Chapter 47. An approved receite for the gowte.

With this Chapter he closes ‘the third booke of Husbandry.’

The fourth book has an introductory chapter, not in Fitzherbert, subdivided into sections with the following headings. The office of a Steward of a houshold. For prouiding of victuals. The Steward and Garniter.[43] The Steward and Miller. The Steward and Baker. The Pantry. The Butler. The Seller.[44] The Ewrie.[45] Of the Cooke. Of the Scullery. Of the Vsher of the Hall. Of the Yeoman of the Wardrop [Wardrobe]. The Slaughter-man. The Cater [caterer]. The Clarke of the Kitchin.

After this, I. R. condescends to return to his original.

=141.= 36. _sherde_] breach (which is a gloss).

49. _tyne_] shut (a gloss). _traile_] tale (probably a misprint).

59. _put it_] blot them.

72. _loked uppon_] attended vnto.

=142.= This is a most singular section, since it presupposes that a gentleman’s servant would be able to recognise the rhythm of an English hexameter. As an early experiment in hexameters, it is very curious. In the original, it is printed as _prose_, but each line ends with a full stop, and the next begins with a capital letter. I have therefore printed it as verse. It is, however, of a rather rude character; _horne boget_ hardly comes up to our idea of a dactyl, nor _and shoes_ to that of a spondee. For the reader’s assistance, I may remark that the _dactyls_ are as follows: _Purse dagger, -chef shoyng-, horne boget, -ter sadel-, hatte with thy, Bowe arrowes, stringe and thy, Penne paper, -waxe pommes, bokes thou re-, -ble nedle, leste that thy, -gel gyue thy, se he be, Make mery, synge and thou, hede to thy, gere that thou_. The rest are spondees.

I. R., not perceiving the law of rhythm, makes wild work of it. He calls it “An excellent rude Lesson in rude ryme.” He divides the lines rightly, and leaves the first three verses untouched. But the rest assume the following fearful forms.

Penne, paper, incke, parchment, redde waxe, punisse (_sic_), and bookes doe thou remember, Penknife, combe, thymble, needle, thred, and poynt, least that by chaunce thy garth breake. Bodkin, knyfe, rubber, giue thy horse meate, See he be shodde well, make merry, sing if thou can, And take heede to thy needments, that thou loose none.

I think we may fairly put these down as being the worst verses extant in the English language; though this is saying a good deal.

=143.= 7. The saying doubtless represents a rude couplet in verse. The dative case _wyfe_ (governed by _of_) was formerly spelt _wyue_, and rimed with _thryue_.

=144.= _Salomon_, Solomon. But where to find, in his writings, this remarkable sentence, I do not know.

*** After this section I. R. inserts a quantity of additional matter, which he tells us (at p. 174) is drawn from his ‘owne experience in byrds and foules.’ The additional chapters treat of choice of cocks, hens for brood, number of eggs to each hen, chickens, diseases of poultry (especially of the pip), choice of poultry, how to fat poultry, how to make capons, where to keep poultry, how to choose, keep, and fatten geese, how to keep ducks, peacocks, ‘ginny or turkie-cocks,’ pigeons, pheasants, turtles, partridges, and swans; after which digression he returns to his text. I may remark that he considers it essential that a hen should sit upon _an odd number_ of eggs, say 19, and that matters should be so arranged as to provide for the hatching of chickens ‘in the increase of the Moone.’ The leaves of a bay-tree, ‘or els some Bents or Grasse,’ will preserve eggs ‘from the hurt of thunder.’ Chickens ought not ‘to be breathed vpon by any Snake, Toade, or other venomous thing’; if they are, you must quickly burn amongst them some ‘_Galbanum_, or womans hayre.’ Those that have the pip should be dieted on Hearbgrace [rue] or garlic. Geese ‘are more watchfull then Doggs.’ ‘You must vse in the time of brooding, to lay vnder your egges [of geese] the rootes of Nettles, to the end the Gosling may escape stinging of Nettles, which otherwise many times killeth them.’ If geese are to have fat livers, feed them on dry figs mingled with water. Ducks chiefly delight in acorns. If you praise a peacock, ‘he will presently sette vp his taile.’ A turkey-cock ‘is very highly esteemed of, both for his rarenesse and greatnes of body;’ and we are told that he changes the colour of the wrinkled skin about his head at pleasure, either to white, red, blue, yellow, ‘or what other colour els hee list; which thing maketh him seeme wonderfull st[r]ange to them that behold it.’ ... ‘Their greatest diseases is the Pip and the Squecke.’ As to pigeons, ‘I haue knowne some that haue builded their Doue-houses vpon high pillars ouer the midst of some Pond or great water, both because they delight much in water, and also to keepe them the safer from vermine.’ Swans ‘will, when they waxe olde, declare the time of their own death to be neere approching, by a sweete and lamentable note which they then sing.’

=145.= 15. I. R. has--‘Wherefore it is conuenient (I say) that they loue each other as effectually as loue can in the best sence comprehend: and this worke especiallie, a woman is bound both by law and nature to performe.’ Why so?

=146.= I. R. omits ll. 2-7; he was certainly a Protestant.

8. _redy._ This is the old word for _dressed_, as might be shewn by many examples. It may suffice to say that I. R. explains _araye theym_ in l. 11 by _make them ready_.

10. _socle_] suckle. I. R. omits _sye vp thy mylke_, which he probably did not understand.

13. I. R. omits _and take thy parte with theym_; and, for _serue thy swyne_ (l. 20) he puts _looke to the seruing of thy Swine_. Customs were probably changing.

31. _the gleyd_] Kites. And _fullymartes_ is omitted.

35. After _eate_, I. R. adds--in Sallets, or otherwise.

42. _hecheled_] heckled.

43. _wrapped_] warped.

51. _ripeled_, i.e. rippled; I. R. has _repled_. In l. 41 above, I. R. has _repealed_; yet this is, I suppose, the same word.

53. _loken_] Locken. It means locked or tightly closed up; for _lock_ was once a strong verb.

57. _pulled_] culled (which is an ingenious alteration and perhaps right).

104. The Knight of the Tour-Landry is the book here referred to, and was one of the books printed by Caxton. The edition printed by the Early English Text Society, and edited by T. Wright, is so easily accessible that it is needless to say more here than that Fitzherbert’s description of it is perfectly correct.

=147.= 12. _rendit_] tendit. This correction may be right, but I am not sure of it. The Leonine (or riming) verses quoted cannot be of any great antiquity, and it is quite possible that _rendit_ is intended as a Low-Latin translation of the French _rend_, pr. s. of _rendre_. The true Latin word is, of course _reddit_; which, however, gives no rime. Fitzherbert’s translation is intended to be in verse.

=148.= 3. _brynke_] brim. “Better spare at brim than at bottom”; Hazlitt’s Proverbs. And see note to Tusser, 10. 35.

12. _tedure_] teathure (not a good spelling.)

15. _lees_] ground. _flytte_] shift.

17. _tyed_] stakt.

26. _putteth hym in the pynfolde_] impoundes him.

38. _ren ryot_] runne.

43. _it is meruayle_] gracious were th_e_ stars of thy natiuitie (a fine phrase!).

=150, 151, 152, 153.= I. R. omits these four sections.

=153.= 3. This quotation, from Dionysii Catonis Disticha, iii. 7, appears also in P. Plowman, B. xii. 23.

28. I do not know where to find this quotation.

=155.= 10. _behouable_] behoouefull (which is a better form).

=156.= In the rubric, I. R. has--‘what riches are’; but in l. 1, he has--‘It is now requisite to know what riches is.’ Already _riches_ was becoming a plural substantive. It may be remarked that I. R. omits the _Latin_ forms of all the quotations.

=157.= 19. _duetie_] debt (which is what is meant). So also in ll. 22, 24.

=160.= 2. After _declare_, I. R. inserts--and euery booke of Common prayer dooth containe them. A pertinent remark.

=161.= 3. I. R. omits the reference to the Athanasian Creed, and says we must ‘beleeue stedfastly the Catholick fayth.’

25. I. R. omits from _The fulfyllynge_ to the end of the section. For a description of the seven works of mercy, see Spenser, F. Q. 1. 10. 36.

=163.= 3. I. R. has--and hast a stedfast fayth in Christ. He has almost wholly rewritten this section, and says we are bound ‘to come to common prayer;’ and omits the quotation from St. Ambrose.

=164.= 7. It is remarkable that the author should refer us to the 3rd chapter of Proverbs instead of the 15th. Our forefathers seem to have had no idea either of giving a correct reference or of verifying one.

10. _Qui a_ is printed, in Fitzherbert, as _Quia_, in one word. The correction being obvious, I have made it.

18. _Isodorus_] Osorius. Why this alteration is made, I cannot tell. In l. 29 of the next section, I. R. has _Isidore_, and in l. 37, _Isidorus_.

=165.= 39. _Hampole_] Hanapole (wrongly). Richard Rolle, of Hampole, was the author of the Pricke of Conscience, edited by Dr. Morris for the Philological Society, and of numerous other works, including some Religious Treatises edited by Mr. Perry for the Early English Text Society.

47. I. R. omits this line; he probably did not like the word _oratory_.

52. The first book of Samuel was formerly called the first book of Kings.

=166.= I. R. rewrites this section, and avoids any reference to _Latin_ or to the _Ave Maria_.

=167.= 19, 20. I. R. gives the Latin lines, and his own translation, as follows.

The ghostly enemy doth not stay Till tempted persons doe obey: For yeelding, hee a Lyon is, Gainestood, a flie: his pray doth misse.

His syntax is as bad as his translation.

34. _steke_] shutte.

35. _styfly_] manfully. We have here an idea which is frequently met with in our literature. It may suffice to refer to Grosseteste’s Chastel d’Amour, the sermon called Soules Warde printed in Dr. Morris’s Specimens of English, part i., the extract from the Ayenbite of Inwyt printed in Morris and Skeat’s Specimens,