But when they see his deadlye face,
And eyes soe hollow in his head,
"I wold give," quoth the king, "a thousand markes,
This man were alive as hee is dead:
Yett for the manfull part hee playd,
Which fought soe well with heart and hand,
His men shall have twelvepence a day,
Till they come to my brother kings high land."
NOTES
- Thomas Howard, afterwards created Duke of Norfolk.
- Called by old historians Lord Howard, afterwards created Earl of Surrey in his
father's life-time. He was father of the poetical Earl of Surrey. - An old English word for "breadth."
- Mr. Lambe, in his Notes to the Poem on theBattle of Flodden Field, contends, that
this expert bowman's name was notHorseley, butHustler, of a family long seated
near Stockton, in Cleveland, Yorkshire. Vid. p. 5. - It should seem from hence, that before our marine artillery was brought to its
present perfection, some naval commanders had recourse to instruments or machines,
similar in use, though perhaps unlike in construction, to the heavyDolphins, made of
lead or iron, used by the ancient Greeks; which they suspended from beams or yards
fastened to the mast, and which they precipitately let fall on the enemies' ships, in
order to sink them, by beating holes through the bottoms of their undecked triremes,
or otherwise damaging them. These are mentioned by Thucydides, lib. vii. p. 256, ed.
1564, folio, and are more fully explained inSchefferi de Militia Navali, lib. ii, cap. v.
p. 136, ed. 1653, 4to.
N.B.-- It every where in the manuscript seems to be writtenbeames.
6.i.e.did not salute.
7.i.e. discharged chain-shot.
- Bearinge, sc. that carries well, &c. But see Gloss.