And Lydgate has a copy of verses, the burden of which is,—

“Conveyede by lyne _ryght as a rammes horne_.”

_MS. Harl._ 172. fol. 71.

See too Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 225. ed. 1768.

v. 1206. _yawde_] i. e. hewed, cut down. “To _Yaw_, to hew.” Gloss.

appended to _A Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect_, 1837.

Page 358. v. 1208. _Ezechyas_] Ought to be “Isaias;” for, according to

a Jewish tradition, Isaiah was cut in two with a wooden saw by order of

King Manasseh.

v. 1216. _agayne_] i. e. against.

v. 1223. _cough, rough, or sneuyll_]—_rough_, i. e., perhaps, _rout_,

snore, snort. I may just observe that Palsgrave not only gives “_rowte_”

in that sense, but also “I _Rowte_ I belche as one dothe that voydeth

wynde out of his stomacke, _Ie roucte_.” _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._,

1530. fol. cccxliiii. (Table of Verbes); and that Coles has “To _rout_,

Crepo, pedo.” _Dict._

v. 1224. _Renne_] i. e. Run.

v. 1227. _set not a nut shell_] i. e. value not at a nut-shell, care not

a nut-shell for.

v. 1229. _gyse_] i. e. guise, fashion.

Page 359. v. 1232. _sayd sayne_] A sort of pleonastic

expression,—equivalent to—called commonly or proverbially: see note on v.

864. p. 290.

v. 1235. _domis day_] i. e. doomsday.

Page 359. v. 1239. _boke_] i. e. book.

v. 1240. _By hoke ne by croke_] i. e. By hook nor by crook.

v. 1244. _nolles_] i. e. heads.

v. 1245. _noddy polles_] i. e. silly heads.

v. 1246. _sely_] i. e. silly.

v. 1248. _great estates_] i. e. persons of great estate, or rank.

v. 1255. _wawes wod_] i. e. waves mad, raging.

v. 1257. _Shote_] i. e. Shoot, cast.

v. 1258. _farre_] i. e. farther:

“I wyl no _farr_ mell.”

_Gentylnes and Nobylyte_, n. d. (attributed without grounds to Heywood),

sig. C ii.

Page 360. v. 1262. _the porte salu_] i. e. the safe port. Skelton has the

term again in his _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 541. vol. i. 383. Compare

Hoccleve;

“whether our taill

Shall soone make us with our shippes saill

To _port salu_.”

_Poems_, p. 61. ed. 1796,—

where the editor observes, “_Port salut_ was a kind of proverbial

expression, and so used in the translation of _Cicero de senectute_

printed by Caxton.”

A RYGHT DELECTABLE TRATYSE VPON A GOODLY GARLANDE OR CHAPELET OF LAURELL

... STUDYOUSLY DYUYSED AT SHERYFHOTTON CASTELL, IN THE FORESTE OF

GALTRES, &c.

Sheriff-Hutton Castle “is situated in the Wapentake of Bulmer, and is

distant ten miles north-east from York ... The slender accounts of it

that have reached our times, ascribe its origin to Bertram de Bulmer, an

English Baron, who is recorded by Camden to have built it in the reign

of King Stephen, A.D. 1140 ... From the Bulmers it descended by marriage

to the noble family of the Nevilles, and continued in their possession

upwards of 300 years, through a regular series of reigns, until seized

by Edward iv. in 1471, who soon after gave the Castle and Manor to his

brother the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard iii. In 1485, in

consequence of the death of Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field, it

became the property of King Henry vii., and continued in the hands of the

Crown, until James the First granted it to his son, Prince Charles, about

1616. The Castle and Manor were subsequently granted (also by King James,

according to Camden, and the original grant confirmed by Prince Charles

after he ascended the throne) to the family of the Ingrams, about 1624-5,

and are now in possession of their lineal descendant, the present

Marchioness of Hertford.” _Some Account of Sheriff-Hutton Castle_, &c.

pp. 3-5, York, 1824.

Leland (who says, erroneously it would seem, that Sheriff-Hutton Castle

“was buildid by Rafe Nevill of Raby the fyrst Erl of Westmerland of

the Nevilles,”) gives the following description of it. “There is a

Base Court with Houses of Office afore the Entering of the Castelle.

The Castelle self in the Front is not dichid, but it stondith _in loco

utcunque edito_. I markid yn the fore Front of the first Area of the

Castelle self 3. great and high Toures, of the which the Gate House was

the Midle. In the secunde Area ther be a 5. or 6. Toures, and the stately

Staire up to the Haul is very Magnificent, and so is the Haul it self,

and al the residew of the House: in so much that I saw no House in the

North so like a Princely Logginges. I lernid ther that the Stone that

the Castel was buildid with was fetchid from a Quarre at Terington a 2.

Miles of. There is a Park by the Castel. This Castel was wel maintainid,

by reason that the late Duke of Northfolk lay ther x. Yers, and sins the

Duk of Richemond. From Shirhuten to York vij. Miles, and in the Forest of

Galtres, wherof 4. Miles or more was low Medowes and Morisch Ground ful

of Carres, the Residew by better Ground but not very high.” _Itin._ i.

67. ed. 1770.

“Report asserts, that during the civil wars in the time of Charles the

First, it [the Castle] was dismantled, and the greater part of its walls

taken down, by order of the Parliament. But this is certainly not the

fact, as will be seen by reference to the ‘Royal Survey’ made in 1624 ...

From this Survey it will appear evident, that the Castle was dismantled

and almost in total ruin in the time of James I.,—how long it had been

so, previous to the Survey alluded to, is now difficult to say. From

the present appearance of the ruins, it is plain that the Castle was

purposely demolished and taken down by workmen, (probably under an order

from the Crown, in whatever reign it might happen,) and not destroyed by

violence of war. However, since this devastation by human hands, the yet

more powerful and corroding hand of Time has still further contributed to

its destruction.... The Castle stands upon a rising bank or eminence in

front of the village, and its ruins may be seen on every side at a great

distance.” _Some Account_, &c. (already cited), pp. 5, 6. The vast forest

of Galtres formerly extended nearly all round Sheriff-Hutton.

When Skelton wrote the present poem, Sheriff-Hutton Castle was in

possession of the Duke of Norfolk, to whom it had been granted by the

crown for life: see note on v. 769.

Page 361. v. 1. _Arectyng_] i. e. Raising.

Page 361. v. 6. _plenarly_] i. e. fully—at full.

v. 9. _somer flower_] i. e. summer-flower.

v. 10. _halfe_] i. e. side, part.

Page 362. v. 15. _dumpe_] “I Dumpe I fall in a _dumpe_ or musyng vpon

thynges.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccxxii.

(Table of Verbes).

v. 16. _Encraumpysshed_] i. e. encramped. Skelton’s fondness for

compounds of this kind has been already noticed. The simple word occurs

in other writers:

“_Crampisheth_ her limmes crokedly.”

Chaucer’s _Annel. and Ar_.,—_Workes_, fol. 244. ed. 1602.

“As marbyll colde her lymmes _craumpishing_.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. iv. sig. X v. ed. 1555.

—— _conceyte_] i. e. conceit, conception.

v. 20. _boystors_] i. e. boisterous.

v. 22.

_Thus stode I in the frytthy forest of Galtres,_

_Ensowkid with sylt of the myry mose_]

—_stode_, i. e. stood: _frytthy_, i. e. woody: _ensowkid_, i. e.

ensoaked: _sylt_, i. e. mud: _mose_, i. e. moss. The forest of Galtres

(which, as already noticed, extended nearly all round Sheriff-Hutton)

was, when Camden wrote, “in some places shaded with trees, _in others

swampy_.” _Britannia_ (by Gough), iii. 20.

v. 24. _hartis belluyng_] In the _Book of Saint Albans_, Juliana Berners,

treating “Of the cryenge of thyse bestys,” says,

“_An harte belowyth_ and a bucke groynyth I fynde.”

Sig. d ii.

—— _embosyd_] “When he [the hart] is foamy at the mouth, we say that he

is _embost_.” Turbervile’s _Noble Art of Venerie_, p. 244. ed. 1611.

v. 26. _the hynde calfe_] “Ceruula. a _hynde calfe.” Ortus Vocab._ fol.

ed. W. de Worde, n. d. In the _Book of Saint Albans_ we are told;

“And for to speke of the harte yf ye woll it lere:

Ye shall hym a _Calfe_ call at the fyrste yere.”

Sig. C vi.

v. 27. _forster_] i. e. forester.

—— _bate_] Does it mean—set on, or train?

v. 28. _torne_] i. e. turn.

v. 32. _superflue_] i. e. superfluous.

“Ye blabbering fooles _superflue_ of language.”

Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 38. ed. 1570.

v. 35. _wele_] i. e. well.

Page 363. v. 38. _disgysede_] i. e. decked out in an unusual manner.

“Of his straunge aray merueyled I sore

...

Me thought he was gayly _dysgysed_ at that fest.”

Lydgate’s _Assemble de dyeus_, sig. b ii. n. d. 4to.

Page 363. v. 39. _fresshe_] “_Fresshe_, gorgyouse, gay.” Palsgrave’s

_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxviii. (Table of

Adiect.),—which I ought to have cited earlier for the meaning of this

word.

v. 40. _Enhachyde with perle, &c._] i. e. Inlaid, adorned with pearl,

&c. Our author in his _Phyllyp Sparowe_ tells us that a lady had a

wart (or as he also calls it, a scar) “_enhached_ on her fayre skyn,”

v. 1078. vol. i. 84. Gifford observes that “literally, to _hatch_ is

to inlay [originally, I believe, to cut, engrave, mark with lines];

metaphorically, it is to adorn, to beautify, with silver, gold, &c.”

Note on Shirley’s _Works_, ii. 301. “The ladies apparell was after the

fashion of Inde, with kerchifes of pleasance, _hatched_ with fine gold.”

Holinshed’s _Chron._ (Hen. viii.) vol. iii. 849. ed. 1587. “_Hatching_,

is to Silver or gild the Hilt and Pomell of a Sword or Hanger.” R.

Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. iii. p. 91.

v. 41. _The grounde engrosyd and bet with bourne golde_]—_grounde_, i. e.

(not floor, but) ground-work; as in Lydgate’s verses entitled _For the

better abyde_;

“I see a rybaun ryche and newe

...

The _grownde_ was alle of brent golde bryght.”

_MS. Cott. Calig. A_ ii. fol. 65.

_engrosyd_, i. e. thickened, enriched: _bet_ has here the same meaning as

in _Le Bone Florence of Rome_;

“Hur clothys wyth bestes and byrdes wer _bete_.”

_Met. Rom_. iii. 9. ed. Ritson,

who somewhat copiously explains it “beaten, plaited, inlay’d,

embroider’d:” _bourne_, i. e. burnished.

v. 44. _abylyment_] i. e. habiliment.

v. 45. _estates_] i. e. persons of estate or rank.

v. 49. _supplyed_] i. e. supplicated.

v. 50. _pusant_] i. e. puissant, powerful, mighty.

v. 52. _of very congruence_] i. e. of very fitness.

“Such ought of duetie and _very congruence_,” &c.

Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 188. ed. 1570.

v. 54. _astate_] i. e. estate, rank, dignity.

—— _most lenen_] i. e. must lean, bend, bow.

v. 55. _arrect_] i. e. raise.

v. 58. _ryall_] i. e. royal.

Page 364. v. 65. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 66. _embesy_] i. e. embusy.

—— _holl corage_] i. e. whole heart.

v. 68. _were_] i. e. wear.

v. 69. _wonder slake_] i. e. wonderfully slack.

v. 70. _lake] i. e._ lack, fault.

v. 71. _ne were_] i. e. were it not.

v. 72. _bokis ... sone ... rase_] i. e. books ... soon ... erase.

v. 73. _sith_] i. e. since.

v. 74. _Elyconis_] i. e. Helicon’s.

v. 75. _endeuour hymselfe_] i. e. exert himself (compare v. 936).

v. 77. _sittynge_] i. e. proper, becoming.

v. 79. _to_] i. e. too.

v. 80. _comprised_] Compare our author in _Lenuoy_ to Wolsey;

“And hym moost lowly pray,

In his mynde to _comprise_

Those wordes,” &c.

vol. ii. 84.

v. 81. _rin_] i. e. run.

Page 365. v. 83. _pullishe_] i. e. polish.

v. 86. _remorde_] See note, p. 193. v. 101.

v. 94. _mo ... enduce_] i. e. more ... bring in, adduce.

v. 95. _parde for to kyll_] i. e. _par dieu_, verily, for to be killed.

v. 96. _enuectyfys_] i. e. invectives.

v. 101. _the grey_] i. e. the badger. Juliana Berners says;

“That beest a bausyn hyght: a brok or a _graye_:

Thyse thre names he hath the soth for to saye.”

_The Book of St. Albans_, sig. D vi.

v. 102. _gose ... oliphaunt_] i. e. goose ... elephant.

v. 103. _ageyne_] i. e. against.

Page 366. v. 110. _confecture_] i. e. composition.

v. 111. _diffuse is to expounde_] i. e. is difficult to expound: see

note, p. 144. v. 768.

v. 112. _make ... fawt_] i. e. compose ... fault.

v. 114. _motyue_] i. e. motion. So in the next line but one is

“promotyue,” i. e. promotion: and so Lydgate has “ymaginatyfe”

for—imagination. _Fall of Prynces_, B. v. leaf cxvii. ed. Wayland.

v. 115. _auaunce_] i. e. advance.

v. 116. _rowme_] i. e. room, place.

v. 121. _gyse_] i. e. guise, fashion.

v. 122. _iche man doth hym dres_] i. e. each man doth address, apply,

himself.

v. 124. _bokis_] i. e. books.

Page 366. v. 127. _loke_] i. e. look.

v. 129. _mo_] i. e. more.

Page 367. v. 133. _Ageyne_] i. e. Against.

v. 136. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 137. _rasid_] i. e. erased.

v. 140. _Sith_] i. e. Since.

—— _defaut_] i. e. default, want.

—— _konnyng_] i. e. (not so much—knowledge, learning, as) skill, ability.

v. 141. _apposelle_] i. e. question.

“And to pouert she put this _opposayle_.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. iii. leaf lxvi. ed. Wayland.

“Made vnto her this vncouth _apposayle_:

Why wepe ye so,” &c.

_Id._ B. v. leaf cxxviii.

—— _wele inferrid_] i. e. well brought in.

v. 142.

_quikly it is_

_Towchid_]

i. e. it is lively, subtly expressed: compare v. 592 and v. 1161, where

the words are applied to visible objects.

—— _debarrid_] See note, p. 237. v. 60; and compare _Gentylnes and

Nobylyte_ (attributed without grounds to Heywood) n. d.;

“That reason is so grete no man can _debarr_.”

Sig. C iii.

Page 368. v. 149. _sittyng_] i. e. proper, becoming.

v. 152. _corage_] i. e. encourage.

v. 153. _fresshely_] i. e. elegantly: see note on v. 39. p. 302.

v. 155. _bruitid_] i. e. reported, spoken of.

v. 156. _outray_] See note, p. 123. v. 87, where this passage is examined.

v. 162. _Ierome, in his preamble Frater Ambrosius, &c._] The Epistle of

Jerome to Paulinus, prefixed to the Vulgate, begins, “_Frater Ambrosius_

tua mihi munuscula perferens,” &c., and contains this passage: “Unde et

Æschines, cum Rhodi exularet, et legeretur illa Demosthenis oratio, quam

adversus eum habuerat, mirantibus cunctis atque laudantibus, suspirans

ait, Quid, si ipsam audissetis bestiam sua verba resonantem?” It may be

found also in _Hieronymi Opp. I._ 1005. ed. 1609.

Page 369. v. 172. _most_] i. e. must.

v. 180. _wele ... avaunce_] i. e. well ... advance.

v. 183. _thefte and brybery_] See note, p. 256. v. 1242.

v. 184. _pyke_] i. e. pick.

Page 369. v. 186. _cokwoldes_] i. e. cuckolds.

v. 187. _wetewoldis_] i. e. wittols, tame cuckolds.

“_Wetewoldis_ that suffre synne in her syghtes.”

Lydgate’s _Assemble de dyeus_, sig. c i. n. d. 4to.

v. 188. _lidderons_] So before, _lydderyns_; see note, p. 267. v. 1945:

but here, it would seem, the word is used in the more confined sense

of—sluggish, slothful, idle fellows.

—— _losels_] See note, p. 209. v. 138.

—— _noughty packis_] See note, p. 203. v. 58.—If Skelton had been

required to distinguish exactly between the meanings of these terms of

reproach, he would perhaps have been nearly as much at a loss as his

editor.

v. 189. _Some facers, some bracers, some make great crackis_] See note,

p. 216. v. 33.

v. 192. _courte rowlis_] i. e. court-rolls.—Warton cites this and the

next two verses as “nervous and manly lines.” _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 354.

ed. 4to.

v. 196. _rinne_] i. e. run.

Page 370. v. 198. _cunnyng_] i. e. knowledge, learning.

v. 200. _a mummynge_] See note, p. 278. v. 83.

v. 201. _sadnesse_] See note, p. 259. v. 1382.

v. 203. _faute_] i. e. fault.

v. 204. _to_] i. e. too.

v. 205. _can ... scole_] i. e. knows ... school.

v. 207. _fole_] i. e. fool.

v. 208. _stole_] i. e. stool.

v. 209. _Iacke a thrummis bybille_] See note, p. 189. v. 204.

v. 211. _agayne_] i. e. against.

v. 212. _dwte_] i. e. duty.

v. 218. _to_] i. e. too.

Page 371. v. 223. _lay_] See note, p. 219. v. 103.

—— _werkis_] i. e. works.

v. 227. _most_] i. e. must.

v. 232. _condiscendid_] See note, p. 237. v. 39.

v. 233. _clarionar_] Is used here for—trumpeter: but the words properly

are not synonymous;

“Of _trumpeters_ and eke of _clarioneres_.”

Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. i. sig. C v. ed. 1555.

and Skelton himself has afterwards in the present poem, “_trumpettis_ and

_clariouns_.” v. 1507.

v. 235. _Eolus, your trumpet_] i. e. Æeolus, your trumpeter.

“A _trumpet_ stode and proudly gan to blowe,

Which slayne was and fro the tre doun throw.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. v. leaf cxxx. ed. Wayland.

So Chaucer makes Æolus trumpeter to Fame: see _House of Fame_, B. iii.

Page 371. v. 236. _mercyall_] i. e. martial.

v. 239. _prease_] i. e. press, throng.

v. 240. _hole rowte_] i. e. whole crowd, assembly.

v. 243. _this trumpet were founde out_] See note, p. 251. v. 977.

v. 244. _hardely_] i. e. assuredly.

v. 245. _eyne_] i. e. eyes.

Page 372. v. 248. _presid ... to_] i. e. pressed ... too.

v. 250. _Some whispred, some rownyd_] See note, p. 120. v. 513.

v. 255. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

v. 258. _plumpe_] i. e. cluster, mass. “Stode stille as hit had ben a

_plompe_ of wood.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. i. cap. xvi. vol. i. 27. ed.

Southey. Dryden has the word; and the first writer perhaps after his time

who used it was Sir W. Scott.

v. 260. _timorous_] i. e. terrible.

v. 264. _rowte_] i. e. crowd, assembly.

v. 265. _girnid_] i. e. grinned.

v. 266. _peuysshe_] i. e. silly, foolish.

—— _masyd_] i. e. bewildered, confounded.

v. 267. _whyste_] i. e. still.

—— _the nonys_] i. e. the occasion.

v. 268. _iche ... stode_] i. e. each ... stood.

v. 269. _wonderly_] i. e. wonderfully.

v. 270. _A murmur of mynstrels_] So in many of our early English dramas

“a noise of musicians” is used for a company or band of musicians.

v. 272. _Traciane_] i. e. Thracian.

—— _herped meledyously_] i. e. harped melodiously.

Page 373. v. 274. _armony_] i. e. harmony.

v. 275. _gree_] i. e. agree.

v. 278. _gle_] i. e. music.

v. 279. _auaunce_] i. e. advance.

v. 282. _Sterte ... fote_] i. e. Started ... foot.

v. 285.

———— _lake_

_Of_]

i. e. lack of,—less than.

v. 288. _cronell_] i. e. coronal, garland.

Page 373. v. 289. _heris encrisped_] i. e. hairs formed into curls,

curling.

v. 290. _Daphnes_] i. e. Daphne. So our early poets wrote the name;

“A maiden whilom there was one

Which _Daphnes_ hight.”

Gower’s _Conf. Am._ B. iii. fol. lvi. ed. 1554.

“Her name was _Daphnys_ which was deuoyed of loue.”

_The Castell of pleasure_, (by Nevil, son of Lord Latimer), sig.

A iii. 1518.

So afterwards in the present poem we find _Cidippes_ for Cydippe, v. 885;

and see note, p. 123. v. 70.

—— _the darte of lede_] From Ovid, _Met._ i. 471.

v. 291. _ne wolde_] i. e. would not.

v. 292. _herte_] i. e. heart.

v. 295. _Meddelyd with murnynge_] i. e. Mingled with mourning.

v. 296. _O thoughtfull herte_] See note, p. 101. v. 10.

v. 298. _loke_] i. e. look.

v. 300.

_the tre as he did take_

_Betwene his armes, he felt her body quake_]

From Ovid, _Met._ i. 553.

Page 374. v. 302. _he assurded into this exclamacyon_]—_assurded_, i. e.

broke forth—a word which I have not elsewhere met with, but evidently

formed from the not uncommon verb _sourd_, to rise. “Ther withinne

_sourdeth_ and spryngeth a fontayne or welle.” Caxton’s _Mirrour of

the world_, 1480. sig. e v.: in that work, a few lines after, occurs

“_resourdeth_.”

v. 306. _adyment_] i. e. adamant.

v. 307. _ouerthwhart_] i. e. cross, perverse, adverse.

v. 310. _Sith_] i. e. Since.

v. 314. _gresse_] i. e. grass. This stanza is also imitated from Ovid,

_Met._ i. 521.

v. 315. _axes_] See note, p. 100. v. 9.

v. 317. _raist_] i. e. arrayest: see note on title of poem, p. 197.

v. 318. _But sith I haue lost, &c._] Again from Ovid, _Met._ i. 557.

v. 324. _poetis laureat, &c._] It must be remembered that formerly

a _poet laureat_ meant a person who had taken a degree in grammar,

including rhetoric and versification: and that the word _poet_ was

applied to a writer of prose as well as of verse; “_Poet_ a connyng man.”

Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lv. (Table of Subst.).

“And _poetes_ to preoven hit. Porfirie and Plato

Aristotle, Ovidius,” &c.

_Peirs Plouhman_, p. 210. ed. Whit.

“Nor sugred deties [ditties] of Tullius Cicero.”

Lydgate’s _Lyfe and passion of seint Albon_, sig. B ii. ed. 1534.

Page 374. v. 328. _Esiodus, the iconomicar_] i. e. Hesiod, the writer

on husbandry (the eds. by a misprint have “icononucar,”—which Warton

says he “cannot decypher.” _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 352 (note), ed. 4to.)

Among _MSS. Dig. Bod._ 147. is “Carmen Domini Walteri de Henleye quod

vocatur _Yconomia_ sive Housbundria:” compare Cicero; “quam copiose ab

eo [Xenophonte] agricultura laudatur in eo libro, qui est de tuenda re

familiari, qui _Œconomicus_ inscribitur.” _Cato Major_, c. 17.

v. 329. _fresshe_] i. e. elegant: see note, p. 302. v. 39.

Page 375. v. 335. _engrosyd_] i. e. plumped up, swollen.

—— _flotis_] i. e. flowings,—drops: various reading, “droppes;” see note

_ad l._ (“_Flotyce._ Spuma.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499, is a distinct

word.)

v. 338. _Percius presed forth with problemes diffuse_]—_presed_, i. e.

pressed: _diffuse_, i. e. difficult to be understood; see note, p. 144.

v. 768. “Skelton, undoubtedly a man of learning, calls Persius (not

unhappily for his mode of thinking) _a writer of problems diffuse_.”

Gifford’s Introd. to _Persius_, p. xxxi. ed. 1817.

v. 340. _satirray_] Is this word to be explained—satirist, or satirical?

v. 344. _auaunce_] i. e. advance.

v. 345. _mengith_] i. e. mingleth.

v. 347. _wrate ... mercyall_] i. e. wrote ... martial.

v. 352. _Orace also with his new poetry_] “That is, Horace’s _Art of

Poetry_. Vinesauf wrote _De Nova Poetria_. Horace’s _Art_ is frequently

mentioned under this title.” Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 353 (note),

ed. 4to.

Page 376. v. 359. _Boyce_] i. e. Boethius.

—— _recounfortyd_] i. e. recomforted,—comforted.

v. 360.

_Maxymyane, with his madde ditiis,_

_How dotynge age wolde iape with yonge foly_]

—_iape_, i. e. jest, joke. The _Elegiarum Liber_ of Maximianus, which

has been often printed as the production of Cornelius Gallus, may be

found, with all that can be told concerning its author, in Wernsdorf’s

_Poetæ Latini Minores, tomi sexti pars prior_. In these six elegies

Maximianus deplores the evils of old age, relates the pursuits and loves

of his youth, &c. &c. Perhaps the line “_How dotynge age wolde iape with

yonge foly_” (in which case _iape_ would have the same meaning here as

in our author’s _Manerly Margery Mylk and Ale_, v. 20. vol. i. 28) is

a particular allusion to Elegy v., where Maximianus informs us, that,

having been sent on an embassy, at an advanced period of life, he became

enamoured of a “Graia puella,” &c., the adventure being described in the

grossest terms.

Page 376. v. 365. _Johnn Bochas with his volumys grete_] In Skelton’s

time, the _De Genealogia Deorum_, the _De Casibus Virorum et Fœminarum

Illustrium_, and other now-forgotten works of Boccaccio, were highly

esteemed,—more, perhaps, than the _Decamerone_.

v. 366. _full craftely that wrate_] i. e. that wrote full skilfully.

v. 368. _probate_] See note, p. 236. v. 4.

v. 372. _Poggeus ... with many a mad tale_] When this poem was written,

the _Facetiæ_ of Poggio enjoyed the highest popularity. In _The Palice of

Honour_, Gawen Douglas, enumerating the illustrious writers at the Court

of the Muses, says,

“Thair was Plautus, _Poggius_, and Persius.”

p. 27. ed. Ban. 1827.

v. 374. _a frere of Fraunce men call sir Gagwyne, &c._]—_frere_, i. e.

friar: concerning Gaguin, see _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

v. 376. _bote is of all bale_] See note, p. 268. v. 2096.

Page 377. v. 380. _Valerius Maximus by name_] i. e. Valerius who has the

name Maximus (to distinguish him from Valerius Flaccus).

v. 381. _Vincencius in Speculo, that wrote noble warkis_]—_warkis_, i.

e. works. The _Speculum Majus_ of Vincentius Bellovacensis (_naturale,

morale, doctrinale, et historiale_), a vast treatise in ten volumes

folio, usually bound in four, was first printed in 1473. See the _Biog.

Univ._, and Hallam’s _Introd. to the Lit. of Europe_, i. 160.

v. 382. _Pisandros_] “Our author,” says Warton, “got the name of

Pisander, a Greek poet, from Macrobius, who cites a few of his verses.”

_Hist. of E. P._, ii. 353 (note), ed. 4to. A mistake: Macrobius (_Sat._

v. 2.) mentions, but does not cite, Pisander.

v. 383. _blissed Bachus, that mastris oft doth frame_]—_mastris_, i. e.

disturbances, strifes: see note, p. 264. v. 1738.

v. 386. _sadly ... auysid_] i. e. seriously, earnestly ... considered,

observed.

v. 389. _fresshely be ennewed_] See notes, p. 144. v. 775. p. 302. v. 39.

v. 390.

_The monke of Bury ..._

_Dane Johnn Lydgate_]

—_Dane_, equivalent to _Dominus_. So at the commencement of his _Lyfe of

our Lady_, printed by Caxton, folio, n. d.; “This book was compyled by

_dan John lydgate monke of Burye_,” &c. He belonged to the Benedictine

abbey of Bury in Suffolk.

Page 377. v. 391. _theis Englysshe poetis thre_] “That only these three

English poets [Gower, Chaucer, Lydgate] are here mentioned, may be

considered as a proof that only these three were yet thought to deserve

the name.” Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 354. ed. 4to. So the Scottish

poets of Skelton’s time invariably selected these three as most worthy of

praise: see Laing’s note on Dunbar’s _Poems_, ii. 355.

v. 393. _Togeder in armes, as brethern, enbrasid_] So Lydgate;

“_Embraced in armes_ as they had be knet

_Togyder_ with a gyrdell.”

_Le Assemble de dyeus_, sig. d iii. n. d.

v. 395. _tabers_] i. e. tabards: see the earlier portion of note, p. 283.

v. 318.

v. 397. _Thei wantid nothynge but the laurell_] Meaning,—that they were

not poets laureate: see note on v. 324. p. 307.

v. 398. _godely_] i. e. goodly.

v. 402. _enplement_] i. e. employment, place.

Page 378. v. 405. _The brutid Britons of Brutus Albion_]—_brutid_, i. e.

famed. So Lydgate;

“Reioyse ye folkes that borne be in Bretayne,

Called otherwise _Brutus Albion_.”

_Fall of Prynces_, B. viii. fol. viii. ed. Wayland.

v. 410. _Arrectinge vnto your wyse examinacion_] See note, p. 237. v. 95.

v. 414. _besy_] i. e. busy.

v. 417. _hooll_] i. e. whole.

v. 420. _poynted_] i. e. appointed.

v. 421. _pullisshyd_] i. e. polished.

v. 425. _mowte_] i. e. might.

Page 379. v. 428. _preuentid_] i. e. anticipated.

v. 429. _meritory_] i. e. deserved, due.

v. 431. _regraciatory_] i. e. return of thanks.

v. 432. _poynt you to be prothonatory_] i. e. appoint you to be

prothonotary.

v. 433. _holl_] i. e. whole.

v. 434. _Auaunced_] i. e. Advanced.

v. 439. _warkes_] i. e. works.

v. 444. _I made it straunge_] i. e. I made it a matter of nicety, scruple.

v. 445. _presed_] i. e. pressed.

Page 380. v. 455. _prese_] i. e. press, throng.

v. 460. _Engolerid_] i. e. Engalleried.

v. 466. _turkis and grossolitis_] i. e. turquoises and chrysolites.

Page 380. v. 467. _birrall enbosid_] i. e. beryl embossed.

v. 469.

_Enlosenged with many goodly platis_

_Of golde_]

i. e. Having many goodly plates of gold shaped like lozenges

(quadrilateral figures of equal sides, but unequal angles).

—— _entachid with many a precyous stone_]—_entachid_ may be used in the

sense of—tacked on; but qy. is the right reading “_enhachid?_” as in v.

40 of the present poem, “_Enhachyde_ with perle,” &c., (and v. 1078 of

_Phyllyp Sparowe_,) see note, p. 302.

v. 472. _whalis bone_] In our early poetry “white as whales bone” is a

common simile; and there is reason to believe that some of our ancient

writers supposed the ivory then in use (which was made from the teeth of

the horse-whale, morse, or walrus) to be part of the bones of a whale.

Skelton, however, makes a distinction between “whalis bone” and the real

ivory (see v. 468). The latter was still scarce in the reign of Henry the

Eighth; but, before that period, Caxton had told his readers that “the

tooth of an olyfaunt is yuorye.” _Mirrour of the world_, 1480. sig. f i.

v. 474. _The carpettis within and tappettis of pall_]—_tappettis of

pall,_ i. e. coverings of rich or fine stuff (perhaps table-covers): that

_tappettis_ does not here mean tapestry, is proved by the next line; and

compare v. 787,

“With that the _tappettis_ and carpettis were layd,

Whereon theis ladys softly myght rest,

The saumpler to sow on,” &c.

Page 381. v. 475. _clothes of arace_] See note, p. 192. v. 78.

v. 476. _Enuawtyd ... vawte_] i. e. Envaulted ... vault.

v. 477. _pretory_] Lat. prætorium.

v. 478. _enbulyoned_] i. e. studded; see note on v. 1165.

—— _indy blew_] See note, p. 101. v. 17.

v. 480. _Iacinctis and smaragdis out of the florthe they

grew_]—_Iacinctis_, i. e. Jacinths: _smaragdis_, i. e. emeralds (but see

note, p. 102. v. 20): “_Vng planché_, a plancher or a _florthe_ that is

boorded.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. iii. (Thirde

Boke). “_Florthe_ of a house _astre_.”—“Gyst that gothe ouer the _florthe

soliue, giste._” _Id._ fols. xxxiiii. xxxvi. (Table of Subst.). “I

Plaster a wall or _florthe_ with plaster ... I wyl plaster the _florthe_

of my chambre to make a gernyer there, _Ie plastreray latre de ma chābre

pour en faire vng grenier_.” _Id._ fol. cccxviii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 483. _most rychely besene_] i. e. of a most rich appearance,—most

richly arrayed: see notes, p. 112. v. 283, p. 295. v. 957.

v. 484. _cloth of astate_] i. e. cloth of estate,—canopy.

v. 487. _ryally_] i. e. royally.

Page 381. v. 489. _enuyrowne_] i. e. in compass, about.

v. 490. _stode_] i. e. stood.

v. 492. _presid_] i. e. pressed.

v. 493. _Poyle ... Trace_] i. e. Apulia ... Thrace.

v. 499. _metely wele_] See note, p. 270. v. 2196.

Page 382. v. 502. _a kyby hele_] See note, p. 174. v. 493.

v. 503. _salfecundight_] i. e. safe-conduct.

v. 504. _lokyd ... a fals quarter_]—_lokyd_, i. e. looked: “The _false

quarters_ is a soreness on the inside of the hoofs, which are commonly

called quarters, which is as much as to say, crased unsound quarters,

which comes from evil Shooing and paring the Hoof.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of

Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 152.

v. 505. _I pray you, a lytyll tyne stande back_] So Heywood;

“For when prouender prickt them _a little tine_,” &c.

_Dialogue_, &c. sig. D,—_Workes_, ed. 1598.

v. 514. _the ballyuis of the v portis_] i. e. the bailiffs of the Cinque

Ports.

v. 519. _besines_] i. e. business.

v. 520. _most_] i. e. must.

v. 521. _maystres_] i. e. mistress.

v. 523. _sufferayne_] i. e. sovereign.

v. 525. _And we shall se you ageyne or it be pryme_] I have my doubts

about what hour is here meant by _pryme_. Concerning that word see Du

Cange’s _Gloss._ in _Prima_ and _Horæ Canonicæ_, Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to

Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_, Sibbald’s _Gloss._ to _Chron. of Scot. Poetry_,

and Sir F. Madden’s _Gloss._ to _Syr Gawayne_, &c.

Page 383. v. 531. _kest ... loke_] i. e. cast ... look.

v. 532. _boke_] i. e. book.

v. 537. _supprysed_] i. e. overpowered, smitten.

v. 541. _the port salu_] See note, p. 299. v. 1262.

v. 547. _hertely as herte_] i. e. heartily as heart.

v. 548. _hole_] i. e. whole.

v. 550. _aquyte_] i. e. discharge, pay.

Page 384. v. 554. _moche_] i. e. much.

v. 555. _Affyaunsynge her myne hole assuraunce_] i. e. Pledging her my

whole, &c.

v. 559. _stonde_] i. e. stand.

v. 560. _toke ... honde_] i. e. took ... hand.

v. 566. _iangelers_] i. e. babblers, chatterers.

v. 570. _moche costious_] i. e. much costly.

v. 572. _the stones be full glint_]—_glint_ must mean here—slippery: see

note, p. 263. v. 1687.

v. 574. _yatis_] i. e. gates.

Page 385. v. 585. _carectis_] i. e. characters.

v. 586. _where as I stode_] i. e. where I stood.

v. 590. _a lybbard_] i. e. a leopard.—“There is,” says Warton, who quotes

the stanza, “some boldness and animation in the figure and attitude of

this ferocious animal.” _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 352. ed. 4to.

v. 592. _As quikly towchyd_] i. e. touched, executed, as much to the life.

v. 595. _forme foote_] i. e. fore-foot.

—— _shoke_] i. e. shook.

v. 597.

_Unguibus ire parat loca singula livida curvis_

_Quam modo per Phœbes nummos raptura Celæno_]

The whole of this “Cacosyntheton ex industria” is beyond my

comprehension. Here Skelton has an eye to Juvenal;

“Nec per conventus nec cuncta per oppida _curvis_

_Unguibus ire parat nummos raptura Celæno_.”

_Sat._ viii. 129.

v. 601. _Spreto spineto cedat saliunca roseto_] Here he was thinking of

Virgil;

“Lenta salix quantum pallenti _cedit_ olivæ,

Puniceis humilis quantum _saliunca rosetis_.”

_Ecl._ v. 16.

v. 602. _loked_] i. e. looked.

v. 603. _presed_] i. e. pressed, thronged.

v. 604. _Shet_] i. e. Shut.

v. 605. _to_] i. e. too.

v. 606. _astate_] i. e. estate, condition.

v. 607. _quod_] i. e. quoth.

—— _haskardis_] “_Haskerdes_ went in the queste: not honeste men.

_Proletarii & capite censi_: non classici rem trāsegerunt.” Hormanni

_Vulgaria_, sig. n iiii. ed. 1530.

“Wyne was not made for euery _haskerde_.”

Copland’s _Hye Way to the Spyttell Hous_, _Early Pop. Poetry_, ii. 33.

ed. Utterson,

who in the Gloss. queries if _haskerde_ mean “dirty fellow? from the

Scotch _hasky_.” The latter word is explained by Jamieson “dirty,

slovenly.” _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._

—— _rebawdis_] i. e. ribalds.

v. 608. _Dysers, carders_] Dicers, card-players.

—— _gambawdis_] i. e. gambols.

Page 386. v. 609. _Furdrers of loue_] i. e. Furtherers of love—pimps,

pandars.

v. 610. _blow at the cole_] A friend suggests that there is an allusion

here to alchemists; but I believe he is mistaken. It is a proverbial

expression. So our author again;

“We may _blowe at the cole_.”

_Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 81. vol. ii. 29.

The proverb given by Davies of Hereford;

“_Let them that bee colde, blow at the cole._

So may a man do, and yet play the foole.”

_Scourge of Folly_,—_Prouerbes_, p. 171.

and by Ray, _Proverbs_, p. 90. ed. 1768, seems to have a quite different

meaning.

Page 386. v. 611. _kownnage_] i. e. coinage,—coining.

v. 612. _Pope holy ypocrytis_] i. e. Pope-holy hypocrites: see note, p.

230. l. 24 (prose).

—— _as they were golde and hole_]—_hole_, i. e. whole. Heywood also has

this expression;

“In words _gold and hole_, as men by wit could wish,

She will [lie] as fast as a dog will lick a dish.”

_Dialogue_, &c.—_Workes_, sig. H 2, ed. 1598.

v. 613. _Powle hatchettis_] See note, p. 98. v. 28.

—— _ale pole_] i. e. pole, or stake, set up before an ale-house by way of

sign.

v. 614. _brybery, theft_] See note, p. 256. v. 1242.

v. 615. _condycyons_] See note, p. 183. v. 12.

v. 616. _folys_] i. e. fools.

v. 618. _dysdanous dawcokkis_] i. e. disdainful simpletons, empty

fellows: see note, p. 113. v. 301.

v. 619. _fawne thé_] i. e. fawn on thee.

—— _kurris of kynde_] i. e. curs by nature.

v. 620. _shrewdly_] i. e. evilly.

v. 625. _broisid_] i. e. bruised, broke.

v. 626. _peuysshe_] i. e. foolish, silly.

—— _porisshly pynk iyde_] “_Porisshly_, as one loketh yᵗ can nat se

well, _Louchement_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol.

ccccxliiii. (Table of Aduerbes): _pynk iyde_, i. e. pink-eyed; “Some haue

myghty eyes, and some be _pynkeyed ... peti_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig.

G vi. ed. 1530; and see Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.

v. 627. _aspyid_] i. e. espied, marked.

v. 629. _a gun stone_] After the introduction of iron shot (instead of

balls of stone) for heavy artillery, the term _gunstone_ was retained

in the sense of—bullet: “_Gonne stone_, _plombee_, _boulet_, _bovle de

fonte_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xxxvii.

(Table of Subst.).

—— _all to-iaggid_] See notes, p. 100. v. 32. p. 163. v. 124.

v. 630. _daggid_] See note, p. 163. v. 123.

v. 631. _byrnston_] i. e. brimstone.

Page 386. v. 632. _Masid_] i. e. Bewildered, confounded.

—— _a scut_] “_Scut_ or hare. Lepus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 635. _dysour_] See note, p. 255. v. 1191.

—— _a deuyl way_] See note, p. 287. v. 672.

Page 387. v. 637. _peuisshenes_] i. e. foolishness, silliness: compare v.

626.

v. 639. _foisty bawdias_] See note, p. 192. v. 76.

v. 641. _Dasyng after dotrellis, lyke drunkardis that dribbis_]—_Dasying_

i. e. gazing with a stupified look: _dotrellis_; see note, p. 129. v.

409: _dribbis_, i. e. drip, drivel, slaver.

v. 642. _titiuyllis_] See note, p. 284. v. 418.

—— _taumpinnis_] i. e. tampions,—wooden stoppers, put into the mouths of

cannon to keep out rain or sea-water. In _The foure P. P._ by Heywood,

the Poticary tells a facetious story about “a thampyon.” Sig. D i. ed. n.

d. (Fr. _tampon_).

v. 643. _I hyght you_] i. e. I assure you.

v. 644. _mone light_] i. e. moonlight.

v. 648. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 649. _auenturis_] i. e. adventure.

v. 652. _herber_] See note, p. 101. v. 13.

v. 653. _brere_] i. e. briar.

v. 654. _With alys ensandid about in compas_] “i. e. it was surrounded

with sand-walks.” Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 350 (note), ed. 4to. So

the garden, in which Chaucer describes Cressid walking, was “_sonded_ all

the waies.” _Troilus and Creseide_, B. ii. fol. 152, —_Workes_, ed. 1602:

and compare Lydgate;

“Alle the _aleis_ were made playne with _sond_.”

_The Chorle and the Bird,—MS. Harl._ 116. fol. 147.

v. 655. _with singular solas_] i. e. in a particularly pleasant manner.

v. 656. _rosers_] i. e. rose-bushes.

v. 658. _coundight_] i. e. conduit.

—— _coryously_] i. e. curiously. So Lydgate;

“_Coriously_ and craftly to endyte.”

_The prohemy of a mariage_, &c.—_MS. Harl._ 372. fol. 47.

v. 662. _ensilured again the son beames_] i. e. ensilvered against the

sunbeams.

Page 388. v. 664. _reuolde_] i. e. revolved, turned.

v. 669. _bet vp a fyre_] See note, p. 146. v. 930.

v. 671. _flagraunt flower_]—_flagraunt_, i. e. fragrant. Compare v. 978.

So Hawes;

“Strowed with _floures flagraunte_ of ayre.”

_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. A a iiii. ed. 1555.

Page 388. v. 673. _baratows broisiours_] i. e. contentious

bruisers,—unless (as the context seems rather to shew) _broisiours_

means—bruisures, bruises.

v. 674. _passid all bawmys_] i. e. surpassed all balms.

v. 676. _gardynge_] i. e. garden.

—— _piplyng_] i. e. piping; as in our author’s _Replycacion_, &c. vol. i.

207. l. 26 (prose).

v. 680. _the nyne Muses, Pierides by name_] So Chaucer;

“_Muses, that men clepe Pierides._”

_The Man of Lawes Prol._ v. 4512 (but see Tyrwhitt’s note).

v. 681. _Testalis_] i. e. Thestylis. So Barclay;

“Neera, Malkin, or lustie _Testalis_.”

_Second Egloge_, sig. B ii. ed. 1570.

v. 682. _enbybid_] i. e. made wet, soaked.

v. 683. _moche solacyous_] i. e. much pleasant, mirthful.

v. 686. _somer_] i. e. summer.

—— _fotid_] i. e. footed.

v. 687. _twynklyng upon his harpe stringis_]—_twynklyng_, i. e. tinkling.

So, at a much later period, Dekker; “Thou (most cleare throated singing

man,) with thy Harpe, (to the _twinckling_ of which inferior Spirits

skipt like Goates ouer the Welsh mountaines),” &c. _A Knights Coniuring_,

1607. sig. D 2.

Page 389. v. 688. _And Iopas, &c._] Here, and in the next two stanzas,

Skelton has an eye to Virgil;

“Cithara crinitus Iopas

Personat aurata, docuit quæ maxumus Atlas.

Hic canit errantem lunam, solisque labores;

Unde hominum genus, et pecudes; unde imber, et ignes;

Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, geminosque Triones;

Quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles

Hiberni, vel quæ tardis mora noctibus obstet.”

_Æn._ i. 740.

—— _auaunce_] i. e. advance.

v. 691. _mone_] i. e. moon.

v. 694. _spere_] i. e. sphere.

v. 697. _prechid_] i. e. discoursed, told.

—— _chere_] i. e. countenance, look.

v. 699. _aspy_] i. e. espy.

v. 705. _counteryng_] See note, p. 92.

Page 389. v. 709. _pleasure, with lust and delyte_] One of our author’s

pleonastic expressions.

v. 712. _conuenable_] i. e. fitting.

Page 390. v. 718. _wele were hym_] i. e. he were in good condition.

v. 720. _maystres_] i. e. mistress.

v. 725. _losyd ful sone_] i. e. loosed full soon.

v. 731. _That I ne force what though it be discurid_] i. e. That I do not

care although it be discovered, shewn.

v. 733. _ladyn of liddyrnes with lumpis_]—_liddyrnes_, i. e.

sluggishness, slothfulness (the construction is—ladyn with lumpis of

liddyrness).

v. 734. _dasid_] i. e. stupified.

—— _dumpis_] See note on v. 15. p. 301: but here the word implies greater

dulness of mind.

v. 735. _coniect_] i. e. conjecture.

v. 736. _Gog_] A corruption of the sacred name.

Page 391. v. 737. _be_] i. e. by.

v. 741. _fonde_] i. e. foolish.

v. 742. _Tressis agasonis species prior, altera Davi_] “Hic Dama est non

_tressis agaso_.” Persius, _Sat._ v. 76. _Davus_ is a slave’s name in

Plautus, Terence, &c.

v. 748. _tacita sudant præcordia culpa_] From Juvenal, _Sat._ i. 167.

v. 751. _Labra movens tacitus_] “_Labra_ moves _tacitus_.” Persius,

_Sat._ v. 184.

—— _rumpantur ut ilia Codro_] From Virgil, _Ecl._ vii. 26.

v. 753. _hight_] i. e. is called.

v. 754. _and ye wist_] i. e. if ye knew.

Page 392. v. 758. _hole reame_] i. e. whole realm.

v. 762. _smerke_] i. e. smirk.

v. 763. _leue warke whylis it is wele_] i. e. leave work while it is well.

v. 764. _towchis_] i. e. touches, qualities.

—— _to_] i. e. too.

v. 768. _astate_] i. e. estate, state.

v. 769. _Cowntes of Surrey_] Was Elizabeth Stafford, eldest daughter

of Edward Duke of Buckingham, and second wife of Thomas Howard, Earl

of Surrey, who afterwards (on the death of his father in 1524) became

the third Duke of Norfolk. She had previously been attached and engaged

to the Earl of Westmoreland with the consent of both families; but her

father, having broken off the intended match, compelled her to accept the

hand of lord Thomas Howard in 1513. She was twenty years younger than her

husband. After many domestic quarrels, they separated about 1533. Of

their five children, one was Henry Howard, the illustrious poet. She died

in 1558. See _Memorials of the Howard Family_, &c. by H. Howard, 1834,

folio.

The Countess of Surrey appears to have been fond of literature; and,

as she calls Skelton her “clerk,” we may suppose that she particularly

patronised him. The probability is, that the present poem was really

composed at Sheriff-Hutton Castle, which (as already noticed, p. 300) had

been granted by the king to the Duke of Norfolk for life, and that the

Countess was residing there on a visit to her father-in-law.

The _Garlande of Laurell_ was written, I apprehend, about 1520, or

perhaps a little later: in v. 1192 Skelton mentions his _Magnyfycence_,

which was certainly produced after 1515,—see note on title of that piece,

p. 236.

Page 392. v. 771. _beue_] i. e. bevy.

v. 774. _warhe_] i. e. work.

v. 775. _asayde_] i. e. tried, proved.

Page 393. v. 776. _cronell_] i. e. coronal, garland.

v. 786. _of there lewdnesse_] May mean (as Nott explains it, Surrey’s

_Works_, i.—Append. p. ix.)—of their ignorance, ignorantly; but I rather

think the expression is here equivalent to,—evilly, impudently.

v. 787. _tappettis and carpettis_] See note on v. 474. p. 311.

v. 790. _To weue in the stoule_] So Chaucer;

“And _weauen in stole_ the radevore.”

_Leg. of Philomene_, fol. 195.—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

and Hall; “On their heades bonets of Damaske syluer flatte _wouen in the

stole_, and therupon wrought with gold,” &c. _Chron._ (_Hen. viii._) fol.

vii. ed. 1548.—Mr. Albert Way observes to me that in _Prompt. Parv. MS.

Harl._ 221, is “Lyncent werkynge instrument for sylke women. Liniarium,”

while the ed. of 1499 has “Lyncet workinge _stole_;” and he supposes the

_stole_ (i. e. stool) to have been a kind of frame, much like what is

still used for worsted work, but, instead of being arranged like a cheval

glass, that it was made like a stool,—the top being merely a frame or

stretcher for the work.

—— _preste_] i. e. ready.

v. 791. _With slaiis, with tauellis, with hedellis well drest_]—_slaiis_,

i. e. sleys, weavers’ reeds: _tauellis_, see note, p. 94. v. 34:

“_Heddles_, _Hedeles_, _Hiddles_. The small cords through which the warp

is passed in a loom, after going through the reed.” _Et. Dict. of Scot.

Lang._ by Jamieson, who cites from G. Douglas’s _Æneid_;

“With subtell slayis, and hir _hedeles_ slee,

Riche lenze wobbis naitly weiffit sche.”

B. vii. p. 204. 45. ed. Rudd.

Page 393. v. 793. _warke_] i. e. work.

v. 794. _to enbrowder put them in prese_] i. e. put themselves in press

(applied themselves earnestly) to embroider.

v. 795. _glowtonn_] Does it mean—ball, clue? or, as Mr. Albert Way

suggests,—a sort of needle, a stiletto as it is now called,—something by

which the silk was to be inwrought?

v. 796. _pirlyng_] “I _Pyrle_ wyer of golde or syluer I wynde it vpon a

whele as sylke women do.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530.

fol. cccxvii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 798. _tewly sylk_] Richardson in his _Dict._ under the verb _Tew_

places _tewly_, as derived from it, and cites the present passage. But

_tewly_ seems to have nothing to do with that verb. “_Tuly_ colowre.

Puniceus vel punicus.” _Prompt. Parv. MS. Harl._ 221. In _MS. Sloane_,

73. fol. 214, are directions “for to make bokerham _tuly_ or _tuly_

thred,” where it appears that this colour was “a manere of reed colour

as it were of croppe mader,” that is, probably, of the tops or sprouts

of the madder, which would give a red less intense or full: the dye was

“safflour” (saffron?) and “asches of wyn [whin] ballis ybrent;” and a

little red vinegar was to be used to bring the colour up to a fuller

red.—For this information I am indebted to Mr. Albert Way.

v. 799. _botowme_] “I can make no _bottoms_ of this threde ...

_glomera_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. t i. ed 1530.

v. 801. _warkis_] i. e. works.

Page 394. v. 803. _With burris rowth and bottons surffillyng_]—_burris

rowth_, i. e. burrs rough: _bottons_, i. e. buds: _surffillyng_, see

note, p. 281. v. 219.

v. 804. _nedill wark_] i. e. needle-work.

v. 805. _enbesid_] i. e. embusied.

v. 814. _conseyt_] i. e. conceit.

v. 815. _captacyons of beneuolence_] Todd gives “_Captation_ (old

Fr. _captation_, ruse, artifice). The practice of catching favour or

applause; courtship; flattery.” _Johnson’s Dict._ Richardson, after

noticing the use of the verb _captive_ “with a subaudition of gentle,

attractive, persuasive means or qualities,” adds that in the present

passage of Skelton _captation_ is used with that subaudition. _Dict._ in

v.

v. 816. _pullysshid_] i. e. polished.

v. 817.

_Sith ye must nedis afforce it by pretence_

_Of your professyoun vnto vmanyte_]

i. e. Since you must needs attempt, undertake, it by your claim to the

profession of humanity,—_humaniores literæ_, polite literature.

Page 394. v. 819. _proces_] i. e. discourse; see notes, p. 143. v. 735.

p. 230 (first note on prose), p. 276. v. 2506, &c.

v. 820. _iche_] i. e. each.

v. 821. _sentence ... couenable_] i. e. meaning ... fitting.

v. 822. _Auaunsynge_] i. e. Advancing.

v. 824. _arrectyng_] i. e. raising.

Page 395. v. 825. _ken_] i. e. instruct (pleonastically coupled with

“informe,” as in v. 1428).

v. 828. _dredfull_] i. e. full of dread, timorous.

v. 830. _bestad_] i. e. bested, circumstanced.

v. 833. _gabyll rope_] i. e. cable-rope. “A _Gable_, Rudens.” Coles’s

_Dict._

v. 835. _beseke_] i. e. beseech.

—— _Countes of Surrey_] See note on v. 769. p. 317.

v. 838. _reconusaunce_] i. e. acknowledgment.

v. 841. _astate_] i. e. estate, state.

v. 842. _honour and worshyp_] Terms nearly synonymous: _worshyp_, i. e.

dignity.

—— _formar_] i. e. first, highest: see Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._ in v.

_Former_.

v. 843. _Argyua_] i. e. Argia.

v. 844. _Polimites_] i. e. Polynices;

“his fellaw dan _Polimites_,

Of which the brother dan Ethiocles,” &c.

Chaucer’s _Troilus and Creseide_, B. v. fol. 180,—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

“Lete _Polymyte_ reioyse his herytage.”

Lydgate’s _Storye of Thebes, Pars tert._ sig. i v. ed. 4to. n. d.

v. 847. _counterwayng_] i. e. counter-weighing.

Page 396. v. 850. _Pamphila_] “Telas araneorum modo texunt ad vestem

luxumque fœminarum, quæ bombycina appellatur. Prima eas redordiri,

rursusque texere invenit in Ceo mulier _Pamphila_, Latoi filia, non

fraudanda gloria excogitatæ rationis ut denudet fœminas vestis.” Plinii

_Nat. Hist._ lib. xi. 26.

—— _quene of the Grekis londe_]—_londe_, i. e. land: qy. does any writer

except Skelton call her a queen?

v. 852.

_Thamer also wrought with her goodly honde_

_Many diuisis passynge curyously_]

It is plain that Skelton, while writing these complimentary stanzas,

consulted Boccaccio _De Claris Mulieribus_: there this lady is called

_Thamyris_ (see, in that work, “De _Thamyri_ Pictrice,” cap. liiii. ed.

1539). Her name is properly _Timarete_; she was daughter to Mycon the

painter; vide Plinii _Nat. Hist.: honde_, i. e. hand: _diuisis_, i. e.

devices.

Page 396. v. 857. _toke_] i. e. took.

v. 860. _corage ... perfight_] i. e. heart, affection ... perfect.

—— _lady Elisabeth Howarde_] Was the third daughter of the second Duke of

Norfolk by his second wife, Agnes Tylney, daughter of Sir Hugh Tylney,

and sister and heir to Sir Philip Tylney of Boston, Lincolnshire, knight

(I follow Howard’s _Memorials of the Howard Family_, &c.; Collins says

“daughter of Hugh Tilney”). Lady Elizabeth married Henry Ratcliff, Earl

of Sussex.

v. 865. _Aryna_] i. e. perhaps—Irene. In the work of Boccaccio just

referred to is a portion “De _Hyrene_ C[r]atini filia,” cap. lvii.; and

Pliny notices her together with the above-mentioned Timarete.

v. 866. _konnyng_] i. e. knowledge.

v. 867. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 868. _enbewtid_] i. e. beautified.

v. 870. _lusty ... loke_] i. e. pleasant ... look.

v. 871. _Creisseid_] See Chaucer’s _Troilus and Creseide_.

—— _Polexene_] i. e. Polyxena, the daughter of Priam.

v. 872. _enuyue_] i. e. envive, enliven, excite.

Page 397. v. 874. _hole_] i. e. whole.

—— _lady Mirriell Howarde_] Could not have been Muriel, daughter of the

second Duke of Norfolk; for she, after having been twice married, died in

1512, anterior to the composition of the present poem. Qy. was the Muriel

here celebrated the Duke’s grandchild,—one of those children of the Earl

and Countess of Surrey, whose names, as they died early, have not been

recorded? Though Skelton compares her to Cidippe, and terms her “madame,”

he begins by calling her “mi _litell_ lady.”

v. 880. _curteyse_] i. e. courteous.

v. 881. _Whome fortune and fate playnly haue discust_]—_discust_, i. e.

determined. So again our author in _Why come ye nat to Courte_;

“Allmyghty God, I trust,

Hath for him _dyscust_,” &c.

v. 747. vol. ii. 50.

and Barclay;

“But if thou iudge amisse, then shall Eacus

(As Poetes saith) hell thy iust rewarde _discusse_.”

_The Ship of Fooles_, fol. 4. ed. 1570.

v. 882. _plesure, delyght, and lust_] One of Skelton’s pleonastic

expressions.

Page 397. v. 885.

_Cidippes, the mayd,_

_That of Aconcyus whan she founde the byll, &c._]

—_Cidippes_, i. e. Cydippe; see note on v. 290. p. 307: _the byll_; i. e.

the writing,—the verses which Acontius had written on the apple.

v. 888. _fyll_] i. e. fell.

—— _lady Anne Dakers of the Sowth_] The wife of Thomas Lord Dacre, was

daughter of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, son of John Lord Berners and of

Elizabeth Tylney, who (see note on v. 399) afterwards became the first

wife of the second Duke of Norfolk.

v. 893. _his crafte were to seke_] i. e. his skill were at a loss.

Page 398. v. 897. _Princes_] i. e. Princess.

v. 898. _conyng_] i. e. knowledge.

v. 899. _Paregall_] i. e. Equal (thoroughly equal).

v. 901. _surmountynge_] i. e. surpassing.

v. 902. _sad_] See note, p. 264. v. 1711.

v. 903. _lusty lokis_] i. e. pleasant looks.

—— _mastres Margery Wentworthe_] Perhaps the second daughter of Sir

Richard Wentworth, afterwards married to Christopher Glemham of Glemham

in Suffolk.

v. 906. _margerain ientyll_] “Marierome is called ... in English, Sweet

Marierome, Fine Marierome, and _Marierome gentle_; of the best sort

Marjerane.” Gerard’s _Herball_, p. 664. ed. 1633.

v. 907. _goodlyhede_] i. e. goodness.

v. 908. _Enbrowdred_] i. e. Embroidered.

v. 912. _praty_] i. e. pretty.

v. 918. _corteise_] i. e. courteous.

Page 399.—— _mastres Margaret Tylney_] A sister-in-law, most probably,

of the second Duke of Norfolk. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter

and heir of Sir Frederick Tylney of Ashwell-Thorpe, Norfolk, knight, and

widow of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, son of John Lord Berners: his second

wife was Agnes, daughter of Sir Hugh Tylney, and sister and heir to Sir

Philip Tylney of Boston, Lincolnshire, knight; see third note, preceding

page.

v. 928. _besy cure_] i. e. busy care.

v. 933.

_As Machareus_

_Fayre Canace_]

Their tale is told in the _Conf. Am._ by Gower; he expresses no horror at

their incestuous passion, but remarks on the cruelty of their father, who

“for he was to loue strange,

He wolde not his herte change

To be benigne and fauourable

To loue, but vnmerciable!”

B. iii. fol. xlviii. ed. 1554.

(and see the lines cited in note on v. 1048. p. 324). Lydgate (_Fall of

Prynces_, B. i. leaf xxxv. ed. Wayland) relates the story with a somewhat

better moral feeling.

Page 399. v. 935. _iwus_] Or _i-wis_ (adv.),—i. e. truly, certainly.

v. 936. _Endeuoure me_] i. e. Exert myself.

v. 941. _Wele_] i. e. Well.

v. 942. _Intentyfe_] “_Intentyfe_ hedefull.”—“_Ententyfe_, busy to do a

thynge or to take hede to a thyng.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang.

Fr._, 1530. fols. lxxxx. lxxxvii. (where both are rendered by the Fr.

_ententif_).

v. 948. _Perle orient_] In allusion to her Christian name just mentioned,

“Margarite.”

v. 949. _Lede sterre_] i. e. Load-star.

v. 950. _Moche_] i. e. Much.

Page 400.—— _maystres Iane Blenner-Haiset_] Perhaps a daughter of Sir

Thomas Blennerhasset, who was executor (in conjunction with the Duchess)

to the second Duke of Norfolk: see Sir H. Nicolas’s _Test. Vet._ ii. 604.

v. 955. _smale lust_] i. e. small liking.

v. 958. _prese_] i. e. press, band.

v. 962. _ententifly_] See above, note on v. 942.

v. 963. _stellyfye_] “I _Stellifye_ I sette vp amongest the starres.”

Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccclxxiii. (Table of

Verbes).

v. 965. _ne swarue_] i. e. swerve not.

v. 968. _Sith_] i. e. Since.

v. 972, _Laodomi_] i. e. Laodamia.

v. 975. _godely_] i. e. goodly.

Page 401. v. 977. _Reflaring rosabell_] i. e. odorous fair-rose: see

note, p. 134. v. 524.

v. 978. _flagrant_] See note on v. 671. p. 315.

v. 979. _The ruddy rosary_]—_rosary_ must mean here—rose-bush, not

rose-bed.

v. 981. _praty_] i. e. pretty.

v. 982. _nepte_] “Cats mint or _nept_ is a kind of calamint,” &c. _The

Countrie Farme_, p. 320. ed. 1600.

v. 983. _ieloffer_] See note, p. 147. v. 1052.

v. 984. _propre_] i. e. pretty.

v. 985, _Enuwyd_] See note, p. 144. v. 775.

Page 402. v. 1006. _Ientill as fawcoun_] The _Falcon gentle_, says

Turbervile, is so called “for her _gentle_ and courteous condition and

fashions.” _The Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 26. ed. 1611.

v. 1007. _hawke of the towre_] See note, p. 250. v. 934.

v. 1025. _fayre Isaphill_] The Hypsipyle of the ancients.

“_Isiphile_

...

She that dyd _in fayrnesse so excell_.”

Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces,_ B. i. leaf xviii. ed. Wayland.

She figures in the _Storye of Thebes_ by the same indefatigable

versifier, who there says,

“But to knowe. the auentures all

Of this lady. _Isyphyle the fayre_,”

(Pars tert. sig. h iiii. n. d. 4to.)

we must have recourse to Boccaccio _De Claris Mulieribus_ (see that work,

cap. xv. ed. 1539).

v. 1027. _pomaunder_] Was a composition of perfumes, wrought into the

shape of a ball, or other form, and worn in the pocket, or about the

neck (Fr. _pomme d’ambre_). In the following entry from an unpublished

_Boke of Kyngs Paymentis from i to ix of Henry viii_, preserved in the

Chapter-House, Westminster, _pomaunder_ means a case for holding the

composition;

“Item to the frenche quenes seruaunt, that brought } xx. s.” (9th year

_a pomaunder of gold_ to the princes, in Re[ward] } of reign).

v. 1030. _Wele_] i. e. Well.

v. 1033. _corteise_] i. e. courteous.

Page 403. v. 1048. _Pasiphe_] Lest the reader should be surprised

at finding Skelton compare Mistress Statham to Pasiphae, I cite the

following lines from Feylde’s _Contrauersye bytwene a Louer and a Iaye_

(printed by W. de Worde), n. d., in which she and Taurus are mentioned as

examples of true love;

“Phedra and Theseus

Progne and Thereus

_Pasyphe and Taurus_

Who lyketh to proue

Canace and Machareus

Galathea and Pamphylus

Was neuer more dolorous

_And all for true loue_.”

Sig. B iiii.

I may add too a passage from Caxton’s _Boke of Eneydos_, &c. (translated

from the French), 1490; “The wyffe of kynge Mynos of Crete was named

Pasyfa that was a grete lady and a fayr aboue alle other ladyes of the

royame.... The quene Pasyfa _was wyth chylde by kynge Mynos_, and whan

her tyme was comen she was delyuered of a creature that was halfe a man

and halfe a bulle.” Sig. h 6.

Page 403. v. 1062. _aquyte_] i. e. requite.

Page 404. v. 1068. _gyse_] i. e. guise, fashion.

v. 1074. _warke_] i. e. work.

v. 1076.

_Galathea, the made well besene, &c._

...

_By Maro_]

—_the made well besene_, i. e. the maid of good appearance, fair to see:

the expression applied, as here, to personal appearance, independent of

dress, is, I apprehend, very unusual; see notes, p. 112. v. 283. p. 295.

v. 957. p. 311. v. 483: _By Maro_; vide _Ecl_. i. and iii.

v. 1082. _leyser_] i. e. leisure.

Page 405. v. 1094. _ich_] i. e. each.

v. 1102. _curteisly_] i. e. courteously.

v. 1103. _where as_] i. e. where.

v. 1109. _Wele was hym_] i. e. He was in good condition.

v. 1114. _astate_] i. e. estate,—meaning here—state, raised chair or

throne with a canopy: compare v. 484.

Page 406. v. 1117. _loked ... a glum_] i. e. looked ... a gloomy, sour

look.

v. 1118. _There was amonge them no worde then but mum_] See note, p. 278.

v. 83.

v. 1121. _sith_] i. e. since.

v. 1124. _pretence_] i. e. pretension, claim.

v. 1128. _princes of astate_] i. e. princess of estate, rank, dignity.

v. 1132. _condiscendyng_] See note, p. 237. v. 39.

Page 407. v. 1135. _enduce_] i. e. bring in, adduce.

v. 1136. _lay_] See note, p. 219. v. 103.

v. 1139. _bokis_] i. e. books.

v. 1143. _poynted_] i. e. appointed.

v. 1144. _presid_] i. e. pressed.

v. 1150. _ony_] i. e. any.

v. 1154. _wote wele_] i. e. know well.

v. 1156. _losende_] i. e. loosened, loosed.

v. 1158. _byse_] Hearne in his Gloss. to _Langtoft’s Chron._ has “_bis_,

grey, black,” with an eye, no doubt, to the line at p. 230,

“In a marble _bis_ of him is mad story.”

and Sir F. Madden explains the word “white or grey” in his Gloss. to _Syr

Gawayne_, &c., referring to the line “Of golde, azure, and _byse_” in

_Syre Gawene and The Carle of Carelyle_, p. 204. But we also find “_Byce_

a colour _azur_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr_., 1530. fol. xx.

(Table of Subst.). “Scryueners wryte with blacke, red, purple, grene,

_blewe or byce_, and suche other.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. Q i. ed.

1530. “_Bize_ Blew Byze, a delicate Blew.” Holme’s _Acad. of Arm._, 1688.

B. iii. p. 145.

Page 407. v. 1158. _gressoppes_] i. e. grasshoppers: see note, p. 125. v.

137.

Page 408. v. 1159. _fresshe_] i. e. gay, gorgeous: see note on v. 39. p.

302.

v. 1160. _Enflorid_] i. e. Enflowered (embellished, for it applies partly

to the “snaylis”).

v. 1161. _Enuyuid picturis well towchid and quikly_]—_Enuyuid_, i. e.

envived: _quikly_, livelily, to the life; a somewhat pleonastic line, as

before, see note, p. 261. v. 1569.

v. 1162. _hole ... be ... sekely_] i. e. whole ... been ... sickly.

v. 1163. _garnysshyd_] }

...

v. 1165. _bullyons_] }

“I hadde leuer haue my boke sowed in a forel [_in cuculli involucro_]

than bounde in bourdes, and couered and clasped, and _garnyshed with

bolyons_ [_vmbilicis_].” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. Q iiii. ed. 1530:

_bullyons_, i. e. bosses, studs.

—— _worth a thousande pounde_] An expression found in other early poets;

“And euery bosse of bridle and paitrell

That they had, was _worth_, as I would wene,

_A thousand pound_.”

Chaucer’s _Floure and Leafe_,—_Workes_, fol. 345. ed. 1602.

v. 1166. _balassis_] Tyrwhitt (Gloss, to _Chaucer’s Cant. Tales_)

explains _Bales_ to be “a sort of bastard Ruby.” Du Cange _(Gloss._) has

“_Balascus_, Carbunculus, cujus rubor et fulgor dilutiores sunt ... a

Balascia Indiæ regione ... dicti ejusmodi lapides pretiosi.” Marco Polo

tells us, “In this country [_Balashan_ or _Badakhshan_] are found the

precious stones called _balass_ rubies, of fine quality and great value.”

_Travels_, p. 129, translated by Marsden, who in his learned note on the

passage (p. 132) observes that in the Latin version it is said expressly

that these stones have their name from the country. See too Sir F.

Madden’s note on _Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary_, p. 209.

v. 1167. _aurum musicum_] i. e. _aurum musaicum_ or _musivum_,—mosaic

gold.

v. 1172. _Boke of Honorous Astate_] i. e. Book of Honourable Estate.

Like many other of the pieces which Skelton proceeds to enumerate, it is

not known to exist. When any of his still extant writings are mentioned

in this catalogue, I shall refer to the places where they may be found in

the present volumes.

Page 408. v. 1176. _to lerne you to dye when ye wyll_] A version probably

of the same piece which was translated and published by Caxton under the

title of _A lityll treatise shorte and abredged spekynge of the arte and

crafte to knowe well to dye_, 1490, folio. Caxton translated it from the

French: the original Latin was a work of great celebrity.

v. 1178. _Rosiar_] i. e. Rose-bush.

—— _Prince Arturis Creacyoun_] Arthur, the eldest son of King Henry the

Seventh, was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, 1st Oct. 1489:

see Sandford’s _Geneal. Hist._ p. 475. ed. 1707.

Page 409. v. 1183. _Bowche of Courte_] In vol. i. 30.

v. 1185. _Of Tullis Familiars the translacyoun_] Is noticed with praise

in Caxton’s Preface to _The Boke of Eneydos_, &c. 1490: see the passage

cited in _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

v. 1187. _The Recule ageinst Gaguyne of the Frenshe nacyoun_]—_Recule_,

Fr. _recueil_, is properly—a collection of several writings: it occurs

again in v. 1390; and in _Speke, Parrot_, v. 232. vol. ii. 11. Concerning

Gaguin, see _Account of Shelton and his Writings_.

v. 1188.

_the Popingay, that hath in commendacyoun_

_Ladyes and gentylwomen suche as deseruyd,_

_And suche as be counterfettis they be reseruyd_]

—_Popingay_, i. e. Parrot: “_Reserved_ excepte _sauf_.” Palsgrave’s

_Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xciiii. (Table of Adiect.).—No

part of _Speke, Parrot_ (in vol. ii. 1), answers to this description: but

“_the Popingay_” is certainly only another name for _Speke, Parrot_ (see

v. 280. vol. ii. 14); and Skelton must allude here to some portion, now

lost, of that composition.

v. 1192. _Magnyfycence_] In vol. i. 225.

v. 1193. _new get_] See note, p. 242. v. 458.

v. 1196. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 1198. _Of manerly maistres Margery Mylke and Ale, &c._] In vol. i. 28.

is one of the “many maters of myrthe” which Skelton here says that he

“wrote to her.”

v. 1202. _Lor_] A corruption of _Lord_.

v. 1203. _Gingirly, go gingerly_] “_Gyngerly: A pas menus_, as _Allez a

pas menu ma fille_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol.

ccccxli. (Table of Aduerb.).

Page 410. v. 1206. _This fustiane maistres and this giggisse gase_]

_maistres_, i. e. mistress: _giggisse_, i. e. giggish,—which Forby gives,

with the sense of—trifling, silly, flighty (_Vocab. of East Anglia_);

but here perhaps the word implies something of wantonness: _gase_, i. e.

goose.

Page 410. v. 1207. _wrenchis_] See note, p. 100. v. 25.

v. 1209. _shuld not crase_] i. e. that it should not break.

v. 1210. _It may wele ryme, but shroudly it doth accorde_]—_wele_,

i. e. well: _shroudly_, i. e. shrewdly, badly. A copy of verses on

Inconsistency by Lydgate has for its burden,

“_It may wele ryme, but it accordith nought._”

_MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 26.

v. 1211. _pyke ... potshorde_] i. e. pick ... potsherd.

v. 1218. _mo_] i. e. more.

v. 1219.

_Of my ladys grace at the contemplacyoun,_

_Owt of Frenshe into Englysshe prose,_

_Of Mannes Lyfe the Peregrynacioun,_

_He did translate, enterprete, and disclose_]

—_at the contemplacyoun_; see note on heading of Epitaph, p. 214: _my

ladys grace_ means perhaps the mother of Henry the Seventh, the Countess

of Derby; see note on title of Elegy, p. 226. Warton says that this

piece was “from the French, perhaps, of Guillaume [de Guilleville] prior

of Chalis. But it should be observed that Pynson printed _Peregrinatio

humani generis_, 1508. 4to.” _Hist, of E. P._, ii. 337 (note), ed. 4to.

_The Pylgremage of the Soule translatid oute of Frensshe in to Englysshe

with somwhat of additions, the yere of our lord M.CCCC & thyrten, and

endeth in the Vigyle of seynt Bartholomew Emprynted at Westmestre by

William Caxton, And fynysshed the sixth day of Juyn, the yere of our

lord, M.CCCC.LXXXIII And the first yere of the regne of kynge Edward the

fyfthe_. fol., was taken from the French of Guillaume de Guilleville (see

_Biog. Univ._ xix. 169); but, though Skelton was in all probability an

author as early as 1583, there is no reason for supposing that the volume

just described had received any revision from him. _Peregrinatio Humani

Generis_, printed by Pynson in 4to., 1508, is, according to Herbert

(_Typ. Ant._ ii. 430. ed. Dibdin), “in ballad verse, or stanzas of seven

lines:” it cannot therefore be the piece mentioned here by Skelton, which

he expressly tells us was in “_prose_.”

v. 1226. _creauncer_] See note, p. 193. v. 102.

Page 411. v. 1229. _Speculum Principis_] A piece by Skelton entitled

_Methodos Skeltonidis Laureati_, sc. _Præcepta quædam moralia Henrico

principi, postea Hen. viii. missa. Dat. apud Eltham. A.D. MDI._ was once

among the MSS. in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, but is now marked

as missing in the Catalogue of that collection, and has been sought for

in vain. Whether it was the same work as that mentioned in the present

passage, I am unable to determine.

Page 411. v. 1229. _honde_] i. e. hand.

v. 1231. _astate_] i. e. estate, state.

v. 1233. _the Tunnynge of Elinour Rummyng_] In vol. i. 95.

v. 1234. _Colyn Clowt_] In vol. i. 311.

—— _Iohnn Iue, with Ioforth Iack_] In 1511, a woman being indicted for

heresy, “her husband deposed, that in the end of the reign of King Edward

the Fourth, one _John Ive_ had persuaded her into these opinions, in

which she had persisted ever since.” Burnet’s _Hist. of the Reform._ i.

51. ed. 1816. The words “with _Ioforth, Iack_,” were perhaps a portion of

Skelton’s poem concerning this John Ive: _ioforth_ is an exclamation used

in driving horses;

“Harrer, Morelle, _iofurthe_, hyte.”

_Mactacio Abel_,—_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 9.

v. 1235. _make ... konnyng_] i. e. compose ... knowledge, skill, ability.

v. 1236. _parde_] i. e. _par dieu_, verily.

v. 1238. _conueyauns_] See the long speech of Crafty Conueyaunce in our

author’s _Magnyfycence_, v. 1343 sqq. vol. i, 268.

v. 1239. _the Walshemannys hoos_] See note, p. 289. v. 780.

v. 1240. _vmblis_] i. e. parts of the inwards of a deer. “_Noumbles_ of

a dere or beest _entrailles_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._,

1530. fol. 1. (Table of Subst.). And see Sir F. Madden’s note, _Syr

Gawayne_, &c. p. 322.

———— _the botell of wyne,_

_To fayre maistres Anne that shuld haue be sent_]

Such a present seems to have been not uncommon;

“Beddes, brochys, and _botelles of wyen he to the lady sent_.”

Lydgate’s _Ballad of A Prioress and her three Wooers_,—_MS. Harl._ 78.

fol. 74.

The “maistres Anne” here mentioned is doubtless the lady to whom the

lines in vol. i. 20 are addressed.

v. 1242. _wrate ... praty_] i. e. wrote ... pretty.

v. 1246. _longyth_] i. e. belongeth.

v. 1247.

_Of one Adame all a knaue_

...

_He wrate an Epitaph, &c._]

In vol. i. 171.

v. 1250. _agerdows_] i. e. eager, keen, severe.

v. 1254. _Phillip Sparow_] In vol. i, 51.

Page 412. v. 1257. _Yet sum there be therewith that take greuaunce_] See

notes, p. 149 sqq., where will be found illustrations of the portion of

_Phyllyp Sparowe_ which is inserted in the present poem.

Page 415. v. 1376. _The Gruntyng and the groynninge of the gronnyng

swyne_] See note, p. 180. v. 2.

v. 1377. _the Murnyng of the mapely rote_]—_mapely rote_, i. e.

maple-root.—In Ravenscroft’s _Pammelia_, 1609, part of a nonsensical song

(No. 31) is as follows;

“My Ladies gone to Canterbury,

S. Thomas be her boote.

Shee met with Kate of Malmsbury,

_Why weepst thou maple roote?_”

a recollection perhaps of Skelton’s lost ballad.

Page 416. v. 1378. _pine_] i. e. pain, grief.

v. 1379. _a cote_] i. e. a coot (water-fowl).

v. 1380. _birdbolt_] i. e. a blunt arrow used to kill birds; see Nares’s

_Gloss._ in v. and in v. _Bolt_.

—— _hart rote_] i. e. heart-root.

v. 1381. _Moyses hornis_] So Lydgate;

“_Moyses_

With _golden hornes_ liche phebus beames bright.”

_Process. of Corpus Christi_,—_MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 251.

“Cumque descenderet Moyses de monte Sinai ... ignorabat quod _cornuta_

esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Domini.” Vulgate,—_Exod._ xxxiv.

29.

v. 1382. _merely, medelyd_] i. e. merrily, mingled.

v. 1383. _Of paiauntis that were played in Ioyows Garde_] Bale, in

his enumeration of Skelton’s writings, alluding to this line (as is

evident from his arrangement of the pieces), gives “_Theatrales ludos_.”

_Script. Illust. Bryt._ p. 652. ed. 1557: and Mr. J. P. Collier states

that “one of Skelton’s earlier works had been a series of pageants,

‘played in Joyous Garde,’ or Arthur’s Castle.” _Hist. of Engl. Dram.

Poet._ ii. 142. But, assuredly, in the present line, _paiauntis_, i. e.

pageants, means nothing of a dramatic nature. The expression to “play a

pageant” has occurred several times already in our author’s poems; “I

haue _played_ my _pageyond_” (my part on the stage of life), see note,

p. 88. v. 85; “Suche pollyng _paiaunttis_ ye _pley_” (such thievish

pranks), see note, p. 189. v. 190: and though it may be doubted whether

the _paiauntis that were played IN Ioyows Garde_,—i. e. in the Castle

of Sir Launcelot, according to the romances,—are to be understood as

connected with feats of arms, I cite the following passage in further

illustration of the expression; “The fyrste that was redy to Juste was

sir Palomydes and sir Kaynus le straunge a knyghte of the table round.

And soo they two encountred to gyders, but sire Palomydes smote sir

Kaynus soo hard that he smote hym quyte ouer his hors croupe, and forth

with alle sir Palomydes smote doune another knyght and brake thenne

his spere & pulled oute his swerd and did wonderly wel. And thenne the

noyse beganne gretely vpon sir palomydes. Ioo said Kynge Arthur yonder

palomydes begynneth _to play his pagent_. So god me help said Arthur he

is a passynge good knyght. And ryght as they stood talkyng thus, in came

sir Tristram as thonder, and he encountred with syre Kay the Seneschall,

and there he smote hym doune quyte from his hors, and with that same

spere sir Tristram smote doune thre knyghtes moo, and thenne he pulled

oute his swerd and dyd merueyllously. Thenne the noyse and crye chaunged

from syr Palomydes and torned to sir Tristram and alle the peple cryed O

Tristram, O Tristram. And thenne was sir Palomydes clene forgeten. How

now said Launcelot vnto Arthur, yonder rydeth a knyght _that playeth his

pagents_.” _Morte d’Arthur_, B. x. cap. lxxix. vol. ii. 140. ed. Southey.

Page 416. v. 1384. _wrate_] i. e. wrote.

—— _muse_] See note, p. 234. v. 212.

v. 1385. _do_] i. e. doe.

v. 1386. _parker ... with all_] i. e. park-keeper ... withal.

v. 1387. _Castell Aungell_] “And the pope fled unto _Castle Angell_.”

Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_, p. 143. ed. 1827.

—— _fenestrall_] In Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, we find

“_Fenestrall chassis de toille ou de paupier_.” fol. xxxiii. (Table of

Subst.); and in Hormanni _Vulgaria_, “Paper, or lyn clothe, straked a

crosse, with losynges: make _fenestrals in stede of glasen wyndowes_.”

Sig. v ii: but see the next lines of our text.

v. 1389. _eyn dasild and dasid_]—_eyn_, i. e. eyes: _dasid_, i. e. dulled.

v. 1390. _The Repete of the recule of Rosamundis bowre_]—_Repete_, i. e.

Repetition, Recital: _recule_; see note on v. 1187. p. 327.

v. 1392. _propre_] i. e. pretty.

—— _ieloffer flowre_] See note, p. 147. v. 1052.

v. 1393. _to reckeles_] i. e. too reckless.

v. 1396. _Mok there loste her sho_] A proverbial expression, which occurs

again in our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_, v. 83. vol. ii. 29: in

his _Colyn Cloute_ we find

“Sho the _mockysshe_ mare.”

v. 181. vol. i. 318.

v. 1397. _barbican_] “A _Barbican_, antemurale, promurale, tormentorum

bellicorum sedes, locus.” Coles’s _Dict._ “It was generally,” says Nares

(referring to King on Anc. Castles, _Archael._), “a small round tower,

for the station of an advanced guard, placed just before the outward gate

of the castle yard, or ballium.” _Gloss._ in v. And see Richardson’s

_Dict._ in v.

Page 416. v. 1398. _sawte_] i. e. assault.

v. 1399. _blo_] i. e. livid: see note, p. 103. v. 3.

v. 1400. _Of Exione, her lambis, &c._] See note _ad loc._ If the reader

understands the line, it is more than I do.

Page 417. v. 1407. _forster_] i. e. forester.

v. 1409. _to yerne and to quest_] Coles renders both these hunting-terms

by the same word, “_nicto_” (i. e. open, give tongue). _Dict._

Turbervile, enumerating “the sundry noyses of houndes,” tells us that

“when they are earnest eyther in the chace or in the earth, we say _They

yearne_.” _Noble Art of Venerie_, &c. p. 242. ed. 1611. “_Quest_, united

cry of the hounds.” Sir F. Madden’s Gloss. to _Syr Gawayne_, &c.

v. 1410. _With litell besynes standith moche rest_]

“_Great rest standeth in little businesse_.”

_Good Counsaile_,—Chaucer’s _Workes_, fol. 319. ed. 1602.

v. 1411. _make_] i. e. mate, wife.

v. 1412. _ble_] i. e. colour, complexion.

v. 1413. _wele_] i. e. well.

v. 1416. _Some_] i. e. Soham.

v. 1418. _Wofully arayd_] In vol. i. 141.

v. 1419. _making_] i. e. composing.

v. 1420. _Vexilla regis_] In vol. i. 144.

v. 1421. _Sacris solemniis_] As the still-extant piece mentioned in the

preceding line, and headed _Vexilla regis_, &c., is not a translation

of that hymn, so we may with probability conclude that this was not a

version of the hymn beginning “_Sacris solemniis_ juncta sint gaudia,”

which may be found in _Hymni Ecclesiæ e Breviario Parisiensi_, 1838. p.

94.

v. 1424. _sadnes_] i. e. seriousness.

v. 1425. _Galiene_ }

v. 1426. _Ipocras_ }

i. e. Galen, Hippocrates.

“Old _Hippocras_, Hali, and _Gallien_.”

Chaucer’s _Prol. to Cant. Tales_, v. 433. ed. Tyr.

“For _Ipocras_ nor yet _Galien_.”

_Poems_ by C. Duke of Orleans,—_MS. Harl._ 682. fol. 103.

—— _Auycen_] An Arabian physician of the tenth century.

Page 418. v. 1428. _Albumasar_] See note, p. 133. v. 501.

—— _ken_] i. e. instruct (pleonastically coupled with “enforme,” as in v.

825).

v. 1430. _gose_] i. e. goose.

v. 1432. _ageyne_] i. e. against.

v. 1433. _Dun is in the myre_] A proverbial expression, which occurs

in Chaucer’s _Manciples Prol._ v. 16954. ed. Tyrwhitt (who conjectured

that _Dun_ was a nickname given to the ass from his colour), and is

common in writers long after the time of Skelton. Gifford was the first

to shew that the allusion is to a Christmas gambol, in which _Dun_ (the

cart-horse) is supposed to be stuck _in the mire_; see his note on

Jonson’s _Works_, vii. 283.

v. 1434. _rin_] i. e. run.

v. 1435. _spar the stable dur_] i. e. fasten, shut the stable-door; see

note, p. 207. v. 91.

v. 1437. _sone aspyed_] i. e. soon espied.

v. 1438. _wele wotith_] i. e. well knoweth.

v. 1439. _lucerne_] i. e. lamp. So in the _Lenvoye_ to Chaucer’s _Cuckow

and Nightingale_;

“Aurore of gladnesse, and day of lustinesse,

_Lucerne_ a night with heauenly influence

Illumined.”

_Workes_, fol. 318. ed. 1002.

v. 1442. _wedder_] i. e. weather.

v. 1443. _cokwolde_] i. e. cuckold.

v. 1445. _vntwynde_] See note, p. 127. v. 284.

v. 1446. _ieloffer_] See note, p. 147. v. 1052.

v. 1447. _propre_] i. e. pretty.

v. 1450. _all to-fret_] i. e. altogether eaten up, consumed: see note, p.

100. v. 32.

Page 419. v. 1451.

_But who may haue a more vngracyous lyfe_

_Than a chyldis birds and a knauis wyfe_]

This proverbial expression occurs in Lydgate;

“Vnto purpos this prouerd is full ryfe

Rade and reported by olde remembraunce

_A childes birdde and a knavis wyfe_

Haue often sieth gret sorowe and myschaunce.”

_The Chorle and the Bird_,—_MS. Harl._ 116. fol. 151.

v. 1454. _byll_] i. e. writing.

v. 1455. _By Mary Gipcy_] In much later writers we find, as an

interjection, _marry gep_, _marry gip_, _marry guep_, _marry gup_. v.

1456. _Quod scripsi, scripsi_] From the Vulgate, _Joan._ xix. 22.

Page 419. v. 1460. _Secundum Lucam, &c._] Skelton seems to allude to the

Vulgate, _Luc._ i. 13, “_Et uxor tua_ Elizabeth,” &c.

v. 1461.

_the Bonehoms of Ashrige besyde Barkamstede,_

...

_Where the sank royall is, Crystes blode so rede_]

The college of the Bonhommes, completed in 1285, was founded by Edmund,

Earl of Cornwall, son and heir of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who was King

of the Romans and brother of Henry the Third, for a rector and twenty

brethern or canons, of whom thirteen were to be priests. It was founded

expressly in honour of the blood of Jesus, (“_the sank royall_”), which

had once formed part of the precious reliques belonging to the German

emperors, and which Edmund had brought over from Germany to England. See

Todd’s _History of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge_, 1823. p. 1-3.

The pretended blood of Christ drew to Ashridge many persons of all

ranks, greatly to the enrichment of the society. “But,” Speed tells us,

“when the sunne-shine of the Gospell had pierced thorow such cloudes

of darkenesse, it was perceiued apparantly to be onely hony clarified

and coloured with Saffron, as was openly shewed at Paules Crosse by the

Bishop of Rochester, the twentie foure of Februarie, and yeare of Christ

1538.” _A Prospect of The Most Famous Parts of the World_, 1631, (in

_Buck._ p. 43).

v. 1466. _Fraxinus in clivo, &c._] “As to the name _Ashridge_” says

Kennett, “it is no doubt from a hill set with Ashes; the old word was

_Aescrugge, Rugge_, as after _Ridge_, signifying a hill or steep place,

and the Ashen-tree being first _Aesc_, as after _Ashche_, &c.” _Parochial

Antiquities_, p. 302. ed. 1695.

v. 1470. _The Nacyoun of Folys_] Most probably _The Boke of Three

Fooles_, in vol. i. 199.

v. 1471. _Apollo that whirllid vp his chare_] Concerning the piece, of

which these were the initial words, a particular notice will be found

in _The Account of Skelton and his Writings_: _chare_, i. e. chariot;

compare the first of the two lines, which in the old eds. and some MSS.

of Chaucer stand as the commencement of a third part of _The Squieres

Tale_;

“_Apollo whirleth vp his chare_ so hie.”

_Workes_, fol. 25. ed. 1602.

and the opening of _The Floure and the Leafe_;

“When that _Phebus his chaire_ of gold so hie

Had _whirled_ vp the sterye sky aloft.”

_Id._ fol. 344.

See also _Poems_ by C. Duke of Orleans, _MS. Harl._ 682. fol. 47.

v. 1472. _snurre_] i. e. snort.

Page 420. v. 1475. _mell_] i. e. meddle.

v. 1477. _stode_] i. e. stood.

v. 1478. _Suppleyng_] i. e. Supplicating.

v. 1480. _bokis ... rase_] i. e. books ... erase.

v. 1483. _rin_] i. e. run.

v. 1487. _take it in gre_] i. e. take it kindly: see note, p. 95. v. 68.

v. 1490. _ragman rollis_] The collection of deeds in which the Scottish

nobility and gentry were compelled to subscribe allegiance to Edward I.

of England in 1296, and which were more particularly recorded in four

large rolls of parchment, &c., was known by the name of _Ragman’s Roll_:

but what has been written on the origin of this expression appears to be

so unsatisfactory that I shall merely refer the reader to Cowel’s _Law

Dictionary_, &c., ed. 1727, in v., Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._

in v., Nares’s _Gloss._ in v., Gloss. to _The Towneley Myst._ in v., and

Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._ in v. _Rigmarole_.

v. 1491. _lenger_] i. e. longer.

v. 1495. _Counforte_] i. e. Comfort.

v. 1498.

_Diodorus Siculus of my translacyon_

_Out of fresshe Latine, &c._]

—_fresshe_, i. e. elegant: see note, p. 302. v. 39. This translation from

the Latin of Poggio is mentioned with praise in Caxton’s Preface to _The

Boke of Eneydos_, &c. 1490, and is still preserved in MS. among Parker’s

Collection, in Corpus Ch. College, Cambridge: see _Account of Skelton and

his Writings_, and _Appendix_ ii.

Page 421. v. 1505. _dome_] i. e. judgment, thinking.

v. 1507. _the noyse went to Rome_] So Chaucer;

“And there came out so great _a noyse_,

That had it stonde vpon Oyse,

_Men might haue heard it easely_

_To Rome_, I trowe sikerly.”

_House of Fame_, B. iii.—_Workes_, fol. 270. ed. 1602.

v. 1508. _shoke_] i. e. shook.

v. 1510. _shett ... boke_] i. e. shut ... book.

v. 1512. _somdele_] i. e. somewhat.

v. 1514. _sperycall_] i. e. spherical.

v. 1515. _Ianus, with his double chere_]—_chere_, i. e. visage,

countenance.

v. 1517. _He turnyd his tirikkis, his voluell ran fast_] What is meant by

_tirikkis_, I know not: it occurs again in our author’s _Speke, Parrot_;

“Some trete of theyr _tirykis_, som of astrology.”

v. 139. vol. ii. 7.

For the following note I am indebted to W. H. Black, Esq. “The volvell

is an instrument, called _volvella_ or _volvellum_, in the Latin of the

middle age, consisting of graduated and figured circles drawn on the

leaf of a book, to the centre of which is attached one moveable circle

or more, in the form of what is called a geographical clock. There is a

very fine one, of the fourteenth century, in the Ashmolean MS. 789. f.

363, and others exist in that collection, which affords likewise, in an

Introduction to the Knowledge of the Calendar, (in the MS. 191. iv. art.

2. f. 199,) written in old English of the fifteenth century, a curious

description of the volvell, with directions for its use. The passage is

entitled ‘The Rewle of the Volvelle.’—‘Now folowith here the _volvelle_,

that sum men clepen a _lunarie_; and thus most ghe governe ghou ther

ynne. First take the grettist cercle that is maad in the leef, for that

schewith the 24 houris of the day naturel, that is of the nyght and day,

of the whiche the firste houre is at noon bitwene 12 and oon. Thanne

above him is another cercle, that hathe write in hem the 12 monthis withe

here dayes, and 12 signes with here degrees; and with ynne that, ther is

writen a rewle to knowe whanne the sunne ariseth and the mone bothe; if

ghe biholde weel these noumbris writen in reed, 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. ✠. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.’ The rule proceeds to shew that there is another row of the same

figures in black, and that the red cross stands in the place of Cancer,

the black at Capricorn: the red figures were used to shew the rising of

the sun and moon, the black for their setting. Over this is ‘another

cercle that hath a tunge,’ (tongue, or projecting angle to point with,)

the figure of the sun on it, and 29½ days figured, for the age of the

moon. Upon this is the least circle, ‘which hath a tunge with the figure

of the moon on it, and with ynne it is an hole, the whiche schewith bi

symylitude howe the moone wexith and wansith.’ It was used by setting

‘the tunge of the moone’ to the moon’s age, and ‘the tunge of the sunne’

to the day of the month, then moving the circle of months and signs to

bring the hour of the day to the last named ‘tunge,’ whereby might be

found ‘in what signe he’ (the _moon_, masculine in Anglo-Saxon) ‘sittith

and the sunne also, and in what tyme of the day thei arisen, eny of hem,

either goone downe, and what it is of the watir, whether it be flood or

eb.’ The rule concludes by observing that the wind sometimes alters the

time of the tide ‘at Londone brigge.’”

Page 422. v. 1533. _quaire_] i. e. quire,—pamphlet, book.

v. 1536. _wrate_] i. e. wrote.

Page 422. v. 1542. _warkis_] i. e. works.

v. 1546. _loke_] i. e. look.

v. 1547. _boke_] i. e. book.

v. 1552. _brede_] i. e. breadth.

Page 423. v. 1556. _harnnes_] i. e. armour.

v. 1558. _ageyne_] i. e. against.

v. 1563. _derayne_] i. e. contest.

v. 1569. _curteisly_] i. e. courteously.

v. 1575. _sad_] See note, p. 264. v. 1711.

v. 1581. _Any worde defacid_] i. e. Any disfigured, deformed, unseemly

word.

v. 1582. _rasid_] i. e. erased.

Page 424.—— _Lautre Enuoy, &c._] Concerning this curious Envoy, see

_Account of Skelton and his Writings_.

v. 1597. _sekernes_] i. e. security, sureness.

v. 1598. _rede_] i. e. conceive, consider.