That byrd ys nat honest
That fylythe hys owne nest]
—fylythe, i. e. defileth. This proverb occurs in The Owl and the Nightingale (a poem of the 12th century), p. 4. Rox. ed.
v. 199. wyst what sum wotte] i. e. knew what some know.
Page 126. v. 204. Jake a thrum] In his Magnyfycence our author mentions “Jacke a thrommys bybyll,” v. 1444. vol. i. 272 (also in his Garlande of Laurell, v. 209. vol. i. 370); and in his Colyn Cloute he uses the expression,—
“As wyse as Tom a thrum.”
v. 284. vol. i. 322,—
where the MS. has “Jacke athrum.”—Compare: “And therto acordes too worthi prechers, Jacke a Throme and Ione Brest-Bale.” Burlesques,—Reliquiæ Antiquæ (by Wright and Halliwell), i. 84.
goliardum] Equivalent, probably, to buffoon, or ridiculous rhymer. See Du Cange’s Gloss. in v., Tyrwhitt’s note on Chaucer’s Cant. Tales, v. 562, and Roquefort’s Gloss. in v. Goliard.
lusty Garnyshe well beseen Crystofer] See note on title of the third of these poems, p. 183.