So long have I listened to thy speche, 246 THENOTS EMBLEME. Iddio, perche é vecchio, Kene, sharpe. CUDDIES EMBLEME. Niuno vecchio Spaventa Iddio. GLOSSE. Gride, pierced: an old word much used of Lid gate, but not found (that I know of) in Chaucer. Ronts, yong bullockes. Wracke, ruine or violence, whence cometh shipwracke: and not wreake, that is vengeance or wrath. Foeman, a foe. Thenot, the name of a Shepheard in Marot his Aeglogues. The Soveraigne of Seas, is Neptune the god of the Seas. The saying is borrowed of Mimus Publianus, which used this proverbe in a verse. r Improbè Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit." Heardgroomes, Chaucers verse almost whole. Fond flies. He compareth carelesse sluggardes, or ill husbandmen, to flies that so soone as the sunne shineth, or it waxeth any thing warme, begin to flie abroad, when suddenly they be overtaken with cold. But eft when, a very excellent and lively description of Winter, so as may be indifferently taken, either for old age, or for Winter season. Breme, chill, bitter. Chamfred, chapt or wrinckled. Accoied, plucked downe and daunted. Eld, old age. Siker, sure. Tottie, wavering Corbe, crooked. Herie, worship. Phyllis, the name of some maid unknowne, whom Cuddie, whose person is secret, loved. The name is usuall in Theocritus, Virgil, and Mantuane. Belt, a girdle or waste band. A fon, a foole. Lythe, soft and gentle. Venteth, snuffeth in the wind. Rather lambs, that be ewed early in the beginning of the yeare. Youth is, a verie moral and pithie Allegorie of youth, and the lusts thereof, compared to a wearie wayfaring man. Tityrus, I suppose he meanes Chaucer, whose praise for pleasant tales cannot die, so long as the memorie of his name shall live, and the name of poetrie shall endure. Well thewed, that is, Bene morata, Full of morali 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 Aesops fables. It is verie excellent for pleasant descriptions, being altogether a certaine Icon or Hypotyposis or disdain-, full younkers. Embellisht, beautified and adorned. To wonne, to haunt or frequent. Snebbe, checke. Why standst. The speach is scornfull and verie presumptuous. Engrained, dyed in graine. Accloieth, accumbreth. Adawed, daunted and confounded. Trees of state, taller trees fit for timber wood. O my liege, a maner of supplication, wherein is kindly coloured the affection and speech of ambitious men. Coronall, garland. Flourets, yong blossomes. The Primrose, the chiefe and worthiest. Naked armes, metaphorically meant of the bare boughs, spoiled of leaves. This colourably he speaketh, as adiudging him to the fire. The blood, spoken of a blocke, as it were of a liv ing creature, figuratively, and (as they say) Kar eikasmon. Hoarie lockes, metaphorically for withered leaves. Hent, caught. Nould, for would not. Aye, evermore, Enaunter, least that. The priests crew, holy water pot, wherwith the popish priest used to sprinkle and hallow the trees from mischance. Such blindnesse was in those times, which the poet supposeth to have bin the final decay of this ancient Oake. The blocke oft groned, a lively figure, which giveth sense and feeling to unsensible creatures, as Virgil also saith: "Saxa gemunt gravido," &c. Boreas, the Northern wind, that bringeth the most stormie weather. Glee, cheare and iollitie. For scorning eld. And minding (as should seeme) to have made rime to the former verse, he is cunningly cut off by Cuddie, as disdaining to hear any more. Galage, a startup or clownish shove. EMBLEME. This Embleme is spoken of Thenot, as a morall of his former tale: namely, that God, which is him. self most aged, being before all ages, & without be .ginning, maketh those, whom he loveth, like to himselfe, in heaping yeares unto their daies, and blessing them with long life. For the blessing of age is not given to all, but unto whom God will so blesse. And albeit that many evill men reach unto such fulness of yeares, and some also waxe old in miserie and thraldome, yet therefore is not age ever the lesse blessing. For even 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 raw-headed boy, for despising his gray and frostie haires. Whom Cuddie doth counterbuffe with a biting and bitter proverbe, spoken indeed 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 years have no feare of God at all, or not so much as yonger folke. For that being ri pined with long experience, and having passed many bitter brunts and blasts of vengeance, they dread no stormes of Fortune, nor wrath of God, nor daunger of men, as being either by long and ripe wisdome armed against all mischaunces and adversitie, or with much trouble hardned against all troublesome tides: like unto the Ape, of which is said in Esops fables, that, oftentimes meeting the Lion, he was at first sore agast and dismaid at the grimnesse and austeritie of his countenance, but at last, being acquainted with his lookes, he was so farre from fearing him, that he would familiarly gybe and iest with him: Such long experience breedeth in some men securitie. though it please Erasmus, a great clark, and good old father, more fatherly and favourably, to construe it in his Adages, for his owne behoofe, That by the proverbe, Nemo senex metuit Iovem,' is not meant, that olde men have no feare of God at all, but that they bee farre from superstition and idolatrous regard of false gods, as is Iupiter. But his great learning notwithstanding, it is too plaine, to be gainesaid, that old men are much more enclined to such fond fooleries, then yonger heades, AL |