Page 422. v. 1533. _quaire_] i. e. quire,—pamphlet, book.
Page 422. v. 1542. _warkis_] i. e. works.
Page 423. v. 1556. _harnnes_] i. e. armour.
v. 1575. _sad_] See note, p. 264. v. 1711.
v. 1581. _Any worde defacid_] i. e. Any disfigured, deformed, unseemly word.
Page 424.—— _Lautre Enuoy, &c._] Concerning this curious Envoy, see _Account of Skelton and his Writings_.
v. 1597. _sekernes_] i. e. security, sureness.
v. 1598. _rede_] i. e. conceive, consider.
Page 426. v. 5. _kepe_] i. e. heed, regard, care.
v. 7. _Gone to seke hallows_]—_hallows_, i. e. saints.
“On pilgremage then must they go, To Wilsdon, Barking, or to some _hallowes_.”
_The Schole House of Women_, 1572,—Utterson’s _Early Pop. Poetry_, ii. 66.
But “to seek hallows” seems to have been a proverbial expression;
“O many woman hath caught be in a trayne, By goyng out such _halowes for to seke_.”
Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. ii. sig. I ii. ed. 1555.
Page 427. v. 13. _withholde_] i. e. withheld.
That the extant portions of this very obscure production were written at intervals, is not to be doubted; and that we do not possess all that Skelton composed under the title of _Speke, Parrot_ is proved by the following passage of the _Garlande of Laurell_, where, enumerating his various works, he mentions
“_the Popingay_, that hath in commendacyoun Ladyes and gentylwomen suche as deseruyd, And suche as be counterfettis they be reseruyd.”
a description which, as it answers to no part of the existing poem (or poems), must apply to some portion which has perished, and which, I apprehend, was of an earlier date. “_The Popingay_” is assuredly only another name for _Speke, Parrot_;
“Go, litell quayre, _namyd the Popagay_.”
Page 1. v. 3. _Parrot, a byrd of paradyse_] So Lydgate (in a poem, entitled in the Catalogue, _Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues_);
“_Popyngayes froo paradys_ comyn al grene.”
“Than spake _the popynge Jay of paradyse_.”
Page 2. v. 8. _estate_] i. e. state, rank.
v. 9. _Then Parot must haue an almon_] In Jonson’s _Magnetic Lady_, act v. sc. 5, we find,—
“Pol is a fine bird! O fine lady Pol! _Almond for Parrot_, Parrot’s a brave bird;”—
and Gifford, citing the present line (he ought rather to have cited v. 50), observes that Jonson was indebted to Skelton for “most of this jargon.” _Works_, vi. 109.