Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

.415 NOTES.304. Ayr morotv. before the morning or mealtime. It was not lateenough to be called the full morning, as it was not yet five o'clock.307. Here endeth the witty prologue,' &c. The author commends'it as being his best, and deserving of having its capital letters illuminatedwith gold. This is not done in the Trinity MS., which merelyhas a red capital at the beginning.XIV.JOHN SKELTON.(A) From ^ Why come ye nat to Courte?'Many of the notes below are copied from Mr. Dyce's edition.are marked with D.TheseLine 287. ' The Erie of Nortbumberlande, i. e. Henry Algernon Percy,fifth earl of Northumberland.In 14 Henrj- VIII he was made warden ofthe whole Marches, a charge which, for some reason or other, he soonafter resigned : vide Collins's Peerage, ii. 305, ed. Bridges. That hefound himself obliged to pay great deference to the Cardinal is evidentfrom Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, where (pp. 120-128, ed. 1S27) see theaccount of his being summoned from the north when his son LordPercy (who was then, according to the custom of the age, a •' ser\'itor "in Wolsey's house) had become enamoured of Anne Boleyn. Thisnobleman, who encouraged literature, and appears to have patronisedour poet, died in 1527.'—D,292. Mayny, flock.293. Loke out at dur, look out at the door.295. Bocbers dogge.'Skelton alludes to the report that Wolsey wasthe son of a butcher. Compare too Roy's satire against Wolsey, ' ' Redeme, and be nott wrothe," &c." The mastif curre, bred in Ypswitch towne . .Wat. He Cometh then of some noble stocke?Je^. His father coulde snatche a bullock,A butcher by his occupation."Harl. Miscell. ix. 3. 31. ed. Park,and a poem " Of"the Cardnalle Wolse ;" To se a churle a Bocbers curreTo rayne & rule in soche honour," &c.MS. Harl. 2252, fol. 156.Cavendish says that Wolsey " was an honest poor man's son ;" and thewill of his father (printed by Fiddes) shews that he possessed some