Matthew Stevenson wrote several other books in prose and verse, published between 1654 and 1673.
The furmenty-pot. The word furmenty is a corruption of frumenty (see [page 197]), which is derived from the Latin frumentum, meaning wheat. The hulled wheat, boiled in milk and seasoned, was a popular dish in England, as it still is in the rural districts.
Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English lyric poet. The Hesperides was his most important work. A complete edition of his poems, edited by Mr. Grosart, was published in 1876.
Page 197.—A mawkin. A kitchen-wench, or other menial servant. The word is only a phonetic spelling of malkin, which Shakespeare has in Coriolanus, ii. 1. 224: "the kitchen malkin." Compare Tennyson, The Princess, v. 25:—
"If this be he,—or a draggled mawkin, thou,
That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge;"
that is, a female swineherd.
Prank them up. Adorn themselves.
The fill-horse. The word fill, for the thills or shafts of a vehicle, used by Shakespeare and other writers of that day, is now obsolete in England, though still current in New England. Cross means to make the sign of the cross upon or over the animal.