who observes that in the following lines of Chaucer’s _Legend of Dido_
(288), _go bet_ seems to be a term of the chase;
“The herd of hartes founden is anon,
With hey, _go bet_, pricke thou, let gon, let gon.”
“He hath made me daunce, maugre my hede,
Amonge the thornes, hey _go bette_.”
_The Frere and the Boye_,—_An. Pop. Poetry_, p. 46. ed. Ritson,—
who supposes the words to be the name of some old dance.
Page 106. v. 333. _met_] i. e. measure.
v. 334. _fet_] i. e. fetched.
v. 335. _spycke_] “_Spyk_ of flesshe. Popa.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.
The copy of that work, _MS. Harl._ 221, has “_Spyk_ or fet flesche,” &c.
v. 336. _flycke_] i. e. flitch.
v. 339. _stut_] i. e. stutter.
v. 343. _sayne_] i. e. says.
—— _a fyest_] So Hawes;
“She let no ferte nor yet _fyste_ truelye.”
_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. Q viii. ed. 1555.
“_A fiest_, Tacitus flatus.” Withals’s _Dict_. p. 343. ed. 1634.
v. 346. _wyth shamfull deth_] Equivalent to—may you die with a shameful
death! see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, in v. _With_.
v. 347. _callettes_] i. e. trulls, drabs, jades.
v. 348. _I shall breake your palettes_]—_palettes_, i. e. crowns, pates.
So in a poem by Sir R. Maitland;
“For your rewarde now _I sall brek your pallat_.”
_Anc. Scot. Poems from. Maitl. MSS._, ii. 317. ed. Pinkerton,—
who, in the Gloss., wrongly explains it “cut your throat.”
v. 350. _And so was made the peace_] In confirmation of the reading which
I have given, compare _Reynard the Fox_; “Thus was _the pees made_ by
fyrapel the lupaerd frendly and wel.” Sig. e 5. ed. 1481; and see note on
v. 319. p. 168.
v. 354. _sainct James in Gales_] The body of Saint James the Great
having, according to the legend, been buried at Compostella in Galicia
(_Gales_), a church was built over it. Pilgrims flocked to the spot;
several popes having granted the same indulgences to those who repaired
to Compostella, as to those who visited Jerusalem. In _The foure P. P._
by Heywood, the Palmer informs us that he has been
“At saynt Cornelys at _saynt James in Gales_
And at saynt Wynefrydes well in Walles,” &c.
Sig. A ii. ed. n. d.
v. 355. _Portyngales_] i. e. Portuguese.
v. 356. _I wys_] i. e. truly, certainly (_i-wis_, adv.).
v. 360. _the Crosse in Chepe_] Was originally erected in 1290 by Edward
I. at one of the resting places of the body of his beloved Eleanor, in
its progress from Herdeby, where she died, to Westminster Abbey, where
she was buried; and was adorned with her image and arms. Of its being
afterwards rebuilt,—of the conduits that were added to it, &c. &c. an
account will be found in Stow’s _Survey_, B. iii. 35. ed. 1720, and _Sup.
to Gent. Mag._ for 1764, vol. 34. 607. This structure was barbarously
demolished in 1643, as a monument of Popish superstition.
Page 106. v. 362. _route_] i. e. disorderly crowd.
Page 107. v. 364.
_Sneuelyng in her nose,_
_As thoughe she had the pose_]
—_pose_, i. e. a rheum in the head. So Chaucer;
“_he speketh in his nose_,
And sneseth fast, and eke _he hath the pose_.”
_The Manciples Prol._ v. 17010. ed. Tyr.
See also _Reves Tale_, v. 4149.
v. 371. _fyll_] i. e. fell.
v. 372. _barlyhood_] Or _barlikhood_, is said to mean a fit of obstinacy
or violent ill-humour produced by drunkenness: see Jamieson’s _Et. Dict.
of Scot. Lang._ and _Supp._ in v.; also Stevenson’s addition to Boucher’s
_Gloss._ in v. _Barlic_.
v. 378. _newe ale in cornes_] So in _Thersytes_, n. d.;
“I will make the drincke worse than good _ale in the cornes_.”
p. 56. Rox. ed.
“_New ale in cornes. Ceruisia cum recrementis_.” Baret’s _Alvearie_, in
v. _Ale_.
v. 386. _fabell_] i. e. talking.
v. 387. _babell_] i. e. babbling.
v. 388.
—— _folys fylly_
_That had a fole wyth wylly_]
Whether _folys fylly_ means a foolish young jade (a _filly_,—compare what
follows), or foolish Philly (_Phillis_,—compare our author’s _Bowge of
Court_, v. 370. vol. i. 44); and whether or not _wylly_ is meant for a
proper name (as it is given in the comparatively recent ed. of Rand), let
the reader judge.
v. 390. _Iast you, and, gup, gylly_] See note, p. 99. v. 17. “What _gyppe
gyll_ with a galde backe, begynne you to kycke nowe: _Hey de par le
diable gilotte_,” &c. Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol.
cclxxii. (Table of Verbes). So Dunbar uses _gillot_ for a young mare; see
his _Poems_, i. 65, ii. 459 (note), ed. Laing.
v. 394. _sennet_] i. e. sennight, week.
Page 108. v. 395. _pay_] i. e. satisfaction, content.
v. 397. _Of thyne ale let vs assay_]—_assay_, i. e. try, taste. So in
_Pierce Plowman_;
“I haue good _ale_ goship said he, gloton _wold thou assai_.”
Sig. G ii. ed. 1561.
Page 108. v. 398. _pylche_] i. e. cloak of skins.
v. 399. _conny_] i. e. rabbit.
v. 490. _loke_] i. e. look.
—— _donny_] Richardson, _Dict._ in vv. _Dun_, _Dunny_, cites this line
as containing an example of the latter word,—rightly, perhaps, for
_donne_ (dun) occurs in Skelton’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1102. vol. i.
257.—The common people of Ireland employ _donny_ in the sense of—poor,
mean-looking, as “a _donny_ creature;” also in the sense of—poorly,
as “How are you to-day?”—“Och! but _donny_, very _donny_.” For this
information I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Edgeworth, who has used
the word in one of her excellent tales.
v. 407. _blommer_] i. e., perhaps, noise, uproar.
v. 408. _a skommer_] i. e. a skimmer.
v. 409. _a slyce_] “_Sclyce_ to tourne meate _tournoire_.” Palsgrave’s
_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxii. (Table of Subst.).
v. 412. _sterte_] i. e. started, rushed.
v. 414. _somdele seke_] i. e. somewhat sick.
v. 415. _a peny cheke_] Does it mean—a puny chick?
v. 418. _Margery Mylkeducke_] So again in our author’s _Magnyfycence_;
“What, _Margery Mylke Ducke_, mermoset!”
v. 462. vol. i. 240.
Compare one of the _Coventry Mysteries_;
“Malkyn _Mylkedoke_ and fayr Mabyle.”
_MS. Cott. Vesp._ D viii. fol. 74.
v. 419.
_Her kyrtell she did vptucke_
_An ynche aboue her kne_]
—_kyrtell_; see note, p. 149. v. 1194.—So in our old ballad poetry;
“Then you must cut your gowne of greene,
_An inch above your knee_.”
_Child Waters_,—Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._ iii. 56. ed. 1794.
v. 422. _stubbed_] i. e. short and thick.
v. 423. _pestels_] i. e. legs,—so called, perhaps, because the leg-bone
resembles a _pestle_ used in a mortar. The expression “_pestle_ of pork”
frequently occurs in our early writers; as in the following passage
concerning the tremendous appetite of Charlemagne; “Whan he took hys
repaast he was contente wyth lytel brede, but as touchyng the pytaunce,
he ete at his repaast a quarter of moton, or ii hennes, or a grete ghoos,
or a grete _pestel_ of porke, or a pecok, or a crane, or an hare all
hool.” Caxton’s _Lyf of Charles the Grete_, &c., 1485. sig. b iii.
Page 108. v. 423. _clubbed_] i. e. like clubs.
v. 425. _fote_] i. e. foot.
v. 426. _foule_] i. e. ugly: see note, p. 130. v. 442.
Page 109. v. 429. _cantell_] i. e. corner, piece, fragment.
v. 431. _quycke_] i. e. live.
v. 435. _punyete_] i. e. pungent.
v. 436. _sorte_] i. e. set, company.
v. 441. _I wote nere_] i. e. I know never, not.
v. 443. _podynges and lynkes_] “_Links_, a kind of Pudding, the skin
being filled with Pork Flesh, and seasoned with diverse Spices, minced,
and tied up at distances.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. iii. p.
83. In Scotland the terms _puddings_ and _links_ are applied to various
intestines of animals.
v. 447. _leche_] i. e. physician, doctor.—Dunbar makes a distinction,
which I do not understand;
“In Medicyne the most Practicianis,
_Leichis_, Surrigianis, and Phisicianis.”
_Poems_, i. 213. ed. Laing.
v. 450. _keke_] i. e. kick.
v. 451. _the vertue of an vnset leke_] “_Vnsette lekes_ be of more
_vertue_ than they that be sette ... _præstant in medicina_.” Hormanni
_Vulgaria_, sig. f ii. ed. 1530.
v. 452. _breke_] i. e. breeches.
v. 453. _feders_] i. e. feathers.
v. 460. _noughty froslynges_] i. e. worthless things, stunted by frost.
In Suffolk, _froslin_ is applied to any thing—a lamb, a _goslin_, a
chicken, an apple, &c., nipped, or pinched, or injured by frost: see
Moor’s _Suffolk Words, Appendix_.
Page 110. v. 462. _callet_] i. e. trull, drab, jade.
v. 465. _wretchockes_] “The famous imp yet grew a _wretchock_; and
though for seven years together he was carefully carried at his mother’s
back, rocked in a cradle of Welsh cheese, like a maggot, and there
fed with broken beer, and blown wine of the best daily, yet looks as
if he never saw his _quinquennium_.” Jonson’s Masque, _The Gipsies
Metamorphosed_,—_Workes_, vii. 371. ed. Gifford, who thus comments on
the passage in his authoritative style: “i. e. pined away, instead of
thriving. Whalley appears to have puzzled himself sorely in this page,
about a matter of very little difficulty. In every large breed of
domestic fowls, there is usually a miserable little stunted creature,
that forms a perfect contrast to the growth and vivacity of the rest.
This unfortunate abortive, the goodwives, with whom it is an object of
tenderness, call a _wrethcock_; and this is all the mystery. Was Whalley
ignorant that what we now term chick, was once chocke and _chooke_?” The
fol. ed. of the _Masque of Gipsies_ has “_wretch-cock_,” which Nares,
who does not know what to make of the word, observes “would admit of an
easy derivation from _wretch_ and _cock_, meaning a poor wretched fowl.”
_Gloss._ in v.
Page 110. v. 466. _shyre shakyng nought_] i. e. sheer worthless. So again
our author in his _Magnyfycence_;
“From _qui fuit aliquid_ to shyre shakynge nought.”
v. 1319. vol. i. 267.
v. 475. _fall_] i. e. fallen.
v. 483. _foggy_] “_Foggy_, to full of waste flesshe.” Palsgrave’s
_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxviii. (Table of Adiect.).
v. 489. _craw_] i. e. crop, stomach.
v. 491. _on_] i. e. of: compare v. 131.
Page 111. v. 492. _an old rybibe_] Chaucer, in _The Freres Tale_, says,
“This Sompnour, waiting ever on his pray,
Rode forth to sompne a widewe, _an olde ribibe_.”
v. 6958. ed. Tyrwhitt,—
who says he cannot guess how this musical instrument came to be put for
an old woman, “unless perhaps from its shrillness.” The word so applied
occurs also in Jonson’s _Devil is an Ass_, act i. sc. 1, where Gifford
observes, “_Ribibe_, together with its synonym _rebeck_, is merely a cant
expression for an old woman. A ribibe, the reader knows, is a rude kind
of fiddle, and the allusion is probably to the inharmonious nature of its
sounds.” _Works_, v. 8.
v. 493. _She halted of a kybe_] i. e. She limped from a chap in the heel.
The following remedy is seriously proposed in _The Countrie Farme_, and
was no doubt applied by our ancestors: “_For kibes on the heeles_, make
powder of old shooe soles burned, and of them with oile of roses annoint
the kibes; or else lay vnto the kibes the rinde of a pomegranat boiled in
wine.” p. 83. ed. 1600.
v. 496.
_And fell so wyde open_
_That one myght se her token_]
Compare _The foure P. P._ by Heywood;
“So was thys castell layd _wyde open_
_That euery man myght se the token_.”
Sig. D i. ed. n. d.
v. 498. _wroken_] i. e. wreaked.
v. 501. _on Gods halfe_] i. e. “on God’s part, with God’s favour.”
Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_. “_A goddes halfe: De par
dieu._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxxxvi.
(Table of Aduerbes).
Page 111. v. 503. _beshrew_] i. e. curse.
v. 506. _lampatrams_] A word which I am unable to explain.
v. 507. _shap_] i. e. pudendum: see Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang.
Fr._, 1530. fol. xxvi. (Table of Subst.). So in a description of
purgatory-punishments in the metrical legend of _Owayne Myles_;
“And some were yn to _shappus_
And some were vp to the pappus.”
_MS. Cott. Calig._ A ii. fol. 91.
v. 512. _stert_] i. e. started.
v. 515. _dant_] In Kilian’s _Dict._ is “_Dante. Ambubaia, mulier
ignaua._” ed. 1605; and in _Gloss. to West. and Cumb. Dialect_,
“_Dannet_, a ... woman of disreputable character:” but, for aught I know,
the word in the text may have some very different signification.
v. 516. _a gose and a gant_] Must mean here,—a goose and a gander: yet
Skelton in _Phyllyp Sparowe_ mentions first “the gose and the _gander_,”
and afterwards “the gaglynge _gaunte_:” see note, p. 130. v. 447.
v. 517. _wesant_] i. e. weasand.
v. 519. _olyfant_] i. e. elephant.
v. 520. _bullyfant_] Another word which I do not understand.
v. 522. _hedes_] i. e. heads.
Page 112. v. 525. _ale pole_] i. e. pole, or stake, set up before an
ale-house by way of sign.
v. 535. _A strawe, sayde Bele, stande vtter_]—_stande vtter_, i. e. stand
more out, back.
“_Straw_, quod the thridde, ye ben lewed and nice.”
Chaucer’s _Chanones Yemannes Tale_, v. 16393. ed. Tyr.
“_Stonde vtter_ felowe where doest thou thy curtesy preue?”
_The Worlde and the Chylde_, 1522. sig. B iv.
v. 538. _sterte_] i. e. started.
—— _fysgygge_] “_Trotiere_: A raumpe, _fisgig_, fisking huswife, raunging
damsell, gadding or wandring flirt.” Cotgrave’s _Dict._ “_Fiz-gig_, a
wild flirting wench.” _Dialect of Craven_, &c.
v. 543. _gat_] i. e. got.
v. 549. _quod_] i. e. quoth.
—— _hyght_] i. e. called.
v. 550. _bybyll_] i. e. drink, tipple.
v. 553. _Wheywormed_] i. e. covered with _whey-worms_,—pimples from which
a whey-like moisture exudes.
Page 113. v. 555. _puscull_] i. e. pustule.
v. 556. _muscull_] i. e. muscle,—the shell of which is frequently
“scabbyd.”
Page 113. v. 557. _noppy_] i. e. nappy.
v. 558. _soppy_] i. e. sop.
v. 560. _mote I hoppy_] i. e. may I have good hap.
v. 561. _coleth_] i. e. cooleth.
—— _croppy_] i. e. crop, stomach.
v. 563. _Haue here is for me_] See note, p. 118. v. 413.
v. 573. _defoyled_] i. e. defiled.
v. 575. _sorte_] i. e. set, company.
v. 582. _a pryckemedenty_] i. e. one affectedly nice, finical.
v. 583.
_Sat lyke a seynty,_
_And began to paynty_
_As thoughe she would faynty_]
—_seynty_, i. e. saint: _paynty_, i. e. paint,—feign: _faynty_, i. e.
faint. Compare our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;
“That counterfaytes and _payntes_
As they were very _sayntes_.”
v. 922. vol. i. 347.
v. 587. _a lege de moy_] So again in our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;
“And howe Parys of Troy
Daunced a _lege de moy_,
Made lusty sporte and ioy
With dame Helyn the quene.”
v. 952. vol. i. 348.
I have not found elsewhere the term _lege de moy_. Mace, in his _Musick’s
Monument_, 1676, mentions a _Tattle de Moy_,—“a New Fashion’d Thing, much
like a Seraband; only It has more of Conceit in It, as (in a manner)
speaking the word (Tattle de Moy),” &c. p. 129.
Page 114. v. 594. _I wys_] i. e. truly, certainly (_i-wis_, adv.).
v. 598. _spence_] i. e. store-room, for drink, or victuals: “_Spens_ a
buttrye _despencier_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol.
lxvi. (Table of Subst.).
v. 609. _awne_] i. e. own.
v. 610. _Neyther gelt nor pawne_] i. e. Neither money nor pledge.
v. 615. _balke_] i. e. beam, post: “_Balke_ of an house _pouste_.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xix. (Table of Subst.).
v. 616. _tayle_] i. e. tally. “A payre of _taylles_, suche as folke vse
to score vpon for rekennyng.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._,
1530. fol. xiii. (Thirde Boke).
v. 617. _yll hayle_] i. e. ill health,—ill luck,—a common imprecation in
our old poetry;
“_Ill haile_, Alein, by God thou is a fonne.”
Chaucer’s _Reves Tale_, v. 4087. ed. Tyr.
See too _Chester Mysteries_ (_De Del. Noe_), p. 27. Roxb. ed.
Page 114. v. 619. _to mytche_] i. e. too much.
v. 620. _mummynge_] i. e. frolicking, merriment.
Page 115. v. 622. _gest_] i. e. story. “_Gest_ or romauns.” _Prompt.
Parv._ ed. 1499.
v. 623. _this worthy fest_] So in the _Coventry Mysteries_;
“At _wurthy festys_ riche men woll bene.”
_MS. Cott. Vesp._ D viii. fol. 32.
and in Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_, “It is not to be doubted but that
the king was privy of all _this worthy feast_.” p. 199. ed. 1827.
_Quod_] i. e. Quoth.