v. 736. _Gog_] A corruption of the sacred name.
v. 742. _Tressis agasonis species prior, altera Davi_] “Hic Dama est non _tressis agaso_.” Persius, _Sat._ v. 76. _Davus_ is a slave’s name in Plautus, Terence, &c.
v. 748. _tacita sudant præcordia culpa_] From Juvenal, _Sat._ i. 167.
v. 751. _Labra movens tacitus_] “_Labra_ moves _tacitus_.” Persius, _Sat._ v. 184.
—— _rumpantur ut ilia Codro_] From Virgil, _Ecl._ vii. 26.
Page 392. v. 758. _hole reame_] i. e. whole realm.
v. 763. _leue warke whylis it is wele_] i. e. leave work while it is well.
v. 764. _towchis_] i. e. touches, qualities.
v. 769. _Cowntes of Surrey_] Was Elizabeth Stafford, eldest daughter of Edward Duke of Buckingham, and second wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who afterwards (on the death of his father in 1524) became the third Duke of Norfolk. She had previously been attached and engaged to the Earl of Westmoreland with the consent of both families; but her father, having broken off the intended match, compelled her to accept the hand of lord Thomas Howard in 1513. She was twenty years younger than her husband. After many domestic quarrels, they separated about 1533. Of their five children, one was Henry Howard, the illustrious poet. She died in 1558. See _Memorials of the Howard Family_, &c. by H. Howard, 1834, folio.
The Countess of Surrey appears to have been fond of literature; and, as she calls Skelton her “clerk,” we may suppose that she particularly patronised him. The probability is, that the present poem was really composed at Sheriff-Hutton Castle, which (as already noticed, p. 300) had been granted by the king to the Duke of Norfolk for life, and that the Countess was residing there on a visit to her father-in-law.
The _Garlande of Laurell_ was written, I apprehend, about 1520, or perhaps a little later: in v. 1192 Skelton mentions his _Magnyfycence_, which was certainly produced after 1515,—see note on title of that piece, p. 236.
Page 393. v. 776. _cronell_] i. e. coronal, garland.
v. 786. _of there lewdnesse_] May mean (as Nott explains it, Surrey’s _Works_, i.—Append. p. ix.)—of their ignorance, ignorantly; but I rather think the expression is here equivalent to,—evilly, impudently.
v. 787. _tappettis and carpettis_] See note on v. 474. p. 311.