The Marquis of Bute told Dallaway that he gave twenty guineas for the
original engraving of Elinour: see Dallaway’s _Letheræum_, 1821, p. 6.
Rand’s edition opens with the following lines, which, I need hardly
observe, are by some rhymer of the day:
“_Skeltons Ghost._
To all tapsters and tiplers,
And all ale house vitlers,
Inne-keepers and cookes,
That for pot-sale lookes,
And will not giue measure,
But at your owne pleasure,
Contrary to law,
Scant measure will draw
In pot and in canne,
To cozen a man
Of his full quart a penny,
Of you there’s to many:
For in King Harry’s time,
When I made this rime
Of Elynor Rumming
With her good ale tunning,
Our pots were full quarted,
We were not thus thwarted
With froth-canne and nick-pot
And such nimble quick shot,
That a dowzen will score
For twelue pints and no more.
Full Winchester gage
We had in that age;
The Dutchmans strong beere
Was not hopt ouer heere,
To vs t’was unknowne:
Bare ale of our owne
In a bowle we might bring
To welcome the king,
And his grace to beseech,
With, _Wassall my Leigh_.[270]
Nor did that time know
To puffe and to blow
In a peece of white clay,
As you doe at this day,
With fier and coale,
And a leafe in a hole;
As my ghost hath late seene,
As I walked betweene
Westminster Hall
And the church of Saint Paul,
And so thorow the citie,
Where I saw and did pitty
My countrymen’s cases,
With fiery-smoke faces,
Sucking and drinking
A filthie weede stinking,
Was ne’re knowne before
Till the deuill and the More
In th’ Indies did meete,
And each other there greete
With a health they desire
Of stinke, smoake, and fier.
But who e’re doth abhorre it,
The citie smoakes for it;
Now full of fier-shops
And fowle spitting chops,
So neesing and coughing,
That my ghost fell to scoffing,
And to myselfe said,
Here’s fylthie fumes made;
Good physicke of force
To cure a sicke horse.
Nor had we such slops,
And shagge-haire on our tops:
At wearing long haire
King Harry would sweare,
And gaue a command
With speede out of hand
All heads should be powl’d,
As well young as old,
And his owne was first so,
Good ensample to show.
Y’are so out of fashion,
I know not our nation;
Your ruffes and your bands,
And your cuffes at your hands;
Your pipes and your smokes,
And your short curtall clokes;
Scarfes, feathers, and swerds,
And thin bodkin beards;
Your wastes a span long,
Your knees with points hung,
Like morrice-daunce bels;
And many toyes els,
Which much I distaste:
But Skelton’s in haste.
My masters, farewell;
Reade ouer my Nell,
And tell what you thinke
Of her and her drinke:
If shee had brew’d amisse,
I had neuer wrote this.”
[270] _Leigh_] Meant for “Liege.”
At the end of the poem is, from the same hand,
“_Skelton’s Ghost to the Reader._[271]
Thus, countrymen kinde,
I pray let me finde,
For this merry glee,
No hard censure to be.
King Henry the Eight
Had a good conceit
Of my merry vaine,
Though duncicall plaine
It now nothing fits
The time’s nimble wits:
My lawrell and I
Are both wither’d dry,
And you flourish greene
In your workes daily seene,
That come from the presse,
Well writ I confesse;
But time will devouer
Your poets as our,
And make them as dull
As my empty scull.”
[271] _Skelton’s Ghost to the Reader_, &c. I
give these lines
from the _Harl. Miscel._, the copy of Rand’s ed. which was lent to me by
Mr. Heber, wanting the last leaf.]
Concerning Elynour Rummyng and the poem by which Skelton has rendered
her famous, Dallaway has the following remarks,—_his account of the
circumstances which introduced Skelton to her acquaintance being a mere
hypothesis!!_ “When the Court of Henry viii was frequently kept at the
palace of Nonsuch (about six miles distant), the laureate, with other
courtiers, sometimes came to Leatherhead for the amusement of fishing,
in the river Mole; and were made welcome at the _cabaret_ of Elinor
Rummyng, whom Skelton celebrated in an equivocal encomium, in a short
[?—it consists of 623 lines—] poem, remarkable only for a very coarse
jest, after a manner peculiar to the author and the times in which he
lived, but which has been more frequently reprinted than his other works.
The gist or point of this satire had a noble origin, or there must be
an extraordinary coincidence of thought in the _Beoni_, or Topers, a
ludicrous effusion of the great Lorenzo de Medici, when a young man....
Her domicile, near the bridge, still exists. The annexed etching was made
from a drawing taken previously to late repairs, but it still retains its
first distinction as an ale-house.”
[Illustration]
“Some of her descendants occur in the parish register in the early part
of the last century.” _Letheræum_, 1821, pp. 4-6.
_The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng_] Besides “I _Tonne_ ale or wyne I put
lycour in to tonnes, _Je entöne_,” Palsgrave has “I _Tonne_ I masshe ale,
_Je brasse_.... Whan _tonne_ you and god wyll: _Quant brasserez vous_,”
&c. _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccclxxxxi. (Table of Verbes);
and here _Tunnyng_ means—Brewing.
P. 95. v. 1.
_Tell you I chyll,_
_If that ye wyll_
_A whyle be styll_]
—_I chyll_, i. e. Ich wyll, I will. Compare _Syr Gawayn and the Grene
Knyȝt;_
“_And ȝe wyl a whyle be stylle,_
_I schal telle yow_ how thay wroȝt.”
p. 74. Bann. ed.
and the Prol. to _Kyng Alisaunder;_
“_Yef ye wolen sitte stille_,
Ful feole _Y wol yow telle_.”
Weber’s _Met. Rom._ i. 5.
Page 95. v. 4. _gyll_] Equivalent here to girl—a familiar name for a
female; as in the proverb, “Every Jack must have his _Gill_:” supposed
by some etymologists to be an abbreviation of _Julia_, _Juliana_, or
_Gillian;_ by Richardson (_Dict._ in v.) to be a corruption of _giglot_.
v. 6. _gryll_] “Grymm _gryl_ and horryble ... horridus ... horribilis.”
_Prompt. Parv._,—_MS. Harl._ 221. (Ed. 1499 of that work omits
“_gryl._.”) The word is of frequent occurrence; but its exact meaning
here seems to be doubtful.
v. 12. _lere_] i. e. complexion, skin.
v. 14. _chere_] i. e. look, countenance.
v. 17. _bowsy_] i. e. bloated by drinking.
v. 21. _here_] i. e. hair.
v. 22. _lewde_] i. e. vile, nasty.
v. 23. _sayne_] i. e. say.
v. 25. _glayre_] i. e. viscous matter.
Page 96. v. 27.
_Her nose somdele hoked,_
_And camously croked_]
—_somdele hoked_, i. e. somewhat hooked. “_Camed_ or short nosed. Simus.”
_Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “A _Camoise_ nose, that is to saie crooked
vpward as the Morians [Moors].” Baret’s _Alvearie_. “_Camuse_. Flat.”
Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_. “_Camused._ Flat, broad
and crooked; as applied to a nose, what we popularly call a _snub-nose_.”
Nares’s _Gloss._ Todd, quoting this passage of Skelton, explains
_camously_, awry. _Johnson’s Dict._ in v.
v. 34. _gowndy_] So Lydgate;
“A _goundy_ eye is deceyued soone,
That any colour cheseth by the moone.”
_Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sig. H iii. ed. 1555.
“_Gownde_ of the eye. Ridda, Albugo.” _Prompt. Parv._,—_MS. Harl._ 221.
v. 35. _vnsowndy_] i. e. unsound.
v. 38. _jetty_] i. e. that part of a building which projects beyond the
rest.
Page 96. v. 40.
—— _how she is gumbed,_
_Fyngered and thumbed_]
i. e. what gums, fingers, and thumbs she has.
v. 45. _huckels_] i. e. hips.
v. 49. _Foted_] i. e. Footed.
v. 51. _iet_] i. e. strut: see note, p. 94. v. 43.
v. 52. _fet_] Means, perhaps, _feat_,—neat, handsome one.
v. 53. _flocket_] “Is described as a loose garment with large sleeves:”
see Strutt’s _Dress and Habits_, &c. ii. 373.
v. 54. _rocket_] i. e. a garment, worn often without, and sometimes with
sleeves; sometimes it was made to reach the ground, and sometimes much
shorter and open at the sides. See _Id. ibid._
v. 55. _With symper the cocket_] So Heywood in his _Dialogue_;
“Vpright as a candell standth in a socket,
Stoode she that day, so _simper decocket_.”
Sig. F,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.
and Jonson in his Masque, _The Gipsies Metamorphosed;_
“Lay by your wimbles,
Your boring for thimbles,
Or using your nimbles,
In diving the pockets,
And sounding the sockets
Of _simper-the-cockets_.”
_Works_ (by Gifford), vii. 376.
In a note on the latter passage, Whalley quotes from Cotgrave’s _Dict.:_
“_Coquine_, a beggar-woman, also a cockney, _simper de cockit_, nice
thing.” Gifford (_ibid._) remarks, “_Cocket_ was a fine species of bread,
as distinguished from common bread; hence, perhaps, the name was given
to an overstrained affectation of delicacy. To _simper_ at, or over,
a thing, is to touch it _as in scorn_.” Nares (_Gloss._ in v.) doubts
(justly, I think) the connexion of _simper-the-cocket_ with _cocket_
bread, and explains it, “quasi simpering coquette,” observing, that “one
of Cotgrave’s words in rendering ‘coquette’ is _cocket_.” I may add, that
in _Gloss. of Prov. and Loc. Words_ by Grose and Pegge, ed. 1839, is,
“_Cocket_, brisk, apish, pert,” and “_Simper_, to mince one’s words.”
Page 97. v. 56.
_Her huke of Lyncole grene,_
_It had ben hers, I wene,_
_More then fourty yere_]
“Huke _surquanie, froc_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530.
fol. xli. (Table of Subst.). “A loose kind of garment, of the cloak or
mantle kind.” Strutt’s _Dress and Habits_, &c. ii. 364. “_Lyncolne_
anciently dyed _the best greene_ of England.” Marg. note in Drayton’s
_Polyolbion_, Song 25. p. 111. ed. 1622.—Compare a celebrated ballad;
“My _cloake_ it was a verry good cloake,
Itt hath been alwayes true to the weare,
But now it is not worth a groat;
I have had it _four and forty yeere_.”
_Take thy old cloak about thee_,—Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._ i. 206.
ed. 1794.
Page 97. v. 63. _woll_] i. e. wool.
v. 68. _gytes_] i. e. clothes. _Gite_ is properly a gown:
“And she came after in a _gite_ of red.”
Chaucer’s _Reves Tale_, v. 3952. ed. Tyr.
v. 69. _pranked with pletes_]—_pletes_, i. e. plaits. “I _Pranke_ ones
gowne I set the _plyghtes_ in order.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang.
Fr._, 1530. fol. cccxxi. (Table of Verbes).
v. 70. _Her kyrtel Brystow red_]—_kyrtel_; see note, p. 149. v. 1194.
“London hath scarlet, and _Bristowe_ pleasaunt _red_.”
Barclay’s _Fourth Egloge_, sig. C iiii. ed. 1570.
“At _Brystowe_ is the best water to _dye reed_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_,
sig. V ii. ed. 1530.
v. 74. _gyse_] i. e. guise, fashion.
v. 75. _whym wham_] i. e. something whimsically, fantastically devised.
The word is frequently applied to articles of female finery by our early
dramatists. In _Ane Interlude of the Laying of a Gaist_, we are told that
the Gaist (ghost)
“stall fra peteouss Abrahame
An quhorle and _ane quhum quhame_.”
v. 74,—Laing’s _An. Pop. Poetry of Scotland_.
_Whim-wham_ is used by Gray, _Works_, iii. 123. ed. Mitford, and by Lamb,
_Prose Works_, ii. 142.
v. 76. _trym tram_] i. e. some trim, neat ornament, or pretty trifle. In
Weaver’s _Lusty Juuentus_, Hipocrisie, after enumerating a variety of
popish trumpery, adds
“And a hundred _trim trams_ mo.”
Sig. B iiii. ed. Copland.
v. 77. _brayne pan_] i. e. skull, head. See note, p. 100. v. 31.
v. 78. _Egyptian_] i. e. gipsy.
Page 98. v. 85. _gose_] i. e. goose.
v. 88. _shone_] i. e. shoes.
v. 90. _baudeth_] i. e. fouls. “I _Baudy_ or fyle or soyle with any
filthe, _Ie souylle_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol.
clviii. (Table of Verbes). “The auter clothes, and the vestementes shulde
be very clene, not _baudy_, nor torne,” &c. Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. E
iiii.
Page 98. v. 94. _wonnynge_] i. e. dwelling.
v. 96. _Sothray_] i. e. Surrey.
v. 97. _stede_] i. e. place.
v. 98. _Lederhede_] i. e. Leatherhead; see p. 157.
v. 99. _tonnysh gyb_] The epithet _tonnysh_ is perhaps derived from her
occupation of _tunning_ (see note, p. 158), or perhaps it may allude to
her shape: _gyb_ is properly a male cat (see note, p. 122. v. 27); but
the term, as here, is sometimes applied to a woman;
“And give a thousand by-words to my name,
And call me Beldam, _Gib_, Witch, Night-mare, Trot.”
Drayton’s _Epistle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey_,—_Poems_, p. 175.
ed. 1619. fol.
v. 100. _syb_] i. e. related, akin.
v. 102. _noppy_] i. e. nappy.
v. 103. _port sale_] If the right reading, must be used here for—sale
in general. “Port-sale, The Sale of Fish as soon as it is brought into
the Harbour; also an Out-cry or Publick Sale of any Commodity.” Kersey’s
_Dict._
v. 105. _To sweters, to swynkers_] i. e. to those who sweat and labour
hard,—to labourers of various kinds.
“For we can neyther _swyncke nor sweate_.”
_Pierce Plowman_, sig. I ii. ed. 1561.
v. 110. _Now away the mare_] Skelton has the same expression in his
_Magnyfycence_, v. 1342. vol. i. 268. Compare _The Frere and the Boye_;
“Of no man he had no care,
But sung, hey howe, _awaye the mare_.”
Ritson’s _An. Pop. Poetry_, p. 37.
and _Jyl of Braintfords Testament_, n. d.;
“Ah sira, mary _away the mare_,
The deuil giue thee sorow and care.”
sig. B ii.
and _A new Commodye_ &c. _of the bewte & good propertes of women_, &c. n.
d.
“Tush syr be mery let pas _awey the mare_.”
sig. A ii.
The words are doubtless a portion of some song or ballad. In
Ravenscroft’s _Melismata, Musicall Phansies_, &c. 1611, is a song (No. 6)
supposed to be sung by “Seruants out of Seruice” who “are going to the
Citie to looke for new;”
“Heigh ho, _away the Mare_,
Let vs set aside all care,
If any man be disposed to trie,
Loe here comes a lustie crew,
That are enforced to crie
A new Master, a new,” &c.
Page 99. v. 111. _sley_] i. e. slay.
v. 115. _Wyth, Fyll the cup, fyll_] So in _The Hye Way to the Spyttell
Hous_, by Copland, n. d.;
“_With fyll the pot, fyll_, and go fyll me the can.”
Utterson’s _Early Pop. Poet._ ii. 15.
v. 122. _Hardely_] i. e. Assuredly.
v. 123. _heles dagged_] In _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. is “_Daggyd_.
Fractillosus,”—a sense in which Skelton certainly has the word elsewhere
(_Garlande of Laurell_, v. 630. vol. i. 386); but here perhaps _dagged_
may mean—be-mired: “I Daggyll or I _dagge_ a thing with myer.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cciii. (Table of
Verbes).
v. 124. _kyrtelles_] See note, p. 149. v. 1194.
—— _all to-iagged_] See note, p. 100. v. 32: “I Cutte or _iagge_ a
garment.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cciii.
(Table of Verbes).
v. 130. _tunnynge_] i. e. brewing; see note, p. 158.
v. 131. _leneth ... on_] i. e. lendeth, furnisheth ... of: compare v. 491.
v. 139. _sorte_] i. e. set, company.
v. 142. _skewed_] Does it mean—distorted? or walking obliquely? or
squinting? see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._ in v. _Skew_. A friend suggests
that this epithet, as well as that in the preceding line, may be applied
to colour,—the words being still used as terms of the stable.
Page 100. v. 143. _sho clout_] i. e. shoe-cloth.
v. 145. _herelace_] i. e. hair-band.
v. 147. _tresses vntrust_] So Lydgate;—“With _heyr vntrussed_.” _Warres
of Troy_, B. iii. sig. S i. ed. 1555.
v. 148. _vnlust_] i. e. unpleasantness, unseemliness.
v. 149.
_Some loke strawry,_
_Some cawry mawry_]
—_loke_, i. e. look: _strawry_ I do not remember to have met with
elsewhere: _cawry mawry_ (as a substantive) occurs in _Pierce Plowman_;
“[Envy] was as pale as a pellet, in the palsey he semed
And clothed in _Caurymaury_,” &c.
sig. F ii. ed. 1561.
Page 100. v. 151. _vntydy_] i. e. sluttish.
—— _tegges_] A term found again in our author’s first poem _Against
Garnesche_;
“Your wynde schakyn shankkes, your longe lothy legges
...
Bryngges yow out of fauyr with alle femall _teggys_.”
v. 29. vol. i. 117.
In what sense Skelton uses _tegge_, I cannot pretend to determine. In
Warwickshire and Leicestershire, a _teg_ means a sheep of a year old;
and Ray gives, “A _Tagge_, a Sheep of the first Year, _Suss_.” _Coll. of
Words_, &c., p. 88, appended to _Proverbs_, ed. 1768.
v. 152. _Lyke rotten egges_] Lydgate in a satirical description of a lady
has—
“Colowryd _lyche a rotyn eey_ [i. e. egg].”
_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 156.
v. 153. _lewde sorte_] i. e. vile set, low rabble.
v. 155. _tyde_] i. e. time, season.
v. 161. _commy_] i. e. come.
v. 163. _shreud aray_]—_shreud_, i. e. evil, bad. “_Araye_ condicion or
case _poynt_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xviii.
(Table of Subst.); which, however, may not be the sense of _aray_ in the
present passage. We find:—“Soo with this rumoure came in syr launcelot
and fond them al at a grete _araye_.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. xix. c. vi.
vol. ii. 374. ed. Southey; the next chapter beginning “What _araye_ is
this sayd sir Launcelot,” &c. “For al this foule _araye_, for al this
great frai.” _Mery Tales, Wittie Questions_, &c., 1567. p. 18, reprint.
See also our author’s sacred poem, _Wofully araid_, vol. i. 141, and note
on it.
v. 171. _draffe_] i. e. hog-wash—either the coarse liquor, or brewers’
grains, with which swine are fed.
v. 173. _swyllynge tubbe_] i. e. tub in which _swillings_ (hog-wash) are
preserved for swine.
v. 174.
_For, be there neuer so much prese,_
_These swyne go to the hye dese_]
—_prese_, i. e. press, throng: _dese_, or _dais_, a word of doubtful
etymology, generally means—a table of estate,—the upper table raised on
a platform more elevated than the others. See Tyrwhitt’s note on _Cant.
Tales_, v. 372; and Richardson’s _Dict._ in v. _Dais_. It sometimes
signifies a long bench (see Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v.
_Deis_); and such seems to be its meaning here, as in the fourth line
after this “the hye benche” is mentioned.—Roy in his satire against
Wolsey, _Rede me, and be nott wrothe_, &c., has imitated the present
passage of Skelton;
“_For, be there never so grett prease_,
They are set up at _the hy dease_.”
_Harl. Miscell._ ix. 51. ed. Park.
Page 101. v. 185.
_God gyue it yll preuynge,_
_Clenly as yuell cheuynge_]
—_preuynge_, i. e. proving.
“And prechest on thy benche, _with evil prefe_:”
(i. e. evil may it prove!)
Chaucer’s _Wif of Bathes Prol._ v. 5829. ed. Tyr.
—_yuell cheuynge_, i. e. evil ending, bad success.
“_God geve it yvell chevynge._”
Roy’s _Rede me_, &c., _Harl. Miscell._ ix. 79. ed. Park.
See also _Cocke Lorelles bote_, sig. B i., _Towneley Myst._ p. 108, and
Chaucer’s _Chanones Yemannes Tale_, v. 16693. ed. Tyr.
v. 189. _patch_] I know not how to explain.
v. 190. _ron_] i. e. run.
v. 192. _ioust_] i. e. joist.
v. 196. _bolle_] i. e. bowl.
v. 198. _skommeth_] i. e. skimmeth.
v. 199. _Whereas_] i. e. Where.
v. 201. _blennes_] i. e. blends.
Page 102. v. 212. _And ye may it broke_] i. e. If you may brook it.
v. 213. _loke_] i. e. look.
v. 218. _ble_] i. e. colour, complexion.
v. 219. _Ich am_] i. e. I am.
v. 222. _In lust and in lykyng_] See note, p. 98. v. 23.
v. 223. _whytyng_] So in our early dramas, _whiting-mop_ (young whiting)
is a cant term for a nice young woman, a tender creature: see Puttenham’s
_Arte of E. P_., 1589. p. 184., and note in my ed. of Webster’s _Works_,
in. 37.
v. 224. _mullyng_] This term of endearment occurs in the _Coventry
Mysteries_, applied by one of the shepherds to the infant Saviour;
“Thow I be the last that take my leve
ȝit fayre _mullynge_ take it nat at no greve.”
_MS. Cott. Vesp._. D viii. fol. 91.
Compare also Hormanni _Vulgaria_: “This is a fayre and swete _mullynge_.
Blandus est _puerulus_ insigni festiuitate.” Sig. dd vii. ed. 1530.
—— _mytyng_] In the _Towneley Mysteries_, one of the shepherds says to
the infant Saviour,
“Haylle, so as I can, haylle, praty _mytyng_!”
p. 96.
and Jamieson gives _myting_ as a fondling designation for a child, _Et.
Dict. of Scot. Lang._—In our author’s third poem _Against Garnesche_, v.
115. vol. i. 123, “myteyng”—(but used as a term of contempt)—is, as here,
the rhyme to “wyteyng.”
Since writing the above note, I have met with a passage in the comedy
called _Wily Beguilde_, which might be adduced in support of the reading,
“nytyng;” but I still think that “mytyng” is the true one: the dramatist
evidently recollected Skelton’s poem, in the ed. of which he had found
“nytyng,” “nittinge,” or “nittine:”—“Comely Pegge, my _nutting_, my
sweeting, my Loue, my doue, my honnie, my bonnie, my ducke, my deare and
my deareling.” Sig. C 4. ed. 1606.
Page 102. v. 225. _His nobbes and his conny_] So in a song in _The Triall
of Treasure_, 1567;
“My mouse my _nobs_ and _cony_ swete.”
Sig. E.
_conny_, i. e. rabbit.
v. 227. _Bas_] i. e. Kiss.
—— _bonny_] i. e. precious one (rather than—beautiful one,—for it has the
epithet “prety”).
v. 229. _This make I my falyre fonny_] _This_, i. e. Thus; see note, p.
86. v. 38: it has been suggested that _falyre_ means fellow; which I
doubt: _fonny_ is, I suppose, foolishly amorous; compare—
“As freshly then thou shalt begin to _fonne_
And dote in loue.”
Chaucer’s _Court of Loue_,—_Workes_, fol. 329. ed. 1602.
“With kissing, and with clapping, _I gert the carill fon_.”
Dunbar’s _Tua Maryit Wemen and The Wedo_, _Poems_, i. 71. ed. Laing.
v. 230. _dronny_] i. e. drone.
v. 232. _rout_] i. e. snore.
Page 103. v. 245. _conny_] i. e. rabbit.
v. 247. _a salt_] i. e. a salt-cellar.
—— _spone_] i. e. spoon.
v. 248. _shone_] i. e. shoon, shoes.
v. 250. _a skellet_] i. e. a skillet, a small kettle: in Suffolk it means
a brass perforated implement for skimming the cream off milk; see Moor’s
_Suff. Words_.
v. 251.
_Some fyll theyr pot full_
_Of good Lemster woll_]
The meaning is—in the pot which was to hold the ale they brought wool
“instede of monny” (v. 244).
Page 103. v. 254. _athrust_] i. e. a-thirst.
v. 258. _slaty or slyder_] i. e. miry or slippery.
Page 104. v. 266. _renne_] i. e. run.
v. 269. _byrle_] The word _birl_—to pour out, furnish for, or part
drink among guests—(see Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v.,
and Leyden’s Gloss. to _The Comp. of Scotland_ in v. _Beir_)—is not
very common in English literature: “the olde God of wyne called Baccus
_birlyng_ the wyne.” Hall’s _Chronicle_, (_Hen. viii._) fol. lxxiii. ed.
1548.
v. 270. _gest_] i. e. guest.
v. 271. _She swered by the rode of rest_]—_rode_, i. e. _rood_,—cross:
see note on _Ware the Hauke_, v. 69.
“That is hardly saide, man, _by the roode of rest_.”
Barclay’s _First Egloge_, sig. A iii. ed. 1570.
v. 280. _haruest gyrdle_] i. e. perhaps, a girdle worn at the feast after
the gathering in of the corn.
v. 286. _To offer to the ale tap_] So in _Jak Hare_, a poem attributed to
Lydgate;
“And with his wynnynges he _makith his offrynge_
_At the ale stakis_.”
_MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 14.
v. 288. _sowre dowe_]—_dowe_, i. e. dough. “_Sower dough leuayn_.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxv. (Table of Subst.).
v. 289. _howe_] i. e. ho.
v. 292. _And pype tyrly tyrlowe_] Compare a Song belonging to the
Tailors’ and Shearmen’s Pageant;
“Thé sange _terly terlow_.”
Sharp’s _Diss. on Coventry Pag. and Myst._, p. 114.
v. 295. _hekell_] i. e. comb for dressing flax.
v. 296. _rocke_] i. e. distaff.—In a poem entitled _Cryste Crosse me
Spede_. _A. B. C. Imprynted at London in Fletestrete at the sygne of the
Sonne, by me Wynkyn de Worde_, 4to. (which I know only from the account
of it in _Typog. Antiq._ ii. 367. ed. Dibdin) are the following lines;
“A grete company of gossyps gadred on a route
Went to besyege an ale hous rounde aboute
Some brought a distaffe & some a rele
Some brought a shouell & some a pele
Some brought drynke & some a tankarde
And a galon potte faste they drewe thederward,” &c.
Though no edition of _Elynour Rummyng_ has come down to us printed
anterior to _Cryste Crosse me Spede_, the evident imitation of the former
in the passage just quoted, shews that it must have existed.
Page 104. v. 298. _wharrowe_] i. e. whirl, or wharve, for a spindle.
“A spyndell with a _wharowe_—fusus cum _spondulo, siue verticillo siue
harpage_.” Hormanni _Vulg._ sig. t i. ed. 1530.
v. 299. _rybskyn_] In _Prompt. Parv._, ed. 1499, “_Rybskyn_” stands
without a Latin term; but in the copy of that work, _MS. Harl._ 221, is
“_Rybbe skynn._ Melotula.” In a MS. _Catholicon in Lingua materna_, dated
1483, I find “_Rybbynge skyn._ nebrida. pellicudia.” I may add that in
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, “_Rybbe skynne_” occurs
without the corresponding French, fol. lix. (Table of Subst.).—Does it
mean (as Albert Way, Esq. has obligingly suggested to me) a leather
apron, used during the operation of flax-dressing?
Page 105. v. 303. _thrust_] i. e. thirst.
v. 305.
_But drynke, styll drynke,_
_And let the cat wynke_]
So in _The Worlde and the Chylde_, 1522;
“_Manhode._ Now _let vs drynke_ at this comnaunt
For that is curtesy.
_Folye._ Mary mayster ye shall haue in hast
A ha syrs _let the catte wyncke_,” &c.
Sig. C ii.
See also three epigrams by Heywood _Of the winking Cat_,—_Workes_, sig. P
4. ed. 1598.
v. 307. _gommes_] i. e. gums.
v. 308. _crommes_] i. e. crums.
v. 314. _chaffer_] i. e. merchandise.
v. 319. _in all the hast_] Compare: “Bulwarkes were made _in all the
haste_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. z iii. ed. 1530.
“the ryght way
To London they tooke _in all the haste_.”
Smith’s _xii Mery Jests of the wyddow Edyth_, ed. 1573. sig. H iiii.
v. 320. _vnlast_] i. e. unlaced.
v. 323. _all hallow_] i. e. all saints,—perhaps, All-saints’ day.
v. 324.
_It was a stale to take_
_The deuyll in a brake_]
For “_stare_,” which is the reading of all the eds., I have substituted
“_stale_”—i. e. lure, decoy. “_Stale_ of fowlys takinge.” _Prompt. Parv._
ed. 1499. So in Marmyon’s _Hollands Leaguer_, 1632;
“And if my skill not failes me, her I’ll make
_A Stale, to take_ this Courtier _in a brake_.”
Act ii. sc. 1. sig. D 3.
Compare too an epigram by Heywood;
“Take time when time commeth: are we set time to take?
Beware time, in meane time, _take_ not vs _in brake_.”
_Workes_, sig. Q 3. ed. 1598.
and Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_; “At last, as ye have heard here before,
how divers of the great estates and lords of the council lay in a-wait
with my Lady Anne Boleyn, to espy a convenient time and occasion _to
take_ the cardinal _in a brake_.” p. 147. ed. 1827.—In our text, and in
the passages just quoted, _brake_ seems to be used for trap: among its
various significations, it means a strong wooden frame for confining the
feet of horses, preparatory to their being shod; see Gifford’s note on
Jonson’s _Works_, iii. 463.
Page 105. v. 327. _gambone_] i. e. gammon.
v. 328. _resty_] i. e. reasty, rancid.
v. 330. _Angry as a waspy_]—_waspy_, i. e. wasp. So Heywood;
“Now mery as a cricket, and by and by,
_Angry as a waspe_.”
_Dialogue_, sig. C 4,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.
v. 331. _yane_] “I _yane_ I gaspe or gape.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la
Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxi. (Table of Verbes).
—— _gaspy_] i. e. gasp.
Page 106. v. 332. _go bet_] Compare;
“Arondel, queth Beues tho,
For me loue _go bet_, go.”
_Sir Beues of Hamtoun_, p. 129. Maitl. ed.
“_Go bet_, quod he, and axe redily,
What corps is this,” &c.