Page numbers are taken from the following editions: G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York, 1961); Century Publishing Co. (London, 1982); and Vintage Books' trade paperback. Numbers in brackets after an entry refer to sources listed in the bibliography. Translations are mine unless otherwise noted.
References are in the order they appear in the book. To search for any item, hit control-F and type the word.
Part 1 – The Play for Jonathan Crouch
Chapter 1: Taking en Passant - pp. 29 to 58 - September 10-11,
1547
| Page | Item |
| 35 | en
passant
A pawn capture where a pawn on the 5th row captures an opponent's pawn which has just moved 2 squares forward on its first move as if it had moved only one square. (1) |
| 35 | Opening
- The first phase of the chess game, in which players concentrate on development,
gaining room for their pieces to maneuver, and on bringing their Kings
to safety.
English Opening Characterized by fluid pawn formations and battles for control of the center. 1.c4 White opens by moving the third pawn from the left (the one in front of the bishop on the queen's side) forward two squares. |
| 35 | Pinkie
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh was fought outside Musselburgh (about 10 miles east of Edinburgh) on Sept. 10, 1547. |
| 35 | Annan (54 58M, 3 16W) (4)
A Scots town on the Solway Firth, north of Carlisle |
| 36 | Mohacs (45 58N, 18 41E) (4)
Town in Hungary. At the battle of Mohacs, August 29, 1526, Turkish Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent defeated Louis II of Hungary. |
| 36 | Rhodes (36 15N, 28 10E) (4)
Island in the Aegean Sea |
| 36 | Belgrade (44 50N, 20 37E) (4)
City in Serbia. |
| 36 | Mohacs, Rhodes and Belgrade were the sites of battles of the 1500's in which the Turks defeated Christian armies. |
| 36 | Lowe - a blaze or flame (1) |
| 36 | Weel-kent - well-known (1) |
| 36 | Snash (Scots) - insolence, abusive language (1) |
| 36 | Widdy-Hill - widdy - rope or halter for hanging (1) |
| 36 | Assizes - trial by jury or a legislative hearing, espiecially one to establish weights, measures and prices (1) |
| 36 | Musselburgh (55 57N, 3 2W) (4)
A Scots town about 10 miles east of Edinburgh. |
| 37 | teazle - a herb (genus Dipsacus) with prickly leaves (1) |
| 37 | Tay (56 32N, 4 8W) - a river and lake in Scotland. (4) |
| 37 | Henbane - a poisonous plant of the nightshade family (1) |
| 37 | Doocote (Scots) dovecote, a place where doves are kept. (1) |
| 37 | Feu de joie (French) - literally, "joyful fire"; bonfire (1); firing of guns as symbol of joy |
| 38 | I have peper and piones and a pound of garlik
A farthing worth of fenel seed for fasting days. - Piers Plowman: Gluttony, int he Seven Deadly Sins section. (5) |
| 38 | Midas whispering in the hole.
It was actually not Midas but his barber who whispered the secret of Midas's asses ears into a hole in the ground. - Brewer's Dictionary - (5) |
| 38 | Souter - shoemaker, cobbler (1) |
| 38 | Brio (Itlaian) - liveliness, vivacity, spirit (1) |
| 38 | The Wuthenheer
Wuthenheer: a raging army. - From Norse mythology. "In all Germanic lands the belief was widespread that on certain stormy nights the tumultuous gallop of a mysterious troop of riders could be heard in the sky... This was the 'furious army' or the 'savage hunt'. (Wild Jagd) - New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, p. 253. (Teutonic Mythology)(5) |
| 39 | between Christmas and Epiphany
In the Wuthenhher myth, myth, the Wild Hunt would run in the sky in the nights between Christmas and Epiphany |
| 39 | Heliogabalus (204-222) - One of the more megalomaniacal Roman Emperors. (2) |
| 39 | Attila (406-453) King of the Huns, who overran much of Europe (2) |
| 39 | Torquemada, Tomas de (1420-1498) - Spanish Dominican monk who became famous for the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition which he instituted. (2) |
| 39 | Nero (37-68) Megalomaniac Roman emperor who beame famous for persecuting Christians and fiddling while Rome burned. (2) |
| 39 | the boot - an instrument of torture which functioned by breaking the bones of the foot (1) |
| 39 | Quidquid libet, licet.
A quote from the Roman Emperor Caracalla, on lusting after his mother-inlaw, 211-217. (3) Quoted by Robert Bruton in The Anatomy of Melancholy, 3-2-2-3. (5) Oh, that you should be allowed to do anything you want to. - my translation |
| 39 | Peg-a-Ramsey, or Peg O'Ramsey
- See Opie, "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes", p.346, where, however, she is called 'Peg-a-Ramsey'. See also Shakespeare, "Twelfth Night", II-3. (5) Peg was the heroine of an old song, which seems to have existed as both a nursery rhyme and an indecent ballad. [See here.] : Little Pen a Ramsey, With the yellow hair, Double ruff around her next And ne'er a shirt to wear. In 1795 Robert Burns wrote a poem called Bonie Peg-a-Ramsay. |
| 39 | Gif thou should sing well ever in thy life, here is in fay the time,
and eke the space.
Quote from a poem said to be by James I (1394-37), The Kingis Quaire. It ever you should sing well in your life, here in faith you have the time and place. - my translation |
| 39 | Quatrains - in poetry, stanzas of four lines, usually rhyming (1) |
| 39 | Frae vulgar prose to flowand Latin.
- John Bellenden, from his poem at the beginning of his translation of Hecter Boece's History of Scotland. (5) Boece (c. 1465-1536) was a Scots historian. |
| 39 | "Volavit volucer sine plumis
Sedit in arbore sine foliis Venit homo absque manibus…" Volavit volucer sine plumas, etc.
There flew a bird without wings
This is a classic, riddle to which the answer is `a snowflake'. |
| 40 | "..un freet den Vogel fedderlos
Van den Boem blattos …" The German version of the snowflake riddle. My translation: "There comes a bird without feathers and sits in a tree without leaves...." |
| 40 | Pharaoh's chickens. - The Egyptian vulture. See Shorter OED (5) |
| 41 | flors de biauté – (Provençal) flower of beauty. From a song by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) |
| 41 | rapier - a long, slender sword (1) |
| 41 | hackbut - an arquebus, an early kind of handgun (1) |
| 41 | Sordidi Dei (Latin) - sordid gods. Robert Burton, Anatomy
of Melancholy, 3-4-1-3, quotes M.
Terentius Varro): "sordidos deos". It should be 'sordidi dii'
(or 'di'). P. 411, Vol. III of Shilleto. (5) [See
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/divphil/burtonr.htm#basic] |
| 41 | Amour propre (French) self-love, vanity (1) |
| 41 | "When a hatter
Will go smatter In a philosophy Or a pedlar Wax a medlar In theology…" From The Story of Thomas More by John Farrow, chapter 10. |
| 42 | bree (Scots) - the liquor in which anything has been boiled. (1) |
| 42 | The warning cock and the Devil's bath
The Devil's Bath Balneum Diaboli. - Robert Burton's name for melancholy. (Anatomy, 1-2-1-2): "The Devil, spying his opportunity of such humours, drives them many times to despiar, fury, rages, etc." (5) |
| 42 | Hawick (55 26N, 2 47W) - Scots lowland town about 50 mites SE of Edinburgh. (4) |
| 42 | Caxton, William (c. 1422-1491) - First English printer, author of The Game and Playe of Chess. (2) |
| 42 | "How gentlemen shall be known from Churls. Full of sloth in his
wars, full of boast in his manhood, full of cowardice to his enemy, full
of lechery to his own body, full of drinking and drunkenness. Revoking
his own challenge; slaying his prisoner with his own hands; riding from
his soveriegn's banner in the field; telling his sovereign false tales…."
- This is to be found in the heraldry section of Dame Juliana Berners: The Boke of St. Albans. Many editions were published in the 16c, under various titles. (5) Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes) was a 14th century English nun at St. Albans. (2) |
| 43 | Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus (1493-1541) - German-Swiss alchemist and physician |
| 43 | Lydgate, John (1370-1450) - English poet, known for devotional works. In his "Letter to Gloucester" he complains of stomach pains. |
| 43 | Ascham, Roger (1515-1568) English author and scholar. |
| 43 | If he thunder, they quake; if he chide they fear; if he complain—
Ascham: "If he thunder, they quake," etc. - Toxophilus, p. 30, quoting Cicero on oratory. (5) You can find this [here]. |
| 43 | Peel tower - a fortified dwelling-house, usually entered by ladder to the first floor, with a vaulted ground floor for cattle, common on the English/Scots borders (1) |
| 44 | pin - (obsolete) - a chess piece (1) |
| 44 | whaup - (Scots) a bird, the European curlew (1) |
| 44 | peewit - a bird, lapwing (1) |
| 44 | Annandale - the valley around Annan (1) (4) |
| 44 | the Mousewald and Torthorwald hills - hills to the northwest of Annan, low-lying and rounded |
| 44 | O wow, quo' he, were I as free
As first when I saw this contrie - The Gaberlunzie-Man, found in Oxford Book of Ballads, new ed., James Kinsley ed. Said to be written by James V. [See the ballad here.] |
| 45 | You shall have a diamond, a maiden and a couch reserved in the Turkish
paradise
- a reference to The Koran, perhaps such verses as: 76.13: Reclining therein on raised couches, they shall find therein neither (the severe heat of) the sun nor intense cold. Or: 15.47: And We will root out whatever of rancor is in their breasts -- (they shall be) as brethren, on raised couches, face to face. |
| 45 | Aenobarbus
Domitius Ahenobarbus, one of Marc Antony's followers, 1st century B.C. The name means red beard in Greek, as Barbarossa does in Italian. He is a character i Shakespear's Antony and Cleopatra. |
| 45 | Fly like a woodpecker, crying pleu, pleu, pleu - the Green Woodpecker or Yaffle, Picus viridans, the largest British woodpecker, whose cry is distinctive. |
| 45 | In one of my twenty-two incarnations
- the Hindu treatise the Garuda Purana (1.12-35) mentions twenty-two incarnations of Vishnu. |
| 45 | This officer but doubt is callit Deid.
- "The Three Priests of Peblis", L. 1243, in Laing: Early Popular Poetry of Scotland. |
| 45 | John the Baptist - in The Bible, prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus. |
| 45 | Si mundus vult decipi, decipiatur. - a Latin proverb.
If the world desires to be fooled, then let it be fooled. - my translation. Quoted by Robert Bruton in The Anatomy of Melancholy, 3-4-1-2. (5) |
| 46 | pauldrons - a separable shoulder-plate in armour. (1) |
| 46 | Bewcastle - a tiny in the Northumbrian National Park, east of Carlisle, north of Hadrian's+ Wall |
| 46 | Durham (54 42N, 1 45W) - a city and county in England (4) |
| 46 | Red tod's cub - a tod is a fox or a sly person. (1) |
| 46 | Leith (55 59N, 3 11W) (4) - Lowland Scots town |
| 46 | Keswick (54 36N, 3 8W) - a town in Cumbria (4) |
| 46 | Clatterbone - jawbone |
| 47 | pend - a vaulted passage (1) |
| 48 | bay - reddish brown horse with black mane and tail (1) |
| 49 | Provost - the dignitary presidign over a cathedral or collegiate church; in Scotland, the chief magistrate of a burgh, corresponding to an English mayor. (1) |
| 49 | Linenfold - a decoration in mouldings like parallel folds of linen (1) |
| 49 | West Marches - the western border districts of Scotland (1) |
| 50 | Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness
- Beginning of a poem by William Dunbar (c. 1460-c.1513). To a Ladye. (5) (2) |
| 50 | Beaux yeux (French) - beautiful eyes |
| 50 | Bring a cow to the hall and she will to the byre again.
Foul water slockens fire. - Both these proverbs are in Fergusson's Scottish Proverbs, ed. Beveridge, pub. by the Scottish Text Society, n.s., vol. 15. (5) |
| 50 | The Pearl of Pearls
The original "Pearl of Pearls" was Marguerite de Valois (1492-1549), sister of Francois I, who called her "Marguerite des Marguerites." (5) |
| 53 | bonnets (Slang) A bonnet is an accomlice at the gaming table, who lures players to bid. The Scottish gold coin showed the head of James V in a bonnet. |
| 53 | bellissimi - (Italian) most beautiful |
| 53 | Ecus old French coin (1) |
| 53 | Ryals - old Spanish coin (1) |
| 53 | Pyrrha - the subject of an ode by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B.C.) about a woman with red hair |
| 53 | Paraph - mark or flourish under a signature (1) |
| 54 | I bring, lover, I bring the newis glad.
James I of Scotland wrote this about 1437, the first recorded use of the word `news'. |
| 54 | My frivol Fortune
- a quote from The Testament of Crseseid by Robert Henryson (c. 1425-1506), a sequel to Chaucer's Troilus and Creseyde. The passage goes: O ladies fair of Troy and Greeze, attend
|
| 54 | I'll trip upon trenchers; I'll dance upon dishes -- it is now perfect
day.
- The first part is from Opie: Oxford Dict. of Nursery Rhymes. - The second is quoted in the introd. to Joseph Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, p. lxviii. With hunts up, with hunts up;
|
| 56 | gomerel (Scots) - a dunderhead, a simpleton (1) |
| 56 | wae (Scots) - sorrowful (1) |
| 56 | plat - flat (1) |
| 56 | glaikit (Scots) - giddy, follish, stupid, daft (1) |
| 56 | Mercury - Messenger of the Roman gods. |
| 56 | Sark - shirt (1) |
| 56 | Glutted - saturated (1) |
| 57 | gif - an obsolete form of "if" (1) |
| 57 | like the frog in the story
The story is The Marriage of the Frog and the Mouse, found in Out of the Ark, compiled by Gwendolyn Reed. See The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Opie. (5) The lines Lymond is refering to here are: The Frogge would a wooing ride,
When was upon his high horse set,
|
| 58 | merchetis - from merchet, a fine paid to a lord for the marriage of a daughter (1) |
| 58 | fate plus mal que morte (French)
fate worse than death |
| 58 | Changeons propos, c'est trop chante d'amours.
- Clement Marot. (5) Clement Marot (c. 1497-1544) was a French poet and satirist in the service of the Queen of Navarre. (2) To change topic, it is too much to sing of love. - my translation |
| 58 | Popinjay - a parrot, or the figure of a parrot set up to be shot at.(1) |
| 58 | Wapenshaw - In Scots history, the periodic gathering of the people within an area for the purpose of seeing that each man was armed in accordance with his rank, and ready to take the field when required. (1) |
| 58 | buttercakes
If wishes were buttercakes/beggars might bite. - Opie: The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, p. 427 (5) |
| 58 | Dyscyt disceyeth, and shal be disceyved.
-Found in Secular Lyrics of the 14th and 15th Centuries, Robbin, ed. #107, A Short verse of Moral Advice (Ms. Hatton 73) (5) Deceit deceives, and shall be deceived. - my translation. |
Notes
on The Game of Kings