“Jone sayne she had eaten a fyest.”
“Foist,” says the reviewer in G. M. p. 243, “is a toadstool in Suffolk language:” but qy. is that the meaning of “fyest” in our text? see my note.
P. 117.
“your semely snowte doth passe.”
Because the MS., as I have stated, appears at first sight to have “scriuely,” the reviewer in G. M. p. 243, says “the proper word is snively” and compares an expression in another poem Against Garnesche, p. 120, “In the pott your nose dedde sneuyll,” and one in Magnyfy ence, p. 286, “The snyte snyueled in the snowte.” But I still think that “semely” is right: Skelton afterwards (p. 130) tells Garnesche that he has “A semly nose and a stowte;” and the line now in question is immediately followed by
“Howkyd as an hawkys beke, lyke Syr Topyas,”
i. e. the Sire Thopas of Chaucer; and the said Sire Thopas (Cant. Tales, v. 13659, ed. Tyr.) “had a semeley nose.”
P. 133.
“Hic notat purpuraria arte intextas literas Romanas in amictibus post ambulonum ante et retro.”
The reviewer in G. M. p. 244, takes “post” to be an abridgement of “positas:” which is a very probable conjecture.