The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)Skelton, John
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The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)
Skelton, John
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
“Behold the bonet vppon my hed
a staryng colour of scarlet red
I promyse you a fyne threde
and a soft wull
It cost me a noble at one pyche
The scald capper sware sythyche
That yt cost hym euen as myche
But there Pryde had a pull.
I loue yt well to haue syde here
Halfe a wote byneth myne ere
For euer more I stande in fere
That myne nek shold take cold
I knyt yt vp all the nyght
and the day tyme kemb yt down ryght
And then yt cryspeth and shyneth as bryght
as any pyrled gold.
My doublet ys on laced byfore
A stomacher of saten and no more
Rayn yt snow yt neuer so sore
Me thynketh I am to hote
Than haue I suche a short gown
Wyth _wyde sleues_ that hang a down
They wold make some lad in thys town
a doublet and a cote.
Som men wold thynk that this were pryde
But yt ys not so, ho ho abyde
I haue a dagger by my syde
yet therof spake not I
I bought thys dagger at the marte
A sharp poynt and a tarte
He that had yt in hys hart
Were as good to dye.
Than haue I a sworde or twayn
To bere theym my selfe yt were a payne
They ar so heuy that I am fayne
to puruey suche a lad
Though I say yt a praty boy
It ys halfe my lyues ioy
He maketh me laugh wyth many a toy
The vrchyn ys so mad.”
Sig. c ii.
Page 253. v. 861. _hose_] i. e. breeches.
v. 866. _hyght_] i. e. am called.
v. 871. _thee_] i. e. thrive.
v. 872. _fon_] i. e. fool.
Page 254. v. 878. _pore_] i. e. poor.
v. 881. _to to_] So in v. 2121;
“To flatterynge, to smatterynge, _to to_ out of harre.”
Compare _M. Harry Whobals mon to M. Camel_, &c. (folio broadside among
the “flytings” of Churchyard and Camell);
“My master Harry Whoball, sur, is _to to_ shamefull wrothe.
...
... for drinke is _to to_ nappye.”
Ray gives “_Too too_ will in two. _Chesh._” _Proverbs_, p. 163. ed. 1768.
v. 884. _crake_] i. e. vaunt.
Page 254. v. 885. _I befoule his pate_] i. e. I befool, &c. (not
_befoul_), as it would seem from v. 1057, “I _befole_ thy face;” and v.
1829, “I _befole_ thy brayne pan.”
v. 886. _fonne iet_] i. e. foolish fashion (see note on v. 458. p. 242).
v. 887. _From out of Fraunce_] So Barclay;
“Reduce courtiers clerely vnto your remembraunce,
From whence _this disguising_ was brought wherin ye go,
As I remember _it was brought out of France_.”
_The Ship of Fooles_, fol. 9. ed. 1570.
Borde, in his _Boke of knowledge_, introduces a Frenchman saying,
“I am ful of new inuencions
And dayly I do make new toyes and fashions
Al necions of me example do take
Whan any garment they go about to make.”
Sig. T. reprint.
v. 889. _purueaunce_] i. e. provision.
v. 907. _carlys_] i. e. churl’s.
v. 909. _wonne_] i. e. dwell.
Page 255. v. 915. _slyue_] i. e. sleeve.
v. 918. _preue_] i. e. prove.
v. 919. _A Tyborne checke_] i. e. a rope.
—— _craynge, Stow, stow_]—_craynge_, i. e. crying. See note, p. 206. v.
73.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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