The Rowley Poems Part 73

Lokeynge _ascaunce_ upon the naighboure greene.

The usual sense of _ascaunce_ in Chaucer, and other old writers, has been explained in a note on ver. 7327. of the Canterbury Tales. It is used in the same sense by Gascoigne. The more modern adverb _ascaunce_, signifying _sideways, obliquely_, is derived from the Italian _a schiancio_, and I doubt very much whether it had been introduced into the English language in the time of the supposed Rowley.

6. ASTERTE. G. 137.

----You have theyr worthe _asterte_.

I despair of finding any authorized sense of the word _asterte_, that will suit this pa.s.sage. It cannot, I think, signifie _neglected or pa.s.sed by_, as Chatterton has rendered it.

7. AUMERE. ae. 398.--Ch. 7. AUMERES. E. III. 25.

Depycte wyth skylled honde upponn thie wyde _aumere_.

And eke the grounde was dighte in its mose deste _aumere_.

Wythe gelten _aumeres_ stronge ontolde.

The only place in which I remember to have met with this word is in Chaucer's Romant of the Rose, ver. 2271. and there it undoubtedly signifies _a purse_; probably from the Fr. _Aumoniere. Aumere of silk_ is Chaucer's translation of _Bourse de foye_. In another place of the same poem, ver. 2087. he uses _aumener_ in the same sense. The interpretations given of this word by Chatterton will be considered below.

8. BARBED. ae 27. 219.

Nott, whan from the _barbed_ horse, &c.

Mie lord fadre's _barbde_ halle han ne wynnynge.

Let it be allowed, that _barbed horse_ was a proper expression, in the XV Century, for _a horse covered with armour_, can any one conceive that _barbed hall_ signified _a hall in which armour was hung_? or what other sense can _barbde_ have in this pa.s.sage?

9. BLAKE. ae 178. 407.

Whanne Autumpne _blake_ and sonne-brente doe appere.

_Blake_ stondeth future doome, and joie doth mee alyse.

_Blake_, in old English, may signifie either _black_, or _bleak_.

Chatterton, in both these pa.s.sages, renders it _naked_; and, in the latter, some such signification seems absolutely necessary to make any sense.

10. BODYKIN. ae 265.

And for a _bodykin_ a _swarthe_ obteyne.

_Bodekin_ is used by Chaucer more than once to signifie a _bodkin_ or _dagger_. I know not that it had any other signification in his time.

_Swarthe_, used as a noun, has no sense that I am acquainted with.

11. BORDEL. E. III. 2.--ae 147. BORDELIER. ae 410.

Goe serche the logges and _bordels_ of the hynde.

We wylle in a _bordelle_ lyve.

Hailie the robber and the _bordelyer_.

Though _bordel_, in very old French, signifies a _cottage_, and _bordelier_ a _cottager_, Chaucer uses the first word in no other sense than that of _brothel_ or _bawdy-house_; and _bordeller_ with him means the keeper of such a house. After this usage of these words was so established, it is not easy to believe that any later writer would hazard them in their primitive sense.

12. BYSMARE. M. 95.

Roaringe and rolleyng on yn course _bysmare_.

_Bismare_, in Chaucer, signifies _abusive speech_; nor do I believe that it ever had any other signification.

13. CHAMPYON, V. PG. 12.

Wee better for to doe do _champyon_ anie onne.

I do not believe that _champion_ was used as a verb by any writer much earlier than Shakespeare.

14. CONTAKE. T. 87. CONTEKE. E. II. 10.

----I _contake_ thie waie.

_Conteke_ the dynnynge ayre and reche the skies.

_Conteke_ is used by Chaucer, as a _noun_, for _Contention_. I know no instance of its being used as a _verb_.

15. DERNE. ae 582. DERNIE. E. I. 19. El. 8. M. 106.

Whan thou didst boaste soe moche of actyon _derne_.

Oh Raufe, comme lyste and hear mie _dernie_ tale.

O gentle Juga, beare mie _dernie_ plainte.

He wrythde arounde yn drearie _dernie_ payne.

_Derne_ is a Saxon adj. signifying _secret, private_, in which sense it is used more than once by Chaucer, and in no other.

16. DROORIE. Ep. 47.

Botte lette ne wordes, whiche _droorie_ mote ne heare, Bee placed in the same ----.

The only sense that I know of _druerie_ is _courtship, gallantry_, which will not suit with this pa.s.sage.

17. FONNES. E. II. 14. ae 421. FONS. T. 4.

Decorn wyth _fonnes_ rare ---- On of the _fonnis_ whych the clerche have made.

Quayntyssed _fons_ depictedd on eche sheelde.

A _fonne_ in Chaucer signifies a _fool_, and _fonnes--fools_; and Spenser uses _fon_ in the same sense; nor do I believe that it ever had any other meaning.

18. KNOPPED. M. 14.

Theyre myghte ys _knopped_ ynne the froste of fere.

_Knopped_ is used by Chaucer to signifie _fastened_ with a b.u.t.ton, from _knoppe_, a b.u.t.ton; but what poet, that knew the meaning of his words, would say that any thing was b.u.t.toned with _frost_?

19. LECTURN. Le. 46.

An onlist _lecturn_ and a songe adygne.