v. 1510. shett ... boke] i. e. shut ... book.
v. 1512. somdele] i. e. somewhat.
v. 1514. sperycall] i. e. spherical.
v. 1515. Ianus, with his double chere]—chere, i. e. visage, countenance.
v. 1517. He turnyd his tirikkis, his voluell ran fast] What is meant by tirikkis, I know not: it occurs again in our author’s Speke, Parrot;
“Some trete of theyr tirykis, som of astrology.”
v. 139. vol. ii. 7.
For the following note I am indebted to W. H. Black, Esq. “The volvell is an instrument, called volvella or volvellum, in the Latin of the middle age, consisting of graduated and figured circles drawn on the leaf of a book, to the centre of which is attached one moveable circle or more, in the form of what is called a geographical clock. There is a very fine one, of the fourteenth century, in the Ashmolean MS. 789. f. 363, and others exist in that collection, which affords likewise, in an Introduction to the Knowledge of the Calendar, (in the MS. 191. iv. art. 2. f. 199,) written in old English of the fifteenth century, a curious description of the volvell, with directions for its use. The passage is entitled ‘The Rewle of the Volvelle.’—‘Now folowith here the volvelle, that sum men clepen a lunarie; and thus most ghe governe ghou ther ynne. First take the grettist cercle that is maad in the leef, for that schewith the 24 houris of the day naturel, that is of the nyght and day, of the whiche the firste houre is at noon bitwene 12 and oon. Thanne above him is another cercle, that hathe write in hem the 12 monthis withe here dayes, and 12 signes with here degrees; and with ynne that, ther is writen a rewle to knowe whanne the sunne ariseth and the mone bothe; if ghe biholde weel these noumbris writen in reed, 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. ✠. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.’ The rule proceeds to shew that there is another row of the same figures in black, and that the red cross stands in the place of Cancer, the black at Capricorn: the red figures were used to shew the rising of the sun and moon, the black for their setting. Over this is ‘another cercle that hath a tunge,’ (tongue, or projecting angle to point with,) the figure of the sun on it, and 29½ days figured, for the age of the moon. Upon this is the least circle, ‘which hath a tunge with the figure of the moon on it, and with ynne it is an hole, the whiche schewith bi symylitude howe the moone wexith and wansith.’ It was used by setting ‘the tunge of the moone’ to the moon’s age, and ‘the tunge of the sunne’ to the day of the month, then moving the circle of months and signs to bring the hour of the day to the last named ‘tunge,’ whereby might be found ‘in what signe he’ (the moon, masculine in Anglo-Saxon) ‘sittith and the sunne also, and in what tyme of the day thei arisen, eny of hem, either goone downe, and what it is of the watir, whether it be flood or eb.’ The rule concludes by observing that the wind sometimes alters the time of the tide ‘at Londone brigge.’”
Page 422. v. 1533. quaire] i. e. quire,—pamphlet, book.