_Harpalus_ (from pieces by uncertain authors printed with the poems of Surrey),—Percy’s _Rel. of A. E. P._ ii. 68. ed. 1794.
Page 73. v. 716. _kys the post_] So Barclay;
“Yet from beginning absent if thou be, Eyther shalt thou lose thy meat and _kisse the post_,” &c.
The expression is found in much later writers: see, for instance, Heywood’s _Woman Kilde with Kindnesse_, sig. E 2. ed. 1617.
v. 717. _Pandara_] So in Chaucer (according to some copies);
“Aha (quod _Pandara_) here beginneth game.”
_Troilus and Creseide_, B. i. fol. 147,—_Workes_, ed. 1602.
Page 73. v. 719. _But lyght for somer grene_] See note, p. 115. v. 355.
v. 735. _proces_] i. e. story, account. So again in this poem “_relation_” and “_prosses”_ are used as synonymous, vv. 961, 969; and in our author’s _Magnyfycence_ we find
“This _treatyse_, deuysyd to make you dysporte.”
The 15th chap. of the first book of Lydgate’s _Fall of Prynces_ is headed “A _processe_ of Narcissus, Byblis, Myrra,” &c.
v. 736.—_of Anteocus_] Whom Chaucer calls “the cursed king Antiochus.” _The Man of Lawes Prol._ v. 4502. ed. Tyr. His story may be found in Gower’s _Confessio Amantis_, lib. viii. fol. clxxv. sqq. ed. 1554.
—— _of Mardocheus,_ _And of great Assuerus, &c._]
“Even scripture-history was turned into romance. The story of Esther and Ahasuerus, or of Amon or Hamon, and Mardocheus or Mordecai, was formed into a fabulous poem.” Warton, note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 178. (where some lines of the romance are quoted from a MS.) ed. 4to.
v. 742. _teene_] i. e. wrath: see the Book of _Esther_.
v. 745. _Of kyng Alexander_] See Weber’s _Introduction_, p. xx. sqq., and the romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_ in his _Met. Rom._ i.; also _The Buik of the most noble and vailȝeand Conquerour Alexander the Great_, reprinted by the Bannatyne Club, 1831.
v. 746.—_of kyng Euander_] As the lady declares (v. 756) that she was slightly acquainted with Virgil, we may suppose that her knowledge of this personage was derived from _The Recuyel of the Historyes of Troy_, and Caxton’s _Boke of Eneydos_.
Page 74. v. 751. _historious_] i. e. historical.
v. 752. _bougets and males_] i. e. budgets and bags.
Page 74. v. 768. _to diffuse for me_] i. e. too difficult for me to understand. “_Dyffuse_ harde to be vnderstande, _diffuse_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lxxxvi. (Table of Adiect.).