The sense in which Skelton employs these words is fully illustrated by the following passages of Hormanni _Vulgaria_, ed. 1530: “This was a subtyle and an _haftynge_ poynt. Astus fuit, et _versatilis ingenii_ argumentum. He is a _hafter_ of kynde. Est _versutiæ_ ingenitæ homo.” sig. N vi. “A flaterynge _hafter_ is soone espyed of a wyse man. Sedulus _captator_,” &c. sig. O ii. “There is nothynge more set by nowe than subtyle _hafters ... callidis_.” sig. O iii. “There is an _haftynge_ poynt, or a false subtylte. _Stellionatus crimen_ est.” sig. n iiii. “—— _haftynge ... dolus malus_.” sig. s viii. Page 35. v. 138. _male_] i. e. bag, wallet, pouch. Page 36. v. 143. _auaunce_] i. e. advance. v. 144. _solace_] i. e. sport. v. 149. _connynge_] i. e. knowledge. v. 150. _Deynte to haue with vs suche one in store_] In Chaucer’s _Clerkes Tale_, v. 8988, Tyrwhitt explains (and rightly, I believe) “_it was deintee_”—it was a valuable thing. But both in the present passage, and in a subsequent stanza of the same poem— “Trowest thou, dreuyll, I saye, thou gawdy knaue, That I haue _deynte_ to see thé cherysshed thus?” v. 337— “deynte” seems to be equivalent to—pleasure: compare “Bycause that he hath ioye and great _deintye_ To reade in bokes of olde antiquitye.” Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_ (_Prologue_), sig. B i. ed. 1555. “Adew, dolour, adew! my _daynte_ now begynis.” Dunbar’s tale of _The Tua Maryit Wemen and the Wedo_,—_Poems_, i. 76. ed. Laing. v. 154. _it is surmountynge_] i. e. it is surpassing, it excels. v. 155. _ony_ i. e. any. Page 37. v. 173. _lewde cok wattes_]—_lewde_, i. e. ignorant, vile. Compare our author’s third copy of verses _Against venemous tongues_; “Than ye may commaunde me to gentil _Cok wat_.”—vol. i. 132. and his _Magnyfycence_; “What canest thou do but play _cocke wat_?” v. 1206. vol. i. 264. Is _cock wat_ only another form of _cockward_, i. e. cuckold? See _Arthur and the King of Cornwall_, p. 279,—_Syr Gawayne_, &c., edited by Sir F. Madden. Page 37. v. 174. _hardely_] i. e. assuredly. v. 175. _but no worde that I sayde_] i. e. but mention not a word that I said. v. 180. _reboke_] i. e. belch, cast up. “As grunting and drinking, _reboking_ vp agayne.” Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_, fol. 229. ed. 1570. v. 181. _at a brayde_] i. e. at a start, at a turn, on a sudden, forthwith. v. 183. _quod_] i. e. quoth. v. 184. _lete_] i. e. hinder. v. 186. _Twyst_] i. e. Tush. —— _ne reke_] i. e. reck not. v. 187. _a soleyne freke_]—_soleyne_, i. e. sullen: _freke_ is here equivalent to—fellow. See Jamieson’s _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ in v. _Freik_, for the various senses in which the word was used. v. 189. _Ye_] i. e. Yea. v. 191. _whom and ha_] i. e. hum and ha. v. 193. _quoke_] i. e. quaked. Page 38. v. 198. _commaunde_] i. e. communed, conversed.