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_.”