Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
[E377] The advice given in this short piece, the most difficult,
perhaps, that Tusser had written, is very good, but he has strained
alliteration to an extravagant pitch.
[E378] In the reign of Elizabeth an Act was passed, requiring a seven
years' apprenticeship to enable a person to set up in business or
trade; and hence the idea arose of dividing human life into periods of
seven years.--M. The idea is much older; for, in Arnold's Chronicle
(edition 1811), page 157, we find:--"The vij Ages of Mā liuing ī the
World. The furst age is infance and lastith from ye byrth vnto vij yere
of age. The ij is childhod and endurith vnto xv yere age. The iij age
is adholocencye and endurith vnto xxv yere age. The iiij age is youth
and endurith vnto xxxv yere age. The v age is manhod and endurith vnto
l yere age. The vj age is [elde] and lasteth vnto lxx yere age. The vij
age of mā is crepill and endurith vnto dethe."
See Prompt. Parv. p. 7, for another version of the above, the limits
assigned to the several stages being different, and the seventh stage
beginning at the resurrection.
[E379] "Foxe, Ape with his toieng," etc. Dr. Mavor's edition reads,
"For Ape with his toieng," etc.
[E380] "The tone from the tother;" the tone = that one, the tother
= that other; where the _t_ is the sign of the neuter gender, as in
tha-_t_, i-_t_; compare the Latin _d_ in i-_d_, quo-_d_, illu-_d_.--In
ch. 110, p. 201, we have the curious forms "_thon_" and "_thother_."
[E381] "To him and to hur," that is, to every one, or to any one. Cf.
94. 3, and
"The white lambe þat hurte was with the spere
Flemere of feendes out of hym and here."
--Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, l. 460, Six-Text ed.
[E382] "Daieth" = dayeth, that is, appoints a _day_ on which he
promises to pay.
Gervase Markham, in the First Part of the English Husbandman, ch. 6,
remarks:--"You may by these usuall observations, and the helpe of a
better judgement, imploy the fruits of your labours to the best profit,
and sell everything at the highest price, except you take upon you to
_give day_ and sell upon trust, which if you doe, you may then sell at
what unconscionable reckoning you will." Cf.
"When drapers draw no gaines by _giving day_."
--Gascoigne, The Steel Glass, 1094.
[E383] "By that and by this;" that is, by anything, or by chance.
Compare stanza 6, and chap. 67, stanza 5, p. 153.
[E384] "A tode with an R" is an elegant euphemism for _torde_; the
meaning being that a bad husbandman is more likely to receive insults
and refusals, than compliance with his requests. Compare Wycliffe's
translation of Luke xiii. 8, as given at p. 365 of Dr. Bosworth's edit.
of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels, with the Versions of Wycliffe
and Tyndale, London, 1865.
[E385] "Experience should seeme to proue playnely, that Inclosures
should be profitable and not hurtfull to the common weale; for we see
the countryes where most Inclosiers be, are most wealthy, as _Essex,
Kent, Northamptonshyre,_ etc. And I have hearde a Ciuilian once say,
that it was taken for a Maxime in his lawe (this saying), 'that which
is possessed of many in common, is neglected of all;' and experience
sheweth that Tenaunts in common be not so good husbandes, as when euery
man hath his parte in seueralty; also, I have heard say, that in the
most countreyes beyonde the Sea, they knowe not what a common grounde
meaneth."--Stafford's Examination of Complaints, New Shakspere Soc.,
ed. Furnivall, p. 40.
[E386] Fitzherbert shows how a township that is worth twenty marks
a-year may be made worth £20, and the ground-work of his plan is to
enclose the land. "By enclosing," he says, "a farmer shall save meat,
drink, and wages of a shepherd; the wages of the swineherd, the which
may fortune to be as chargeable as his whole rent; and also his corn
shall be better saved from eating or destroying by cattle."
[E387] Harman, 1567 (E. E. Text Soc., ed. Furnivall, p. 82), speaks of
"lewtering lusks and lazy _lorrels_," and in Pierce Plowman's Crede
we find in line 750, "lordes sones lowly to þo _losells_ aloute," and
in l. 755, "and leueþ swiche _lorels_ for her lowe wordes."--See Note
in Prompt. Parv. _s.v._ Lorel. Levins (Manip. Vocab. 1570) translates
_lorel_ by _nebulo, scurra_.
[E388] Courts for presenting nuisances are generally the greatest
nuisances themselves. Under the semblance of justice, they often retard
its execution. The members, or jury who compose them, do not want the
power, but they want the independence to act right.--M.
[E389] "In Bridewell a number be stript," etc. Although all the
editions I have been able to examine read "lesse worthie than _theefe_
to be whipt," I suspect the correct reading to be "lesse worthie than
_theese_ to be whipt." The mistake might easily occur through the
similarity of the old _s_ and _f_. The meaning, as the lines read at
present, is not very clear, but if we adopt the suggested reading, the
sense becomes at once apparent:--"In Bridewell many are stripped for
flogging who do not deserve it so much as these."
[E390] "Take them" = arrest them.
[E391] "Mo," lit. = more; but also used in the sense of others. "This
use of _mo_ is not common, but there are a few examples of it. Thus in
Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, we have at p. 47, l. 51,
"'Y sike for vnsete
Ant mourne ase men doþ _mo_.'
"_i.e._ 'I sigh for unrest, and mourn as _other_ men do.' And on the
next page (48, l. 22) we have
"'Mody meneþ so doþ _mo_,
Ichot ycham on of þo,'
"_i.e._ 'The moody moan as _others_ do; I wot I am one of them.'
Somewhat similar is the expression _oþer mo_, where we should now say
_others as well_, Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus v. 10."--Rev. W.
Skeat, in note to l. 1039 of Chaucer, Clerke's Tale, Clarendon Press
Series. _Mo_ is also used in the same sense in 67, 11, p. 154.
[E392] "Verlets," originally a servant to a knight, below page or
squire, though often used in French Romance as equivalent to a squire.
"Pages, _varlets_, ou damoiseaux: noms quelquefois communs aux
_ecuyers_."--Cotgrave. Ducange (Gloss. M. et I. Lat.) has: "_Valeti
valecti_ appellati vulgo magnatum filii, qui necdum militare cingulum
consecuti erant: vassallorum filii _vassaleti_ dicti." Levins (Manip.
Vocab.) says: "Varlett, _verna_." See Wedgwood, Dict. Eng. Etymology,
_s.v._ Valet.
[E393] "Ruleth the roste;" to _rule_ the _roast_ is to preside at the
board, to assign what share one pleases to the guests; hence it came
to mean to domineer, in which sense it is commonly used in our old
authors. See Nares, s.v.
[E394] With this description of an envious neighbour compare Langland's
picture of _Invidia_ (Envy) in Piers Plowman, B. Text, E. E. Text Soc.,
ed. Skeat, Passus v. l. 76.
[E395] "His hatred procureth," etc., his hatred takes pains to bring
bad to worse, his friendship is like that of Judas who, etc., _i.e._ is
selfish.
[E396] "His lips out of frame," _i.e._ are out of order, are not kept
in order. Cf. the expression "loose in the haft."
[E397] "Spials;" so Spenser, Faery Queene, i. 4:
"And privie spials plast in all his way,"
Levins (Manip. Vocab.) has "Spyall, _arbiter_."
[E398] "Would'st thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally
_sheepbiter_ come by some notable shame."--Shakspere, Twelfth Night,
Act ii. sc. 5.
"Who is in this closet? let me see (_breaks it open_). Oh,
_sheepbiter_, are you here?"--Shadwell, Bury Fair, 1689.
[E399] "Coxcombe:" see Cotgrave, s.v. _Effeminé, Enfourner, Fol,
Lambui_.
[E400] Davus is the common name in Terence for the cunning, plotting
servant.
[E401] Thersites, the ugliest and most scurrilous of the Greeks before
Troy. He spared in his revilings neither prince nor chief, but directed
his abuse especially against Achilles and Ulysses. The name is often
used to denote a calumniator. Cf.
"When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle."
--Shakspere, Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3.
[E402] "Shall swell like a tode." Cf. 65, 6.
[E403] "To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or an
evil matter."--Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives "'Tis good
sometimes to hold a candle to the devil." Thus we find an anonymous
correspondent writing to John Paston: "for howr Lords love, goo tharow
with Wyll Weseter, and also plese Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert
best for to do; for it is a comon proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme _set a
candel befor the Devyle_;' and therfor thow it be not alder most mede
and profytabyl, yet of ij harmys the leste is to be take."--Paston
Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73.
[E404] At Canterbury is a representation of Master Shorne holding up
his hand in a threatening attitude at the Devil, who is in a boot.
[E405] "False birds can fetch the wind;" an expression taken from
hawking. To _fetch the wind_, to _take the wind_ (Bacon), and to _have
the wind_ are various forms of the same expression, the meaning of
which is to gain or take an advantage. We still use the expression "to
get to windward of another," meaning to get the better or advantage of
him. Mavor reads, "false _words_ can fetch the wind," _i.e._ slander
will spread as though borne on the wind. I do not, however, know on
what authority he has adopted this reading, as the text of 1577 gives
"birds."
[E406] The following poem on Evil Tongues is from a MS. of the 15th
century, edited for the Percy Soc. by the late Mr. T. Wright, 1847:
"A man that con his tong stere,
He ther not rek wer that he go."
"Ittes knowyn in every schyre,
Wekyd tongges have no pere;
I wold thei wer brent in the fer,
That warke men soo mykyll wo.
Ittes knowyn in every lond,
Wekyd tongges don gret wrong,
Thei make me to lyyn long,
And also in myche car.
Ȝyf a man go in clothes gay,
Or elles in gud aray,
Wekyd tongges yet wyl say,
Wer cam the by therto?
Ȝyf a man go in cloys ill,
And have not the world at wyl,
Wekyd tongges thei wyll hym spyll,
And seyd he ys a stake, lat hym goo.
Now us to amend God yeve us grace,
Of repentens and of gud grace,
That we mut se hys glorius face.
Amen, Amen, for charyte."
[E407] There is a smoothness in the versification of this sonnet,
and a succession of imagery, though drawn from common sources, which
we do not often find in Tusser. He has made a good use of the figure
_erotesis_.--M. Compare Milton, Lycidas, 45:
"As killing as the canker to the rose,
Or _taint-worm_ to the weanling herds that graze."
[E408] Janus, an old Italian deity, the god of the sun and the year, to
whom the month of January was dedicated.
[E409] Ver = Spring, Æstas = Summer, Hyems = Winter.
[E410] "Delaide;" so in Spenser, Faery Queene, ix. 30. "But to _delay_
the heat," and in Prothalamium 3:
"Zephyrus did softly play
A gentle spirit, that lightly did _delay_
Hot Titan's beames."
[E411] Alluding to the thirteen revolutions of the moon in the year.
[E412] It appears from the Books of the Stationers' Company, on the
authority of Warton (Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 428) that
a licence was granted to T. Hackett, in the year 1562, to print "A
Dialogue of Wyvynge and Thryvynge of Tusshers with ij lessons for olde
and yonge."
[E413] "Bolted out," a term taken from the language and usage of
millers, who use the word "to bolt" of the separation of the bran from
the flour. Cf. Chaucer, Nonnes Prior's Tale, 415:
"But yit I can not _bult it to the bren_."
And Spenser, Faery Queene, iv. 24:
"He now had _boulted_ all the floure."
"Time and nature will _bolt out_ the truth of things."--D'Estrange.
"To _boulte out_ the truth in reasoning, _limare veritatem in
disceptatione_."--Baret's Alvearie. A "Bolting Cloth" is the name in