v. 307. _ouerthwhart_] i. e. cross, perverse, adverse.
v. 314. _gresse_] i. e. grass. This stanza is also imitated from Ovid, _Met._ i. 521.
v. 317. _raist_] i. e. arrayest: see note on title of poem, p. 197.
v. 318. _But sith I haue lost, &c._] Again from Ovid, _Met._ i. 557.
v. 324. _poetis laureat, &c._] It must be remembered that formerly a _poet laureat_ meant a person who had taken a degree in grammar, including rhetoric and versification: and that the word _poet_ was applied to a writer of prose as well as of verse; “_Poet_ a connyng man.” Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530. fol. lv. (Table of Subst.).
“And _poetes_ to preoven hit. Porfirie and Plato Aristotle, Ovidius,” &c.
“Nor sugred deties [ditties] of Tullius Cicero.”
Lydgate’s _Lyfe and passion of seint Albon_, sig. B ii. ed. 1534.
Page 374. v. 328. _Esiodus, the iconomicar_] i. e. Hesiod, the writer on husbandry (the eds. by a misprint have “icononucar,”—which Warton says he “cannot decypher.” _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 352 (note), ed. 4to.) Among _MSS. Dig. Bod._ 147. is “Carmen Domini Walteri de Henleye quod vocatur _Yconomia_ sive Housbundria:” compare Cicero; “quam copiose ab eo [Xenophonte] agricultura laudatur in eo libro, qui est de tuenda re familiari, qui _Œconomicus_ inscribitur.” _Cato Major_, c. 17.
v. 329. _fresshe_] i. e. elegant: see note, p. 302. v. 39.
Page 375. v. 335. _engrosyd_] i. e. plumped up, swollen.
—— _flotis_] i. e. flowings,—drops: various reading, “droppes;” see note _ad l._ (“_Flotyce._ Spuma.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499, is a distinct word.)
v. 338. _Percius presed forth with problemes diffuse_]—_presed_, i. e. pressed: _diffuse_, i. e. difficult to be understood; see note, p. 144. v. 768. “Skelton, undoubtedly a man of learning, calls Persius (not unhappily for his mode of thinking) _a writer of problems diffuse_.” Gifford’s Introd. to _Persius_, p. xxxi. ed. 1817.
v. 340. _satirray_] Is this word to be explained—satirist, or satirical?
v. 347. _wrate ... mercyall_] i. e. wrote ... martial.
v. 352. _Orace also with his new poetry_] “That is, Horace’s _Art of Poetry_. Vinesauf wrote _De Nova Poetria_. Horace’s _Art_ is frequently mentioned under this title.” Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._, ii. 353 (note), ed. 4to.