Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
matris nutritus, Anglice, a _cokenay_.'--Halliwell. '_Cockney_,
niais, mignot.'--Sherwood. The Fr. _coqueliner_, to dandle, cocker,
fedle, pamper, make a wanton of a child, leads us in the right
direction."--Wedgwood, Etymol. Dict. "A _cockney_, a childe tenderly
brought up; a dearling. _Cockering_, mollis ilia educatio quam
indulgentiam vocamus."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580.
[E461] In chapter 62 of the First Part of this work, p. 139, we had a
comparison between good and bad husbandry, and we are here presented
with a contrast between good and bad huswifery.
[E462] Compare Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. sc. 3, 57:
"With scarfs and fans and double change of _bravery_."
[E463] "Good huswiferie _canteth_." The ed. of 1573 reads "_franteth_"
the meaning of which is "to be careful, economical."
[E464] For boys the practice of music would be degrading, except as a
profession; and even for girls, however fashionable it may be, it is
generally worse than useless, as it occupies that time which ought to
be devoted to much more important purposes.--M.
[E465] "Least homelie breaker," etc., that is, lest an inexperienced
teacher ruin the mind of the pupil, as an unpractised horse-breaker
will spoil a promising colt.
[E466] "Well a fine," a phrase meaning to a good purpose, a good result.
[E467] "Cocking Mams," that is, over-indulgent mothers. "A father to
much _cockering_, Pater nimis indulgens."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580. See
Note E460.
[E468] "Shifting Dads," that is, fathers who are constantly shifting
their children from one school to another.
[E469] "Assone as a passenger comes to an Inne the Host or Hostesse
visit him; and if he will eate with the Host or at a common table with
others, his meale will cost him sixe pence, or in some places but foure
pence (yet this course is lesse honourable and not used by gentlemen);
but if he will eate in his chamber he commands what meate he will,
according to his appetite, and as much as he thinkes fit for him and
his company."--Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, 1617, Part III. p. 151.
[E470] "To purchase linne." To purchase Lynn, by petty savings, seems
to have been a proverbial mode of expression, used in ridicule of
stinginess.
[E471] "You are on the high way to Needham."--Ray.
[E472] The braggadocios and coxcombs of the day would use their
daggers to carve with, which were perfectly harmless for any other
purpose. Forks were yet strangers to an English dinner-table. Knives
were first _made_ in England, according to Anderson, in 1563. A
meat-knife of Queen Elizabeth's, mentioned in Nichols's "Progresses,"
had "a handle of white bone and a conceyte in it." In the same work
we read of "a dozen of horn spoons in a bunch," as the instruments
"meetest to eat furmenty porage with all;" also of "a folding spoon of
gold," and "a pair of small snuffers, silver-gilt."--Pictorial History
of England, ii. 856.
[E473] "Go toie with his nodie." The edition of 1573 reads "go toy
with his noddy, with ape in the street," and more recent editions
read "go toy with his noddy-like ape in the street." This reading has
been adopted by Dr. Mavor. Peacock's Gloss. gives "Noddipol a sillie
person. 'Whorson _nodipol_ that I am!'--Bernard's Terence, 43. 'A verye
_nodypoll_ nydyote myght be ashamed to say it.'--The Workes of Sir
Thomas More, 1557, p. 209."
[E474] "Fisging." The Rev. W. Skeat, in his note to Piers Plowman,
C. Text, Passus x. l. 153, "And what frek of þys folde _fiskeþ_ þus
a-boute," remarks: "_Fisketh_, wanders, roams. As this word is scarce,
I give all the instances of it that I can find. In Sir Gawayne and the
Grene Knight, ed. Morris, l. 1704, there is a description of a foxhunt,
where the fox and the hounds are thus mentioned:--
'& he fyskez hem by-fore · þay founden hym sone'--_i.e._
and he (the fox) runs on before them (the hounds); but they soon found
him. 'Fyscare abowte ydylly; Discursor, discursatrix, vagulus vel
vagator, vagatrix.'--Prompt. Parv. p. 162. 'Fiskin abowte yn ydilnesse;
Vago, giro, girovago.'--Ibid.
'Such serviture also deserveth a check,
That runneth out _fisking_, with meat in his beck [_mouth_].'
--Tusser, Five Hundred Points, etc., ed. Mavor, p. 286.
'Then had every flock his shepherd, or else shepherds; now they do not
only run _fisking about_ from place to place, ... but covetously join
living to living.'--Whitgift's Works, i. 528. 'I _fyske_, ie fretille.
I praye you se howe she _fysketh_ about.'--Palsgrave. '_Trotière_, a
raumpe, fisgig, _fisking_ huswife, raunging damsell.'--Cotgrave.
'Then in cave, then in a field of corn,
Creeps to and fro, and _fisketh_ in and out.'
--Dubartas (in Nares).
'His roving eyes rolde to and fro,
He _fiskyng_ fine, did mincyng go.'
--Kendalls's Flower of Epigrammes, 1577 (Nares).
'Tom Tankard's cow....
Flinging about his halfe aker, _fisking_ with her tail.'
--Gammer Gurton's Needle, i. 2.
'_Fieska_, to _fisk_ the tail about; to _fisk_ up and down.'--Swedish
Dictionary, by J. Serenius. '_Fjeska_, v.n. to fidge, to fidget, to
_fisk_.'--Swed. Dict. (Tauchnitz)."
[E475] In the Rolls of Parliament, at the opening of the Parliament of
2 Rich. II. in the year 1378, we find--"Qui sont appellez _Bacbyters_
sont auxi come chiens qi mangeont les chars crues," etc. In the Ancren
Riwle (Camden Soc. ed. Morton), p. 86, are described two kinds of
_backbiters_, who are defined generally as "Bacbitares, þe biteð oðre
men bihinden"; the two kinds are 1. those who openly speak evil of
others, and 2. those who under the cloak of friendship slander others.
The latter is stated to be far the worse. In an Old Eng. Miscellany (E.
E. Text Soc. ed. Morris), p. 187, we are told that "Alle _bacbytares_
heo wendeþ to helle."--Rev. W. W. Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. v. 89.
[E476] "The friend doth hate." The edition of 1585 reads, evidently by
a misprint, _fiends_.
[E477] "Roinish," lit. scurvy, hence coarse, rough. "_Rongneux_,
scabbie, mangie, scurvie."--Cotgrave. It occurs twice in the "Romaunt
of the Rose," ll. 988 and 6190. In the form _rinish_, signifying
"wild, jolly, unruly, rude," it is found among the Yorkshire words in
Thoresby's Letter to Ray, reprinted by the Eng. Dial. Soc. "Rennish,"
in the sense of "furious, passionate," which is in Ray's collection of
North-country words, is, perhaps, another form of the word.
[E478] "Still presently," _i.e._ always as close at hand.
[E479] "In vsing there his will," that is, in doing so he acted of his
own free will.
[E480] "Seene" = appeared, showed himself.
[E481] "Do show" (to who thou wouldst to know). The meaning is
perfectly clear, but the manner in which it is expressed is very
curious. We may paraphrase it thus: "doth show to him whom thou wishest
to teach."
[E482] Compare Psalm ciii. 15, 6.
[E483] "Let gift no glorie looke," that is, in giving alms look for
(expect) no praise or earthly reward for so doing.
[E484] "Provoke" = urge.
[E485] In the edition of 1577 the arrangement of this chapter is
somewhat different. The Latin verses are first printed by themselves,
and headed "Sancti Barnardi dicta," and after comes the English
version, with the following title: "Eight of Saint Barnardes verses,
translated out of Latin | into english by this Aucthor for one kind |
of note to serue both ditties." The translation in the "Paradise of
Dainty Devices," mentioned by Mason, is by Barnaby Rich, under the
signature of "My Luck is Loss." The following is the first verse,
transcribed for comparison with Tusser's version:
"Why doth each state apply itself to worldly praise?
And undertake such toil, to heap up honour's gain,
Whose seat, though seeming sure, on fickle fortune stays,
Whose gifts are never prov'd perpetual to remain?
But even as earthen pots, with every fillip fails:
So fortune's favour flits, and fame with honour quails."
[E486] "Carle." M. Licinius Crassus, surnamed Dives, or the Rich, one
of the first Roman Triumvirate, and celebrated for his avarice and love
of the table.
[E487] "O thou fit bait for wormes!" In the Treatise of Vincentio
Saviolo, printed in 1595 with the title "Vincentio Saviolo his
Practise. In two Bookes. The first intreating of the use of the Rapier
and Dagger. The second of Honor and Honorable Quarrels," the printer's
device has the motto: "O wormes meate: O froath: O vanitie: why art
thou so insolent." Compare "As you Like it," Act iii. sc. 2, 59, "Most
shallow man! thou worm's meat!"
[E488] "For fortunes looke." In editions of 1573 and 1585 the reading
is "For fortune, look." It is evident that these verses were written
at the time when our author first retired from court, and that they
were appended to this work long after. They allude to recent events,
to "fatal chance," and to other circumstances, which would have been
obliterated from the mind after the lapse of so many years.--M. See
Tusser's Autobiography, ch. 114, stanza 14, p. 208.
[E489] "Too daintie fed;" that is, to one who has been accustomed to
luxury, and high living.
[E490] "If court with cart, etc." If one, who has been a courtier, must
put up with the life of the country.
[E491] "What toesed eares." _Toese_, or _touze_, to worry (as a dog
does a bear), properly used of the dressing of wool, and thence
metaphorically, as in Spenser, Faerie Queene, xi. 33,
"And as a beare, whom angry curres have _touz'd_:"
to the dog who pulls the fell off the bear's back. Cf. the old name for
a dog, _Towzer_. Coles renders _tose_ or _toze_ by "_carpo, vellico_."
Baret, Alvearie, 1580, gives, "to Tosse wooll, _carpere lanam_."
Compare chap. 99. 4, p. 189, "so _tossed_ with comorants," which is
spelt _toesed_ in the ed. of 1577, and _teazed_ in those of 1580 and
1585.
[E492] "What robes." The livery or _vestis liberata_, often called
robe, allowed annually by the college.--Warton, Hist. of Eng. Poetry.
[E493] Penny-ale is common, thin ale. It is spoken of in Piers Plowman,
ed. Skeat, Passus xv. l. 310, as a most meagre drink, only fitted for
strict-living friars. It was sold at _a penny a gallon_, while the best
ale was _four pence_.
"Peny ale and podyng ale she poured togideres
For labourers and for lowe folke, þat lay by hym-selue."
--Piers Plowman, B. Text, Passus v. 220.
[E494] "Sundrie men had plagards then." See remarks in Biographical
Sketch, p. xii.
[E495] "The better brest," etc. On these words Hawkins, in his Hist. of
Music, ed. 1853, ii. 537, remarks: "In singing, the sound is originally
produced by the action of the lungs, which are so essential an organ
in this respect, that to have a _good breast_ was formerly a common
periphrasis to denote a _good singer_." Cf. Shakspere, Twelfth Night,
Act ii. sc. 3, "By my troth, the fool hath an excellent breast."
Halliwell quotes:
"I syng not musycall
For my _brest_ is decayd."
--Armonye of Byrdes, p. 5.
Ascham, in his Toxophilus, says, when speaking of the expediency
of educating youths in singing: "Trulye two degrees of men, which
have the highest offices under the king in all this realme, shall
greatly lacke the vse of singinge, preachers and lawyers, because they
shall not, without this, be able to rule theyr _brestes_ for euerye
purpose."--Lond. 1571, fo. 86; and in Strype's Life of Arch. Parker it
is stated that "In the Statutes of Stoke College, Suffolk, founded by
Parker, is a provision in these words: 'of which said queristers, after
their _breasts_ are changed, will the most apt of wit and capacity be
holpen with exhibitions of forty shillings.'"
[E496] Nicholas Udall was the author of our oldest known comedy
"Roister Doister." He was born 1505, and was Master first at Eton and
afterwards at Westminster, at both of which places he became notorious
for the severity of his punishments. He wrote several dramas, now lost,