“The ryuers rowth, the waters wan,
She sparyd not, to wete her fete.”

THE BOWGE OF COURTE.

Page 38. v. 215. In some copies the semicolon at the end of the line has dropt out—

“To you oonly, me thynke, I durste shryue me;”

Page 44. v. 368.

“What reuell route! quod he, and gan to rayle.”

Point,

“What, reuell route! quod he,” &c.

Here (as in the line cited from the Digby Mysteries, Notes, vol. ii. 116) “route” is of course a verb—What, let revel roar! I might have added to the note on this passage, that the compound substantive revel-rout is used by Rowe;

“for this his minion,
The revel-rout is done.”
Jane Shore, act i. sc. 1.

PHYLLYP SPAROWE.

Page 58. v. 245.

“Ma gni fi cat.”

In some copies the line stands erroneously,

“Mag gni fi cat.”

ELYNOUR RUMMYNG.

Page 101. v. 185.

“God gyue it yll preuynge,
Clenly as yuell cheuynge!”

Dele the comma after “preuynge.” Clenly, i. e. Wholly.

POEMS AGAINST GARNESCHE.

Page 119. v. 40.

“Wranglynge, waywyrde, wytles, wraw, and nothyng meke.”

wraw, i. e. peevish, angry: see Tyrwhitt’s Gloss. to Chaucer’s Cant. Tales.

Page 120. v. 3. For “shryke” read “skrybe.”

AGAINST VENEMOUS TONGUES.

Page 133. v. 2.

“In Romaine letters I neuer founde lack:”

Put a semicolon at the end of this line.

THE MANER OF THE WORLD NOW A DAYES.

Page 148.

This piece (see Notes, vol. ii. 199) ought, I believe, to have been inserted among the Poems attributed to Skelton,—not among his undoubted productions.

TETRASTICHON VERITATIS.

Page 181.

The indentation of the second and fourth lines has been retained by mistake from the old ed.

AGAINST THE SCOTTES.

Page 185. v. 103.

“Your lege ye layd and your aly
Your frantick fable,” &c.

Put a comma after “aly.”

ELEGIA IN COMITISSAM DE DERBY.

Page 196. The last line in this page,

“Quo regnas rutilans rex sine fine manens,”

as it is a pentameter, ought to have been indented.

MAGNYFYCENCE.

Page 234. v. 281.

“Magn. Largesse is laudable, so it in measure be.”

The rhyme seems to require,

“Magn. Largesse is laudable, so it be in measure.”

Page 243. v. 540.

“Cr. Con. By God, had not I it conuayed,
Yet Fansy had ben dysceyued.”

Qy. “dyscryued?” In v. 2398 of this drama, Skelton appears to employ “dyscryue” in the (unusual) sense of—discover, search, try; and in the present passage a word equivalent to discovered seems necessary.

Page 247. v. 681.

“Fan. Ye, my Fansy was out of owle flyght”

would perhaps stand more properly,

“Fan. Ye, my fansy,” &c.

Page 249. v. 746.

“I muster, I medle amonge these grete estates,
I sowe sedycyous sedes of dyscorde and debates”

ought probably to be pointed thus,

“I muster, I medle; amonge these grete estates
I sowe sedycyous sedes of dyscorde and debates.”

Page 258. v. 1033.

“That I wote not where I may rest.
Fyrst to tell you what were best,
Frantyke Fansy seruyce I hyght;”

Perhaps there should be a comma after “rest” and a full-point after “best.” In the last line, for “Fansy seruyce” read “Fansy-seruyce.”

Page 261. v. 1128.

“For Goddes cope thou wyll spende.”

Point,

“For, Goddes cope, thou wyll spende.”

Page 272. v. 1442.

“Magn. What can ye agree thus and appose?”

Point,

“Magn. What, can ye agree thus and appose?”

—— v. 1444.

“Lyb. Ye, of Jacke a thrommys bybyll can ye make a glose?”

is not a question: put a full-point at the end of the line.

Page 272. v. 1446.

“What sholde a man do with you, loke you vnder kay.”

Point,

“What sholde a man do with you? loke you vnder kay?”

Page 293. v. 2090.

“ye mary.”

Put a comma between these words.

Page 295. v. 2166.

“And some fall prechynge at the Toure Hyll.”

Qy.

“And some fall to prechynge,” &c.?

compare the preceding line.

COLYN CLOUTE.

Page 328. v. 460.

“Iche wot what eche other thynk.”

The reading of Kele’s ed. “yehe” ought not to have been rejected, as the earlier part of the line seems to mean—Each knows (not, I know), &c.

Page 332. v. 562.

“And qualyfyed qualytes”

ought perhaps to be followed by a semicolon: but the passage is very obscure.

Page 358. v. 1208.

“As noble Ezechyas.”

Read “Isaias” (MS. has “Isay,” vide foot-note). See Notes, vol. ii. 298.

GARLANDE OF LAURELL.

Page 381. v. 477.

“Thus passid we forth walkynge vnto the pretory”—

insert a comma after “forth” and at the end of the line.

Page 384. v. 581.

“And seryously she shewyd me ther denominacyons.”

seryously, i. e. seriatim. So in a letter from Tuke to Wolsey; “Thus preceding to the letters, to shewe Your Grace summarily, for rehersing every thing seriously I shal over long moleste Your Grace,” &c. State Papers (1830), i. 299.

Page 393. v. 790.

“To weue in the stoule sume were full preste,
With slaiis, with tauellis, with hedellis well drest;
The frame was browght forth with his weuyng pin,” &c.

Perhaps the right punctuation may be,

“To weue in the stoule sume were full preste;
With slaiis, with tauellis, with hedellis well drest,
The frame was browght forth with his weuyng pin,” &c.

Page 417. v. 1418.

“With, Wofully arayd, and shamefully betrayd;
Of his makyng deuoute medytacyons.”

Two pieces seem to be mentioned here; and therefore the passage ought to stand,

“With, Wofully arayd, and Shamefully betrayd,
Of his makyng deuoute medytacyons.”

The sacred poem Wofully arayd occurs in vol. i. 141.

VOL. II.

SPEKE, PARROT.

Page 22. v. 441.

“Sette asyde all sophysms,” &c.

I ought to have altered the reading of the MS. “sophyns” to “sophyms” (not to “sophysms”): see “sophime” (i. e. sophism) in Tyrwhitt’s Gloss. to Chaucer’s Cant. Tales.

WHY COME YE NAT TO COURTE?

Page 36. v. 290.

“Into a mouse hole they wolde
Rynne away and crepe,
Lyke a mayny of shepe;
Dare nat loke out at dur,” &c.

The proper punctuation is,

“Into a mouse hole they wolde
Rynne away and crepe;
Lyke a mayny of shepe,
Dare nat loke out at dur,” &c.

NOTES.

Page 110.—“Page 40. v. 252. Heue and how rombelow]” I might have added, that “heaue and hoe Rumbelo” occurs in a nonsensical song (No. 31) in Ravenscroft’s Pammelia, 1609.

Page 124.—“Page 54. v. 118. For to kepe his cut, &c.]” So in the Coventry Mysteries, the Pharisee says to the woman taken in adultery;

“We xal the teche with carys colde
A lytyl bettyr to kepe thi kutte.”
MS. Cott. Vesp. D viii. fol. 123.

Page 132.—“Page 66. v. 485. at a brayde]” This expression is used here in connexion with singing: and in one of the Christmas Carols printed for the Percy Society, p. 51, we find,

“Wherefor syng we alle atte a brayde, nowell.”

Page 147.—“Page 84. v. 1078. Enhached] i. e. Inlaid,” &c. I ought to have observed that, though in the preceding line Skelton calls this beauty-spot a “sker” (scar), he means the wart already mentioned;

“Her beautye to augment,
Dame Nature hath her lent
A warte vpon her cheke,
Who so lyst to seke
In her vysage a skar,” &c.
v. 1041.

and see too v. 1064.

Page 148.—“Page 86. v. 1151.

She is playnly expresse
Egeria, the goddesse,
And lyke to her image,
Emportured with corage,
A louers pilgrimage]

I must leave the reader to form his own idea of the meaning of the last two lines,” &c. The following lines of Lydgate may be cited as somewhat resembling the present passage;

“To hym appered a monstruous ymage
Parted on twayne of colour and corage,” &c.
Fall of Prynces, B. vi. leaf cxxxiiii. ed. Wayland.

Page 157. last line but one. “The gist or point of this satire had a noble origin, or there must be an extraordinary coincidence of thought in the Beoni, or Topers, a ludicrous effusion of the great Lorenzo de Medici, when a young man.” Dallaway was led to this remark by the following passage in Spence’s Anecdotes, &c.; “Skelton’s poems are all low and bad: there’s nothing in them that’s worth reading.—P. [Mr. Cleland, who was by, added, that the Tunning of Ellinor Rummin, in that author’s works, was taken from a poem of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s].” p. 173. ed. 18-20.—I Beoni, observes Mr. D’Israeli (referring to Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, i. 290), “was printed by the Giunti in 1568, and therefore this burlesque piece could never have been known to Skelton.” Amen. of Lit. ii. 79.

Page 166.—“Page 102. v. 229.... fonny is, I suppose, foolishly amorous,” &c. I ought to have said “fonny, i. e. to fon, to be foolishly amorous,” &c.

Page 172. line 3. for “v. 490,” read “v. 400.”

Page 176.—“Page 113. v. 560. mote I hoppy] i. e. may I have good hap.” Rather, I believe—may I hop. “Hoppy, to hop or caper. Exm.” Grose’s Prov. Gloss. ed. 1839.

Page 184.—“Page 121. v. 46. dud frese] i. e. coarse frieze.” But in Prompt. Parv. we find “Dudde clothe. Amphibolus. Burrus.” ed. 1499.

Page 188.—“Page 125. v. 178. Soche pelfry thou hast pachchyd.” Add to note on this line,—Dekker, describing “The Blacke Arte” (or “Picking of Lockes”), tells us that “The gaines gotten is Pelfry.” The Belman of London, &c. sig. F 4. ed. 1608.

Page 190. “—— goliardum].” “Goliardeis, one who gains his living by following rich men’s tables, and telling tales and making sport for the guests. See on this word the Introduction to the Poems of Walter Mapes.” Wright’s Gloss, to Piers Ploughman.

Page 195.—“Page 133. v. 3. In your crosse rowe nor Christ crosse you spede]” Add to note on this line that—in The Boke of Curtasye we find;

“Yff that thou be a ȝong enfaunt,
And thenke tho scoles for to haunt,
This lessoun schulle thy maister the merke,
Cros Crist the spede in alle thi werke.”
The sec. Boke, p. 7. (printed for the Percy Society.)

Page 206.—“Page 157. v. 73 ... So Fansy, in our author’s Magnyfycence, exclaims to his hawk,” &c. But, though Fansy calls his bird a hawk, it appears to have been an owl.

Page 207.—“Page 157. v. 78 ... Juliana Barnes.” Read “Juliana Berners.”

Page 244.—“Page 246. v. 658. a pystell of a postyke]” Cotgrave has “Postiquer. To play the vagrant Impostor,” &c.: “Postiqueries. Cousening sleights,” &c.: “Postiqueur. A wandering impostor,” &c.

Page 271.—“Page 297. v. 2211. rede] i. e. advice.” Read “i. e. advise.”

—— “Page 298. v. 2233. rode] i. e. road, cross.” Read “i. e. rood, cross.”

Page 284.—“Page 326, v. 397 ... Cole’s Dict.” Read “Coles’s Dict.”

Page 311.—“Page 380. v. 474. The carpettis within and tappettis of pall].” I may just notice that in an unpublished book of Kings Payments, in the Chapter-House, we find, under the first year of Henry 8;

“Item to Corneles Vanderstrete opon his waraunt for xv Tappettes made for Wyndowes at the towre ix s.”

Page 328.—“Page 410. v. 1219 ... but, though Skelton was in all probability an author as early as 1583,” &c. Read “1483.”

Page 345.—“Page 14. v. 280.” Latter part of the note—“if ‘33ᵒ’ and ‘34’” &c. I ought to have mentioned that at the end of Why come ye nat to Courte (vol. ii. 67) we find (what is equally puzzling) “xxxiiii.”

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

[The figures indicate the pages of the Second Volume only, all the Notes being contained in that Volume.]