_The Boke of Nurture, or School of Good Manners for Men, Servants, and
Children, with Stans Puer Ad Mensam, newly corrected, being necessary
for all youth and children._ The British Museum contains three early
editions, of 1550 [?], 1568, and 1577; and Dr. Furnivall mentions two
others as printed between 1551 and 1586.
There is considerable difference between the editions of 1550 [?] and
1568, and that of 1577. H. Jackson, the printer, or some unknown editor
either worked from a very imperfect copy or wilfully altered the meaning
in many cases; and further, broke up the long rhyming couplets of the
original into stanzas of four short lines, the second and fourth
rhyming. Naturally, the first and third contain the greatest number of
changes. I have used the oldest edition, only modernising the spelling,
herein departing from Dr. Furnivall, who printed from that of 1577.
_The Book of Nurture_, which forms the main body of the work, is
preceded by _The Duties of Parents and Masters_, _The Manner of Serving
a Knight, Squire, or Gentleman_, and _How to Order your Master’s Chamber
at Night to Bedward_, all in prose, and is followed by a poem _For the
Waiting Servant_, which I have omitted as more adapted to grown
serving-men than to children, and by various rules and maxims.
From the colophon we learn that the author was Hugh Rhodes of the King’s
Chapel, who early in the poem declares himself “born and bred in
Devonshire,” as his language showed. However, I can discover no traces
of dialect.
Nothing further is known of him. The probabilities are that he was
Master of the chapel children, whose duty it was to direct their
singing, and generally look after them and order their behaviour; but
his name does not seem to appear on any royal household list, as far as
I have observed.
p. 127. _Briefs and longs._ Expressed in musical terms, perhaps because
Rhodes was a music-master.
p. 128. _You ... thee ... thy._ These pronouns seem throughout to be
used indiscriminately, referring to the same antecedent, and so I have
retained them.
p. 135. _Phantasy._ Here _taste_, _inclination_. Obsolete. See N.E.D.,
_Fantasy_ 7.
p. 136. _Stick._ Probably toothpick. Erasmus wrote of them twenty years
before. Cf. _Introduction_, p. xxvii. But indeed we read in Old English
of a “tooth-spear.”
p. 138. _Checkmate._ Perhaps the meaning is: done for, as far as manners
are concerned. But later editions read _Jack-mate_, of which the sense
seems to be: that, you think yourself as good as he, _i.e._, your action
shows too great familiarity.