Playful Poems Part 22

And over their tea, and m.u.f.fins, and crumpets, Circulate many a scandalous word, And whisper tales they could only have heard Through some such Diabolical Trumpets!

GLOSSARY

{114} And, in old English could be placed like "also" in different parts of a sentence. Thus, in Nymphidia, "She hies her then to Lethe spring, A bottle and thereof doth bring."

{129} Atalantis, "As long as Atalantis shall be read." Atalantis was a book of Court scandal by Mrs. De la Riviere Manley, in four volumes, ent.i.tled "Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality of both s.e.xes from the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean." Mrs. Manley died in 1724.

{94h} Bauzon, badger. French, bausin.

{147a} Billies, fellows, used rather contemptuously.

{147f} Blellum, idle talker.

{150a} Boddle, a Scottish copper coin worth the third part of an English halfpenny; said to be named after the Mint-master who first coined it, Bothwell.

{150h} Bore, hole in the wall.

{91e} But, "without," "but merriness," without mirth.

{152d} Byke, hive.

{150f} Cantrip, charm, spell. Icelandic, gandr, enchantment; gand- reithr was the witches' ride.

{83} Can'wick Street, Candlewick, where now there is Cannon Street.

{86a} Champarty, Champartage, was a feudal levy of a share of profit from the ground (campi pars), based originally upon aid given to enable profit to be earned. Thus it became a law term for right of a stranger to fixed share in any profits that on such condition he helped a litigant to win.

{85b} Chiche vache, lean cow. French chiche, Latin ciccus, wretched, worthless; from Greek kikkos, the core of a pomegranate.

Worth no more than a pomegranate seed.

{94i} c.o.c.kers, rustic half-boots.

{151g} Coft, bought. German, kaufte.

{82b} Copen, buy. Dutch, koopen.

{94j} Cordiwin, or cordewane, Cordovan leather.

{89} Coueyn, coveyne convening or conspiring of two or more to defraud.

{94f} Crank, lively. A boat was "crank" when frail, lightly and easily tossed on the waves, and liable to upset. Prof. Skeat thinks that the image of the tossed boat suggested lively movement.

{151c} Crees.h.i.+e flannen, greasy flannel.

{151e} c.u.mmock, a short staff with a crooked head.

{151f} Cutty, short; so cutty pipe, short pipe.

{85a} Darrain, decide. To "arraign" was to summon ad rationes to the pleadings. To darraign was derationare, to bring them to a decision.

{86b} Defy, digest. As in the Vision of Piers Plowman "wyn of Ossye Of Ruyn and of Rochel, the rost to defye."

Latin, defio = deficio, to make one's self to be removed from something, or something to be removed from one's self. To defy in the sense of challenging is a word of different origin, diffidere, to separate from fides, faith, trust, allegiance to another.

{91d} Degest, orderly. To "digest" is to separate and arrange in an orderly manner.

{150e} Dirl, vibrate, echo.

{147b} Drouthy, droughty, thirsty.

{151a} Duddies, clothes.

{152e} Eldritch, also elrische, alrische, alry, having relation to elves or evil spirits, supernatural, hideous, frightful.

{152f} Ettle, endeavour, aim. Icelandic, aetla, to mean anything, design, have aim, is the Scottish ettle.

{108d} Fire-drake, dragon breathing out fire.

{91b} Flicht and wary, fluctuate and change.

{92b} Frawfull fary, froward tumult.

{152c} Fyke, fuss.

{30} Fytte, a song, canto. First English, fit, a song.

When Wisdom "thas fitte asungen haefde" had sung this song. King Alfred's Boethius.

{150g} Gab, mouth.

{148b} Gars, makes; "gars me greet," makes me weep.

{147h} Gate, road. Icelandic, gata.

{35} Habergeon, small hauberk, armour for the neck. Old High German, hals, the neck; bergan, to protect.

{94d} Harlock, This plant-name occurs only here and in Shakespeare's Lear, Act iv. sc. 4, where Lear is said to be crowned "with harlocks, hemlocks, nettles, cuckoo-flowers." Probably it is charlock, Sinapis arvensis, the mustard-plant.

{98} Hays, The hay was a French dance, with many turnings and windings.

{100} Hient Hill, Ben Hiand, in Ardnamurchan, Argyles.h.i.+re.

{152a} Hotched, hitched.

{147g} Ilka, each one, every.

{85c} Infere, together.

{148c} Ingle, fire. Gaelic, aingeal, allied to Latin ignis.

{95b} Keep, "take thou no keep"--heed, "never mind."

{148f} Kirkton, familiar term for the village in which the country people had their church.

{94k} Ladysmock, Cardamine pratensis.

{93b} Leir, lore, doctrine.

{94g} Learned his sheep, taught his sheep.

{94a} Lemster, Leominster.

{95a} Lingell, a shoemaker's thong. Latin lingula.

{151h} Linkit, tripped, moved briskly.

{108c} Lubrican, the Irish leprechaun, a fairy in shape of an old man, discovered by the moan he makes. He brings wealth, and is fixed only as long as the finder keeps his eye upon him.

{108b} Mandrake, the root of mandragora, rudely shaped like the forked animal man, and said to groan or shriek when pulled out of the earth.

{93c} Marchpine, sweet biscuit of sugar and almonds. Marchpane paste was used by comfit-makers for shaping into letters, true-love knots, birds, beasts, etc.

{130} Megrim, pain on one side of the head, headache. French migraine, from Gr. eemikrania.

{147i} Melder, milling. The quant.i.ty of meal ground at once.

{148a} Mirk, dark.

{108a} Molewarp, mole. First English, moldwearp.

{148e} Nappy, nap, strong beer.

{126} Pam, Knave of Clubs, the highest card in the game of Loo, derived from "palm," as "trump" from "triumph."

{137} Partridge, a maker of prophetic almanacs, who was ridiculed by Swift as type of his bad craft.

{94b} Peakish hull, hill by the Peak of Derbys.h.i.+re.

{19} Pose, catarrh. First English, geposu.

"By the pose in thy nose, And the gout in thy toes."

--Beaumont and Fletcher.

{88b} Prow, profit. Old French, prou, preu--"Oil voir, sire, pour vostre preu i viens."--Garin le Loharain.

{91a} Qu, Scottish = W. Quhair, where; quhois, whose; quheill, wheel; quha, quho, who; quhat, what.

{82a} Ray, striped cloth.

{151d} Rigwoodie, tough. Rigwiddie is the rope crossing the back of a horse yoked in a cart; rig, back, and withy, a twig. Applied to anything strong-backed.

{82c} Rise, "cherries in the rise," cherries on the twig. First English, hris, a twig, or thin branch. The old practice of selling cherries upon shoots cut from the tree ended in their sale by pennyworths with their stalks tied to a little stick of wood. So they were sold in London when I was a boy.