In giving this poem a place among our author’s undoubted productions,
I now apprehend that I deferred too much to the judgment of my friend
Mr. J. P. Collier, who had recently reprinted it without suspecting its
genuineness. It may, after all, be Skelton’s; but at any rate it is only
a _rifacimento_ of the following verses,—found in _MS. Sloane_, 747. fol.
88, and very difficult to decipher:
“So propre cappes
So lytle hattes
And so false hartes
Saw y never.
So wyde gownes
In cytees and townes
And so many sellers of bromys
Say I never.
Suche garded huoes [hose]
Suche playted shoes
And suche a pose
Say y never.
Dowbletes not[?] syde
The syde so wyde
And so moche pride
Was never.
So many ryven shertes
So well appareld chyrches
And so many lewed clerkes
Say I never.
So fayre coursers
So godely trappers
And so fewe foluers
Say y never.
So many fayere suerdes
So lusty knyghtes and lordes
And so fewe covered bordes
Say I never.
So joly garded clokes
So many clyppers of grotes
And go vntyde be the throtes
Say I never.
So many wyde pu[r]ces
And so fewe gode horses
And so many curses
Say y never.
Suche bosters and braggers
And suche newe facyshyont daggers
And so many cursers
Say I never.
So many propere knyffes
So well apparelld wyfes
And so evyll of there lyfes
Say I never.
The stretes so swepynge
With wemen clothynge
And so moche swerynge
Say I never.
Suche blendynge of legges
In townes and hegges
And so many plegges
Say I never.
Of wymen kynde
Lased be hynde
So lyke the fende
Say I never.
So many spyes
So many lyes
And so many thevys
Say I never.
So many wronges
So few mery songges
And so many ivel tonges
Say I neuer.
So moche trechery
Symony and vsery
Poverte and lechery
Say I never.
So fewe sayles
So lytle avayles
And so many jayles
Sawe y never.
So many esterlynges
Lombardes and flemynges
To bere awey our wynynges
Sawe I never.
Be there sotyll weys
Al Englande decays
For suche false Januayes
Sawe I neuer.
Amonge the ryche
Where frenship ys to seche
But so fayre glosynge speche
Sawe I never.
So many poore
Comynge to the dore
And so litle socour
Sawe I never.
So prowde and say [gay?]
So joly in aray
And so litle money
Sawe I never.
So many sellers
So fewe byers
And so many marchaunt taylors
Sawe I never.
Executores havynge mony and ware
Than havynge so litle care
How the pore sowle shall fare
Sawe I never.
So many lawers vse
The truthe to refuse
And suche falsehed excuse
Sawe I never.
Whan a man ys dede
His wiffe so shortely wed
And havynge suche hast to bed
Sawe I neuer.
So many maydens blamed
Wrongefully not defamed
And beyenge so lytle ashamyd
Sawe I never.
Relygiouse in cloystere closyd
And prestes and large[272] losed
Beyenge so evyll disposyd
Sawe I never.
God saue our sovereygne lord the kynge
And alle his royal sprynge
For so noble a prince reyny[n]ge
Sawe I never.”
[272] _and large_] Qy. “at large?” but it is by no means certain that
“large” is the reading of the MS.
Page 148. v. 9. _gardes_] i. e. facings, trimmings.
v. 10. _Jagged_] See note, p. 163. v. 124: but here probably (as
certainly in v. 54) something ornamental is meant.
—— _al to-torne_] See note, p. 100. v. 32.
v. 15. _hostryes_] i. e. inns.
v. 17. _warkes_] i. e. works.
v. 22. _preves_] i. e. proves; equivalent, perhaps, to—turn out well.
Page 149. v. 25. _garded hose_] i. e. faced, trimmed breeches.
v. 26. _cornede_] i. e. horned, pointed.
v. 29. _questes_] i. e. inquests.
v. 31. _quitte_] i. e. acquitted.
v. 50. _crakers_] i. e. vaunters, big talkers.
v. 54. _cultyng and jagging_] See note above, v. 10: _cultyng_, I
believe, should be _cuttyng_.
Page 150. v. 57. _knackes_] i. e. trifles, toys, or perhaps tricks.
v. 58. _naughty packes_] An expression which occurs again in our author’s
_Garlande of Laurell_, v. 188. vol. i. 369, is common in writers of a
much later date, and is not yet altogether obsolete (see _The Dialect of
Craven_, &c. in _Noughty-Pack_),—equivalent to worthless, loose persons
(properly, it would seem, cheaters; see Richardson’s _Dict._ in v.
_Pack_).
Page 151. v. 90. _kepe tuche_] i. e. keep contract, agreement.
v. 93. _pore_] i. e. poor.
v. 94. _bordoure_] i. e. border.
v. 101. _bowyers_] i. e. bow-makers.
v. 102. _fletchers_] i. e. arrow-makers.
v. 105. _chepers_] i. e. traffickers, sellers (compare the fourth stanza
on the opposite page).
v. 109. _alle sellers_] i. e. ale-sellers.
v. 110. _baudy_] i. e. foul; see note, p. 161. v. 90.
—— _sellers_] i. e. cellars.
v. 113. _pinkers_] Some cant term which I do not understand.
Page 152. v. 121. _vacabounde_] i. e. vagabond.
v. 122. _londe_] i. e. land.
v. 123. _bonde_] i. e. bound.
v. 129. _fleyng_] i. e. flying.
v. 130. _males_] i. e. bags, wallets, pouches.
Page 152. v. 138. _covetous_] i. e. covetise, covetousness.
v. 141. _carders_] i. e. card-players.
v. 143. _yl ticers_] i. e. evil-enticers.
v. 145. _lollers_] “Apostaticus ... anglice a renegade or _loller_.”
_Ortus Vocab._ ed. 1514. “_Lollar heretique._” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de
la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlv. (Table of Subst.). So at the conclusion
of _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_, the term _Lollard_ is used to
signify a heretic: see Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 445 (note), ed. Laing.
Compare too our author’s _Replycacion_, &c. v. 204. vol. i. 215.
v. 146. _tollers_] i. e. tellers, speakers.
v. 147. _pollers_] i. e. plunderers.
Page 153. v. 153. _So many avayles_] An expression which I do not
understand: the poem just given from _MS. Sloane_ has “So _lytle_
avayles;” see p. 201, last stanza but two.
v. 154. _geales_] i. e. gaols.
v. 161. _jackes_] i. e. jackets.
v. 163. _partlettes_] i. e. ruffs.
v. 166. _tucking hookes_] Another expression which I do not understand.
v. 169. _song_] i. e. sung.
v. 178. _brybors_] i. e. thieves,—properly, pilferers. “_Briboure_.
Manticulus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499; and see note on our author’s
_Magnyfycence_, v. 1242.
v. 182. _everichone_] i. e. every one.
Page 154. v. 186. _convenient_] i. e. fitting, suitable.