v. 299. _rybskyn_] In _Prompt. Parv._, ed. 1499, “_Rybskyn_” stands without a Latin term; but in the copy of that work, _MS. Harl._ 221, is “_Rybbe skynn._ Melotula.” In a MS. _Catholicon in Lingua materna_, dated 1483, I find “_Rybbynge skyn._ nebrida. pellicudia.” I may add that in Palsgrave’s _Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr._, 1530, “_Rybbe skynne_” occurs without the corresponding French, fol. lix. (Table of Subst.).—Does it mean (as Albert Way, Esq. has obligingly suggested to me) a leather apron, used during the operation of flax-dressing?
Page 105. v. 303. _thrust_] i. e. thirst.
_But drynke, styll drynke,_ _And let the cat wynke_]
“_Manhode._ Now _let vs drynke_ at this comnaunt For that is curtesy.
_Folye._ Mary mayster ye shall haue in hast A ha syrs _let the catte wyncke_,” &c.
See also three epigrams by Heywood _Of the winking Cat_,—_Workes_, sig. P 4. ed. 1598.
v. 319. _in all the hast_] Compare: “Bulwarkes were made _in all the haste_.” Hormanni _Vulgaria_, sig. z iii. ed. 1530.
“the ryght way To London they tooke _in all the haste_.”
Smith’s _xii Mery Jests of the wyddow Edyth_, ed. 1573. sig. H iiii.
v. 323. _all hallow_] i. e. all saints,—perhaps, All-saints’ day.
_It was a stale to take_ _The deuyll in a brake_]
For “_stare_,” which is the reading of all the eds., I have substituted “_stale_”—i. e. lure, decoy. “_Stale_ of fowlys takinge.” _Prompt. Parv._ ed. 1499. So in Marmyon’s _Hollands Leaguer_, 1632;
“And if my skill not failes me, her I’ll make _A Stale, to take_ this Courtier _in a brake_.”
“Take time when time commeth: are we set time to take? Beware time, in meane time, _take_ not vs _in brake_.”
and Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_; “At last, as ye have heard here before, how divers of the great estates and lords of the council lay in a-wait with my Lady Anne Boleyn, to espy a convenient time and occasion _to take_ the cardinal _in a brake_.” p. 147. ed. 1827.—In our text, and in the passages just quoted, _brake_ seems to be used for trap: among its various significations, it means a strong wooden frame for confining the feet of horses, preparatory to their being shod; see Gifford’s note on Jonson’s _Works_, iii. 463.
Page 105. v. 327. _gambone_] i. e. gammon.