The battle of Flodden, one of the most disastrous events in Scottish
history, has been rendered so familiar to readers of our own day by the
poem of _Marmion_, that a particular account of it here is unnecessary.
It took place on September 9th, 1513. The English army was commanded by
the Earl of Surrey [created Duke of Norfolk the February following]; the
Scottish by their rash and gallant monarch James the Fourth, who perished
in the field amid heaps of his slaughtered nobles and gentlemen.
Page 182. v. 2. _tratlynge_] i. e. prattling, idle talk.
v. 5. _Lo, these fonde sottes, &c._]—_fonde_, i. e. foolish. This
passage resembles a rhyme made in reproach of the Scots in the reign of
Edward the First:
“These scaterand Scottes
Holde we for sottes,” &c.
Fabyan’s _Chron._ vol. ii. fol. 140. ed. 1559.
Page 182. v. 11. _Branxton more_] i. e. Brankston Moor.
v. 12. _stowre_] Means generally—hardy, stout; here perhaps it is
equivalent to—obstinate: but in Palsgrave we find “_Stowre_ of
conversation _estourdy_.” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xcvi.
(Table of Adiect.).
v. 22. _closed in led_] The body of James, disfigured with wounds,
was found the day after the battle; it was carried to Berwick, and
ultimately interred in the priory of Shene: see Weaver’s _Anc. Fun.
Mon._, p. 394. ed. 1631. After the dissolution of that house, according
to Stow’s account, the body, enclosed in lead, was thrown into one of
the lumber-rooms; and the head, which some workmen hewed off “for their
foolish pleasure,” was brought to London and buried in St. Michael’s
Church, Wood Street: _Survey_, B. iii. 81. ed. 1720.
Page 183. v. 26. _byllys_] i. e. bills,—a sort of beaked
pikes,—battle-axes.
v. 30. _Folys and sottys_] i. e. Fools and sots.
v. 32. _crake_] i. e. vaunt.
v. 33. _To face, to brace_] So Borde in his _Boke of knowlege_ introduces
a Scotchman saying,
“I wyll boost my selfe, I wyll _crake and face_.”
Sig. G 2. reprint.
Compare our author’s _Magnyfycence_;
“Cl. Col. By God, I tell you, I wyll not be _out facyd_.
By the masse, I warant thé, I wyll not be _bracyd_.”
v. 2247. vol. i. 299.
and his _Garlande of Laurell_;
“Some _facers_, some _bracers_, some make great crackis.”
v. 189. vol. i. 369.
In Hormanni _Vulgaria_ we find, “He _faceth_ the matter, and maketh
great crakes. _Tragice loquitur_, et ampullosa verba proiicit.” Sig. P
iiii. ed. 1530. “He is not aferde to _face or brace_ with any man of
worshyp. Nullius viri magnitudinem _allatrare_ dubitat.” Sig. O ii. And
in Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, “I _face_ as one dothe
that brauleth or falleth out with a nother to make hym a frayde, _Ie
contrefays des mines_ ... I dare nat passe by his dore he _faceth and
braceth_ me so: ... _il contrefait tellement des mines_.” fol. ccxxx.
(Table of Verbes). “I _Brace_ or _face_, _Ie braggue_. He _braced_ and
made _a bracyng_ here afore the dore as thoughe he wolde haue kylled....
_Il braggoyt_,” &c. fol. clxxi. (Table of Verbes).
Page 183. v. 36. _ouerthwart_] i. e. cross, perverse, wrangling.
v. 41. _quayre_] i. e. quire,—pamphlet, book.
v. 51. _sumner_] i. e. summoner (it generally meant what we now call
apparitor).
v. 52. _greyth_] i. e. agreeth, suiteth.
v. 53. _Our kynge of Englande for to syght_]—_syght_, i. e. cite. While
Henry viii. was encamped before Terouenne, James iv. sent his chief
herald to him, with a letter (which may be found in Hall’s _Chron._
(_Hen. viii._), fol. xxix. ed. 1548), reckoning up the various injuries
and insults he had received from Henry, and containing what amounted
to a declaration of war, unless the English monarch should desist from
hostilities against the French king.
Page 184. v. 57. _kynge Koppynge_] Compare the _Coliphizacio_, where
Cayphas exclaims—
“Therfor I shalle the name that ever shalle rew the,
_Kyng Copyn_ in oure game,” &c.
_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 194,—
the Glossary informing us that “A coppin is a certain quantity of worsted
yarn wound on a spindle, and the spindle then extracted,”—which may be
true, though it does not explain the passage. Some game must be alluded
to.
v. 59. _Hob Lobbyn of Lowdean_] So again our author in _Speke, Parrot_;
“_Hop Lobyn of Lowdeon_ wald haue e byt of bred.”
v. 74. vol. ii. 5.
Perhaps there is an allusion to some song or ballad: _Lowdean_ is, I
apprehend, Lothian.
v. 60. _what good ye can_] See note, p. 190. v. 23.
v. 61. _Locrian_] i. e. Loch Ryan—a large bay in Wigtonshire, which by
approximating to the bay of Luce, forms the peninsula called the Rinns of
Galloway. It is mentioned by Barbour;
“And at _Lochriane_ in Galloway
He schippyt, with all his menye.”
_The Bruce_, B. xi. v. 36. ed. Jam.
In the poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c. Skelton speaks of the
Scots
“Of _Locryan_,
And the ragged ray
Of _Galaway_.”
v. 21. vol. ii. 68.
and in his verses against Dundas, he calls him
“Dundas of _Galaway_.”
v. 29. vol. i. 193.
See too v. 109 of the present poem. Our author uses Scottish names at
random.
Page 184. v. 62. _sence_] i. e. cense.
v. 63. _Saint Ionis towne_] i. e. Perth. Compare Langtoft’s _Chronicle_,
p. 333. ed. Hearne; Minot’s _Poems_, p. 6. ed. Ritson; and Barbour’s
_Bruce_, B. ii. v. 53. ed. Jam. It is said that the Picts, after their
conversion to Christianity, or the Scots, after their king had succeeded
to the Pictish throne, consecrated the church and bridge of Perth to St.
John the Baptist; and that hence in process of time many persons gave to
the town the name of St. Johnston: see Jamieson’s note on the passage
last referred to.
v. 72. _tragedy_] See note, p. 194. v. 155.
v. 79. _enbybe_] i. e. wet.
v. 83. _Irysh keteringes_]—_Irysh_, i. e. Highlanders and Islesmen:
“Than gert he all the _Irschery_
That war in till his cumpany,
_Off Arghile, and the Ilis alsua_,” &c.
Barbour’s _Bruce_, B. xiii. v. 233. ed. Jam.
—_keteringes_ (see Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v.
_Cateranes_), i. e. marauders who carried off cattle, corn, &c.
Page 185. v. 86. _armony_] i. e. harmony.
v. 89. _me adres_] i. e. apply myself.
v. 90. _proces_] i. e. story; see notes, p. 143. v. 735. p. 146. v. 969.
p. 194. v. 157. p. 211. v. 231.
v. 91. _Jocky my jo_] Perhaps a fragment of some song or ballad. In
Scotch, _Jocky_ is the diminutive of _Jock_, the abbreviation of _John_:
_jo_ is sweetheart, dear, (_joy_.)
v. 92. _summond_] See note on v. 53, preceding page.
v. 97. _to_] i. e. too.
v. 98. _harrold_] i. e. herald: see note on v. 53.
v. 100. _pye_] i. e. magpie.
v. 101. _Syr skyrgalyard_] So again our author in his _Speke, Parrot_;
“With, _skyregalyard_, prowde palyard, vaunteperler, ye prate.”
v. 427. vol. ii. 21.
and in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c.;
“Suche a _skyrgaliarde_.”
v. 168. vol. ii. 73.
“William Johnstone of Wamphray, called the _Galliard_, was a noted
freebooter.... His _nom de guerre_ seems to have been derived from the
dance called _The Galliard_. The word is still used in Scotland to
express an active, gay, dissipated character.” Scott’s _Minst. of the
Scott. Bord._ i. 305. ed. 1810. To _skir_ (under which Richardson in
his _Dict._ cites Skelton’s term “a skyrgaliarde”) is to scour, to move
rapidly.
Page 185. v. 101. _skyt_] i. e. hasty, precipitate.
v. 103. _layd_] “I _Laye_ for me or alledge to make my mater good.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cclxxv. (Table of
Verbes).
v. 104. _not worth a fly_] A common expression in our early poetry;
“The goos saide then al this _nys worth a file_.”
Chaucer’s _Ass. of Foules_,—_Workes_, fol. 235. ed. 1602.
v. 106. _brother_] James married Margaret sister of Henry the Eighth.
v. 109. _Gup_] See note, p. 99. v. 17.
—— _Syr Scot of Galawey_] See note on v. 61. p. 217.
v. 110. _fall_] i. e. fallen.
v. 111. _Male vryd_] i. e. ill-fortuned (Fr. _malheur_).
Page 186. v. 117. _Scipione_] i. e. Scipio.
v. 119. _Thoughe ye vntruly your father haue slayne_] James iii. was
slain by a ruffian whose name is not certainly known, under circumstances
of great atrocity, in 1488, in a miller’s cottage, immediately after his
flight from the battle of Sauchie-burn, where his son (then in his 17th
year) had appeared in arms against him. The mind of James iv. was haunted
by remorse for his father’s death; and he wore in penance an iron girdle,
the weight of which he every year increased.
v. 121. _Dunde, Dunbar_] Scottish names used at random: so again in our
author’s verses against Dundas, “_Dunde, Dunbar_,” v. 60. vol. i. 194;
and in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c. “_Dunbar, Dunde_,”
v. 24. vol. ii. 68.
v. 122. _Pardy_] i. e. _par dieu_, verily.
v. 124. _shent_] i. e. destroyed, brought to disgrace or punishment.
v. 128. _checkmate_] See note, p. 96. v. 29.
v. 129. _the castell of Norram_] In taking the Castle of Norham, James
wasted some days, previous to the battle of Flodden, while he ought to
have employed his forces in more important enterprises.
v. 130. _to sone_] i. e. too soon.
v. 132. _bylles_] See note on v. 26. p. 216.
v. 133. _Agaynst you gaue so sharpe a shower_] _Shower_ is often applied
by our old writers to the storm, assault, encounter of battle:
“The _sharpe shoures_ and the cruel rage
Abyde fully of this mortall werre.”
Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. iv. sig. Y iiii. ed. 1555.
“He was slawe yn _sharpe showre_.”
_Kyng Roberd of Cysylle_,—_MS. Harl._ 1701. fol. 94.
and see our author’s poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c. v. 240.
vol. ii. 75.
Page 186. v. 135.
_The Whyte Lyon, there rampaunt of moode,_
_He ragyd and rent out your hart bloode;_
_He the Whyte, and ye the Red_]
The White Lion was the badge of the Earl of Surrey, derived from his
ancestors the Mowbrays. His arms were Gules, on a bend between six cross
croslets, fitchy, argent: after the battle of Flodden, the king granted
to him “an honourable augmentation of his arms, to bear _on the bend
thereof_: _in an escutcheon Or, a demi Lion rampant, pierced through the
mouth with an arrow, within a double tressure flory and counterflory
Gules_; which tressure is the same as surrounds the royal arms of
Scotland.” Collins’s _Peerage_, i. 77. ed. Brydges.
“If Scotlands Coat no marke of Fame can lend,
That Lyon plac’d in our bright siluer-bend,
Which as a Trophy beautifies our shield,
Since Scottish bloud discoloured Floden-Field;
When the proud Cheuiot our braue Ensigne bare,
As a rich Jewell in a Ladies haire,
And did faire Bramstons neighbouring vallies choke
With clouds of Canons fire-disgorged smoke.”
_Epistle from H. Howard Earle of Surrey to Geraldine_,—Drayton’s
_Poems_, p. 86 [88], ed. 8vo. n. d.
“George Buchanan reporteth that the Earle of Surrey gaue for his badge
a Siluer Lion, which from Antiquitie belonged to that name, tearing in
pieces a Lion prostrate Gules; and withall, that this which hee termes
insolence, was punished in Him and his Posteritie,” &c. Drayton’s note on
the preceding passage.
—— _the Red_] The royal arms of Scotland.
v. 139. _quyt_] i. e. requited.
v. 141. _swete Sainct George, our ladies knyght_] “Our Lady’s knight” is
the common designation of St. George: so in a song written about the same
time as the present poem, _Cott. MS. Domit._ A. xviii. fol. 248; in _Sir
Beues of Hamtoun_, p. 102. Maitl. ed. &c. &c.
Page 186. v. 144. _His grace beyng out of the way_] i. e. Henry the
Eighth being in France: see note on v. 53. p. 217.
v. 148. _ye lost your sworde_] The sword and dagger, worn by James at the
battle of Flodden, are preserved in the college of Heralds. An engraving
of them is prefixed to Weber’s ed. of the poem, _Flodden Field_.
Page 187. v. 149. _buskyd_] i. e. hied.
—— _Huntley bankys_] So again in our author’s verses against Dundas;
“That prates and prankes
On _Huntley bankes_.”
v. 57. vol. i. 194.
and in his _Why come ye not to Courte_;
“They [the Scottes] play their olde pranckes
After _Huntley bankes_.”
v. 263. vol. ii. 35.
and in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c.;
“Of the Scottes ranke
Of _Huntley banke_.”
v. 18. vol. ii. 68.
Here again Skelton uses a Scottish name at random. The _Huntly-bank_,
where, according to the charming old poem, Thomas the Rhymer met the
Queen of Faery, is situated on one of the Eldoun hills.
v. 153.
_Of the kyng of Nauerne ye might take heed,_
_Vngraciously how he doth speed:_
_In double delynge so he did dreme,_
_That he is kynge without a reme;_
_And, for example ye would none take_, &c.]
—_reme_, i. e. realm. In a letter despatched from the camp before
Terouenne, in answer to the epistle of the Scottish king (see note on v.
53. p. 217), Henry says; “And yf _the example of the kyng of Nauarre_
beynge excluded from his royalme for assistence gyuen to the Frenche kyng
cannot restrayne you from this vnnaturall dealynge, we suppose ye shall
haue lyke assistence of the sayde Frenche kynge as the kyng of Nauarre
hath nowe: _Who is a kynge withoute a realme_, &c.” Hall’s _Chron._
(_Henry viii._) fol. xxxi. ed. 1548. James, however, never received
this letter: he was slain before the herald who bore it could procure a
passage from Flanders.
v. 158. _brake_] See note, p. 168. v. 324.
v. 161. _Your beard so brym as bore at bay_]—_brym_, i. e.
fierce,—rugged, bristly. James wore “his Beerde somethynge longe.”
Lelandi _Collect._ iv. 285. ed. 1770.
v. 162. _Your Seuen Systers, that gun so gay_] Lindsay of Pitscottie
informs us that when James was making preparations for his fatal
expedition against England “he had sewin great cannones out of the castle
of Edinburgh, quhilkis was called the _Sewin Sisteris_, castin be Robert
Borthik; and thrie maister gunneris, furnisched with pouder and leid
to thame at thair pleasure.” _Cron. of Scotl._ i. 266. ed. 1814. These
canons were named _Sisters_ because they were all of the same great size
and fine fabric. Concerning Borthwick, master of the artillery to James,
the following mention is made by Lesley: “Rex amplo stipendio Robertum
Borthuik, insignem tormenti fabricandi artificem donauit, vt tormenta
bellica maiora in arce Edinburgensi aliquamdiu conflaret: quorum permulta
hodie in Scotia reperiuntur, hoc versu incisa:
“Machina sum Scoto Borthuik fabricata Roberto.”
_De or. mor. et reb. gest. Scot._ p. 353. ed. 1578.
Page 187. v. 169. _The Popes curse gaue you that clap_]—_clap_, i.
e. stroke. James died under a recent sentence of excommunication for
infringing the pacification with England.
v. 170. _Of the out yles the roughe foted Scottes_] i. e. the
rough-footed Scots of the Hebrides: the epithet _rough-footed_ was given
to them, because they wore, during the frost, a rude sort of shoe, made
of undressed deer-skin, with the hairy side outwards; see MS. quoted in
Pinkerton’s _Hist. of Scotland_, ii. 397.
v. 171. _the bottes_] i. e. the worms.
v. 172. _dronken dranes_]—_dranes_, i. e. drones. The Editor of Skelton’s
_Workes_, 1736, printed “_dronken_ Danes;” and Weber (_Flodden Field_, p.
276) proposes the same alteration; but though the Danes (as the readers
of our early dramatists know) were notorious for deep potations, the
text is right. Our author has again, in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of
Albany_, &c.;
“We set nat a prane
By suche a _dronken drane_.”
v. 163. vol. ii. 72.
“_Drane._ Fucus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. And compare _Pierce Plowman’s
Crede_;
“And right as _dranes_ doth nought but _drinketh_ vp the huny.”
Sig. D i. ed. 1561.
v. 175. _sumner_] See note on v. 51. p. 217.
Page 188. v. 177. _to_] i. e. too.
_Quod_] i. e. Quoth.
_per desertum Sin_] “Profectique sunt de Elim, et venit omnis multitudo
filiorum Israel in _desertum Sin_, quod est inter Elim et Sinai,” &c.
_Exod._ xvi. l. (_Vulgate_).
VNTO DIUERS PEOPLE THAT REMORD THIS RYMYNGE, &c.
Page 188. _remord_] See note, p. 193. v. 101.
v. 7. _makynge_] i. e. composing, composition.
v. 8. _Their males therat shakynge_]—_males_, i. e. bags, wallets:
compare our author’s _Colyn Cloute_;
“I purpose to _shake oute_
All my _connyng bagge_.”
v. 50. vol. i. 313.
v. 14. _brother_] See note, p. 219. v. 106.
Page 189. v. 21. _pyketh mood_] i. e. grows angry, picks a quarrel.
v. 26. _recrayed_] i. e. recreant, false (the idea of _cowardice_ is
certainly not implied here).
v. 30. _died excomunycate_] See note, p. 222. v. 169.
v. 37. _ouerthwartes_] i. e. cross, perverse objections, cavils.
CHORUS DE DIS, &c.
_Dis_] Of which Skelton was rector; see _Account of his Life and
Writings_.
Page 190. vv. 17, 18. _Leo Candidus ... Leo tu Rubeus_] See note, p. 220.
v. 135.
CHORUS DE DIS, &c. SUPER TRIUMPHALI VICTORIA CONTRA GALLOS, &c.
These verses (placed immediately after the poems on the Battle of
Flodden, in the eds.) relate to an event which happened about the same
period. Henry viii. having in person invaded France, in conjunction with
the Emperor Maximilian, they proceeded to the siege of Terouenne. An
attempt on the part of Louis to relieve the town occasioned the Battle of
the Spurs, August 16, 1513, in which the Duke of Longueville, Clermont,
&c. were made prisoners. Terouenne surrendered to Henry on the 22d of
that month, and its defences were razed to the ground on the 27th. In
these dates I follow Lingard.
Page 191. v. 13. _Gloria Cappadocis, divæ milesque Mariæ_] i. e. St.
George, whom our author has before termed “our Ladies knyght,” see note,
p. 220. v. 141. During this war, the Emperor, to flatter Henry’s vanity,
wore his badge of the red rose, assumed the cross of St. George, and
accepted a hundred crowns daily as the soldier of the English king.
VILITISSIMUS SCOTUS DUNDAS, &c.
“Georgius Dundas, Græce Latineque doctissimus habitus, Equitum
Hierosolymitanorum intra Regnum Scotiæ præfectus, sed prius Aberdoniæ
Professor. Scripsit diligenter, et laboriose. _Historiam Equitum
Hierosolymitanorum_, lib. ii. Claruit anno MDXX.” Dempsteri _Hist.
Eccles. Gentis Scotorum_, &c. 1627, p. 234. This George Dundas was, I
apprehend, the person who excited the wrath of Skelton.
Page 192. v. 1.
_Anglicus a tergo_
_caudam gerit_, &c.]
These three hexameters are, it would seem, the composition of Dundas.
“After this saynt austyn entryd in to dorsetshyre, and came in to a towne
where as were wycked peple & refused his doctryne and prechyng vtterly
& droof hym out of the towne castyng on hym the tayles of thornback or
like fisshes, wherfore he besought almyghty god to shewe his jugement on
them, and god sente to them a shameful token, for the chyldren that were
borne after in that place had tayles as it is sayd, tyl they had repented
them. It is sayd comynly that thys fyl at strode in kente, but blessyd be
god at this day is no suche deformyte.” _The lyf of saynt Austyn,—Golden
Legende_, fol. clxxiiii. ed. 1483. See too _Nova Legenda Anglie_ (by
Capgrave), 1516. fol. xxx.
“_Anglos quosdam caudatos esse._
Svspicabar quod de Anglorum caudis traditur, nugatorium esse, nec
hoc meminissem loco, nisi ipsi Anglicarum rerum conditores id serio
traderent: nasci videlicet homines, instar brutorum animalium caudatos
apud Strodum Angliæ vicum, ad ripam fluuii Meduciæ, qui Roffensem, siue
Rocestrensem agrum alluit. Narrantque eius vici incolas, iumento quod
D. Thomas Canthuariensis episcopus insideret, per ludibrium caudam
amputasse, ob idque diuina vltione adnatas incolis eius loci caudas: vt
in hos fatidici regis carmen torqueri possit: Percussit eos (inquit) in
posteriora eorum, opprobrium sempiternum dedit illis. De huiusmodi caudis
quidam in hunc modum lusit:
Fertur equo Thomæ caudam obtruncasse Britannos,
Hinc Anglos caudas constat hubere breueis.”
_Anglicæ Descriptionis compendium, Per Gulielmum Paradinum
Cuyselliensem_, 1545. p. 69.
On the proverbial expression _Kentish Long-Tailes_, Fuller has the
following remarks. “Let me premise, that those are much mistaken who
first found this Proverb on a Miracle of Austin the Monk.... I say
they are much mistaken, for the Scæne of this Lying Wonder was not
laied in any Part of Kent, but pretended many miles off, nigh Cerne in
Dorsetshire. To come closer to the sence of this Proverb, I conceive it
first of outlandish extraction, and cast by forraigners as a note of
disgrace on all the English, though it chanceth to stick only on the
Kentish at this Day. For when there happened in Palestine a difference
betwixt Robert brother of Saint Lewis King of France and our William
Longspee Earle of Salisbury, heare how the French-man insulted over our
nation:
Matthew Paris. Anno Dom. 1250. pag. 790.
O timidorum caudatorum formidolositas! quam beatus, quam mundus
præsens foret exercitus, si a caudis purgaretur et caudatis.
O the cowardliness of these fearful Long-tails! How happie, how
cleane would this our armie be, were it but purged from tails
and Long-tailes.
That the English were nicked by this speech appears by the reply of the
Earle of Salisbury following still the metaphor; The son of my father
shall presse thither to day, whither you shall not dare to approach his
horse taile. Some will have the English so called from wearing a pouch
or poake, (a bag to carry their baggage in) behind their backs, whilest
probably the proud Monsieurs had their Lacquies for that purpose. In
proof whereof they produce ancient pictures of the English Drapery and
Armory, wherein such conveyances doe appear. If so, it was neither sin
nor shame for the common sort of people to carry their own necessaries,
and it matters not much whether the pocket be made on either side, or
wholly behinde. If any demand how this nick-name (cut off from the rest
of England) continues still entaild on Kent? The best conjecture is,
because that county lieth nearest to France, and the French are beheld as
the first founders of this aspersion. But if any will have the Kentish
so called from drawing and dragging boughs of trees behind them, which
afterwards they advanced above their heads and so partly cozened partly
threatned King William the Conqueror to continue their ancient customes,
I say, if any will impute it to this original, I will not oppose.”
_Worthies_ (_Kent_, p. 63), ed. 1662. The preceding passage of Fuller,
somewhat abridged, is copied by Ray into his _Proverbs_, p. 245. ed.
1768. For fanciful stories concerning the origin of Kentish long-tails,
see also _Cornv-copiæ, Pasquils Night-cap_, 1612, (attributed to S.
Rowlands), p. 42. sqq.; and the commencement of _Robin Good-fellow, His
mad Prankes and Merry Jests_, 1628, (a tract which originally appeared at
an earlier date).
Page 193. v. 1. _Gup_] See note, p. 99. v. 17.
v. 23. _Agayn_] i. e. Against.
v. 26. _dur_] i. e. door.
v. 28. _Go shake thy dog, hey_] In our author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 306.
vol. i. 235, is,—
“_Go, shake the dogge, hay_, syth ye wyll nedys.”
and had the expression occurred only in these two passages of Skelton, I
should have felt confident that in the present one “thy” was a misprint
for “the,” and that both were to be explained—“Go shake thee, dog,” &c.;
but again, in his poem _Howe the douty Duke of Albany_, &c. v. 159. vol.
ii. 72, we find,
“Twyt, Scot, _shake thy dogge, hay_!”
Page 194. v. 34. _hose_] i. e. breeches.
v. 37. _A spectacle case, &c._] See note, p. 193. v. 133.
v. 40. _A tolman to blot_] A friend queries “tal man?” but _tolman_ is, I
believe, pen-man: compare our author’s third poem _Against Garnesche_;
“Had ye gonne with me to scole,
And occupyed no better your _tole_ [i. e. pen],” &c.
v. 117. vol. i. 123.
also the commencement of the present piece,—
“Gup, Scot,
Ye _blot_.”
v. 41. _rough foted_] See note, p. 222. v. 170.
v. 43. _depraue_] i. e. vilify, defame.
v. 44. _reame_] i. e. realm.
v. 56. _rankis_] i. e., perhaps, wrangles.
v. 58. _Huntley bankes_] See note, p. 221. v. 149.
v. 60. _Dunde, Dunbar_] See note, p. 219. v. 121.
v. 63. _to far_] i. e. too far.