This nunnery was during many ages a place of education for the young ladies of the chief families in the diocese of Norwich, who boarded with and were taught by the nuns. The fair Jane or Johanna Scroupe of the present poem was, perhaps, a boarder at Carow.
See more concerning Carow in Dugdale’s _Monast._ (new ed.) iv. 68 sqq., and Blomefield’s _Hist. of Norfolk_, ii. 862 sqq. ed. fol.
Page 51. v. 9. _Nones Blake_] i. e. Black Nuns,—Benedictines.
v. 12. _bederolles_] i. e. lists of those to be prayed for.
Page 52. v. 24. _The tearys downe hayled_] So Hawes;
“That euermore the salte _teres downe hayled_.”
_The Pastime of pleasure_, sig. Q viii. ed. 1555.
v. 27. _Gyb our cat_] _Gib_, a contraction of _Gilbert_, was a name formerly given to a male cat:
“_Gibbe our Cat_, That awaiteth Mice and Rattes to killen.”
_Romaunt of the Rose_,—Chaucer’s _Workes_, fol. 136. ed. 1602.
In _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, 1575, “_Gib our cat_” is a person of consequence. Shakespeare (_Henry iv. Part First_, act i. sc. 2.) has the expression “gib cat;” and how his commentators have written “about it and about it” most readers are probably aware.
v. 29. _Worrowyd her on that_] So Dunbar;
v. 37. _Vnneth I kest myne eyes_] i. e. Scarcely, not without difficulty, I cast, &c.
v. 42. _Haue rewed_] i. e. Have had compassion.
Page 53. v. 58. _frete_] i. e. eat, gnaw.
v. 70. _Acherontes well_] i. e. Acheron’s well. So,—after the fashion of our early poets,—Skelton writes _Zenophontes_ for _Xenophon_, _Eneidos_ for _Eneis_, _Achilliedos_ for _Achilleis_, &c.
v. 75. _blo_] i. e. livid: see note, p. 103. v. 3.
v. 76. _mare_] i. e. hag.—“_Mare_ or witche.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499.
v. 82. _sowre_] In Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, is “_Sower_ of smellyng,” fol. xcvi. (Table of Adiect.),—a sense of the word which Skelton has elsewhere (third poem _Against Garnesche_, v. 146. vol. i. 124), and which therefore probably applies to the present passage. But qy. does “sowre” signify here—foul? “_Sowre_ filthe. Fimus. Cenum. Lutum.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. “_Sowry_ or defiled in _soure_ or filth,” &c. _Id._
_Arthour and Merlin_, p. 320. ed. Abbotsf.
v. 87. _outraye_] “I _Outray_ a persone (Lydgate) I do some outrage or extreme hurt to hym. _Ie oultrage_.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. cccxi. (Table of Verbes).