesse. Morbo atrociter _conflictus est_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sigs. II iii. I ii. ed. 1530.

Page 141. v. 4. _naid_] i. e. denied.

v. 5. _bloo_] i. e. livid; see note, p. 103. v. 3.

v. 8. _encheson_] i. e. cause.

v. 9. _Sith_] i. e. Since.

v. 12. _fretid_] Equivalent to—galled.

v. 14. _mowid_] i. e. made mouths at, mocked.

v. 19. _hart rote_] i. e. heart-root.

Page 141. v. 20. _panys_] i. e. pains.

—— _vaynys_] i. e. veins.

—— _crake_] i. e. crack.

Page 142. v. 24.

_Entretid thus in most cruell wyse,_
_Was like a lombe offerd in sacrifice_]

_Entretid_, i. e. Treated. So in a “litel dite” by Lydgate, appended to his _Testamentum_;

“Drawen as a felon _in moost cruel wyse_
...
_Was lik a lamb offryd in sacrifise_.”

_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 64.

v. 29. _bobbid_] i. e. struck. So Lydgate in the piece just cited;

“Bete and eke _bobbid_.”

_Ibid._

and in the _Coventry Mysteries_, Nichodemus seeing Christ on the cross, says

“Why haue ȝe _bobbyd_ and thus betyn owth
All his blyssyd blood?”

_MS. Cott. Vesp._ D viii. fol. 186.

—— _robbid_] i. e. (I suppose) robed.

v. 30. _Onfayned_] Generally means un-glad, displeased, which even in the forced sense of—to my sorrow, is against the intention of the passage: it seems to be used here for—Unfeignedly: and see note, p. 207. v. 81.

—— _deynyd_] i. e. disdained;

“Youth _dayneth_ counsell, scorning discretion.”

Barclay’s _Fifth Egloge_, sig. D ii. ed. 1570.

v. 33. _myȝt_] i. e. might.

v. 39. _enterly_] i. e. entirely.

v. 43. _ȝytt_] i. e. yet.

v. 45. _race_] i. e. tear, wound.

v. 48. _Butt gyve me thyne hert_]—_hert_, i. e. heart. With this and v. 41 compare Lydgate’s “litel dite” already cited;

“_Gyff me thyn herte_, and be no mor _vnkynde_.”

_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 66.

Page 143. v. 49. _wrouȝt_] i. e. wrought, formed.

—— _bowgȝt_] i. e. bought, redeemed.

v. 50. _hyȝt_] i. e. high.

v. 55. _sawlys_] i. e. soul’s.

v. 59. _Hytt_] i. e. It.

—— _nayd_] i. e. denied.

v. 60. _blow_] i. e. livid; see note, p. 103. v. 3.

NOW SYNGE WE, &c.

This piece is mentioned by Skelton as his own composition in the _Garlands of Laurell_, v. 1420. vol. i. 417.

Page 144. v. 1.

_Now synge we as we were wont,_
_Vexilla regis prodeunt_]

Compare Lydgate;

“Wherefore _I synge as I was wont_
_Vexilla regis prodeunt_.”

_Poem about various birds singing praises to God_,—_MS. Harl._
2251. fol. 38.

The hymn _Vexilla regis prodeunt_, &c. may be seen in _Hymni Ecclesiæ e Breviario Parisiensi_, 1838, p. 71. I ought to add that the present poem is not a translation of it.

v. 3. _onfelde is [s]playd_] i. e. is displayed on field.

v. 4. _nayd_] i. e. denied.

v. 11. _thees_] i. e. thighs.

v. 13. _pyne_] i. e. pain.

v. 14. _spylt_] i. e. destroyed, put to death.

v. 17. _dong_] i. e. dung, struck.

Page 145. v. 25. _fote_] i. e. foot.

v. 31. _Syth_] i. e. Since.

v. 33. _chere_] i. e. spirit,—or reception.

v. 35. _lykes_] i. e. pleases.

v. 40. _eysell_] i. e. vinegar.

v. 51. _doone_] i. e. done.

Page 146. v. 60. _isprode_] i. e. spread.

v. 68. _payne_] i. e. labour, strive.

v. 71. _mys_] i. e. miss, fail.

v. 72. _Withouten nay_] i. e. Without contradiction, assuredly.

v. 74. _hardnes_] i. e. cruelty.

LATIN POEM.

Page 147. v. 7. _gentis Agarenæ_] i. e. of the race of Hagar.

THE MANER OF THE WORLD NOW A DAYES.

In giving this poem a place among our author’s undoubted productions, I now apprehend that I deferred too much to the judgment of my friend Mr. J. P. Collier, who had recently reprinted it without suspecting its genuineness. It may, after all, be Skelton’s; but at any rate it is only a _rifacimento_ of the following verses,—found in _MS. Sloane_, 747. fol. 88, and very difficult to decipher:

“So propre cappes
So lytle hattes
And so false hartes
Saw y never.

So wyde gownes
In cytees and townes
And so many sellers of bromys
Say I never.

Suche garded huoes [hose]
Suche playted shoes
And suche a pose
Say y never.

Dowbletes not[?] syde
The syde so wyde
And so moche pride
Was never.

So many ryven shertes
So well appareld chyrches
And so many lewed clerkes
Say I never.

So fayre coursers
So godely trappers
And so fewe foluers
Say y never.

So many fayere suerdes
So lusty knyghtes and lordes
And so fewe covered bordes
Say I never.

So joly garded clokes
So many clyppers of grotes
And go vntyde be the throtes
Say I never.

So many wyde pu[r]ces
And so fewe gode horses
And so many curses
Say y never.

Suche bosters and braggers
And suche newe facyshyont daggers
And so many cursers
Say I never.

So many propere knyffes
So well apparelld wyfes
And so evyll of there lyfes
Say I never.

The stretes so swepynge
With wemen clothynge
And so moche swerynge
Say I never.

Suche blendynge of legges
In townes and hegges
And so many plegges
Say I never.

Of wymen kynde
Lased be hynde
So lyke the fende
Say I never.

So many spyes
So many lyes
And so many thevys
Say I never.

So many wronges
So few mery songges
And so many ivel tonges
Say I neuer.

So moche trechery
Symony and vsery
Poverte and lechery
Say I never.

So fewe sayles
So lytle avayles
And so many jayles
Sawe y never.

So many esterlynges
Lombardes and flemynges
To bere awey our wynynges
Sawe I never.

Be there sotyll weys
Al Englande decays
For suche false Januayes
Sawe I neuer.

Amonge the ryche
Where frenship ys to seche
But so fayre glosynge speche
Sawe I never.

So many poore
Comynge to the dore
And so litle socour
Sawe I never.

So prowde and say [gay?]
So joly in aray
And so litle money
Sawe I never.

So many sellers
So fewe byers
And so many marchaunt taylors
Sawe I never.

Executores havynge mony and ware
Than havynge so litle care
How the pore sowle shall fare
Sawe I never.

So many lawers vse
The truthe to refuse
And suche falsehed excuse
Sawe I never.

Whan a man ys dede
His wiffe so shortely wed
And havynge suche hast to bed
Sawe I neuer.

So many maydens blamed
Wrongefully not defamed
And beyenge so lytle ashamyd
Sawe I never.

Relygiouse in cloystere closyd
And prestes and large[272] losed
Beyenge so evyll disposyd
Sawe I never.

God saue our sovereygne lord the kynge
And alle his royal sprynge
For so noble a prince reyny[n]ge
Sawe I never.”

[272] _and large_] Qy. “at large?” but it is by no means certain that “large” is the reading of the MS.

Page 148. v. 9. _gardes_] i. e. facings, trimmings.

v. 10. _Jagged_] See note, p. 163. v. 124: but here probably (as certainly in v. 54) something ornamental is meant.

—— _al to-torne_] See note, p. 100. v. 32.

v. 15. _hostryes_] i. e. inns.

v. 17. _warkes_] i. e. works.

v. 22. _preves_] i. e. proves; equivalent, perhaps, to—turn out well.

Page 149. v. 25. _garded hose_] i. e. faced, trimmed breeches.

v. 26. _cornede_] i. e. horned, pointed.

v. 29. _questes_] i. e. inquests.

v. 31. _quitte_] i. e. acquitted.

v. 50. _crakers_] i. e. vaunters, big talkers.

v. 54. _cultyng and jagging_] See note above, v. 10: _cultyng_, I believe, should be _cuttyng_.

Page 150. v. 57. _knackes_] i. e. trifles, toys, or perhaps tricks.

v. 58. _naughty packes_] An expression which occurs again in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 188. vol. i. 369, is common in writers of a much later date, and is not yet altogether obsolete (see _The Dialect of Craven_, &c. in _Noughty-Pack_),—equivalent to worthless, loose persons (properly, it would seem, cheaters; see Richardson’s _Dict._ in v. _Pack_).

Page 151. v. 90. _kepe tuche_] i. e. keep contract, agreement.

v. 93. _pore_] i. e. poor.

v. 94. _bordoure_] i. e. border.

v. 101. _bowyers_] i. e. bow-makers.

v. 102. _fletchers_] i. e. arrow-makers.

v. 105. _chepers_] i. e. traffickers, sellers (compare the fourth stanza on the opposite page).

v. 109. _alle sellers_] i. e. ale-sellers.

v. 110. _baudy_] i. e. foul; see note, p. 161. v. 90.

—— _sellers_] i. e. cellars.

v. 113. _pinkers_] Some cant term which I do not understand.

Page 152. v. 121. _vacabounde_] i. e. vagabond.

v. 122. _londe_] i. e. land.

v. 123. _bonde_] i. e. bound.

v. 129. _fleyng_] i. e. flying.

v. 130. _males_] i. e. bags, wallets, pouches.

Page 152. v. 138. _covetous_] i. e. covetise, covetousness.

v. 141. _carders_] i. e. card-players.

v. 143. _yl ticers_] i. e. evil-enticers.

v. 145. _lollers_] “Apostaticus ... anglice a renegade or _loller_.” _Ortus Vocab._ ed. 1514. “_Lollar heretique._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlv. (Table of Subst.). So at the conclusion of _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_, the term _Lollard_ is used to signify a heretic: see Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 445 (note), ed. Laing. Compare too our author’s _Replycacion_, &c. v. 204. vol. i. 215.

v. 146. _tollers_] i. e. tellers, speakers.

v. 147. _pollers_] i. e. plunderers.

Page 153. v. 153. _So many avayles_] An expression which I do not understand: the poem just given from _MS. Sloane_ has “So _lytle_ avayles;” see p. 201, last stanza but two.

v. 154. _geales_] i. e. gaols.

v. 161. _jackes_] i. e. jackets.

v. 163. _partlettes_] i. e. ruffs.

v. 166. _tucking hookes_] Another expression which I do not understand.

v. 169. _song_] i. e. sung.

v. 178. _brybors_] i. e. thieves,—properly, pilferers. “_Briboure_. Manticulus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499; and see note on our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1242.

v. 182. _everichone_] i. e. every one.

Page 154. v. 186. _convenient_] i. e. fitting, suitable.

WARE THE HAUKE.

This poem was evidently called forth by a real event; but the name of the “hawking parson” has not transpired. According to Barclay, skill in hawking sometimes advanced its possessor to a benefice;

“But if I durst truth plainely vtter and expresse,
This is the speciall cause of this inconuenience,
That greatest fooles, and fullest of lewdnes,
Hauing least wit, and simplest science,
Are first promoted, and haue greatest reuerence,
For if one can flatter, and _beare a Hauke on his fist,_
_He shalbe made Parson of Honington or of Clist_.”

_The Ship of Fooles_, fol. 2. ed. 1570.

I may add, that afterwards, in the same work, when treating of indecorous behaviour at church, Barclay observes;

“Into the Church then comes another sotte,
Without deuotion, ietting vp and downe,
Or to be seene, and to showe his garded cote:
_Another on his fiste a Sparhauke or Fawcone_,” &c.

fol. 85.

Page 155. v. 5. _abused_] i. e. vitiated, depraved.

“Be all yonge galandes of these _abused_ sorte,
Whiche in yonge age vnto the court resorte?”

Barclay’s _Third Egloge_, sig. C ii. ed. 1570.

v. 8. _daw_] i. e. simpleton, fool; see note, p. 113. v. 301.

v. 16. _him fro_] i. e. from him.

Page 156. v. 22. _dysgysed_] i. e. guilty of unbecoming conduct: so again in our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;

“They mought be better aduysed
Then to be so _dysgysed_.”

v. 581. vol. i. 333.

v. 30. _apostrofacion_] i. e. apostrophe.

v. 34. _wrate_] i. e. wrote.

v. 35. _lewde_] i. e. ignorant, worthless.

v. 42. _Dis_] Of which Skelton was rector; see _Account of his Life and Writings_.

v. 43. _fonde_] i. e. foolish.

—— _fauconer_] i. e. falconer.

v. 44. _pawtenar_] “_Pautner_ [_Pawtenere_, _MS. Harl._ 221.]. Cassidile.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “Will. Brito: _Cassidile_ dicitur pera Aucupis in modum reticuli facta, in quo ponit quos in casse, id est, rete, cepit.” Du Cange’s _Gloss._ in v. “Pera ... anglice a skryppe or a _pawtner_.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d.

v. 48. _hogeous_] i. e. hugeous, huge.

v. 49. _auter_] i. e. altar.

v. 50. _craked_] i. e. talked vauntingly.

Page 157. v. 55. _yede_] i. e. went.

v. 56. _pray_] i. e. prey.

v. 60. _tyrid_] A term in falconry: the hawk _tired_ on what was thrown to her, when she pulled at and tore it.

v. 62. _mutid_] i. e. dunged.

—— _a chase_] Compare a passage in that curious tract, by Walter Smith, _xii Mery Jests of the wyddow Edyth_;

“Her potage & eke her ale were well poudred
With an holsome influence that surgeons call
Pouder Sinipari that wil make on cast his gall:”

in consequence of which, she is compelled suddenly to quit the supper-table, and,

“When that she was vp, she got her foorth apace,
And er she had walkt xxx fote, she marked _a chase_
And eftsones another, thrugh the Hal as she yede,” &c.

Sig. f iii. ed. 1573.

“A _chase_ at tennis is that spot where a ball falls, beyond which the adversary must strike his ball to gain a point or chace. At long tennis, it is the spot where the ball leaves off rolling.” Douce’s _Illust. of Shakespeare_, i. 485. Compare our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 880. vol. ii. 53.

Page 157. v. 63. _corporas_] i. e. communion-cloth, the fine linen cloth used to cover the _body_, or consecrated elements.

v. 65. _gambawdis_] i. e. gambols, pranks.

v. 66. _wexid_] i. e. waxed.

—— _gery_] “_Gerysshe_, wylde or lyght heeded _farouche_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxviii. (Table of Adiect.).

“Howe _gery_ fortune furyous and wode.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. iii. leaf lxxvii. ed. Wayland.

“And as a swalowe _geryshe_ of her flyghte,
Twene slowe and swifte, now croked nowe vpright.”

_Ibid._ B. vi. leaf cxxxiiii.

Tyrwhitt explains “_gery_—changeable.” _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_. Richardson observes that in the present passage of Skelton “it seems to be _giddy_ (sc.) with turning round.” _Dict._ in v.

v. 69. _the rode loft_] A loft (generally placed just over the passage out of the church into the chancel,) where stood the _rood_,—an image of Christ on the cross, with figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John on each side of it: compare v. 126 of the present poem;

“His hawke then flew vppon
_The rode with Mary and John”_.

v. 70. _perkyd_] i. e. perched.

v. 71. _fauconer_] i. e. falconer.

—— _prest_] i. e. ready.

v. 72. _dow_] i. e. pigeon.

v. 73. _And cryed, Stow, stow, stow!_] So Fansy, in our author’s _Magnyfycence_, exclaims to his hawk,

“_Stowe_, byrde, _stowe, stowe_!
It is best I fede my hawke now.”

v. 980. vol. i. 257.

Compare Brathwait’s _Merlin_;

“But _stow_, bird, stow,
See now the game’s afoote,
And white-mail’d Nisus,
He is flying to’t.”

_Odes_, p. 250, appended to _Natures Embassie_, 1621.

“Make them come from it to your fist, eyther much or little, with calling and chirping to them, saying: Towe, Towe, or _Stowe, Stowe_, as Falconers vse.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 182. ed. 1611.

Page 157. v. 76. _lure_] See note, p. 147. v. 1100.

v. 78. _endude_] “She [the hawk] _Enduyth_ whan her meete in her bowelles falle to dygestyon.” _Book of St. Albans_, by Juliana Barnes, sig. C iii.

v. 79. _ensaymed_] i. e. purged from her grease. “_Ensayme_ of an hawke,” says the lady just quoted, “is the greeys.” Sig. A v. See too “How you shall _enseame_ a Hawke,” &c. in Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 115. ed. 1611.

v. 80. _reclaymed_] i. e. tamed; see note, p. 148. v. 1125.

v. 81. _fawconer_] i. e. falconer.

—— _vnfayned_] Either, unfeignedly (in the next line but six is “not _fayne_ nor forge”) or un-glad, displeased: see note, p. 198. v. 30.

Page 158. v. 83. _lyst_] i. e. liking, inclination.

v. 85. _loked_] i. e. looked.

—— _the frounce_] Is a distemper in which a whitish foam gathers in wrinkles (frounces) about the hawk’s mouth and palate. “The _Frounce_ proceedeth of moist and cold humours, which descend from the hawkes head to their palate and the roote of the tongue. And of that cold is engendred in the tongue the _Frownce_,” &c. Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 303. ed. 1611.

v. 87. _the gorge_] “Is that part of the Hawk which first receiveth the meat, and is called the Craw or Crop in other fowls.” Latham’s _Faulconry_, (Explan. of Words of Art), 1658.

v. 89. _clap_] i. e. stroke.

v. 91. _sparred_] i. e. fastened, shut (“boltyd and barryd” being in the next line).

v. 93. _wyth a prety gyn_]—_gyn_, i. e. contrivance.

“And _with a prety_ gynne
Gyue her husbande an horne.”

_The boke of mayd Emlyn_, &c. n. d. sig. A ii.

v. 100. _On Sainct John decollacion_] i. e. On the festival of the beheading of St. John.

Page 158. v. 103. _secundum Sarum_] So in Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Complaynt of the Papingo_;

“Suppose the geis and hennis suld cry alarum,
And we sall serve _secundum usum Sarum_.”

_Works_, i. 327. ed. Chal.