FOOTNOTES:
[682] Bottles formerly were of leather; though perhaps a wooden bottle might be here meant. It is still a diversion in Scotland to hang up a cat in a small cask or firkin, half filled with soot: and then a parcel of clowns on horseback try to beat out the ends of it, in order to show their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall upon them.
[683] i.e. Each with a canvas bow-case tied round his loins.
[684] [Ritson's book.]
[685] Clym of the Clough, means Clem. [Clement] of the Cliff: for so Clough signifies in the North.
[686] [attend.]
[687] [companion or wife.]
[688] Ver. 24. Caerlel, in PC. passim.
[689] [from this wild wood depart.]
[690] [six o'clock in the morning.]
[691] V. 35. take, PC. tane, MS.
[692] [might.]
[693] [glad.]
[694] Ver. 85. sic MS. shop window, PC.
[695] [company.]
[696] [from thee.]
[697] [burn.]
[698] [burnt.]
[699] [sooner.]
[700] [in the crowd to run.]
[701] [wild.]
[702] [in a crowd.]
[703] [fiercely.]
[704] Ver. 151. Sic MS. hye Justice, PC.
[705] V. 153, 4, are contracted from the folio MS. and PC.
[706] [quickly.]
[707] [lusty.]
[708] Ver. 179. yonge men, PC.
[709] [condemned.]
[710] [hang.]
[711] Ver. 190. sic MS. shadowes sheene, PC.
[712] [vexation.]
[713] V. 197. jolly yeomen, MS. wight yong men, PC.
[714] [redeem.]
[715] [unto.]
[716] [hastened.]
[717] [sluggard or stupid fellow.]
[718] [mad.]
[719] Ver. 38. Lordeyne, PC.
[720] i. e. weened, thought (which last is the reading of the folio MS.)——Calais, or Rouen was taken from the English by showing the governor, who could not read, a letter with the king's seal, which was all he looked at.
[721] [doffed his hood.]
[722] [glad.]
[723] [despoiled.]
[724] So Ascham in his Toxophilus gives a precept; "The Stringe must be rounde" (p. 149. Ed. 1761): otherwise, we may conclude from mechanical principles, the Arrow will not fly true.
[725] [hour.]
[726] [inquest.]
[727] Ver. 105. lowsed thre, PC.
[728] V. 108. can bled, MS.
[729] [went off.]
[730] [pressed.]
[731] Outhorne, is an old term signifying the calling forth of subjects to arms by the sound of a horn. See Cole's Lat. Dict., Bailey, &c. [Perhaps "a nouthorne," or neat's horn, from nowt, cattle.]
[732] [company.]
[733] [fear.]
[734] Ver. 148. For of, MS.
[735] [fight.]
[736] [pike or halbert.]
[737] [burst.]
[738] [abroad.]
[739] This is spoken ironically.
[740] [lime tree.]
[741] Ver. 175. merry green wood, MS.
[742] [company.]
[743] Ver. 185. see Part I. ver. 197.
[744] [might.]
[745] [thought.]
[746] Ver. 20. never had se, PC. and MS.
[747] [clear space in a forest.]
[748] [fat hart.]
[749] [without lying.]
[750] Ver. 50. have I no care, PC.
[751] i.e. hie, hasten.
[752] [pressed quickly.]
[753] [blamed.]
[754] Ver. 111, 119. sic. MS. bowne, PC.
[755] [at once.]
[756] [satisfaction.]
[757] [dear.]
[758] [I thank you.]
[759] Ver. 130. God a mercye, MS.
[760] [lying.]
[761] [pity.]
[762] [rather.]
[763] [vexeth.]
[764] Ver. 168. left but one, MS. not one, PC.
[765] [foresters of the king's demesnes.]
[766] [slain.]
[767] [get them ready instantly.]
[768] V. 185. blythe, MS.
[769] i.e. mark.
[770] Ver. 202, 203, 212. to, PC.
[771] [hazel rods.]
[772] V. 204. i.e. 400 yards.
[773] V. 208. sic MS. none that can, PC.
[774] [an arrow that carries well.]
[775] [trial of skill.]
[776] V. 222. i.e. 120 yards.
[777] Ver. 243. sic, MS. out met, PC.
[778] V. 252. steedye, MS.
[779] [nigh.]
[780] [ranger.]
[781] Ver. 265. And I geve the xvij pence, PC.
[782] [faith.]
[783] V. 282. And sayd to some Bishopp wee will wend, MS.
[784] [absolved.]
[785] he, i.e. hie, hasten.
II.
THE AGED LOVER RENOUNCETH LOVE.
The Grave-digger's song in Hamlet, act v. is taken from three stanzas of the following poem, though greatly altered and disguised, as the same were corrupted by the ballad-singers of Shakespeare's time; or perhaps so designed by the poet himself, the better to suit the character of an illiterate clown. The original is preserved among Surrey's Poems, and is attributed to Lord Vaux, by George Gascoigne, who tells us, it "was thought by some to be made upon his death-bed;" a popular error which he laughs at. (See his Epist. to Yong Gent. prefixed to his Posies, 1575, 4to.) It is also ascribed to Lord Vaux in a manuscript copy preserved in the British Museum.[786] This Lord was remarkable for his skill in drawing feigned manners, &c. for so I understand an ancient writer. "The Lord Vaux his commendation lyeth chiefly in the facilitie of his meetre, and the aptnesse of his descriptions such as he taketh upon him to make, namely in sundry of his Songs, wherein he showeth the counterfait action very lively and pleasantly." Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589, p. 51. See another Song by this Poet in vol. ii. No. viii.
[Thomas second Lord Vaux, the author of this poem, was born in the year 1510. He wrote several small pieces of the same character which evince taste and feeling, and his contributions to the Paradise of Dainty Devices exceed in number those of Richard Edwards himself, whose name appears upon the original title-page as the chief author. Lord Vaux was a courtier as well as a poet, and was one of the splendid retinue which attended Wolsey in his embassy, in the 19th Henry VIII., 1527, to the Court of France to negotiate a peace. He took his seat in the House of Lords in the 22nd Henry VIII., and two years afterwards, 1532, waited on the king to Calais and thence to Boulogne. He was rewarded with the Order of the Bath at the Coronation of Anne Boleyn, and was also appointed Captain of the Island of Jersey, which office he surrendered in the 28th Henry VIII.]
I loth that I did love,
In youth that I thought swete,
As time requires: for my behove[787]
Me thinkes they are not mete.[788]
My lustes they do me leave,5
My fansies all are fled;[789]
And tract of time begins to weave
Gray heares upon my hed.
For Age with steling steps,
Hath clawde me with his crowch,[790][791]10
And lusty 'Youthe' awaye he leapes,[792]
As there had bene none such.
My muse doth not delight
Me, as she did before:
My hand and pen are not in plight,15
As they have bene of yore.
For Reason me denies,
'All' youthly idle rime;[793]
And day by day to me she cries,
Leave off these toyes in tyme.20
The wrinkles in my brow,
The furrowes in my face
Say, Limping age will 'lodge' him now,[794]
Where youth must geve him place.
The harbenger of death,25
To me I se him ride,
The cough, the cold, the gasping breath,
Doth bid me to provide
A pikeax and a spade,
And eke a shrowding shete,[795]30
A house of clay for to be made
For such a guest most mete.
Me thinkes I heare the clarke,
That knoles the carefull knell;[796]
And bids me leave my 'wearye' warke,[797]35
Ere nature me compell.
My kepers[798] knit the knot,
That youth doth laugh to scorne,[799]
Of me that 'shall bee cleane' forgot,[800]
As I had 'ne'er' bene borne.[801]40
Thus must I youth geve up,
Whose badge I long did weare:
To them I yeld the wanton cup,
That better may it beare.
Lo here the bared skull;[802]45
By whose balde signe I know,
That stouping age away shall pull
'What' youthful yeres did sow.[803]
For Beautie with her band,
These croked cares had wrought,50
And shipped me into the land,
From whence I first was brought.
And ye that bide behinde,
Have ye none other trust:
As ye of claye were cast by kinde,55
So shall ye 'turne' to dust.[804]