Gallas hath beene this Summer-time in Friesland,
And now return'd, he speaks such warlike words,
As, if I could their English understand,
I feare me they would cut my throat like swords:
He talkes of counter-scarfes[62] and casomates,
Of parapets, of curteneys, and palizadoes;
Of flankers, ravelings, gabions he prates,
And of false-brayes,[63] and sallies[64] and scaladoes.
But, to requite such gulling tearmes as these,
With words of my profession I reply;
I tell of fourching,[65] vouchers, and counterpleas,
Of withermans,[66] essoynes, and Champarty.
So, neither of us understanding[67] one another,
We part as wise as when we came together.
[Footnote 62: Isham 'scarphes.' G.]
[Footnote 63: Isham 'false brayes.' In this place I have restored the
reading 'false-brayes' of the 1st edition and of the MS, rejecting
'false-baits' of 2nd and 3rd editions. There is no such word in
military engineering or fortification; but there is 'fausse-braye ' or
'false-braye.' There is a not very intelligible description in Bailey's
Dictionary. G.]
[Footnote 64: With this passage compare the following lines:
"See Captaine Martio he i' th' 'Renounce me' band,
That in the middle region doth stand
Wo' th' reputation steele! Faith, lets remoue
Into his ranke (of such discourse you loue):
Hee'l tell of basilisks, trenches, retires,
Of pallizadoes, parapets, frontires,
Of caluerins, and baricadoes too.
What to bee harquebazerd, to lie in perdue," &c.
Fitzgeoffrey's _Notes from Black-Friars'_ Sig. E 7, a portion
of the volume entitled _Certain Elegies_, &c., ed. 1620. See our
Memorial-Introduction for an impudent appropriation of this epigram. G.]
[Footnote 65: MS. "forginge." D. Isham 'foorching.' G.]
[Footnote 66: Other editions and MS. "Withernams": Isham 'whither
names.' G.]
[Footnote 67: Isham 'vnderstanding either.' G.]