MERY TALES AND QUICK ANSWERES.

P. [16]. Of him that preched on Saynt Christophers day.

In A Booke of Meery Riddles, 1617 (repr. of ed. 1629, p. 73 of Mr. Halliwell's Literature of the xvith and xviith centuries Illustrated, &c. 1851), we have the following:—

The xvii Riddle.

"Who bare the best burthen that ever was borne
At any time since, or at any time befor[n]e.

Solution.—It was the asse that bare both Our Lady and her Sonne out of Egypt."

P. [21]. Of the yonge woman that sorowed so greatly her husbondes deth.

"There was a poor young Woman who had brought herself even to Death's Door with grief for her sick Husband, but the good Man her Father did all he could to comfort her. Come, Child, said he, we are all mortal. Pluck up a good heart, my Child: for let the worst come to the worst, I have a better Husband in store for thee. Alas, Sir, says she, what d'ye talk of another Husband for? Why, you had as good have stuck a Dagger to my Heart. No, no; if ever I think of another Husband, may—! Without any more ado, the Man dies, and the Woman, immediately breaks into such Transports of tearing her Hair, and beating her Breast, that everybody thought she'd have run stark-mad upon it. But, upon second Thoughts, she wipes her Eyes, lifts them up, and cries, Heaven's will be done! and turning to her Father, Pray Sir, says she, about t' other Husband you were speaking of, is he here in the House?"—Complete London Jester, 1771, p. 49.

This story was appropriated by the editor of Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments, of which there were several editions, the first appearing in 1604. In Pasquil's Jests, the tale is told of a "young woman of Barnet."

She rowned her father in the eare.

Gower (Confessio Amantis, ed. Pauli, Vol. 1. p. 161) has a precisely similar expression:—

"But whan they rounenin her ere,
Than groweth all my moste fere."

P. [21]. Of him that kissed the mayde with the longe nose.

"'Good Sir William, let it rest' quoth shee, 'I know you will not beleeue it when I haue reuealed it, neither is it a thing that you can helpe: and yet such is my foolishnesse, had it not beene for that, I thinke, verily I had granted your suite ere now. But seeing you vrge me so much to know what it is, I will tell you: it is, sir, your ill-fauoured great nose, that hangs sagging so lothsomely to your lips, that I cannot finde in my heart so much as to kisse you.'"—Pleasant History of Thomas of Reading, by T. D. circa 1597, p. 73 (ed. Thoms).

P. [26]. Of the Marchaunt that lost his bodgetie betwene Ware and Lon[don].

In Pasquil's Jests, 1604 occurs an account substantially similar to the present, of "how a merchant lost his purse between Waltam and London."

P. [28]. Of the fatte woman that solde frute.

"Being thus dispatcht he layes downe Jacke
A peny for the shot:
'Sir, what shall this doe?' said the boy.
'Why, rogue, discharge my pot!
So much I cald for, but the rest
By me shall nere be paid:
For victualls thou didst offer me;
Doe and thou woot, I said.'"

The Knave of Clubbs, by S. Rowlands, 1600 (Percy Soc. ed. p. 20).

P. [31].—Wilson introduces the "notable historie" of Papirius Pretextatus into his Rule of Reason, 1551, 8o, and it had previously been related in Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474.

P. [33]. Of the corrupte man of law.

"An arch Barber at a certain Borough in the West, where there are but few Electors, had Art enough to suspend his Promise till the Voters, by means of Bribery, the old Balsam, were so divided, that the casting vote lay in himself. One of the Candidates, who was sensible of it, cameinto his little dirty Shop to be shaved, and when the operation was finish'd, threw into the Bason Twenty Guineas. The next Day came the other Candidate, who was shaved also, and left Thirty. Some Days after this, the first return'd to solicit the Barber's Vote, who told him very coldly, That he could not promise. Not promise! says the Gentleman; why I thought I had been shaved here! 'Tis true, says the Barber, you was, but another Gentleman has been trimm'd since that; however, if you please, I'll trim you again, and then tell you my mind."—Complete London Jester, ed. 1771, p. 99.

P. [35]. Conon peaked into the court.—So in Skelton's Colin Clout (Works by Dyce, I. 312), we have:—

"He cryeth and he creketh,
He pryeth and he peketh,
He chides and he chatters," &c.

In the Posthums Poems of Richard Lovelace, Esq. 1659, 80, p. 60, the word is employed in a different sense:—

"Have you not marked their C[oe]lestial play,
And no more peek'd the gayties of day?"

To peak, however, in the sense in which it is used by Skelton, and in the Merie Tales, &c. is of rather frequent occurrence in Scoggin's Jests, 1626 (but first printed before 1565); and Gascoigne employs the word in the same manner in the Steel Glas, n. d. (1576) 4o. The passage in Gascoigne, which I perused long ago, was brought back to my recollection by a note by the Rev. A. Dyce to Skelton's Colin Clout.

P. [38].—See Diogenes Laertius, transl. by Yonge, p. 226. Diogenes the Cynic evidently had Thales in his mind when he said "that mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet."

P. [40]. Of him that dreamed he fonde golde.

In Pasquil's Jests, we are told "how drunken Mullins of Stratford dreamed he found golde." It is the same story.

P. [52]. Gelidus facet anguis in herba.—Whoever edited this collection of stories seems to have had a great fancy for quotations. Throughout the C. Mery Talys, on the contrary, there is not a single instance of this passion for extracts. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his Characters (if at least they were written by him), ed. 1632, sign. K4, describes "An Innes of Court man" as taking "ends of Latine, though it be false, with as great confidence as ever Cicero could pronounce an oration." I suspect that the Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres were collected by some person more or less versed in the classics and in foreign authors, which was probably not the case with the C. Mery Talys, which do not smell so much of the inkhorn, as Gascoigne would have said.

P. [54]. Breble-brable.

In Twelfth Night, act iv. sc. 2, Shakespeare makes the Clown use bibble-babble in a similar sense; but afterwards in the same drama, act v. sc.1, brabble is put for "a brawl."

This word is no doubt the same as the "pribbles and prabbles" which Sir Hugh uses more than once in the Merry Wives of Windsor. See act v. sc. 5.

P. [60]. Of hym that payde his dette with crienge bea.—Compare the story of "the subtility of Kindlewall the lawyer repayed with the like craft," printed in Pasquil's Jests, ed. Gilbertson, n. d. 4o.

P. [65]. All to.—I fear that I too hastily adopted the self-suggested notion that the former words might be read more properly as one word, and in the sense which I indicated. Perhaps as all to or al to is not uncommonly used by early writers in this way, though the meaning in the present case is not particularly clear, it may be better to restore the original reading.

P. [67]. Of the Inholders wyfe and her ii lovers.—See Rowlands' Knave of Clubbs, 1600, ed. Rimbault, p. 25.

P. [67]. Daungerous of her tayle. So in the Schole-house of Women, 1542, the author says:—

"Plant them round with many a pin,
Ringed for routing of pure golde,
Faire without, and foule within,
And of their tailes have slipper holde."

P. [70]. Of Mayster Vavasour and Turpin his man.

"A Lawyer and his Clerk riding on the Road, the Clerk desired to know what was the chief Point of the Law. His Master said, if he would promise to pay for their Suppers that Night, he would tell him; which was agreed to. Why then, said the Master, good Witnesses are the chief Point in the Law. When they came to the Inn, the Master bespoke a couple of Fowls for Supper; and when they had Supped, told the Clerk to pay for them according to Agreement. O Sir, says he, where's your witness."—Complete London Jester, ed. 1771, p. 102.

P. [72]. One of Pasquil's Jests is "how mad Coomes, when his wife was drowned, sought her against the stream." It is merely a new application of the present anecdote.

P. [75]. Of the foole that thought hym selfe deed.—A story of a similar character occurs in The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or, the Walkes in Powles, 1604, (repr. 1841, p. 19), where "mine Host" gives an account of "how a yong fellow was even bespoke and jested to death by harlots."

P. [93]. He fell to a nyce laughyng.

Nice, in the sense of foolish, is also used by Gower, who likewise employs the substantive nicete in a similar way:—

"But than it were a nicete
To telle you, how that I fare!"

Confessio Amantis, lib. vi.

Chaucer employs the word in a similar sense very frequently. In the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, is the following passage:—

"To telle his might my wit may not suffice,
For he can make of wise folks ful nice."

P. [103]. Crakers.—See the last edition of Nares, voce Crake and Craker. But an earlier example of the use of the word than any given in the Glossary occurs in Lupset's Works, 1546, 12mo (A Compendious Treatise teachying the waie of dying well, fol. 34 verso; this treatise was first printed separately in 1541). In a reprint of the C. Mery Talys, which appeared in 1845, the Editor, not knowing what to make of crake and craker, altered them, wherever they occurred, to crack and cracker respectively!

P. [113]. Ch' adde.—In Wits Interpreter, The English Parnassus, by J. Cotgrave. 1655, ed. 1662, p. 247, is "the Devonshire Ditty," from which the following is an extract:—

"Cockbodikins, chil work no more,
Dost think chi labour to be poor?
No, no, ich chave a do—" &c.

But this phraseology is not peculiar to Devonshire.

P. [113], note 2.—Some additional particulars of interest, relative to ancient wines, may be found in Morte Arthure, ed. 1847, pp. 18, 20; and in the Squyer of Low Degre (Ritson's Ancient Engl. Met. Renancees, iii).

P. [121]. Of the Courtear that ete the hot costerde.

"An arch Boy being at Table where there was a piping hot Applepye, putting a Bit into his Mouth, burnt it so that the Tears ran down his Cheeks. A Gentleman that sate by, ask'd him, Why he wept? Only said he, because it is just come into my Remembrance that my poor Grandmother died this Day Twelvemonth. Phoo! says the other, is that all? So whipping a large Piece into his Mouth, he quickly sympathized with the Boy; who seeing his Eyes brim-full, with a malicious Sneer Ask'd him, Why he wept? A Pox on you, said he, because you were not hanged, you young Dog, the same Day your Grandmother died."—Complete London Jester, ed. 1771, p. 53.

P. [140].—Of the Canon and his man. Note.

"When King James came into England, coming to Boughton, hee was feasted by Sir Edward Montague, and his six sonnes brought upp the six first dishes; three of them after were lords, and three more knights, Sir Walter Montague, Sir Sydney, and Sir Charles, whose daughter Lady Hatton is."—Ward's Diary, ed. Severn, p. 170-1.

P. [143]. For at this foul araye.—So, in the Child of Bristow, an early metrical legend, we read:—

"When the burges the child gan se,
He seid then, benedicite,
Sone, what araye is this?"

Some later writers thought it necessary to use this word with a qualifying adjective, as shrewd array, &c. thus, in fact, reducing it to something like its ordinary and modern signification.

P. [148], note. 1. See Pepys' Diary, 6th ed. I. 29. "They brought me a draft of their drink in a brown bowl, tipt with silver, which I drank off, and at the bottom was a picture of the Virgin with the child in her arms, done in silver."—27th Feb. 1659-60. See also Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. ii. p. 109.

THE END.