When rutterkyn from borde will ryse He will piss a galon pott full at twise And the ouerplus vndir the table of the newe gyse Like a rutter hoyda.” Sir John Hawkins printed the above song (with the music) and tells us that it “is supposed to be a satire on those drunken Flemings who came into England with the princess Anne of Cleve, upon her marriage with king Hen. viii.” _Hist. of Music_, iii. 2. But if it be the very song quoted in our text, it must allude to “rutterkyns” of a considerably earlier period; and, as the Fairfax MS. contains two other pieces which are certainly known to be from Skelton’s pen, there is a probability that this also was composed by him. _Court. Ab._ in his next speech but one says, “am not I a ioly _rutter_?” and (v. 846) “My robe russheth So _ruttyngly_.” _Rutter_, which properly means—a rider, a trooper (Germ. _reiter_, _reuter_), came to be employed, like its diminutive _rutterkin_, as a cant term, and with various significations, (see Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. q iii. ed. 1530; Drant’s _Horace His Arte of Poetrie, pistles_, &c. sig. D ii. ed. 1567). When _Court. Ab._ asks “am not I a ioly _rutter_?” he evidently uses the word in the sense of—dashing fellow, gallant, alluding to his dress, on which he afterwards enlarges in a soliloquy. In v. 805 _Cr. Con._ terms him “this ioly _ietter_.” Compare the following passage of Medwall’s _Interlude of Nature_, n. d.; “And whan he is in suche aray There goth _a rutter_ men wyll say _a rutter huf a galand_.” Sig. d ii. Page 249. v. 759. _Decke your hofte, &c._.]—_hofte_, i. e. head. If I rightly understand the passage, _Court. Ab._ desires _Cl. Col._ to put on his hat, or cap: see note below the text. v. 760. _Say vous, &c._] i. e. _Savez vous_, &c.: the last three words of the line seem to be the beginning of some French song. Page 249. v. 761. _Wyda_] i. e. _Oui da!_ v. 763. _rome_] i. e. room, place. —— _stonde vtter_] i. e. stand out, back. v. 765. _a betell or a batowe, or a buskyn lacyd_] In _Ortus Vocab._ fol. ed. W. de Worde, n. d., besides “Feritorium. anglice a battynge staffe a batyll dur or _a betyll_,” we find “Porticulus. anglice a lytell handstaff or a _betyll_.” For “batowe” I have proposed in a note below the text “_batone_” (baton), a conjecture which is somewhat supported by the preceding word; but it seems more probable that the right reading is “_botowe_,” i. e. boot, for the work above cited has “Ocree ... anglice botis or _botwes_ [ed. 1514—_botowes_],” and _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499 gives “_Botewe_. Coturnus.” Page 250. v. 768. _Jacke Hare_] See note, p. 211. v. 270. —— _loke thou be not rusty_] i. e. look that thou be not cankered, uncivil. v. 769. _nother_] i. e. neither. v. 770. _lusty_] See note, p. 183, heading of poem. v. 773. _Mary_] i. e. By the Virgin Mary.