v. 434. _Menander_] Means here _Mæander_: but I have not altered the text; because our early poets took great liberties with classical names; because all the eds. of Skelton’s _Speke, Parrot_, have
“Alexander, a gander of _Menanders_ pole.”
and because the following passage occurs in a poem by some imitator of Skelton, which is appended to the present edition;
“Wotes not wher to wander, Whether to _Meander_, Or vnto _Menander_.”
v. 437. _wake_] i. e. watching of the dead body during the night.
v. 441. _He shall syng the grayle_]—_grayle_, says Warton (correcting an explanation he had formerly given), signifies here “_Graduale_, or the _Responsorium_, or _Antiphonarium_, in the Romish service.... He shall sing that part of the service which is called the _Grayle_, or _graduale_.” _Obs. on the F. Queen_, ii. 244. ed. 1762. See too Du Cange in v. _Gradale_, and Roquefort in v. _Gréel_.
v. 442. _The owle, that is so foule_]—_foule_, i. e. ugly. The Houlate, (in the poem so called, by Holland), says,
“Thus all the foulis, for my _filth_, hes me at feid.”
v. 445. _the cormoraunce_] i. e. the cormorant.
v. 447. _the gaglynge gaunte_] In _Prompt. Parv._ is “_Gant_ birde. Bistarda.” ed. 1499. Palsgrave gives “_Gant_ byrde,” without a corresponding French term. _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. xxxv. (Table of Subst.). Our author in his _Elynour Rummyng_ has—
“In came another dant, Wyth a gose and a _gant_.”
where _gant_ is plainly used for gander. In the present passage, however, _gaunte_ must have a different signification (“The gose and the _gander_” being mentioned v. 435), and means, I apprehend,—wild-goose: Du Cange has “_Gantæ_, Anseres silvestres,” &c.; and see Roquefort in v. _Gans._ But Nares, MS. note on Skelton, explains _gaunte_—gannet.
Page 64. v. 449. _The route and the kowgh_] The Rev. J. Mitford suggests that the right reading is “The _knout_ and the _rowgh_,”—i. e. the knot and the ruff.
v. 450. _The barnacle_] i. e. The goose-barnacle,—concerning the production of which the most absurd fables were told and credited: some asserted that it was originally the shell-fish called barnacle, others that it grew on trees, &c.
v. 451. _the wilde mallarde_] i. e. the wild-drake.