Toxophilus, Notes for the First Book of The School of Shooting
The notes are from the Rev. Dr. Giles edition of Toxophilus, 1864-1865.
[1]
So seriously.
[2]
In order to it.
[3]
Probably is speciously
[4]
Faule or fall, is produce
[5]
Trick or tricksy, is neat, nice, elegant.
[6]
Cast is warped. The word is still used by artificers.
[7]
If this line was so translated when this treatise was first written, in 1545, it is the oldest English hexameter that I remember.
[8]
Honesty is honour.
[9]
The Gnat of Virgil, and the Nut of Ovid.
[10]
Porcupine
[11]
These lines are written in imitation of the Senarius.
[12]
Foumards, by others called fumarts, are, I believe, what we now call more commonly Stoats.
[13]
I doubt whether our author has not mistaken the sense of Chaucer I rather take lesings to be lies than losses.
[14]
War is an old word, still used in some counties for worse; and Ascham. supposes that war or hostility is so named, because it is war or worse than peace.
[15]
Atonement is Union, or the act of setting at one.
[16]
First edition has for.
[17]
This paragraph is left out in the modern editions of the Toxophilus.
[18]
This parenthesis is omitted in the modern editions
[19]
A jack is a coat of mail.
[20]
The word lipe I never saw, and know not whether I understand it: if it be the same as leap, it may mean a jerk or sudden motion.
[22]
The statute.
[21]
Favouredly is, I suppose, plausibly.
[23]
The prick, at other times called the white, is the white spot or point in the midst of the mark.
[24]
Here is an example of the Socratic method of disputation, which, by repeated interrogations, confutes the opponent out of his own answers.
[25]
Sadness is seriousness, or earnest. First edition has "go about it : but in good sadness."
