(“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_.”