Scottish Text Society publications > Third series > Works of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 1490-1555 > Volume 4, 1936

i66
THE WORKS OF SIR DAVID LINDSAY
to a " chalmer,” probably a tent at the back of the stage intended to
represent a room. By sum quyet place Lindsay apparently means
anything in the nature of a private place at the back of the stage within
the scope of the presenters of the farce, nothing special being specified.
The necessary interval in the action is filled by a conversation between
Fyndlaw and the priest, who is not a lover of war, in another corner of
the stage.
213. I trow scho be gane to the mess. Had this a double meaning, of
which the Old Man had forgotten one element, a metaphor which the
audience understood ?
218. Ane iufflane lok : juffling Jok. Juffle : orig. obscure, perhaps a
variant of shuffle, fumble, bungle. Cf. Dunbar, Of a dance in the Quenis
Chalmer. S.T.S., II. 199, lines 15-16, “the Maister Almaser, Ane
hommilty jommeltye jufiler."
222. haif bene doand sum bissy wark ? An apparently innocent
question, with a double meaning for Bessy and the audience.
240. Golias. Cf. Hist. Sq. Meldrum, 312, and note. Cf. line 246.
242. Gray steill. Cf. Hist. Sq. Meldrum, 1318, and note.
243. Kynneill: Kinneil, a village in Linlithgowshire, in the parish of
Borrowstounness (Bo’ness), about three miles north-east of Linlithgow.
245. Schir bews of sowth hamtoun : Sir Bevis of Southampton. A
thirteenth century verse romance of 4620 lines, the oldest text (c. 1327)
being preserved in the Auchinleck MS. (National Library of Scotland).
Ed. from this MS. by W. B. D. D. Turnbull, Maitland Club, 1838 ;
extracts and abstracts in Ellis, Specimens of Early English Romances,
rev. Halliwell, 1848 ; E.E.T.S., ed. Kolbing. Extra Series, 46, 48, 65,
from MSS. and early printed editions. The story is packed with the
adventures of Sir Bevis, undertaken to avenge his father’s death. For
summary, see E.E.T.S. edition, pp. xxi-xxxiii. The story is believed
to be of French origin, and was popular in Scotland down to the
eighteenth century.
246. Hector of troy, gawyne, or golias. Hector of troy. Cf. The Dreme,
34. Gawyne, Gawain of the Arthurian legends. Golias, cf. ante, line 240.
247 st. dir. Ane scheip heid on ane staff. I imagine from the terrors
of Fyndlaw, who mistakes this for a ghost, lines 251-69, that the staff
also bore a flowing white drapery.
250. In nomine patris et filij. The beginning of the ecclesiastical invo¬
cation " in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sanctus.”
251. The spreit of gy : the ghost of Guy. Cf. The Dreme, 16, and note.
252. The spreit of marling : the ghost of Merlin. Cf. Satyre 4590-4606,
and note, and The Dreme, 43.