466 in a toune. Not “in a town” in the modern sense, but in the Scots meaning of any group of houses or buildings—e.g., a farm “toun.”
556 Turnberys snuke. Turnberry Point, on the coast of Ayrshire, the site of the castle of the Earls of Carrick. The castle was in possession of Henry Percy, to whom Edward had granted Bruce’s Earldom, as is stated in lines 599-600 (Hem., ii. 251). The point at Berwick was known as “le Snoke” (Hist. Docts., ii. p. 160). S reads “nuk” from C.
682-3 Jeromy = Jeremiah. Ysay = Isaiah.
720-1 “The constellation that gives to them kindly manners”—i.e., natural dispositions. Cf. “kyndly” = naturally, in line 735. For “manners” = character, cf. Chaucer. The Dethe of Blaunche:
“She used gladly to do wel,
These were hir maners everydel” (1012-13).
747 Nigramansy. “Necromancy,” or the art of revealing the future through communication with the dead (Gr. nekros, a dead body); appearing in mediæval Latin as nigromanteia; O.F., nygromancie, the first part of the compound being confused and identified with Latin niger, black—whence “the black art.”
753 the Phitones. The Pithoness or Pythoness, which usually appears in the M.E. writers as in the text. Cf. Chaucer’s Hous of Fame, iii. 171: “And phitonesses, charmeresses,” etc. Pythia was the oracle-giving priestess of Apollo at Delphi; hence a woman who prophesies or divines. The name was given, as in the reference here, to the witch of Endor (1 Chron. x. 13), as in Bacon, Prophecies, etc., “Said the Pythonissa to Saul,” etc.
BOOK V.
1 in vere. “In spring”—February, 1307 (see note on Bk. IV. 338.) The description here is really of the “Poets’ May.”