v. 150.
Yet the good Erle of Surray,
The Frenche men he doth fray, &c.]
This nobleman (before mentioned, see note, p. 317. v. 769), Thomas Howard (afterwards third Duke of Norfolk), commanded, in 1522, the English force which was sent against France, when Henry the Eighth and the Emperor Charles had united in an attack on that kingdom. In Stow’s Annales, p. 517. ed. 1615, the marginal note “Earle of Surrey brent Morles in Brytaine. I. Skelton,” evidently alludes to the present passage of our poem. Both Turner and Lingard in their Histories of Engl. mistake this nobleman for his father.
[Page 31.] v. 158. mated] i. e. confounded (I may just observe that Palsgrave, besides “I Mate at the chesses, Ie matte,” gives “I Mate or ouercome, Ie amatte.”) Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. ccxcix. (Table of Verbes).
v. 163. vrcheons] i. e. hedge-hogs.
[Page 32.] v. 166. ouer shote] i. e. over-shoot.
v. 167. scutus] “Scutum, Moneta Regum Francorum, ita appellata quod in ea descripta essent Franciæ insignia in scuto.” Du Cange’s Gloss. (Ital. scudo, Fr. écu).
v. 170. wonders warke] i. e. work of wonder.
v. 175. They shote at him with crownes, &c.] On the immense gifts and annuities which Wolsey received from foreign powers, see Turner’s Hist. of Reign of Hen. the Eighth, i. 236. ed. 8vo.