[157] Parvus et Magnus Catho, printed by Caxton, n.d. 4to. Chaucer, in his Miller's Tale (Chaucer's Works, ed. Bell, i. 194), describes the old carpenter of Oxford, who had married a young girl, as having neglected to study [Magnus] Catho, which prescribed that marriages ought to take place between persons of about the same age.
"He knew not Catoun, for his wyt was rude,
That bad man schulde wedde his similitude."
No doubt both Cato and Parvus Cato circulated in MS. before the invention of printing. The former was printed by Caxton in 1483-4. See Blades (Life and Typography of William Caxton, ii. 53-4).
[158] Parishioners. This jest is included by Johnson in his Pleasant Conceits of Old Hobson, the Merry Londoner, 1607 (reprinted 1843. p. 17).
[159] Sell away.
[160] John ap Jenkin.
[161] The original has who so ever that.
[162] Baillie or magistrate, from the old French word bailli.
[163] This form of it, though it does not occur in the C. Mery Tales, is very common in old English works; see the Seven Sages, edited by Wright, 1845, for the Percy Society, and the Anglo-Saxon Passion of St. George, 1850 (Percy Soc.).
[164] The original has whan she turned her to have taken money.
[165] Cheating.
[166] The word seems to be here used in a rare sense. The meaning is bulging.
[167] This word (Latinè pallium) was originally used in a special and exclusive signification.
[168] Singer explains this to mean gazeth.
[169] Found fault with it.
[170] There is probably some corruption here. We ought perhaps to read: "and toke to his legges as if to go."
[171] Weened.
[172] Noctes Atticæ, translated by Belue, vol. i. p. 86. The Historie of Papyrius Prætextatus is related in the 18th Novel of the 1st Tome of Painter's Palace of Pleasure.
[173] Deceit, or what would now be called a white lie.
[174] i.e. which of the two.
[175] Go easily.
[176] This old phrase is still in colloquial use. "A good sight better," or a "great sight more," are well understood terms among us, though vulgar.
[177] A rare word as a verb, though the adjective peakish is common enough in old English writers. By peaked we must understand "stole" or got admission by stealth.
[178] A literal rendering of the Fr. mignon, delicate or dainty.
[179] Neatly.
[180] The germ of this and the fallowing story may be found in Lane's Arabian Tales and Anecdotes, p. 112.
[181] Importuned.
[182] Prowled.
[183] Careful.
[184] Diogenes Laertius (Lives of the Philosophers, translated by Yonge. 1853, p. 18).
[185] The orig. reads whiche on a tyme. I have therefore ventured to strike out the unnecessary word.
[186] A cant term for a bonnet.
[187] Thick bushy hair.
[188] See Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. 1849, iii. 132, where Brand cites Melton's Astrologaster, or the Figure-Caster, 1620, to show that to dream of the devil and of gold was deemed an equally lucky portent. To dream of gold is also pronounced a happy omen in the Countryman's Counsellor. 1633.
[189] Dreams. Thus Chaucer, in the opening lines of the House of Fame (called in the old editions and in the present text the Boke of Fame), says: —
"God turne us every dreme to goode!
For hyt is wonder thing, be the roode,
To my wytte, what causeth swevenes
Eyther on morwes, or on evenes."
For examples of the later use of the word, see Nares by Halliwell and Wright, art. Sweven.
[190] Boasting.
[191] Singer reads flee.
[192] Headlong.
[193] Step, from the Latin grassus or gressus.
[194] Circumlocutory.—Singer.
[195] Vide supra, p. 22.
[196] A word used by Chaucer. It signifies a person licensed to preach and beg within a certain limit. There was an order of mendicant friars.
"Lordings, ther is in Engelond, I gesse,
A mersschly land called Holdernesse,
In which there went a lymytour aboute,
To preche and eek to begge, it is no doubte."
Chaucer's Sompnour's Tale; Works, ed. Bell. ii. 103.
[197] Scrowl.
[198] In orig. and in Singer this is printed as prose, according to the usual practice. The same is the case with the line below.
[199] Narrative or account. In its original signification, libel merely implied libellus, a little book or volume, a pamphlet, but not necessarily one of an offensive kind.
[200] Silly and licentious talk. Taylor the Water-Poet, at the end of his Wit and Mirth, 1622 (Works, 1630, folio I. p. 200), uses the expression Ribble-rabble of Gossips, which seems to be a phrase of very similar import.
[201] Padua.
[202] Hovered. This form of the word is used by Gower and Spenser. See Nares (ed. 1859), voce Hove.
[203] Rustic.
[204] Inn.
[205] See Introduction vi.
[206] Debt.
[207] Adultery. The word occurs in Bacon's Essays. In his Essay of Empire, the writer says:—"This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children, or else that they be advoutresses." Sir Simonds D'Ewes, in his account of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, in 1613, describes the Countess of Essex as "Somerset's advoutress" (Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, ed. Halliwell, I. 74).
[208] An old form of neither.
[209] In orig. desired him of.
[210] Orig. reads sayd.
[211] Whither.
[212] Dionysius.
[213] Orig. reads che.
[214] Importunate seems to be used here in the sense of oppressive or overbearing.
[215] Fr. "guerir," to heal.
[216] Poor, or, perhaps, poorly.
[217] Orig. reads all to. We take the true meaning to be alto, as above, i.e. in a loud key.
[218] Delude him with the false notion. To bear on hande, I presume to be synonymous with To bear in hande of the use of which among old authors several examples are furnished by Nares (edit. 1859).
[219] Shells.
[220] Conjecture.
[221] Orig. and Singer read an.
[222] Innkeeper.
[223] Jealous, careful.
[224] Pressed.
[225] Wreaked, revenged.
[226] Reconcile them.
[227] i. e. according to their degree of madness. See Introduction, viii. ix.
[228] Assortment.
[229] Goods
[230] This old Yorkshire family produced several persons eminent in the legal profession from the time of Henry I. downward; but the one here intended was, in all probability, John Vavasour, who became Recorder of York, I Henry VII., and was made a justice of the Common Pleas in August, 1490. See Foss's Judges of England, v. 78, 79.
[231] Of me.
[232] i. e. availed, has been worth £100 to me.
[233] i. e. came to, or amounted to, covered.
[234] Hovered, i. e. halted for shelter.
[235] Laid it in pledge.
[236] Knot, party.
[237] To grow faint.
[238] Crowd.
[239] Usually. See Nares, edit. 1839, in voce.
[240] This story is to be found in Poggius, who calls it Mortuus Loquens, and from Poggius it was transferred by Grazzini to his collection of Tales, not published till after his death.
[241] Scarcely.
[242] Readily. A story very like this occurs in A Sackful of Newes, 1673. It was originally related by Poggius in his Facetiæ, where it is entitled Asinus Perditus, and it has been imitated by La Fontaine in the fable of "Le Villageois qui cherche son veau." It is also the 12th tale of Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles.
[243] Before.
[244] Pillaged.
[245] "Now there was one Marcus Livius, a Romaine that was Gouernour of Tarentum at that time when Hanniball tooke it, and neverthelesse kept the castell still out of Hannibals hands, and so held it untill the city came againe into the hands of the Romaines. This Livius spited to see such honour done to Fabius, so that one day in open Senate, being drowned with enuy and ambition, he burst out and said, that it was himselfe, not Fabius, that was cause of taking of the city of Tarentum again. Fabius, smiling to hear him, answeryd him opely: 'Indeed, thou saiest true, for if thou hadst not lost it, I had never won it again.'"—Plutarch's Lives, transl. by Sir T. North, ed. 1603, fol. 192.
[246] Πὁλτυς, ὁ Θρακὡν Βασιλεὑς εν τὡ Τρωικὡ πολἑμω πρεσβυσαμἑνων πρὁςαὑτον αα τὡν Τρὡων και τὡν Ἁχαιὡν, εκἑλευσε τὁν Ἁλἑξανδρον αποδὁντα τἡν Ἑλἑνην, δὑο παρ αὑτου λαβεἱν καλἁς γυναἱκασαὑτου λαβεἱν καλἁς γυναἱκασ—Plutarchi Apothegmata (Opera Moralia et Philosophica, vol. vi. p. 665, edit. Lipsiæ, 1777).
[247] See the 21st Novel of the 1st tome of the Palace of Pleasure (Haslewood's edit. i. 74).
[248] "Quibus perlectis, quum se consideraturum, adhibitis amicis, quid faciendum sibi esset, dixisset, Popilius, pro cetera asperitate animi, virga, quam in manu gerebat, circumscripsit regem: ac, 'Priusquam hoc circulo excedas,' inquit, 'redde responsum, senatui quod referam.' Obstupefactus tam violento imperio parumper quum hæsitasset, 'Faciam,' inquit 'quod censet Senatus.' Tun demum Popilius dextram regi, tanquam socio atque amico, porrexit."—Livy, lib. xlv. c. 12, edit. Twiss.
[249] Edged.
[250] "Mal est caché a qui l'on void le dos."—Leigh's Select French Proverbs, 1664.
[251] Good fortune.
[252] Casting of lots.
[253] Lampsacus.
[254] Anaximenes, the historian, who wrote an account of the Life of Alexander the Great. He was a native of Lampsacus, and the nephew of the orator of the same name.
[255] i.e. Discharge, or acquit herself of, her trust.
[256] Uncouth. "If thou shuldest refuse to do any of these thynges, and woldest assaye to do some thing of more sadnes and prudence, they wyll esteme and count the vnmanerly, cloubbysshe, frowarde, and clene contrarye to all mennes myndes."—Erasmus De Contemptu Mundi, transl. by Thomas Paynel, 1533, fol. 42. "Rusticitie may seem to be an ignorance of honesty and comelinesse. A Clowne or rude fellow is he, who will goe into a crowd or presse, when he hath taken a purge: and hee that sayth, that Garlicke is as sweet as a gillifiower: that weares shooes much larger then his foot: that speakes alwaies very loud:" &c.,—Theophrastus His Characters, translated by John Healey, 1616, pp. 15, 16. It is a generally received opinion that this work has come down to us in a corrupt shape.
[257] Times were altered when the curious ballad "These Knights will hack," printed by Mr. Halliwell from Addit. MS. 5832, in one of the Shakespeare Society's publications (Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, &c., p. 144), was directed against the mushroom-knights of James I.:—
"Come all you farmers out of the countrey,
Carters, plowmen, hedgers, and all,
Tom, Dick, and Will, Ralph, Roger, and Humphrey,
Leave of your gestures rusticall.
Bidde all your home-sponne russets adue,
And sute yourselves in fashions new:
Honour invits you to delights;
Come all to court, and be made knights.
He that hath fortie pounds per annum
Shal be promoted from the plow:
His wife shall take the wall of her grannam,
Honour is sould so dog-cheap now," &c.
[258] Consult the new edition of Nares' Glossary, voce Walsingham. "This is an Image of oure Ladye. Ergo it is oure Ladye, and here she wyll worke wounders more than in an other place, as she dyd at Walsingham, at Boston, at Lincoln, at Ipswiche, and I cannot tell where."—Wilson's Rule of Reason, 1551, 8vo. sign S ii verso. In Percy's Reliques, ii. 91, is the ballad "As I went to Walsingham." "Have with you to Walsingham" is mentioned as a musical composition in Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College. See also Burney's Hist. of Music, iii. p. 111. When people employed this form of adjuration, as was formerly very common, they were said, for brevity's sake, "to swear Walsingham." In the play of The Weakest Goeth to the Wall, 1600, 4to. Barnaby Bunch the Botcher sings:
"King Richard's gone to Walsingham,
To the Holy Land!"
with what are intended for comic interlocutions. In March, 1502—3, Elizabeth of York, consort of Henry VII, made an oblation of six shillings and eightpence to "oure lady of Walsingham" (Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, edited by Nicolas, p. 3). This offering may not appear very large, but it was thought a considerable sum to devote to the purpose in those days; for in the Northumberland Household Book, ed. 1827, p. 337, we find that the yearly offering of the Earl of Northumberland (Henry Algernon Percy, 5th. Earl, b. 1478, d. 1527) to the same shrine was fourpence. There is a fuller account of the Shrine of Walsingham, &c., in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, 121, et seqq.
[259] It is just possible that this individual may be identical with the "John Reynolde" mentioned in the subjoined extract from the Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, under date of December, 1502:—
"It[=m] the xvth day of Decembre, to John Reynolde for money by him payed to a man that broke a yong hors of the Quenes at Mortymer by the space of v wekes, every weke iis. s[=m]. xs."
[260] Orig. reads as.
[261] Foolish. Used in this sense by Chaucer and Shakespeare. See the last edit, of Nares in voce.
[262] I have already explained this word to signify adultery. The latter form appears to have been little used by old writers (though it occurs in the Rule of Reason, 1551, 8vo. by Thomas Wilson). Thus in Paynel's translation of Erasmus De Contemptu Mundi,1533, fol. 16, we find—"Richesse engendre and brynge forth inceste and advoutry."
"Hobs. Mass, they say King Henry is a very advoutry man.
"King. A devout man? And what King Edward?"—
Heywood's Edward IV. Part I. 1600.
[263] Orig. and Singer read opteyned.
[264] Orig. and Singer read wordlye.
[265] Give attention.
[266] "The covetous man is servaunt and nat mayster vnto riches: and the waster will nat longe be mayster therof. The one is possessed and doth nat possesse; and the other within a shorte whyle leueth the possession of riches."—Erasmus De Contemptu Mundi, 1533, fol. 17 (Paynel's translation). So also, in the Rule of Reason, 1551, 8vo, Wilson says:—"Is a covetous man poore or not? I may thus reason with my self. Why should a couetous man be called poore, what affinitie is betwixt them twoo? Marie, in this poynct thei bothe agree, that like as the poore man ever lacketh and desireth to have, so the covetous manne ever lacketh, wantyng the use of that whiche he hath, and desireth styl to have." "To a covetous ma he (Pythagoras) sayde:—"O fole, thy ryches are lost upon the, and are very pouertie."—Baldwin's Treatise of Morall Phylosophie, 1547.
[267] Conjured.
[268] Orig. reads no meat of.
[269] Orig. reads a fire.
[270] This tale, which is a very old one, is also found in Jests to Make You Merie, by T[homas] D[ekker] and George Wilkins, Lond. 1607, 4to. and in the Philosophers Banquet, 1614, 3vo.
[271] In Chevræana, première partie, Paris, 1697, 8vo. p. 119, this story is altered to suit the Emperor Maximilian I.
[272] See Balbo, Vita di Dante, edit. 1853. Can de la Scala, mentioned in the text, was one of the sons of Alberto de la Scala, Lord of Verona, and was born in 1292. Some account of Alberto de la Scala may be found in my Venetian History.
The anecdote related here probably refers to the earlier period of Dante's acquaintance with the prince, about A. D. 1318-20. Balbo does not seem to have thought this story worthy of notice, though he furnishes one or two other examples of the poet's powers of retort. See also Cinthio's Hecatommithi, Deca Settima, Novella settima, edit. 1608.
[273] Orig. reads holde.
"On Sore Eyes.
Fuscus was councell'd if he would preserve
His eyes in perfect sight, drinking to swerve;
But he reply'd, 'tis better that I shu'd
Loose the, then keep them for the worms as food."
Wits Recreations, 1640 (p. 35 of reprint 1817).
[275] See the new edition of Nares in voce. Orphlin is merely a contraction of the French orphelin.
"A Skilfull Painter such rare pictures drew,
That every man his workemanship admir'd:
So neere the life in beautie, forme and hew,
As if dead Art 'gainst Nature had conspir'd.
Painter, sayes one, thy wife's a pretty woman,
I muse such ill-shapt children thou hast got,
Yet mak'st such pictures as their likes makes no man,
I prethee tell the cause of this thy lot?
Quoth he, I paint by day when it is light,
And get my children in the darke at night."—
Taylor's Sculler, 1612 (Works, 1630, iii. 22).
[277] See Scoggin's Jests, p. 28 (edit. 1796).
[278] Liest.
[279] (?) God's alms. Browne calls this a dunghill oath:—
"With that the Miller laughing brush'd his cloathes,
Then swore by Cocke and other dung-hill oathes."
Britannias Pastorals, lib. i. p. 100 (ed. 1625).
It is very commonly found in the early dramatists, and long before the statute of James the First, By cock and similar phrases were used, in order to evade the charge of profaning the name of the Deity. It is of particularly frequent occurrence in Skelton's Magnyfycence:—
"Cr[afty] Con[veyance]. Cockes armes, thou shalt kepe the brewhouse
boule.
Fol[ye]. But may I drynke thereof whylest that I stare?"
Magnyfycence (Skelton's Works, ed. Dyce, i. 268).
But this writer seems to have employed it rather fantastically than from any desire to soften the oath; for elsewhere in the same piece we find By God, Goddes fote, &c. The practice of swearing had grown to such a pitch in the time of Taylor the Water-Poet, that that writer says (Against Cursing and Swearing, Works, 1630, i. 50):—"If the penalty of twelve pence for every oath had been duly paid (as the statute hath in that case provided) I doe verily beleeve that all the coyned money in England would have been forfeited that way." Whitford, in his Werke for Housholders, first printed about 1528 (edit. 1533, sign. c. ii et seqq.), relates several remarkable judgments as having fallen, within his personal knowledge, on profane swearers, who were as plentiful and as reckless in the time of Henry VIII. as they were a century later.