Page 419. v. 1460. Secundum Lucam, &c.] Skelton seems to allude to the Vulgate, Luc. i. 13, “Et uxor tua Elizabeth,” &c.
v. 1461.
the Bonehoms of Ashrige besyde Barkamstede,
...
Where the sank royall is, Crystes blode so rede]
The college of the Bonhommes, completed in 1285, was founded by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, son and heir of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who was King of the Romans and brother of Henry the Third, for a rector and twenty brethern or canons, of whom thirteen were to be priests. It was founded expressly in honour of the blood of Jesus, (“the sank royall”), which had once formed part of the precious reliques belonging to the German emperors, and which Edmund had brought over from Germany to England. See Todd’s History of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge, 1823. p. 1-3.
The pretended blood of Christ drew to Ashridge many persons of all ranks, greatly to the enrichment of the society. “But,” Speed tells us, “when the sunne-shine of the Gospell had pierced thorow such cloudes of darkenesse, it was perceiued apparantly to be onely hony clarified and coloured with Saffron, as was openly shewed at Paules Crosse by the Bishop of Rochester, the twentie foure of Februarie, and yeare of Christ 1538.” A Prospect of The Most Famous Parts of the World, 1631, (in Buck. p. 43).
v. 1466. Fraxinus in clivo, &c.] “As to the name Ashridge” says Kennett, “it is no doubt from a hill set with Ashes; the old word was Aescrugge, Rugge, as after Ridge, signifying a hill or steep place, and the Ashen-tree being first Aesc, as after Ashche, &c.” Parochial Antiquities, p. 302. ed. 1695.
v. 1470. The Nacyoun of Folys] Most probably The Boke of Three Fooles, in vol. i. 199.
v. 1471. Apollo that whirllid vp his chare] Concerning the piece, of which these were the initial words, a particular notice will be found in The Account of Skelton and his Writings: chare, i. e. chariot; compare the first of the two lines, which in the old eds. and some MSS. of Chaucer stand as the commencement of a third part of The Squieres Tale;