This poem was evidently called forth by a real event; but the name of
the “hawking parson” has not transpired. According to Barclay, skill in
hawking sometimes advanced its possessor to a benefice;
“But if I durst truth plainely vtter and expresse,
This is the speciall cause of this inconuenience,
That greatest fooles, and fullest of lewdnes,
Hauing least wit, and simplest science,
Are first promoted, and haue greatest reuerence,
For if one can flatter, and _beare a Hauke on his fist,_
_He shalbe made Parson of Honington or of Clist_.”
_The Ship of Fooles_, fol. 2. ed. 1570.
I may add, that afterwards, in the same work, when treating of indecorous
behaviour at church, Barclay observes;
“Into the Church then comes another sotte,
Without deuotion, ietting vp and downe,
Or to be seene, and to showe his garded cote:
_Another on his fiste a Sparhauke or Fawcone_,” &c.
fol. 85.
Page 155. v. 5. _abused_] i. e. vitiated, depraved.
“Be all yonge galandes of these _abused_ sorte,
Whiche in yonge age vnto the court resorte?”
Barclay’s _Third Egloge_, sig. C ii. ed. 1570.
v. 8. _daw_] i. e. simpleton, fool; see note, p. 113. v. 301.
v. 16. _him fro_] i. e. from him.
Page 156. v. 22. _dysgysed_] i. e. guilty of unbecoming conduct: so again
in our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;
“They mought be better aduysed
Then to be so _dysgysed_.”
v. 581. vol. i. 333.
v. 30. _apostrofacion_] i. e. apostrophe.
v. 34. _wrate_] i. e. wrote.
v. 35. _lewde_] i. e. ignorant, worthless.
v. 42. _Dis_] Of which Skelton was rector; see _Account of his Life and
Writings_.
v. 43. _fonde_] i. e. foolish.
—— _fauconer_] i. e. falconer.
v. 44. _pawtenar_] “_Pautner_ [_Pawtenere_, _MS. Harl._ 221.].
Cassidile.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “Will. Brito: _Cassidile_ dicitur
pera Aucupis in modum reticuli facta, in quo ponit quos in casse, id est,
rete, cepit.” Du Cange’s _Gloss._ in v. “Pera ... anglice a skryppe or a
_pawtner_.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d.
v. 48. _hogeous_] i. e. hugeous, huge.
v. 49. _auter_] i. e. altar.
v. 50. _craked_] i. e. talked vauntingly.
Page 157. v. 55. _yede_] i. e. went.
v. 56. _pray_] i. e. prey.
v. 60. _tyrid_] A term in falconry: the hawk _tired_ on what was thrown
to her, when she pulled at and tore it.
v. 62. _mutid_] i. e. dunged.
—— _a chase_] Compare a passage in that curious tract, by Walter Smith,
_xii Mery Jests of the wyddow Edyth_;
“Her potage & eke her ale were well poudred
With an holsome influence that surgeons call
Pouder Sinipari that wil make on cast his gall:”
in consequence of which, she is compelled suddenly to quit the
supper-table, and,
“When that she was vp, she got her foorth apace,
And er she had walkt xxx fote, she marked _a chase_
And eftsones another, thrugh the Hal as she yede,” &c.
Sig. f iii. ed. 1573.
“A _chase_ at tennis is that spot where a ball falls, beyond which the
adversary must strike his ball to gain a point or chace. At long tennis,
it is the spot where the ball leaves off rolling.” Douce’s _Illust. of
Shakespeare_, i. 485. Compare our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_,
v. 880. vol. ii. 53.
Page 157. v. 63. _corporas_] i. e. communion-cloth, the fine linen cloth
used to cover the _body_, or consecrated elements.
v. 65. _gambawdis_] i. e. gambols, pranks.
v. 66. _wexid_] i. e. waxed.
—— _gery_] “_Gerysshe_, wylde or lyght heeded _farouche_.” Palsgrave’s
_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxviii. (Table of Adiect.).
“Howe _gery_ fortune furyous and wode.”
Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. iii. leaf lxxvii. ed. Wayland.
“And as a swalowe _geryshe_ of her flyghte,
Twene slowe and swifte, now croked nowe vpright.”
_Ibid._ B. vi. leaf cxxxiiii.
Tyrwhitt explains “_gery_—changeable.” _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant.
Tales_. Richardson observes that in the present passage of Skelton “it
seems to be _giddy_ (sc.) with turning round.” _Dict._ in v.
v. 69. _the rode loft_] A loft (generally placed just over the passage
out of the church into the chancel,) where stood the _rood_,—an image of
Christ on the cross, with figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John on
each side of it: compare v. 126 of the present poem;
“His hawke then flew vppon
_The rode with Mary and John”_.
v. 70. _perkyd_] i. e. perched.
v. 71. _fauconer_] i. e. falconer.
—— _prest_] i. e. ready.
v. 72. _dow_] i. e. pigeon.
v. 73. _And cryed, Stow, stow, stow!_] So Fansy, in our author’s
_Magnyfycence_, exclaims to his hawk,
“_Stowe_, byrde, _stowe, stowe_!
It is best I fede my hawke now.”
v. 980. vol. i. 257.
Compare Brathwait’s _Merlin_;
“But _stow_, bird, stow,
See now the game’s afoote,
And white-mail’d Nisus,
He is flying to’t.”
_Odes_, p. 250, appended to _Natures Embassie_, 1621.
“Make them come from it to your fist, eyther much or little, with calling
and chirping to them, saying: Towe, Towe, or _Stowe, Stowe_, as Falconers
vse.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 182. ed. 1611.
Page 157. v. 76. _lure_] See note, p. 147. v. 1100.
v. 78. _endude_] “She [the hawk] _Enduyth_ whan her meete in her bowelles
falle to dygestyon.” _Book of St. Albans_, by Juliana Barnes, sig. C iii.
v. 79. _ensaymed_] i. e. purged from her grease. “_Ensayme_ of an hawke,”
says the lady just quoted, “is the greeys.” Sig. A v. See too “How you
shall _enseame_ a Hawke,” &c. in Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c.
p. 115. ed. 1611.
v. 80. _reclaymed_] i. e. tamed; see note, p. 148. v. 1125.
v. 81. _fawconer_] i. e. falconer.
—— _vnfayned_] Either, unfeignedly (in the next line but six is “not
_fayne_ nor forge”) or un-glad, displeased: see note, p. 198. v. 30.
Page 158. v. 83. _lyst_] i. e. liking, inclination.
v. 85. _loked_] i. e. looked.
—— _the frounce_] Is a distemper in which a whitish foam gathers in
wrinkles (frounces) about the hawk’s mouth and palate. “The _Frounce_
proceedeth of moist and cold humours, which descend from the hawkes
head to their palate and the roote of the tongue. And of that cold is
engendred in the tongue the _Frownce_,” &c. Turbervile’s _Booke of
Falconrie_, &c. p. 303. ed. 1611.
v. 87. _the gorge_] “Is that part of the Hawk which first receiveth
the meat, and is called the Craw or Crop in other fowls.” Latham’s
_Faulconry_, (Explan. of Words of Art), 1658.
v. 89. _clap_] i. e. stroke.
v. 91. _sparred_] i. e. fastened, shut (“boltyd and barryd” being in the
next line).
v. 93. _wyth a prety gyn_]—_gyn_, i. e. contrivance.
“And _with a prety_ gynne
Gyue her husbande an horne.”
_The boke of mayd Emlyn_, &c. n. d. sig. A ii.
v. 100. _On Sainct John decollacion_] i. e. On the festival of the
beheading of St. John.
Page 158. v. 103. _secundum Sarum_] So in Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Complaynt of
the Papingo_;
“Suppose the geis and hennis suld cry alarum,
And we sall serve _secundum usum Sarum_.”
_Works_, i. 327. ed. Chal.
The proverbial expression, “It is done _secundum usum Sarum_,” is thus
explained by Fuller: “It began on this occasion; Many Offices or forms of
service were used in severall Churches in England, as the Office of York,
Hereford, Bangor, &c. which caused a deal of Confusion in Gods Worship,
untill Osmond Bishop of Sarum, about the year of our Lord 1090, made that
Ordinall or Office which was generally received all over England, so that
Churches thence forward easily understood one another, all speaking the
same words in their Liturgy. It is now applyed to those persons which do,
and Actions which are formally and solemnly done, in so Regular a way by
Authentick Precedents, and Paterns of unquestionable Authority, that no
just exception can be taken thereat.” _Worthies_ (_Wilt-Shire_), p. 146.
ed. 1662.
v. 104. _Marche harum_] i. e. March hare.
v. 106. _let_] i. e. leave, desist.
v. 107. _fet_] i. e. fetch.
v. 110. _to halow there the fox_]—_halow_, i. e. halloo. “Men blewe the
hornes and cryed and _halowed the foxe_.” _Reynard the Fox_, sig. h 5.
ed. 1481.
v. 112. _Boke_] i. e. Book.
Page 159. v. 114. _lectryne_] “_Lecterne_ to syng at.” Palsgrave’s
_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xliiii. (Table of Subst.).
“Sum syng at the _lectorne_ with long eares lyke an asse.”
Bale’s _Kynge Johan_, p. 27. Camd. ed.
Or simply, a reading-desk: see note on v. 120.
v. 116. _With, troll, cytrace, and trouy_] So in _Apius and Virginia_, by
R. B., 1575;
“_With_ hey tricke, how _trowle_, trey trip, and trey _trace_.”
Sig. B.
v. 117. _hankin bouy_] Compare _Thersytes_, n. d.;
“And we wyll haue minstrelsy
that shall pype _hankyn boby_.”
p. 62. Roxb. ed.
and Nash’s _Haue with you to Saffron-walden_, 1596; “No vulgar respects
haue I, what Hoppenny Hoe and his fellow _Hankin Booby_ thinke of mee.”
Sig. K 2: and Brome’s _Joviall Crew_, 1652; “he makes us even sick
of his sadness, that were wont to see my Ghossips cock to day, mould
Cocklebread, daunce clutterdepouch and _Hannykin booby_, binde barrels,
or do any thing before him, and he would laugh at us.” Act ii. sc. i.
sig. D 2.
Page 159. v. 119. _fawconer_] i. e. falconer.
vv. 120, 121. _gospellers_ ... _pystillers_] “_Gospellar_ that syngeth
the gospell.” “_Pysteller_ [Epistler] that syngeth the masse.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fols. xxxvii., liiii.
(Table of Subst.). But in our author’s _Phyllyp Sparowe_ we find,
“Shal _rede the Gospell_ at masse
...
Shal _rede_ there _the pystell_.”
vv. 423, 5. vol. i. 64.
and see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._ in vv. _Gospeller_, _Epistler_.
v. 125. _gydynge_] “He controlled my lyuynge and _gydynge_.... _mores_.”
Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. N vi. ed. 1530.
“Wise women has wayis, and wonderfull _gydingis_.”
Dunbar’s tale of _The Tua Maryit Wemen and the Wedo_,—_Poems_, i. 77.
ed. Laing.
v. 127. _The rode with Mary and John_] See note on v. 69. p. 206.
v. 128. _fon_] i. e. fool.
v. 129. _daw_] i. e. simpleton; see note, p. 113. v. 301.
v. 137. _hawkis bels_] i. e. the bells attached to the feet of the hawk.
v. 138. _losels_] i. e. good-for-nothing fellows,—the same as _lorels_,
which has several times occurred before (see note, p. 132. v. 488, &c.):
“Lorell or _losell_ or lurdeyn.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “Lorrell or
_losell_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xlv. (Table
of Subst.).
v. 142. _snappar_] i. e. stumble; but see note, p. 92. v. 4.
v. 144. _loke_] i. e. look.
Page 160. v. 146. _bokis_] i. e. books.
v. 149. _mayden Meed_] See the allegorical account of Meed in _Pierce
Plowman_; where we find,
“That is _mede the maid_, quod she, hath noyed me full oft.”
Sig. B iv. ed. 1561.
and again, “Saue _mede the mayde_,” &c. sig. C iii. “Now is _mede the
mayde_,” &c. ibid.
v. 158. _toke_] i. e. took.
v. 159. _this_] Perhaps for _thus_: compare v. 181.
v. 164. _Exodi_] i. e. the book of _Exodus_.
“In _Exodi_ ben these mencions.”
Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. i. leaf vii. ed. Wayland.
Page 160. v. 166. _Regum_] i. e. _The Third_, now called _The First, Book
of Kings_.
Page 161. v. 178. _the rode_] See note on v. 69. p. 206.
v. 181. _this_] i. e. thus; see note, p. 86. v. 38.
v. 183. _dowues donge_] i. e. pigeon’s dung.
v. 194. _croked_] i. e. crooked.
—— _Cacus_] See extract from _The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_, in
note, p. 213. v. 23.
v. 196. _Nother_] i. e. Neither.
—— _Olibrius_] Was “the provost” by whose order Saint Margaret, after
being put to sundry tortures, was beheaded at Antioch. _Golden Legende_,
fol. ccxiiii. sqq. ed. 1483. See also _The Legend of Seynt Mergrete_,
printed from the Auchinleck MS., in Turnbull’s _Legendæ Catholicæ_.
Most readers will recollect Mr. Milman’s dramatic poem, _The Martyr of
Antioch_.
v. 198.
—— _Phalary,_
_Rehersed in Valery_]
i. e. Phalaris, recorded in Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. cap. iii.
(where it is related that the Agrigentines, at the instigation of
Zeno Eleates, stoned the tyrant Phalaris to death. “’Tis plain,” says
Bentley, “he mistakes Phalaris for Nearchus.” _Diss. upon the Ep. of
Phalaris_,—_Works_, i. 241. ed. Dyce), and lib. ix. cap. ii.
v. 200. _Sardanapall_] So our early writers often spell his name;
“Last of all was _Sardanapall_.”
Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, Boke ii. leaf L. ed. Wayland.
Page 162. v. 204. _Egeas_] Is mentioned with various other evil
personages in _The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy_,
“Herod thy uthir eme, and grit _Egeass_.”
Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 86. ed. Laing.
and in the Second Part of Marlowe’s _Tamburlaine_;
“The headstrong jades of Thrace Alcides tamed,
That King Egeus fed with humane flesh.”
Last sc. of act iv. sig. G 3. ed. 1606.
v. 205. _Syr Pherumbras_] See note, p. 178. v. 15.
v. 211. _poll by poll_] i. e. head by head,—one by one.
“And ye shall here the names _poll by poll_.”
_Cocke Lorelles bote_, sig. B ii.
v. 212. _Arystobell_] i. e. (I suppose) Aristobulus,—who, having
succeeded his father Hyrcanus as high-priest and governor of Judea,
assumed the title of king,—cast his mother into prison, and starved her
to death,—caused his brother Antigonus to be assassinated,—and died
after reigning a year. See Prideaux’s _Connect_. Part ii. B. vi.
Page 162. v. 214. _miscreantys_] i. e. infidels. “These thre kynges were
the fyrst of _myscreauntes_ that byleued on cryst.” _The three kynges of
Coleyne_, sig. C ii. ed. 1526.
v. 216. _Sowden_] i. e. Soldan, Sultan.
v. 225. _pekysh_] See note, p. 129. v. 409.
v. 228. _crokid_] i. e. crooked.
v. 230. _this_] i. e. thus; as before, see v. 181.
—— _ouerthwarted_] i. e. cavilled, wrangled. “To hafte or _ouerthwarte_
in a matter, to wrangle.” Baret’s _Alvearie_ in v.
v. 231. _proces_] i. e. subject-matter; see notes, p. 143. v. 735. p.
146. v. 969. p. 194. v. 157.
Page 163. v. 233. _loke_] i. e. look.
v. 234. _boke_] i. e. book.
v. 239. _rehers_] i. e. tell, declare.
v. 240. _sentence_] i. e. meaning.
v. 241. _scholys_] i. e. schools.
v. 242. _folys_] i. e. fools.
v. 244. _Dawcocke_] See note, p. 113. v. 301.
Page 164. v. 249. _fista_] i. e. fist.
v. 250. _you lista_] i. e. you please.
v. 260. _Dialetica_] i. e. Dialectica.
v. 264. _forica_] Is Latin for a public jakes; and compare vv. 62, 183:
but I cannot determine the meaning of it here.
v. 270. _Jacke Harys_] Must not be mistaken for the name of the person
who called forth this piece; we have been already told that he “shall
be nameless,” v. 38. So in our author’s _Magnyfycence_, Courtly Abusyon
terms Cloked Colusyon “cankard _Jacke Hare_.” v. 768. vol. i. 250. There
is a poem by Lydgate (at least attributed to him) concerning a personage
called _Jak Hare_, of which the first stanza is as follows:
“A froward knave plainly to discryve
And a sluggard plainly to declare
A precious knave that cast hym never to thryve
His mowth wele wet his slevis right thredebare
A tourne broche a boy for wat of ware
With louryng face noddyng and slombryng
Of newe cristened called _Jak Hare_
Whiche of a bolle can pluk out the lyneng.”
_MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 14.
Since the above note was written, the ballad on Jack Hare has been
edited from _MS. Lansd._ 699. fol. 88. by Mr. Halliwell, among Lydgate’s
_Minor Poems_, p. 52 (printed for the _Percy Society_). “The original
of this,” says Mr. H. (p. 267), “is an Anglo-Norman poem of the 13th
century, in MS. Digb. Oxon. 86. fol. 94, entitled ‘De Maimound mal
esquier.’”
Page 164. v. 274. _federis_] i. e. feathers.
Page 165. v. 284. _fisty_] i. e. fist.
v. 290. _Apostata_] This form, as an English word, continued in use long
after the time of Skelton.
v. 291. _Nestorianus_] “_Nestoriani_ quidam heretici qui beatam mariam
non dei, sed hominis dicunt genitricem.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de
Worde, n. d.: but here _Nestorianus_ seems to be put for Nestorius, the
founder of the sect.
v. 300. _This_] i. e. Thus; as before, see v. 181.
v. 301. _Dys church ye thus deprauyd_] To _deprave_ generally means—to
vilify in words (as in our author’s _Colyn Cloute_, “_The Churche to
depraue_,” v. 515. vol. i. 330); but (and see the poem _Howe the douty
Duke of Albany_, &c. v. 191. vol. ii. 73) here _deprauyd_ must be
equivalent to—defiled.
v. 305. _Concha_] “_Concha_ recensetur vulgo inter vasa ac ministeria
sacra, cujus varii fuere usus.” Du Cange’s _Gloss_.
v. 306. _sonalia_] i. e. the bells attached to the hawk’s feet.
Page 166. v. 313.
_Et relis et ralis,_
_Et reliqualis_]
Occurs again in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1216. vol. i. 410.
v. 315. _Galis_] i. e. Galicia.
v. 320. _chalys_] i. e. chalice.
v. 324. _Masyd_] i. e. Bewildered, confounded.
v. 325. _styth_] i. e. anvil.
v. 327. _daw_] i. e. simpleton; see note, p. 113. v. 301.
Page 167. _Quod_] i. e. Quoth.
EPITAPHE, &c.
v. 3. _this_] i. e. these.
v. 4. _queed_] i. e. evil. The word is common in our earliest poetry:
“That euer schuld haue don him _qued_.”
_Arthour and Merlin_, p. 51. ed. Abbotsf.
A DEUOUTE TRENTALE, &c.
_trentale_] i. e. properly, a service of thirty masses for the dead,
usually celebrated on as many different days.
Page 170. v. 44. _I faith, dikkon thou crue_] See note, p. 115. v. 360.
v. 46. _knauate_] i. e. knave.
v. 47. _rode_] i. e. rood, cross; see note, p. 206. v. 69.
v. 53. _fote ball_] i. e. foot-ball.
Page 171. v. 61. _Wit[h], hey, howe, rumbelowe_] See note, p. 110. v. 252.
Page 172. v. 23.
_Crudelisque Cacus_
_barathro, peto, sit tumulatus_]
To readers of Skelton’s days Cacus was known not so much from the 8th
book of Virgil’s _Æneid_, as from _The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_,
(a translation by Caxton from the French of Raoul le Fevre), where his
story is related at considerable length, and with great variation from
the classical fable: “In the cyte of Cartagene, a kynge and geant regned.
named Cacus whiche was passyng euyll and full of tyrannye, and had slayn
by his cursidnes the kynges of Aragon and of Nauerre. their wyues and
their children And possessid her seignouryes and also helde in subieccion
alle the contrey into ytaly,” &c. Book ii. ed. 1471—about the middle of
the volume, which is printed without paging or signatures. His death is
afterwards thus described: “But hercules ranne after and retayned hym And
enbraced hym in his armes so harde that he myght not meue And brought hym
agayn And bare hym vnto a depe pytte that was in the caue where he had
caste in all ordures and filthe, hercules cam vnto this fowle pytte that
the grekes had founden And planted cacus there Inne. his heed dounward
from on hye vnto the ordure benethe, Than the ytaliens cam aboute the
pitte and caste so many stones vpon hym that he deyde there myserably.
Suche was the ende of the poure kynge Cacus. he deyde in an hooll full of
ordure and of styngkynge filthe.”
v. 28. _best_] i. e. beast.
Page 173. _Apud Trumpinton scriptum per Curatum ejusdem, &c._] A passage
wrongly understood by Skelton’s biographers: see _Account of his Life and
Writings_.
Page 174.
_Diligo rustincum cum portant bis duo quointum,_
_Et cantant delos est mihi dulce melos_]