“your _semely_ snowte doth passe.”
Because the MS., as I have stated, appears at first sight to have
“scriuely,” the reviewer in _G. M._ p. 243, says “the proper word
is _snively_” and compares an expression in another poem _Against
Garnesche_, p. 120, “In the pott your _nose_ dedde _sneuyll_,” and one
in _Magnyfy ence_, p. 286, “The snyte _snyueled_ in the _snowte_.” But
I still think that “semely” is right: Skelton afterwards (p. 130) tells
Garnesche that he has “A _semly nose_ and a stowte;” and the line now in
question is immediately followed by
“Howkyd as an hawkys beke, _lyke Syr Topyas_,”
i. e. the Sire Thopas of Chaucer; and the said Sire Thopas (_Cant.
Tales_, v. 13659, ed. Tyr.) “had a _semeley nose_.”