he was a crack, not thus high: and the very fame mimick, and of great pleafantry in converfation, became the favourite buffoon of the court of King Edward IV." Bale and Tanner have confounded him with Henry Skogan, if indeed they were diftinct perfons, which I doubt. The compofitions which Bale has attributed to the writer whom he fuppofes to have lived in the time of Edward IV. were written by the poet of the reign of Henry IV. which induces me to think that there was no poet or master of arts of this name, in the time of Edward. There might then have been a jefter of the fame name. Scogin's JESTS were published by Andrew Borde, a phyfician in the reign of Henry VIII. Shakspeare had probably met with this book; and as he was very little fcrupulous about anachronisms, this perfon, and not Henry Scogan, the poet of the time of Henry IV. may have been in his thoughts: I fay may, for it is by no means certain, though the author of Remarks on the laft edition of Shakspeare, &c. has afferted it with that confidence which diftinguishes his obfervations. Since this note was written, I have observed that Mr. Tyrwhitt agrees with me in thinking that there was no poet of the name of Scogan in the time of King Edward IV. nor any ancient poet of that name but Henry Scogan, Master of Arts, who lived in the time of King Henry IV. and he urges the fame argument that I have done, namely, that the compofitions which Bale afcribes to the supposed John Scogan, were written by Henry. Bale and Tanner were, I believe, Mr. Warton's only authority. "As to the two circumftances (fays Mr. Tyrwhitt,) of his being a master of arts of Oxford, and jefter to the king, I can find no older authority for it than Dr. Borde's book. That he was contemporary with Chaucer, but fo as to furvive him feveral years, perhaps till the reign of Henry V. is fufficiently clear from this poem [the poem mentioned in the former part of my note.] 66 Shakspeare feems to have followed the jeft-book, in confidering Scogan as a mere buffoon, when he mentions as one of Falstaff's boyish exploits that he broke Scogan's head at the court-gate." Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Vol. V. Pref. 66 Among a number of people of all forts who had letters of protection to attend Richard II. upon his expedition into Ireland in 1399, is Henricus Scogan, Armiger." Ibidem, p. xv. MALONE. This was John Scogan, jefter to King Edward IV. and not Henry, the poet, who lived long before, but is frequently con day did I fight with one Sampfon Stockfish, a fruit founded with him. Our author, no doubt, was well read in John's Jefts, "gathered by Andrew Boarde, doctor of phyfick," and printed in 4to. and black letter, but without date; and his existence, which has been lately called in queftion, (for what may not be called in queftion ?) is completely afcertained by the following characteristic epitaph, accidentally retrieved from a contemporary manuscript in the Harleian library (No. 1587): Hic iacet in tumulo corpus ScoGAN ecce JOHANNIS ; Holinfhed, fpeaking of the great men of Edward the Fourth's time, mentions "Scogan, a learned gentleman, and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleafaunte witte, and bent to mery deuifes, in refpect whereof he was called into the courte, where giuing himselfe to his naturall inclination of mirthe and pleafaunt paftime, he plaied many sporting parts, althoughe not in fuche vnciuill maner as hath bene of hym reported." These uncivil reports evidently allude to the above jeft-book, a circumftance of which no one who confults it will have the leaft doubt. See alfo Bale's Scriptores Britannia, and Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, art. SKOGAN. After all, there is fome reason to believe that John was actually a little bit of a poet. Drayton, in his preface to his Eclogues, fays, that "the Colin Clout of Scogan, under Henry the Seventh, is pretty;" clearly meaning fome pastoral under that title, and of that age, which he must have read, and, confequently, not Skelton's poem fo called, nor any thing of Spenfer's. Lang ham, in his enumeration of Captain Cox's library, notices "the Seargeaunt that became a Fryar, Skogan, Collyn Cloout, the Fryar and the Boy, Elynor Rumming, and the Nutbrooun Maid ;" and that, by Skogan, the writer does not mean his Jests, is evident, from the circumftance of all the reft being poetical tracts. He is elsewhere named in company with Skelton; and, in fupport of this idea, one may refer to the facetious epigram he wrote on taking his degree, at Oxford, of Mafter of Arts. Mr. Tyrwhitt's opinion will, on all occafions, be intitled to attention and refpect; but no opinion can have any weight whatever against a pofitive and incontrovertible fact. RITSON. 8 a crack,] This is an old Islandic word, fignifying a boy or child. One of the fabulous kings and heroes of Denmark, called Hrolf, was furnamed Krake. See the story in Edda, Fable 63. TYRWHITT. erer, behind Gray's-inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to fee how many of mine old acquaintance are dead! SIL. We fhall all follow, coufin. SHAL. Certain, 'tis certain; very fure, very fure : death, as the Pfalmift faith, is certain to all; all fhall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? SIL. Truly, coufin, I was not there. SHAL. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet? SIL. Dead, fir. SHAL. Dead!-See, fee!-he drew a good bow;And dead!-he fhot a fine fhoot:-John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead!—he would have clapped i'the clout at twelve fcore; and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would clapped i'the clout-] i. e. hit the white mark. WARBURTON. So, in King Lear: "O, well flown, bird !-i'the clout, i'the clout." STEEVENS. I at twelve Score;] i. e. of yards. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, 1612: "At markes full fortie Score they us'd to prick and rove." MALONE. This mode of expreffion, certainly in this inftance, and I believe in general, means yards; but the line from Drayton makes this opinion doubtful, or fhows the extreme inaccuracy of the poet, for no man was ever capable of shooting an arrow forty fcore yards. Douce. 2 -fourteen, and fourteen and a half,] That is, fourteen fcore of yards. JOHNSON. Twelve Score appears, however, from a paffage in Churchyard's Charitie, 1595, to have been no shot of an extraordinary length : have done a man's heart good to fee. score of ewes now? -How a SIL. Thereafter as they be: a fcore of good ewes may be worth ten pounds. SHAL. And is old Double dead! Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him. SIL. Here come two of fir John Falstaff's men, as I think. BARD. Good morrow, honeft gentlemen: I befeech you, which is juftice Shallow? SHAL. I am Robert Shallow, fir; a poor efquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the peace: What is your good pleasure with me? BARD. My captain, fir, commends him to you: my captain, fir John Falstaff: a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a moft gallant leader. They hit the white that never shot before, "No marke-men fure, nay bunglers in their kind, STEEVENS. The utmost distance that the archers of ancient times reached, is fupposed to have been about three hundred yards. Old Double therefore certainly drew a good bow. MALONE. Shakspeare probably knew what he was about when he spoke of archery, which in his time was practifed by every one. He is defcribing Double as a very excellent archer, and there is no inconfiftency in making fuch a one fhoot fourteen score and a half; but it must be allowed that none but a moft extraordinary archer would be able to hit a mark at twelve fcore. Some allowance, however, should be made when the speaker is confidered. DOUCE. The long field (I believe at Finfbury) is 16 fcore 10 yards. A Mr. Bates once fhot an arrow near 30 yards beyond the bound of it, which was 18 fcore. Mr. John Rowfton, of Manchefter, has often fhot 18 fcore. MISS BANKS. SHAL. He greets me well, fir; I knew him a good backfword man: How doth the good knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth? BARD. Sir, pardon; a foldier is better accommodated, than with a wife. SHAL. It is well faid, in faith, fir; and it is well faid indeed too. Better accommodated !-it is good; yea, indeed, it is: good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated!-it comes from accommodo: very good; a good phrafe.3 BARD. Pardon me, fir; I have heard the word. Phrafe, call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrafe: but I will maintain the word with my fword, to be a foldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated; That is, when a man is, as they fay, accommodated: or, when a man is,-being,-whereby, he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing. 3 very good; a good phrafe. &c.] Accommodate was a modifh term of that time, as Ben Jonson informs us: “ You are not to caft or wring for the perfumed terms of the time, as accommodation, complement, fpirit, &c. but use them properly in their places as others." Discoveries. Hence Bardolph calls it a word of exceeding good command. His definition of it is admirable, and highly fatirical: nothing being more common than for inaccurate speakers or writers, when they should define, to put their hearers off with a fynonymous term; or, for want of that, even with the fame term differently accommodated: as in the inftance before us. WARBURTON. The fame word occurs in Ben Jonfon's Every Man in his Humour ; "Hoftels, accommodate us with another bedstaff: 'The woman does not understand the words of action." STEEVENS. |