Glosse.
Thilke) this same moneth. It is applyed to the season of the moneth, when
all menne delight them selues with pleasaunce of fieldes, and gardens,
and garments.
Bloncket liueries) gray coates. Yclad) arrayed, Y, redoundeth, as before.
In euery where) a straunge, yet proper kind of speaking.
Buskets) a Diminutiue .s. little bushes of hauthorne. Kirke) church.
Queme) please. A shole) a multitude; taken of fishe, whereof some going in
great companies, are sayde to swimme in a shole. Yode) went.
Iouyssance) ioye. Swinck labour. Inly) entirely Faytours) vagabonds.
Great pan) is Christ, the very God of all the shepheards, which calleth
himselfe the greate and good shepherd. The name is most rightly (me
thinkes) applyed to him, for Pan signifieth all or omnipotent, which is
onely the Lord Iesus. And by that name (as I remember) he is called of
Eusebius in his fifte booke de Preparat. Euang; who thereof telleth a
proper storye to that purpose. Which story is first recorded of
Plutarch, in his booke of the ceasing of oracles, & of Lauetere
translated, in his booke of walking sprightes. Who sayth, that about
the same time, that our Lord suffered his most bitter passion for the
redemtion of man, certein passengers sayling from Italy to Cyprus and
passing by certein Iles called Paxae, heard a voyce calling alowde
Thamus, Thamus, (now Thamus was the name of an Ægyptian, which was
Pilote of the ship,) who giuing eare to the cry, was bidden, when he
came to Palodes, to tel, that the great Pan was dead: which he doubting
to doe, yet for that he came to Palodes, there sodeinly was such a calm
of winde, that the shippe stoode still in the sea vnmoued, he was
forced to cry alowd, that Pan was dead: wherewithall there was heard
suche piteous outcryes and dreadfull shriking, as hath not bene the
like. By whych Pan, though of some be vnderstoode the great Satanas,
whose kingdome at that time was by Christ conquered, the gates of hell
broken vp, and death by death deliuered to eternall death, (for at that
time,as he sayth, all Oracles surceased, and enchaunted spirits, that
were wont to delude the people, thenceforth held theyr peace) & also at
the demaund of the Emperoure Tiberius, who that Pan should be, answere
was made him by the wisest and best learned, that it was the son of
Mercurie and Penelope, yet I think it more properly meant of the death
of Christ, the onely and very Pan, then suffereing for his flock.
I am as I am) seemeth to imitate the commen prouerb, Malim Inuidere mihi
omnes quam miserescere.
Nas) is a syncope, for ne has, or has not,: as nould, for would not.
Tho with them) doth imitate the Epitaphe of the ryotous king Sardanapalus,
whych
caused to be written on his tombe in Greeke:
which verses be thus
translated by Tullie:
" Haec habui quae edi, quaeque exaturata libido
" Hausit, at illa manent multa ac praeclara
relicta.
which may thus be turned into English.
" All that I eate did I ioye, and all that I greedily
gorged:
" As for those many goodly matters left I for others.
Much like the Epitaph of a good olde Erle of Deuonshire, which though
much more wisedome bewraieth, then Sardanapalus, yet hath a smacke of
his sensuall delights and beastlinesse. The rymes be these.
" Ho, Ho, who lies here?
" I the good Erle of Deuonshere,
" And Maulde my wife, that was full deare,
" We liued together lv. yeare.
" That we spent, we had:
" That we gaue, we haue:
" That we lefte, we lost.
Algrind) the name of a shepheard. Men of the Lay) Lay men.
Enaunter) least that. Souenaunce) remembraunce. Miscreaunce) despaire or
misbeliefe. Cheuisaunce. sometime of Chaucer vsed for gaine: sometime of
other for spoyle, or bootie, or enterprise, and sometime for chiefdome.
Pan himselfe) God. According as is sayd in Deuteronomie, That in diuision
of the lande of Canaan, to the tribe of Leuie no portion of heritage
should bee allotted for GOD himselfe was their inheritaunce.
Some gan) meant of the Pope, and his Antichristian prelates, which vsurpe a
tyrannical dominion in the Churche, and with Peters counterfet keyes,
open a wide gate to al wickednesse and insolent gouernment. Nought here
spoken as of purpose to deny fatherly rule and godly gouernaunce ( as
some malitiously of late haue done to the great vnreste and hinderaunce
of the the Churche) but to displaye the pride and disorder of such, as
in steede of feeding their sheepe, indeede feede of theyr sheepe.
Sourse) welspring and originall. Borrowe) pledge or suretie.
The Geaunte) is the greate Atlas, whom the poetes feign to be a huge
geaunt, that beareth Heauen on his shoulders: being in deede a
merueilous highe mountaine in Mauritania, that now is Barbarie, which
to mans seeming perceth the cloudes, and seemeth to touch the heauens.
Other thinke, and they not amisse, that this fable was meant of one
Atlas king of the same countrye, (of whome may bee, that that hil had
his denomination) brother to Prometheus who (as the Grekes say) did
first fynd out the hidden courses of the starres, by an excellent
imagination. Wherefore the poetes feigned, that he susteyned the
firmament on his shoulders. Many other coniectures needlesse be told
hereof. Warke) worke. Encheason) cause, occasion.
Deare borow) That is our sauiour, the commen pledge of all mens debts to
death. Wyten) blame. Nought seemeth) is vnseemely.
Conteck) strife contention. Her) theyr, as vseth Chaucer.
Han) for haue. Sam) together.
This tale is much like to that in Æsops fables, but the
Catastrophe and end is farre different. By the Kidde may be vnderstoode
the simple sorte of the faythfull and true Christians. By hys dame
Christe, that hath alreadie with carefull watchewords (as heere doth
the gote) warned his little ones, to beware of such doubling deceit. By
the Foxe, the false and faithlesse Papistes, to whom is no credit to be
giuen, nor felowshippe to be vsed.
The gate) the Gote: Northernly spoken to turne O into A.
Yode) went. Afforesayd
She set) A figure called Fictio Which vseth to attribute reasonable
actions and speaches to vnreasonable creatures.
The bloosmes of lust) be the young and mossie heares, which then beginne to
sproute and shoote foorth, when lustfull heate beginneth to kindle.
And with) A very Poeticall
pathos.
Orphane) A youngling or pupill, that needeth a Tutour and gouernour.
That word) A patheticall parenthesis, to encrease a carefull Hyperbaton.
The braunch) of the fathers body, is the child.
For euen so) Alluded to the saying of Andromache to Ascanius in Virgile.
Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat.
A thrilling throb) a percing sighe. Liggen) lye.
Maister of collusion) .s. coloured guile, because the Foxe of al beasts is
most wily and crafty.
Sperre the yate) shut the dore.
For such) The gotes stombling is here noted as an euill signe. The like to
be marked in all histories: and that not the leaste of the Lord
Hastingues in King Rycharde the third his dayes. For beside his
daungerous dreame (whiche was a shrewde prophecie of his mishap, that
folowed) it is sayd that in the morning ryding toward the tower of
London, there to sitte vppon matters of counsell, his horse stombled
twise or thrise by the way:
which of some, that ryding with hym in his company, were priuie to his
neere destenie, was secretly marked, and afterward noted for memorie of
his great mishap, that ensewed. For being then as merye, as man might
be, and least doubting any mortall daunger, he was within two howres
after, of the Tyranne put to a shamefull death.
As belles) by such trifles are noted, the reliques and ragges of popish
superstition, which put no smal religion in Belles: and Babies .s.
Idoles: and glasses .s. Paxes, and such lyke trumperies.
Great cold.) For they boast much of their outward patience, and voluntarye
sufferaunce as a worke of merit and holy humblenesse.
Swete S. Charitie. The Catholiques comen othe, and onely speache, to haue
charitye alwayes in their mouth, and sometime in their outward Actions,
but neuer inwardly in fayth and godly zeale.
Clincke.) a key hole. Whose diminutiue is clicket, vsed of Chaucer for a
key. Stoundes) fittes: aforesayde. His lere) his lesson. Medled)
mingled. Bestlihead.) agreeing to the person of a beast.
Sibbe.) of kynne. Newell) a newe thing. To forestall) to praeuent.
Glee) chere, afforesayde. Deare a price.) his lyfe, which he lost for
those toyes.
Such ende) is an Epiphonema, or rather the morall of the whole tale, whose
purpose is to warne the protestant beware, howe he geueth credit to the
vnfaythfull
Catholique: whereof we haue dayly proofes
sufficient, but
one moste famous of all, practised of Late yeares in Fraunce by Charles
the nynth. Fayne gladde or desyrous.
Our sir Iohn) a Popishe priest. A saying fit for the grosenesse of a
shepheard, but spoken to taunte vnlearned Priests.
Dismount) descende or set. Nye) draweth nere.
Embleme.
Both these Emblemes make one whole Hexametre. The first spoken of
Palinodie, as in reproche of them, that be distrustfull, is a peece of
Theognis verse, intending, that who doth most mistrust is most false.
For such experience in falsehod breedeth mistrust in the mynd, thinking
no lesse guile to lurk in others, then in hymselfe. But Piers thereto
strongly replyeth with another peece of the same verse, saying as in
his former fable, what fayth then is there in the faythlesse. For if
fayth be the ground of religion, which fayth they dayly false, what
hold then is there of theyr religion. And thys is all that they saye.
