The Manor of the World Today (so little changes)

So many gay swordes,
So many altered wordes,
And so few covered bordes.
------Sawe I never:
So many empty purses,
So few good horses,
And so many curses,
------ Sawe I never:

Such bosters and braggers,
So newe fashioned daggers,
And so many beggers,
------ Sawe I never:
So many propre knyves,
So well apparelled wyves,
And so yll of theyr lyves,
------ Saw I never:

So many laws to use
The truth to refuse,
Suche falshead to excuse,
------ Sawe I never:
Executers havinge the ware,
Taking so little care
Howe the soul doth fare,
------ Sawe I never.

John Skelton ( circa 1460-1529 )

John Skelton- Pages
.

I like Skelton, especially his Philip Sparrow, which, unfortunately, I haven't read in years. He can be a bit macaronic at times which is the reason I like him. And, he didn't care a fig about spelling. An altogether better time in English letters.

I have this little Skelton-book; one of my first pocketmoney
purchases when I was about fifteen. The thread about the prefixes made me remember it.
Then I saw how little the complaints about " the manner of the world nowadays " have ever changed. And how nice is the writing.
After copying some couplets of that long poem I found the site on the web.

Nice catch, Shea.

You have got quite the eye and ear.


And brain.

what meaneth this?

Macaronic, yes. There is some from 'Phyllyp Sparowe' in it.

Pla ce bo,
Who is there, who?
Di le xi,
Dame Margery;
Fa, re, my, my,
Wherfore and why,why?
For the sowle of Philip Sparowe
That was late slayn at Carowe,
etc...

Rather a mystery to me.
This one escapes me too, Eta. Zmj will sure know. (and mayby tell )

>And so few covered bordes.

I *think this means that money is too much on display.

borde is obs. thieves' cant for a shilling, says OED -- OTOH, it says "? a transf. use of bord, BOARD ‘shield’."

-joe (pick one) friday

It meaneth "rugs".

Listen to the rhythm of the sense of the stanzas.

Then consider that "bordes" were "boards" during John Skeltons time.

By-the-by, I think that BranShea's version is generously adapted from the words that John Skelton originally wrote.

.

By-the-by:

" Note.- The text of the poems is taken from Dyce's edition and has been left unchanged exept for some minor spelling alterations in which some letters such as j.u,and v, have been adapted to present day use. I am grateful to Miss Joan Pye for her great help in this book."

"Present day"was 1949 when this booklet was Edited by a Roland Gant in London =, but Printed and bound by Mouton and Company in Holland (of all places) The hague. They are fragments of longer and some short poems. Only 64 pages thick.

What meaneth covered 'rugs'? Bye-the-Bye Bye?

I wondered about boards as well, but if things are opulent and over-the-top, wouldn't there be more rugs?

the floor would be covered (or not) with rugs, Bran.

Pla ce bo,
Who is there, who?
Di le xi,
Dame Margery;
Fa, re, my, my,
Wherfore and why, why?
For the sowle of Philip Sparowe
That was late slayn at Carowe,

Latin placebo 'I shall please'; Latin dilexi 'I have loved, appreciated'.



[From Cambridge History of English and American Literature III.iv.7.]
Boards can be tables (as in side-board). Also of note that, in the OED1, there's an entry for bourd (sometimes borde) 'jest, jape' from French bourde. And, covered could mean hidden at the time.

so maybe the humor is all obvious, and vulgar? think Lenny Bruce?

Well! If you must ask, rugs cover bare boards in which the absence of indicates the hard times at hand in John Skeleton's poem.

So many gay swordes, (here, the meaning of "swordes" is suspect.)

So many altered wordes, (here, wordes means words but doesn't rhyme with bordes.)

And so few covered bordes. (few could afford to cover their boards with de rigueur rugs.)

--Sawe I never (that's what he had seen never before.)

In the sweet by and by: You can find an in-text discussion of the meaning of John Skeleton's use of the term "bordes" in Dyce's edition which is used as an example beneath a poem which mentioned painting ship's "bordes" with pictures of the creatures as they boarded Noe's Ark.

So many gay swordes,
So many altered wordes,
And so few covered bordes.
Sawe I never:
So many empty purses,
So few good horses,
And so many curses,
Sawe I never:

An interesting text. First, this poem is only attributed to Skelton, but it seems much like his other work. Second, I looked through his other poems to see how he used the word borde.



He uses board in the sense of table, both for dining and gambling, and jest. He also uses it in the sense of the side of a ship, in somebody being tossed overboard. He (and John Gower) seemed to like coupling worde and borde, which in their time and English was a rhyme. Third, I wondered how the Bard might have used the word covered, and imagine my delight at finding this exchange of dialog:



Context suggests that so few covered boards means so few tables set (or prepared) for dinner. There's not much food or rides going round, but no shortage of hot air, posturing, lack of funds, and swearing.

Thanks for your thinking and writing I was reading up on his life, much of which has been kept in records.

tsuwm

The Vulgar Tongue (1785)gives borde: A shilling. Half borde:sixpence, but it does not fit in the context,I think.

eta

Although Skelton was a well esteemed scholar, tutor of the children of Henry VII and a priest he was a sharp critic,
satirical of Court life , Church corruption (Cardinal Wolsey banished him),he had a family in spite of his being a priest. He was on good foot with the vulgar. Elynour Rummynge The Ale House Wive (Ads.warning)

themilum

Yes, these are only 3 couplets of 12. This one is clearly about the downhill quality of life and his words can have double meanings.Borde I think means table. Poor meals and drinks on the tables.There were tapistries on walls mostly.Floors, certainly of inns were covered with chaff, straw, sawdust.

zmjh
(Yes, flagrant evidence)
I too think bordes are tables.

And borde survives today in the expression "room and board."

and the idiom 'groaning boards" (for a table covered with platters of food (one the 'groans' under the weight of food)

and while a rug in american english is a floor covering,(or in slang, a toupe or wig, especially a poor quality one) in British english is a covering (a blanket, a table cloth, a fancy cloth draped on a piano) which, occationaly, can be used to cover the floor!

He's got something for you too, Helen.
He describes the outfit of the Ale House Wive on a Sunday:

Her huke of Lyncole grene, It had ben hers, I wene, More then fourty yere; And so doth it apere, For the grene bare thredes Loke lyke sere wedes,Wyddered lyke hay, The woll worne away:
And yet I dare saye She thynketh herselfe gaye (Hey! gay means pretty or beautiful) Upon the holy daye, Whan she doth her aray,
And gyrdeth in her gytes Stytched and pranked with pletes;
Her kyrtel Brystow red, With clothes upon her hed That wey a sowe of led, Wrythen in wonder wyse, After Sarasyn gyse, With a whym and a wham, Knyt with a trym tram Upon her brayne pan, Lyke an Egyptian........

(I wrote it like proza so as not to use miles of space) :)interesting ; Lincoln grain or would it be green? and Bristol red? Groaning boards sounds good!

i would guess lincoln green and bristol red.. (local plants that were common dye stuff...

a kyrtel is a form of a skirt..

I am guessing...(in parens)

With clothes upon her hed (with clothes upon her head)
That wey a sowe of led, (That were sewn with lead (the metal)
Wrythen in wonder wyse, (?(woven in/worked in)? in Wonder ways)
After Sarasyn gyse, (After the Islamic *guise)
With a whym and a wham, (with a whim and wham)
Knyt with a trym tram (Knit with Trim tram(?))
Upon her brayne pan, (Upon her brown head**)
Lyke an Egyptian. (Like an Egyptian)

or a hat, upon her head, in the islamic style, with metal woven in, to trim it, that she wore on her brown head/hair and looked exotic, like an egyptian!

*guise (like disguise) a word for a style/manner

(**pan or pot or tea kettle is often used as slang term for a head, (as in noggin!)

and yes, a groaning board is like a, um, a "rice table" --the sort of wonderful feast one could order in a dutch/indonasian restaurant years ago!

pan or pot or tea kettle is often used as slang term for a head

Yes, in fact Latin caput, capitis, was replaced in many of the Romance languages with the Vulgar Latin testa, testae, 'pot; head'. (Though it survived in French with a slightly modified meaning: chef.

Not so fast, scholars.

Yes, in the glossaries of a latter-day the word "bordes" is rendered as "boards", "tables" and in footnotes, as "games" and "jest".

But how in fact, can we integrate these meanings into Skeleton's poem? Well we can't with any degree of certainty, unless we can discern the use of the modifier "covering".
In today's parlance we cover tables, walls, floors, and bets in games, and when jesting, we cover our butts.

Forsooth, I did not return to this boarde to beat a dead horse.
But never seen I a dead horse beaten with a table.

Forsooth?
My footh!
This horse is deade,
Whyle ye lyke it or neade;
Ye lorde of Alabame,
Take all scolars to shame?

Why so koy and full of skorne?
We all be nobly borne,
And trouthe is all to-torne (well ,just kidding)
Wysdom is laught to skorne.

I read "Upon her brayne pan" and automatically thought of the medical term brainpan referring to the parts of the skull directly surrounding the brain. Brown would never have occurred to me.

That's how I read it too. What's more, we still use it just like that. Hersenpan. Hersen is brain, pan = pan. When in class you appeared inattentive a teacher would say : Hey! still something going on in that brainpan?
Did not know it is a medical term. Learn a bit every day.

it very well could be brain pan.. i was just making WAG's...

To conclude :
Skelton was for many centuries more remembered by the "merry tales" woven around his name than by his poetry.Yet Erasmus, who he met in 1499 wrote of him as being "the only light and glory of English letters". (at the time)

Quote:
It is said that he claimed the woman who bore his children to be 'his wife in the sight of God'.
Marriage in a priest was then a serious crime, but concubinage was tolerated.
This one f.i.:
He was complained of to the Bishop of Norwhich, for ' the unhappy rule 'he kept in his house. He took two capons as a gift, for which he was thanked by the Bishop after having been reproved:
'Skelton sayd: "My lord, my capons have proper names; the one is named Alpha, the other is named Omega: My lorde, sayd Skelton, this capon is named Alpha, thys is the fyrst capon that I did ever geve to you; and this capon is named Omega, and this is the last capon that ever I will give you & so fare you well", sayd Skelton.'

The following sunday, according to the "merry tales", Skelton told the congregation that they were a pack of knaves with foul wives and, holding up his naked child before the people, said: How saye you neibours all? is not this child as fayr as is the best of all yours?
It hath nose , eyes, handes, and feete,as well as any of yours : it is not like a pygge, nor a calfe, nor like no foule nor no monstruous beast.
If I had broughte forthe thys chylde without armes or legges, or that it were deformed, being a monstruous thyng, I would never have blamed you to have complayned to the bishop of me; but to complain without cause, I say, as I said before in my anthem, vos estis, you be,and have be,& wyll and shalll be knaves, to complayne of me without a cause resonable.'

Oh yes, case closed.