Act iii. sc. 2. sig. G 2.

and in _The New Academy_; “But look how she turnes and _keeps cut like my Sparrow_. She will be my back Sweet-heart still I see, and love me behind.” Act iv. sc. 1. p. 72. (_Five New Playes_, 1659).

Page 55. v. 125.

_Betwene my brestes softe_ _It wolde lye and rest_]

So Catullus, in the beginning of his verses _Ad Passerem Lesbiæ_, (a distinct poem from that mentioned at p. 120);

“Passer, deliciæ meæ puellæ, Quicum ludere, _quem in sinu tenere_,” &c.

v. 127. _It was propre and prest_] Compare v. 264, “As _prety_ and as _prest_,” where “prety” answers to “propre” in the present line. “_Proper_ or feate. _coint_, _godin_, _gentil_, _mignot_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._ 1530. fol. xciii. (Table of Adiect.):—_prest_, which generally means—ready, seems here to be nearly synonymous with _propre_; and so in a passage of Tusser,—“more handsome, and _prest_,”—cited by Todd (_Johnson’s Dict._ in v.), who explains it “neat, tight.”

v. 137. _gressop_] i. e. grasshopper.—“_Cicada_ ... anglice _a gresse hoppe_.” _Ortus Vocab._, fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d.

v. 138. _Phyp, Phyp_] See note on v. 7. p. 121.

v. 141. _slo_] i. e. slay.

v. 147. _dome_] i. e. judgment, thinking.

v. 148. _Sulpicia_] Lived in the age of Domitian. Her satire _De corrupto statu reipub. temporibus Domitiani, præsertim cum edicto Philosophos urbe exegisset_, may be found in Wernsdorf’s ed. of _Poetæ Latini Minores_, iii. 83.

v. 151. _pas_] i. e. pass, excel.

v. 154. _pretende_] i. e. attempt.

Page 56. v. 171. _perde_] i. e. _par dieu_, verily.

v. 173. _nyse_] i. e. foolish, inclined to folly, to toyish tricks: compare our author’s _Manerly Margery_, &c., v. 2. vol. i. 28.

v. 176. _To pyke my lytell too_]—_too_, i. e. toe.—In a comedy (already mentioned, p. 93. v. 15), _The longer thou liuest, the more foole thou art_, &c., n. d., by W. Wager, Moros sings

“I haue a prety tytmouse Come _picking on my to_.”

sig. D ii.

v. 186. _ryde and go_] A sort of pleonastic expression which repeatedly occurs in our early writers.

Page 57. v. 192. _Pargame_] i. e. Pergamus.

v. 198. _wete_] i. e. know.

v. 205. _be quycke_] i. e. be made alive.

Page 57. v. 211. _the nones_] i. e. the occasion.

v. 213. _My sparow whyte as mylke_] Compare Sir P. Sidney;

“They saw a maid who thitherward did runne, To catch her sparrow which from her did swerue, As shee a black-silke Cappe on him begunne To sett, for foile of his _milke-white_ to serue.”

_Arcadia_, lib. i. p. 85. ed. 1613.

and Drayton;

“I haue two Sparrowes _white as Snow_.”

_The Muses Elizium_, p. 14. ed. 1630.

v. 216. _importe_] i. e. impart.

v. 218. _solas_] i. e. amusement.

Page 58. v. 227. _hear_] i. e. hair.

v. 230. _kest_] i. e. cast.

v. 242. _bederoule_] See note on v. 12. p. 122.

v. 244. _Cam, and Sem_] i. e. Ham, and Shem.

v. 247. _the hylles of Armony_]—_Armony_, i. e. Armenia.—So in _Processus Noe_;

“What grownd may this be? _Noe. The hyllys of Armonye._”

_Townley Myst._ p. 32.

See also Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_, B. i. leaf iiii. ed. Wayland, and Heywood’s _Foure P. P._, sig. A i. ed. n. d.

v. 248.

_Wherfore the birdes yet cry_ _Of your fathers bote_]

The reading of Kele’s ed., “bordes,” (as I have already observed _ad loc._) is perhaps the true one;—(compare _Pierce Plowman_;

“And [God] came to Noe anone, and bad him not let Swyth go shape a shype of shydes and of _bordes_.”

Pass. Non. sig. M ii. ed. 1561.)—

and qy. did Skelton write,—

“_Whereon_ the _bordes_ yet _lye_?”

v. 253. _it hyght_] i. e. it is called.

Page 59. v. 264. _prest_] See note on v. 127, preceding page.

v. 272. _hardely_] i. e. assuredly.

v. 273. _vengeaunce I aske and crye_] Compare _Magnus Herodes_;

“_Venjance I cry and calle._”

_Townley Myst._ p. 149.

v. 281. _Carowe_] See note on v. 8. p. 121.

v. 282. _carlyshe kynde_] i. e. churlish nature.

v. 283. _fynde_] i. e. fiend.

Page 59. v. 284. _vntwynde_] i. e. tore to pieces, destroyed: so again in our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_;

“This goodly flowre with stormis was _vntwynde_.”

v. 1445. vol. i. 418.

Page 60. v. 290. _Lybany_] i. e. Libya.

v. 294. _mantycors_] “Another maner of bestes ther is in ynde that ben callyd _manticora_, and hath visage of a man, and thre huge grete teeth in his throte, he hath eyen lyke a ghoot and body of a lyon, tayll of a Scorpyon and voys of a serpente in suche wyse that by his swete songe he draweth to hym the peple and deuoureth them And is more delyuerer to goo than is a fowle to flee.” Caxton’s _Mirrour of the world_, 1480. sig. e vii. See also R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 212.—This fabulous account is derived from Pliny.

v. 296. _Melanchates, that hounde, &c._] See the story of Actæon in Ovid’s _Metam._;

“Prima _Melanchætes_ in tergo vulnera fecit.” iii. 232.

v. 305.

_That his owne lord bote,_ _Myght byte asondre thy throte!_]

—_bote_, i. e. bit.—So in _Syr Tryamoure_;

“He toke the stuarde by the _throte_, And _asonder_ he it _botte_.”

_Early Pop. Poetry_ (by Utterson), i. 28.

v. 307. _grypes_] i. e. griffins.

v. 311. _The wylde wolfe Lycaon_] See Ovid’s _Metam._ i. 163 sqq. for an account of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, being transformed into a wolf. I ought to add, that he figures in a work well known to the readers of Skelton’s time—_The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_.

v. 313. _brennynge_] i. e. burning.

Page 61. v. 325. _gentle of corage_]—_corage_, i. e. heart, mind, disposition. So in our author’s _Magnyfycence_; “Be _gentyll_ then _of corage_.” v. 2511. vol. i. 308.

v. 329. _departed_] i. e. parted. So in our old marriage-service; “till death us _depart_.”

v. 336. _rew_] i. e. have compassion.

v. 345.

_And go in at my spayre,_ _And crepe in at my gore_ _Of my gowne before_]

“_Cluniculum_, an hole or a _spayre_ of a womans smoke.” _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d. (In ed. 1514 of that work—“_spayre_ of a womans kyrtell”). “_Sparre_ of a gowne _fente de la robe_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxvi. (Table of Subst.). “That parte of weemens claiths, sik as of their gowne or petticot, quhilk vnder the belt and before is open, commonly is called the _spare_.” Skene, quoted by Jamieson, _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v. _Spare_.——“_Lacinia_ ... anglice a heme of clothe or a _gore_.” _Ortus. Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d. (ed. 1514 of that work adds “or a trayne”). “_Goore_ of a smocke _poynte de chemise_.” Palsgrave, _ubi supra_, fol. xxxvii. (Table of Subst.). Jamieson (_ubi supra_), in v. _Gair_, says it was “a stripe or triangular piece of cloth, inserted at the bottom, on each side of a shift or of a robe,”—a description which agrees with that of R. Holme, _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. iii. p. 95.

Page 61. v. 351. _myne hert it sleth_]—_sleth_, i. e. slayeth.—So Chaucer;

“Thise rockes _slee min herte_ for the fere.”

_The Frankeleines Tale_, v. 11205. ed. Tyr.

Page 62. v. 360. _Phyppes_] See note on v. 7. p. 121.

v. 361. _kusse_] i. e. kiss.

“And if he maie no more do, Yet woll he stele a _cusse_ or two.”

Gower’s _Conf. Am._ lib. v. fol. cxix. ed. 1554.

v. 362. _musse_] i. e. muzzle,—mouth.

v. 366. _this_] i. e. thus: see note, p. 86. v. 38.

v. 375. _Gyb_] See note on v. 27. p. 122.

v. 383. _bederolle_] See note on v. 12. p. 122.

Page 63. v. 387.

_To wepe with me loke that ye come,_ _All maner of byrdes in your kynd, &c._]

—_loke_, i. e. look. Compare Ovid (see note on title of this poem, p. 120);

“Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab Indis, Occidit: exequias ite frequenter, aves. Ite, piæ volucres, et plangite pectora pennis, Et rigido teneras ungue notate genas. Horrida pro moestis lanictur pluma capillis, Pro longa resonent carmina vestra tuba.”

_Amor._ lib. ii. El. vi. 5. 1.

v. 396. _ianglynge_] i. e. babbling, chattering—an epithet generally applied to the jay by our old poets.

v. 397. _fleckyd_] i. e. spotted, variegated.

v. 403. _the red sparow_] i. e. the reed-sparrow.

“The _Red-sparrow_, the Nope, the Red-breast, and the Wren.”

Drayton’s _Polyolbion_, Song xiii. p. 215. ed. 1622.

“The _Red Sparrow_, or Reed Sparrow.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 246.

Page 63. v. 406. _to_] i. e. toe.

v. 407. _The spynke_] i. e. The chaffinch. In the _Countrie Farme_, the “spinke” is frequently mentioned (see pp. 886, 890, 891, 898, 900. ed. 1600); and in the French work by Estienne and Liebault, from which it is translated, the corresponding word is “pinçon:” in Cotgrave’s _Dict._ is “Pinson. _A Spink_, _Chaffinch_, or Sheldaple;” and in Moor’s _Suffolk Words_, “_Spinx. The chaffinch_.” R. Niccolls, in a poem which contains several pretty passages, has

“The speckled _Spinck_, that liues by gummie sappe.”

_The Cuckow_, 1607. p. 13.

v. 409. _The doterell, that folyshe pek_] The dotterel is said to allow itself to be caught, while it imitates the gestures of the fowler: _pek_, or _peke_, seems here to be used by Skelton in the sense of—contemptible fellow; so in his _Collyn Cloute_;

“Of suche _Pater-noster pekes_ All the worlde spekes.”

v. 264. vol. i. 321.

In Hormanni _Vulgaria_ we find: “He is shamefast but not _pekysshe_. Verecundus est sine _ignauia_.” sig. N i. ed. 1530.—And see Todd’s Johnson’s _Dict._, and Richardson’s _Dict._ in v. _Peak_.

v. 411. _toote_] i. e. pry, peep, search.

v. 412. _the snyte_] i. e. the snipe.

v. 415. _His playne songe to solfe_] See note, p. 95, v. 48: _solfe_, i. e. solfa.

v. 418.

_The woodhacke, that syngeth chur_ _Horsly, as he had the mur_]

—_woodhacke_, i. e. woodpecker. “_Wodehac_ or nothac byrde. Picus.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499: _mur_, i. e. a severe cold with hoarseness. Compare Lydgate;

“And at his feete lay a prykeryd curre He rateled in the throte _as he had the murre_.”

_Le Assemble de dyeus_, sig. b i. n. d. 4to.

v. 420. _lusty_] i. e. pleasant.

v. 421. _The popyngay_] i. e. The parrot.

Page 64. v. 422. _toteth_] Or _tooteth_; see note on v. 411.

v. 424. _The mauys_] Is properly the song-thrush, as distinguished from the missel-thrush: see note on v. 460, p. 131.

v. 425. _the pystell_] i. e. the Epistle.

v. 426. _a large and a longe_] See note, p. 95. v. 49.

Page 64. v. 427.

_To kepe iust playne songe,_ _Our chaunters shalbe the cuckoue_]

See note, p. 95. v. 48. So Shakespeare mentions “_the plain-song cuckoo_ gray.” _Mids. Night’s Dream_, act iii. sc. 1.

v. 430. _puwyt the lapwyng_] In some parts of England, the lapwing is called _pewit_ from its peculiar cry.

v. 432. _The bitter with his bumpe_] “The _Bitter_, or Bitterne, _Bumpeth_, when he puts his Bill in the reeds.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 310.

v. 434. _Menander_] Means here _Mæander_: but I have not altered the text; because our early poets took great liberties with classical names; because all the eds. of Skelton’s _Speke, Parrot_, have

“Alexander, a gander of _Menanders_ pole.”

v. 178. vol. ii. 9.

and because the following passage occurs in a poem by some imitator of Skelton, which is appended to the present edition;

“Wotes not wher to wander, Whether to _Meander_, Or vnto _Menander_.”

_The Image of Ipocrisy_, Part Third.

v. 437. _wake_] i. e. watching of the dead body during the night.

v. 441. _He shall syng the grayle_]—_grayle_, says Warton (correcting an explanation he had formerly given), signifies here “_Graduale_, or the _Responsorium_, or _Antiphonarium_, in the Romish service.... He shall sing that part of the service which is called the _Grayle_, or _graduale_.” _Obs. on the F. Queen_, ii. 244. ed. 1762. See too Du Cange in v. _Gradale_, and Roquefort in v. _Gréel_.

v. 442. _The owle, that is so foule_]—_foule_, i. e. ugly. The Houlate, (in the poem so called, by Holland), says,

“Thus all the foulis, for my _filth_, hes me at feid.”

Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, iii. 149.

v. 444. _gaunce_] i. e. gaunt.

v. 445. _the cormoraunce_] i. e. the cormorant.

v. 447. _the gaglynge gaunte_] In _Prompt. Parv._ is “_Gant_ birde. Bistarda.” ed. 1499. Palsgrave gives “_Gant_ byrde,” without a corresponding French term. _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xxxv. (Table of Subst.). Our author in his _Elynour Rummyng_ has—

“In came another dant, Wyth a gose and a _gant_.”

v. 515. vol. i. 111;

where _gant_ is plainly used for gander. In the present passage, however, _gaunte_ must have a different signification (“The gose and the _gander_” being mentioned v. 435), and means, I apprehend,—wild-goose: Du Cange has “_Gantæ_, Anseres silvestres,” &c.; and see Roquefort in v. _Gans._ But Nares, MS. note on Skelton, explains _gaunte_—gannet.

Page 64. v. 449. _The route and the kowgh_] The Rev. J. Mitford suggests that the right reading is “The _knout_ and the _rowgh_,”—i. e. the knot and the ruff.

v. 450. _The barnacle_] i. e. The goose-barnacle,—concerning the production of which the most absurd fables were told and credited: some asserted that it was originally the shell-fish called barnacle, others that it grew on trees, &c.

v. 451. _the wilde mallarde_] i. e. the wild-drake.

Page 65. v. 452. _The dyuendop_] i. e. The dabchick or didapper.

v. 454. _The puffin_] A water-fowl with a singular bill.

v. 455. _Money they shall dele, &c._] According to the ancient custom at funerals.

v. 458. _the tytmose_] i. e. the titmouse.

v. 460. _The threstyl_] Or _throstle_, is properly the missel-thrush: see note on v. 424. p. 129.

v. 461. _brablyng_] i. e. clamour, noise—properly, quarrel, squabble.

v. 462. _The roke_] i. e. The rook.

—— _the ospraye_ _That putteth fysshes to a fraye_]

—_fraye_, i. e. fright. It was said that when the osprey, which feeds on fish, hovered over the water, they became fascinated and turned up their bellies.

v. 464. _denty_] i. e. dainty.

v. 468. _The countrynge of the coe_]—_countrynge_; see note, p. 92: _coe_, i. e. jack-daw; “_Coo_ birde. Monedula. Nodula.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.

v. 469.

_The storke also,_ _That maketh his nest_ _In chymneyes to rest;_ _Within those walles_ _No broken galles_ _May there abyde_ _Of cokoldry syde_]

The stork breeds in chimney-tops, and was fabled to forsake the place, if the man or wife of the house committed adultery. The following lines of Lydgate will illustrate the rest of the passage:

“a certaine knight Gyges called, thinge shameful to be tolde, To speke plaine englishe, made him [i. e. Candaules] cokolde. Alas I was not auised wel beforne, Vnkonnyngly to speake such langage, I should haue sayde how that he had an horne, Or sought some terme wyth a fayre vysage, To excuse my rudenesse of thys gret outrage: And in some land Cornodo men do them cal, And some affirme that _such folke haue no gal_.”

_Fall of Prynces_, B. ii. leaf lvi. ed. Wayland.

Page 65. v. 478.

_The estryge, that wyll eate_ _An horshowe so great_]

—_estryge_, i. e. ostrich: _horshowe_, i. e. horse-shoe.—In _Struthiocamelus_, a portion of that strange book _Philomythie_, &c., by Tho. Scot., 1616, a merchant seeing an ostrich, in the desert, eating iron, asks—

“What nourishment can from those mettals grow? The Ostrich answers; Sir, I do not eate This iron, as you thinke I do, for meate. I only keepe it, lay it vp in store, To helpe my needy friends, the friendlesse poore. I often meete (as farre and neere I goe) _Many a fowndred horse that wants a shooe_, Seruing a Master that is monylesse: Such I releiue and helpe in their distresse.”

Sig. E 7.

v. 482. _freat_] i. e. gnaw, devour.

Page 66. v. 485. _at a brayde_] Has occurred before in our author’s _Bowge of Courte_; see note, p. 109. v. 181; but here it seems to have a somewhat different meaning, and to signify—at an effort, at a push. “_At a brayde, Faysant mon effort, ton effort, son effort_, &c.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. ccccxxxviii. (Table of Aduerbes). “_I Abrayde_, I inforce me to do a thynge.” ... “I _Breyde_ I make _a brayde_ to do a thing sodaynly.” _Id._ fols. cxxxvi. clxxii. (Table of Verbes).

v. 487. _To solfe aboue ela_]—_solfe_, i. e. solfa: _ela_, i. e. the highest note in the scale of music.

v. 488. _lorell_] i. e. good-for-nothing fellow (see Tyrwhitt’s _Gloss._ to Chaucer’s _Cant. Tales_): used here as a sportive term of reproach.

v. 491.

_The best that we can,_ _To make hym our belman,_ _And let hym ryng the bellys;_ _He can do nothyng ellys_]

“_Sit campanista, qui non vult esse sophista_, Let him bee a bellringer, that will bee no good Singer.” Withals’s _Dict._ p. 178. ed. 1634.

Page 66. v. 495.

_Chaunteclere, our coke,_ ... _By the astrology_ _That he hath naturally, &c._]

So Chaucer;

“But when _the cocke_, commune _Astrologer_, Gan on his brest to beate,” &c.

_Troilus and Creseide_, B. iii. fol. 164.—_Workes_, ed. 1602.

See also Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. i. sig. D v. ed. 1555; and his copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue _Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues_), _MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 132.

v. 499. _cought_] i. e. caught: compare the first of our author’s _Balettys_, v. 19. vol. i. 22.

v. 500. _tought_] i. e. taught. “Musyke hath me _tought_.” Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. G iiii. ed. 1555.

v. 501. _Albumazer_] A famous Arabian, of the ninth century.

v. 503.

—— _Ptholomy_ _Prince of astronomy_]

The celebrated Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian: “Il fleurit vers l’an 125 et jusqu’à l’an 139 de l’ère vulgaire.” _Biog. Univ._—In _The Shepherds Kalendar_ (a work popular in the days of Skelton) a chapter is entitled “To know the fortunes and destinies of man born under the xii signs, after _Ptolomie, prince of astronomy_ [i. e. astrology].” “_Astronomy_, and _Astronomer_, is the Art of, and the foreteller of things done and past, and what shall happen to any person, &c.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, 1688. B. ii. p. 438.

v. 505. _Haly_] Another famous Arabian: “claruit circa A. C. 1100.” Fabr. _Bibl. Gr._ xiii. 17.

v. 507. _tydes_] i. e. times, seasons.

v. 509. _Partlot his hen_] So in Chaucer’s _Nonnes Preestes Tale_; Lydgate’s copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue _Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues_), _MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 132; and G. Douglas’s Prol. to the xii Booke of his _Eneados_, p. 401. l. 54. ed. Ruddiman, who conjectures that the name was applied to a hen in reference to the ruff (the _partlet_), or ring of feathers about her neck.

Page 67. v. 522. _thurifycation_] i. e. burning incense.

Page 67. v. 524. _reflary_] As I have already noticed, should probably be “reflayre,”—i. e. odour. See Roquefort’s _Gloss. de la Lang. Rom._ in v. _Flareur_, and _Suppl._ in v. _Fleror;_ and Cotgrave’s _Dict._ in v. _Reflairer_. In _The Garlande of Laurell_ our author calls a lady “_reflaring_ rosabell.” v. 977. vol. i. 401.

v. 525. _eyre_] i. e. air, scent.

“Strowed wyth floures, of all goodly _ayre_.”

Hawes’s _Pastime of pleasure_, sig. D iiii. ed. 1555.

See too _The Pistill of Susan_, st. viii.—Laing’s _Early Pop. Poetry of Scot._

v. 534. _bemole_] i. e. in B molle, soft or flat. So in the last stanza of a poem by W. Cornishe, printed in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568;

“I kepe be rounde and he by square The one is _bemole_ and the other bequare.”

v. 536.

_Plinni sheweth all_ _In his story naturall_]

See _Historia Naturalis_, lib. x. sect. 2.

v. 540. _incyneracyon_] i. e. burning to ashes.

v. 545. _corage_] i. e. heart,—feelings.

Page 68. v. 552. _the sedeane_] Does it mean subdean, or subdeacon?

v. 553. _The quere to demeane_] i. e. to conduct, direct the choir.

v. 555. _ordynall_] i. e. ritual.

v. 556. _the noble fawcon_] “There are seuen kinds of Falcons, and among them all for her _noblenesse_ and hardy courage, and withal the francknes of her mettell, I may, and doe meane to place the Falcon gentle in chiefe,” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 25. ed. 1611.

v. 557. _the gerfawcon_] “Is a gallant Hawke to behold, more huge then any other kinde of Falcon, &c.” _Id._ p. 42.

v. 558. _The tarsell gentyll_] Is properly the male of the gosshawk; but Skelton probably did not use the term in its exact meaning, for in the fifth line after this he mentions “the goshauke.” It is commonly said (see Steevens’s note on _Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 2.) to be called _tiercel_ because it is a _tierce_ or third less than the female. But, according to Turbervile, “he is termed a _Tyercelet_, for that there are most commonly disclosed three birds in one selfe eyree, two Hawkes and one Tiercell.” _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 59. ed. 1611.

v. 560. _amysse_] i. e. amice—properly the first of the six vestments common to the bishop and presbyters. “Fyrst do on the _amys_, than the albe, than the gyrdell, than the manyple, than the stoole, than the chesyble.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. E iiii. ed. 1530.

Page 68. v. 561. _The sacre_] A hawk “much like the Falcon Gentle for largenesse, and the Haggart for hardines.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 45. ed. 1611.

v. 563. _role_] i. e. roll.

v. 565. _The lanners_] “They are more blancke Hawkes then any other, they haue lesse beakes then the rest, and are lesse armed and pounced then other Falcons be.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 47. ed. 1611.

—— _the marlyons_] Or _merlins_,—the smallest of the hawks used by falconers.

v. 566. _morning gounes_] i. e. mourning-gowns.

v. 567. _The hobby_] “Of all birdes of prey that belong to the Falconers vse, I know none lesse then the Hobby, unles it be the Merlyn.” Turbervile’s _Booke of Falconrie_, &c. p. 53. ed. 1611.

—— _the muskette_] i. e. the male sparrow-hawk. “You must note, that all these kind of hawkes haue their male birdes and cockes of euerie sort and gender, as the Eagle his Earne ... and the Sparrow-hawke his _Musket_.” _Id._ p. 3. “The male sparrow hawke is called a _musket_.” _The Countrie Farme_, p. 877. ed. 1600.

v. 568. _sensers_] i. e. censers.

—— _fet_] i. e. fetch.

v. 569. _The kestrell_] A sort of base-bred hawk.

—— _warke_] i. e. work, business.

v. 570. _holy water clarke_] See note, p. 94. v. 21.

Page 69. v. 590. _And wrapt in a maidenes smocke_] Spenser seems to have recollected this passage: he says, that when Cupid was stung by a bee, Venus

—— “tooke him streight full pitiously lamenting, _And wrapt him in her smock_.”

See a little poem in his _Works_, viii. 185. ed. Todd.

v. 595. _Lenger_] i. e. Longer.

v. 600.

—— _the prety wren,_ _That is our Ladyes hen_]

So in a poem (attributed, on no authority, to Skelton) entitled _Armony of Byrdes_, n. d., and reprinted entire in _Typogr. Antiq._ iv. 380. ed. Dibdin;

“Than sayd _the wren_ I am called _the hen_ _Of our lady_ most cumly.”

p. 382.

Wilbraham, in his _Cheshire Gloss._, p. 105, gives the following metrical adage as common in that county;

“The Robin and _the Wren_ Are _God’s_ cock and _hen_, The Martin and the Swallow Are God’s mate and marrow.”

In the _Ballad of Kynd Kittok_, attributed to Dunbar, we are told that after death she “wes _our Ledyis henwyfe_,” _Poems_, ii. 36. ed. Laing.—An Elysium, very different from that described in the somewhat profane passage of our text, is assigned by the delicate fancy of Ovid to the parrot of his mistress, in the poem to which (as I have before observed, p. 120,) Skelton seems to have had an eye;

“_Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondens_,” &c.

_Amor._ ii. 6. 49.

Page 69. v. 609. _asayde_] i. e. tried—tasted: compare our author’s _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 397. vol. i. 108.

v. 610. _Elyconys_] i. e. Helicon’s.

Page 70. v. 616.

_As Palamon and Arcet,_ _Duke Theseus, and Partelet_]

See Chaucer’s _Knightes Tale_, and _Nonnes Preestes Tale_.

v. 618.

—— _of the Wyfe of Bath_, _That worketh moch scath_, &c.]

See Chaucer’s _Wif of Bathes Prologue_.—_scath_, i. e. harm, mischief.

v. 629. _Of Gawen_] Son of King Lot and nephew of King Arthur. Concerning him, see the _Morte d’Arthur_ (of which some account is given in note on v. 634),—_Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt_, in _MS. Cott. Nero_ A. x. fol. 91,—_Ywaine and Gawin_, in Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ vol. i.,—the fragment of _The Marriage of Sir Gawaine_, at the end of Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._,—_The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyn_, in Laing’s _Early Pop. Poetry of Scot._, (the same romance, from a different MS., under the title of _Sir Gawan and Sir Galaron of Galloway_, in Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, vol. iii.),—_The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane_, reprinted at Edinburgh in 1827 from the ed. of 1508, (the same romance, under the title of _Gawan and Gologras_, in Pinkerton’s _Scot. Poems_, vol. iii.),—and the romance of _Arthour and Merlin_, from the Auchinleck MS., published by the Abbotsford Club, 1838.

I had written the above note before the appearance of a valuable volume put forth by the Bannatyne Club, entitled _Syr Gawayne; A collection of Ancient Romance-Poems, by Scotish and English Authors, relating to that celebrated Knight of the Round Table, with an Introduction, &c., by Sir F. Madden_, 1839.

—— _syr Guy_] In _The Rime of Sire Thopas_, Chaucer mentions “_Sire Guy_” as one of the “romaunces of pris.” For an account of, extracts from, and an analysis of, the English romance on the subject of this renowned hero of Warwick, see Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ (_Dissert._) i. xcii., Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ i. 169. ed. 4to., and _Ellis’s Spec. of Met. Rom._ ii. I must also refer the reader to a volume, issued by the Abbotsford Club (while the present sheet was passing through the press), entitled _The Romances of Sir Guy of Warwich, and Rembrun his son. Now first edited from the Auchinleck MS._ 1840.

Page 70. v. 631.

—— _the Golden Flece,_ _How Jason it wan_]

_A boke of the hoole lyf of Jason_ was printed by Caxton in folio, n. d. (about 1475), being a translation by that venerable typographer from the French of Raoul le Fevre. A copy of it (now before me) in the King’s Library, though apparently perfect, has no title of any sort. Specimens of this prose-romance, which is not without merit, may be found in Dibdin’s _Biblioth. Spenc._ iv. 199.—The story of Jason is also told by Chaucer, _Legend of Hipsiphile and Medea_; by Gower, _Conf. Am._ Lib. v.; and, at considerable length, by Lydgate, _Warres of Troy_, B. i.

v. 634.

_Of Arturs rounde table,_ _With his knightes commendable,_ _And dame Gaynour, his quene,_ _Was somwhat wanton, I wene;_ _How syr Launcelote de Lake_ _Many a spere brake_ _For his ladyes sake;_ _Of Trystram, and kynge Marke,_ _And al the hole warke_ _Of Bele Isold his wyfe_]

—_warke_, i. e. work, affair.—Concerning the various romances on the subject of Arthur, Lancelot, Tristram, &c. see Sir F. Madden’s Introduction to the volume already mentioned, _Syr Gawayne, &c._—In this passage, however, Skelton seems to allude more particularly to a celebrated compilation from the French—the prose romance of _The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of Kyng Arthur_, &c., commonly known by the name of _Morte d’Arthur_. At the conclusion of the first edition printed in folio by Caxton (and reprinted in 1817 with an Introd. and Notes by Southey) we are told “_this booke was ended the ix. yere of the reygne of kyng Edward the Fourth by syr Thomas Maleore, knyght_”.... “_Whiche booke was reduced in to Englysshe by Syr Thomas Malory knyght as afore is sayd and by me_ [Caxton] _deuyded in to xxi bookes chaptyred and emprynted and fynysshed in thabbey Westmestre the last day of July the yere of our lord_ MCCCCLXXXV.”

In the _Morte d’Arthur_, the gallant and courteous Sir Launcelot du Lake, son of King Ban of Benwyck, figures as the devoted lover of Arthur’s queen, Gueneuer (Skelton’s “_Gaynour_”), daughter of King Lodegreans of Camelard. On several occasions, Gueneuer, after being condemned to be burnt, is saved by the valour of her knight. But their criminal intercourse proves in the end the destruction of Arthur and of the fellowship of the Round Table. Gueneuer becomes a nun, Launcelot a priest. The last meeting of the guilty pair,—the interment of Gueneuer’s body by her paramour,—and the death of Launcelot, are related with no ordinary pathos and simplicity.

The same work treats fully of the loves of Sir Trystram, son of King Melyodas of Lyones, and La Beale Isoud (Skelton’s “_Bele Isold_”), daughter of King Anguysshe of Ireland, and wife of King Marke of Cornwall, Trystram’s uncle.—(Trystram’s wife, Isoud La Blaunche Maynys, was daughter of King Howel of Bretagne).—The excuse for the intrigue between Trystram and his uncle’s spouse is, that their mutual passion was the consequence of a love-potion, which they both drank without being aware of its nature.

“In our forefathers time,” observes Ascham, somewhat severely, “when Papistrie, as a standing poole, couered and ouerflowed all England, fewe bookes were red in our tonge, sauing certayne bookes of Chiualrie, as they sayd for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in Monasteries, by idle Monkes, or wanton Chanons: as one for example _Morte Arthur_: the whole pleasure of which booke standeth in two speciall pointes, in open mans slaughter, and bolde bawdrye: in which booke, those bee counted the noblest knights, that doe kill most men without any quarell, and commit fowlest aduoulteries by sutlest shifts: as Sir Launcelote, with the wife of king Arthure his maister: Sir Tristram, with the wife of King Marke his uncle: Syr Lamerocke, with the wife of king Lote, that was his own aunte. This is good stuffe, for wise men to laugh at, or honest men to take pleasure at. Yet I knowe, when Gods Bible was banished the Court, and _Morte Arthure_ receaued into the Princes chamber.” _The Schole Master_, fol. 27. ed. 1571.

Page 71. v. 649.

—— _of syr Lybius,_ _Named Dysconius_]

See the romance of _Lybeaus Disconus_ (_Le beau desconnu_), in Ritson’s _Met. Rom._ ii.; also Sir F. Madden’s note in the volume entitled _Syr Gawayne_, &c. p. 346.

v. 651.

_Of Quater Fylz Amund,_ ... ... _how they rode eche one_ _On Bayarde Mountalbon;_ _Men se hym now and then_ _In the forest of Arden_]

The English prose romance on the subject of these worthies came originally from the press of Caxton, an imperfect copy of his edition n. d. folio, being in Lord Spencer’s library; see Dibdin’s _Ædes Althorp._