_Diligo rustincum cum portant bis duo quointum,_ _Et cantant delos est mihi dulce melos_]
Diligo rusticulum cum portat Dis duo quintum, Et cantat Delos, est mihi dulce melos:
understanding _duo quintum_ to mean decimum, a tenth or tithe, and explaining the whole, I like the peasant when he brings his tithe to Dis, and sings “Delos,”—pays it from motives of devotion.
In 1507, the city of Norwich was “almost utterly defaced” by two dreadful fires: the first broke out on 25th April, and lasted for four days; the second began 4th June, and continued for two days and a night. See Blomefield’s _Hist. of Norfolk_, ii. 131. ed. fol.
_Mortuus est asinus,_ _Qui pinxit mulum_]
“_Mulum de asino pingere_, Dici potest, quando exemplar et res efficta non multum inter se distant; vel quando ineptiæ ineptiis repræsentantur, vel mendacia mendaciis astruuntur. Magna similitudo inter asinum et mulum est. Tertullianus. [_Adv. Valent._ cap. xix.].” Erasmi _Adagia_, p. 1663. ed. 1606.
Page 178. Henry the Seventh died April 21st, 1509, in the 24th year of his reign (see Sir H. Nicolas’s _Chron. of Hist._ pp. 333, 350. sec. ed.), and in the 52d (according to some authorities, the 53d) year of his age; and was interred in the splendid chapel which bears his name.
“Here lieth buried in one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe, both for the Chappell, and for the Sepulchre, the body of Henry the seuenth.... This glorious rich Tombe is compassed about with verses, penned by that Poet Laureat (as he stiles himselfe) and Kings Orator, Iohn Skelton: I will take onely the shortest of his Epitaphs or Eulogiums, and most to the purpose.
Septimus hic situs est Henricus, gloria Regum Cunctorum, ipsius qui tempestate fuerunt, Ingenio atque opibus gestarum et nomine rerum, Accessere quibus nature dona benigne: Frontis honos, facies augusta, heroica forma, Junctaque ei suauis coniux, perpulchra, pudica, Et fecunda fuit: felices prole parentes, Henricum quibus octauum terra Anglia debes.”
Weever’s _Anc. Fun. Mon._, p. 476. ed. 1631.
But the above lines are not in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_; nor are they assigned to him in _Reges, Reginæ, Nobiles, et alii in Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti_, &c. 1603,—where they occur, sig. D.