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And if it please you to hear of my welfare, I am not in good heele1 of body nor of heart, nor shall be till I hear from you;

"For there wottys 2 no creature what pain that I endure,

And for to be dead, I dare it not dyscur'." 3

And my lady my mother hath laboured the matter to my father full diligently, but she can no more get than ye know of, for the which God knoweth I am full sorry. But if that ye love me, as I trust verily that ye do, ye will not leave me therefore; for if that ye had not half the livelihood that ye have, for to do the greatest labour that any woman alive might, I would not forsake you.

No more to you at this time, but the Holy Trinity have you in keeping; and I beseech you that this bill be not seen of none earthly creature save only yourself, &c.

And this letter was indited at Topcroft, with full heavy heart, &c.

1. Heele, health.

2. Wottys, knows.

3. Dyscur', discover.

By your own

4. Livelihood. This word should mean

MARGERY BREWS.

liveliness, vivacity. The genuine form of the word in its modern meaning is liflode, fr. O. E. lad, a way.

CHAPTER II.

MODERN ENGLISH. 1500.

PROSE AND NON-DRAMATIC POETRY OF THE SIXTEENTH

CENTURY.

18. John Skelton, d. 1529. (History, p. 46.)

ATTACK UPON WOLSEY.

1 But this mad Amalek

Like to a Mamelek,

He regardeth lords

No more than potshords;
5 He is in such elation
Of his exaltation,
And the supportation
Of our sovereign lord,
That, God to record,
10 He ruleth all at will,
Without reason or skill;
Howbeit the primordial
Of his wretched original,
And his base progeny,

15 And his greasy genealogy,

2. Mamelek, Mamaluke.

8. Sovereign; an imaginary connection with reign has given a wrong spelling to this word. It comes from Lat. supremus, through Fr. souverain. Milton invariably uses sovran (It. sovrano).

9. God to record. God being my witness. This was a common use of to. In Chaucer "Saint John to borwe,"

means "Saint John being my pledge or security."

11. Reason or skill. These two words mean much the same thing. The first, however, is of Romance (raison, Lat. ratio), the second of Teutonic origin (Icelandic skil). Skil is often used in Piers Ploughman for device, argument. 14. Progeny seems here to mean

birth.

He came of the sank royal

That was cast out of a butcher's stall.

He would dry up the streams

Of nine king's reams,

20 All rivers and wells,

All water that swells;

For with us he so mells
That within England dwells,

I wold he were somewhere else;

25 For else by and by

He will drink us so dry,
And suck us so nigh,
That men shall scantly

Have penny or halfpenny.
30 God save his noble grace,
And grant him a place
Endless to dwell

With the devil of hell!

For, an he were there,
35 We need never fear
Of the feindes blake;
For I undertake

He wold so brag and crake,
That he wold than make

40 The devils to quake,

To shudder and to shake,

Like a fire-drake,

And with a coal rake

Bruise them on a brake,

45 And bind them to a stake,

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And set hell on fire
At his own desire.
He is such a grim sire,

And such a potestolate,
50 And such a potestate,

That he wold brake the brains

Of Lucifer in his chains,

And rule them each one

In Lucifer's trone.

49. Potestolate: "Equivalent, I suppose, to legate" (Dyce).

19. Sir Thomas Wyatt. 1503-1542. (History, p. 48.)

TO HIS BELOVED.

Forget not yet the tried intent

Of such a truth as I have meant ;
My great travail so gladly spent,
Forget not yet!

5 Forget not yet when first began
The weary life, ye know since whan,
The suit, the service, none tell can;
Forget not yet!

Forget not yet the great assays,
10 The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,
The painful patience in delays,
Forget not yet!

Forget not!-Oh! forget not this,
How long ago hath been, and is
15 The mind that never went amiss,
Forget not yet!

3. Travail, though really the same word as travel, is always used in the derivative sense of work, labour, It. travaglio. Diez takes it from Rom. travar, to hinder (trabs).

6. Whan, when. So than, though now limited to a particular use, is the

same word as then :

"Full little thought they than,
That the Mighty Pan-"

(Milton, Ode to the Nativity). 9. Assays, trials; literally tests, fr. Fr. essayer, L. L. exagium, the tongue of a balance.

SPECS. ENG. LIT.

D

Forget not then thine own approv'd,
The which so long hath thee so lov'd,
Whose steadfast faith yet never mov'd,
20 Forget not this!

20. Earl of Surrey. 1517-1547. (History p. 47.)

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING.

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale,
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
5 Summer is come, for every spray now springs.
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes fleet with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings;
10 The swift swallow pursueth the flies small;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;
Winter is worn that was the flower's bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.

1, 2. Soote, sweet.

Elce, also.

4. Make, mate; which latter is, however, an entirely different word. The former is O. E. maca, a partner, and still exists in match.

8. Fleet, float, swim.

9. Adder, properly nadder, O. E. nadre, has like apron (napron, fr. root nap, a cloth, as in napkin), surrendered

the initial n to the definite article, usually precedent. By the inverse process eut has become newt.

11. Mings, mixes, fr. O. E. mengan (uíyvvu), of which mingle is the diminutive.

12. Bale, O. E. bealu, affliction, destruction.

21. Lord Berners's Froissart. (History, p. 49.)

Anon after the dethe of the pope Gregory, the cardynalles 2 drew them into the conclaue, in the palays of saynt Peter.

1. Anon, on an, in a moment, at once. 2. Cardynalles:-cardinal comes from

Anone after,

cardo, because the affairs of the Church hinge or hang on them principally.

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