[121] Erasmus, in a letter to Aleander, dwells with delight upon this custom:
"Quanquam si Britanniæ dotes satis pernosses Fauste, næ tu alatis pedibus, huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hic nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis Camænis facile anteponas. Est præterea mos nunquam satis laudatus: Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris: redis? redduntur suavia; venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te? dividuntur basia: occuritur alicubi? basiatur affatim: denique, quocunque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quæ si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari." Erasmi Epistol. p. 315, edit. 1642. “It becometh nat therefore the persones religious to folowe the maner of secular persones, that in theyr congresses and commune metyngs or departyng done use to kysse, take hands, or such other touchings, that good religious persones shulde utterly avoyde.” Whytford’s Pype of Perfection. fol. 213. b. A. D. 1532. W.
[122] This name is spelt Creeky and Crykky in the autograph MS. In Wordsworth’s edition it is Crokey. Grove has it Crockly, and two of the MSS. copies Crokir. I know not whether I have divined the true orthography, but there was a noble family of this name at the time.
[123] Evensong. “Which persons for their waiting befoir noon hath licence at afternoon to go about their own business from the saide noon to iij of the clocke that evensong begin.”
Northumberland Household Book, p. 310.
[124] The shalme, or shawm, was a wind instrument like a hautboy, with a swelling protuberance in the middle. In “Commenius’s Visible World,” translated by Hoole, 1659, the Latin word gingras is translated by shawn, and the form of the instrument is represented as below. Its proper name appears to have been shawme; it is derived from the Teutonic. Drayton mentions it as shrill-toned: ‘E’en from the shrillest shaum unto the cornamute.’
Polyolbion v. iv. p. 376.
[125] Now, Wordsworth’s edit. The passages within brackets which follow are not found in any other manuscript: a space almost always marking the deficiency of this relation, and the succeeding account of the libels of the French against the cardinal.
[126] Catherine Reneé, one of the daughters of Louis the Twelfth. It does not seem that this exposition of the cardinal’s views in regard to the union of Henry with this princess, in case of a divorce, were without foundation, for he persuaded himself that Henry’s passion for Anne Boleyn would soon subside, and thought this alliance a sure mode of perpetuating the peace and union between the sovereigns. The other part of the assertion was proved true by the subsequent treaty, in which it was agreed that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis, or the Duke of Orleans; the first if he should remain a widower until she was of sufficient age, the second if it seemed expedient that Francis should keep his faith to the emperor, and marry his sister Leonora, to whom he was contracted by the Treaty of Madrid. Hence the necessity of keeping these designs secret, and the cardinal’s anger at their developement.