Perhaps, too, the pronounciation in here suited to the
character." I must own that I cannot see what San Domingo has to do with
a drinking song. May it not be an allusion to a ballad or song on
_Domingo_, one of King Henry the Eighth's jesters?
"--_Domyngo Lomelyn_,
That was wont to wyn
Moche money of the kynge,
At the cardys and haserdynge."
Skelton's _Why come ye not to Courte_, ed. Dyce, ii. p. 63.
None of the commentators have noticed this, but I think my suggestion
carries with it some weight.
In the _Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth_ (published by Sir
H. Nichols, in 1827), are many entries concerning this _Domingo_, most
of which relate to payments of money that he had won from the king at
cards and dice. He was evidently, as Sir Harris Nichols observes, one of
King Henry's "diverting vagabonds," and seems to have accompanied his
majesty wherever he went, for we find that he was with him at Calais in
1532. In all these entries he is only mentioned as Domingo; his surname,
and the fact of his being a Lombard, we learn from Skelton's poem,
mentioned above.
The following story, told of _Domingo_, occurs in Mr. (afterwards Sir
John) Harington's _Treatise on Playe_, 1597, printed in the _Nugae
Antiquae_, edit. Park, vol. i. p.222.:--
"The other tale I wold tell of a willinge and wise loss I have
hearde dyversly tolde. Some tell it of Kyng Phillip and a favoryte
of his; some of our worthy King Henry VIII.
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