NOTES ON TEXTS
The Legend of Pyramus and Thisbe.
See p. [31].
[1] P. 73, l. 12. let, hinder, prevent.
[2] P. 74, l. 18. vouching safe, vouchsafing.
[3] P. 75, l. 4. parget, plaster, roughcast.
[4] P. 78, l. 10. stound, position.
[5] P. 79, l. 1. meint, mixed.
[6] P. 79, l. 19. belyve, immediately.
[7] P. 80, l. 5. sicker, sure, certain.
[8] P. 80, l. 11. bespect, speckled.
Robin Good-fellow.
See pp. [39], [63]. The text here given is that of the reprint of the 1628 edition, edited for the Percy Society by J. Payne Collier in 1841. The original black-letter tract, there described as being "in the library of Lord Francis Egerton, M.P.," is still in that collection, which is now known as the Bridgewater House Library. Collier's introduction is characteristic; it contains a good deal of correct information, and an interesting note based on forgeries of his own in Henslowe's Diary.
[1] P. 81, l. 20. Long-tails. Cf, Fuller's Worthies, Kent (1811), i. 486: "It happened in an English village where Saint Austin was preaching, that the Pagans therein did beat and abuse both him and his associates, opprobriously tying fish-tails to their backsides; in revenge whereof an impudent author relateth ... how such appendants grew to the hind-parts of all that generation."—See Murray, N.E.D. s.v. Long-tail. The earliest reference is to Moryson's Itinerary, 1617. "Kentish-tayld" occurs in Nashe's Strange News, 1592, sig. E 4.
[2] P. 84, l. 22. snite, snipe,
[3] P. 88, l. 23. presently, immediately.
[4] P. 90, l. 11. ho, ho, hoh! This is Robin's traditional laugh. Cf. the refrain of the broadside, p. [144].
[5] P. 93, l. 19. bolt, sift, pass through a sieve.
[6] P. 95, l. 5. himpen, hampen. Cf. "[Hemton hamton]" in Scot's account of Robin, p. 135.
[7] P. 97, l. 18. night-raven, proverbially a bird of ill-omen.
[8] P. 98, l. 7. starkled, stiffened. A dialect word, still in use.
[9] P. 98, l. 22. quills, spools or "bottoms" on which weavers' thread is wound.
[10] P. 101, l. 8. the tune of Watton Town's End. See Chappell's Popular Music, 218-20.
[11] P. 105, l. 18. bombasting, puffing up, frothing.
[12] P. 106, l. 1. Obreon. The 1639 edition spells the name in the ordinary way, but it may be noted that the Pepysian copy of the broadside ballad (p. 144), begins—
"From Obreon in fairyland."
[13] P. 108, l. 16. the tune of What care I how fair she be? This is the tune to George Wither's famous—
"Shall I wasting in despair
Die because a woman's fair?"
See Chappell's Popular Music, 315.
[14] P. 109, l. 5. the tune of The Spanish Pavin. (Pavin = Pavan.) See Chappell, op. cit., 240.
[15] P. 110, l. 13. the tune of The Jovial Tinker. See Chappell, op. cit., 187.
[16] P. 110, l. 25. ax = ask. The form "ax" was in use till the end of the sixteenth century, and continues in dialect.
[17] P. 111, l. 13. the tune of Broom. See Chappell, op. cit., 458; but this song does not fit the metre.
The Romance of Thomas of Erceldoune.
(Fytte I.)
See pp. [45]-7. In preparing the text, I have reduced in as simple a manner as possible the fifteenth-century spelling to modern forms. Dr. J.A.H. Murray's parallel texts (see note on p. [46]) have been consulted, but mainly I have followed the oldest of them—that of the Thornton MS. in Lincoln Cathedral Library. The footnotes explain all words save those that are or ought to be familiar to every reader.
[1] l. 1. endris, last.
[2] l. 6. meaned, moaned.
[3] l. 7. berèd, sounded. The woodwale is some kind of wood-bird.
[4] l. 14. wrable and ivry, ? wriggle and twist, i.e. in the attempt to describe her.
[6] Swilk, such.
[7] l. 21. roelle-bone; a commonplace in early poetry, as the material for saddles; meaning unknown.
[8] l. 24. crapotee, toad-stone.
[9] l. 32. overbegone, overlaid.
[10] l. 33. paytrell = poitrail, breast-leather of a horse; iral (?).
[11] l. 34. orpharè = orferrie, goldsmith's work.
[12] l. 38. raches, dogs.
[13] l. 39. halse, neck.
[14] l. 40. flane, arrow.
[15] l. 43. See pp. [46]-7 and note.
[16] l. 45. But-if, unless.
[17] l. 48. For an elaborate investigation of the circumstances concerning the Eildon tree, see the special section in Murray's edition.
[18] l. 49. rathely, quickly.
[19] l. 63. fee, beasts, cattle.
[20] l. 71. sekerly, truly.
[21] l. 79. ware, worse.
[22] l. 86. byrde, bride.
[23] l. 89. stead, place.
[24] l. 98. duleful, painful.
[25] l. 103. gone = go (old infinitive).
[26] l. 104. Middle-earth = Earth, the middle region in the old Northern cosmogony.
[27] l. 107. Thomas is here addressing the Virgin.
[28] l. 111. beteach, entrust, hand over to.
[29] l. 114. dernè, secret.
[30] l. 117. mountenance, space.
[31] l. 121. herbere, garden.
[32] l. 126. bigging, building.
[33] l. 127. papejoys, popinjays, parrots.
[34] ll. 131-6. On the danger of eating fairy apples, see p. [53].
[35] l. 137. hight, command.
[36] l. 141. hight (MS. hye), ? pleasure.
[37] l. 143. pay, please.
[38] l. 145 et sqq. See p. [46].
[39] l. 145. fair, pronounced as two syllables.
[40] l. 150. rise, brushwood, undergrowth.
[41] l. 155. teen and tray, pain and trouble.
[42] l. 167. me were lever, I had rather.
[43] l. 168. Or that, ere that, before that.
[44] l. 175. dess, daïs.
[45] l. 183. main and mood, might and main.
[46] l. 188. kneeland = kneeling. Cf. l. 191.
[47] l. 189. fand, found.
[48] l. 190. sawtery = psaltery.
[49] l. 191. ribib, rebeck, lute.
[50] l. 191. gangand = going.
[51] l. 196. store, plentiful.
[52] l. 199. brittened = brittled, cut up (the deer)
[53] l. 208. This sudden and momentary change to the first person is found in all the older MSS. See p. [47].
[54] l. 209. thee buse—it behoves thee. Cf. l. 234.
[55] l. 213. cheer, look, face.
[56] ll. 219-24. See p. [54]; also Sir Walter Scott's introduction to the ballad of The Young Tamlane, in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
[57] l. 220. skill, reason.
[58] l. 221. To-morn, in the morning.
[59] l. 223. hend, noble, mighty.
[60] l. 226. hethen = hence. Cf. sithen = since.
[61] l. 228. rede, advise.
[62] l. 232. Four lines of the MSS. omitted here.
[63] l. 234. buse. See note on l. 209.
[64] l. 235. Fyttes II and III are wholly concerned with the prophecies, and have nothing to do with the story of Thomas.
Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft.
[1] P. 135, l. 13. (Book IV, chap, x.) Hemton hamton. Cf. "[himpen hampen]" in Robin Good-fellow, and note, p. 189.
[2] P. 138, l. 20. (Book VII, chap, xv.) Kit with the canstick. Christopher-with-the-candlestick is another name for Jack-o'-lantern. calkers = diviners. For spoorn, see Wright, Dialect Dictionary, s.v.
[3] P. 140, l. 8. (Discourse, chap. xxi.) Hudgin is more usually spelled Hodeken, the German familiar fairy. Cf. the French Hugon, a bugbear used to frighten children.
Strange Farlies.
P. [141]. This extract from Churchyard was first cited by E.K. Chambers in his edition of M.N.D. in the Warwick Shakespeare.
[1] farlies, marvels.
[2] fearéd, frightened.
The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow.
P. [144]. This broadside is found in various editions in the larger collections (Roxburghe Coll., I. 230; Pepys, I. 80; also in the Bagford); the text here given is Percy's collation (as printed in his Reliques) of one or two of the above. The tune of Dulcina was famous; it may be seen in Chappell's Popular Music, 142.
The Fairies' Farewell.
[1] P. 153, l. 11. [need]. Poetica Stromata reads want.
The Fairy Queen.
P. [155]. The poem was given by Percy in his Reliques from The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, a curious book of which the preface is signed E.P.; the British Museum Catalogue attributes these initials to Edward Phillips, the nephew of John Milton. But Rimbault pointed out that this song occurs in a tract of 1635, A Description of the King and Queen of the Fairies, attributed to Robert Herrick; a single copy of this pamphlet is known, and is in the Bodleian Library.
Nymphidia.
P. [158]. Michael Drayton's fairy-poem was first published in 1627, and perhaps owes a little of its charm to Shakespeare's play, though not so much as Drayton's sonnets to those of the elder poet.
[1] P. 160. upright, flat on the back. This is the older meaning, which Drayton would find in Chaucer.
[2] hays, dances. Cf. heydeguys, p. [148].
[3] P. 161. aulfe. Cf. "ouphs," Merry Wives of Windsor, V. v.
[4] Pigwiggen. "Piggy-widden" is a west-country dialect term, meaning a little white pig, used as an endearment for the youngest of a family.
[5] P. 162. starved, i.e. killed.
[6] P. 166. The Tuscan poet, Ariosto; the frantic Paladin, Orlando Furioso.
[7] P. 170. "Ho, ho." See note (p. 189) on Robin Goodfellow.
[8] vild, an old form of "vile."
[9] lin, stop.
[10] P. 174. fern-seed. A very common superstition, which still survives, is that the seeds of the fern have power to confer invisibility.
[11] lunary, a name given to several plants, here probably moonwort. It was supposed to open locks.
[12] P. 175. lubrican, the name of an Irish pigmy sprite, otherwise called leprechaun.
[13] fire-drake, a fiery dragon. The word also meant a meteor.
[14] P. 178. bent, grass-stalk.