THE MANER OF THE WORLD NOW A DAYES.
In giving this poem a place among our author’s undoubted productions, I now apprehend that I deferred too much to the judgment of my friend Mr. J. P. Collier, who had recently reprinted it without suspecting its genuineness. It may, after all, be Skelton’s; but at any rate it is only a rifacimento of the following verses,—found in MS. Sloane, 747. fol. 88, and very difficult to decipher:
“So propre cappes
So lytle hattes
And so false hartes
Saw y never.
So wyde gownes
In cytees and townes
And so many sellers of bromys
Say I never.
Suche garded huoes [hose]
Suche playted shoes
And suche a pose
Say y never.
Dowbletes not[?] syde
The syde so wyde
And so moche pride
Was never.
So many ryven shertes
So well appareld chyrches
And so many lewed clerkes
Say I never.
So fayre coursers
So godely trappers
And so fewe foluers
Say y never.
So many fayere suerdes
So lusty knyghtes and lordes
And so fewe covered bordes
Say I never.
So joly garded clokes
So many clyppers of grotes
And go vntyde be the throtes
Say I never.
So many wyde pu[r]ces
And so fewe gode horses
And so many curses
Say y never.
Suche bosters and braggers
And suche newe facyshyont daggers
And so many cursers
Say I never.
So many propere knyffes
So well apparelld wyfes
And so evyll of there lyfes
Say I never.
The stretes so swepynge
With wemen clothynge
And so moche swerynge
Say I never.
Suche blendynge of legges
In townes and hegges
And so many plegges
Say I never.
Of wymen kynde
Lased be hynde
So lyke the fende
Say I never.
So many spyes
So many lyes
And so many thevys
Say I never.
So many wronges
So few mery songges
And so many ivel tonges
Say I neuer.
So moche trechery
Symony and vsery
Poverte and lechery
Say I never.
So fewe sayles
So lytle avayles
And so many jayles
Sawe y never.
So many esterlynges
Lombardes and flemynges
To bere awey our wynynges
Sawe I never.
Be there sotyll weys
Al Englande decays
For suche false Januayes
Sawe I neuer.
Amonge the ryche
Where frenship ys to seche
But so fayre glosynge speche
Sawe I never.
So many poore
Comynge to the dore
And so litle socour
Sawe I never.
So prowde and say [gay?]
So joly in aray
And so litle money
Sawe I never.
So many sellers
So fewe byers
And so many marchaunt taylors
Sawe I never.
Executores havynge mony and ware
Than havynge so litle care
How the pore sowle shall fare
Sawe I never.
So many lawers vse
The truthe to refuse
And suche falsehed excuse
Sawe I never.
Whan a man ys dede
His wiffe so shortely wed
And havynge suche hast to bed
Sawe I neuer.
So many maydens blamed
Wrongefully not defamed
And beyenge so lytle ashamyd
Sawe I never.
Relygiouse in cloystere closyd
And prestes and large[272] losed
Beyenge so evyll disposyd
Sawe I never.
God saue our sovereygne lord the kynge
And alle his royal sprynge
For so noble a prince reyny[n]ge
Sawe I never.”
[272] and large] Qy. “at large?” but it is by no means certain that “large” is the reading of the MS.
Page 148. v. 9. gardes] i. e. facings, trimmings.
v. 10. Jagged] See note, p. 163. v. 124: but here probably (as certainly in v. 54) something ornamental is meant.
—— al to-torne] See note, p. 100. v. 32.
v. 15. hostryes] i. e. inns.
v. 17. warkes] i. e. works.
v. 22. preves] i. e. proves; equivalent, perhaps, to—turn out well.
Page 149. v. 25. garded hose] i. e. faced, trimmed breeches.
v. 26. cornede] i. e. horned, pointed.
v. 29. questes] i. e. inquests.
v. 31. quitte] i. e. acquitted.
v. 50. crakers] i. e. vaunters, big talkers.
v. 54. cultyng and jagging] See note above, v. 10: cultyng, I believe, should be cuttyng.
Page 150. v. 57. knackes] i. e. trifles, toys, or perhaps tricks.
v. 58. naughty packes] An expression which occurs again in our author’s Garlande of Laurell, v. 188. vol. i. 369, is common in writers of a much later date, and is not yet altogether obsolete (see The Dialect of Craven, &c. in Noughty-Pack),—equivalent to worthless, loose persons (properly, it would seem, cheaters; see Richardson’s Dict. in v. Pack).
Page 151. v. 90. kepe tuche] i. e. keep contract, agreement.
v. 93. pore] i. e. poor.
v. 94. bordoure] i. e. border.
v. 101. bowyers] i. e. bow-makers.
v. 102. fletchers] i. e. arrow-makers.
v. 105. chepers] i. e. traffickers, sellers (compare the fourth stanza on the opposite page).
v. 109. alle sellers] i. e. ale-sellers.
v. 110. baudy] i. e. foul; see note, p. 161. v. 90.
—— sellers] i. e. cellars.
v. 113. pinkers] Some cant term which I do not understand.
Page 152. v. 121. vacabounde] i. e. vagabond.
v. 122. londe] i. e. land.
v. 123. bonde] i. e. bound.
v. 129. fleyng] i. e. flying.
v. 130. males] i. e. bags, wallets, pouches.
Page 152. v. 138. covetous] i. e. covetise, covetousness.
v. 141. carders] i. e. card-players.
v. 143. yl ticers] i. e. evil-enticers.
v. 145. lollers] “Apostaticus ... anglice a renegade or loller.” Ortus Vocab. ed. 1514. “Lollar heretique.” Palsgrave’s Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. xlv. (Table of Subst.). So at the conclusion of The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy, the term Lollard is used to signify a heretic: see Dunbar’s Poems, ii. 445 (note), ed. Laing. Compare too our author’s Replycacion, &c. v. 204. vol. i. 215.
v. 146. tollers] i. e. tellers, speakers.
v. 147. pollers] i. e. plunderers.
Page 153. v. 153. So many avayles] An expression which I do not understand: the poem just given from MS. Sloane has “So lytle avayles;” see p. 201, last stanza but two.
v. 154. geales] i. e. gaols.
v. 161. jackes] i. e. jackets.
v. 163. partlettes] i. e. ruffs.
v. 166. tucking hookes] Another expression which I do not understand.
v. 169. song] i. e. sung.
v. 178. brybors] i. e. thieves,—properly, pilferers. “Briboure. Manticulus.” Prompt. Parv. ed. 1499; and see note on our author’s Magnyfycence, v. 1242.
v. 182. everichone] i. e. every one.
Page 154. v. 186. convenient] i. e. fitting, suitable.