Verse 9th. _Gondomar_ was the Spanish Ambassador at the Court of James I., to whom, with his “one word” of “Pyrates, Pyrates, Pyrates,” we in great part owe the slaughter of Raleigh. Of course, the date ’526, four lines lower, is a blunder. The rash visit to Madrid was in March, 1623. Title, and verse 8th. A _Jack-a-Lent_ was a stuffed puppet, set up to be thrown at, during Lent. Perhaps it was a substitute for a live Cock; or else the Cock-throwing may have been a later “improvement:” See Hone’s _Every Day Book_, for an illustrated account, i. 249. Trace of the habit survives in our modern “Old Aunt Sally,” by which yokels lose money at Races (although Dorset Rectors try to abolish Country Fairs, while encouragement is given to gambling at Chapel Bazaars with raffles for pious purposes). In the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act iii. sc. 3, Mrs. Page says to the boy, “You little _Jack-a-Lent_, have you been true to us?” Quarles alludes to the practice:— _How like a ~Jack-a-Lent~_ _He stands, for boys to spend their Shrove-tide throws,_ _Or like a puppet made to frighten crows._ (J. O. Halliwell’s _M. W. of W._, Tallis ed., p. 127.) John Taylor (the Water-Poet) wrote a whim-wham entitled “_Jack a Lent: his Beginning and Entertainment_,” about 1619, printed 1630; as “of the Jack of Jacks, great Jack a Lent.” And Cleveland devoted thus a Cavalier’s worn suit: “Thou shalt make _Jack-a-Lents_ and Babies first.” (_Poems_, 1662, p. 56.) Martin Llewellyn’s Song on Cock-throwing begins “Cock a doodle doe, ’tis the bravest game;” in his _Men-Miracles_, &c., 1646, p. 61. Page 31. _A Story strange I will you tell._ As to the burden (since some folks are inquisitive about the etymology of Down derry down, or Ran-dan, &c.), we may note that in a queer book, _The Loves of Hero and Leander_, 1651, p. 3, is a six-line verse ending thus: “_Oh, ~Hero~, ~Hero~, pitty me,_ _With a dildo, dildo, dildo dee._”