[188] Alluding to the old way of biting the wax, usually red, in sealing deeds.--_Pegge._
"And to witness this is sooth, I bite the wax with my wang tooth."
[191] An allusion to the effects of water on cloth ill-woven.
[193] _i.e._, Those who write the customary verses during the Lent season at Oxford.--_Steevens._
[194] _i.e._, Scraps of anything; ~analegô~, colligo. Every one has heard of the _collectanea_ and _analecta poetarum_.--_Steevens._
[195] [The reading of the old copy is _humble_, which does not appear to agree at all with the context, since the parson addresses Andrew in a half-satirical strain of respect.]
[196] Robert Wisdom, a translator of the Psalms. Wood ("Athenæ Oxonienses," vol. i., "Fasti," p. 57) says he was "a good Latin and English poet of his time, and one that had been in exile in Queen Mary's reign. He was also rector of Settrington in Yorkshire, and died in 1568, having been nominated to a bishopric in Ireland in the time of Edward the 6th." His version of the Psalms is ridiculed in the "Remains of Samuel Butler," 1759, p. 41--
"Thence, with short meal and tedious grace, In a loud tone and public place, Sings _Wisdom's_ Hymns, that trot and pace As if Goliah scann'd 'em."
Again, p. 230: "Besides, when Rouse stood forth for his trial, _Robin Wisdom_ was found the better poet." [Further particulars of Wisdom are to be found in Warton's Poetry, by Hazlitt, iv. 131.]
[198] [Of these books the two former are not at present known by such titles. The third, the "Life of Mistress Katherine Stubs," by her husband, the celebrated Philip Stubs, was originally published in 1591, and went through many editions.] The Author observes, in the opening of the tract: "At fifteen years of age, her father being dead, her mother bestowed her in marriage upon one Master Philip Stubbes, with whom she lived four years and almost a half, very honestly and godly."
Richard Brome, in his play of "The Antipodes," act iii. sc. 2, mentions one of them in the following manner--
"A booke of the godly _life and death_ _Of Mistress Katherine Stubs_, which I have turn'd Into sweet meetre, for the vertuous youth, To woe an ancient lady widow with."
Again, Bishop Corbet in his "Iter Boreale," says--