Glosse.
Kene) sharpe.
Gride) perced: an olde word much vsed of Lidgate, but not found (that I know
of) in Chaucer.
Ronts) young bullockes.
Wracke) ruine or Violence, whence commeth shipwracke: and not wreake, that
is vengeaunce or wrath.
Foeman) a foe.
Thenot) the name of a shepheard in Marot his Æglogues.
The soueraigne of Seas) is Neptune the God of the seas. The saying is
borrowed of Mimus Publianus, which vsed this prouerb in a verse.
Improbe Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit.
Heardgromes) Chaucers verse almost whole.
Fond Flyes) He compareth carelesse sluggardes or ill husbandmen to flyes,
that so soone as the sunne shineth, or yt wexeth any thing warme, begin
to flye abroade when sodeinely they be overtaken with cold.
But eft when) A verye excellent and liuely description of Winter, so as
may bee indifferently taken, eyther for old Age, or for Winter season.
Breme) chill, bitter. Chamfred) chapt, or wrinckled.
Accoied) plucked downe and daunted. Surquedrie) pryde.
Elde) olde age. Sicker) sure. Tottie) wauering.
Corbe) crooked. Herie) worshippe.
Phyllis) the name of some mayde vnknowen, whom Cuddie, whose person is
secrete, loued. The name is vsuall in Theocritus, Virgile, and
Mantuane.
Belte) a girdle or wast band. A fon) a foole. Lythe soft & gentile.
Venteth) snuffeth in the wind. Thy flockes Father) the Ramme. Crags) neckes.
Rather Lambes) that be ewed early in the beginning of the yeare.
Youth is) A verye moral and pitthy Allegorie of youth, and the lustes
thereof compared to a wearie wayfaring man.
Tityrus) I suppose he meane Chaucer, whose prayse for pleasaunt tales
cannot dye, so long as the memorie of hys name shal liue, and the name
of Poetrie shal endure.
Well thewed) that is, Bene moratae, full of morall wisenesse.
There grew) This tale of the Oake and the Brere, he telleth as learned of
Chaucer, but it is cleane in another kind, and rather like to Aesopes
fables. It is very excellente for pleasaunt descriptions, being
altogether a certaine Icon or Hypotyposis of disdainfull younkers.
Embellisht) beautified and adorned.
To wonne) to haunt or frequent. Sneb) checke.
Why standst) The speach is scorneful & very presumptuous.
Engrained) dyed in grain.
Accloieth) encombreth. Adawed) daunted & confounded.
Trees of state) taller trees fitte for timber wood.
Sterne strife) said Chaucer .s. fell and sturdy.
O my leige) a maner of supplication, wherein is kindly coloured the
affection and speache of Ambitious men.
Coronall) Garlande. Flourets) Young blossomes.
The Primrose) The chiefe and worthiest.
Naked armes) metaphorically ment of the bare boughes, spoyled of leaues.
This colourably he speaketh, as adiudging hym to the fyre.
The blood) spoken of a blocke, as it were of a living creature,
figuratiuely, and (as they saye) [kat eikasmon].
Hoarie lockes) metaphorically for withered leaues.
Hent) caught. Nould) for would not. Ay) euermore.
Wounds) gashes. Enaunter) least that.
The priestes crewe) holy water pott, wherewith the popishe priest vsed to
sprinckle & hallowe the trees from mischaunce. Such blindnesse was in
those times, which the Poete supposeth, to haue bene the finall decay
of this auncient Oake.
The blocke oft groned) A liuelye figure, whiche geueth sence and feeling to
vnsensible creatures, as Virgile also sayeth: Saxa gemunt grauido &c.
Boreas) the Northerne wynd, that bringeth the most stormie weather.
Glee) chere and iollitie.
For scorning Eld) and minding (as shoulde seme) to haue made ryme to the
former verse, he is conningly cutte of by Cuddye, as disdayning to here
any more.
Galage) a startuppe or clownish shoe.
Embleme.
This embleme is spoken of Thenot, as a moral of his former tale: namelye,
that God, which is himselfe most aged, being before al ages, and without
beginninge, maketh those, whom he loueth like to himselfe, in heaping
yeares vnto theyre dayes, and blessing them wyth longe lyfe. For the
blessing of age is not giuen to all, but vnto those, whom God will so
blesse: and albeit that many euil men reache vnto such fulnesse of
yeares, and some also wexe olde in myserie and thraldome, yet therefore
is not age euer the lesse blessing. For euen to such evill men such
number of yeares is added, that they may in their last dayes repent,
and come to their first home. So the old man checketh the rashheaded
for despysing his gray and frosty heares.
Whom Cuddye doth counterbuff with a byting and bitter prouerbe, spoken
indeede
at the first in contempt of old age generally.
for it
was an old opinion, and yet is continued in some mens conceipt, that
men of yeares have no feare of god at al, or not so much as younger
folke. For that being rypened with long experience, and hauing passed
many bitter brunts and blastes of vengeaunce, they dread no stormes of
Fortune, nor wrathe of Gods, nor daunger of menne, as being eyther by
longe and ripe wisedome armed against all mischaunces and aduersitie,
or with much trouble hardened against all troublesome tydes: lyke vnto
the Ape, of which is sayd in Æsops fables, that oftentimes meeting the
Lyon, he was at first sore aghast & dismayed at the grimnes and
austeritie of hys countenance, but at last being acquianted with his
lookes, he was so furre from fearing him, that he would familiarly gybe
and iest with him: Suche long experience breedeth in some men
securitie. Although it please Erasimus a great clerke and good old
father, more fatherly and fauourablye to construe it in his Adages for
his own behoofe, That by the prouerbe Nemo Senex metuit Iouem, is not
meant, that old men haue no feare of God at al, but that they be furre
from superstition and Idolatrous regard of false Gods, as is Iupiter.
But his greate learning notwithstanding, it is to plaine, to be
gainsayd, that olde men are muche more enclined to such fond fooleries,
then younger heades.
