“Took out of helle soulys many a peyre
Mawgre Cerberus and al his cruelte.”
Testamentum,—MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 49.

I may add, that Warner, speaking of Hercules, uses the words “harrowed hell.” Albion’s England, p. 23. ed. 1612.

v. 1293. Slew of the Epidaures, &c.] Qy. is not the text corrupted here?

v. 1295. Onocentaures] i. e. Centaurs, half human, half asses. See Ælian De Nat. Anim. lib. xvii. c. 9. ed. Gron., and Phile De Anim. Prop. c. 44. ed. Pauw. Both these writers describe the onocentaur as having the bosom of a woman. R. Holme says it “is a Monster, being the Head and Breasts of a Woman set upon the Shoulders of a Bull.” Ac. of Armory, 1688. B. ii. p. 208.

v. 1296. Hipocentaures] i. e. Centaurs, half human, half horses.

v. 1302. Of Hesperides withhold] i. e. Withheld by the Hesperides.

v. 1314. rounses] i. e. common hackney-horses (though the word is frequently used for horses in general).

v. 1318.

He plucked the bull
By the horned skull,
And offred to Cornucopia]

The “bull” means Achelous, who, during his combat with Hercules, assumed that shape:

“rigidum fera dextera cornu
Dum tenet, infregit; truncaque a fronte revellit.
Näides hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum,
Sacrarunt; divesque meo bona Copia cornu est.”
Ovid. Met. ix. 85.

Page 92. v. 1322. Ecates] i. e. Hecate’s.

Page 92. v. 1326.

—— the venemous serpent,
That in hell is neuer brent]

—brent, i. e. burned. A somewhat profane allusion to the scriptural expression “the worm dieth not;”—(worm and serpent were formerly synonymous).

v. 1332. infernall posty]—posty, i. e. power. So Lydgate;

“Of heuene and erthe and infernal pooste.”
Testamentum,—MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 47.

v. 1333. rosty] i. e. roast.

v. 1335. wood] i. e. mad, wild.

v. 1340. frounsid] i. e. wrinkled.

v. 1344. Primo Regum] i. e. The First Book of Kings, or, as it is now called, The First Book of Samuel, chap, xxviii.

“Primo regum as ye may playnly reade.”
Lydgate’s Fall of Prynces, B. ii. leaf xxxix. ed. Wayland.

v. 1345.

He bad the Phitonesse
...
But whether it were so,
He were idem in numero,
The selfe same Samuell, &c.]

—Phitonesse, i. e. Pythoness, witch,—the witch of Endor.

“And speke as renably, and faire, and wel,
As to the Phitonesse did Samuel:
And yet wol som men say it was not he,” &c.
Chaucer’s Freres Tale, v. 7091. ed. Tyr.;

and see his House of Fame, B. iii. fol. 267, Workes, ed. 1602.

“And of Phyton that Phebus made thus fine
Came Phetonysses that can so deuyne,” &c.
Lydgate’s Warres of Troy, B. ii. sig. K vi. ed. 1555.
“And secretelye this Saule is forth gone
To a woman that should him rede and wisse,
In Israell called a phytonesse.
...
To diuines this matter I commit,
...
Whether it was the soule of Samuell,” &c.
Lydgate’s Fall of Prynces, B. ii. leaf xl. ed. Wayland.

See also Gower’s Conf. Am. B. iv. fol. lxxiii. ed. 1554; Barbour’s Bruce, B. iii. v. 982. ed. Jam.; G. Douglas’s Preface to his Virgil’s Æneados, p. 6, 1. 51. ed. Rudd.; and Sir D. Lyndsay’s Monarchie, B. iv. Works, iii. 151. ed. Chalmers.

Page 92. v. 1346. dresse] i. e. address, apply.

v. 1351. condityons] i. e. qualities. But in our author’s Garlande of Laurell, where this “adicyon” is given, the passage according to Fake’s ed., and rightly perhaps (compare the preceding lines), stands thus;

“And by her supersticiouns
Of wonderfull condiciouns.”
v. 1343. vol. i. 414.

Page 93. v. 1352. stede] i. e. place.

v. 1358. ascry] Has occurred before in this poem, see note on v. 903. p. 145. Palsgrave has “I Askry as fore riders of an armye do their enemyes whan they make reporte where they haue sene them: Je descouures.... Whose company dyd askry them first .... les descouuryt.” Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. cliii. (Table of Verbes). But in the present passage “ascry” seems to mean assail (with a shout). In Langtoft’s Chronicle we find,

“Edward was hardie, the Londres gan he ascrie.”
p. 217. ed. Hearne,—

(who in Gloss. renders “ascrie”—cry to). The original French has,

“Sir Eduuard fiz le rays, les loundrays escrye.”
MS. Cott. Jul. A v. fol. 122.

Roquefort gives “Escrier: Faire entendre son cri d’armes dans une bataille ... marcher à l’ennemi, l’attaquer,” &c. Gloss. de la Lang. Rom. (Sup.).

v. 1360. my selfe dyscharge] i. e. unburden myself,—open my mind.

v. 1365. shene] i. e. shine.

v. 1371. Scroupe pulchra Joanna] See note, p. 122. I ought to have observed ad loc. that “Scroupe” is to be considered here as a monosyllable; unless we read “Scrope” as two short syllables.

ELYNOUR RUMMYNGE.

On the title-page and also on the last leaf of Rand’s edition of this poem, 1624, 4to, (reprinted, not with perfect accuracy, in the Harleian Miscellany; see vol. i. 415. ed. Park,) is an imaginary portrait, of which the subjoined is a fac-simile:

Fac-simile of portrait of Elynour Rummynge
“When Skelton wore the Laurell Crowne,
My Ale put all the Ale-wiues downe.”

George Steevens having heard that a copy of Rand’s edition was in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, prevailed on the Dean to bring it to London; and having made a drawing of the title-page, gave it to Richardson the printseller, who engraved and published it. Steevens, soon after, contributed to the European Magazine for May, 1794, vol. xxv. 334,—

“Verses meant to have been subjoined (with the following Motto) to a Copy from a scarce Portrait of Elinour Rumming, lately published by Mr. Richardson, of Castle-street, Leicester-square.

Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori
Xanthia Phoceu! prius insolentem
Serva Briseis niveo colore
Movit Achillem.
Movit Ajacem Telamone natum
Forma captivæ dominum Tecmessæ;
Arsit Atrides medio in triumpho
Virgine rapta.
Horace.

“Eleonora Rediviva.

To seek this nymph among the glorious dead,
Tir’d with his search on earth, is Gulston fled:—
Still for these charms enamour’d Musgrave sighs;
To clasp these beauties ardent Bindley dies;—
For these (while yet unstag’d to public view)
Impatient Brand o’er half the kingdom flew;—
These, while their bright ideas round him play,
From classic Weston force the Roman lay:—
Oft too, my Storer! heaven has heard thee swear,
Not Gallia’s murder’d Queen was half so fair:—
‘A new Europa!’ cries the exulting Bull,
‘My Granger now (I thank the gods) is full:’—
Even Cracherode’s self, whom passions rarely move,
At this soft shrine has deign’d to whisper love.—
Haste then, ye swains, who Rumming’s form adore,
Possess your Elinour, and sigh no more.
W. R.”

The Marquis of Bute told Dallaway that he gave twenty guineas for the original engraving of Elinour: see Dallaway’s Letheræum, 1821, p. 6.

Rand’s edition opens with the following lines, which, I need hardly observe, are by some rhymer of the day:

“Skeltons Ghost.

To all tapsters and tiplers,
And all ale house vitlers,
Inne-keepers and cookes,
That for pot-sale lookes,
And will not giue measure,
But at your owne pleasure,
Contrary to law,
Scant measure will draw
In pot and in canne,
To cozen a man
Of his full quart a penny,
Of you there’s to many:
For in King Harry’s time,
When I made this rime
Of Elynor Rumming
With her good ale tunning,
Our pots were full quarted,
We were not thus thwarted
With froth-canne and nick-pot
And such nimble quick shot,
That a dowzen will score
For twelue pints and no more.
Full Winchester gage
We had in that age;
The Dutchmans strong beere
Was not hopt ouer heere,
To vs t’was unknowne:
Bare ale of our owne
In a bowle we might bring
To welcome the king,
And his grace to beseech,
With, Wassall my Leigh.[270]
Nor did that time know
To puffe and to blow
In a peece of white clay,
As you doe at this day,
With fier and coale,
And a leafe in a hole;
As my ghost hath late seene,
As I walked betweene
Westminster Hall
And the church of Saint Paul,
And so thorow the citie,
Where I saw and did pitty
My countrymen’s cases,
With fiery-smoke faces,
Sucking and drinking
A filthie weede stinking,
Was ne’re knowne before
Till the deuill and the More
In th’ Indies did meete,
And each other there greete
With a health they desire
Of stinke, smoake, and fier.
But who e’re doth abhorre it,
The citie smoakes for it;
Now full of fier-shops
And fowle spitting chops,
So neesing and coughing,
That my ghost fell to scoffing,
And to myselfe said,
Here’s fylthie fumes made;
Good physicke of force
To cure a sicke horse.
Nor had we such slops,
And shagge-haire on our tops:
At wearing long haire
King Harry would sweare,
And gaue a command
With speede out of hand
All heads should be powl’d,
As well young as old,
And his owne was first so,
Good ensample to show.
Y’are so out of fashion,
I know not our nation;
Your ruffes and your bands,
And your cuffes at your hands;
Your pipes and your smokes,
And your short curtall clokes;
Scarfes, feathers, and swerds,
And thin bodkin beards;
Your wastes a span long,
Your knees with points hung,
Like morrice-daunce bels;
And many toyes els,
Which much I distaste:
But Skelton’s in haste.
My masters, farewell;
Reade ouer my Nell,
And tell what you thinke
Of her and her drinke:
If shee had brew’d amisse,
I had neuer wrote this.”

[270] Leigh] Meant for “Liege.”

At the end of the poem is, from the same hand,

“Skelton’s Ghost to the Reader.[271]

Thus, countrymen kinde,
I pray let me finde,
For this merry glee,
No hard censure to be.
King Henry the Eight
Had a good conceit
Of my merry vaine,
Though duncicall plaine
It now nothing fits
The time’s nimble wits:
My lawrell and I
Are both wither’d dry,
And you flourish greene
In your workes daily seene,
That come from the presse,
Well writ I confesse;
But time will devouer
Your poets as our,
And make them as dull
As my empty scull.”

[271] Skelton’s Ghost to the Reader, &c.] I give these lines from the Harl. Miscel., the copy of Rand’s ed. which was lent to me by Mr. Heber, wanting the last leaf.

Concerning Elynour Rummyng and the poem by which Skelton has rendered her famous, Dallaway has the following remarks,—his account of the circumstances which introduced Skelton to her acquaintance being a mere hypothesis!! “When the Court of Henry viii was frequently kept at the palace of Nonsuch (about six miles distant), the laureate, with other courtiers, sometimes came to Leatherhead for the amusement of fishing, in the river Mole; and were made welcome at the cabaret of Elinor Rummyng, whom Skelton celebrated in an equivocal encomium, in a short [?—it consists of 623 lines—] poem, remarkable only for a very coarse jest, after a manner peculiar to the author and the times in which he lived, but which has been more frequently reprinted than his other works. 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.... Her domicile, near the bridge, still exists. The annexed etching was made from a drawing taken previously to late repairs, but it still retains its first distinction as an ale-house.”

Etching of the ale-house kept by Elynour Rummynge

“Some of her descendants occur in the parish register in the early part of the last century.” Letheræum, 1821, pp. 4-6.

The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng] Besides “I Tonne ale or wyne I put lycour in to tonnes, Je entöne,” Palsgrave has “I Tonne I masshe ale, Je brasse.... Whan tonne you and god wyll: Quant brasserez vous,” &c. Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. ccclxxxxi. (Table of Verbes); and here Tunnyng means—Brewing.

P. 95. v. 1.

Tell you I chyll,
If that ye wyll
A whyle be styll]

—I chyll, i. e. Ich wyll, I will. Compare Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt;

“And ȝe wyl a whyle be stylle,
I schal telle yow how thay wroȝt.”
p. 74. Bann. ed.

and the Prol. to Kyng Alisaunder;

“Yef ye wolen sitte stille,
Ful feole Y wol yow telle.”
Weber’s Met. Rom. i. 5.

Page 95. v. 4. gyll] Equivalent here to girl—a familiar name for a female; as in the proverb, “Every Jack must have his Gill:” supposed by some etymologists to be an abbreviation of Julia, Juliana, or Gillian; by Richardson (Dict. in v.) to be a corruption of giglot.

v. 6. gryll] “Grymm gryl and horryble ... horridus ... horribilis.” Prompt. Parv.,—MS. Harl. 221. (Ed. 1499 of that work omits “gryl..”) The word is of frequent occurrence; but its exact meaning here seems to be doubtful.

v. 12. lere] i. e. complexion, skin.

v. 14. chere] i. e. look, countenance.

v. 17. bowsy] i. e. bloated by drinking.

v. 21. here] i. e. hair.

v. 22. lewde] i. e. vile, nasty.

v. 23. sayne] i. e. say.

v. 25. glayre] i. e. viscous matter.

Page 96. v. 27.

Her nose somdele hoked,
And camously croked]

—somdele hoked, i. e. somewhat hooked. “Camed or short nosed. Simus.” Prompt. Parv. ed. 1499. “A Camoise nose, that is to saie crooked vpward as the Morians [Moors].” Baret’s Alvearie. “Camuse. Flat.” Tyrwhitt’s Gloss. to Chaucer’s Cant. Tales. “Camused. Flat, broad and crooked; as applied to a nose, what we popularly call a snub-nose.” Nares’s Gloss. Todd, quoting this passage of Skelton, explains camously, awry. Johnson’s Dict. in v.

v. 34. gowndy] So Lydgate;

“A goundy eye is deceyued soone,
That any colour cheseth by the moone.”
Warres of Troy, B. ii. sig. H iii. ed. 1555.

“Gownde of the eye. Ridda, Albugo.” Prompt. Parv.,—MS. Harl. 221.

v. 35. vnsowndy] i. e. unsound.

v. 38. jetty] i. e. that part of a building which projects beyond the rest.

Page 96. v. 40.

—— how she is gumbed,
Fyngered and thumbed]

i. e. what gums, fingers, and thumbs she has.

v. 45. huckels] i. e. hips.

v. 49. Foted] i. e. Footed.

v. 51. iet] i. e. strut: see note, p. 94. v. 43.

v. 52. fet] Means, perhaps, feat,—neat, handsome one.

v. 53. flocket] “Is described as a loose garment with large sleeves:” see Strutt’s Dress and Habits, &c. ii. 373.

v. 54. rocket] i. e. a garment, worn often without, and sometimes with sleeves; sometimes it was made to reach the ground, and sometimes much shorter and open at the sides. See Id. ibid.

v. 55. With symper the cocket] So Heywood in his Dialogue;

“Vpright as a candell standth in a socket,
Stoode she that day, so simper decocket.”
Sig. F,—Workes, ed. 1598.

and Jonson in his Masque, The Gipsies Metamorphosed;

“Lay by your wimbles,
Your boring for thimbles,
Or using your nimbles,
In diving the pockets,
And sounding the sockets
Of simper-the-cockets.”
Works (by Gifford), vii. 376.

In a note on the latter passage, Whalley quotes from Cotgrave’s Dict.: “Coquine, a beggar-woman, also a cockney, simper de cockit, nice thing.” Gifford (ibid.) remarks, “Cocket was a fine species of bread, as distinguished from common bread; hence, perhaps, the name was given to an overstrained affectation of delicacy. To simper at, or over, a thing, is to touch it as in scorn.” Nares (Gloss. in v.) doubts (justly, I think) the connexion of simper-the-cocket with cocket bread, and explains it, “quasi simpering coquette,” observing, that “one of Cotgrave’s words in rendering ‘coquette’ is cocket.” I may add, that in Gloss. of Prov. and Loc. Words by Grose and Pegge, ed. 1839, is, “Cocket, brisk, apish, pert,” and “Simper, to mince one’s words.”

Page 97. v. 56.

Her huke of Lyncole grene,
It had ben hers, I wene,
More then fourty yere]

“Huke surquanie, froc.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. xli. (Table of Subst.). “A loose kind of garment, of the cloak or mantle kind.” Strutt’s Dress and Habits, &c. ii. 364. “Lyncolne anciently dyed the best greene of England.” Marg. note in Drayton’s Polyolbion, Song 25. p. 111. ed. 1622.—Compare a celebrated ballad;

“My cloake it was a verry good cloake,
Itt hath been alwayes true to the weare,
But now it is not worth a groat;
I have had it four and forty yeere.”
Take thy old cloak about thee,—Percy’s Rel. of A. E. P. i. 206. ed. 1794.

Page 97. v. 63. woll] i. e. wool.

v. 68. gytes] i. e. clothes. Gite is properly a gown:

“And she came after in a gite of red.”
Chaucer’s Reves Tale, v. 3952. ed. Tyr.

v. 69. pranked with pletes]—pletes, i. e. plaits. “I Pranke ones gowne I set the plyghtes in order.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. cccxxi. (Table of Verbes).

v. 70. Her kyrtel Brystow red]—kyrtel; see note, p. 149. v. 1194.

“London hath scarlet, and Bristowe pleasaunt red.”
Barclay’s Fourth Egloge, sig. C iiii. ed. 1570.

“At Brystowe is the best water to dye reed.” Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. V ii. ed. 1530.

v. 74. gyse] i. e. guise, fashion.

v. 75. whym wham] i. e. something whimsically, fantastically devised. The word is frequently applied to articles of female finery by our early dramatists. In Ane Interlude of the Laying of a Gaist, we are told that the Gaist (ghost)

“stall fra peteouss Abrahame
An quhorle and ane quhum quhame.”
v. 74,—Laing’s An. Pop. Poetry of Scotland.

Whim-wham is used by Gray, Works, iii. 123. ed. Mitford, and by Lamb, Prose Works, ii. 142.

v. 76. trym tram] i. e. some trim, neat ornament, or pretty trifle. In Weaver’s Lusty Juuentus, Hipocrisie, after enumerating a variety of popish trumpery, adds

“And a hundred trim trams mo.”
Sig. B iiii. ed. Copland.

v. 77. brayne pan] i. e. skull, head. See note, p. 100. v. 31.

v. 78. Egyptian] i. e. gipsy.

Page 98. v. 85. gose] i. e. goose.

v. 88. shone] i. e. shoes.

v. 90. baudeth] i. e. fouls. “I Baudy or fyle or soyle with any filthe, Ie souylle.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. clviii. (Table of Verbes). “The auter clothes, and the vestementes shulde be very clene, not baudy, nor torne,” &c. Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. E iiii.

Page 98. v. 94. wonnynge] i. e. dwelling.

v. 96. Sothray] i. e. Surrey.

v. 97. stede] i. e. place.

v. 98. Lederhede] i. e. Leatherhead; see p. 157.

v. 99. tonnysh gyb] The epithet tonnysh is perhaps derived from her occupation of tunning (see note, p. 158), or perhaps it may allude to her shape: gyb is properly a male cat (see note, p. 122. v. 27); but the term, as here, is sometimes applied to a woman;

“And give a thousand by-words to my name,
And call me Beldam, Gib, Witch, Night-mare, Trot.”
Drayton’s Epistle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey,—Poems, p. 175. ed. 1619. fol.

v. 100. syb] i. e. related, akin.

v. 102. noppy] i. e. nappy.

v. 103. port sale] If the right reading, must be used here for—sale in general. “Port-sale, The Sale of Fish as soon as it is brought into the Harbour; also an Out-cry or Publick Sale of any Commodity.” Kersey’s Dict.

v. 105. To sweters, to swynkers] i. e. to those who sweat and labour hard,—to labourers of various kinds.

“For we can neyther swyncke nor sweate.”
Pierce Plowman, sig. I ii. ed. 1561.

v. 110. Now away the mare] Skelton has the same expression in his Magnyfycence, v. 1342. vol. i. 268. Compare The Frere and the Boye;

“Of no man he had no care,
But sung, hey howe, awaye the mare.”
Ritson’s An. Pop. Poetry, p. 37.

and Jyl of Braintfords Testament, n. d.;

“Ah sira, mary away the mare,
The deuil giue thee sorow and care.”
sig. B ii.

and A new Commodye &c. of the bewte & good propertes of women, &c. n. d.

“Tush syr be mery let pas awey the mare.”
sig. A ii.

The words are doubtless a portion of some song or ballad. In Ravenscroft’s Melismata, Musicall Phansies, &c. 1611, is a song (No. 6) supposed to be sung by “Seruants out of Seruice” who “are going to the Citie to looke for new;”

“Heigh ho, away the Mare,
Let vs set aside all care,
If any man be disposed to trie,
Loe here comes a lustie crew,
That are enforced to crie
A new Master, a new,” &c.

Page 99. v. 111. sley] i. e. slay.

v. 115. Wyth, Fyll the cup, fyll] So in The Hye Way to the Spyttell Hous, by Copland, n. d.;

“With fyll the pot, fyll, and go fyll me the can.”
Utterson’s Early Pop. Poet. ii. 15.

v. 122. Hardely] i. e. Assuredly.

v. 123. heles dagged] In Prompt. Parv. ed. 1499. is “Daggyd. Fractillosus,”—a sense in which Skelton certainly has the word elsewhere (Garlande of Laurell, v. 630. vol. i. 386); but here perhaps dagged may mean—be-mired: “I Daggyll or I dagge a thing with myer.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. cciii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 124. kyrtelles] See note, p. 149. v. 1194.

—— all to-iagged] See note, p. 100. v. 32: “I Cutte or iagge a garment.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. cciii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 130. tunnynge] i. e. brewing; see note, p. 158.

v. 131. leneth ... on] i. e. lendeth, furnisheth ... of: compare v. 491.

v. 139. sorte] i. e. set, company.

v. 142. skewed] Does it mean—distorted? or walking obliquely? or squinting? see Todd’s Johnson’s Dict. in v. Skew. A friend suggests that this epithet, as well as that in the preceding line, may be applied to colour,—the words being still used as terms of the stable.

Page 100. v. 143. sho clout] i. e. shoe-cloth.

v. 145. herelace] i. e. hair-band.

v. 147. tresses vntrust] So Lydgate;—“With heyr vntrussed.” Warres of Troy, B. iii. sig. S i. ed. 1555.

v. 148. vnlust] i. e. unpleasantness, unseemliness.

v. 149.

Some loke strawry,
Some cawry mawry]

—loke, i. e. look: strawry I do not remember to have met with elsewhere: cawry mawry (as a substantive) occurs in Pierce Plowman;

“[Envy] was as pale as a pellet, in the palsey he semed
And clothed in Caurymaury,” &c.
sig. F ii. ed. 1561.

Page 100. v. 151. vntydy] i. e. sluttish.

—— tegges] A term found again in our author’s first poem Against Garnesche;

“Your wynde schakyn shankkes, your longe lothy legges
...
Bryngges yow out of fauyr with alle femall teggys.”
v. 29. vol. i. 117.

In what sense Skelton uses tegge, I cannot pretend to determine. In Warwickshire and Leicestershire, a teg means a sheep of a year old; and Ray gives, “A Tagge, a Sheep of the first Year, Suss.” Coll. of Words, &c., p. 88, appended to Proverbs, ed. 1768.

v. 152. Lyke rotten egges] Lydgate in a satirical description of a lady has—

“Colowryd lyche a rotyn eey [i. e. egg].”
MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 156.

v. 153. lewde sorte] i. e. vile set, low rabble.

v. 155. tyde] i. e. time, season.

v. 161. commy] i. e. come.

v. 163. shreud aray]—shreud, i. e. evil, bad. “Araye condicion or case poynt.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. xviii. (Table of Subst.); which, however, may not be the sense of aray in the present passage. We find:—“Soo with this rumoure came in syr launcelot and fond them al at a grete araye.” Morte d’Arthur, B. xix. c. vi. vol. ii. 374. ed. Southey; the next chapter beginning “What araye is this sayd sir Launcelot,” &c. “For al this foule araye, for al this great frai.” Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, &c., 1567. p. 18, reprint. See also our author’s sacred poem, Wofully araid, vol. i. 141, and note on it.

v. 171. draffe] i. e. hog-wash—either the coarse liquor, or brewers’ grains, with which swine are fed.

v. 173. swyllynge tubbe] i. e. tub in which swillings (hog-wash) are preserved for swine.

v. 174.

For, be there neuer so much prese,
These swyne go to the hye dese]

—prese, i. e. press, throng: dese, or dais, a word of doubtful etymology, generally means—a table of estate,—the upper table raised on a platform more elevated than the others. See Tyrwhitt’s note on Cant. Tales, v. 372; and Richardson’s Dict. in v. Dais. It sometimes signifies a long bench (see Jamieson’s Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang. in v. Deis); and such seems to be its meaning here, as in the fourth line after this “the hye benche” is mentioned.—Roy in his satire against Wolsey, Rede me, and be nott wrothe, &c., has imitated the present passage of Skelton;

“For, be there never so grett prease,
They are set up at the hy dease.”
Harl. Miscell. ix. 51. ed. Park.

Page 101. v. 185.

God gyue it yll preuynge,
Clenly as yuell cheuynge]

—preuynge, i. e. proving.

“And prechest on thy benche, with evil prefe:” (i. e. evil may it prove!)
Chaucer’s Wif of Bathes Prol. v. 5829. ed. Tyr.

—yuell cheuynge, i. e. evil ending, bad success.

“God geve it yvell chevynge.”
Roy’s Rede me, &c., Harl. Miscell. ix. 79. ed. Park.

See also Cocke Lorelles bote, sig. B i., Towneley Myst. p. 108, and Chaucer’s Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 16693. ed. Tyr.

v. 189. patch] I know not how to explain.

v. 190. ron] i. e. run.

v. 192. ioust] i. e. joist.

v. 196. bolle] i. e. bowl.

v. 198. skommeth] i. e. skimmeth.

v. 199. Whereas] i. e. Where.

v. 201. blennes] i. e. blends.

Page 102. v. 212. And ye may it broke] i. e. If you may brook it.

v. 213. loke] i. e. look.

v. 218. ble] i. e. colour, complexion.

v. 219. Ich am] i. e. I am.

v. 222. In lust and in lykyng] See note, p. 98. v. 23.

v. 223. whytyng] So in our early dramas, whiting-mop (young whiting) is a cant term for a nice young woman, a tender creature: see Puttenham’s Arte of E. P., 1589. p. 184., and note in my ed. of Webster’s Works, in. 37.

v. 224. mullyng] This term of endearment occurs in the Coventry Mysteries, applied by one of the shepherds to the infant Saviour;