"Ful subtelly he had calked al this."
Where calked is a mere misprint for calculed, the reading of the
MSS. See the late Edit. ver. 11596.
It would be easy to add many more instances of words, either not ancient or not used in their ancient sense, which repeatedly occur in these poems, and must be construed according to those fanciful significations which Skinner has ascribed to them. How that should have happened, unless either Skinner had read the Poems (which, I presume, nobody can suppose,) or the author of the Poems had read Skinner, I cannot see. It is against all odds, that two men, living at the distance of two hundred years one from the other, should accidentally agree in coining the same words, and in affixing to them exactly the same meaning.
I proceed to state some instances of words and interpretations which are evidently founded upon misapprehensions of passages in Skinner.
ALYSE. Le. 29. G. 180. Allow. Chatterton. See before, p. 314.
Till I meet with this word, in this sense, in some approved author, I shall be of opinion that it has been formed from a mistaken reading of the following article in Skinner. "Alised, Authori Dict. Angl. apud quem folum occurrit, exp. Allowed, ab AS. Alised, &c." In the Gothic types used by Skinner f might be easily mistaken for a long s.
BESTOIKER. Æ. 91. Deceiver. Chatterton. See also Æ. 1064.
This word also seems plainly to have originated from a mistake in reading Skinner. "Bestwike, ab AS. Berpican, Spican, Decipere, Fallere, Prodere, Spica, Proditor, Deceptor." Chatterton in his hurry read this as Bestoike, and formed a noun from it accordingly.
BLAKE. Æ. 178. 407. Naked. Chatterton. BLAKIED. E. III. 4. Naked, original. Chatterton. See before, p. 317.
Skinner has the following article. "Blake and bare, videtur ex contextu prorsus Nuda, sort. q. d. Bleak and Bare, dum enim nudi fumus eóque aeri expositi, præ frigore pallescimus. Ch. sol. 184. p. i. Col. i."