All the particulars concerning Garnesche, which I have been able to
discover will be found in the _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.
Page 116. v. 1. _Sithe_] i. e. Since.
v. 4. _Syr Tyrmagant_]—or _Termagant_,—a very furious deity, whom the
Crusaders and romance-writers charged the Saracens with worshipping,
though there was certainly no such Saracenic divinity. Concerning the
name, see Gifford’s note on Massinger’s _Works_, ii. 125. ed. 1813, and
Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.—So in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_, which
in various minute particulars bears a strong resemblance to the present
pieces _Against Garnesche_;
“_Termygantis_ temptis and Vespasius thy eme.”
Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 85. ed. Laing.
—— _tyrnyd_] i. e. tourneyed, encountered.
v. 5. _Syr Frollo de Franko_] Was a Roman knight, governor of Gaul, slain
by King Arthur: see _Geoffrey of Mon._ l. ix. cap. ii., _The Legend of
King Arthur_, Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._ iii. 39. ed. 1794, &c. &c.
—— _talle_] i. e. valiant.
v. 6. _Syr Satrapas_] Neither with this, nor with the personage mentioned
in the next line, have I any acquaintance.
v. 8. _haue ye kythyd yow a knyght_]—_kythyd_, i. e. made known, shewn.
“It _kythit_ be his cognisance _ane knight_ that he wes.”
_Golagros and Gawane_, p. 137, _Syr Gawayne_, &c. ed. Bann.
Garnesche had the dignity of knighthood; see _Account of Skelton and his
Writings_. In the heading, and first line, of this poem, he is called
_Master_; but knights were frequently so addressed. In Cavendish’s _Life
of Wolsey_ mention is made of “Sir William Fitzwilliams, _a knight_,”
who is presently called “_Master_ Fitzwilliams,” pp. 310, 311. ed. 1827,
and of “Sir Walter Walshe, _knight_,” who is immediately after termed
“_Master_ Walshe,” pp. 339, 340, and of “that worshipful _knight Master_
Kingston,” p. 374.
Page 116. v. 8. _Syr Dugles the dowty_] “The high courage of Dowglasse
wan him that addition of _Doughty Dowglasse_, which after grew to a
Prouerbe.” Marg. Note on the description of the Battle of Shrewsbury, in
Drayton’s _Polyolbion_, Song 22. p. 37. ed. 1622.
v. 9. _currysly_] i. e. currishly.
v. 10. _stowty_] i. e. stout.
v. 11. _Barabas_] The robber mentioned in Scripture.
—— _Syr Terry of Trace_]—_Trace_, i. e. Thrace: but I do not recollect
any romance or history in which a Sir Terry of that country is mentioned.
v. 12. _gyrne_] i. e. grin.
—— _gomys_] i. e. gums.
v. 15. _Syr Ferumbras the ffreke_]—_ffreke_ (common in romance-poetry in
the sense of—man, warrior) is here, as the context shews, equivalent to
furious fellow: we have had the word before, see p. 109. v. 187. Consult
the analysis of the romance of _Sir Ferumbras_ in Ellis’s _Spec. of Met.
Rom._ ii. 356, and Caxton’s _Lyf of Charles the Grete_, &c., 1485, for
much about this Saracen, called in the latter _Fyerabras_,—“a meruayllous
geaunte,”—“whyche was vaynquysshed by Olyuer, and at the laste baptysed,
_and was after a Saynt in heuen_.” Sig. b viii.
v. 16. _Syr capten of Catywade, catacumbas of Cayre_] _Cayre_ is Cairo;
but I am unable to explain the line. In the opening of Heywood’s _Four
P. P._, the Palmer says, he has been at “the graet God of Katewade,”
alluding, as O. Gilchrist thinks, to Catwade-bridge in Sampford hundred
in Suffolk, where there may have been a famous chapel and rood; see
Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, i. 61. last ed.
v. 17. _Thow_] i. e. Though.
—— _Syr Lybyus_] See note, p. 138. v. 649.
v. 18. _contenons oncomly_] i. e. countenance uncomely.
v. 19. _apayere_] i. e. impair—become less.
Page 117. v. 22. _Of Mantryble the Bryge, Malchus the
murryon_]—_murryon_, i. e. Moor; so in the third of these poems, Skelton
calls Garnesche “Thou _murrionn_, thou mawment,” v. 170. vol. i. 125; so
too in the Scottish Treasurer’s Accounts for 1501, “Peter the _Moryen_,”
Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 306. ed. Laing; and in a folio broadside, _M. Harry
Whobals mon to M. Camell_, &c. (among the “flytings” of Churchyard and
Camell), “Some _morryon_ boye to hold ye vp.” If the present passage
means that the Bridge was guarded by a Moor called Malchus, I know not
what authority Skelton followed. Concerning the Bridge of Mantryble
see the analysis of the romance of _Sir Ferumbras_, Ellis’s _Spec. of
Met. Rom._ ii. 389; and Caxton’s _Lyf of Charles the Grete_, &c., 1485,
“Of the meruayllous bridge of Mantryble, of the trybute there payed
for to passe ouer,” &c., sig. e viii., and how “the strong brydge of
mantryble was wonne not wythoute grete payne,” sig. h viii.: it was
kept by a giant, named Algolufre in the former, and Galafre in the
latter, who was slain by the Frenchmen when the Bridge was won. In _The
Bruce_ of Barbour, the hero reads to his followers “Romanys off worthi
Ferambrace” and how Charlemagne “wan _Mantrybill_ and passit Flagot.”
B. ii. v. 832 sqq. ed. Jam. “The tail of _the brig of the mantribil_”
is mentioned in _The Complaynt of Scotland_, p. 98. ed. Leyden. Compare
also _Don Quixote_; “nor that [history] of Fierabras, with the _Bridge
of Mant[r]ible_, which befell in Charlemaines time, and is, I sweare, as
true, as that it is day at this instant.” P. i. B. iv. c. xxii. p. 546.,
Shelton’s trans., 1612.
Page 117. v. 23. _blake Baltazar with hys basnet routh as a bere_] Does
_blake Baltazar_ mean one of the Magi, or, as they were commonly called,
the Three Kings of Cologne? “the third, Balthasar, a black or Moor,
with a large spreading beard,” &c. _Festa Anglo-Romana_, p. 7, cited in
Brand’s _Pop. Ant._ i. 19 (note), ed. 1813: _with hys basnet routh as a
bere_, i. e. with his cap (not helmet, it would seem,) rough as a bear.
v. 24. _Lycon, that lothly luske_]—_Lycon_ is probably Lycaon; see note,
p. 127. v. 311. “Here is a great knaue i. a great lyther _luske_, or a
stout ydell lubbar.” Palsgrave’s _Acolastus_, 1540. sig. X ii. “_Luske_ a
vyle parsone _ribavlt, esclaue, lovrdavlt_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la
Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlvi. (Table of Subst.). The word is often used as
a term of reproach in general.
v. 25. _brymly_] i. e. fiercely, ruggedly.
—— _here_] i. e. hair.
v. 26. _bake_] i. e. back.
—— _gere_] i. e. dress.
v. 30. _a camoke_] Is explained—a crooked stick, or tree; a crooked beam,
or knee of timber.
v. 31. _teggys_] See note, p. 164. v. 151.
Page 117. v. 33. _Orwelle hyr hauyn_] By Harwich.
v. 36. _Sarson_] i. e. Saracen. So in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_
(see note, p. 177. v. 4), “_Sarazene_, syphareit,” &c. Dunbar’s _Poems_,
ii. 75. ed. Laing.
—— _ble_] i. e. colour, complexion.
v. 37. _As a glede glowynge_] i. e. glowing like a burning coal:—but qy.
did Skelton write “as a glede _glowrynge_?” i. e. staring like a kite. He
uses _glede_ in this latter sense in _Magnyfycence_, v. 1059. vol. i. p.
259: and in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_ (see note, p. 177. v. 4)
we find,—
“hungry _gled_.”
...
“Lyke to ane stark theif _glowrand_ in ane tedder.”
Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 70, 72. ed. Laing.
—— _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.