Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
thy lease, etc.' Or if it be cheaper in the market, than the rate
allowed for it is in their rents, then must they paie monie, and no
corne, which is no small extremitie."--Harrison, part i. p. 301.
[E33] "In this quatrain all the later editions of our author read
uniformly _misers_ for _michers_ (thieves or pilferers). What kind
of _misers_ 'unthriftiness' would make never seems to have been
considered. 'Careless and rash' is a gallicism for carelessness and
rashness."--M. "Mychare, _capax, cleps, furunculus._"--Prompt. Parv.
"_Mychers_, hedge crepers, fylloks and lushes,
That all the somer kepe dyches and bushes."
--The Hyeway to the Spytell House, ed. Atterson, ii. 11.
See also Townley Mysteries, pp. 216, 308. "_Caqueraffe_, a base
_micher_, scurvie hagler, lowsie dodger, etc. _Caqueduc_, a niggard,
_micher_, etc."--Cotgrave.
[E34] "Make hunger thy sauce." This is the proverb "hunger is the best
sauce," which is reckoned amongst the aphorisms of Socrates: "Optimum
cibi condimentum fames, sitis potus."--Cicero, De Finibus, Bk. II.
[E35] "Mastive, _Bandog, Molossus_."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580. "The
tie-dog or band-dog, so called bicause manie of them are tied up in
chaines and strong bonds, in the daie time, for dooing hurt abroad,
which is an huge dog, stubborne, ouglie, eager, burthenous of bodie
(and therefore but of little swiftnesse), terrible and fearfull to
behold, and oftentimes more fierce and fell than anie Archadian or
Corsican cur.... They take also their name of the word 'mase' and
'theefe' (or 'master theefe' if you will), bicause they often stound
and put such persons to their shifts in townes and villages, and are
the principall causes of their apprehension and taking."--Harrison,
Descrip. of England, part ii. pp. 44-5. "We han great _Bandogs_ will
teare their skins."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. September.
[E36] "The credite of maister," etc. If servants are allowed the credit
or trust, which should only be allowed to their master and mistress,
much trouble will be the result.
[E37] "Be to count ye wote what," that is, nothing to signify, of
little importance.
[E38] "So, twentie lode bushes," etc. So, without proper management,
twenty loads of bushes may be so wasted as only to serve for the
stopping of a single gap.
"A" = one, a single: a very common use in Early English; cf. William of
Nassington's "Myrrour of Lyfe," lines 2, 3;
"Fader and Sonne and Haly Gaste
That er _a_ God als we trowe maste"--that is, _one_ God.
[E39] Some, upon Sundays, have their tables covered with smoking
dishes, and then have to seek, _i.e._ do without dinners for the rest
of the week.
[E40] "Skarborow warning." Grose says it means, "A word and a blow
and the blow first." R. J. S. in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. i. 170,
adds that it is a common proverb in Yorkshire. Fuller states that the
saying arose from "Thomas Stafford, who in the reign of Mary, A.D.
1557, with a small company, seized on Scarborough Castle, and before
the townspeople had the least notice of their approach." Another
explanation is that, if ships passed the castle without saluting
it, a shotted gun was fired at them. In a ballad by Heywood another
derivation is given:
"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say)
By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare.
Who that was met, but suspect in that way,
Strait he was trust up, whatever he were."
This implies that Scarborough imitated the Halifax gibbet law.--N.&
Q. 1st Ser. i. 138. In a letter by Toby Matthew, Bishop of Durham, to
the Archbishop of York, Jan. 19, 1603, he writes: "When I was in the
midst of this discourse I received a message from my Lord Chamberlain
that it was his Majesty's pleasure that I should preach before him
on Sunday next, which _Scarborough warning_ did not only perplex me,
but so puzzel me as no mervail if somewhat be prætermitted, which
otherwise I might have better remembered."--N. & Q. 4th Ser. xii. 408.
"_Scarborough warning_. The antiquity of the phrase is shown by its
occurrence in Puttenham's 'Arte of English Poetrie,' ed. 1589. The
following is the passage, from p. 199 of Arber's reprint: [We have]
'many such prouerbiall speeches: as, _Totnesse is turned French_, for
a strange alteration: _Skarborow warning_, for a sodaine commandement,
allowing no respect or delay to bethinke a man of his busines.'"--Note
by Rev. W. Skeat. See also Ray's Proverbs.
[E41] "Sir I arest yee;" that is, the Sheriff's officer, who, touching
your arm, would use these words.
[E42] "Legem pone," a curious old proverbial or cant term for _ready
money_.
"There are so manie Danaes now a dayes,
That love for lucre, paine for gaine is sold;
No true affection can their fancie please,
Except it be a Iove, to raine downe gold
Into their laps, which they wyde open hold;
If _legem pone_ comes, he is receav'd,
When _vix haud habes_ is of hope bereav'd."
--The Affectionate Shepheard, 1594.
"But in this there is nothing to bee abated, all their speech is _legem
pone_, or else with their ill custome they will detaine thee."--G.
Minshul, Essays in Prison.
[E43] "_Oremus_," from Lat. _orare_ = to beg, here means making excuses
for non-payment of debts.
[E44] "_Præsta quæsumus_" = lend me, I pray. Compare _Preste_ = a loan,
_Pretoes_ = loans, in Halliwell. A lender hates to hear a man say
_Præsta_.
[E45] The word "collects" is used here in its original meaning of short
prayers; thus the prayers before the Epistle and Gospel in the Prayer
Book are called Collects, as containing briefly the lessons of the
Epistle and Gospel.
[E46] "Nor put to thy hand," etc.; that is, do not meddle in the
business of other people, and be careful whom you assist, lest by being
too free and generous you yourself may be put to inconvenience. Ray
gives: "Put not thy hand between the bark and the tree," that is, do
not meddle in family affairs.
[E47] Tusser here, while acknowledging the necessity and advantages of
the practice of "giving credit" in business, impresses strongly upon
his readers the dishonesty and danger of promiscuous borrowing and
lending, either to relations or friends, winding up with the advice
never to trust a man who has once broken his engagements, without a
surety, and never to lend a second time to a man who is angry with you
for asking for payment of what he already owes.
[E48] "The foole at the bottom, the wise at the brim;" referring to
the proverb, "Better spare at brim than at bottom," that is, "Better
be frugal in youth, than be reduced to the necessity of being saving
in age." Ray also gives another proverb of a similar character,
"'Tis too late to spare when the bottom is dry." "Sera in fundo
parsimonia."--Seneca, Epist. i.
[E49] "Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum." Cf. Barbour's Bruce,
ed. Skeat, p. 612.
[E50] "Stands thee vpon." Compare Shakspere, King Richard II. Act ii.
sc. 3, 138: "_It stands_ your grace _upon_ to do him right;" and,
"_It stands_ me much _upon_,
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me."
--Richard III. Act iv. sc. 2, 59.
[E51] "Jankin and Jenikin" are only names for servants in general.
[E52]
"The proverb says, and who'd a proverb cross?
That stones, when rolling, gather little moss."
--Vade Mecum for Malt Worms, 1720, p. 6 (part 2).
See also Ray's Proverbs. Cf.
"On the stone that styll doth turne about,
There groweth no mosse."
--Sir T. Wiat, "How to use the Court," l. 4.
A similar proverb occurs in Piers Plowman, A Text, Passus x. l. 101:
"Selden moseth the marbelston that men ofte treden." Cf. also, "Syldon
mossyth the stone þat oftyn ys tornyd and wende."--"How the good wife
taught her daughter," pr. in Q. Elizabeth's Achademy, ed. Furnivall,
p. 39. In the Verses on Lord Burghley's Crest (printed in Thynne's
Animaduersions, Chaucer Soc. ed. Furnivall), stanza 32, we read:
"And prouerbe olde was not deuis'd in veyne,
That 'roolinge stone doth neuer gather mosse';
Who lightly leaves in myddest of all his peine,
His former labor frustrates with his losse;
But who continues as he did begynne,
Withe equall course the pointed goale doth wynne."
See also chapt. 77. st. 20, p. 170.
[E53] "Of all [the lawyers] that euer I knew in Essex, Denis and
Mainford excelled, till John of Ludlow, alias Mason, came in place,
vnto whome in comparison they two were but children: for this last
in lesse than three or foure yeares, did bring one man (among manie
else-where in other places) almost to extreame miserie (if beggerie
be the vttermost) that before he had the shauing of his beard, was
valued at two hundred pounds (I speake with the least) and finallie
feeling that he had not sufficient wherwith to susteine himselfe and
his familie, and also to satisfie that greedie rauenour, which still
called vpon him for new fees, he went to bed, and within foure daies
made an end of his wofull life, euen with care and pensiuenesse. After
his death also he so handled his sonne, that there was neuer sheepe
shorne in Maie, so neere clipped of his fleece present, as he was of
manie to come: so that he was compelled to let awaie his land, bicause
his cattell and stocke were consumed, and he no longer able to occupie
the ground."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. pp. 206-7.
"Daw" = a chattering fool. See Peacock's Glossary (Eng. Dial. Soc.).
[E54] From this stanza it would seem that sportsmen did not hesitate
to trespass on the lands of others in former days any more than at
present, but in such cases Tusser recommends the "mild answer which
turneth away wrath," and sets out the advantages of courteousness and
respect to one's superiors.
[E55] "That flesh might be more plentifull and better cheaper,
two daies in the weeke, that is Fryday and Saturday, are specially
appointed to fish, and now of late yeares, by the prouidence of our
prudent Princesse, Elizabeth, the Wednesday also is in a manner
restrained to the same order, not for any religion or holinesse
supposed to be in the eating of fish rather than of flesh, but onely
for the ciuill policie as I haue said. That as God hath created both
for man's use, so both being used or refrained at certaine seasons,
might by that entercourse be more abundant. And no doubt, if all daies
appointed for that purpose were duly obserued, but that flesh and fish
both would be much more plentifull, and beare lesse price than they
doe. For accounting the Lent season, and all fasting daies in the yeare
together with Wednesday and Friday and Saturday, you shall see that the
one halfe of the yeare is ordeined to eate fish in."--Cogan's Haven of
Health, ed. 1612, p. 138.
"It is lawfull for euerie man to feed vpon what soeuer he is able
to purchase, except it be vpon those daies whereon eating of flesh
is especiallie forbidden by the lawes of the realme, which order is
taken onelie to the end our numbers of cattell may be the better
increased, and that aboundance of fish which the sea yeeldeth, more
generallie receiued. Beside this, there is great consideration had in
making of this law for the preseruation of the nauie, and maintenance
of conuenient numbers of sea faring men, both which would otherwise
greatlie decaie, if some meanes were not found whereby they might be
increased."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. p. 144.
The following menu for a fish day is given in the Liber Cure Cocorum,
p. 54, ed. Morris:
"For a servise on fysshe day.
"Fyrst white pese and porray þou take,
Cover þy white heryng for goddys sake;
Þen cover red heryng, and set abufe,
And mustard on heghe, for goddys lufe;
Þen cover salt salmon on hast,
Salt ele þer wyth on þis course last.
For þe secunde course, so god me glad,
Take ryse and fletande fignade,
Þan salt fysshe and stok fysshe take þou schalle,