teache timely to trauas, the thing that thou triue.
Transferring thy toyle, to the times truely tought:
that teacheth the temperaunce, to temper thy thought.
To temper thy trauaile, to tarrye the tide:
this teacheth the thriftines, twenty times tride.
Thinke truely to trauaile, that thinkest to thee:
the trade that thy teacher taught truely to the.
Take thankfully thinges, thanking tenderly those:
that teacheth thee thriftly, thy time to transpose.
The trouth teached two times, teache thou two times ten
this trade thou that takest, take thrift to the then.
¶ Imprinted at London in flete strete within Temple barre, at the sygne
of the hand and starre, by Richard Tottel, the third day of February,
An. 1557. _Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum._
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
(Notes signed M. are from Dr. Mavor's edition of 1812, and those signed
T.R. are from Hilman's _Tusser Redivivus_, 1710.)
[E1] "Er in aught be begun;" that is, before a beginning be made in
anything, the verb being used impersonally.
[E2] The directions which are stated briefly in the Abstract will be
found in the Month's Husbandry in the stanza bearing the same number.
[E3] "Pilcrowe," the mark of a new paragraph in printing (¶). A
corruption of _paragraph_, through _parcraft, pilcraft_, to _pilcrow_.
"Paragrapha, _pylcraft_ in wrytynge."--Medulla Gramm. "_Paragraphus,
Anglice_ a pargrafte in wrytynge."--Ortus. "Paragraphe or _Pillcrow_,
a full sentence, head or title."--Cotgrave. "A _Pilkcrow_, vide
Paragraph."--Gouldman.
[E4] "Crosserowe." "Shee that knowes where Christes crosse stands, will
neuer forget where great A dwells."--Tom Tell-Trothe's New Year's Gift
(New Shakspere Soc. ed. Furnivall), p. 33. "The Christs-crosse-row or
Horne-booke, wherein a child learnes it."--Cotgrave. The alphabet was
called the _Christ-cross-row_, some say because a cross was prefixed to
the alphabet in the old primers; but as probably from a superstitious
custom of writing the alphabet in the form of a cross as a charm. This
was even solemnly practised by the Bishop in the consecration of a
church. See Picart's Relig. Ceremonies, vol. i. p. 131.--Nares.
[E5] "A medicine for the cowlaske." In Sloane MS. 1585, f. 152, will be
found a recipe for the cure of diarrhœa, the components of which appear
to be the yolk of a new-laid egg, honey, and fine salt.
[E6] In the edition of 1557, the first stanza of the Epistle reads
somewhat differently; see p. 220.
[E7] "Time trieth the troth," in Latin "Veritas temporis filia," occurs
in Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, repr. 1867, p. 221.--Hazlitt's English
Proverbs.
[E8] "Vnlesse mischance mischanceth me" = unless fortune is unkind to
me.
[E9] "Remaine abrode for euermore," _i.e._ be given to the writings of
others.
[E10] It is noticeable that though in the Author's Epistle he spells
his name, most probably for convenience sake, as Tuss_a_r, he on all
other occasions spells it Tuss_e_r, which is no doubt correct. In the
edition of 1557 the name is spelt correctly, although the corresponding
line of the stanza commences with the letter _a_. See p. 220.
[E11] "Like Iugurth, Prince of Numid." Jugurtha, an illegitimate son of
Mastanabal, after the death of Micipsa murdered his two sons and seized
on the sovereignty of Numidia. War was declared against him by the
Romans, and after some time Metellus drove him to such extremes that
he was obliged to take refuge with his father-in-law, Bocchus, by whom
he was given up to Marius, was carried in triumph to Rome, and finally
starved to death. The history of the war against him is related in
Sallust's _Bellum Jugurthinum_.
[E12] "With losses so perfumid;" _i.e._ pervaded, thoroughly imbued; we
use _imbued_ nearly in the same way.
[E13] Harrison, in his Description of England (E.E.T. Soc. ed.
Furnivall, part i. p. 241), gives a very bad character to the landlords
of his day: "What stocke of monie soeuer he [the farmer] gathereth and
laieth vp in all his yeares, it is often seene, that the landlord will
take such order with him for the same, when he renueth his lease, which
is commonlie eight or six yeares before the old be expired (sith it
is now growen almost to a custome, that if he come not to his lord so
long before, another shall step in for a reuersion, and so defeat him
out right) that it shall neuer trouble him more than the haire of his
beard, when the barber hath washed and shaued it from his skin. And
as they commend these, so (beside the decaie of house-keeping whereby
the poore haue beene relieued) they speake also of three things that
are growen to be verie grieuous vnto them, to wit, the inhansing of
rents, latelie mentioned; the dailie oppression of copiholders, whose
lords seeke to bring their poore tenants almost into plaine seruitude
and miserie, dailie deuising new meanes, and seeking vp all the old,
how to cut them shorter and shorter, _doubling, trebling, and now and
then seuen times increasing their fines_; driuing them also for euerie
trifle to loose and forfeit their tenures, (by whom the greatest part
of the realme dooth stand and is mainteined,) to the end they may
fleece them yet more." See also Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue, ed. 1607,
p. 51.
The following curious prayer is in Edward the Sixth's Liturgies:--"The
earth is Thine, O Lord, and all that is contained therein,
notwithstanding Thou hast given possession of it to the children of
men, to pass over the time of their short pilgrimage in this vale of
misery. We heartily pray Thee to send Thy Holy Spirit into the hearts
of those that possess the grounds, pastures, and dwelling-places of the
earth, that they, remembering themselves to be Thy tenants, may not
rack nor stretch out the rents of their houses and lands, nor yet take
unreasonable fines and incomes after the manner of covetous worldlings,
but so let them out to others, that the inhabitants thereof may both
be able to pay the rents, and also honestly to live and nourish their
families, and relieve the poor. Give them grace also to consider that
they are but strangers and pilgrims in this world, having here no
dwelling-place, but seeking one to come; that they, remembering the
short continuance of their life, may be contented with that which
is sufficient, and not join house to house and land to land, to the
impoverishment of others; but so behave themselves in letting out
their lands, tenements, and pastures, that after this life they may be
received into everlasting dwelling-places, through, etc."
[E14] "Fleeces" = fleecings, frauds, impositions. It _may_, perhaps, be
used literally, of selling wool at a loss.
[E15] "Ictus sapit." This corresponds to our proverb, "The burnt child
dreads the fire," or perhaps more nearly to "Once bit, twice shy."
In the "Proverbs of Hendyng" we find it as: "The burnt child fire
dreadeth, quoth Hendyng." Ray, in his "Collection of Proverbs," edit.
1737, says: "Piscator ictus sapit; struck by the scorpion fish, or
pastinaca, whose prickles are esteemed venomous."
[E16] If Tusser is here writing literally, the price of his book, in
"the golden days of good Queen Bess," was only a groat or two at the
utmost.--M.
[E17] "Shere" = shire; the construction is--don't think that _every_
bit of land (or county) can profit by following my directions, for
soils differ. Compare chapter 19, stanza 8, p. 48.
[E18] "Must keepe such coile;" must bustle about, exert themselves. Cf.
Scott's "Lord of the Isles," canto v. stanza 1: "For wake where'er he
may, man wakes to care and _coil_." And Shakspere: "I pray you watch
about Signor Leonata's door; for the wedding being there to-morrow,
there is a great _coil_ to-night."
[E19] In the edition of 1570 the first stanza of the "Preface to the
Buier" reads as follows:
"What lookest thou herein to haue?
Trim verses thy fansie to please?
Of Surry so famous that craue,
Looke nothing but rudenes in these."
The reference in the third line being to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey,
author of the Translation of the second and fourth Books of the Æneid
of Virgil, and of numerous other poems, who was executed in 1547.
[E20] In the footnote to this Preface it is stated that the metre is
peculiar to Shenstone, but this is incorrect, as it is also used by
Prior: "Despairing beside a clear stream."
[E21] "The sea for my fish," _i.e._ for my fishpond.
[E22] With "The Ladder to Thrift" we may compare the following "Maxims
in _-ly_," from the Lansdowne MS. 762, f. 16_b_ (see Babees Book, ed.
Furnivall, p. 247):
"Aryse erly,
Serue God devowtely,
And the worlde besely,
Doo thy werk wisely,
Yeue thyne almes secretly,
Goo by the waye sadly,
Answer the people demuerly,
Goo to thy mete appetitely,
Sit therat discretely,
Of thy tunge be not to liberally,
Arise therfrom temperally,
Go to thy supper soberly,
And to thy bed merely,
Be in thyn Inne jocundely,
Please thy loue duely,
And slepe suerly."
[E23] "Familie," here used in the sense of the Latin original _familia_
= household, servants. Compare chap. 73, st. 13.
[E24] Compare Shakspere, Richard II. Act ii. sc. 4, 24: "And crossly to
the good all fortune goes."
[E25] "To bridle wild otes fantasie," _i.e._ to restrain the excesses
of youth.
[E26] "Well to account of which honest is not;" never think highly of
that which is not honourable, or honestly come by.
[E27] Cf. Hebrews xiii. 4: "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed
undefiled." Tusser evidently does not appreciate "love in a cottage."
[E28] "Giue ouer to sudgerne, that thinkest to thee;" _i.e._ make up
your mind to settle down in one place and to give up roaming about, if
you hope to prosper, lest the grumbling of your hosts and the wants of
the nurses prove too expensive for you. Compare "The Dialogue of Wiving
and Thriving," ch. 67 stanza 3, p. 152.
[E29] Dr. Mavor suggests that the third line of this stanza should
read: "Of tone _or_ them both," "meaning, if we smell the savour of
saving or winning or them both."
[E30] A fool and his money are soon parted.
[E31] "Good bargaine a dooing," etc. When you have a chance of making
a good bargain, don't let every one know; but when you want to sell
anything, then let it be published abroad as widely as possible. In the
first case don't hesitate or haggle about it, but "take the ball on the
hop;" in the second, don't be in a hurry to take the first offer, if
you are not ashamed of what you wish to sell.
[E32] "Of the complaint of such poore tenants as paie _rent corne_
vnto their landlords, I speake not, who are often dealt withall very
hardlie. For beside that in the measuring of ten quarters, for the most
part they lose one through the iniquitie of the bushell (such is the
greedinesse of the appointed receiuers thereof), fault is found also
with the goodnesse and cleannesse of the graine. Wherby some peece of
monie must needs passe vnto their purses to stop their mouths withall,
or else my lord will not like of the corne: 'Thou are worthie to loose
thy lease, etc.' Or if it be cheaper in the market, than the rate
allowed for it is in their rents, then must they paie monie, and no
corne, which is no small extremitie."--Harrison, part i. p. 301.
[E33] "In this quatrain all the later editions of our author read
uniformly _misers_ for _michers_ (thieves or pilferers). What kind
of _misers_ 'unthriftiness' would make never seems to have been
considered. 'Careless and rash' is a gallicism for carelessness and
rashness."--M. "Mychare, _capax, cleps, furunculus._"--Prompt. Parv.
"_Mychers_, hedge crepers, fylloks and lushes,
That all the somer kepe dyches and bushes."
--The Hyeway to the Spytell House, ed. Atterson, ii. 11.
See also Townley Mysteries, pp. 216, 308. "_Caqueraffe_, a base
_micher_, scurvie hagler, lowsie dodger, etc. _Caqueduc_, a niggard,
_micher_, etc."--Cotgrave.
[E34] "Make hunger thy sauce." This is the proverb "hunger is the best
sauce," which is reckoned amongst the aphorisms of Socrates: "Optimum
cibi condimentum fames, sitis potus."--Cicero, De Finibus, Bk. II.
[E35] "Mastive, _Bandog, Molossus_."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580. "The
tie-dog or band-dog, so called bicause manie of them are tied up in
chaines and strong bonds, in the daie time, for dooing hurt abroad,
which is an huge dog, stubborne, ouglie, eager, burthenous of bodie
(and therefore but of little swiftnesse), terrible and fearfull to
behold, and oftentimes more fierce and fell than anie Archadian or
Corsican cur.... They take also their name of the word 'mase' and
'theefe' (or 'master theefe' if you will), bicause they often stound
and put such persons to their shifts in townes and villages, and are
the principall causes of their apprehension and taking."--Harrison,
Descrip. of England, part ii. pp. 44-5. "We han great _Bandogs_ will
teare their skins."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. September.
[E36] "The credite of maister," etc. If servants are allowed the credit
or trust, which should only be allowed to their master and mistress,
much trouble will be the result.
[E37] "Be to count ye wote what," that is, nothing to signify, of
little importance.
[E38] "So, twentie lode bushes," etc. So, without proper management,
twenty loads of bushes may be so wasted as only to serve for the
stopping of a single gap.
"A" = one, a single: a very common use in Early English; cf. William of
Nassington's "Myrrour of Lyfe," lines 2, 3;
"Fader and Sonne and Haly Gaste
That er _a_ God als we trowe maste"--that is, _one_ God.
[E39] Some, upon Sundays, have their tables covered with smoking
dishes, and then have to seek, _i.e._ do without dinners for the rest
of the week.
[E40] "Skarborow warning." Grose says it means, "A word and a blow
and the blow first." R. J. S. in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. i. 170,
adds that it is a common proverb in Yorkshire. Fuller states that the
saying arose from "Thomas Stafford, who in the reign of Mary, A.D.
1557, with a small company, seized on Scarborough Castle, and before
the townspeople had the least notice of their approach." Another
explanation is that, if ships passed the castle without saluting
it, a shotted gun was fired at them. In a ballad by Heywood another
derivation is given:
"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say)
By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare.
Who that was met, but suspect in that way,
Strait he was trust up, whatever he were."
This implies that Scarborough imitated the Halifax gibbet law.--N.&
Q. 1st Ser. i. 138. In a letter by Toby Matthew, Bishop of Durham, to
the Archbishop of York, Jan. 19, 1603, he writes: "When I was in the
midst of this discourse I received a message from my Lord Chamberlain
that it was his Majesty's pleasure that I should preach before him
on Sunday next, which _Scarborough warning_ did not only perplex me,
but so puzzel me as no mervail if somewhat be prætermitted, which
otherwise I might have better remembered."--N. & Q. 4th Ser. xii. 408.
"_Scarborough warning_. The antiquity of the phrase is shown by its
occurrence in Puttenham's 'Arte of English Poetrie,' ed. 1589. The
following is the passage, from p. 199 of Arber's reprint: [We have]
'many such prouerbiall speeches: as, _Totnesse is turned French_, for
a strange alteration: _Skarborow warning_, for a sodaine commandement,
allowing no respect or delay to bethinke a man of his busines.'"--Note
by Rev. W. Skeat. See also Ray's Proverbs.
[E41] "Sir I arest yee;" that is, the Sheriff's officer, who, touching
your arm, would use these words.
[E42] "Legem pone," a curious old proverbial or cant term for _ready
money_.
"There are so manie Danaes now a dayes,
That love for lucre, paine for gaine is sold;
No true affection can their fancie please,
Except it be a Iove, to raine downe gold
Into their laps, which they wyde open hold;
If _legem pone_ comes, he is receav'd,
When _vix haud habes_ is of hope bereav'd."
--The Affectionate Shepheard, 1594.
"But in this there is nothing to bee abated, all their speech is _legem
pone_, or else with their ill custome they will detaine thee."--G.
Minshul, Essays in Prison.
[E43] "_Oremus_," from Lat. _orare_ = to beg, here means making excuses
for non-payment of debts.
[E44] "_Præsta quæsumus_" = lend me, I pray. Compare _Preste_ = a loan,
_Pretoes_ = loans, in Halliwell. A lender hates to hear a man say
_Præsta_.
[E45] The word "collects" is used here in its original meaning of short
prayers; thus the prayers before the Epistle and Gospel in the Prayer
Book are called Collects, as containing briefly the lessons of the
Epistle and Gospel.
[E46] "Nor put to thy hand," etc.; that is, do not meddle in the
business of other people, and be careful whom you assist, lest by being
too free and generous you yourself may be put to inconvenience. Ray
gives: "Put not thy hand between the bark and the tree," that is, do
not meddle in family affairs.
[E47] Tusser here, while acknowledging the necessity and advantages of
the practice of "giving credit" in business, impresses strongly upon
his readers the dishonesty and danger of promiscuous borrowing and
lending, either to relations or friends, winding up with the advice
never to trust a man who has once broken his engagements, without a
surety, and never to lend a second time to a man who is angry with you
for asking for payment of what he already owes.
[E48] "The foole at the bottom, the wise at the brim;" referring to
the proverb, "Better spare at brim than at bottom," that is, "Better
be frugal in youth, than be reduced to the necessity of being saving
in age." Ray also gives another proverb of a similar character,
"'Tis too late to spare when the bottom is dry." "Sera in fundo
parsimonia."--Seneca, Epist. i.
[E49] "Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum." Cf. Barbour's Bruce,
ed. Skeat, p. 612.
[E50] "Stands thee vpon." Compare Shakspere, King Richard II. Act ii.
sc. 3, 138: "_It stands_ your grace _upon_ to do him right;" and,
"_It stands_ me much _upon_,
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me."
--Richard III. Act iv. sc. 2, 59.
[E51] "Jankin and Jenikin" are only names for servants in general.
[E52]
"The proverb says, and who'd a proverb cross?
That stones, when rolling, gather little moss."
--Vade Mecum for Malt Worms, 1720, p. 6 (part 2).
See also Ray's Proverbs. Cf.
"On the stone that styll doth turne about,
There groweth no mosse."
--Sir T. Wiat, "How to use the Court," l. 4.
A similar proverb occurs in Piers Plowman, A Text, Passus x. l. 101:
"Selden moseth the marbelston that men ofte treden." Cf. also, "Syldon
mossyth the stone þat oftyn ys tornyd and wende."--"How the good wife
taught her daughter," pr. in Q. Elizabeth's Achademy, ed. Furnivall,
p. 39. In the Verses on Lord Burghley's Crest (printed in Thynne's
Animaduersions, Chaucer Soc. ed. Furnivall), stanza 32, we read:
"And prouerbe olde was not deuis'd in veyne,
That 'roolinge stone doth neuer gather mosse';
Who lightly leaves in myddest of all his peine,
His former labor frustrates with his losse;
But who continues as he did begynne,
Withe equall course the pointed goale doth wynne."
See also chapt. 77. st. 20, p. 170.
[E53] "Of all [the lawyers] that euer I knew in Essex, Denis and
Mainford excelled, till John of Ludlow, alias Mason, came in place,
vnto whome in comparison they two were but children: for this last
in lesse than three or foure yeares, did bring one man (among manie
else-where in other places) almost to extreame miserie (if beggerie
be the vttermost) that before he had the shauing of his beard, was
valued at two hundred pounds (I speake with the least) and finallie
feeling that he had not sufficient wherwith to susteine himselfe and
his familie, and also to satisfie that greedie rauenour, which still
called vpon him for new fees, he went to bed, and within foure daies
made an end of his wofull life, euen with care and pensiuenesse. After
his death also he so handled his sonne, that there was neuer sheepe
shorne in Maie, so neere clipped of his fleece present, as he was of
manie to come: so that he was compelled to let awaie his land, bicause
his cattell and stocke were consumed, and he no longer able to occupie
the ground."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. pp. 206-7.
"Daw" = a chattering fool. See Peacock's Glossary (Eng. Dial. Soc.).
[E54] From this stanza it would seem that sportsmen did not hesitate
to trespass on the lands of others in former days any more than at
present, but in such cases Tusser recommends the "mild answer which
turneth away wrath," and sets out the advantages of courteousness and
respect to one's superiors.
[E55] "That flesh might be more plentifull and better cheaper,
two daies in the weeke, that is Fryday and Saturday, are specially
appointed to fish, and now of late yeares, by the prouidence of our
prudent Princesse, Elizabeth, the Wednesday also is in a manner
restrained to the same order, not for any religion or holinesse
supposed to be in the eating of fish rather than of flesh, but onely
for the ciuill policie as I haue said. That as God hath created both
for man's use, so both being used or refrained at certaine seasons,
might by that entercourse be more abundant. And no doubt, if all daies
appointed for that purpose were duly obserued, but that flesh and fish
both would be much more plentifull, and beare lesse price than they
doe. For accounting the Lent season, and all fasting daies in the yeare
together with Wednesday and Friday and Saturday, you shall see that the
one halfe of the yeare is ordeined to eate fish in."--Cogan's Haven of
Health, ed. 1612, p. 138.
"It is lawfull for euerie man to feed vpon what soeuer he is able
to purchase, except it be vpon those daies whereon eating of flesh
is especiallie forbidden by the lawes of the realme, which order is
taken onelie to the end our numbers of cattell may be the better
increased, and that aboundance of fish which the sea yeeldeth, more
generallie receiued. Beside this, there is great consideration had in
making of this law for the preseruation of the nauie, and maintenance
of conuenient numbers of sea faring men, both which would otherwise
greatlie decaie, if some meanes were not found whereby they might be
increased."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. p. 144.
The following menu for a fish day is given in the Liber Cure Cocorum,
p. 54, ed. Morris:
"For a servise on fysshe day.
"Fyrst white pese and porray þou take,
Cover þy white heryng for goddys sake;
Þen cover red heryng, and set abufe,
And mustard on heghe, for goddys lufe;
Þen cover salt salmon on hast,
Salt ele þer wyth on þis course last.
For þe secunde course, so god me glad,
Take ryse and fletande fignade,
Þan salt fysshe and stok fysshe take þou schalle,
For last of þis course, so fayre me falle.
For þe iii cours sowpys done fyne,
And also lamprouns in galentyne,
Bakun turbut and sawmon ibake
Alle fresshe, and smalle fysshe þou take
Þerwith, als troute, sperlynges, and menwus with al,
And loches to horn sawce versance shal."
See also the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 50.
[E56] "Setteth his soule vpon sixe or on seauen," that is, risks his
life on the cast of a die.
[E57] "Sit downe Robin and rest thee." I was inclined to think that
this was the burden of some ballad, but Mr. Chappell, to whom I
applied, is of opinion that it was not.
"An habitation inforced," etc., _i.e._ it is better to settle down,
even late in life, than not at all. Comp. chap. 10, stanza 8, p. 19.
[E58] For a great portion of the year the only animal food eaten was
in a salted state. In the autumn as much meat was cured as would last
the winter; and until the pastures had been for some time abundant,
that is, not until Midsummer, there were no means of fattening cattle.
After the winter months, veal and bacon were welcomed as the precursors
of fresh beef; and those who lived near the sea-coast enjoyed the
addition of fresh fish; but the state of the roads prevented the inland
parts of the country partaking of this benefit. The consumption of fish
during Lent and on other fast-days, comprising a great part of the
year, being expressly directed by statute, the people, even after the
abolition of the old religion, provided themselves at several large
fairs held almost expressly for the sale and distribution of salt-fish.
[E59] "Veale and Bakon is the man," _i.e._ is the proper food, or is in
season.