MS. Harleian 5086, fols. 86-90, about 1475, ends, “Learn or be lewd.”
First printed by Dr. Furnivall. Nothing is known of the author. Written
in _rhyme royal_, five-stress lines in seven-line stanzas, arranged
ababbcc. The treatise is noteworthy chiefly in that it seems to be
addressed to young princes, and the MS. dates from the time when Edward
V. and Richard of York were boys. As it is more tedious than quaint in
the original, it has been rendered into prose.
p. 1. _Facet._ For author and title, see _Introduction_, p. xii. It was
printed very frequently in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, both
separately and in connection with seven similar works, two of them also
attributed to John Garland, under the title: _Auctores Octo Opusculorum
cum commentariis_, &c.; _Videlicet Cathonis_, _Theodoli_, _Faceti_,
_Cartule alias de Contemptu Mundi_, _Thobiadis_, _Parabolarum Alani_,
_Fabularum Esopi_, _Floreti_. The English author seems to have borrowed
little besides the name and the introduction,
“Cum nihil utilius humane credo saluti
Quam rerum nouisse modos et moribus uti.”
p. 2. _Babies._ Children much older than those we associate with the
word. Apparently it was used like the Spanish _menino_ (French _menin_,
introduced from Spain, 1680) to mean, “young man of good family.”
p. 2. _Ease in learning_, _i.e._, because it was in verse.
p. 2. _Lady Facetia._ Apparently the author’s feminine of Facetus
(perhaps through confusion with _facetiæ_, jokes), because courtesy was
usually personified as a woman. In the _Tesoretto_, the chief virtue is
Larghezza (liberality), upon whom Courtesy attends, together with
Good-Faith and Valour, over against the masculine qualities, Prudence,
Temperance, Fortitude, Justice.
p. 3. _Bele._ Fr. _belle_, beautiful. Not common in English (see N.E.D.)
until the seventeenth century.
p. 6. _Trencher._ Originally, a slice of wholemeal bread, four days old,
upon which food was served. Later, it was made of wood.
p. 8. _Where they ought to be._ In a knife-rack or case? See Wright,
_Domestic Manners and Customs_, p. 464.