The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)Skelton, John
General
The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)
Skelton, John
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
v. 1125. _reclaymed_] A metaphor from falconry. “_Reclaming_ is to tame,
make gentle, or to bring a Hawk to familiarity with the man.” Latham’s
_Faulconry_ (_Explan. of Words of Art_), 1658.
Page 86. v. 1146. _tote_] i. e. look, gaze: see note on v. 411, p. 129.
v. 1147. _fote_] i. e. foot.
v. 1148. _hert rote_] i. e. heart-root.
v. 1151.
_She is playnly expresse_
_Egeria, the goddesse,_
_And lyke to her image,_
_Emportured with corage,_
_A louers pilgrimage_]
I must leave the reader to form his own idea of the meaning of the last
two lines, which are beyond my comprehension.
v. 1157. _Ne_] i. e. Nor.
—— _wood_] i. e. mad, furious.
Page 87. v. 1170.
_So goodly as she dresses,_
_So properly she presses_
_The bryght golden tresses_
_Of her heer so fyne,_
_Lyke Phebus beames shyne._
_Wherto shuld I disclose_
_The garterynge of her hose?_]
—_Phebus beames shyne_, i. e. the shine of Phœbus’ beams. Compare Hawes;
“_Her shining here so properly she dresses_
Alofe her forehed with fayre _golden tresses_
...
Her fete proper, _she gartered well her hose_.”
_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. S i. ed. 1555.
v. 1177. _to suppose_] i. e. to be supposed.
Page 87. v. 1178. _were_] i. e. wear.
v. 1179. _gere_] i. e. dress, clothes.
v. 1180. _fresshe_] i. e. gay.
v. 1184. _lusty somer_] i. e. pleasant summer.
v. 1194. _kyrtell_] “_Kyrtell_ a garment _corpset_, _surcot_, _cotelle_.”
Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xliii. (Table of
Subst.). It has been variously explained (see notes on _Henry IV_. Part
ii. act ii. sc. 4, _Shakespeare_ by Malone and Boswell, xvii. 98, 99,
Todd’s _Johnson’s Dict._, and Nares’s _Gloss._), petticoat,—safe-guard or
riding-hood,—long cloak,—long mantle, reaching to the ground, with a head
to it that entirely covered the face, and usually red,—apron,—jacket,—and
loose gown!!! The following note by Gifford on _Cynthia’s Revels_
(Jonson’s _Works_, ii. 260) gives the most satisfactory account of
a kirtle: “Few words have occasioned such controversy among the
commentators on our old plays as this; and all for want of knowing that
it is used in a two-fold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and
sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle
was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently
occurs) was either the one or the other: but our ancestors, who wrote
when this article of dress was everywhere in use, and when there was
little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves
with the simple term (kirtle), leaving the sense to be gathered from the
context.”
v. 1199. _let_] i. e. hinder.
Page 88. v. 1205. _pullysshed_] i. e. polished.
v. 1223. _Jane_] See note, p. 122.
v. 1225. _hyght_] i. e. called.
Page 89. v. 1242. _saynt Jamys_] i. e. Saint James of Compostella: see
note on _Elynour Rummyng_, v. 354.
v. 1243. _pranys_] i. e. prawns.
v. 1244. _cranys_] i. e. cranes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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