Act ii. sc. 5.

"Who is in this closet? let me see (_breaks it open_). Oh, _sheepbiter_, are you here?"--Shadwell, Bury Fair, 1689.

[E399] "Coxcombe:" see Cotgrave, s.v. _Effeminé, Enfourner, Fol, Lambui_.

[E400] Davus is the common name in Terence for the cunning, plotting servant.

[E401] Thersites, the ugliest and most scurrilous of the Greeks before Troy. He spared in his revilings neither prince nor chief, but directed his abuse especially against Achilles and Ulysses. The name is often used to denote a calumniator. Cf.

"When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws, We shall hear music, wit, and oracle." --Shakspere, Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3.

[E402] "Shall swell like a tode." Cf. 65, 6.

[E403] "To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or an evil matter."--Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives "'Tis good sometimes to hold a candle to the devil." Thus we find an anonymous correspondent writing to John Paston: "for howr Lords love, goo tharow with Wyll Weseter, and also plese Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert best for to do; for it is a comon proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme _set a candel befor the Devyle_;' and therfor thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet of ij harmys the leste is to be take."--Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73.

[E404] At Canterbury is a representation of Master Shorne holding up his hand in a threatening attitude at the Devil, who is in a boot.

[E405] "False birds can fetch the wind;" an expression taken from hawking. To _fetch the wind_, to _take the wind_ (Bacon), and to _have the wind_ are various forms of the same expression, the meaning of which is to gain or take an advantage. We still use the expression "to get to windward of another," meaning to get the better or advantage of him. Mavor reads, "false _words_ can fetch the wind," _i.e._ slander will spread as though borne on the wind. I do not, however, know on what authority he has adopted this reading, as the text of 1577 gives "birds."

[E406] The following poem on Evil Tongues is from a MS. of the 15th century, edited for the Percy Soc. by the late Mr. T. Wright, 1847:

"A man that con his tong stere, He ther not rek wer that he go."

"Ittes knowyn in every schyre, Wekyd tongges have no pere; I wold thei wer brent in the fer, That warke men soo mykyll wo.

Ittes knowyn in every lond, Wekyd tongges don gret wrong, Thei make me to lyyn long, And also in myche car.

Ȝyf a man go in clothes gay, Or elles in gud aray, Wekyd tongges yet wyl say, Wer cam the by therto?

Ȝyf a man go in cloys ill, And have not the world at wyl, Wekyd tongges thei wyll hym spyll, And seyd he ys a stake, lat hym goo.

Now us to amend God yeve us grace, Of repentens and of gud grace, That we mut se hys glorius face. Amen, Amen, for charyte."

[E407] There is a smoothness in the versification of this sonnet, and a succession of imagery, though drawn from common sources, which we do not often find in Tusser. He has made a good use of the figure _erotesis_.--M. Compare Milton, Lycidas, 45:

"As killing as the canker to the rose, Or _taint-worm_ to the weanling herds that graze."

[E408] Janus, an old Italian deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was dedicated.

[E409] Ver = Spring, Æstas = Summer, Hyems = Winter.

[E410] "Delaide;" so in Spenser, Faery Queene, ix. 30. "But to _delay_ the heat," and in Prothalamium 3:

"Zephyrus did softly play A gentle spirit, that lightly did _delay_ Hot Titan's beames."

[E411] Alluding to the thirteen revolutions of the moon in the year.

[E412] It appears from the Books of the Stationers' Company, on the authority of Warton (Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 428) that a licence was granted to T. Hackett, in the year 1562, to print "A Dialogue of Wyvynge and Thryvynge of Tusshers with ij lessons for olde and yonge."

[E413] "Bolted out," a term taken from the language and usage of millers, who use the word "to bolt" of the separation of the bran from the flour. Cf. Chaucer, Nonnes Prior's Tale, 415:

"But yit I can not _bult it to the bren_."

And Spenser, Faery Queene, iv. 24:

"He now had _boulted_ all the floure."

"Time and nature will _bolt out_ the truth of things."--D'Estrange. "To _boulte out_ the truth in reasoning, _limare veritatem in disceptatione_."--Baret's Alvearie. A "Bolting Cloth" is the name in Lincolnshire for a cloth used for sifting meal in mills. See Peacock's Glossary, _s.v._ There was a term "boultings" or "boltings," used of private arguings of cases in some of the Inns of Court. "Boulter, a sifter."--Coles' Dict. 1676.

[E414] "Could the way to thriue." _Could_ is here used in its old sense of _knew_, or _understood_. A.S. _cunnan_, to know; _ic can_, I know; _ic cuðe_, I knew.

[E415] "To stay himselfe in some good plot," etc.; compare 10. 8.

[E416] "Of this and that;" cf. 62. 10.

[E417] "The blacke oxe neare trod on thy fut:" a proverbial expression, meaning, you have experienced misfortune close at home.

In Peacock's Glossary of Manley, etc. (E. D. Soc. 1877), we have: "The _Black Bull's_ trodden on him;" that is, he is in a very bad temper. And the following passage from Bernard's Terence is quoted: "Prosperitie hangs on his sleeue; the _black oxe_ cannot tread on his foot."

"Venus waxeth old; and then she was a pretie wench, when Juno was a young wife; now crowes foote is on her eye, and the _black oxe_ hath trod on her foot."--Lyly's Sapho and Phao, 1584, ed. 1858, i. 199.

Mr. George Vere Irving (Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser. xii. 488) remarks that this expression is at this day frequently used in Scotland in reference to a person who has experienced misfortune. See Hazlitt's Eng. Proverbs, p. 359.

[E418] "It is too much we dailie heare," etc. This proverbial expression occurs in the _Townley Mysteries_, p. 86, as--

"A man may not wive, And also thrive, And all in one year."

[E419] "As _mo_ have bin;" compare note E391.

[E420] "The good wiues husband weares no breech." So in a song in the MS. of the 15th cent. quoted above, the heading of which is

"_Nova, Nova,_ sawe yow ever such, The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych."

The burden of the song being

"Lest the most mayster wer no brych."

[E421] The same reply is attributed to Thales. See his life in Diogenes Laertius, Bk. i. 26.

[E422]

"Yyng men, I red that ye be war, That ye cum not in the snar; For he is browt in meche car, That have a shrow onto his wyfe.

"In a panter I am caute, My fot his pennyd, I may not owt; In sorow and car he his put, That have, etc.

"With a qwene yif that thou run, Anon it is told into the town; Sorow he hath both up and down, That have, etc." --Song in MS. of 15th century quoted above.

"Feareth me," that is, it frightens me, I fear, as in "me liketh" = it pleases me, I like.

[E423] "As good a shrew is as a sheepe," etc. This proverb appears in _Epistolæ Hoelianæ_, ed. 1754, p. 177, in a letter dated 5th February, 1625-6, as "It is better to marry a shrew than a sheep." In Taylor's Pastorall, 1624, we have "A shrew is better than a sheep."

[E424] William, the first Lord Paget, and the patron of Tusser, married Anne, daughter of Mr. Prestin, of the County of Lancaster; and to her it is most probable the Book of Huswifery was dedicated, and not to Margaret, the daughter of Sir H. Newton, and lady of Thomas, Lord Paget.

[E425] "By their fruits ye shall know them, do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"

[E426] The rime in the last two lines is most remarkable; apparently _thriue_ is pronounced _threev_, as Mr. Ellis contends.

[E427] From the last two lines of this stanza it would appear that Tusser was a widower at the time when he wrote this Address to the Reader, or at least when he first wrote on the subject of Huswifery.

[E428] "A description of Huswife," etc. This antithetical description seems to have been introduced, in order that it might correspond with the description of Husbandry, chapter 8, p. 16.--M.

[E429] According to Fitzherbert, the farmers' wives must have been patterns of diligence and industry, and a variety of duties devolved upon them which have since ceased to be required, or have fallen with more propriety upon the other sex. They had to measure out the quantity of corn to be ground, and see that it was sent to the miller. The poultry, swine, and cows were under their charge; and they superintended the brewing and baking. The garden was peculiarly the care of the farmer's wife. She had to depend upon it for various herbs which are no longer in use, but which could not be dispensed with when spices were rare and costly. Besides pot-herbs, strewing-herbs were required for the chambers, and herbs possessing medical virtues. The list of fruits at this date was confined to a few of indigenous growth, which were but little improved by skill and management. Tusser directs his housewife to transplant into her garden wild strawberries from the woods. All the writers on rural economy during this period recommend the farmer's wife carefully to attend to her crop of flax and hemp. When, however, Fitzherbert asserts that it is a wife's duty "to winnow all manner of corn, to make malt, to wash, and to make hay, shear corn, and, in time of need, help her husband to fill the muck-wain or dung-cart, drive the plough, to load hay, corn, and such other, to go to market and sell butter or pigs, fowls or corn," it is to be presumed that he had in his view the smallest class of yeomen, who had no hired servants.

[E430] "Reason their cace," that is, gossip and argue over their circumstances.

[E431] "Home is home, be it never so ill." Ballad licensed in 1569-70. Clarke (Paræm. 1639, p. 101) has with us, "home is home, be it never so homely." On the other hand, Heywood, in his Epigrams, 1562, says:

"Home is homely, yea, and to homely sometyme, Where wives' footestooles to their husbandes' heads clime."

[E432] "Familie" = household. Compare chap. 9, st. 12.

[E433] "Maides, three a clock," etc. Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. sc. 4, 3--

"The second cock hath crow'd, The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock."

[E434] "Lay your bucks," _i.e._ get ready the washing tubs. Compare: "Throw foul linen upon him as if it were going to _bucking_."--Shakspere, Merry Wives of Wind., Act iii. sc. 3. Buck-basket, the basket in which linen is carried to the wash. "Bouck-fatt, a washing tub."--Upton Inventories, p. 28. Cf. "And for I can so wele wasche and so wele _bowke_, Godde has made me his chaumberere."--The Pilgrimage of the Life of the Manhode, f. 21_b._, MS. in Libr. of St. John's Coll. Camb. "'I _bucke_ lynen clothes to scoure of their fylthe and make them whyte, _Ie bue_. Bucke these shyrtes, for they be to foule to be wasshed by hande, _buez ces chemises, car elles sont trop sallies de les lauer a sauon._'--Palsgrave. 'Buée, lie wherwith clothes are scowred; also a _buck_ of clothes; _Buer_, to wash a _buck_, to scowre with lie; _Buandiere_ f., a laundresse, or buck-washer.'--Cotgrave. To _buck_ is to cleanse clothes by steeping them in lye: see _Buck_ in Webster, Nares, Wedgwood, etc."--Rev. W. W. Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. Text, xiv. 19.

[E435] The hours of meals varied at different dates. In the Myrour of Our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 15, we read: "At houre of tyerse [9 a.m.] labourers desyre to haue theyr dyner."

In Chambers's Book of Days, i. 96, we read that Gervase Markham, in 1653, makes the ploughman have three meals, viz. breakfast at 6 a.m., dinner at half-past 3 p.m., and supper at 6 p.m. See also note E444.

[E436] In the Library of Caius Coll. Camb. is a volume of Tracts, No. 286, one of which, published in 1555, An Account of the Cruelties of the King of Spain, has as its motto: "Beware of Had I wiste." This is also the title of a poem in the Paradyce of Daynty Deuyses, 1578. It is quoted by Sir Simon D'Ewes (Diary, etc., ii. 366):

"Telle neuere the more thoug thou myche heere, And euere be waare of _had-y-wist_." --Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 264, l. 72.

[E437] See note E52.

[E438]

"Beware that ye geue no persone palled drynke, for feere Hit mygtt brynge many a man in disese durynge many a yere." --John Russell's Boke of Norture, in Babees Book, p. 13.

"Sowre ale, and dead ale, and ale the whiche doth stande a tylte is good for no man."--Andrew Boorde, Regimen of Health.

"Of ale and beer, as well as of wine, we find various kinds mentioned. There were single beer, or small ale, which could do little more than quench thirst,--and double beer, which was recommended as containing a double quantity of malt and hops,--and double-double beer, which was twice as strong as that,--and dagger-ale, which, as the name implies, was reckoned particularly sharp and dangerous,--and bracket, a kind of ale which we are unable distinctly to describe. But the favourite drink, as well as the chief article of vulgar debauch, was a kind of ale commonly called huffcap, but which was also termed 'mad dog,' 'angel's food,' 'dragon's milk,' and other such ridiculous names, by the frequenters of ale-houses: 'and never,' says Harrison, 'did Romulus and Remus suck their she-wolf with such eager and sharp devotion as these men hale at huffcap, till they be as red as cocks, and little wiser than their combs.' The higher classes, who were able to afford such a luxury, brewed a generous liquor for their own consumption, which they did not bring to the table till it was two years old. This was called March ale, from the month in which it was brewed. But the servants had to content themselves with a more simple beverage that was seldom more than a month old. A cup of choice ale was often as richly compounded with dainties as the finest wines. Sometimes it was warmed, and qualified with sugar and spices; sometimes with a toast; often with a roasted crab or apple, making the beverage still known under the name of Lambs'-wool; while to stir the whole composition with a sprig of rosemary, was supposed to give it an additional flavour. The drinks made from fruit were chiefly cider, perry, and mum. Those that had formerly been made from honey seem to have fallen into disuse in consequence of the general taste for stronger potations; metheglin being now chiefly confined to the Welsh. A simple liquor, however, was still used in Essex, called by Harrison, somewhat contemptuously, 'a swish-swash,' made of water with a little honey and spice, but 'as differing,' he says, 'from true metheglin as chalk doth from cheese.' He informs us, moreover, that already the tapsters of England had learned to adulterate their ale and beer with pernicious compounds."--Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 883.

"In the parish of Hawsted, Suffolk, the allowance of food to the labourer in harvest was, two herrings per day, milk from the manor dairy to make cheese, and a loaf of bread, of which fifteen were made from a bushel of wheat. Messes of potage made their frequent appearance at the rustic board."--Knight, Pict. Hist. of England, i. 839.

[E439] Harrison gives an account (pp. 153-4) of the following kinds of bread made in England: 1. Mainchet, "commonlie called white bread, in Latine _Primarius panis_." 2. Cheat "or wheaton bread, so named bicause the colour therof resembleth the graie [or yellowish] wheat [being cleane and well dressed,] and out of this is the coursest of the bran (vsuallie called gurgeons or pollard) taken. The raueled is a kind of cheat bread also, but it reteineth more of the grosse, and lesse of the pure substance of the wheat." 3. Brown bread, of which there were two kinds, viz. (_a_) of whole meal unsifted, (_b_) pollard bread, with a little rye meal, and called Miscelin or Meslin. "In champeigne countries much rie and barleie bread is eaten, but especiallie where wheat is scant and geson."

[E440] "Baies." Halliwell prints this word as _baics_ in his Dictionary, defining it as "chidings, reproofs," and giving as his authority Hunter's Additions to Boucher.

[E441] "Droie." See Note in Prompt. Parv., s.v. _Dryvylle_ and _Deye_. Probably a corruption of _droile_; a scullion, kitchen-boy, or servant of all-work.--M. Droie also occurs in Stubbes' Anatomie of Abuses, 1583.

[E442] "In some places it [the malt] is dried at leisure with wood alone, or strawe alone, in other with wood and strawe togither; but of all, the strawe dried is the most excellent. For the wood dried malt when it is brued, beside that the drinke is higher of colour, it dooth hurt and annoie the head of him that is not vsed thereto, bicause of the smoake. Such also as vse both indifferentlie, doo barke, cleaue and drie their wrood in an ouen, thereby to remooue all moisture that shuld procure the fume, and this malt is in the second place, and with the same likewise, that which is made with dried firze, broome, etc.; whereas, if they also be occupied greene, they are in maner so preiudiciall to the corne, as is the moist wood."--Harrison, Description of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, Part I. p. 157.

[E443] See Note E116.

[E444] "The husbandmen dine at high noone as they call it, and sup at seuen or eight."--Harrison, Part I. p. 166.

[E445] Though all the standard editions read "chaps walking," may it not be a misprint for "chaps wagging," that is, mouths craving?--M.

[E446] "Enough is a plentie." Cf. "Mesure is medcyne þouȝ þow moche ȝerne."--Piers Plowman, Passus i. 35. "But mesure is a meri mene, þouȝ men moche ȝerne."--Richard the Redeles, E.E. Text Soc., ed. Skeat, ii. 139. "Measure is treasure."--Dyce's Skelton, ii. 238, 241. "Enough is as good as a feast."--Gascoigne's Posies, 1575.

[E447] "Chippings." The "Chippings of Trencher-brede" in Lord Percy's household were used "for the fedynge of my lords houndis."--Percy Household Book, p. 353. "Other ij pages ... them oweth to _chippe_ bredde, but too nye the crumme."--Household Ordin. pp. 71-2. In the _Regimen Sanitatis Salerni_, ed. 1634, p. 71, we are warned against eating crusts, because "they ingender a dust cholor, or melancholly humours, by reason that they bee burned and dry."

[E448] "Call quarterly seruants to court and to leete," that is, call to account.

[E449] "Lurching," cf. footnote 1, p. 64.

[E450] "Bandog," cf. note E35.

[E451] "Guise."

"For he was laid in white Sheep's wool New pulled from tanned Fells; And o'er his Head hang'd Spiders webs As they had been Bells. Is this the _Country Guise_, thought he? Then here I will not stay." --Ballad, K. Alfred and the Shepherd.

"'Tis thy _Country Guise_, I see, To be thus bluntish still." --Ibid.

"The Norman _guise_ was to walke and jet up and downe the streets."--Lambert's Peramb. of Kent, 1826, p. 320.

[E452] "Plough Monday." "The Monday next after Twelfth-day, when our Northern plow-men beg plow-money to drink; and in some places if the plowman (after that day's work) come with his whip to the kitchin hatch, and cry 'cock in pot' before the maid says 'cock on the dung-hill,' he gains a cock on Shrove-Tuesday."--Coles' Dict. 1708. "Among the rural customs connected with the anniversary of Christmas were those of Plough-Monday, which fell on the first Monday after Twelfth-day. This was the holiday of the ploughmen, who used to go about from house to house begging for plough-money to drink. In the northern counties, where this practice was called the fool-plough (a corruption perhaps of _yule_-plough), a number of sword-dancers dragged about a plough, while one of the party, called the Bessey, was dressed for the occasion like an old woman; and another, who was the fool of the pageant, was almost covered with skins, and wore the tail of some animal dangling down his back. While the rest danced, one of these odd personages went among the spectators, rattling a box, and collecting small donations; and it is said that whosoever refused to pay had the plough dragged to his door and the soil of his threshold ploughed up."--Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 894.

[E453] The Skreene was a wooden settee or settle, with a high back sufficient to screen the sitters from the outward air, and was in the time of our ancestors an invariable article of furniture near all kitchen fires, and is still seen in the kitchens of many of our old farm-houses in Cheshire. The meaning of the two lines:

"If ploughman get hatchet or whip to the skreene, maides loseth their cock if no water be seene,"

is, "if the ploughman can get his whip, ploughstaff, hatchet, or anything he wants in the field to the fireside (_screen_ being here equivalent to _fireside_) before the maid has got her kettle on, then she loses her Shrove-tide cock, which belongs wholly to the men."

[E454] "Shroftide." The Hen is hung at a Fellow's back who has also some Horse Bells about him, the rest of the Fellows are blinded, and have Boughs in their Hands, with which they chase this Fellow and his Hen about some large Court or small Enclosure. The Fellow with his Hen and Bells shifting as well as he can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and his Hen, other times, if he can get behind one of them, they thresh one another well favour'dly; but the Jest is, the Maids are to blind the Fellows, which they do with their Aprons, and the cunning Baggages will endear their Sweet Hearts with a peeping hole, while the others look out as sharp to hinder it. After this the Hen is boil'd with Bacon, and store of Pancakes and Fritters are made. She that is noted for lying a Bed long or any other Miscarriage, hath the first Pancake presented to her, which most commonly falls to the Dog's share at last, for no one will own it their due.--T.R.

"Let glad Shrove Tuesday bring the pancake thin Or fritters rich with apples stored within." --Oxford Sausage.

[E455] "Wake Day." The Wake-day is the day on which the Parish Church was dedicated, called So, because the Night before it, they were used to watch till Morning in the Church and feasted all the next day. Waking in the Church was left off because of some abuses, and we see here it was converted to wakeing at the Oven.--T.R. "Similar to the church-ales, though of a still more ancient origin, were the Wakes. It had been the custom, on the dedication of a church, or the birth-day of a saint, for the people to assemble on the night previous, to hold a religious vigil in the open air; and, as they remained all night occupied in devotional exercises, this practice was called a wake. Such a method of spending the night, however, soon gave place to very different employments; and feasting, riot, and licentiousness became the prevailing characteristics of these vigils. These concourses, also, from every neighbouring town and parish, naturally suggested the expediency of improving such opportunities for the purposes of traffic; and hence the wakes gradually became fairs, which in some places they still continue to be."--Pict. Hist. of England, ii. 897.

[E456] "Flawnes;" a kind of pancake was also so called. Nettleham feast at Easter is called the _Flown_, possibly from _flauns_ having been formerly eaten at that period of the year: but see Babees Book, p. 173, where Flawnes are stated to be "_Cheesecakes_ made of ground cheese beaten up with eggs and sugar, coloured with saffron, and baked in 'cofyns' or crusts."

"Bread an chese, butere and milk, Pastees and _flaunes_." --Havelok, ed. Skeat, 644.

_For flaunes._

"Take new chese and grynde hit fayre, In morter with egges, without dysware; Put powder þerto of sugur, I say, Coloure hit with safrone ful wele þou may; Put hit in cofyns þat ben fayre, And bake hit forthe, I þe pray." --Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 39.

[E457] A goose used formerly to be given at harvest-home, to those who had not overturned a load of corn in carrying during harvest.--M.

[E458] "Fyrmente is made of whete and mylke, in the whiche, yf flesshe be soden, to eate it is not commendable, for it is harde of dygestyon; but whan it is dygested it doth nowrysshe, and it doth strength a man."--Andrew Boorde's Dyetary, E.E. Text Soc. ed. F. J. Furnivall, p. 263. The following recipe for making Furmenty is from the Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 7:

_Furmente._

Take wete, and pyke [pick] hit fayre (and clene) And do hit in a morter shene; Bray hit a lytelle, with water hit spryng [sprinkle] Tyl hit hulle, with-oute lesyng. Þen wyndo [winnow] hit wele, nede þou mot; Wasshe hit fayre, put hit in pot; Boyle hit tylle hit brest, þen Let hit doun, as I þe kenne. Take now mylke, and play hit up To hit be thykkerede to sup. Lye hit up with yolkes of eyren [eggs], And kepe hit wele, lest hit berne [burn]. Coloure hit with safron and salt hit wele, And servys hit forthe, Syr, at þe mele; With sugur candy þou may hit dowce, If hit be served in grete lordys howce. Take black sugur for mener menne; Be ware þerwith, for hit wylle brenne [burn].

The following recipes for the manufacture of Furmenty are given in Pegge's Forme of Cury, pp. 91 and 121: 1. For to make Furmenty, "Nym [Take] clene wete, and bray it in a morter wel that the holys [hulls] gon al of and seyt [seethe] yt til it breste and nym yt up, and lat it kele [cool] and nym fay re fresch broth and swete mylk of Almandys or swete mylk of kyne and temper yt al, and nym the yolkys of eyryn [eggs], boyl it a lityl and set yt adoun and messe yt forthe wyth fast venyson and fresch moton." 2. For to make Formenty on a Fische-day, "Tak the mylk of the Hasel Notis, boyl the wete wyth the aftermelk til it be dryyd, and tak and colour yt wyth Saffroun, and the ferst mylk cast therto and boyle wel and serve yt forth." In Mr. Peacock's Glossary of Manley, etc., we have: "Frumerty, a preparation of creed-wheat [wheat simmered until tender] with milk, currants, raisins and spices in it."

[E459] To make Aqua Composita, chap. 223: "Take of Sage, Hysope, Rosemarie, Mynt, Spike or Lauender leaues, Marioram, Bay leaues, of each like much, of all foure good handfulles to one galon of liquour. Take also of Cloues, Mace, Nutmegs, Ginger, Cinnamon, Pepper, Graines, of each a quarter of an ounce, Liquorice and Annise, of each halfe a pound: beat the spices grosse [not fine, coarse], and first wash the herbes, then breake them gently betweene your hands. Scrape off the barke from the Liquorice, and cut it into thin slices, and punne [beat, pound] the Annise grosse, then put altogether into a gallon or more of good Ale or Wine, and let them steepe all night close couered in some vessell of earth or wood, and the next morning after distill them with a Limbecke or Serpentine. But see that your fire be temperate, and that the head of your Limbecke be kept colde continually with fresh water, and that the bottom of your Limbecke bee fast luted with Rye dough, that so Ayre issue out. The best Ale to make Aqua Composita of is to be made of Wheate malte, and the next of cleane Barley malte; and the best Wine for that purpose is Sacke."--Cogan's Haven of Health, ed. 1612, pp. 222-3.

[E460] A Cockney, the derivation of which word has been much disputed, appears to me clearly to come from the verb to _cocker_, to _cock_, by contraction, as in this passage. A _cockney_, therefore, is one who has been brought up effeminately, and spoilt by indulgence, whether a native of the city or of the country.--M.

"The original meaning of _cockney_ is a child too tenderly or delicately nurtured, one kept in the house and not hardened by out-of-doors life; hence applied to citizens, as opposed to the hardier inhabitants of the country, and in modern times confined to the inhabitants of London. The Promptorium Parvulorum, and the authorities cited in Mr. Way's note, give '_Coknay_, carifotus, delicius, mammotrophus'; 'To bring up like a _cocknaye_, mignoter.' 'Delicias facere, to play the _cockney_.' Cf. 'Puer in deliciis matris nutritus, Anglice, a _cokenay_.'--Halliwell. '_Cockney_, niais, mignot.'--Sherwood. The Fr. _coqueliner_, to dandle, cocker, fedle, pamper, make a wanton of a child, leads us in the right direction."--Wedgwood, Etymol. Dict. "A _cockney_, a childe tenderly brought up; a dearling. _Cockering_, mollis ilia educatio quam indulgentiam vocamus."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580.

[E461] In chapter 62 of the First Part of this work, p. 139, we had a comparison between good and bad husbandry, and we are here presented with a contrast between good and bad huswifery.

[E462] Compare Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. sc. 3, 57:

"With scarfs and fans and double change of _bravery_."

[E463] "Good huswiferie _canteth_." The ed. of 1573 reads "_franteth_" the meaning of which is "to be careful, economical."

[E464] For boys the practice of music would be degrading, except as a profession; and even for girls, however fashionable it may be, it is generally worse than useless, as it occupies that time which ought to be devoted to much more important purposes.--M.

[E465] "Least homelie breaker," etc., that is, lest an inexperienced teacher ruin the mind of the pupil, as an unpractised horse-breaker will spoil a promising colt.

[E466] "Well a fine," a phrase meaning to a good purpose, a good result.

[E467] "Cocking Mams," that is, over-indulgent mothers. "A father to much _cockering_, Pater nimis indulgens."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580. See Note E460.

[E468] "Shifting Dads," that is, fathers who are constantly shifting their children from one school to another.

[E469] "Assone as a passenger comes to an Inne the Host or Hostesse visit him; and if he will eate with the Host or at a common table with others, his meale will cost him sixe pence, or in some places but foure pence (yet this course is lesse honourable and not used by gentlemen); but if he will eate in his chamber he commands what meate he will, according to his appetite, and as much as he thinkes fit for him and his company."--Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, 1617, Part III. p. 151.

[E470] "To purchase linne." To purchase Lynn, by petty savings, seems to have been a proverbial mode of expression, used in ridicule of stinginess.

[E471] "You are on the high way to Needham."--Ray.

[E472] The braggadocios and coxcombs of the day would use their daggers to carve with, which were perfectly harmless for any other purpose. Forks were yet strangers to an English dinner-table. Knives were first _made_ in England, according to Anderson, in 1563. A meat-knife of Queen Elizabeth's, mentioned in Nichols's "Progresses," had "a handle of white bone and a conceyte in it." In the same work we read of "a dozen of horn spoons in a bunch," as the instruments "meetest to eat furmenty porage with all;" also of "a folding spoon of gold," and "a pair of small snuffers, silver-gilt."--Pictorial History of England, ii. 856.

[E473] "Go toie with his nodie." The edition of 1573 reads "go toy with his noddy, with ape in the street," and more recent editions read "go toy with his noddy-like ape in the street." This reading has been adopted by Dr. Mavor. Peacock's Gloss. gives "Noddipol a sillie person. 'Whorson _nodipol_ that I am!'--Bernard's Terence, 43. 'A verye _nodypoll_ nydyote myght be ashamed to say it.'--The Workes of Sir Thomas More, 1557, p. 209."

[E474] "Fisging." The Rev. W. Skeat, in his note to Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus x. l. 153, "And what frek of þys folde _fiskeþ_ þus a-boute," remarks: "_Fisketh_, wanders, roams. As this word is scarce, I give all the instances of it that I can find. In Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, ed. Morris, l. 1704, there is a description of a foxhunt, where the fox and the hounds are thus mentioned:--

'& he fyskez hem by-fore · þay founden hym sone'--_i.e._

and he (the fox) runs on before them (the hounds); but they soon found him. 'Fyscare abowte ydylly; Discursor, discursatrix, vagulus vel vagator, vagatrix.'--Prompt. Parv. p. 162. 'Fiskin abowte yn ydilnesse; Vago, giro, girovago.'--Ibid.

'Such serviture also deserveth a check, That runneth out _fisking_, with meat in his beck [_mouth_].' --Tusser, Five Hundred Points, etc., ed. Mavor, p. 286.

'Then had every flock his shepherd, or else shepherds; now they do not only run _fisking about_ from place to place, ... but covetously join living to living.'--Whitgift's Works, i. 528. 'I _fyske_, ie fretille. I praye you se howe she _fysketh_ about.'--Palsgrave. '_Trotière_, a raumpe, fisgig, _fisking_ huswife, raunging damsell.'--Cotgrave.

'Then in cave, then in a field of corn, Creeps to and fro, and _fisketh_ in and out.' --Dubartas (in Nares).

'His roving eyes rolde to and fro, He _fiskyng_ fine, did mincyng go.' --Kendalls's Flower of Epigrammes, 1577 (Nares).

'Tom Tankard's cow.... Flinging about his halfe aker, _fisking_ with her tail.' --Gammer Gurton's Needle, i. 2.

'_Fieska_, to _fisk_ the tail about; to _fisk_ up and down.'--Swedish Dictionary, by J. Serenius. '_Fjeska_, v.n. to fidge, to fidget, to _fisk_.'--Swed. Dict. (Tauchnitz)."

[E475] In the Rolls of Parliament, at the opening of the Parliament of 2 Rich. II. in the year 1378, we find--"Qui sont appellez _Bacbyters_ sont auxi come chiens qi mangeont les chars crues," etc. In the Ancren Riwle (Camden Soc. ed. Morton), p. 86, are described two kinds of _backbiters_, who are defined generally as "Bacbitares, þe biteð oðre men bihinden"; the two kinds are 1. those who openly speak evil of others, and 2. those who under the cloak of friendship slander others. The latter is stated to be far the worse. In an Old Eng. Miscellany (E. E. Text Soc. ed. Morris), p. 187, we are told that "Alle _bacbytares_ heo wendeþ to helle."--Rev. W. W. Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. v. 89.

[E476] "The friend doth hate." The edition of 1585 reads, evidently by a misprint, _fiends_.

[E477] "Roinish," lit. scurvy, hence coarse, rough. "_Rongneux_, scabbie, mangie, scurvie."--Cotgrave. It occurs twice in the "Romaunt of the Rose," ll. 988 and 6190. In the form _rinish_, signifying "wild, jolly, unruly, rude," it is found among the Yorkshire words in Thoresby's Letter to Ray, reprinted by the Eng. Dial. Soc. "Rennish," in the sense of "furious, passionate," which is in Ray's collection of North-country words, is, perhaps, another form of the word.

[E478] "Still presently," _i.e._ always as close at hand.

[E479] "In vsing there his will," that is, in doing so he acted of his own free will.

[E480] "Seene" = appeared, showed himself.

[E481] "Do show" (to who thou wouldst to know). The meaning is perfectly clear, but the manner in which it is expressed is very curious. We may paraphrase it thus: "doth show to him whom thou wishest to teach."

[E482] Compare Psalm ciii. 15, 6.

[E483] "Let gift no glorie looke," that is, in giving alms look for (expect) no praise or earthly reward for so doing.

[E484] "Provoke" = urge.

[E485] In the edition of 1577 the arrangement of this chapter is somewhat different. The Latin verses are first printed by themselves, and headed "Sancti Barnardi dicta," and after comes the English version, with the following title: "Eight of Saint Barnardes verses, translated out of Latin | into english by this Aucthor for one kind | of note to serue both ditties." The translation in the "Paradise of Dainty Devices," mentioned by Mason, is by Barnaby Rich, under the signature of "My Luck is Loss." The following is the first verse, transcribed for comparison with Tusser's version:

"Why doth each state apply itself to worldly praise? And undertake such toil, to heap up honour's gain, Whose seat, though seeming sure, on fickle fortune stays, Whose gifts are never prov'd perpetual to remain? But even as earthen pots, with every fillip fails: So fortune's favour flits, and fame with honour quails."

[E486] "Carle." M. Licinius Crassus, surnamed Dives, or the Rich, one of the first Roman Triumvirate, and celebrated for his avarice and love of the table.

[E487] "O thou fit bait for wormes!" In the Treatise of Vincentio Saviolo, printed in 1595 with the title "Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. In two Bookes. The first intreating of the use of the Rapier and Dagger. The second of Honor and Honorable Quarrels," the printer's device has the motto: "O wormes meate: O froath: O vanitie: why art thou so insolent." Compare "As you Like it," Act iii. sc. 2, 59, "Most shallow man! thou worm's meat!"

[E488] "For fortunes looke." In editions of 1573 and 1585 the reading is "For fortune, look." It is evident that these verses were written at the time when our author first retired from court, and that they were appended to this work long after. They allude to recent events, to "fatal chance," and to other circumstances, which would have been obliterated from the mind after the lapse of so many years.--M. See Tusser's Autobiography, ch. 114, stanza 14, p. 208.

[E489] "Too daintie fed;" that is, to one who has been accustomed to luxury, and high living.

[E490] "If court with cart, etc." If one, who has been a courtier, must put up with the life of the country.

[E491] "What toesed eares." _Toese_, or _touze_, to worry (as a dog does a bear), properly used of the dressing of wool, and thence metaphorically, as in Spenser, Faerie Queene, xi. 33,

"And as a beare, whom angry curres have _touz'd_:"

to the dog who pulls the fell off the bear's back. Cf. the old name for a dog, _Towzer_. Coles renders _tose_ or _toze_ by "_carpo, vellico_." Baret, Alvearie, 1580, gives, "to Tosse wooll, _carpere lanam_." Compare chap. 99. 4, p. 189, "so _tossed_ with comorants," which is spelt _toesed_ in the ed. of 1577, and _teazed_ in those of 1580 and 1585.

[E492] "What robes." The livery or _vestis liberata_, often called robe, allowed annually by the college.--Warton, Hist. of Eng. Poetry.

[E493] Penny-ale is common, thin ale. It is spoken of in Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, Passus xv. l. 310, as a most meagre drink, only fitted for strict-living friars. It was sold at _a penny a gallon_, while the best ale was _four pence_.

"Peny ale and podyng ale she poured togideres For labourers and for lowe folke, þat lay by hym-selue." --Piers Plowman, B. Text, Passus v. 220.

[E494] "Sundrie men had plagards then." See remarks in Biographical Sketch, p. xii.

[E495] "The better brest," etc. On these words Hawkins, in his Hist. of Music, ed. 1853, ii. 537, remarks: "In singing, the sound is originally produced by the action of the lungs, which are so essential an organ in this respect, that to have a _good breast_ was formerly a common periphrasis to denote a _good singer_." Cf. Shakspere, Twelfth Night,