Perhaps this is the earliest instance of a quibble between _raisins_ and _reasons_. The same pun is used by Shakespeare in _Much ado about Nothing_, act v. sc. 1, and (though Steevens thinks not) in _Troilus and Cressida_, act ii. sc. 2: compare also Dekker; “_Raisons_ will be much askt for, especially in an action of iniury.” _The Owles Almanache_ 1618. p. 36. Page 22. v. 438. _Ryn_] i. e. Run. v. 439. _the date of the Devyll_] See note, p. 116. v. 375. —— _shrewlye_] i. e. shrewdly, badly. —— _quod_] i. e. quoth. v. 442. _So many morall maters, &c._] There is a considerable resemblance between this concluding portion of _Speke, Parrot_, and a piece attributed to Dunbar, entitled _A General Satyre_; see his _Poems_, ii, 24. ed. Laing. v. 443. _So myche newe makyng_] i. e. So much new composing. v. 457. _stondythe_] i. e. standeth. Page 23. v. 460. _on dawys hedd_] i. e. one daw’s head: see note, p. 113. v. 301. v. 467. _dowȝtfull daunger_] i. e. doubtful danger,—danger that ought to cause dread. v. 471. _not worthe an hawe_] See note, p. 269. v. 2115. v. 472. _So myche papers weryng for ryghte a smalle exesse_]—_exesse_, i. e. excess, offence. “And for a truthe he [the Cardinal] so punyshed periurye with open punyshment & _open papers werynge_, that in his tyme it was lesse vsed.” Hall’s _Chron._ (Hen. viii.), fol. lix. ed. 1548. v. 473. _pelory pajauntes_] i. e. pillory-pageants. v. 474. _the cooke stole_] See note, p. 183. v. 38. —— _guy gaw_] i. e. gewgaw, trifle. v. 478. _So bolde a braggyng bocher...._ ... _So mangye a mastyfe curre, the grete grey houndes pere_] Again, in his _Why come ye nat to Courte_, Skelton alludes to the report that Wolsey was the son of a butcher, vv. 295. 491. vol. ii. 36. 42. Compare too Roy’s satire against Wolsey, _Rede me, and be nott wrothe,_ &c.; “_The mastif curre_, bred in Ypswitch towne. ... _Wat._ He commeth then of some noble stocke? _Jeff._ His father coulde snatche a bullock, A butcher by his occupacion.” _Harl. Miscell._ ix. 3. 31. ed. Park. and a poem _Of the Cardnalle Wolse_; “To se a churle _a Bochers curre_ To rayne & rule in soche honour,” &c. _MS. Harl._ 2252. fol. 156. Cavendish says that Wolsey “was an honest poor man’s son;” and the will of his father (printed by Fiddes) shews that he possessed some property; but, as Mr. Sharon Turner observes, that Wolsey was the son of a butcher “was reported and believed while he lived.” _Hist, of Reign of Hen. the Eighth_, i. 167. ed. 8vo. With the second line of the present passage compare our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_, where he wishes that “that mastyfe” Wolsey, may ... “neuer confounde The gentyll _greyhownde_.” v. 775. vol. ii. 50. By the _greyhound_ seems to be meant Henry viii., in allusion to the royal arms.