“stall fra peteouss Abrahame An quhorle and _ane quhum quhame_.”
v. 74,—Laing’s _An. Pop. Poetry of Scotland_.
_Whim-wham_ is used by Gray, _Works_, iii. 123. ed. Mitford, and by Lamb, _Prose Works_, ii. 142.
v. 76. _trym tram_] i. e. some trim, neat ornament, or pretty trifle. In Weaver’s _Lusty Juuentus_, Hipocrisie, after enumerating a variety of popish trumpery, adds
v. 77. _brayne pan_] i. e. skull, head. See note, p. 100. v. 31.
v. 90. _baudeth_] i. e. fouls. “I _Baudy_ or fyle or soyle with any filthe, _Ie souylle_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. clviii. (Table of Verbes). “The auter clothes, and the vestementes shulde be very clene, not _baudy_, nor torne,” &c. Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. E iiii.
Page 98. v. 94. _wonnynge_] i. e. dwelling.
v. 98. _Lederhede_] i. e. Leatherhead; see p. 157.
v. 99. _tonnysh gyb_] The epithet _tonnysh_ is perhaps derived from her occupation of _tunning_ (see note, p. 158), or perhaps it may allude to her shape: _gyb_ is properly a male cat (see note, p. 122. v. 27); but the term, as here, is sometimes applied to a woman;
“And give a thousand by-words to my name, And call me Beldam, _Gib_, Witch, Night-mare, Trot.”
Drayton’s _Epistle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey_,—_Poems_, p. 175. ed. 1619. fol.
v. 103. _port sale_] If the right reading, must be used here for—sale in general. “Port-sale, The Sale of Fish as soon as it is brought into the Harbour; also an Out-cry or Publick Sale of any Commodity.” Kersey’s _Dict._
v. 105. _To sweters, to swynkers_] i. e. to those who sweat and labour hard,—to labourers of various kinds.
“For we can neyther _swyncke nor sweate_.”
v. 110. _Now away the mare_] Skelton has the same expression in his _Magnyfycence_, v. 1342. vol. i. 268. Compare _The Frere and the Boye_;
“Of no man he had no care, But sung, hey howe, _awaye the mare_.”
and _Jyl of Braintfords Testament_, n. d.;
“Ah sira, mary _away the mare_, The deuil giue thee sorow and care.”
and _A new Commodye_ &c. _of the bewte & good propertes of women_, &c. n. d.
“Tush syr be mery let pas _awey the mare_.”
The words are doubtless a portion of some song or ballad. In Ravenscroft’s _Melismata, Musicall Phansies_, &c. 1611, is a song (No. 6) supposed to be sung by “Seruants out of Seruice” who “are going to the Citie to looke for new;”