Page 25. v. 3. _Corage wyth lust_] See notes, p. 98. v. 23., p. 99. v. 19: but the whole stanza is very obscure.
—— _arrectyd_] i. e. perhaps, considered sovereign; to _arrect_ is to impute: or it may simply mean—raised up; our author’s _Garlande of Laurell_ begins
“_Arectyng_ my syght towarde the zodyake.”—vol. i. 361.
“Yet I haue felt of the sicknesse through May Both hote and cold, and _axes_ euery day.”
Chaucer’s _Cuckow and Nightingale_,—_Workes_, fol. 316. ed. 1602.
“Ther comyth a _quarteyn_, seith in his gret _accesse_,” &c.
Lydgate’s verses _Against Self-love_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 8.
“Help _feuerous_ folk that tremble in ther _accesse_.”
Lydgate’s _Prayer to St. Leonard_,—_MS. Harl._ 2255. fol. 114.
In some parts of England and Scotland _access_ is still used to denote the ague.—Lest any reader should think this note unnecessarily long, I may observe that in two recently published works the word “_axes_” is erroneously explained,—aches.
Page 25. v. 10. _Of thoughtfull hertys plungyd in dystres_] Skelton borrowed this line from Lydgate, whose _Lyf of our Lady_ begins
“O _thoughtful herte plungyd in distresse_.”
In the _Bibl. Poet._ p. 82, Ritson gives these words as the commencement of a poem by Lydgate, _Cott. Ap._ viii., not knowing that this reference is to a MS. of the _Lyf of our Lady_.—_Thoughtfull_ is anxious, heavy, sad.
“For _thought_ and woe pyteously wepynge.”
Lydgate’s _Warres of Troy_, B. iv. sig. T v. ed. 1555.
v. 13. _Herber_] Warton appears to limit the signification of this word in old poetry to “an herbary for furnishing domestic medicines,” which, says he, “always made a part of our ancient gardens;” note on _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 231. ed. 4to. But Jamieson observes, that it would seem to be used for arbour by James I., _Kings Quair_, ii. 12, 13., and in the romance of _Sir Egeir_, v. 356. _Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang._ (in v. _Herbere_). See also _The Flower and the Leaf_, and _The Complaint of the Black Knight_, by Chaucer.
v. 14. _lusty somer_] i. e. pleasant summer.
v. 16. _ruddys_] i. e. ruddy tints of the cheek, complexion.
v. 17. _Saphyre of sadnes_]—_sadnes_, i. e. steadiness, constancy:
“For hit is write and seide how _the safere_ _Doth token trowthe_.”
