Lydgate’s verses Against Self-love,—MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 8.
“Help feuerous folk that tremble in ther accesse.”
Lydgate’s Prayer to St. Leonard,—MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 114.
In some parts of England and Scotland access is still used to denote the ague.—Lest any reader should think this note unnecessarily long, I may observe that in two recently published works the word “axes” is erroneously explained,—aches.
Page 25. v. 10. Of thoughtfull hertys plungyd in dystres] Skelton borrowed this line from Lydgate, whose Lyf of our Lady begins
“O thoughtful herte plungyd in distresse.”
In the Bibl. Poet. p. 82, Ritson gives these words as the commencement of a poem by Lydgate, Cott. Ap. viii., not knowing that this reference is to a MS. of the Lyf of our Lady.—Thoughtfull is anxious, heavy, sad.
“For thought and woe pyteously wepynge.”
Lydgate’s Warres of Troy, B. iv. sig. T v. ed. 1555.
v. 13. Herber] Warton appears to limit the signification of this word in old poetry to “an herbary for furnishing domestic medicines,” which, says he, “always made a part of our ancient gardens;” note on Hist. of E. P. ii. 231. ed. 4to. But Jamieson observes, that it would seem to be used for arbour by James I., Kings Quair, ii. 12, 13., and in the romance of Sir Egeir, v. 356. Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang. (in v. Herbere). See also The Flower and the Leaf, and The Complaint of the Black Knight, by Chaucer.