p. [124]. Schate. The context seems to demand the meaning fence; but the nearest to the form given here seems to be the Scotch skathie.
p. [125]. When he is passed. The allusion seems to be to a middle-class boy in a cathedral school, who, as a chorister perhaps, would be familiar with the bishop’s presence, to whom therefore the reference would be pertinent and vivid.
HUGH RHODES’S BOOK OF NURTURE
The Boke of Nurture, or School of Good Manners for Men, Servants, and Children, with Stans Puer Ad Mensam, newly corrected, being necessary for all youth and children. The British Museum contains three early editions, of 1550 [?], 1568, and 1577; and Dr. Furnivall mentions two others as printed between 1551 and 1586.
There is considerable difference between the editions of 1550 [?] and 1568, and that of 1577. H. Jackson, the printer, or some unknown editor either worked from a very imperfect copy or wilfully altered the meaning in many cases; and further, broke up the long rhyming couplets of the original into stanzas of four short lines, the second and fourth rhyming. Naturally, the first and third contain the greatest number of changes. I have used the oldest edition, only modernising the spelling, herein departing from Dr. Furnivall, who printed from that of 1577.
The Book of Nurture, which forms the main body of the work, is preceded by The Duties of Parents and Masters, The Manner of Serving a Knight, Squire, or Gentleman, and How to Order your Master’s Chamber at Night to Bedward, all in prose, and is followed by a poem For the Waiting Servant, which I have omitted as more adapted to grown serving-men than to children, and by various rules and maxims.
From the colophon we learn that the author was Hugh Rhodes of the King’s Chapel, who early in the poem declares himself “born and bred in Devonshire,” as his language showed. However, I can discover no traces of dialect.
Nothing further is known of him. The probabilities are that he was Master of the chapel children, whose duty it was to direct their singing, and generally look after them and order their behaviour; but his name does not seem to appear on any royal household list, as far as I have observed.
p. [127]. Briefs and longs. Expressed in musical terms, perhaps because Rhodes was a music-master.
p. [128]. You ... thee ... thy. These pronouns seem throughout to be used indiscriminately, referring to the same antecedent, and so I have retained them.