Note Like the huge Ruck from Gillingham that flewe — AGINCOVRT.

Page 24, l. 28. “Like the huge Ruck from Gillingham that flewe.”—It seems remarkable to meet with the roc of the “Arabian Nights” in English so long before the existence of any translation. The word, however, occurs in Bishop Hall’s “Satires,” thirty years before Drayton. It probably came into our language from the Italian, being first used by Marco Polo, who says (part iii., chap. 35): “To return to the griffon; the people of the island do not know it by that name, but call it always ruc; but we, from their extraordinary size, certainly conclude them to be griffons.”