The Spyte of Spaine, Edinburgh: The Heirs of Andro Hart, 1628.

A Diplomatic Transcription

Arnold Sanders, Associate Professor of English, Goucher College (4 September 2008)

Transcription notes:

Conjectural emendations based on the Goucher-Bright copy are indicated by square brackets, which also surround the line numbers added to aid analysis.  Doubtful emendations are followed by a question mark.  Clear typesetting errors (e.g., “Admotion” on the title page) have been reproduced without a “[sic].”  The use of “u” for “v” has been maintained, but the long “s” has been silently changed to the short “s” throughout.  Each page after 1r carries the centered header “The spyte of Spaine.” but the headers have not been reproduced in the transcription.

Readers can satisfy themselves as to the accuracy of the transcription by going to the Goucher College Library online catalog and searching for the title word “Spyte” to see the digital images of each page: http://www.goucher.edu/x643.xml.

Valuable assistance was provided by Cynthia Ogden, the Julia Rogers Library Bibliographic Services Librarian, and Sam Colon, my student, who prepared the first draft of the transcription as part of his final project for English 241.  Study and imaging of the pamphlet was supported in part by a generous grant from the Elizabeth Nitche Fund through the Faculty Affairs Committee, and by a Goucher College Innovation Grant.  This project could not have happened without the unflagging assistance of College Librarian Nancy Magnuson and Special Collections Librarian Gail McCormick.

Provenance:

        The Goucher College copy of this pamphlet is the most complete known to exist (STC *22998.5; Aldis 691).  Another two-leaf fragment exists in the National Library of Scotland  containing cropped leaves 2 and 7 (RB.s.1923).  Probably between 1834 and 1839, an eight-leaf fragment was transcribed by folklorist Peter Buchan from an eight-leaf fragment found pasted inside the binding of an old book in the King's College (Aberdeen) Library by the librarian, Reverend Taylor (Bawcutt 6).  In 1882, W. Carew Hazlitt published a bibliographic description of an eight-leaf copy he had seen in 1880 in the library of David Laing.  That copy and the copy Buchan transcribed appear to be the same as the Goucher College copy, which bears traces of hide glue on many leaves and matches exactly the Buchan transcription.  In addition, the Goucher copy contains a duplicate of leaf four pinned to the blank leaves at its back.  These circumstances confirm Pricilla Bawcutt's speculation that Buchan gave Laing the copy he had transcribed (6).  The pamphlet next came into the collection of Alexander Gardyne, an important collector of books mainly associated with or printed in Scotland.  Gardyne's sale catalogue indicates that The spyte of Spaine sold for two shillings together with imperfect copies of Sir Thomas Chaloner’s translation of The Prayse of Follie (London: Thomas Dawson and Thomas Gardiner, 1577; STC 10502) and Arthur Golding’s translation of The Lyfe of Jasper Coligne (London: Thomas Vautrollier, 1576; STC 22248).  Gardyne’s flyleaf notes suggest he bought it at the sale of David Laing’s library in 1880.  Finally, the pamphlet was purchased by Goucher College along with the rest of James Wilson Bright's teaching library in 1926.


Title Page

 The spyte of Spaine,

OR

A thankefull remembrance

of GODS Mercie in

Britanes [d]eliuerie from

the Spanish Armado.

1588.

 

Also, an Admotion to vs all

in the like Danger.[1]

 Psal. 12[4]. vers. 3.[2]

 Our helpe is in the Name of the

Lord who hath made Heaven

and Earth.

 Printed at Edinburgh by the

Heires of Andro Hart, 1628.

 

Leaf 1: Recto

The spyte of Spaine,

Or

A thankfull remembrance of

Gods mercie in Britaines

deleuerie from the

Spanish Armado.

1588.

The spyte of Spaine,

Long in their Braine,

Against Britaine,

            For Christs Gospel:

Is now made plaine,

Though all in vaine,

Yea, to their paine,

            Is their Counsell.

 

So awfullie,

And cruellie,                                                   [10]

They tooke the Sea,

            With great Armie,

That memorie

Did neuer see

The like Navie

            Upon our Sea. 

                                                A      2                                     Th[ey]

 Leaf 1: Verso

 They thought but let,

This Yle to get,

And to beset,

            It so frequent:                                     [20]

All should bee debt,

Came in their net,

And not forget,

            The tricke of Trent.[3]

 

That is to say,

To burne and slay,

And make a prey,

Of man and w[if]e:

And take away,

Without delay,                                                [30]

Our onelie stay[,]

            The word of Life. 

 

But God that saw,

Bade Boreas blaw

To make them knaw

            He tooke our parte[4]

And made him draw

Their Sailles so low

That the sea waw[5]                                           [40]

            Did break their hearte 

 

[So] that the whyles,[6]

[Abo]ut our Yles,

[Yea], many myles,

            They sought the shore.

                                                            Thus

 Leaf 2 Recto:

 Thus God, but smyles,

All worldly wyles,

And them beguyles,

            Therein that glore. 

 

Duke Medina,                                                 [50]

Don Mancada,

Willa Franka,

Don Mauriques,

De la Vega,

Michael alswa,

Ascull and ma,

            May beare witnesse.[7] 

 

But wee heare say,

For all the fray,

They will array                                                [60]

            Themselues againe.

And yet assay,

If God will play,

As on hilles aye,

            So in the plaine. 

 

But in their pryde,

If they abyde,

And still deryde,

            Gods mightie hand. 

Then wee confide                                           [70]

In God our guyde

Euill Shall they tyde,

              Before they land[8]

 Leaf 2 Verso:[9]

 [Whoeue]r wan

[That wif]e or man,

[That onc]e began

With God to strive.

[Tell if] they can,

And wee shall than,

With all our Clan,                                            [80]

            To them subscriue.

 

Now God in hand,

Hath tane his wand,

Them to withstand,

            And all their might.

As Pharaoh fand,

And all his land,

They’s no more stand

            Into his sight

 

[F]or their desire                                             [90]

[W]ith sword and fire,

Is to conspire,

            Against his Christ.

Who must impyre,[10]

And make them tyre,

In h[is fierc]e yre,

[Stor]me as they list. 

 

For since in sight:

They bend their might,

To quench the Light                                        [100]

            Of Christs Name. 

Leaf 3 Recto:

Shall hee not fight,

For his owne right,

And put to flight

            His foes with shame. 

 

And hee no doubt,

Is wise and stout,

To bring about

            His owne counsel.

And fight it out,                                              [110]

Spyte of their snout,

And all their rout,

            And Deuils of Hell.

 

Then to the Lord,

With one accord,

In deede and word,

            Let us returne.

Before his sword,

Cut off our cord,

Let us remorde,[11]                                            [120]

            In minde and mourne.

 

But take good heede,

If wee proceede,

In our misdeede,

More sinne to joyne,

I feare indeede

Wee shall haue neede[,?]

Right sore to dread,

Or all bee done.

                                    A4

 

Leaf 3 Verso:

 

The more to moue us,                                      [130]

It doeth behoue us,

How God did loue us,

            Well to record.

That would not proue us,

With such aboue us,

As would remoue us

            With fire and sword. 

 

These Spainyard knights,

Now in our sights,

But sillie wights,                                             [140]

            Had they obtainde.

Our Realmes and rights,

Under their mights,

What dayes and nights

            Had we sustainde. 

 

Doest thou not heare,

What whipes of wyre,

Sharpper than brier,

            They did divise.[12]

With awfull feare.                                           [150]

Our deth to teare,

T[hi]nke on this geare,

If yee bee wise.

 

For women one,

They did propone,

[?]ne none[13]

[?]e like

                                    Beeing

 Leaf 4 Recto:

 Beeing laide one.

It would haue gone,

Unto the bone.                                                            [160]

            Of horse and tyke.[14]

 

An other paire,

More sharpe and saire,[15]

They did prepare,

            Mens flesh to rent.

What crying caire,

Had there beene there

Both laite and aire.[16]

            At that torment.

 

Who would not quake,                                   [170]

Euen without strake,[17]

To see them shake

            Our naked saules

Would it not make,

Ones heart to aike.

To see a Smaike[18]

            Braide with such braules.[19]

 

This threatning sore,

Should moue us more,

Then heeretofore,                                            [180]

            To haue remorce.

Most for Gods glore,

 Who keeped our Shore,

From the vyle bore,

            And all their force.                              [Then]

 Leaf 4 Verso:

 Then let us bind,

Our selues in mind,

To God so kinde.

            For euermore,

And they shall finde,                                      [190]

If they bee blind

That God hath wind

            Eneugh in store.

 

It feares mee maire,

I you declaire,

Both late and aire,

            Our sinnes I meane.

Then any care,

What Spaine prepare,

Nothing so saire,                                             [200]

            Can hurt I weene.

 

Yea, I ashame

Heere to declame,

Or once to name,

            Our guiltinesse.

Which doth defame:

This Ylands name,

And makes o[ure bl]ame,

            Remedilesse[20]

 

For wate yee why                                           [210]

Few floke sets by[21]

How long God cry,

            In thir two lands,[22]

                                                            Therefo[re]

 Leaf 5 Recto:

 Therefore hee must hy,[23]

His Judgements thy,

Because they lye,

            In Sathans bands,

 

For it is cleare,

When Israels eare,

Would no more heare,                                     [220]

            What God did say.[24]

Hee did appeare

A Judge seueare,

Not to forebeare,

            Their sinnes for aye. 

 

Yee men of names[25]

And daintie dames,

London and Thames

            And Ednirocke.[26]

Thinke thir no dreames                                   [230]

That God proclames,

For hee ashames,

            Aye to bee mockt. 

 

Thinke on this clause,

If Christes Sawes,

Can be[e n]o cause,

            T[o] make [m]ylde. 

The Spainzie ta[wes?][27]

May bee your la[u?]es,[28]

To make you pawes,                                       [240]

Though yee bee wilde.

Leaf 5 Verso:

And if Gods will,

Bee them to kill,

That they shall spill,

            None of our blood,

Hee hath in bill,

Anew as ill,

To plague us still,

            Till wee grow good.

 

Though Pharaoh fell,                                       [250]

Yet Israel,

Bent to rebell,

            Did not eschew.

For God can tell,

How for to quell

Sinners full well,

With meanes anew. 

 

And sure their treating, 

Sen their defeating

And hamelie meeting, [29]                                  [260]

            Into Scotland.

May bee a gaiting,[30]

Of new repeating

Of our vaine beating,

            Of that black band.[31] 

 

T[o?] get a name,[32]

So[m]e takes them hame[,][33]

[Th]ey will grow tame,

            Get they good chear[e].

 

Leaf 6 Recto:

 

If Maide or Dame,                                          [270]

Gets any shame.

They beare the blame,

            That brewde the beare. 

 

For I protest,

Who loues them best

Shall rule them least,

            For all you jests. 

Where they get rest. 

They fyle their nest,[34]

Glengore and Pest,[35]                                       [280]

            Are no worse Guists.

 

What shame and lake,[36]

Did these men take,

That are so starke,

            Such Fiendes to feed.

To bring a packe,

New force to make,

This land to wracke,

            Of Span3ards seede.[37]

 

So if God please,                                            [290]

Others to raise.

And them to sease[38]

            In the Sea ground.

Anew of these,

Us to disease,

Domisticke faies,[39]

Are to bee found. 

                                                Who

Leaf 6 Verso

W[ho] would a[l]s faine,

Haue vs all slaine,

As they of Spaine,                                          [300]

            With whom they greede.[40]

Yet cloackes in vaine. 

Their great disdaine,

Their courses plaine,

            To sicke a seede,[41]

 

This to bee true,

Plainlie they shew,

Fra tyme they knew,

            Spaines Flot draw neare,

Crowslie they crew,                                        [310]

And factions drew,

Us to persew,

            With Sword and Speare. 

 

Though they vs solde,

For Spainzie Gold,

As it was told.

            Which made such reards.[42]

Yet God controld,

And did with hold.

Those Burriours bold.[43]                                   [320]

Spite of their Baires.[44] 

 

Yet the meanespace,[45]

They doe increase,

And neuer cease,

            For to maling:[46]

                                                            Yea,

Leaf 7 Recto:

Yea[, s]till [they] preasse,

Without release,

For to deface

            Both Kirke and King.[47]

 

But yet wee dare,                                            [330]

Bid them beware,

Or they come nare,

            To doe vs deare. 

You G[ui?]shan-jare[48]

May make them skare.

To dip[?]u’r fare.[49]

            Thi[s?] maruelous yeare.

 

These Groomes I grant,

Full well [?] dant,[50]

Our fool[ish]  want,                                        [340]

            Without wee mend.

No wit they want,

Nor yet are scant,

[B]ut dayly plant,

            Us to offend. 

 

If nought can call them,[51]

To make them fall them,

But pryde doeth bald them,

            To bragge at bare.[52]

It would bee tald them,                                  [350]

If one can hald them,

That they may scalde them

            Or they beware. 

Leaf 7 Verso:

Yee Magistrates,

And all Estates. 

That now debates,

            Gods causes while.[53]

And Spanzardes hates,

Withall their Mates,

Let no conceates                                             [360]

            Your selues beguile. 

 

But take good head,

How things proceede,

Words is no deed,

            Thinke on I tell you.

Make yee no speede,

To finde remeede.

That savage seede,

            Will quickly quaile you. 

 

One thing consider,                                         [370]

Come they together,

That doe consider,[54]

            Your doome is dight.

Then bee not lidder,[55]

To make a quidder,[56]

Or they come hidder,

            Your cause is right.

 

Their treacherand trewes,

Great barrate brewes,

They are but shrews,                                       [380]

            That takes their part.                           [?l]e[57]

Extra Leaf recto (a duplicate of leaf 4)[58]

Beeing laide one,

It would have gone,

Unto the bone

            Of horse and tyke

 

An other paire,

More sharpe and faire,

They did prepare,

            Dens flesh to rent.

What crying caire,

Had there beene there,

Both laite and aire,

            At that torment. 

 

[Who] would not quake,[59]

Even without strake,

To see them shake,

            Our naked saules,

Would it not make,

Ones heart to aike.

To see a smaike,

            Braide with such braules

 

[This] threatening sore,

[Shoul]d moue us more,

[Then] heeretofore,

[?]        To have remorce,

[?]        For Gods glory,

[?]        Seeped our shore. 

 

Works Cited

Bawcutt, P.  “The Mystery of The spyte of Spaine (Heirs of Andro Hart, 1628).”  The Bibliotheck: A Scottish Journal of Bibliography and Allied Topics 19 (1994) 5-22.

Deloney, Thomas.  “A joyful new Ballad declaring the happy obtaining of the great Galleazzo, wherein Don Pedro de Valdez was the chief; through the mighty power and providence of GOD: being a special token of His gracious and fatherly goodness towards us; to the great encouragement of all those that willingly fight in the  defense of His Gospel and our good Queen of England.” Rpt. in Thomas Seacombe, ed., Tudor Tracts, 1532-1588.  N.Y.: E.P. Dutton, 1903,485-491.

Eder, Franz, Gert Hekma, Lesley A. Hall.  Sexual Cultures in Europe.  Manchester: Manchester UP, 1999.

Hazlett, William Carew.  Second Series of Bibliographical Collections and Notes on Early English Literature, 1474-1700.  London: Bernard Quaritch, 1882.

Stradling, R.A.  Europe and the Decline of Spain.  London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981.

The Spyte of Spaine, or, a thankfull remembrance of Gods mercie in Britanes dileuerie from the Spanish Armado.  1588. Edinburgh: Heirs of Andro Hart, 1628.  (James Wilson Bright Collection, 46005).

Walsham, Alexandra.  “’The Fatall Vesper’: Providentialism and Anti-Popery in Late Jacobean London.”  Past and Present 144 (August 1994) 36-87.


 

[1]   The characters “n” and “i” probably were omitted when setting “Admonition.”  There is no doubt that they are missing, but “admotion,” though the O.E.D. records it in Adam Harsnet’s God’s summons unto general repentance (1639/1640) as “A bringing into contact,” makes less sense than “Admonition” in this context.

[2]   The verse quoted is Psalm 124, Verse 8.  This appears to be a combination of bad printing on rough paper that caused the “4” not to register completely, and a simple typesetting error of “3” for “8.”  Close examination of the Goucher-Bright copy reveals the foot of the numeral “4” appearing at the bottom of the otherwise empty space following the “12.”  The King James text of Psalm 124, Verse 3, reads “Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us,” referring to the Lord’s aid “when men rose up against us.”  Though this text is not entirely inappropriate to the poem’s agenda, it is not the text from verse 8 which follows.

[3]   The following stanza appears to associate the policies promulgated in the previous century by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) with Philip II’s contemporary attempts to advance the interests of the Counter-Reformation and the Spanish Empire, including the rebuilding of Spain’s Armada del Mar Oceano, begun as early as 1617, to reverse Protestant gains in England, Scotland, and the Low Countries (Stradling 69-70).

[4]  Unlike Buchan’s transcription, which may have attempted to regularize punctuation, but as in the NLS fragment transcribed by Bawcutt, there is no punctuation following “parte,” in a change from previous stanzas’ routine end-stopped punctuation (Bawcutt 8).  The same is true of the eighth line of this stanza which does not follow “hearte” with a period.  This stanza begins the poem’s theme of providential intervention by God on behalf of English Protestantism against the forces of European Catholicism, a common topic in controversial pamphlets and broadsides since Elizabeth’s time (Walsham 39).

[5]  “Wave,” a Middle English usage which remained more common in Northern dialects.

[6]   A rectangular piece of the outer margin of leaf one is missing from the Goucher/Bright copy.  Missing characters are reconstructed from Bawcutt and Peter Buchan’s transcription

[7]  Bawcutt points out that the first two of these names correspond reasonably well with Spanish warriors in charge of the fleet (20).  The commander of the Armada was the duke Medina Sidonia, and the commander of the great galleass, don Hugo de Moncalda, was killed at Calais on August 8 (n.s.), 1588, and his death was reported in print at London on August 10 in Deloney's second Armada poem, "A joyfull new ballad."  The remaining five names are considerably distorted and may reveal effects of the oral transmission of a ballad which this poem draws upon.

[8]   Because the foot of this leaf is trimmed, we do not know whether it contained the expected signature (“A3”).  The following signature from leaf 3r (“A4”) shows beneath the cut on the digital image, but it should not be mistaken for a signing error.

[9] This heavily damaged leaf is partially reconstructed from Buchan’s transcription reproduced in Bawcutt.

[10]  “Impyre” may be a nonce verb for “to set fire to.”

[11]  “To recall to mind with remorse or regret” (O.E.D. “remord, v., 3).

[12]  See Bawcutt on the commonplace reference to these mythic Spanish whips of wire (19-20).

[13]  Significant damage to this leaf destroyed text that cannot be restored from Buchan because his copy was missing all four lines of this stanza.  The stanza obviously attempts to add an element of sexual threat by alleging the Spanish designed special whips for women, alone.

[14]   The O.E.D. offers no similar usages for “horse,” which here appears to suggest “vulnerable woman,” though sense 4. is the closest: “fig. Applied contemptuously or playfully to a man, with reference to various qualities of the quadruped.”   The paired noun, “tyke,” in this context appears to mean “child” though  O.E.D. sense 2. records the closest usage as “transf. Applied opprobriously to a man (rarely with similar force to a woman): A low-bred, lazy, mean, surly, or ill-mannered fellow; a boor. (Cf. DOG n.1 3a, HOUND n.1 4a.)  Also said in playful reproof to a child; hence (unreprovingly), a child, esp. a small boy; occas., a young animal (U.S.).”  The oldest usage as “child” dates to 1902.  Nevertheless, the following stanza about a weapon destined for use on “Mens flesh” makes it unlikely the author meant anything else.

[15]  “sore” in Scots dialect.

[16]  “early” in Scots dialect.

[17]  Without being struck?

[18]  “A low, mean, or contemptible fellow; a rascal, rogue” (O.E.D.), though perhaps merely “fellow.”

[19]  “braid, v.” in several senses suggests a sudden, jerky movement (O.E.D.).  “braul, v.” in Barbour’s Bruce and the English Merlin, “to move to and fro, vibrate, waver, quiver” (O.E.D.).

[20]  The stanza ends with no punctuation, unlike Buchan’s transcription, suggesting enjambment of the sense into the next stanza’s “For wate yee why.”

[21]  Typesetting error or intentional metathesis for “folke”?

[22]  By “thir two lands” (i.e., “their two lands”), the poet may mean Scotland and England as territories under a single threat, referred to in the previous stanza as a unified people by the “Yslands name” (i.e., “Britaine” in the poem’s third line).

[23]  “hy,” O.E.D. “n. Haste, speed,” function shifted to a verb.

[24]  Bawcut points out the common Protestant comparison of their cause with Israelites, both as the persecuted enemies of the “Pharaoh” (i.e., the Pope, and Catholicism in general) and as the object of God’s righteous chastisement when they failed to heed the balladeers’ prophecies (19-20).

[25]   The Vulgate phrase, “viri famosi,” which describes the wicked men whose pride brought on the Flood (Genesis 6:4), can be translated “men of names,” though the King James Version calls them “men of renown."

[26]  “Ednirocke” for “Edinrocke” (Edinburgh) may be another instance of typesetting error or intentional metathesis for “Eden Rock,” to associate Edinburgh as Scotland’s capital with Eden.

[27]  Buchan’s “tawes” matches the a-rhyme and sense of the stanza, but the characters following “taw” appear, under magnification, to be “iu” rather than “es.”  The following line also has a lapse in typesetting.

[28]   Under magnification, the third character in the line’s last word is a “b” mis-set for a “u,” which would make sense and would rhyme with “pawes” (i.e., “laues”).

[29]   “Hamelie” is a dialect spelling of “homely,” in the O.E.D.’s senses 1 and 2, “Kindly” or “Plainly,” but also possibly, as irony, “Rudely.”

[30]   Probably “a way of going,” after O.E.D.’s first noun sense, “a. Manner of walking or stepping, bearing or carriage while moving, walk, step. Also fig., esp in phr. to go one's (own) gait, to go one's own way; to pursue one's own course.”

[31]   The “black band” may refer specifically to members of the Jesuit order.  Walsham’s study of English Protestant reaction to the 1623 collapse of a house where English Catholics were meeting reproduces a broadside engraving titled “A Plot Without Powder” which illustrates a group of black-robed Jesuits presumably plotting to overthrow public order, and identifies them as a “Black Breed” (68. 73).

[32]   “To gain a reputation,” following the “men of name” usage above.  The left portion of the leaf is damaged but readable.

[33]   This stanza appears to refer to women who sheltered shipwrecked survivors of the Armada who were not taken prisoner and returned to Spain.

[34]   “fyle” in the sense of “foul,” a Northern dialect usage, O.E.D., 1. trans. To render (materially) foul, filthy or dirty; to pollute, dirty; to destroy the cleanness or purity of; = DEFILE v.1 2. Obs. exc. dial.

[35]  “Glengore,” from Old French “grand gorre” or “great syphilis” was a Fifteenth-Century term for syphilis.  In 1497, legislation restricting the movement of “all light women” was passed to control its spread, and the Edinburgh Statute of James IV became known as the Glengore Act (Eder, Hekma, and Hall 59-60).  Syphilis routinely was used symbolically by libel writers to attack those associated with foreign intrigues, especially the Spanish, and politicians like Sir Robert Cecil, Frances Howard, and the duke of Buckingham were alleged to have contracted it (Bellany, “Libellous” 295-6 and 301-2).  This makes sense of “Pest” as the Plague.   Also see O.E.D., “grandgore.”

[36]  “lake,” with “shame,” may be an ironic usage form of the Northern dialect in O.E.D. 1. Play, sport, fun, glee. In pl. games, tricks, goings on,” with implications of 2., “A fight, contest” the men have lost in their shame for having aided the Spanish.

[37]  The “yough” type (here “3” in “Span3ards”) occurs rarely in the document.

[38]   “sease,” a spelling of “seize,” to put into feudal possession of.

[39]  Domestic “faies” may refer to the loyal allegiances in those God might raise to dominion over the seas in place of faithless Scots who succumb to Spanish persuasion.

[40]  “Agreed,” possible in a pun on “greed,” which they shared with the Spanish enemy.

[41]  “To” may be mis-set type for “So sicke a seede.”  This stanza, like the stanza at the bottom of leaf 4r, ends with a comma, which is either a typesetter’s error or enjambs its sense with the following stanza on leaf 6v, which begins “This to bee true.”  In the latter case, the pronoun reference of “they” in the following stanza is somewhat more clearly “they of Spaine” in the previous stanza.

[42]  “reards” is probably a compression of “rewards.”

[43]   “Burriours” may be the plural of O.E.D. “burrio,” “A hangman, an executioner.”  John Rowe’s History of the Kirk of Scotland is cited as a usage of “burrioes” in 1842, and usages of “burio” in Scots publications are cited in 1536 and 1567.

[44]   Bawcutt called Buchan’s transcription of “Baires” into question, thinking it “must certainly be Bairds, ‘beards’” (21).  Though the transcription is, indeed, accurate as “Baires,” it may be mis-set type for “Bairds,” as she suspected.

[45]  Buchan accurately transcribed “meanespace,” which corresponds with a relatively rare “meanspace,” i.e., “meantime.

[46]  “maling” is an alternate spelling of “malign” in the now obsolete sense of “To act wickedly or sinfully, to do wrong.”

[47]  This identifies the “they” of the previous stanzas as Catholic sympathizers of the Spanish cause whose activities the poem associates with royal and clerical authority, perhaps to defuse popular discontent with Charles I’s to enhance the power and income of the bishops and Crown (Donaldson 302-308).

[48] Bawcutt perhaps understates the situation when she writes that “Guishan-jare” is “puzzling,” but it may be understood as a combination of “Guisian” (a follower of the duke of Guise, a papal sympathizer) and “jar,” or “discord,” as in “something which brings discord to those who favor Catholicism and the Spanish.”  That is, the “Guisian-jar” addressed as “You” by the narrator (i.e., this poem, itself?) may make Catholic supporters too afraid to disrupt our plans (“To dip ou’r fare”). 

[49]  The partially obscured third word includes quite distinctly the only apostrophe in the pamphlet’s surviving leaves, which may contract “ou’r.”

[50]  “dant” might be a dialect spelling of “daunt.”

[51]  Though faint, the auxiliary verb “can” appears before “call” in this line.

[52]   With the stanza’s previous lines, this obscure passage may mean “If no one can cause them to fall, pride exposes them by causing them to boast openly of their plans.”

[53]  Close inspection confirms Buchan’s transcription of an ungrammatical period ending this line instead of a comma to connect the “Magistrates”’ salutation to the command (“Let no conceates / Your selves beguile”).

[54]   Bawcutt speculated that the second “consider” in this stanza might be a misreading of the long “s” for “f” in “confider,” to “form a league” (21).  The typesetter is far from perfect enough to make this unlikely, but the type set in the second word contains the same long-“s”-“i” ligatured type used in the first word, rather than the “f” type seen in “fall” and “foolish” on the recto side of leaf 7.  Repetition of rhyme words is not beyond the skill of the poet, who sometimes does it intentionally, as in stanza 17, where all the “a” rhymes are “us.”

[55]   “lidder” as a dialect spelling of “lither,” O.E.D.{dag}1. Of persons, their actions, dispositions, etc.: Bad, wicked; base, rascally unjust.”

[56]   Possibly a dialect spelling of “quiddle,” O.E.D.{dag}1. intr. To discourse or expound upon a subject in a trifling or frivolous manner.Obs..”

[57]  Though the sentence ends with a period, the stanza is incomplete, and would be the only such stanza in the poem.  A badly trimmed catchword is barely visible at the bottom of the leaf, only an ascender and the letter “e” surviving.  Nevertheless, this confirms Gardeyne’s, Bright’s and Bawcutt’s belief that the poem was not complete, though it may indeed be “drawing to a close” (Bawcutt 19).  If the pattern of eight-stanza groups is not illusory, there might be at least one and a half stanzas missing, or as many as nine and a half, or more.

[58]  This loose leaf 4 from the printing is held to the top of the binding’s endpapers with a straight pin.  Its condition is considerably worse than bound leaf 4, but it differs in no substantive form from the bound leaf.  Because its inner margin is missing, it cannot be examined for sewing holes and the leaf may be printer’s waste.

[59]   Missing text is reconstructed by comparison with the other leaf, again correcting some minor errors in the Buchan transcription.