Part 39

p. 123. Wall. The passage suggests Lydgate’s poem, giving an account of his school-days, especially:—

“Ran into gardens, apples there I stole, To gather fruits spared hedge nor wall, To pluck grapes in other men’s vines Was more ready than for to say matins.”

p. 124. Schate. The context seems to demand the meaning fence; but the nearest to the form given here seems to be the Scotch skathie.

p. 125. When he is passed. The allusion seems to be to a middle-class boy in a cathedral school, who, as a chorister perhaps, would be familiar with the bishop’s presence, to whom therefore the reference would be pertinent and vivid.

HUGH RHODES’S BOOK OF NURTURE

The Boke of Nurture, or School of Good Manners for Men, Servants, and Children, with Stans Puer Ad Mensam, newly corrected, being necessary for all youth and children. The British Museum contains three early editions, of 1550 [?], 1568, and 1577; and Dr. Furnivall mentions two others as printed between 1551 and 1586.

There is considerable difference between the editions of 1550 [?] and 1568, and that of 1577. H. Jackson, the printer, or some unknown editor either worked from a very imperfect copy or wilfully altered the meaning in many cases; and further, broke up the long rhyming couplets of the original into stanzas of four short lines, the second and fourth rhyming. Naturally, the first and third contain the greatest number of changes. I have used the oldest edition, only modernising the spelling, herein departing from Dr. Furnivall, who printed from that of 1577.

The Book of Nurture, which forms the main body of the work, is preceded by The Duties of Parents and Masters, The Manner of Serving a Knight, Squire, or Gentleman, and How to Order your Master’s Chamber at Night to Bedward, all in prose, and is followed by a poem For the Waiting Servant, which I have omitted as more adapted to grown serving-men than to children, and by various rules and maxims.

From the colophon we learn that the author was Hugh Rhodes of the King’s Chapel, who early in the poem declares himself “born and bred in Devonshire,” as his language showed. However, I can discover no traces of dialect.

Nothing further is known of him. The probabilities are that he was Master of the chapel children, whose duty it was to direct their singing, and generally look after them and order their behaviour; but his name does not seem to appear on any royal household list, as far as I have observed.

p. 127. Briefs and longs. Expressed in musical terms, perhaps because Rhodes was a music-master.

p. 128. You ... thee ... thy. These pronouns seem throughout to be used indiscriminately, referring to the same antecedent, and so I have retained them.

p. 135. Phantasy. Here taste, inclination. Obsolete. See N.E.D., Fantasy 7.

p. 136. Stick. Probably toothpick. Erasmus wrote of them twenty years before. Cf. Introduction, p. xxvii. But indeed we read in Old English of a “tooth-spear.”

p. 138. Checkmate. Perhaps the meaning is: done for, as far as manners are concerned. But later editions read Jack-mate, of which the sense seems to be: that, you think yourself as good as he, i.e., your action shows too great familiarity.

FRANCIS SEAGER’S SCHOOL OF VIRTUE

The title continues: and Book of Good Nurture for Children and Youth to Learn their Duty by. Newly perused, corrected and augmented by the first Auctor, F.S. With a brief declaration of the duty of each degree. Anno 1557, &c.

This indicates plainly that there had been an earlier edition. Seager was a poet and translator who flourished 1549-63. He seems to have come of a Devonshire family, and was perhaps the Francis Nicholson, alias Seager, who was made free of the Stationers’ Company in 1557. Among other things, he translated from Alain Chartier, and also made a rendering of the Psalms. His School of Virtue shows as little originality as poetic merit, but it seems to have been popular in his day and long after, as it was revised by Robert Crowley and extended by Richard Weste during the seventeenth century.

RICHARD WESTE’S SCHOOL OF VIRTUE

This was printed in 1619, and about fifty years later was added to an edition of Seager, revised and extended by Robert Crowley; hence, the sub-title, “the Second Part.” Weste’s treatise is believed to be unique. Of its contents, Dr. Furnivall published only Demeanour in Serving at the Table, from Bensley’s reprint, 1817.

p. 161. Gellius. Flourished in the second century A.D., and wrote the famous commonplace book, Noctes Atticæ.

p. 163. Serve God, &c., alludes perhaps to serving at table.

p. 164. Glumly. Text: glouting.

p. 164. Hedgehogs’ right, i.e., be not bristling with frowns.

p. 164. Nor imitate with Socrates. From this it would seem that Socrates, like Vergil, was roughly handled in the Middle Ages.

p. 165. Stork ... elephant. The idea seems to be: don’t make outlandish noises.

p. 166. Like an image pictured, &c. Sixteenth-century pictures of the winds are commonly so drawn.

p. 167. The lips set close, &c. The idea seems to be merely that pouting lips are not mannerly.