The Nightingale straines her melodious throat,
Which of the small Birds being heard to roat
They soone set to her, each a part doth take
As by their musick up a Quire to make;
The Parrat, lately sad, then talks and jeeres,
And counterfeiteth every sound he heares;
The purblind Owle, which heareth all this doo,
T'expresse her gladnesse, cryes Too whit too whoo:
No Beast nor Bird was in the Arke with Noy
But in their kinde exprest some signe of joy.

NOTES.

P. 1, 1. 3. "As bold as Isenbras." The metrical romance of Sir Isumbras (from an unknown French original), was printed by Copland early in the 16th century. A copy from MS. is given by Halliwell among the Thornton Romances in the Camden Society (1844).

1. 6. The rime of Sire Thopas is in the "Canterbury Tales." Drayton in this ballad has borrowed Chaucer's metre and a few of his expressions.

Ycond the leire," &c. "She knew the learning belonging to great courtesy" (Collier).

1. 13. March-pine, ¿.e., marchpane: a kind of sweet biscuit usually composed of almonds and sugar.

P. 2, 1. 6. "As lythe as Lasse of Kent." This line is from Spenser's Shepheard's Calender (Ægloga Secunda) :

66

"Seest how brag yond bullocke beares

So smirke, so smoothe, his pricked eares?

His hornes bene as broade as rainebow bent,
His dewelap as lythe as lasse of Kent."

1. 12. Setywall. Cf. the Rime of Sire Thopas:—
"There springen herbes grete and smale,

The licoris and the setewale."

Setwall, or garden valerian, at the first hath broad leaves of a whitish green colour" (Lyte's Herbal apud Nares).

1. 15. Summer hall (sometimes written somerhaule): a summerhouse.

1. 20. Crancke=lustily: Spenser uses the word. "Crancke, or cranke, an old word, and yet still in use among country people, used for lustie, courageous, spiritfull" (Minshewe). The derivation is uncertain. On the lucus a non lucendo principle, Minshewe derives it from Dutch kranck, sick.”

P. 3, 1. 4. Loke=lock or fleece of wooll. Cf. p. 172, l. 26.

1. 6. Bauzons skin=badger's skin.

1. 7. Cockers. "A kind of rustic high shoes, or half boots; probably from cocking up.

'Now doth he inly scorn his Kendall-greene
And his patch'd cockers now despised beene.'
Hall, Sat. iv. 6" (Nares).

1.7. Cordiwin. Cf. Rime of Sire Thopas :-
"His here, his berde was like saffroun,
That to his girdle raught adoun,

His shoon of cordewane."

"Nomen habet a Corduba, urbe Hispaniæ, unde afferebantur ejusmodi coria" (Minshewe).

1. 8. Miniveere. A kind of fur.

1. 10. Tar-box. The tar was used for curing the sheep's sores.

1. 11. Cointree blue=Coventry blue. Coventry blue stuffs were as famous as Lincoln green.

1. 27. Rosalind. In the third volume of his admirable edition of Spenser (now in course of publication), Dr. Grosart discusses at length the question, "Who was Rosalind?"

P. 15, l. 5. So on p. 129. "One ware his Mistris garter, one her glove." It was a common practice for an Elizabethan gallant to wear in his hat the garters of his mistress.

P. 23, 1. 3.

P. 25, 1. 15.

Ding=dash.

"My Palace placed betwixt Earth and Skies," &c. Drayton had in his mind Chaucer's House of Fame :

P. 38, 1. 8.

P. 40, l. I.

P. 44, 1. 19.

P. 51, 1. 19.

-

"His palais standeth as I shall say
Right even amiddes of the way,
Betweene Heaven, Earth and See,

That whatsoever in all these three

Is spoken prive or apert,

The way thereto is so overt

And stant eke in so just a place

That every sowne mote to it pace."

Breeme=sharp, severe.

"And one foretold," &c. Cf. 2 Henry VI., iv. i.

Pawn. A part of the Royal Exchange.

"Grant learn'd Agrippa," &c. Drayton got this tale from

Nashe's Unfortunate Traveller, or Life of Jack Wilton, 1594. All Surrey's later biographers are agreed that the whole story of his romantic travels is an invention of Nashe's genius.

P. 53, 1. 8. Daded. A favourite word of Drayton's (for a child's first attempts at walking), but hardly found elsewhere. Cf. Polyolbion, Song I. :

"Which nourish'd and bred up at her most bounteous pap,

No sooner taught to dade but from their mother trip."

P. 54, 1. 12. "Nor beautious Stanhope." "Of the Beautie of that Lady he himselfe testifies in an Elegie which he writ of her refusing to dance with him, which he seemeth to allegorize under a Lion and a Wolfe." (From the author's Annotations.)

P. 54. 1. 20. "And sacred Bryan." Sir Francis Bryan, a friend of Surrey and Wyatt, and a contributor to Tottell's Miscellany. Vid. Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, ed. 1840, iii. 52.

P. 59, 1. 29. "Then, as Ulysses' wife," &c. An allusion to the well-known line of Ovid (Heroid. i. 22) :—

"Nil mihi rescribas : attamen ipse veni."

P. 63, l. 1. "An evill spirit," &c. There is some resemblance between this sonnet and Shakespeare's sonnet cxliv.

P. 65. "Since there's no helpe," &c. This was a favourite sonnet with Rossetti. In a letter to Mr. Hall-Caine he writes :-"As for Drayton, his one incomparable sonnet is the Love Parting. That is almost the best in the language, if not quite" (Hall-Caine's Recollections of D. G. Rossetti).

P. 68, l. 12. Greaves boughs: a word frequently used by Drayton. 1. 21. Rascalls. The technical name for lean deer. P. 75, 1. 2. "Prick, or roving shaf." Cf. the Compleat Gamester, 1674, p. 205 :-"There are three Marks to shoot at, Bucks, Pricks, or Rovers. The first is a level mark, and therefore you must have a strong Arrow with a broad feather. The second is a mark of some compass, yet most certain in the distance, therefore you must have nimble strong Arrows with a middle feather, all of one weight and flying. The last, which is the Rover, is uncertain, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, and therefore requires Arrows lighter or heavier, according to the distance of shooting."

1. 6.

"Cleave the pin." The pin is the wooden nail of the target.