# Piers Ploughman (Wright)/Notes

NOTES AND GLOSSARY
NOTES.
Line 1. Bale, quoting the first two lines, translates them In æstivo tempore, cum sol caleret. The printers of the early editions altered softe to set.
4, 5. shroudes ... sheep. The other text of this poem reads Yshop into shrobbis | as y shepherde were. See the Introduction.
28. The text represented in Whitaker's edition here differs much from the other. Our dreamer is there introduced very unadvisedly telling us of this tower, 'truthe was therynne,' a piece of information which he only learns afterwards from dame 'Holy Churche:'
Ich was aferd of hure face, Thauh hue faire were, And saide, mercy, madame, Wat may this be to mene, The tour upon toft, quath hue, Treuthe ys therynne. (Passus Secundus, ed. Whit.)
Where there is an evident reference to the "tour on a toft," which has been previously mentioned in the more correct text.
43, 44. Dr. Whitaker, misunderstanding this passage, has printed 'ther' for 'that,' which is in all the MSS. In his gloss, he interprets 'wonnen' by 'to dwell;' and he paraphrases the sentence, 'some destroying themselves by gluttony and excess,' translating it, I suppose, "And there dwell wasters whom gluttony destroyeth." The meaning is, the ploughmen worked hard, "and obtained (wan) that which wasters destroy with their gluttony." The writer of the second Trin. Coll. MS. seems to have understood the meaning of the passage, but not the words, and has 'whom that thise wastours.'
68. I have here to preserve the alliteration, adopted 'giltles,' from the second Trin. Coll. MS., and one of the printed editions, in place of 'synneles,' which the other MS. has. Though we find instances of irregularity in the sub-letters (or alliterative letters in the first line) in Pierce Plowman, the chief letter is not so often neglected. In Whitaker's text the account of the minstrels is very confused. Here the minstrels get gold by their song without sin, but the japers and janglers are condemned as getting their living by what is afterwards called 'turpiloquium,' when they had ability to get it in an honester way.
88. Roberdes knaves. These are the same class of malefactors who are named Roberdesmen in the Statutes, 5 Ed. III. c. 14. "Et diverses roberies, homicides, et felonies ont esté faitz eintz ces heures par gentz qui sont appellez Roberdesmen, Wastours, et Draghelatche, si est acordé et establi que si homme eit suspecion de mal de nuls tielx, soit-il de jour soit-il de nuyt, que meintenant soient arestus par les conestables des villes." This law was confirmed by 7 Ric. II. c. 5, where the word is again introduced. Whitaker supposes, without any reason, the 'Roberdes knaves' to be Robin Hood's men. The other Trin. Coll. MS. reads Robertis knaves.
93. Seint Jame. St. James of Compostello was a famous resort of pilgrims in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. An amusing song on the inconveniences which attended the voyage is printed in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 2.
107. Walsyngham. The shrine of the Virgin Mary at Walsingham in Norfolk, also enjoyed an extraordinary celebrity, as a resort of English pilgrims. It appears that the first complaints of the Wicliffite reformers were strongly expressed against this pilgrimage. "Lolardi sequaces Johannis Wiclif ... prædicaverunt peregrinationes non debere fieri, et præcipue apud Walsingham," etc. Th. Walsingh. p. 340.
116. The four orders of friars were, of course, the Franciscans, Augustines, Dominicans, and Carmelites.
131. These four lines stand thus in Whitaker's text, Bote holy churche and charité | choppe a-doun swich shryvers, | the moste myschif of molde | mounteth up faste. Whitaker has translated it quite wrong, "May true charity and church discipline knock down these, the greatest pests on earth, who are rapidly increasing!" The simple meaning of the passage, as given by Whitaker, is, "Unless holy church and charity chop down such shrivers (confessors), the greatest mischief of the world is increasing fast." The present text affords a better and equally clear meaning, "Unless holy church and they hold better together, the greatest mischief in the world is increasing, or gaining ground very fast."
141. of falshede of fastynge, the comma has slipped in by accident. The meaning is "of breaking fast-days."
147. He bunchith hem, MS. Trin. 2.
168. the pestilence tyme. See further on, the note on l. 2497. The great plague of 1349 and 1350 had carried off so much people, that hands were wanting to cultivate the lands in many parishes, and the distress which followed, with the failure of tithes which naturally accompanied it, drove the parsons to plead poverty as an excuse for going to London and seeking other occupations.
192. Whitaker's text inserts the following passage between this line and the one following:—
Conscience cam and acusede hem, And the commune herde hit, And seide, "Ydolatrie ye soffren In sondrye places menye, And boxes ben y-set forth Bounden with yren, To undertake the tool Of untrewe sacrifice, In menynge of miracles Muche wex hongeth there, Al the worldle wot wel Hit myghte nat be trywe. Ac for it profitith yow to pors-warde, Ye prelates soffren That lewede men in mysbylyve Leven and deien. Ich lyve wel, by oure Lorde! For love of youre covetyse, That al the worlde be the wors; As holy wryght telleth What cheste and meschaunce To children of Israel Ful on hem that free were, Thorwe two false preestes. For the synne of Ophni And of Finees hus brother, Thei were disconfit in bataille, And losten Archa Dei, And fore hure syre sauh hem syngen, And aoffred hem don ylle, And noght chasted hem therof, And wolde noght rebukie hem, Anon as it was y-told hyme That the children of Israel Weren disconfit in bataille, And Archa Dei y-lore, And hus sones slayen, Anon he ful for sorwe Fro hus chaire thare he sat, And brak hus necke a-tweyne; And al was for venjaunce That he but noght hus children. And for they were preestes, And men of holy churche, God was well wrother, And toke the rather venjaunce. For-thei ich seye, ye preestes, And men of holy churche, That soffren men do sacrifice And worsheppen mawmettes, And ye sholde be here fadres, And techen hem betere; God shal take venjaunce In alle swiche preestes Wel harder and grettere, On suche shrewede faderes, Than ever he dude on Ophni And Finees, or in here fadere. For youre shrewede suffraunce, And youre owen synne, Youre masse and youre matynes, And meny of youre houres, etc.
225. This is the constitutional principle which was universally acknowledged by our early political writers, and of which some strong declarations will be found in my "Political Songs" (published by the Camden Society). The doctrine of "right divine" was certainly not a prevalent one in the middle ages.
291. This fable appears to be of middle-age formation, for it is not found in any of the ancient collections. It does not occur in the fables of Marie. It is however found in the old collection, in French verse of the fourteenth century, entitled Ysopet; and M. Robert has also printed a Latin metrical version of the story from a MS. of the same century. La Fontaine has given it among his fables. It may be observed that the fable is nowhere so well told as in Piers Ploughman. (See Robert, Fables Inédites, des xii$^e$, xiii$^e$, et xiv$^e$ siècles, i, pp. 98-101.) The readers of Scottish history will remember the application of this fable in 1481, by the earl of Angus (popularly named, from this circumstance, Archibald Bell-the-cat), in the conspiracy against the royal favourites, which forms an excellent illustration of our text.
381. Væ terræ, etc. Ecclesiastes, x, 16. "Væ tibi, terra, cujus rex puer est, et cujus principes mane comedunt."
423. and pointeth the lawe. MS. Trin. 2.
429. after this line the following are inserted in the second MS. of Trin. Coll.
I saugh bisshopis bolde, And bacheleris of devyn, Become clerkis of acountis The king for to serve, Archideknes and denis, That dignités haven, To preche the peple And pore men to fede, Ben y-lope to Lundone Be leve of hire bisshop, And ben clerkis of the kinges bench The cuntré to shende.
438. Taillours, tanneris, | And tokkeris bothe. MS. Trin. 2.
453. The Cottonian MS. Vespas. B. xvi, from which Price has given a long extract in his edition of Warton, has here "With wyne of Oseye | and wyn of Gascoyne." Whitaker's reading is "Whit wyn of Oseye and of Gascoyne." Price observes, in a note, "good wyne of Gaskyne, and the wyne of Osee [is the reading of MS. Harl. No. 875].—The same hand already noticed has corrected wyn to weyte (wheat) of Gascoyne;—an obvious improvement." I by no means partake in this opinion: wine of Gascony, and not wheat of Gascony, is perpetually alluded to in the literature of France and England from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The reading of the text now printed is evidently the original one, which has been corrupted in the others: the wine more particularly known as Gascon, was a red wine. The writer of "La Desputoison du Vin et de l'Iaue," says of it—
Vin de Gascoigne, sa coulour N'est pas de petite valour; Les autres vins fet honnorer. Quant de soi les veult coulourer: Force donne, aide, et confort, Et d'un vin foible, fet. i. fort. Il a de vin plaine sustance; Il nourrist sans faire grevance: Aus testes est bons et au flanc. Et du rouge y a et du blanc. (Jubinal, Nouveau Recueil de Contes, &c., i. 399.)
The 'wyn of the Rochel' (vin de la Rochelle) was also a favourite wine.—
Rochelle, qui tant a de pris, Que l'en la va de partout querre; Chascun si l'enclot et l'enserre, Car il n'est pas à garçonner, N'en ne la doit q'aus bons donner;— Por les grans seignors l'en salache. (ib. p. 300).
The "wyn of Oseye" (vin d'Osaie) was a foreign wine, very rare and dear, and sought up by 'gourmands:' it is mentioned with those of Malvoisia, Rosetta, and Muscadet. (Depping Réglemens sur les Arts et Métiers de Paris, p. lxiii.) It is unnecessary to explain what was 'wyn of the Ryn' (Rhine).
456. of the Reule | and of the Rochel. Whitaker.
458. These two lines, omitted in the MS. from which our text is printed, have been added from MS. Trin. 2.
489. fyve wittes. The five wits were equivalent to the five senses. One of the characters in the early interlude of The Four Elements, a production of the earlier part of the sixteenth century, says:—
I am callyd Sensuall Apetyte, All craturs in me delyte; I comforte the wyttys fyve, The tastyng, smellyng, and herynge, I refresh the syght and felynge, To all creaturs alyve.
Stephen Hawes, in his Pastime of Pleasure (chap. xxiv), belonging to this same age, refines upon this notion, and talks of five "internall wittes," answering to the five external wits, or to those which were commonly understood by that name.
522. Genesis xix, 32 . It is very singular that this story of Lot and his daughters was the favourite example of the medieval preachers against drunkenness.
563. Luke xx, 25 .
595. on an eller. It was the prevailing belief during the middle ages, that the tree on which Judas hanged himself was an elder. Maundevile tells us that this tree was still in existence, when he visited Jerusalem. "Also streghte from Natatorie Siloe is an ymage of ston and of olde auncyen werk, that Absalon leet make; and because thereof, men clepen it the hond of Absalon. And faste by is yit the tree of eldre that Judas henge himself upon for despeyr that he hadde, whan he solde and betrayed oure Lord." The same notion continued to exist in the age of Shakespeare, and is alluded to by Shakespeare himself, Ben Jonson, and others.
Hol. What mean you, sir?
Boyet. To make Judas hang himself.
Hol. Begin, sir; you are my elder.
Biron. Well followed: Judas was hang'd on an elder.
Love's Labours Lost, v, 2.
681. Lucifer with legions. The story of Lucifer's rebellion and fall was extremely popular in the middle ages, and particularly among the Anglo-Saxons, who, in the fine poem ascribed to Cædmon, had given it almost as much detail as Milton had done at a later date. This legend is related in prose in an Anglo-Saxon tract in MS. Cotton. Vespas. D. xiv, fol. 2.
682. The second Trin. Col. MS. has, Leride it in hevene, | and as the lovelokest | to loke on, aftir oure Lord.
697-704. Instead of these lines, we find the following in Whitaker's text:
Lord, why wolde he tho, Thulke wrechede Lucifer, Lepen on a-lofte In the northe syde, To sitten in the sonne side Ther the day roweth, Ne were it for northerne men, Anon ich wolde telle: Ac ich wolle lacke no lyf, Quath that lady sotthly. 'Hyt is sykerer by southe, Ther the sonne regneth, Than in the north, by meny notes, No man loyne other. For theder as the fend flegh, Hus fote for to sette, Ther he failede and fuel, And hus felawes alle. And helle is ther he is, And he ther y-bounde, Evene contrarie suteth Criste, Cierkus knowen the sothe, Dixit Dominus Domino meo, sede a dextris meis.
'Ac of this matere No more mene ich nelle, He was in the halyday After heten wayten, They care noght thauh it be cold Knaves wen thei worchen.'
Whitaker has translated the last four lines of the foregoing extract thus, "Excepting that hyndes on the holyday look out for warm places, but knaves (servants) when working hard, are indifferent to cold."
695. Isaiah xiv, 14 . The citation varies a little from the text of the printed vulgate.
707. Somme in the eyr. The monks in the middle ages endeavoured to explain the existence of different classes of spirits and fairies, which the popular creed represented as harmless, or even beneficent creatures, by supposing that some of the angels who fell with Lucifer were less guilty than others, and were allowed to occupy the different elements on the earth instead of being condemned to "the pit." In "The Master of Oxford's Catechism," written early in the fifteenth century, and printed in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 231, we have the following question and answer,—"C. Where be the anjelles that God put out of heven, and bycam devilles? M. Som into hell, and som reyned in the skye, and som in the erth, and som in waters and in wodys."
815. Mark iv, 24 . In qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis, et adjicietur vobis.
835. Epist. Jac. ii, 17 . Sic et fides, si non habeat opera, mortua est in semetipsa.
862. Luke vi, 38 .
901. The second Trin. Col. MS. has—
Frettid with rynges, Of the pureste perreighe That prince werde evere, In red scarlet robid And ribande with gold. Ther nis no quen queyntere That quyk is o-lyve, 'What is this womman,' quod I.
934. Matth. vii, 17 . bonus (for bona) is the reading of the MS. Perhaps it was thought allowable to use the masculine thus before a fem. noun beginning with a, for the sake of euphony, as the French still write mon amie, instead of ma amie, and the like. Whitaker's text has here—
Talis pater, talis filius. For shal never brere bere Beries as a vyne, No on crokyd kene thorne Kynde fygys wexe. Bona arbor bonum fructum facit.
The lines which follow differ considerably in the two texts.
958. Psalm xiv, 1 .
991-994. Instead of these lines, the following are substituted in the second Trin. Coll. MS.:—
Sire Symonye is assent To asele the chartres, That Fals and Favel Be any fyn halden, And feffe Mede therwith In mariage for evere. Ther nas halle ne hous To herberwe the peple, That iche feld nas ful Of folk al aboute. In myddis a mounteyne At myd-morewe tide Was pight up a pavyloun Proud for the nones, And ten thousand of tentis Teldit beside, Of knightes of cuntrés, Of comeres aboute, For sisours, for somonours, etc.
And the rest, as far as line 1100, differs very much in the two MSS.
1103. of Banneburies sokne, | Reynald the reve, | and the redyngkynges menye, | Munde the mylnere. Whit.
1128. Luke x, 7 .
1177. With floryns ynowe. Edward III had issued, not very long before the date of this poem, the first extensive English gold coinage, to which he gave the Italian name of florins, derived originally from that of the city of Florence.
1204. to Westmynstre: i. e. to the courts of law which were held there.
1404. A moton of golde. A mutton (mouton) was a small French coin of gold, which bore the stamp of a lamb or sheep. See Ducange, v. Multo.
1501. Matth. vi, 3 .
1523. Regrating, or the buying up of provisions and other things to make extravagant profits by retailing them, was one of the great sources of oppression of the poor by the rich in the middle ages, and was a constant subject of popular complaint.
1529. Whitaker's text adds here,—
Thei have no puteye of the puple That parcel-mele mote biggen, Thauh thei take hem untydy thyng, Thei hold it no treson; And thauh thei fulle nat ful, That for lawe y-seelde, He gripeth therfor as grete As for the grete treuthe.
Meny sondry sorwes In cyté fallen ofte, Bothe thorw fyur and flod, And al for false puple, That bygylen good men, And greveth hem wrongliche, The wiche cryen on hure knees That Christ hem avenge Here on this erthe, Other elles on helle, That so bygyleth hem of here good, And God on hem sendeth Feveres, other fouler hyveles, Other fur on here houses, Moreyne, other meschaunce. And menye tyme hit falleth, That innocence ys y-herde In hevene amonge seyntes, That louten for hem to oure Lorde, And to oure Lady bothe, To granten gylours on erthe Grace to amende, And have here penaunce on pure erthe, And noght in the pyne of helle. And thenne falleth the fur On false menne houses, And good men for here gultes Gloweth on fuyr after. Al thys have we seyen, That some tyme thorw a brewere Many burgages y-brent, And bodyes therynne, And thorw a candel cloming In a cursed place, Fel a-don and for-brende Forth al the rewe, For-thy mayres that maken free-men, Me thynken that thei ouhten For to spure and aspye, For eny speche of selver, What manere mester Of merchaundise he usede, Er he were underfonge free And felawe in youre rolles. Hit ys nought semly, for soth, In cyté ne in borw-ton, That usurers other regratours For eny kynne geftes, Be fraunchised for a free-man, And have fals name.
1548. Job, xv, 34 .
1611. Youre fader she felled. An allusion to the deposition and death of Edward II.
1652. Provisors were people who obtained from the pope the reversion of ecclesiastical dignities, and several severe statutes were made against them, one well-known one by Edward III.
1674. Love-daies. See further on, the note on l. 5634.
1735. In Normandie. 1750. To Caleis. Allusions, no doubt, to recent events in the wars of Edward III. See the Introduction.
1769. Caytiflyche thow, Conscience, | Consailedist the kyng leten | In hus enemys honde | Ys heritage of Fraunce. Whit.
1827. Psalm xiv, 1 .
1835. Ps. xiv, 2 .
1845. Ps. xiv, 5 .
1862. Psalm xxv, 10 .
1875. Matth. vi, 5 .
1885. Regum. The reference is to 1 Sam. xv, which in the old Vulgate was called primus liber regum.
1985, 2019. Isaiah ii, 4 .
2043. Prov. xxii, 9 . Victoriam et honorem acquiret qui dat munera; animam autem aufert accipientium.
2099. lernest. Whitaker's text has ledest.
2149. Psalm xiii, 3 . The quotation which follows is from the same verse.
2171. his sone. The Black Prince, who was a great favourite with the people.
2175-2186. The variation in Whitaker's text deserves notice. This passage there stands as follows:—
Thenne cam Pees into parlement, And putte up a bylle. How that Wrong wilfullich Hadde hus wif for-leyen; And how he ravysed Rose, The riche widewe, by nyghte; And Margarete of here maidenhod, As he met hure late. 'Both my goos, and my grys, And my gras he taketh, Ich dar nouht for is felaweshepe, In faith!' Pees saide, 'Bere sickerlich eny selver To seint Gyles doune; He watteth ful wel, Wan ich sulfere taketh, Wat wey ich wende. Wel yerne he aspieth, To robbe me and to ryfle me, Yf ich ride softe. Yut he is bolde for to borwe, And baldelich he payeth: He borwede of me Bayarde,' etc.
2177. How Wrong ayeins his wille. What follows is a true picture of the oppressions to which the peasantry were frequently subjected by the king's purveyors, and by others in power. See the Political Songs, pp. 377, 378; and Hartshorne's Ancient Metrical Tales, pp. 41, 42.
2197. taillé, a tally. See the Political Songs, as above quoted. Whitaker translates this passage, which stands thus in his edition,
And taketh me bote a taile For ten quarters other twelve,
by, "and for ten or twelve quarters of it repaid me but a sheep's tail!"
2298. in my stokkes. In my prison. Prisons were usually furnished with stocks, in which, instead of fetters, prisoners were set.
2323. Beneyt. St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine order; St. Bernard, of the order of Cistercians; St. Francis, of the Franciscans.
2335. Galis. Compostello in Galicia.
2473. Passus Quintus. In Whitaker's text, this section, which is called Passus Sextus, is prefaced by the following long exordium, intended as a satire against the mendicant friars:—
Thus ich awaked, God wot! Wanne ich wonede on Cornhulle, Kytte and ich in a cote, Clothede as a lollere: And a lytel ich let by, Leyve me, for sothe, Among lolleres of London, And lewede heremytes. For ich made of tho men, As Reson me tauhte. For as ich cam by Conscience, Wit Reson ich mette, In an hote hervest, Wenne ich hadde myn hele, And lymes to labore with, And lovede wel fare, And no dede to do Bote drynke and to slepe, In hele and in unité, On me aposede, Romynge in remembraunce. Thus Reson me arated: 'Canstow serven,' he seide, 'Other syngen in a churche? Other loke for my cokers? Other to the carte picche? Mowe, other mowen, Other make bond to sheves? Repe, other be a repe-reyve And arise erliche? Other have an horne and be hay-warde, And liggen out a nyghtes, And kepe my corn in my croft From pykers and theeves? Other shap shoon other clothes? Other shep other kyne kepe? Eggen, other harwen, Other swyne other gees dryve? Other eny kyne craft That to the comune nudeth, Hem that bed-reden be Bylyve to fynde?'
'Certes,' ich seyde, 'And so me God helpe! Ich am to waik to worche With sykel other with sythe; And to long, leyf me, Lowe for to stoupe, To worchen as workeman Eny wyle to dure.' 'Then havest thow londes to lyve by,' Quath Reson, 'other lynage ryche That fynden the thy fode? For an hydel man thow semest, A spendour that spende mot, Other a spille-tyme; Other beggest thy lyve Aboute ate menne hatches; Other faitest upon Fridays Other feste dayes in churches; The wiche is lollerene lyf, That lytel is preysed Ther ryghtfulnesse rewardeth Ryght as men deserveth. Reddit unicuique juxta opera sua. Ether thow ert broke, so may be, In body other in membre, Other y-maymed thorow som myshap. Werby thow myght be excusede.' 'Wanne ich yong was,' quath ich, 'Many yer hennes, My fader and my frendes Founden me to scole, Tyl ich wiste wyterliche Wat holy wryt menede, And wat is best for the body, As the bok telleth, And sykerest for the soule, By so ich wolle continue. And yut fond ich never in faith, Sytthen my frendes deyden, Lyf that me lyked, Bote in thes long clothes. Hyf ich by laboure sholde lyf, And lyflode deserven, That labour that ich lerned best Therwhit lyve ich sholde. In eadem vocatione qua vocati estis. And ich lyve in Londene And on Londen bothe. The lomes that ich laboure with And lyflode deserve, Ys paternoster and my prymer, Placebo et dirige, And my sauter some tyme, And my sevene psalmes. Thus ich synge for hure soules Of suche as me helpen. And tho that fynden me my fode Vochen saf, ich trowe, To be wolcome wan ich come Other wyle in a monthe, Now with hym, and now with hure, And thus gate ich begge Withoute bagge other botel, Bote my wombe one. And also, moreover, Me thynketh, syre Reson, Men sholde constreyne No clerke to knavene werkes. For by law of Livitici, That oure Lord ordeynede, Clerkes that aren crowned Of kynde understondyng, Sholde nother swynke ne swete, Ne swere at enquestes, Ne fyghte in no vauntwarde, Ne hus fo greve. Nou reddas malum pro malo. For it ben aires of hevene, And alle that ben crounede And in queer in churches, Cristes owene mynestres. Dominus pars hæreditatis meæ
Et alibi, Clementia non constringit. Hit bycometh for clerkus Crist for to serven; And knaves uncrounede To cart and to worche. For shold no clerk be crouned, Bote yf he y-come were Of franklens and freemen And of folke y-weddede. Bondmen and bastardes, And beggers children, Thuse bylongeth to labour. And lordes children sholde serven, Bothe God and good men, As here degree asketh; Some to synge masses, Others sitten and wryte, Rede and receyve That Reson oughte spende. And sith bondemenne barnes Han be made bisshopes, And barnes bastardes Han ben archidekenes; And sopers and here sones For selver han be knyghtes, And lordene sones here laboreres, And leid here rentes to wedden For the ryght of the reame, Ryden ayens oure enemys, In consort of the comune And the kynges worshep. And monkes and moniales. That mendinauns sholden fynde, Han mad here kyn knyghtes, And knyght fees purchase. Popes and patrones Povre gentil blod refuseth, And taken Symondes sonne Seyntewarie to kepe. Lyf-holynesse and love Han ben longe hennes, And wole, til hit be wered out, Or otherwise y-chaunged. For-thy rebuke me ryht nouht, Reson, ich yow praye; For in my conscience ich knowe What Crist wolde that ich wroughte. Preyers of perfyt man, And penaunce discret, Is the levest labour That oure Lord pleseth. Non de solo, ich seyde, For sothe vivit homo, Nec in pane et pabulo, The paternoster witnesseth. Fiat voluntas tua Fynt ous alle thynges.' Quath Conscience, 'By Crist! Ich can nat see this lyeth. Ac it semeth nouht perfitnesse In cyties for to begge, Bote he be obediencer To pryour other to mynstre.' 'That ys soth,' ich seide, 'And so ich by-knowe That ich have tynt tyme, And tyme mys-spended. And yut ich hope, as he That ofte haveth chaffarede, That ay hath lost and lost, And at the latest hym happeth He bouhte suche a bargayn He was the bet evere, And sette hus lost at a lef At the laste ende; Suche a wynnynge hym warth Thorw wyrdes of his grace. Simile est regnum cœlorum thesauro abscondito in agro, etc.
Mulier quæ inveniet dragmam, etc. So hope ich to have of hym That his almyghty A gobet of hus grace, And bygynne a tyme That alle tymes of my tyme To profit shal turne.' 'Ich rede the,' quath Reson tho, 'Rathe the to bygynne The lyf that ys lowable And leel to the soule.' 'Ye, and continue,' quath Conscience. And to the church ich wente.
And to the church gan ich go, God to honourie, Byfor the crois on my knees Knocked ich my brest, Sykinge for my sennes, Segginge my paternoster, Wepyng and wailinge, Tyl ich was a-slepe Thenne mete me moche more Than ich byfor tolde, Of the mater that ich mete fyrst On Malverne hulles. Ich sawe the feld ful of folk Fram ende to the other; And Reson revested Ryght as a pope, And Conscience his crocer Byfore the kynge stande. Reson reverentliche Byfor all the reame Prechede and provede That thuse pestilences Was for pure synne, etc. See l. 2497, of the present edition.
2497. thise pestilences.—There were three great pestilences in the reign of Edward III, the terrible effects of which were long fresh in people's minds, and they were often taken as points from which to date common events. Two of them had passed at the period when the Visions of Piers Ploughman are believed to have been written, and are the ones here alluded to. Of the first, or great pestilence, which lasted from 31 May, 1348, to 29 Sept. 1349, the contemporary chroniclers give a fearful account. In a register of the Abbey of Gloucester (MS. Cotton. Domit. A. VIII, fol. 124), we have the following entry:—"Anno Domini m$^o$.ccc$^o$.xlviij$^o$. anno vero regni regis Edwardi III, post conquestum xxij$^o$. incepit magna pestilentia in Anglia, ita quod vix tertia pars hominum remansit." This pestilence, known as the black plague, ravaged most parts of Europe, and is said to have carried off in general about two-thirds of the people. It was the pestilence which gave rise to the Decameron of Boccaccio. For an interesting account of it, see Michelet's Hist. de France, iii, 342-349. The second pestilence lasted from 15 Aug. 1361, to May 3, 1362, and was much less severe. The third pestilence raged from 2 July to 29 September, 1369.
2500. The south-westrene wynd | on Saterday at even. Tyrwhitt, in his Preface to Chaucer, first pointed out the identity of this wind with the one mentioned by the old chroniclers (Thorn, Decem. Script. col. 2122; Walsingham, p. 178; the continuator of Adam Murimuth, p. 115), as occurring on the evening of Jan. 15, 1362. The fifteenth of January in that year was a Saturday. The following is the account given by Walsingham: "Anno gratiæ millesimo trecentesimo sexagesimo secundo, qui est annus regni regis Edwardi a conquestu tertii tricesimus sextus, tenuit rex natale apud Wyndesor, et quinto decimo die sequente ventus vehemens, nothus auster affricus, tanta vi erupit, quod flatu suo domos altas, ædificia sublimia, turres, et campanilia, arbores, et alia quæque durabilia et fortia violenter prostravit pariter et impegit, in tantum quod residua quæ modo extant, sunt hactenus infirmiora." The continuator of Murimuth is more particular as to the time of the day, and in other respects more exact. "A.D. m. ccc. lxii, xv die Januarii, circa horam vesperarum, ventus vehemens notus australis affricus tanta rabie erupit," etc.
2529. And fecche Felis his wyf | Fro wyuene pyne. MS. Trin. Col. 2.
2547. This was a very old and very common proverb in England. Thus in the Proverbs of Hending (Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 110):—
Ne bue thi child never so duere, Ant hit wolle unthewes lerne, Bet hit other whyle; Mote hit al habben is wille, Woltou nultou hit wolle spille, Ant bicome a fule. Luef child lore byhoveth; Quoth Hendyng.
The proverb is a little varied in another copy of these "Proverbs," p. 194 of the same work. There is a German proverb closely resembling it, "Je lieberes Kind, je schärfere Ruthe."
2551. Prov. xiii, 24 .
2569. After this line Whitaker's text has inserted a passage, answering nearly word for word (except in the few first lines) to the passage in our text, ll. 6218-6274.
2573. In the same text, the following lines are here added:—
'And also,' quath Reson, 'Ich rede yow, riche And comuners, to acorden In alle kynne treuthe. Let no kynne consail Ne covetyze yow departe, That on wit and on wil Alle youre wardes kepe. Lo! in hevene on hy Was an holy comune, Til Lucifer the lyere Leyved that hymselve Were wittyour and worthiour Than he that was hus maister. Hold yow in unité. And ye that hother wolde Is cause of alle combraunce To confounde a reame.
2586. Matt. xxv, 12 .
2594. Whitaker's Passus Sextus ends with this line.
2625. Before Envy's confession, and in the place of Lechery, Whitaker's text introduces the confession of Pride—
Ich, Pruyde, patientliche Penaunce ich aske; For ich formest and ferst To fader and to moder Have y-be unboxome, Ich beseche God of mercy; And unboxome y-be, Nouht abaissed to agulte God and alle good men, So gret was myn herte; Inobedient to holy churche, And to hem that ther serven, Demed for hure yvel vices, And excited othere Thorw my word and al my wit Hure yvel workes to shewe; And scorned hem and othere, Yf a skyle founde, Lauhynge al aloude, For lewede men sholde Wene that ich were witty And wyser than anothere; Scorner and unskilful to hem That skil shewede, In all manere manners My name to be y-knowe, Semeng a sovereyn on, Wer so me byfulle To telle eny tale. Ich trowede me wiser To carpen other to counsaile Than eny, lered other lewede. Proud of aparail In porte amonge the puple, Otherwise than ich have, Withynne other withoute, Me wilnede that men wende Ich were in aveyr Riche and resonable, And ryghtful of lyvynge; Bostynge and braggynge Wyt meny bolde othes; Avauntyng upon my veine glorie For eny undernemynge; And yut so syngeler by myself Ne non so pomp holy, Som tyme on a secte, Sam tyme on another; In all kynne covetyse Contrevede how ich myghte Be holde for holy, And hondred sithe by that encheison; Wilnede that men wende My werkes were the beste And konnygest of my craft, Clerkes other othere, And strengest upon my stede, And styvest under gurdell, And lovelokest to loken on, And lykyngest a-bedde; And lykynge of such a lif That no lawe preyseth; Proud of my faire fetours; And for ich songe shrille; And what ich gaf for Godes love, To godsybbes ich tolde, Ther to wene that ich were Wel holy and wel almesful. And non so bold begger To bydden an[d] crave, Tales to telle In tavernes and in stretes, Thyng that nevere was thouhte, And yut ich swor ich sauh hit, And lyed on my lykame And on my lyf bothe. Of werkes that ich wel dude Witnesse ich take, And syggen to such That sytten me bysyde, 'Lo! yf ye leyve me nouht, Other that ye wene ich lye, Ask of hym other of hure, And thei conne yow telle What ich soffrede an[d] seih, And som tyme hadde, And what ich knew and couthe, Of wat kyn ich kam of; Al ich wolde that men wuste, When it to pruyde sonede, As to preised among the puple, Thauh ich povre semede.' Si hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem. Nemo potest duobus dominis servire. 'Now God, of hus goodnesse, Geve the grace to amende!' Quath Repentaunce ryght with that; And thenne roos Envye.
The description of Envy, which follows, is shorter in Whitaker's text, and differs much from our text.
2819-2822. The discipline here described seems to have been peculiar to the chapter-house of the monasteries. Matth. Paris, p. 848, has an anecdote which illustrates curiously this passage of Piers Ploughman. In speaking of the turbulent Falcasius de Breuté, who had been warned in a vision to offer himself to suffer penance in the monastery of St. Albans, in the reign of Henry III, he says, "Vestibus igitur spoliatus cum suis militibus, similiter indumentis spoliatis, ferens in manu virgam quam vulgariter baleis appellamus, et confitens culpam suam, ... a singulis fratribus disciplinas nuda carne suscepit."
2846. In the text which Whitaker has printed, the confession of Wrath was followed by that of Luxury or Lechery. It stands as follows in the copy of the same text in MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. xvi. (See l. 8713, of our present text.)
Thanne seide Lecherie, Alas! And to oure Ladi criede, 'Ladi, for thi leve sone, Loute for me nouthe, That he have pité on me, putour, For his pure merci.' 'With that I schal,' quod that schrewe, 'Saterdaies, for thi love, Drynke with the doke, And dine but ones.'
I, gulti in gost, To God I me schrive, As in likyng of lecherige My licames gultes, In wordes, in wedes, In waityng of eyen, To eche maide that I mette I made here a sigge, Semyng to synne-ward, And summe can I taste Aboute the mouth, and binethe Bigon I to grope, Til bothe oure wil was on, To werke we yeden, As wel fastyng daies, And hi festes eves, And wel in Lente as out of Lente, Al tymes i-liche; Swiche werkes with us Weren nevere out of seson, Til we mighten ne more, Tho hadde we muri tales Of putrige and of paramours, And provede thorw speche, Handelyng, and halsyng, And also thorw cussyng, Excityng heither other To oure elde synne; Sotilde songes, And sente out elde baudes For te wynne to my wil Wemmen with gile; Bi sorcerie sum time, And sum time be maistrie, I lai bi the lovelokest, And lovede hem nevere aftur.
Whan I was eld and hor, And hadde i-lorn that kynde, I hadde likyng to lige Of lecherous tales. Now, lord, for thi lewté, On lecheres have merci.
2850. Sire Hervy. Whitaker and Price (in Warton) suppose that there is here a personal allusion, which at the time had become proverbial.
2874. Symme at the Style. Whit.
2881. To Wy and to Wynchestre | I wente to the feyre. Warton (Hist. of Eng. p. ii, 55, edit. 1840) supposes Wy to be Weyhill, in Hampshire, "where a famous fair still subsists." In fact it is one of the greatest fairs in England, lasting ten days. For anecdotes of the celebrity of the great fair at Winchester in former times, and for some interesting observations on fairs in general, see Warton, loc. cit.
2933. The Roode of Bromholm. At the Priory of Bromholm, in Norfolk, there was a celebrated cross, said to be made of fragments of the real cross, and much resorted to by pilgrims. It was brought from Constantinople to England in 1223. The history of this cross, and the miracles said to have been performed by it at Bromholm, are told by Matthew Paris (p. 268). In the MS. Chronicle of Barthol. de Cotton, it is recorded at the date 1223, "Eo tempore Peregrinatio de Bromholm incepit."
2949. Frensshe ... of Northfolk. Norfolk, it would appear by this, was one of the least refined parts of the island.
3030. In this part of the poem, the smaller variations between the present text and Whitaker's are very numerous. After this line, the following passage is inserted:—
With false wordes and writes Ich have wonne my goodes, And with gyle and glosynge Gadered that ich have; Meddled my merchaundise, And mad a good moustre, The werst lay withynne, A gret wit ich let hit. And yf my neyhgebore had an hyne, Other eny best ellys, More profitable than myn, Ich made meny wentes, How ich myght have hit Al my wit ich caste; And bote ich hadde hit by othes away, At last ich stal hit, Other pryvyliche hus pors shok, Unpiked his lokes. And yf ich yede to the plouh, Ich pynchede on hus half acre, That a fot londe other a forwe Fetchen ich wolde Of my neyhgeboris next, Nymen of hus erthe, And yf y repe, over reche, Other gaf hem red that repen To sese to me with here sykel, That ich sewe nevere. In haly dayes at holy churche Wenne ich hurde messe, Ich hadde nevere witerlich To byseche mercy For my mysdedes, That ich ne mornede ofter For lost of good, leyve me, Then for lycames gultes. Thauh ich dedliche synne dude, Ich dradde hit nat so sore As wenne ich lenede and leyvede hit lost, Other longe er hit were paied. And yf [ich] sente over see My servaunt to Brugges, Other into Prus my prentys, My profit to awaite, To marchaunde with monye And maken here eshaunge, Myght nevere man comforty me In the meyn time, Neither matyns ne masse, Ne othere manere syghtes, And nevere penaunce performede, Ne paternoster seyde. That my mynde ne was More in my goodes, Than in Godes grace, And hus grete myghte. Ubi thesaurus tuus, ibi cor tuum. See ll. 8751-8827.
3039. Psa. l, 8 .
3083. The confessions of the robber and the glutton are reversed in Whitaker's text, and present many variations. The robber's confession is there preceded by the following curious lines:—
Then was ther a Walishman That was wonderlich sory, He hight Yyvan Yeld ageyn; 'If ich so moche have, Al that ich wickedlich wan Setthen ich hit hadde; And thauh my liflode lache Leten ich nelle That ech man shal have hus, Er ich hennes wende. For me ys levere in this lif As a lorel beggen, Than in lysse to lyve, And lese lyf and soule.'
3162. Between this line and the next, MS. Trin. Col. 2, inserts Bargoynes and beverechis | Begonne for to arise.
3277, 3278. rymes of Robyn Hood | and Randolf erl of Chestre. This seems to be the earliest mention of the ballads of Robin Hood which can now be found. Ritson was quite mistaken (Robin Hood, Introd. p. xlix) in the supposed mention of him by the prior of Alnwick, the title of the Latin song being modern. The passage of Fordun, in which Robin Hood is spoken of, is probably an interpolation.
I am not sure that Ritson is right in taking the Randolf erl of Chester of Piers Ploughman, to be Ranulf de Blundevile: it is quite as probable that he was the Ranulf of Chester of the days of Stephen, whose turbulent deeds may have been the subject of popular ballads. Warton (H. E. P. ii, 373), quoting the passage of Piers Ploughman with the word erl omitted, conceives it to mean Ralph Higden, and imagines the rymes to be the Chester Mysteries, of which he conjectured that Ralph Higden was the author.
3311. Ite missa est. The concluding sentence of the service of the Mass.
3408. the Rode of Chestre. There was a celebrated cross or rood at Chester, which was long an object of great veneration, and even of pilgrimage, among our Roman Catholic forefathers. "I do not recollect any thing remarkable (says Mr. Pennant, speaking of Chester) on the outside of the walls which has been unnoticed, unless it be the Rood-eye, and the adjacent places."—"The name of this spot is taken from eye, its watery situation, and rood, the cross which stood there, whose base is still to be seen." Pennant's Tour in Wales, edit. 1778, p. 191. According to Gough's Camden, the base was still remaining in 1789.
3410. Roberd the robbere. This name is rather curious in conjunction with the term Roberdesmen mentioned in the note on l. 88. It was no uncommon practice to give punning names in this way to people or classes of people. In a Latin song of the reign of Henry III (Political Songs, p. 49), we have a very curious instance of it, one of the names being, as here, Robert:—
Competentur per Robert, robbur designatur; Robertus excoriat, extorquet, et minatur.— Vir quicunque rabidus consors est Roberto.
Still earlier (12th cent.) a scribe says of one of his brothers, "Secundus dicebatur Robertus, quia a re nomen habuit, spoliator enim diu fuit et prædo." (Polit. Songs, p. 354.)
3419. Dysmas. In middle-age legends, Dismas and Gestas were the names of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ. The former was the one who believed in the Saviour, and received a promise of paradise.
3443. Before this line, Whitaker's text has the following passage:—
Ac whiche be the braunches That bryngeth me to sleuthe, Ys wanne a man mourneth nat For hus mysdedes; The penaunce that the prest enjoyneth Parfourmeth uvele; Doth non almys-dedes, And drat nat of synne: Lyveth ayens the byleyve, And no lawe kepeth; And hath no lykynge to lerne, Ne of houre Lord hure, Bote harlotrie other horedom, Other elles of som wynnyng. Wan men carpen of Crist Other of clennesse of soule, He wext wroth, and wol not huyre Bote wordes of murthe, Penaunce and povre men, The passion of seyntes, He hateth to huyre therof And alle that therof carpen. Thuse beth the braunches, be war, That bryngeth man to wanhope. Ye lordes and ladyes, And legates of holy churche, That feden fool sages, Flaterers and lyers, And han lykynge to lythen hem, In hope to do yow lawe— Væ! vobis qui ridetis, etc. And geveth suche mede an mete, And povre men refusen; In youre deth deynge, Ich drede me sore Lest tho maner men To moche sorwe yow brynge. Consensientes et agentes pari pæna punientur. Patriarkes and prophetes, Prechours of Godes wordes, Saven thorgh here sermons Mannes soule fro helle: Ryght so flaterers and foles Aren the fendes procuratores, Entysen men thorgh here tales To synne and to harlotrie. Clerkus that knowen this, Sholde kennen lordes What David seide of suche men, As the Sauter telleth: Non habitabit in medio domus meæ qui facit superbiam, qui loquitur iniquum. Sholde non harlot have audience In halle ne in chaumbre, Ther that wys men were. Whitnesse of Godes wordes; Nother a mys-prout man Among lordes alouwed. Clerkus and knyghtes Wolcometh kynges mynstrales, For love of here lordes Lithen hem at festes: Muche more, me thenketh, Riche men auhte Have beggers byfore hem, Wiche beth Godes mynstreles, As he seith hymself, Seynt Johan berith whittnesse: Qui vos spernit, me etiam spernit. Therfor ich rede yow, riche, Reveles when ye maken, For to solace youre soules, Suche mynstrales to have, The povre for a foul sage Syttynge at thy table, Whith a lered man to lere the What oure Lord suffrede, For to savy thy saule Fram Satan thyn enemye, And fitayle the withoute flateryng Of Good Friday the feste: And a blynde man for a bordiour, Other a bed-reden womman To crye a largesse byfor oure Lord, Youre good loos to shewe. Thuse thre manere mynstrales Maken a man to lauhe; In hus deth deyng Thei don hym gret comfort, That by hus lyfe loveth hem, And loveth hem to huyre. Thuse solaceth the soule, Til hymself be falle In a wele good hope, for he wroghte so, Among worthy seyntes, Ther flaterers and foles Whith here foule wordes Leden tho that lithen hem To Luciferes feste, With Turpiloquio, a lay of sorwe, And Lucifers fitele, To perpetual peyne Other purgatorye as wykke, For he litheth and loveth That Godes lawe despiteth. Qui histrionibus dat, dæmonibus sacrificat.
3466. qui manet, &c. Epist. Joan. iv, 16 .
3477. Epist. Paul, ad Ephes. iv, 8 .
3484. Isai. ix, 2 .
3496. Matt. ix, 13 .
3502. John i, 14 .
3520. Psalm xxxv, 8 .
3545. Signes of Synay, | and shelles of Galice ... keyes of Rome. It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that the articles mentioned here were borne by the pilgrim to indicate the particular holy sites which he had visited. The reader will readily call to mind the lines of a modern poet:—
The summon'd Palmer came in place, His sable cowl o'erhung his face; In his black mantle was he clad, With Peter's keys in cloth of red On his broad shoulders wrought; The scallop shell his cap did deck; The crucifix around his neck Was from Loretto brought.
3622. Seint Thomas shryne. St. Thomas of Canterbury. It may not perhaps be generally known that an interesting description of this shrine, when in its glory, is given by Erasmus, Colloq. Peregrinatio Religionis ergo.
3713. eten apples un-rosted. One of the many specimens of the burlesque manner in which scripture was frequently quoted in these times. A very singular passage (but in a tract professedly burlesque) occurs in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 83:—"Peter askud Adam a full greyt dowtfull question, and seyd, 'Adam, Adam, why ete thu the appull unpard?' 'For sothe,' quod he, 'for y had no wardyns fryde.'"
3826. leven, should be lenen.
3890. Luke xiv, 10 .
3944, 3948. Psalm lxviii, 29 .
3997. the rode of Lukes. The second Trin. Col. MS. has be the rode of Chestre. There was a famous cross at Lucca, but whether a part of the real cross, I have not ascertained. Calvin, in his most able and entertaining Admonitio de Reliquiis, declines undertaking a list of all the places where pieces of the real cross were shown. "Denique si congesta in acervum essent omnia quæ reperiri possent, integrum navis onus efficerent: cum tamen evangelium testificetur ab unico homine ferri potuisse. Quantæ igitur audaciæ fuit, ligneis frustis sic totum implere orbem, quibus ferendis ne trecenti quidem homines sufficiant?" Calvini, Opusc. p. 277. There was also at Lucca one of the impressions of our Saviour's face on the handkerchief of Veronica. The peculiar oath of William Rufus was by the holy face at Lucca.
4027. with hey trolly lolly. MS. Trin. Col. 2.
4154. In the second Trin. Col. MS. the passage stands as follows:—
Ne hadde Peris but a pese lof, Thei preyede hym beleve, And with a bene batte He hadde betwene, And hitte hunger therwith Amydde hise lippes, And blodde in it the bodyward A bolle ful of growel, Ne hadde the fisician ferst Defendite him watir, To abate the barly bred, And the benis y-grounde, Thei hadde be ded be this day, And dolven al warm. Faitours for fer, etc.
4194. Thei corven here coppes, | and courtepies made. Whitaker, who translates it, "They carved wooden cups, and made themselves short cloaks." It ought to be, "They cut their copes to make courtpies (a kind of short cloaks) of them."
4242. Paul Epist. ad Galat. vi, 2 .
4251. Scimus enim qui dixit, mihi vindicta, et ego retribuam. Paul. ad Heb. x, 30 ; conf. Paul. ad Rom. xii, 19 .
4256. Luke xvi, 9 .
4272. Propter frigus piger arare noluit. Prov. xx, 4 .
4306. Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, beatus es et bene tibi erit. Psal. cxxvii, 2 .
4336. His mawe is alongid. MS. Trin. Coll. 2.
4336. Whitaker's text inserts here the following passage, which is curious as containing the same word, latchdrawers, that occurs in Edward's statute, quoted before in the note to l. 88:—
Thenk that Dives for hus delicat lyf To the devel wente, And Lazar the lene beggere That longed after cromes, And yut had he hem nat, For ich Hunger culde hym, And suthe ich sauh hym sute, As he a syre were, At alle manere ese In Abrahame lappe. An yf you be of power, Peers, ich the rede, Alle that greden at thy gate For Godes love after fede, Parte wit hem of thy payn, Of potage and of souel, Lene hem som of thy loof, Thauh thu the lesse chewe. And thauh lyers and latchedrawers, And lolleres knocke, Let hem abyde tyl the bord be drawe, Ac bere hem none cromes, Tyl al thyn nedy neihebores Have none y-maked.
4339. Phisik ... hise furred hodes ... his cloke of Calabre. Whitaker cites, in illustration of the dress of the physician, the costume still worn by the Doctors of Medicine in the universities. Chaucer gives the following description of the dress of the "Doctour of Phisike":—
In sangwin and in pers he clad was al, Lyned with taffata, and with sendal. (Cant. T. Prolog. 441.)
Calabre appears to have been a kind of fur: a document in Rymer, quoted by Ducange, speaks of an indumentum foderatum cum Calabre.
4390. ripe chiries manye. This passage, joined with the mention of cherry-time in l. 2794, shows that cherries were a common fruit in the fourteenth century. "Mr. Gough, in his British Topography, says that cherries were first brought in by the Romans, but were afterwards lost and brought in again in the time of Henry VIII, by Richard Harris, the king's fruiterer; but this is certainly a mistake. When in the New Forest in Hampshire in the summer of 1808, I saw a great many cherry-trees, apparently, of much more considerable age than the time of Henry VIII. The very old trees were universally of the kind called merries." H. E.
4431. Cato, Distich. i, 21:—
Infantem nudum quum te natura crearit, Paupertatis onus patienter ferre memento.
4453. so seide Saturne. See the Introduction, p. xii.
4490. Whitaker's text reads after this line:—
Leel and ful of love, And no lord dreden, Merciable to meek, And mylde to the goode, And bytynge on badde men Bote yf thei wolde amende, And dredeth nat for no deth To distruye by here powere Lecherie among lordes, And hure luther custymes, And sithen lyve as thei lereth men, Oure lorde Treuthe hem graunteth, To be peeres to Apostles, &c.
4525. sette scolers to scole. It was common in the scholastic ages for scholars to wander about gathering money to support them at the universities. In a poem in MS. Lansdowne, No. 762, the husbandman, complaining of the many burdens he supports in taxes to the court, payments to the church, and charitable contributions of different kinds, enumerates among the latter the alms to scholars:—
Than cometh clerkys of Oxford, and mak their mone, To her scole-hire they most have money.
4547. Psa. xiv, 5 . Qui pecuniam suam non dedit ad usuram, et munera super innocentem non accepit.
4571. Psa. xiv, 1 .
4593. Matt. vii, 12 . Luke vi, 31 .
4618. the clerc of stories. Called, elsewhere, maister of stories. These names were given popularly to Peter Comestor, author of the famous Historia Scolastica, a paraphrase of the Bible history, with abundance of legendary matter added to it. The title given him by the author of Piers Ploughman is not uncommon in English treatises of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 102 (Ed. Halliwell), speaks of Comestor thus:—
Maister of storyes, this doctour ful notable, Holding a chalice here in a sonne cliere.
4619. Catons techyng. "Cui des videto," is the twenty-third of the "Distichorum Lemmata" of Dionysius Cato.
4621. Instead of ll. 4621-4658, the following long and curious passage is substituted in the text adopted by Mr. Whitaker:—
Wot no man, as ich wene, Who is worthy to have. The most needy aren oure neighebores, And we nyme good hede; As prisoners in puttes, And poore folke in cotes Charged with children And chef lordes rente, That thei spynnynge may spare, Spynen hit in hous hyre, Bothe in mylk and in mele. To maken with papelotes To aglotye with here gurles That greden after fode. Al so hemselve Suffren muche hunger, And wo in winter tyme; With wakyng a-nyghtes To ryse to the ruel, To rocke the cradel, Bothe to karde and to kembe, To clouten and to wasche, To rubbe and to rely, Russhes to pilie, That reuthe is to rede Othere in ryme shewe The wo that theese women That wonyeth in cotes, And of meny other men That muche wo suffren, Bothe a-fyngrede and a-furst, To turne the fayre outwarde; And beth abasshed for to begge, And wolle nat be y-knowe What hem needeth att here neihebores At non and at even. This Wit wot witerly, As the world techeth, What other byhoveth That hath meny children. And hath no catel bote hus crafte To clothy hem and to fede, And fele to fonge therto, And fewe pans taketh. Ther is payn and peny ale, As for a pytaunce y-take; Cold flesch and cold fyssh, For veneson y-bake. Frydays and fastyng-dayes Ferthyng worth of muscles Were a feste for suche a folke, Other so fele cockes. Theese were almes to helpe That han suche charges, And to comforte suche cotyers, And crokede men and blynde. Ac beggers with bagges, the wiche Brewhouses ben here churches, Bote thei be blynde other broke, Other elles syke, Thauh he falle for defaute, That faiteth for hus lyflode, Reicheth nevere, ye ryche, Thauh suche lorelles sterven; For all that han here hele And here eyen syghte, And lymes to laborye with, And lolleres lyf usen, Lyven ayens Godes lawe, And love of holy churche. And yut arn ther other beggers, In hele, as it semeth; Ac hem wanteth here witt, Men and women bothe, The wiche aren lunatik lollers And leperes aboute, And mad, as the mone sitt, More other lasse: Thei caren for no cold, Ne counteth of no hete, And are mevenge after the mone, Moneyles thei walke, With a good wil wit-lees, Meny wyde contreys, Ryght as Peter dude and Paul, Save that thei preche nat, Ne myracles maken; Ac meny tymes hem happeth To prophetien of the puple, Pleyninge, as hit were, And to oure sight, as hit semeth, Suththe God hath the myghte To yeven eche a whit wit, Welthe, and his hele, And suffreth suche so gon, Hit semeth to myn inwitt, Hit arn as hus aposteles suche puple, Other as his prevye disciples; For he sente hem forth selverles, In a somer garnement, Withoute bred and bagge, As the Bok telleth. Quando misi vos sine pane et pera. Bar fot and bred-les, Beggeth thei of no man; And thauh he mete with the meyere In mydest the strete, He reverenceth hym ryght nouht No rather than another. Neminem salutaveris per viam, Suche manere of men, Matheu ous techeth, We sholde have hem to house, And help hem when thei come. Et egenos vagosque induc in domum tuam. For hit aren murye mouthede men, Mynstrales of hevene And Godes boyes bordiours, As the Bok telleth. Si quis videtur sapiens, fiet stultus ut sit sapiens. And alle manere mynstrales, Men wot wel the sothe, To underfonge hem faire Byfalle for the ryche; For the lordes love and ladies That thei with lengen, Men suffren al that suche seyn, And in solas taken; And yut more to suche men Doth, er thei passe, Gyven hem gyftes and gold, For grete lordes sake. Ryght so, ye riche, Rather ye sholde, for sothe, Wolcomen and worsshepen And with youre goode helpen Godes mynstrales, and hus messagers, And hus murye burdiers, The wiche are lunatik lollares And leperes aboute. For under Godes secré seel Here synnes ben y-keverede. For thei bereth no bagges, Ne non botels under clokes, The wiche is lollaren lyf And lewede eremytes, That loken ful louheliche To lacchen mennes almesse, In hope to suten at even By the hote coles, Unlouke hus legges abrod, Other lygge at hus ese, Reste hym and roste hym, And his ryg turne, Drynke drue and deepe, And drawe hym thanne to bedde, And when hym lyketh and lust Hus leve ys is to aryse; When he rysen, rometh out, And ryght wel aspieth War he may rathest have a repast, Other a rounde of bacon, Sulver other fode-mete And some tyme bothe, A loof other alf a loof, Other a lompe of chese, And carieth it hom to hus cote, And cast hym to lyve In ydelnesse and in ese, And by others travayle. And wat frek of thys tolde Fisketh thus aboute With a bagge at hus bak, Abegeneldes wyse, And can som manere craft, In cas he wolde hit use. Thorgh wiche craft he couthe come To bred and to ale, And ovar more to an hater To helye with hus bones, And lyveth like a lollere, Godes lawe him dampneth. Lolleres lyvinge in sleuthe, And overe lond stryken, Beeth nat in thys bulle, quath Peers, Til thei ben amended. Nother beggars that beggen, Bote yf thei have neede. The Bok blameth alle beggerye, And banneth in this manere: etc.
4645. Luke xix, 23 .
4659. Ps. xxxvi, 25 . Junior fui, etenim senui: et non vidi justum derelictum, nec semen ejus quærens panem.
4695. Here again, after many verbal variations from our text, Whitaker's text adds the following long passage, which is very curious, and well worthy to be preserved. Whitaker calls it "one of the finest passages in the whole poem."
Ac eremites that enhabiten hem By the heye weyes, And in borwes among brewesters, And beggen in churches Al that holy eremytes Hateden and despisede, As rychesses and reverences And ryche mennes almesse. These lolleres, latche-draweres, Lewede eremytes, Coveyten the contrarie, As cotyers thei lybben, For hit beth bote boyes, Lolleres atten ale, Of linguage of lettrure Ne lyf-holy as eremytes That wonnede wyle in wodes With beres and lyones. Some had lyflode of here lynage, And of no lyf elles; And some lyvede by here lettrure And labour of here hondes; Some had foreynes to frendes, That hem fode sente; And bryddes brouhten to some bred, Werby thei lyveden. Alle thuse holy eremytes Were of hye kynne, Forsoke londe and lordshep And lykynges of the body; Ac thuse eremytes, that edefyen Thus by the hye weyes, Wylen were workmen, Webbes and taillours, And carters knaves And clerkus without grace, Heelden hungry hous, And had much defaute, Long labour and lyte wynnynge, And atte laste aspiden That faitours in frere clothynge Had fatte chekus; For-thi lefte thei here laboure, Theese lewede knaves, And clothed hem in copes, Clerkus as hit were. Other on of som ordre, Othere elles prophite, Ayens the lawe he lyveth, Yf Latyn be trywe: Non licet nobis legem voluntate, sed voluntatem conjungere legi. Now kyndeliche, by Crist! Beth suche callyd lolleres, As by Englisch of oure eldres, Of olde menne techynge, He that lolleth his lame, Other his leg out of the joynte, Other meymed in som membre, For to meschief hit souneth; And ryght so sothlyche Suche manere eremytes Lollen ayen the bylyeve And lawe of holy churche. For holy churche hoteth Alle manere puple Under obedience to bee, And buxum to the lawe, Furst religious of religion Here ruele to holde, And under obedience to be By dayes and by nyghtes, Lewede men to laborie, Lordes to honte In frythes and in forestes For fox and other bestes That in wilde wodes ben, And in wast places, As wolves that wyrhyeth men, Wommen, and children, And upon Sonedayes to cesse, Godes service to huyre, Bothe matyns and messe, And after mete in churches To huyre here eve song Every man ouhte. Thus it bylongeth for lorde, For lered and lewede, Eche halyday to huyre Hollyche the service, Vigiles and fastyng dayes Forthere to knowe, And fulfille tho fastynges Bote infirmité hit made, Poverte othere penaunces, As pilgrymages and travayles. Under this obedience Arn we echone. Who so brekyeth this, be wel war, Bot yf he repente, Amenden hym and mercy aske, And meekliche hym shryve, Ich drede me, and he deye, Hit worth for dedlich synne Acounted byfore Crist, Bote Conscience excuse hym. Loke now were theese lolleres And lewede eremytes, Yf thei breke thys obedience That ben so fro churche, Wher see we hem on Sonedays The servise to huyre? As matyns by the morwe Tyl masse bygynne, Other Sonedays at eve songe, See we wol fewe; Othere labory for our lyflode As the lawe wolde Ac at mydday meel tyme Ich mete with hem ofte, Conynge in a cope As he a clerke were, A bachelor other a beaupere Best hym bysemeth, And for the cloth that kevereth hem Cald his here a frere, Whassheth and wypeth, And with the furste suteth. Ac while he wrought in thys worlde, And wan hus mete with Treuthe, He sat atte syd benche And secounde table, Com no wyn in hus wombe Thorw the weke longe, Nother blankett in hus bed, Ne white bred byfore hym. The cause of al thys caitifté Cometh of meny bisshepes, That suffren suche sottes And othere synnes regne. Certes ho so thurste hit segge, Symon quasi dormit. Vigilate were fairour, For thow hast gret charge: For meny waker wolves Ben broke into foldes. Thyne berkeres ben al blynde, That bryngeth forth thy lambren; Disperguntur oves, thi dogge Dar nat beerke. The tarre is untydy That to thyne sheep bylongeth; Hure salve ys of supersedeas In someneres boxes, Thyne sheep are ner al shabbyd, The wolf sheteth woolle. Sub molli pastore lupus lanam cacat, et grex incustoditus dilaceratur eo. Hoow hurde wher is thyn hounde, And thyn hardy herte, For to wyne the wolf That thy woolle fouleth. Ich leyve for thy lacchesse Thow leest meny wederes, And ful meny fayre flus Falsliche wasshe. When thy lord loketh to have Alowance for hus bestes, And of the monye thow haddist thermyd, Hus meable to save, And the woolle worth weye, Woo ys the thenne! Redde rationem villicationis tuæ, Other arerage, ffalle. Then hyre hurde, as ich hope, Hath nouht to quyty thy dette, Ther as mede ne mercy May nat a myte avayle, Bote have this for that, Tho that thow toke Mercy for mede, And my lawe breke; Loke now for thi lacchesse Whether lawe wol the graunt Purgatorie for thy paye, Other perpetuel helle. For shal no pardone praye for yowe ther, Nother princes letteres.
4708. Matth. xxv, 46 . Et ibunt hi in supplicium æternum; justi autem in vitam æternam.
4721. Psal. xxii, 4 .
4739. Psal. xli, 4 .
4745. Luke xii, 22 . Conf. Matth. vi, 25 .
4764. "Dixit insipiens in corde suo, non est Deus," is the commencement of Psalms xiii. and lii.
4769. Prov. xxii, 10 . Ejice derisorem, et exibit cum eo jurgium, cessabuntque causæ et contumeliæ.
4771. Perkyn, the diminutive of Peter, or Piers. Formerly the diminutives of people's names were constantly used as marks of familiarity or endearment, as Hawkyn or Halkyn for Henry, Tymkyn for Tim or Timothy, Dawkyn for David, Tomkyn for Thomas, &c.
4796. Cato, Distich. ii, 31.
Somnia ne cures, nam mens humana quod optans, Dum vigilat, sperat, per somnum cernit id ipsum.
4847. Matth. xvi, 19 .
4941. Prov. xxiv, 16 . Septies enim cadet justus, et resurget; impii autem corruent in malum.
4963. To falle and to stonde. I by no means agree with Price's interpretation of this phrase, or in his preference of the reading to falle if he stonde. (Note on Warton ii, 67.) The motion of the boat causes the firm man alternately to fall and stand; be he ever so stable, he stumbles now and then, but his strength is shown in his being able to recover himself. Such are the moral slips which even the just man cannot avoid. But if the man in the boat be too weak to arise again and place himself at the helm, his boat and himself will be lost for want of strength and guidance. So it is with the wicked man. The completion of the phrase quoted from Proverbs, as given in the preceding note, shows the justice of this explanation.
5014. if I may lyve and loke. Price (in Warton) first pointed out the identity between this expression and the one so common in Homer: it is "one of those primitive figures which are common to the poetry of every country."
Οὔτις, ἐμεῦ ζῶντος καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ δερκομένοιο, Σὸι κοίλῃς παρὰ νηυσί βαρείας χεῖρας ἐποίσει. Il. i, 88.
Whitaker's interpretation is nonsense, "If I have space to live and look in the book." Other instances of this phrase occur in ll. 12132, 13268, and 13303 of Piers Ploughman.
5082. 2 Corinth. xi, 19 .
5157. of four kynnes thynges. The medieval notion of the manner in which the elements were mixed together in the formation of the human body, here alluded to, appears to partake more of Western legend than of Eastern tradition. In the English verses on Popular Science (given in my "Popular Treatises of Science written during the Middle Ages," p. 138), we have the following curious account of the four things forming the body, and the influence of each:—
Man hath of urthe al his bodi, of water he haveth wete, Of eyr he haveth wynd, of fur he haveth hete. Ech quic thing of alle this foure, of some hath more other lasse; Ho so haveth of urthe most, he is slou as an asse; Of vad colour, of hard hide, boustes forme, and ded strong, Of moche thoght, of lute speche, of stille grounynge, and wraththe long, A slough wrecche and ferblet, fast and loth to geve his god, Sone old, and noght wilful, stable and stedefast of mode.
And so on with the other elements. This doctrine of the composition of man from the four elements became a very popular one in the sixteenth century, when the poets frequently allude to it, as may be seen in the examples given by Nares (v. Elements). In the Mirror for Magistrates (King Forrex, page 76), it is said:—
If we behold the substance of a man, How he is made of elements by kind, Of earth, of water, aire, and fire, than We would full often call unto our mind, That all our earthly joys we leave behind.
Massinger (Renegado iii, 2) says:—
——I've heard Schoolmen affirm, man's body is compos'd Of the four elements.
In Shakespeare (Twel. N. ii, 3), Sir Toby Belch inquires, "Does not our life consist of the four elements?" and Brutus is commended for possessing these elements properly blended, in which the perfection of a man's nature was supposed to consist:—
His life was gentle; and the elements So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, This was a man. Jul. Cæs. v, 5.
On the other hand, the ill mixing of these elements was supposed to be accompanied with a corresponding derangement of the intellectual faculties. Thus, in one of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, a madman is addressed:—
I prithee, thou four elements ill brew'd Torment none but thyself: Away, I say, Thou beast of passion. B. and Fl. Nice Valour, act i, p. 312.
The more mythic form of this legend gives eight things to the formation of the body, instead of four. Our earliest notice of this legend in England occurs in the prose Anglo-Saxon Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon (Thorpe's Analecta, p. 95):—"Saga me þæt andworc þe Adám wæs of-ge-worht se ærusta man? Ic þe secge of viii punda ge-wihte. Saga me hwæt hatton þage? Ic þe secge þæt æroste wæs fóldan pund, of ðam him wæs flesc ge-worht; oðer wæs fyres pund, þanon him wæs þæt blód reád and hát; þridde wæs windes pund, þanon him wæs seo æðung ge-seald; feorðe wæs wolcnes pund, þanon him wæs his módes unstaðelfæstnes ge-seald; fifte wæs gyfe pund, þanon him wæs ge-seald se fat and geðang; syxste wæs blostnena pund, þanon him wæs eagena myssenlicnys ge-seald; seofoðe wæs deawes pund, þanon him becom swat; eahtothe wæs sealtes pund, þanon him wæron þa tearas sealte."—Tell me the matter of which Adam the first man was made? I tell thee, of eight pound-weights. Tell me their names? I tell thee, the first was a pound of earth, of which his flesh was made; the second was a pound of fire, from which his blood was red and hot; the third was a pound of wind, of which breath was given him; the fourth was a pound of cloud, whereof was given him his instability of mood; the fifth was a pound of ..., whereof was given him fat and sinew; the sixth was a pound of flowers, whereof was given him diversity of eyes; the seventh was a pound of dew, whereof he had sweat; the eighth was a pound of salt, whereof he had salt tears. This legend was still prevalent in England as late as the fifteenth century, when we find it among the curious collection of questions (closely resembling those of Saturn and Solomon just quoted) entitled "Questions bitwene the Maister of Oxinford and his Scoler" (Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 230),—"C. Whereof was Adam made? M. Of viij. thingis: the first of erthe, the second of fire, the iij$^{de}$ of wynde, the iiijth of clowdys, the vth of aire wherethorough he speketh and thinketh, the vjth of dewe wherby he sweteth, the vijth of flowres, wherof Adam hath his ien, the viijth is salte wherof Adam hath salt teres." A similar account is given in an extract from an old Friesic manuscript communicated to the Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum, by Dr. James Grimm,—"God scôp thene êresta meneska, thet was Adam, fon achta wendem; that bênete fon tha stêne, thet flâsk fon there erthe, thet blôd fon tha wetere, tha herta fon tha winde, thene togta (l. thochta) fon tha wolken, the(ne) suêt fon tha dawe, tha lokkar fon tha gerse, tha âgene fon there sunna, and tha blêrem on thene helga ôm."—God created the first man, who was Adam, of eight elements: the bone from the stone, the flesh from the earth, the blood from the water, the heart from the wind, the thought from the cloud, the sweat from the dew, the hair from the grass, the eyes from the sun.
5169. a proud prikere of Fraunce. A proud rider of France. Until the fifteenth century there appears to have been a strong prejudice among the lower orders against horsemen: their name was connected with oppressors and foreigners. Horses appear to have been comparatively little used for riding among the Anglo-Saxons until they were introduced by the Norman favourites of Edward the Confessor, in whose reign we read that the Anglo-Saxon soldiers in Herefordshire were defeated by the Welsh owing to their awkwardness on horseback, having been unadvisedly mounted by their Norman commander. The Anglo-Norman barons of the three following centuries, with their numerous household of knights and attendants who plundered and oppressed the peasantry and middle classes of society, kept alive the prejudice alluded to, and we trace it in several popular songs. In a song of the reign of Edward I (Political Songs, p. 240), we find the following lines:—
Whil God wes on erthe And wondrede wyde, Whet wes the resoun Why he nolde ryde? For he nolde no grom To go by ys syde, Ne grucchyng of no gedelyng To chaule ne to chyde. Spedeth ou to spewen, Ase me doth to spelle; The fend ou afretie With fleis ant with felle! Herkneth hideward, horsmen, A tidyng ich ou telle, That ye shulen hongen, Ant herbarewen in helle!
5276. Epist. ad. Philippens. iii, 19 .
5283. Epist. Joan. iv, 16 .
5289. Matth. xxv, 12 ; Psal. lxxx, 13 . Et dimisi eos secundum desideria cordis eorum, ibunt in adventionibus suis.
5305. the four doctours. The four doctors par excellence of the western church were, I believe, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome.
5354. Ecclesiast. i, 16 .
5363. Epist. Jacob. ii, 10 . Quicunque autem totam legem servaverit, offendat autem in uno, factus est omnium reus.
5412. as Caym was on Eve. See further on l. 5549. According to a very curious legend, which was popular in the middle ages, Cain was born during the period of penitence and fasting to which our first parents were condemned for their breach of obedience.
5415. Psa. vii, 15 . Concepit dolorem et peperit iniquitatem.
5417. Whitaker's text inserts before this line—
Caym, the cursed creature, Conceyved was in synne; After that Adam and Eve Hadden y-synged, Withoute repentaunce Of here rechelessnesse, A rybaud thei engendrede, And a gome unryghtful; As an hywe that ereth nat Auntreth hym to sowe On a leye lond, Ayens hus lordes wille, So was Caym conceyved, And so ben cursed wrettches That lycame han ayen the lawe That oure Lord ordeynede.
5433. Gen. vi, 7 . pænitet enim me fecisse eos.
5464. Ezech. xviii, 20 .
5470. Whitaker's text adds here:—
Westminster lawe, ich wot, Worcheth the contrarie; For thauh the fader be a frankelayne, And for a felon be hanged, The heritage that the air sholde have Ys at the kynges wille.
5479. Matt. vii, 16 .
5497. John xiv, 6 .
5507. many a peire, sithen the pestilence. The continuator of William de Nangis, who gives a detailed account of the effects of the great pestilence on the Continent, mentions the hasty marriages which followed it, but he gives quite a different account of their fruitfulness. "Cessante autem dicta epidimia, pestilentia, et mortalitate, nupserunt viri qui remanserunt et mulieres ad invicem, conceperunt uxores residuæ per mundum ultra modum, nulla sterilis efficiebatur, sed prægnantes hinc inde videbantur, et plures geminos pariebant, et aliquæ tres infantes insimul vivos emittebant." The writer goes on to observe, "Sed proh dolor! ex hujus renovatione sæculi non est mundus propter hoc in melius commutatus. Nam homines fuerunt postea magis avari et tenaces, cum multo plura bona quam antea possiderent; magis etiam cupidi et per lites, brigas, et rixas, atque per placita, seipsos conturbantes.... Charitas etiam ab illo tempore refrigescere cæpit valde, et iniquitas abundavit cum ignorantiis et peccatis; nam pauci inveniebantur qui scirent aut vellent in domibus, villis, et castris informare pueros in grammaticalibus rudimentis."—Contin. G. de Nangis, in Dacherii Spicileg. iii, 110 (ed. 1723).
5515. do hem to Dunmowe. This is, I believe, the earliest allusion at present known to the custom of the flitch of bacon at Dunmow, which was evidently, at that time, a matter of general celebrity. In Chaucer, about half a century later, the Wife of Bath says of her two old husbands, and of the way in which she tyrannized over them,—
The bacoun was nought fet for hem, I trowe, That som men fecche in Essex at Donmowe.—Cant. T. 5799.
In a curious religious poem preserved in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, written about the year 1460, from which some extracts are printed in the "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," ii, 27-29, we have the following satirical allusion to this custom:—
I can fynde no man now that wille enquere The parfyte wais unto Dunmow; For they repent hem within a yere, And many within a weke, and sonner, men trow; That cawsith the weis to be rowgh and over-grow, That no man may fynd path or gap, The world is turnyd to another shap.
Befe and moton wylle serve wele enow; And for to seche so ferre a lytill bakon flyk, Which hath long hanggid resty and tow And the wey, I telle you, is comborous and thyk, And thou might stomble, and take the cryk; Therfor bide at home, what so ever hap Tylle the world be turnyd into another shap.
One or two other allusions to this custom have been found in manuscripts of the fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth century these allusions become more numerous.
5563. 1 Corinth. vii, 1 .
5613. Margery perles. A margarite pearl, perle marguerite. The Latin name for a pearl (margarita) seems to be the origin of this expression.
5634. a love day | to lette with truthe. Love days (Dies amoris) were days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to law or to violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the principal share in the management of these transactions, which throughout the Visions of Piers Ploughman appear to be censured as the means of hindering justice and of enriching the clergy. A little further on, Religion is blamed for being "a ledere of love-dayes." (l. 6219.) In Chaucer, it is said of the friar:—
And over'al, ther eny profyt schulde arise, Curteys he was, and lowe of servyse.  . . . . . .  And rage he couthe and pleye as a whelpe, In love-dayes, ther couthe he mochil helpe. For ther was he not like a cloysterer With a thredbare cope, as a pore scoler, But he was like a maister or a pope.—Cant. T. 249, 259.
5646. The quotation is made up from Job xxi, 7 ; and Jerem. xii, 2 .
5651. Psal. lxxii, 12 .
5659. Psal. x, 4 . Quoniam quæ perfecisti, destruxerunt: justus autem quid fecit?
5739. Psal. cxxxi, 6 .
5769. Isai. lviii, 7 .
5778. Tob. iv, 9 . Si multum tibi fuerit, abundanter tribue; si exiguum tibi fuerit, etiam exiguum libenter impertiri stude.
In what follows, Whitaker's text is in parts much more brief than the one now printed; there are also many transpositions, and other variations, which are not of sufficient importance to be pointed out more particularly.
5801. in a pryvee parlour. 5803. in a chambre with a chymenee. This is a curious illustration of contemporary manners. The hall was the apartment in which originally the lord of the household and the male portion of the family passed nearly all their time when at home, and where they lived in a manner in public. The chambers were only used for sleeping, and as places of retirement for the ladies, and had, at first, no fire-places (chymenees), which were added, in course of time, for their comfort. The parlour was an apartment introduced also at a comparatively late period, and was, as its name indicates, a place for private conferences or conversation. As society advanced in refinement, people sought to live less and less in public, and the heads of the household gradually deserted the hall, except on special occasions, and lived more in the parlour and in the "chambre with a chymenee." With the absence of the lord from the hall, its festive character and indiscriminate hospitality began to diminish; and the popular agitators declaimed against this as an unmistakeable sign of the debasement of the times.
5829. Ezech. xviii, 19 .
5835. Galat. vi, 5 .
5844. Pauli Epist. ad Rom. xii, 3 .
5911. seven artz. In the scholastic system of the middle ages, the whole course of learning was divided into seven arts, which were, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy. They were included in the following memorial distich:—
Gram. loquitur, Dia. vera docet, Rhet. verba colorat, Mus. canit, Ar. numerat, Geo. ponderat, As. colit astra.
5963. a baleys. See before, the note on l. 2819.
5990. Caton. Distich. lib. i, 26.
6009. Galat. vi, 10 .
6022. Epist. ad Rom. xii, 19 .
6037. The second Trin. Coll. MS. reads here—
Experimentis of Alkenemye Of Albertis makyng, Nigromancie and permansie The pouke to reisen, Gif thou thenke, etc.
6146. Matth. vii, 3 .
6179. Matth. xv, 14 ; Luke vi, 39 ; Mark (?)
6186. mausede. An error of the press for mansede. See the Glossary.
6191. Offyn and Fynes. Ophni and Phinees. See 1 Samuel iv. (in the Vulgate called 1 Kings).
6199. Psal. xlix, 21 .
6207. Isai. lvi, 10 .
6217. The text of the Trin. Coll. MS. 2, differs very much from ours in this part of the poem. Instead of 6217-6277, we have the following lines:—
Ac now is Religioun a ridere And a rennere aboute, A ledere of ladies, And a lond biggere; Poperith on a palfrey To toune and to toune; A bidowe or a biselard He berith be his side; Godis flessh and his fet And hise fyve woundis Arn more in his mynde Than the memorie of his foundours. This is the lif of this lordis That lyven shulde with Do-bet, And wel awey wers, And I shulde al telle. I wende that kinghed and knighthed, And caiseris with erlis, Wern Do-wel and Do-bet And Do-best-of-hem-alle. For I have seighe it myself, And siththen red it aftir, How Crist counseilleth the comune, And kenneth hem this tale, Super cathedram Moisi sederunt principes For-thi I wende that tho wyes Wern Do-best-of-alle. I nile not scorne, etc.
6223. an heepe of houndes. "Walter de Suffield, bishop of Norwich, bequeathed by will his pack of hounds to the king, in 1256. Blomefield's Norf. ii, 347. See Chaucer's Monke, Prol. v, 165. This was a common topic of satire. It occurs again fol. xxvii, a [l. 3321, of the present Edition]. See Chaucer's Testament of Love, page 492, col. ii, Urr. The Archdeacon of Richmond, on his visitation, comes to the priory of Bridlington in Yorkshire, in 1216, with ninety-seven horses, twenty dogs, and three hawks. Dugd. Mon. ii, 65." Warton.
6251. Psal. xix, 8 .
6259. the abbot of Abyngdone. There was a very ancient and famous abbey at Abingdon in Berkshire. Geoffrey of Monmouth was abbot there. It was the house into which the monks, strictly so called, were first introduced in England, and is, therefore, very properly introduced as the representative of English monachism.
6266. Isai. xiv, 4 , 5.
6289. Ecclesiasticus x, 10 .
6291. Catonis Distich. iv, 4.
Dilige denari, sed parce dilige, formam; Quem nemo sanctus nec honestus captat ab ære.
6327. Colos. iii, 1 .
6353. mœchaberis. A mistake in the original MS. for necaberis, as it is rightly printed in Crowley's edition.
6372. John iii, 13 .
6414. Matth. xxiii, 2 . Super cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribæ et Pharisæi.
6440. Psal. xxxv, 8 .
6476. Ecclesiastes ix, 1 .
6504. Matth. x, 18 . The quotation is not quite literal.
6528. For idiotæ irapiunt, read idiotæ vi rapiunt: the error was caused accidentally in the printing, and has escaped in the present edition.
6571. Matth. xx, 4 .
6741. John iii, 3 .
6755. Matth. vii, 1 .
6764. Psal. l, 21 .
6815. Isai. lv, 1 .
6825. Mark xvi, 16 .
6831. may no cherl chartre make. Such was the law of vileinage, then in existence. There is a curious story illustrative of the condition of the cherl or peasant, in the Descriptio Norfolciensium, in my Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, p. 94. The 'cherl,' vilein, or bondman, could not even be put apprentice without the licence of the lord of the soil. In the curious poem on the Constitution of Masonry (14th cent.) published by Mr. Halliwell, the master is particularly cautioned on this point:—
The fowrthe artycul thys moste be, That the mayster hym wel be-se That he no bondemon prentys make, Ny for no covetyse do hym take; For the lord that he ys bonde to, May fache the prentes whersever he go. Early History of Freemasonry in England, p. 14.
6859. Trojanus. 6869. Gregorie. The legend here alluded to is given briefly as follows, in the life of St. Gregory in the Golden Legend, fol. lxxxxvii,—
"In the tyme that Trayan themperour regned, and on a tyme as he wente toward a batayll out of Rome, it happed that in hys waye as he shold ryde a woman a wydowe came to hym wepyng and sayd: I praye thee, syre, that thou avenge the deth of one my sone, whyche innocently and wythout cause hath ben slayn. Themperour answerd: yf I come agayn fro the batayll hool and sounde, thenne I shall do justyce for the deth of thy sone. Thenne sayd the wydowe: Syre, and yf thou deye in the bataylle, who shall thenne avenge hys deth for me? And the wydowe sayd, is it not better that thou do to me justice, and have the meryte thereof of God, than another have it for thee? Then had Trayan pyté, and descended fro his horse, and dyde justyce in avengynge the deth of her sone. On a tyme saynt Gregory went by the marked of Rome whyche is called the marked of Trayan. And thenne he remembred of the justyce and other good dedes of Trayan, and how he had ben pyteous and debonayr, and was moche sorowfull that he had ben a paynem; and he tourned to the chyrche of saynt Peter waylyng for thorrour of the mescreaunce of Trayan. Thenne answerd a voys fro God, sayng: I have now herd thy prayer, and have spared Trayan fro the payne perpetuelly. By thys thus, as somme saye, the payne perpetuell due to Trayan as a mescreaunt was somme dele take awaye, but for all that was he not quyte fro the pryson of helle; for the sowle may well be in helle, and fele ther no payne, by the mercy of God."
6907. 1 John iii, 15 .
6938. Luke xiv, 12 .
6964. John viii, 34 .
6981. Galat. vi, 2 .
7015. Matth. vii, 3 .
7063. Luke x, 40 .
7072. Luke x, 42 .
7113. Although our writer quotes the circumstance from Luke xviii, the words he gives are from Matth. xix, 21 .
7113. In Whitaker's text the following passage is here inserted:—
Thus consaileth Crist In comun ous alle, 'Ho so coveyteth to come To my kynriche, He mot forsake hymself, Hus suster, and hus brother, And al that the worlde wolde, And my wil folwen.' Nisi renunciaveritis omnia quæ possidetis, etc. Meny proverbis ich myghte have Of meny holy seyntes, To testifie for treuthe The tale that ich shewe, And poetes to preoven hit, Porfirie and Plato, Aristotle, Ovidius, And ellevene hundred, Tullius, Tholomeus, Ich can nat telle here names, Preoven pacient poverte Pryns of alle vertues. And by greyn that groweth, God ous alle techeth. Nisi granum frumenti cadens in terra, et mortuum fuit, ipsum solum manet. Bot yf that sed that sowen is, In the sloh sterve, Shal nevere spir springen up, Ne spik on strawe curne; Sholde nevere wete wexe, Bote wete fyrste deyde; And other sedes also In the same wyse, That ben leide on louh eerthe, Y-lore as hit were, And thorw the grete grace of God, Of greyn ded in erthe Atte the laste launceth up Werby lyven alle. Ac sedes that ben sowen And mowe suffre wyntres, Aren tydyor and tower To mannes by-hofte, Than seedes that sowen beeth And mowe nouht with forste, With wyndes, ne with wederes, As in wynter tyme, As lynne-seed, and lik-seed, And Lente-seedes alle, Aren nouht so worthy as whete, Ne so wel mowen In the feld with the forst, And hit freese longe. Ryght so, for sothe, That suffre may penaunces Worth alowed of oure Lorde At here laste ende, And for here penaunce be preysed, As for puyre martir, Other for a confessour y-kud, That counteth nat a ruysshe Fere ne famyne, Ne false menne tonges; Bote as an hosebonde hopeth After an hard wynter, Yf God gyveth hym the lif To have a good hervest, So preoveth thees prophetes That pacientliche suffreth Myschiefs and myshappes, And menye tribulacions, Bytokneth ful triweliche In tyme comynge after Murthe for hus mornynge, And that muche plenté. For Crist seide to hus seyntes That for hus sake tholeden Poverte, penaunces, Persecution of body, Angeles in here angre On this wise hem grate, Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium. Youre sorwe into solas Shal turne atte laste, And out of wo into wele Youre wyrdes shul chaunge. Ac so redeth of riche, The revers he may fynde, How God, as the Godspel telleth, Geveth hem foul towname, And that hus gost shal go, And hus good byleve, And asketh hym after Ho shal hit have, The catel that he kepeth so In coffres and in hernes, And ert so loth to lene Thet leve shalt needes. O stulte, ista nocte anima tua egrediatur, thesauriza et ignorat. An unredy reve Thi residue shal spene, That menye moththe was ynne In a mynte while; Upholderes on the hul Shullen have hit to selle. Lo! lo! lordes, lo! And ladies taketh hede, Hit lasteth nat longe That is lycour swete, Ac pees-coddes and pere-ronettes, Plomes and chiries, That lyghtliche launceth up, Litel wile dureth, And that that rathest rypeth, Roteth most sannest. On fat londe and ful of donge Foulest wedes groweth, Right so, for sothe, Suche that ben bysshopes, Erles and archdekenes, And other ryche clerkes. That chaffaren as chapmen, And chiden bote thei wynne, And haven the worlde at here wil Other wyse to lyve; Right as weodes wexen In wose and in dunge, So of rychesse upon richesse Arist al vices. Lo! lond overe-layde With marle and with donge, Whete that wexeth theron Worth lygge ar hit repe; Right so, for sothe, For to sigge treuthe, Over plenté pryde norssheth Ther poverte destrueth hit. For how hit evere be y-wonne, Bote hit be wel dispended, Worliche wele is wuked thynge To hym that hit kupeth. For yf he be feer therfro, Ful ofte hath he drede That fals folke fetche away Felonliche hus godes. And yut more hit maketh men Meny time and ofte To synegen, and to souchen Soteltees of gyle, For covetyze of that catel To culle hem that hit kepeth; And so is meny men y-morthred For hus money and goodes; And tho that duden the dede Y-dampned therfore after, And he, for hus harde heldynge, In helle paraunter; So covetise of catel Was combraunce to hem alle. Lo! how pans purchasede Faire places, and drede, That rote is robbers The richesse withynne.
[Passus quartus de Dowel.]
Ac wel worth Poverte, For he may walke unrobbede, Among pilours in pees, Yf pacience hym folwe, Oure prynce Jhesu poverte chees, And hus aposteles alle, And ay the lenger thei lyveden The lasse good thei hadde. Tanquam nihil habentes, et omnia possidentes. Yut men that of Abraam And Job were wonder ryche, And out of numbre tho men Menye meobles hadden. Abraam, for al hus good, Hadde muche teene, In gret poverte was y-put, A pryns as hit were Bynom hym ys housewif And heeld here hymself, And Abraam nat hardy Ones to letten hym, Ne for brightnesse of here beauté Here spouse to be byknowe. And for he suffrede and seide nouht, Oure Lord sente tokne, That the kynge cride To Abraam mercy, And deliverede hym hus wif, With muche welthe after. And also Job the gentel What joye hadde he on erthe, How bittere he hit bouhte! As the book telleth. And for he songe in hus sorwe, Si bona accipimus a Domino, Dereworthe dere God, Do we so mala; Al hus sorwe to solas Thorgh that songe turnede, And Job bycam a jolif man, And al hus joye newe. Lo how patience in here poverte Thees patriarkes relevede, And brouhte hem al above That in bale rotede, As greyn that lyth in the greot And thorgh grace atte laste Spryngeth up and spredeth, So spedde the fader Abraam, And also the gentel Job, Here joie hath non ende. Ac leveth nouht, ye lewede men, That ich lacke richesse, Thauh ich preise poverte thus, And preove hit by ensamples, Worthiour as by holy writ, And wise philosophers, Bothe two but goode, Be ye ful certayn, And lyves that our Lorde loveth, And large weyes to hevene. Ac the povre pacient Purgatorye passeth Rathere than the ryche, Thauh thei renne at ones. For yf a marchaunt and a messager Metten to-gederes, For the parcels of hus paper And other pryvey dettes, Wol lette hym as ich leyve The lengthe of a myle; The messager doth namore Bote hus mouth telleth, Hus lettere and hus ernde sheweth, And is anon delyvered; And thauh thei wende by the wey Tho two to-gederes. Thauh the messager made hus wey Amyde the whete, Wole no wys man wroth be, Ne hus wed take, Ys non haiwarde y-hote Hus wed for to take. Necessitas non habet legem. Ac yf the marchaunt make hus way Overe menne cornne, And the haywarde happe With hym for to mete, Other hus hatt, other hus hed, Other elles hus gloves, The merchaunt mot for-go, Other moneys of huse porse, And yut be lett, as ich leyve, For the lawe asketh Marchauns for here merchandise In meny place to tullen. Yut thauh thei wenden on wey As to Wynchestre fayre, The marchaunt with hus marchaundise May nat go so swythe As the messager may, Ne with so mochel ese. For that on bereth bote a boxe, A brevet therynne, Ther the marchaunt ledeth a male With meny kynne thynges; And dredeth to be ded therefore, And he in derke mete With robbours and with revers That riche men despoilen, Ther the messager is ay murye, Hus mouthe ful of songes, And leyveth for hus letters That no wight wol hym greve. Ac yut myghte the marchaunt Thorgh monye and other yeftes Have hors and hardy men, Thauh he mette theoves, Wolde non suche asailen hym For hem that hym folweth, As safliche passe as the messager, And as sone at hus hostel. Ye, wyten wel, ye wyse men, What this is to mene. The marchaunt is no more to mene Bote men that ben ryche Aren acountable to Crist And to the kyng of hevene, That holden mote the heye weye, Evene ten hestes, Bothe lovye and lene, The leele and the unleele, And have reuthe, and releve With hus grete richesse By hus power alle manere men In meschief y-falle, Fynde beggars bred, Backes for the colde, Tythen here goodes tryweliche, A tol as hit semeth That oure Lord loketh after Of eche a lyf that wyneth, Withoute wyles other wrong, Other wommen atte stuwes, And yut more, to make pees, And quyte menne dettes, Bothe spele and spare To spene upon the needful, As Crist self comandeth To alle Cristene puple. Alter alterius onera porta. The messager aren the mendinans That lyveth by menne almesse, Beth nat y-bounde, as beeth the riche, To bothe the two lawes, To lene and to lere, Ne lentenes to faste, And other pryvey penaunces The wiche the preest wol wel, That the law yeveth leve Suche lowe folke to be excused, As none tythes to tythen, Ne clothe the nakede, Ne in enquestes to come, Ne contumax thauh he worthe Halyday other holy eve Hus mete to deserve; For yf he loveth and byleyveth As the lawe techeth, Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, etc. Telleth the lord a tale, As a triwe messager, And sheweth by seel and suthe by lettere With wat lord he dwelleth, Kneweleche hym crystene And of holy churche byleyve, Ther is no lawe, as ich leyve, Wol let hym the gate, Ther God is gatwarde hymself And eche a gome knoweth. The porter of pure reuthe May parforme the lawe In that he wilneth and wolde Ech wight as hemself; For the wil is as muche worth Of a wretche beggere As al that the ryche may reyme And ryght fulliche dele, And as much mede For a myte that he offreth, As the riche man for al is moneye, And more, as by the Godspel: Amen dico vobis quia hæc vidua paupercula, etc. So that povre pacient Is parfitest lif of alle, And alle parfit preestes To poverte sholde drawe.
7128. Matth. xvii, 20 .
7131. Psal. xxxiii, 11 .
7141. Psal. xlii, 1 .
7191. James ii, 10 .
7194. over-skipperis. Those who skipped over words in reading or chanting the service of the church. The following distich points out the classes of defaulters in this respect:—
Ecclesiæ tres sunt qui servitium maie fallunt; Momylers, for-scyppers, ovre-lepers, non bene psallunt. Reliq. Antiq. p. 90. Poems of Walter Mapes, p. 148.
A still more numerous list of such offenders is given in the following lines from MS. Lansdowne, 762, fol. 101, v$^o$:—
Hii sunt qui Psalmos corrumpunt nequitur almos: Jangler cum jasper, lepar, galper quoque, draggar, Momeler, for-skypper, for-reynner, sic et over-leper, Fragmina verborum Tutivillus colligit horum.
Tutivillus was the popular name of one of the fiends (see Towneley Mysteries, pp. 310, 319; Reliq. Antiq. p. 257). According to an old legend, a hermit walking out met one of the devils bearing a large sack, very full, under the load of which he seemed to labour. The hermit asked him what he carried in his sack. He answered that it was filled with the fragments of words which the clerks had skipped over or mutilated in the performance of the service, and that he was carrying them to hell to be deposited among the stores there.
7195. Psal. xlvi, 7, 8.
7264. Briddes I biheld. A similar sentiment is expressed in the following parallel passage of a modern poet:—
But most of all it wins my admiration To view the structure of this little work— A bird's nest. Mark it well, within, without, No tool had he that wrought, no knife to cut, No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, No glue to join; his little beak was all: And yet how neatly finished! What nice hand, With every implement and means of art, And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot, Could make me such another? Fondly then We boast of excellence, where noblest skill Instinctive genius foils.—Hurdis.
7342. Ecclesiasticus xi, 9 .
7344. Instead of ll. 7344-7363, Whitaker's text has the following passage:—
'Ho suffreth more than God?' quath he, 'No gome, as ich leyve. He myght amende in a mynt while Al that amys stondes. Ac he suffreth, in ensaumple That we sholde all suffren. Ys no vertue so feyr Of value ne of profit, As ys suffraunce, soveraynliche, So hit be for Godes love, And so wittnesseth the wyse, And wysseth the Frenshe, Bele vertue est suffraunce, Mal dire est petite venjaunce; Bien dire e bien suffrer Fait ly suffrable à bien vener. For-thi.' quath Reson, 'Ich rede the, Rewele thi tonge evere; And er thow lacke eny lyf, Loke ho is to preise. For is no creature under Cryst, That can hymselve make; And yf cristene creatures Couthen make hemselve, Eche lede wolde be lacles, Leyf thow non othere. Man was mad of suche matere, He may nat wel asterte, That som tymes hym tit To folwen hus kynde. Caton acordeth herwith: Nemo sine crimine vivit.
7347. Genes. i, 31 .
7363. Cato, Distich. i, 5.
Si vitam inspicias hominum, si denique mores, Quum culpent alios, nemo sine crimine vivit.
It may be observed here, that Whitaker, in his note on this passage, has very much misunderstood Tyrwhitt (in Chaucer, Cant. T. 3227), in making him the authority for calling the author of the Disticha de Moribus an obscure French writer. Tyrwhitt says that the mode in which Chaucer spells his name (Caton) seems to show that the French translation was more read than the Latin original. The same observation would apply to the present poem: but I am very doubtful how far it is correct. The Distiches of Cato were translated into English, French, German, &c., and were extremely popular. The author of these Distiches, Dionysius Cato, is supposed to have lived under the Antonines, and has certainly no claim to the title of an obscure French writer.
7441-7642. Instead of these lines, Whitaker has the following:—
And wissede the ful ofte What Dowel was to mene, And counsailede the, for Cristes sake, No creature to bygyle, Nother to lye nor to lacke, Ne lere that is defendid, Ne to spille speche, As to speke an ydel; And no tyme to tene, Ne trywe thyng to teenen; Lowe the to lyve forth In the lawe of holy churche, Thenne dost thow wel, withoute drede, Ho can do bet no forse. Clerkes that connen al, ich hope, Thei con do bettere; Ac hit suffuseth to be saved, And to be suche as ich tauhte: Ac for to lovye and lene, And lyve wel and byleyve, Ys y-calid Caritas, Kynde-love in English, And that is Dobet, yf eny suche be, A blessed man that helpeth, And pees be and pacience, And povre withoute defaute. Beatius est dare quam petere. As catel and kynde witt Encombre ful menye, Woo is hym that hem weldeth, Bote he hym wel dispeyne. Scientes et non facientes variis flagellis vapulabunt. Ac comunliche connynge And unkynde rychesse, As lorels to be lordes, And lewede men techeres, And holy churche horen help, Averous and coveytous, Droweth up Dowel, And destruyeth Dobest. Ac grace is a gras therfore To don hem eft growe; Ac grace groweth nat, Til God wil gynne reyne, And wokie thorwe goode werkes Wikkede hertes; Ac er suche a wil wol wexe, God hymself worcheth, And send forth seint espirit To don love sprynge. Spiritus ubi vult spirat, etc. So grace withoute grace Of God and of good werkes, May nat bee, bee thow siker, Thauh we bid evere. Cleregie cometh bote of siht, And kynd witt of sterres, As to be bore other bygete In suche constellacion That wit wexeth therof, And othere wordes bothe. Vultus hujus sæculi sunt subjecti vultibus cœlestibus. So grace is a gyfte of God, And kynde witt a chaunce, And cleregie and connyng of kynde Wittes techynge; And yut is cleregie to comende Fore Cristes love more, Than eny connynge of kynde witt, Bote cleregie hit rewele. For Moyses wutnesseth that God wrot In stoon with hus fynger, Lawe of love owre Lorde wrot, Long ere Crist were; And Crist cam and confermede, And holy-churche made, And in sond a sygne wrot, And seide to the Jewes, 'That seeth hym synneles, Cesse nat, ich hote, To stryke with stoon other with staf This strompett to dethe.' Qui vestrum sine peccato est, etc. For-thi ich consaily alle Cristene Cleregie to honoure, etc.
7453. Luke xii, 38 .
7461. Heb. xii, 6 .
7464. Psalm xxii, 4 .
7470. makynges. 7483. make.—There is a curious analogy between the Greek and the Teutonic languages in the name given to the poet—the Greek ποιήτης (from ποιεῖν), the Anglo-Saxon scóp (from sceopan, to make or create), and the Middle-English maker, preserved in the later Scottish makkar (also applied to a poet), have all the same signification. In the Neo-Latin tongues a different, though somewhat analogous, word was used: the French and Anglo-Norman trouvère, and the Provençal trobador, signify a finder or inventor.
7484. Catonis Distich. iii, 5.
7500. 1 Cor. xiii, 13 . Nunc autem manent fides, spes, charitas, tria hæc: major autem horum est charitas.
7528, &c. Aristotle, Ypocras, and Virgile.—These three names were the great representatives of ancient science and literature in the middle ages. Aristotle represented philosophy, in its most general sense; Virgil represented literature in general, and more particularly the ancient writers who formed the grammar course of scholastic learning, whether verse or prose; Ypocras, or Hippocrates, represented medicine. They are here introduced to illustrate the fact that men of science and learning, as well as warriors and rich men, experience the vicissitudes of fortune.
7534. Felice. Perhaps this name is only introduced for the sake of alliteration.
7536. Rosamounde. I suppose the reference is to "fair Rosamond."
7554. Luc. vi, 38 .
7567. John iii, 8 .
7572. John iii, 11 .
7582. John iii, 8 .
7600. thorugh caractes. It was the popular belief in the middle ages, that while the Jews were accusing the woman taken in adultery, Christ wrote with his staff on the ground the sins of the accusers, and that when they perceived this they dropped their accusation in confusion at finding that their own guilt was known. See this point curiously illustrated in Mr. Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, pp. 220, 221. These are the characters alluded to in Piers Ploughman.
7624. Luke vi, 37 .
7701. 1 Cor. iii, 19 .
7709. Luke ii, 15 .
7714. Matth. ii, 1 .
7721. Luke ii, 7 .
7779. Psalm xxxi, 1 .
7795. Luke vi, 39 . The ignorance and inefficiency of the parish priests appear to have become proverbial in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the latter century a canon of Lilleshul in Shropshire, named John Myrk, or Myrkes, composed an English poem, or rather metrical treatise, on their duties, which he commences by applying to them this same aphorism of our Saviour:—
God seyth hymself, as wryten we fynde, That whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde, Into the dyche they fallen boo, For they ne sen whare by to go. So faren prestes now by dawe, They beth blynde in Goddes lawe, etc. MS. Cotton. Claud. A. II.
It had previously been applied in the same manner to the parish priests by the author of a long French poem (apparently written in England in the fourteenth century) entitled Le Miroir de l'Ome (Speculum Hominis), as follows:—
Dieus dist, et c'est tout verité, Qe si l'un voegle soit mené D'un autre voegle, tresbucher Falt ambedeux en la fossée. C'est un essample comparé As fols curetz, qui sanz curer Ne voient pas le droit sentier, Dont font les autres forsvoier, Qui sont après leur trace alé. Car fol errant ne puet quider, Ne cil comment nous puet saner, Qui mesmes est au mort naufré. MS. in the possession of Mr. J. Russell Smith.
The following picture of the corrupt manners of the parish priests at this time is extracted from a much longer and more minute censure in the same poem:—
Des fols curetz auci y a, Qui sur sa cure demourra Non pour curer, mais q'il sa vie Endroit le corps plus easera. Car lors ou il bargaignera Du seculiere marchandie, Dont sa richesce multeplie; Ou il se donne à leccherie, Du quoy son corps delitera; Ou il se prent à venerie, Qant duist chanter sa letanie, Au bois le goupil huera.
7802. Psal. xv, 5 . We might be led to suppose that this was the "neck verse" in the time of Piers Ploughman. In later times the text which was given to read to those who claimed the benefit of clergy is said to have been the beginning of Psal. lv, Miserere mei, &c.
7840. Eccl. v, 5 .
7846. Trojanus. See the note on line 6859.
7854. Matth. xvi, 27 . Filius enim hominis venturus est in gloria Patris sui cum angelis suis: et tunc reddet unicuique secundum opera ejus.
7915. his flessh is foul flessh. Yet in spite of the "foulness" of its flesh, the peacock was a very celebrated dish at table. For an account of the use made of the peacock in feasts, see Le Grand d'Aussy, Histoire de la Vie privée des Français, tom. i, pp. 299-301, and 361. In the Romance of Mahomet, 13th century, it is said of Dives—
Et dou Riche qui tant poon Englouti et tant bon poisson, Tante piéche de venison, Et but bon vin par grant delit, &c. Roman de Mahommet, l. 301.
7944. Avynet. In the 14th and 15th centuries, as any grammar was called a Donet, because the treatise of Donatus was the main foundation of them all, so, from Esop and Avienus from whom the materials were taken, any collection of fables was called an Avionet or an Esopet. The title of one of these collections in a MS. of the Bibl. du Roi at Paris is, Compilacio Ysopi alata cum Avionetto, cum quibusdam addicionibus et moralitatibus. (Robert, Fabl. Inéd. Essay, p. clxv.) Perhaps the reference in the present case is to the fable of the Peacock who complained of his voice, the 39th in the collection which M. Robert calls Ysopet, in the morality to which are the following lines:—
Les riches conteront Des biens qu'il aront En ce siecle conquis. Cil qui petit ara, De petit contera Au Roy de paradis. Qui vit en povreté, Sans point d'iniquité, Moult ara grant richesse Es cieux, en paradis, O dieux et ses amis Seront joyeux et aise.
7961. Whitaker's text reads here:—
Thus Porfirie and Plato, And poetes menye, Lykneth in here logyk The leeste fowel oute; And whether hii be saf other nat saf The sothe wot not clergie, Ne of Sortes ne of Salamon No scripture can telle, Wether thei be in helle other in hevene, Other Aristotle the wise.
7961. Aristotle, the grete clerk. From the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries the influence of Aristotle's writings in the schools was all-powerful. It was considered almost an impiety to go against his authority. He was indeed "the great clerk."
7967. Sortes. I suppose this is an abbreviated form of the name Socrates. It occurs again in one of the poems printed among the Latin Poetry attributed to Walter Mapes (Camden Society's Publication), which has the following lines:—
Adest ei bajulus cui nomen Gnato, Præcedebat logicum gressu fatigato, Dorso ferens sarcinam ventre tensus lato, Plenam vestro dogmate, o Sortes et Plato.
7987. 1 Peter iv, 18 .
8015. Psalm xxii, 4 .
8073. a maister. This word was generally used in the scholastic ages in a restricted sense, to signify one who had taken his degrees in the schools—a master of arts.
8103. Luke x, 7 .
8133-8137. These are the indications of different Psalms. Psalm li begins with the words, Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. The thirty-first Psalm commences with the words, Beati quorum remissæ sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata. Beatus vir, is the beginning of Psalm i . The fifth verse of Psalm xxxi contains the words Dixi: Confitebor adversum me injustitiam meam Domino.
8141. Psalm xxxi, 6 .
8145. Psalm l, 19 .
8153. Isaiah v, 22 .
8155. Whitaker's text has—
And ete meny sondry metes, Mortrews and poddynges, Braun and blod of the goos, Bacon and colhopes.
The second Trin. Coll. MS. has—
And sette many sundry metis, Mortreux and puddynges, Braun and blood of gees, Bacoun and colopis.
8167. 2 Corinth. xi, 24 , 25, 27.
8173, 8180. 2 Cor. xi, 26 .
8202. Mahoun. Mahoun was the middle-age name of Mohammed, and in the popular writers was often taken in the mere sense of an idol or pagan deity.
8204. justly wombe. MS. Trin. Coll. 2.
8225. in a frayel. Whitaker's text has in a forel, which he explains by "a wicker basket." The second Trin. Coll. MS. has also in a forell. Forel is the Low-Latin forellus, a bag, sack, or purse: a frayel (fraellum) was a little wicker basket, such as were used for carrying figs or grapes.
8273. Matth. v, 19 .
8292. Psalm xiv, 1 .
8368. 1 John iv, 18 .
8416. Luke xix, 8 .
8418. Luke xxi, 1-4.
8444. Surré. Syria.
8474. a mynstrall. The description of the minstrel given here is very curious. For a sketch of the character of this profession see Mr. Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages;" and for more enlarged details of the history of the craft the reader may consult the Introduction to Percy's Reliques, and Chappell's History of National Airs.
8518. a pardon with a peis of leed. The papal bulls, &c., had seals of lead, instead of wax.
8526. Marc. xvi, 17 , 18.
8541. Acts iii, 6 .
8554. Whitaker's text omits all that follows here to l. 8958 of our text, entering very abruptly upon the subject there treated. Some of the intervening matter had already been inserted in other places in Whitaker's text. See our notes on ll. 2846 and 3030.
8567. cart ... with breed fro Stratforde. Stratford-at-Bow is said to have been famous in old times for its numerous bakers, who supplied a great part of the metropolis. Stowe, in his Survey of London, p. 159 (who appears to have altered the text of Piers Ploughman to suit his own calculation, for all the manuscripts and printed editions I have collated give "twice twenty and ten"), observes, "And because I have here before spoken of the bread carts comming from Stratford at the Bow, ye shall understand that of olde time the bakers of breade at Stratford were allowed to bring dayly (except the Sabbaoth and principall feast) diverse long cartes laden with bread, the same being two ounces in the pennie wheate loafe heavier than the penny wheate loafe baked in the citie, the same to be solde in Cheape, three or foure carts standing there, betweene Gutherans lane and Fausters lane ende, one cart on Cornehill, by the conduit, and one other in Grasse streete. And I have reade that in the fourth yere of Edward the second, Richard Reffeham being maior, a baker named John of Stratforde, for making bread lesser than the assise, was with a fooles whoode on his head, and loaves of bread about his necke, drawne on a hurdle through the streets of this citie. Moreover in the 44. of Edward the third, John Chichester being maior of London, I read in the visions of Pierce Plowman, a booke so called, as followeth. There was a careful commune when no cart came to towne with baked bread from Stratford: tho gan beggers weepe, and workemen were agast, a little this will be thought long in the date of our Dirte, in a drie Averell a thousand and three hundred, twise thirtie and ten, &c. I reade also in the 20. of Henrie the eight, Sir James Spencer being maior, six bakers of Stratford were merced in the Guildhall of London, for baking under the size appoynted. These bakers of Stratford left serving of this citie, I know not uppon what occasion, about 30 yeares since."
8572. a drye Aprill. This is without doubt the dry season placed by Fabyan in the year 1351, which, as he describes it, began with the month of April. The difference of the date arises probably from a different system of computation. Fabian says, "In the sommer of this xxvii yeare, it was so drie that it was many yeres after called the drie sommer. For from the latter ende of March, till the latter ende of Julye, fell lytle rayne or none, by reason whereof manye inconveniences ensued."
8576. Whan Chichestre was maire. According to Fabyan, John Chichester was mayor only once, in 1368, 1369, which was the period of the "thirde mortalytie." The other authorities seem to agree in giving this as the year of Chichester's mayoralty. He may perhaps have been mayor more than once. See Introduction.
8645. Galat. i, 10 .
8685. Psalm x, 7 .
8707, 8708. The two persons mentioned here (the shoemaker of Southwark and dame Emma of Shoreditch) were probably eminent sorcerers and fortune-tellers of the time.
8769-8778. To understand fully this passage, it must be borne in mind that the corn lands were not so universally hedged as at present, and that the portions belonging to different persons were separated only by a narrow furrow, as is still the case in some of the uninclosed lands in Cambridgeshire.
8812. Brugges. Bruges was the great mart of continental commerce during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.
8813. Pruce-lond—Prussia, which was then the farthest country in the interior of Europe with which a regular trade was carried on by the English merchants.
8827. Matth. vi, 21 .
8858. Luke vi, 25 .
8879. Psalm ci, 7 .
8891. a lady of sorwe. The old printed edition has a laye of sorow.
8900. Whitaker has no division here, but continues the previous passus, and omits many lines and has many variations in what follows.
8903. I slepe therinne o nyghtes. This passage is curious, because at the time the poem was written, it was the custom for all classes of society to go to bed quite naked, a practice which is said to have been not entirely laid aside in the sixteenth century. We see constant proofs of this practice in the illuminations of old manuscripts. The following memorial lines are written in the margin of a MS. of the thirteenth century:—
Ne be thi winpil nevere so jelu ne so stroutende, Ne thi faire tail so long ne so trailende, That tu ne schalt at evin al kuttid bilevin, And tou schalt to bedde gon so nakid as tou were [borin]. MS. Cotton. Cleop. C. VI, fol. 22, r$^o$.
In the Roman de la Violette, the old nurse expresses her astonishment that her young mistress should retain her chemise when she goes to bed:—
Et quant elle son lit fait a, Sa dame apiele, si se couche Nue en chemise en la couche; C'onques en trestoute sa vie La biele, blonde, l'escavie, Ne volt demostrer sa char nue. La vielle en est au lit venue, Puis li a dit: 'Dame, j'esgart Une chose, se Dex me gart, Dont je sui molt esmervillie C'onques ne vous vi despoillie, Et si vous ai vij. ans gardée; Molt vous ai souvent esgardée Que vo chemise ne sachiés!' Rom. de la Viol. l. 577.
The lady explains her conduct by stating that she has a mark on the breast which she had promised that no one should ever see.
8906. Luke xiv, 20 .
8950. noon heraud ne harpour. Robes and other garments were among the most usual gifts bestowed upon minstrels and heralds by the princes and great barons. See before, ll. 8480, 8481.
8970. Matth. vi, 25 , 26.
8999. John xiv, 13 ; xv, 16. Matth. iv, 4 .
9037. Psalm cxliv, 16 .
9039. fourty wynter. During the forty years that the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they did not apply themselves to agriculture.
9049. Sevene slepe. The legend of the seven sleepers was remarkably popular during the middle ages.
9101. Psalm xxxi. 1.
9176. Psalm lxxv, 6 .
9178. Psalm lxxii, 20 . Whitaker's Passus sextus de Dowel ends with this quotation.
9317. Both in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, and in the Creed, there are frequent expressions of indignation at the extravagant expenditure in painting the windows of the abbeys and churches. It must not be forgotten that a little later the same feeling as that exhibited in these satires led to the destruction of many of the noblest monuments of medieval art.
9344. Mat. xix, 23 , 24.
9347. Apocal. xiv, 13 .
9352. Matth. v, 3 .
9452. Compare the defence of poverty in Chaucer (Cant. T. 6774):—
Juvenal saith of poverte merily: The poore man, whan he goth by the way, Beforn the theves he may sing and play. Poverte is hateful good; and, as I gesse, A ful gret bringer out of besinesse; A gret amender eke of sapience, To him that taketh it in patience. Poverte is this although it seme elenge, Possession that no wight wol challenge. Poverte ful often, whan a man is low, Maketh his God and eke himself to know: Poverte a spectakel is, as thinketh me, Thurgh which he may his veray frendes see. And therfore, sire, sin that I you not greve, Of my poverte no more me repreve.
The definition given in Piers Ploughman is taken from the Dialogues of Secundus, where it is thus expressed:—"Quid est paupertas? Odibile bonum, sanitatis mater, curarum remotio, absque sollicitudine semita, sapientiæ reparatrix, negotium sine damno, intractabilis substantia, possessio absque calumnia, incerta fortuna, sine sollicitudine felicitas." (MS. Reg. 9 A xiv, fol. 140 v$^o$.) See also Roger de Hoveden, p. 816, and Vincent de Beauvais, Spec. Hist. lib. x, c. 71.
9517. the paas of Aultone. Whitaker has Haultoun, and says that this pass is Halton "in Cheshire, formerly infamous to a proverb as a haunt of robbers."
9529. Cantabit, etc. The author has modified, or the scribes have corrupted, the well-known line of Juvenal,
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.
9665. These definitions will be found in Isidore, Etymol. lib. xl, c. 1, and Different, lib. ii, c. 29. They are repeated by Alcuin, De Anim. Rat. N. x, p. 149, Anima est, dum vivificat; dum contemplatur, spiritus est; dum sentit, sensus est; dum sapit, animus est; dum intelligit, mens est; dum discernit, ratio est; dum consentit, voluntas est; dum recordatur, memoria est.
9708. Prov. xxv, 27 .
9740. Epist. ad Rom. xii, 3 .
9751. the seven synnes. The seven deadly sins were—pride, anger, envy, sloth, covetousness, gluttony, and lechery. "Now ben they cleped chiefetaines, for as moche as they be chiefe, and of hem springen alle other sinnes. The rote of thise sinnes than is pride, the general rote of alle harmes. For of this rote springen certain braunches: as, ire, envie, accidie or slouthe, avarice or coveitise, (to commun understonding) glotonie, and lecherie: and eche of thise chief sinnes hath his braunches and his twigges." Chaucer, {{Canterbury Tales (ed. Skeat)/Parson#s23|Persones Tale, p. 40]].
9766. Psal. xcvi, 7 ; iv, 3 .
9828. in Latyn. The monks had collections of comparisons, similitudes, proverbs, &c., to be introduced in their sermons, and even when preaching in English they generally quoted them in Latin. This I suppose to be the meaning of the expression here.
9918. Matth. xviii, 3 .
9934. 1 Corinth. xiii, 4 .
9946. 1 Corinth. xiii, 12 .
9957. a tunicle of Tarse. Tarse was the name given to a kind of silk, said to have been brought from a country of that name on the borders of Cathai, or China. Chaucer (Cant. T. l. 2162), describing "the king of Inde," says—
His coote armour was of a cloth of Tars, Cowched of perlys whyte, round and grete.
Ducange (v. Tarsicus) quotes a visitation of the treasury of St. Paul's, London, in 1295, where there is mention of Tunica et dalmatica de panno Indico Tarsico Besantato de auro, and of a Casula de panno Tarsico.
10004. Psal. vi, 7 .
10009. Psal. l, 19 .
10062. Matth. vi, 16 .
10069. Edmond and Edward. St. Edmund the martyr, king of East Anglia, and king Edward the Confessor.
10124. Psal. iv, 9 .
10159. Antony and Egidie. Whitaker has Antonie and Ersenie. St. Antony is well known as the father and patron of monks, and for the persecutions he underwent from the devil. St. Giles, or Egidius, is said to have been a Greek, who came to France about the end of the seventh century, and established himself in a hermitage near the mouth of the Rhone, and afterwards in the neighbourhood of Nismes. Arsenius was a noble Roman who, at the end of the fourth century, retired to Egypt to live the life of an anchoret in the desert.
10174. after an hynde cride. The monkish biographer of St. Giles relates, that he was for some time nourished with the milk of a hind in the forest, and that a certain prince discovered his retreat while hunting in his woods, by pursuing the hind till it took shelter in St. Giles's hermitage.
10183. Hadde a bird. This incident is not found in the common lives of St. Antony.
10187. Poul. Paul was a Grecian hermit, who lived in the tenth century in the wilderness of Mount Latrus, and became the founder of one of the monastic establishments there. He was famous for the rigorous severity of his life.
10203. Marie Maudeleyne. By Mary Magdalen here is meant probably St. Mary the Egyptian, who lived in the fifth century, and who, according to the legend, after having spent her youth in unbridled debauchery, repented in her twenty-ninth year, and lived during the remainder of her life (forty-seven years) in the wilderness beyond the Jordan, without seeing one human being during that time, and sustained only by the precarious food which she found in the desert.
10239. Whitaker's text here adds a passage relating to Tobias:—
Marie Magdalene By mores levede and dewes; Love and leel byleyve Heeld lyf and soule togedere.
Maria Egyptiaca Eet in thyrty wynter Bote thre lytel loves, And love was her souel. Ich can nat rekene hem ryght now, Ne reherce here names, That lyveden thus for oure Lordes love Meny longe yeres, Whitoute borwyng other beggyng, Other the boke lyeth; And woneden in wildernesse Among wilde bestes; Ac dorst no beste byten hem By daye ne by nyghte, Bote myldeliche whan thei metten Maden louh chere, And feyre byfore tho men Fauhnede whith the tayles. Ac bestes brouhte hem no mete, Bote onliche the fouweles; In tokenynge that trywe man Alle tymes sholde Fynde honeste men in holy men And other ryghtful peuple. For wolde never feithful goud That freres and monkes token Lyflode of luther wynnynges In al here lyf tyme; As wytnesseth holy writt Whot Thobie deyde To is wif, whan he was blynde, Herde a lambe blete,— 'A! wyf, be war,' quath he, 'What ye have here ynne. Lord leyve,' quath the lede, 'No stole thyng be here!' Videte ne furtum sit. Et alibi, Melius est mori quam male vivere. This is no more to mene, Bote men of holy churche Sholde receyve ryght nauth Bot that ryght wolde, And refuse reverences And raveneres offrynges; Thenne wolde lordes and ladies Be loth to agulte, And to take of here tenaunts More than treuthe wolde; And marchauns merciable wolde be, And men of lawe bothe. Wold religeouse refuse Raveneres almesse, Then Grace sholde growe yut And grene-leved wexe, And Charité, that child is now, Sholde chaufen of hem self, And comfortye all crystene, Wold holy churche amende. Job the parfit patriarch This proverbe wrot and tauhte, To makye a man lovye mesure, That monkes beeth and freeres. Nunquam dicit Job, rugiet onager, etc.
Throughout this part of the poem, Whitaker's text differs very much in words and phraseology from the one now printed, but it would take up too much space to point out all these variations.
10247. Job vi, 5 .
10270. 2 Corinth. ix, 9 .
10303. These sentences appear to be quotations from the fathers of the Latin Church.
10322. lussheburwes. A foreign coin, much adulterated, common in England in the middle of the fourteenth century. Chaucer (C. T. 15445) uses the word in a very expressive passage:—
This maketh that oure wyfes wol assaye Religious folk, for thay may bettre paye Of Venus payementes than may we: God woot! no lusscheburghes paye ye.
Among the foreign money, mostly of a base quality, which came into this country in the fourteenth century, the coinage of the counts of Luxemburg, or, as it was then called, Lusenburg (hence called lussheburwes and lusscheburghes), seems to have been the most abundant, and to have given most trouble. These coins were the subject of legislation in 1346, 1347, 1348, and 1351; so that the grievance must have been at its greatest height at the period to which the poem of Piers Ploughman especially belongs. Many of these coins are preserved, and found in the cabinets of collectors; they are in general very much like the contemporary English coinage, and might easily be taken for it, but the metal is very base.
10368. Grammer, the ground of al. In the scholastic learning of the middle ages, grammar was considered as the first of the seven sciences, and the foundation-stone of all the rest. See my Essay on Anglo-Saxon Literature, introductory to vol. i. of the Biographia Britannica Literaria, p. 72. The importance of grammar is thus stated in the Image du Monde of Gautier de Metz (thirteenth century):—
Li primeraine des vij. ars, Dont or n'est pas seus li quars, A ichest tans, chou est gramaire, Sans laquele nus ne vaut gaire Qui à clergie veut aprendre: Car petit puet sans li entendre. Gramaires si est fondemens De clergie et coumenchemens; Cou est li porte de science, Par cui on vient à sapience. De lettres en gramaire escole Qui ensegne et forme parole, Soit en Latin ou en Roumans, Ou en tous langages palans; Qui bien saroit toute gramaire, Toute parole saroit faire. Par parole fist Dius le monde, Et sentence est parole monde.
10398. Corpus Christi feeste. Corpus Christi day was a high festival of the Church of Rome, held annually on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in memory, as was said, of the miraculous confirmation of transubstantiation under pope Urban IV.
10418. This Makometh. This account of Mohammed was the one most popularly current in the middle ages. According to Hildebert, who wrote a life of the pseudo-prophet in Latin verse in the twelfth century, Mohammed was a Christian, skilled in magical arts, who, on the death of the patriarch of Jerusalem, aspired to succeed him:—
Nam male devotus quidam baptismate lotus, Plenus perfidia vixit in ecclesia.  . . . . . .  Nam cum transisset Pater illius urbis, et isset In cœlum subito corpore disposito, Tunc exaltari magus hic et pontificari Affectans avide; se tamen hæc pavide Dixit facturum, nisi sciret non nociturum Si præsul fiat, cum Deus hoc cupiat.
His intrigues being discovered, the emperor drives him away, and in revenge he goes and founds a new sect. The story of the pigeon (which is not in Hildebert) is found in Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. lib. xxiii, c. 40. This story is said to be founded in truth. Neither of them are found in the Roman de Mahomet (by Alexander du Pont), written in the thirteenth century, and edited by MM. Reinaud and Michel, Paris, 1831, 8vo, a work which contains much information concerning the Christian notions relative to Mohammed in the middle ages.
10478. John xvi, 24 .
10481, 10486. Matth. v, 13 .
10499. Ellevene holy men. The eleven apostles who remained after the apostasy of Judas and the crucifixion of their Lord.
10550. Ne fesauntz y-bake. The pheasant was formerly held in the same honour as the peacock (see before the note on l. 7915), and was served at table in the same manner. It was considered one of the most precious dishes. See Le Grand d'Aussy, Hist. de la Vie privée des François, ii, 19. The Miroir de l'Ome (MS. in the possession of Mr. Russell Smith) says (punning) of the luxurious prelates of the fourteenth century,—
Pour le phesant et le bon vin Le bien-faisant et le divin L'evesque laist à nonchalure; Si quiert la coupe et crusequin, Ainz que la culpe du cristin Pour corriger et mettre en cure.
10553. Matth. xxii, 4 .
10581. Mark xvi, 15 .
10585. So manye prelates. 10699. that huppe aboute in Engelond. The pope appointed many titular bishops of foreign sees in which, from the nature of circumstances, they could not possibly reside, and who therefore were a burthen upon the church. Some of these prelates appear to have resorted to England, and to have exercised the episcopal functions, consecrating churches, &c. The church of Elsfield, in Oxfordshire, was consecrated by a foreign bishop. (See Kennett's Parochial Antiquities.)
10593. John x, 11 .
10599. Matth. xx, 4 , 7.
10606. Matth. vii, 7 .
10617. Galat. vi, 14 .
10632. That roode thei honoure. A cross was the common mark on the reverse of our English money at this period, and for a long time previous to it. The point of satirical wit in this passage of Piers Ploughman appears to be taken from the old Latin rhymes of the beginning of the thirteenth century. See the curious poem De Cruce Denarii, in Walter Mapes, p. 223. Another poem in the same volume (p. 38) speaks thus of the court of Rome:—
Nummis in hac curia non est qui non vacet; Crux placet, rotunditas, et albedo placet.
10637. Shul torne as templers dide. The suppression of the order of the Templars was at this time fresh in people's memories. It was the general belief, and not without some foundation, that the Templars had entirely degenerated from their original sanctity and faithfulness, and that before the dissolution of the order they were addicted to degrading vices and superstitions; and they were accused of sacrificing everything else to their grasping covetousness.
10659. Whan Constantyn. The Christian church began first to be endowed with wealth and power under the emperor Constantine the Great.
10649. Luke i, 52 .
10695-10699. Instead of these lines, Whitaker's text has the following:—
And bereth name of Neptalym, Of Nynyve and Damaske. For when the holy kynge of hevene Sende hus sone to eerthe, Meny myracles he wroughte, Man for to turne, In ensample that men sholde See by sad reyson That men myghte nat be savede Bote thorw mercy and grace, And thorw penaunce and passioun, And parfyght byleyve; And bycam a man of a mayde, And metropolitanus And baptisede an busshoppede Whit the blode of hus herte, Alle that wilnede other wolde Whit inwhight byleyve hit. Meny seint sitthe Suffrede deth alsoo, For to enferme the faithe Ful wyde where deyden, In Inde and in Alisaundrie, In Ermanye, in Spayne; An fro mysbyleve Meny man turnede. In savacion of mannys saule Seynt Thomas of Cauntelbury Among unkynde Cristene In holy churche was sleye, And alle holy churche Honourede for that deyinge: He is a forbusur to alle busshopes, And a bryghthe myrour, And sovereynliche to alle suche That of Surrye bereth name, And nat in Engelounde to huppe aboute, And halewen men auters.
In the remainder of this passus, Whitaker's text differs much from the one I have printed, but in such a manner that to give here the variations it would be necessary to reprint the whole. In the remainder of the poem, the variations are not great or important, being only such as we always find in different copies of poems which enjoyed considerable popularity.
10716. Isai. iii, 7 .
10721. Malach. iii, 10 .
10733. Luke x, 27 . Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex omni mente tua, et proximum tuum sicut teipsum.
10755. John xi, 43 .
10787. litlum and litlum, by little and little, gradually. It is the pure Anglo-Saxon phrase. In the Anglo-Saxon version of Genesis xl, 10 , the Latin paulatim is rendered by lytlum and lytlum.
10844. Psal. xxxvi, 24 .
10891. Matth. xii, 32 .
11000. Luke i, 38 .
11023. Matth. ix, 12 . Mark ii, 17 . Luke v, 31 .
11033. Matth. xxvi, 37 .
11044. Matth. xi, 18 .
11075. Matth. xxi, 13 .
11121. Matth. xviii, 7 .
11238. Matth. xxvii, 46 , and Mark xv, 34 .
11300. Rom. iv, 13 .
11322. John i, 29 and 36.
11396. Matth. xx, 40.
11518, 11520. lo! here silver ... two pens. It must be remembered that at this period the mass of the coinage, including pence, halfpence, and farthings, was of silver; copper came into use for the smaller coinage at a later period. Two pence of Edward III would be worth about two shillings of our modern money.
11670. John xii, 32.
11708. tu fabricator omnium. This was one of the hymns of the catholic church.
11866. Luke xiii, 27 .
11883. 1 Corinth. xiii, 1 .
11894. Matth. vii, 21 .
11998. Thre thynges. This proverb is frequently quoted by the satirical and facetious writers of the middle ages. Thus in Chaucer (C. T. 5860):—
Thou saist, that droppyng houses, and eek smoke, And chydyng wyves, maken men to fle Out of here oughne hous.
In the poem entitled Golias de Conjuge non ducenda, in Walter Mapes, p. 83, the proverb is alluded to in the following words:—
Fumus, et mulier, et stillicidia, Expellunt hominem a domo propria.
There was an old French proverbial distich to the same effect,—
Fumée, pluye, et femme sans raison, Chassent l'homme de sa maison.
12040. 2 Corinth. xii, 9.
12097. to be dubbed. These and the following lines contain a continued allusion to the ceremonies of knighthood and tournaments.
12106. Psal. cxvii, 26 .
12211. Matth. xxvii, 54 .
12232, 12244. Longeus ... this blynde bacheler. This alludes to one of the many legends which the monks engrafted upon the scripture history. Longeus is said to have been the name of the soldier who pierced the side of Christ with his spear; and it is pretended that he was previously blind from his birth, but that the blood of the Saviour ran down his spear, and a drop of it touching his eye, he was instantly restored to sight, by which miracle he was converted. See, in illustration of this subject, Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 334; The Towneley Mysteries, p. 321; Jubinal, Mystères inédits du quinzième Siècle, tom. ii, pp. 254-257; &c.
12319, 12418, 12420. Mercy and Truthe, ... Pees ... Rightwisnesse. Lydgate seems to have had this passage in his mind, when he described the four sisters in the following lines at the commencement of one of his poems (MS. Harl. 2255, fol. 21):—
Mercy and Trouthe mette on an hih mounteyn Briht as the sonne with his beemys cleer, Pees and Justicia walkyng on the pleyn, And with foure sustryn, moost goodly of ther cheer, List nat departe nor severe in no maneer, Of oon accoord by vertuous encrees, Joyned in charité, pryncessis moost enteer, Mercy and Trouthe, Rihtwisnesse and Pees.
12361. a tale of Waltrot. This name, like Wade in Chaucer, appears to have been that of a hero of romances and tales, or a personage belonging to the popular superstitions. Perhaps it may be connected with the old German Waltschrat (satyrus, pilosus). See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 270.
12438. Psal. xxix, 6 .
12566. Matth. xiv, 28 .
12599. a spirit speketh to helle. The picture of the "Harrowing of Hell," which here fol, bears a striking resemblance to the analogous scene in the old Mysteries, particularly in that edited by Mr. Halliwell under this title, 8vo, 1840. Compare the play on the same subject in the Towneley Mysteries, p. 244.
12601. Psal. xxiii, 7 , 9.
12645, 12669, 12676. sevene hundred wynter ... thritty wynter ... two and thritty wynter. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers always counted duration of time by winters and nights; for so many years, they said so many winters, and so many nights for so many days. This form continued long in popular usage, and still remains in our words fortnight and se'nnight.
12663. Gobelyn. Goblin is a name still applied to a devil. It belongs properly to a being of the old Teutonic popular mythology, a hob-goblin, the "lubber-fiend" of the poet, and seems to be identical with the German kobold. (See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 286.) Gobelin occurs as the name of one of the shepherds in the Mystery of the Nativity, printed by M. Jubinal in his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. 71. It occurs as the name of a devil in a song of the commencement of the fourteenth century, Political Songs, p. 238:—
Sathanas huere syre Seyde on is sawe, Gobelyn made is gerner Of gromene mawe.
12679. to warne Pilates wif. This is an allusion to a popular legend prevalent at this time that the devil wished to hinder Christ's crucifixion, and that he appeared to Pilate's wife in a dream, and caused her to beseech her husband not to condemn the Saviour. It was founded on the passage in Matthew xxvii, 19. Sedente autem illo pro tribunali, misit ad eum uxor ejus, dicens: Nihil tibi et justo illi: multa enim passa sum hodie per visum propter eum. The most complete illustration of the passage of Piers Ploughman will be found in Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 308, "Pilate's Wife's Dream."
12691. And now I se wher a soule | Cometh hiderward seillynge, | With glorie, &c. With this beautiful passage may be compared a very similar one in the Samson Agonistes of Milton:—
But who is this, what thing of sea or land? Female of sex it seems, That so bedeck'd, ornate and gay, Comes this way sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim.
12753. y-lik a lusard. In the illuminations of manuscripts representing the scene of the temptation, the serpent is often figured with legs like a lizard or crocodile, and a human face.
12759. Matth. v, 38 .
12781. Matth. v, 17 .
12801. thorugh a tree. Some of the medieval legends go still farther, and pretended that the tree from which the wood of the cross was made was descended directly from a plant from the tree in Paradise of which Adam and Eve were tempted to eat the fruit.
12805. Psal. vii, 16 .
12840. Psal. l, 6 .
12876. 2 Corinth. xii, 4 .
12886. Psal. cxlii, 2 .
12896. Astroth. This name, as given to one of the devils, occurs in a curious list of actors in the Miracle Play of St. Martin, given by M. Jubinal, in the preface to his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. ix. It is similarly used in the Miracle Play of the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, Jubinal, ib. vol. i, p. 69. In one of the Towneley Mysteries (p. 246), this name is likewise given to one of the devils:—
Calle up Astarot and Anaballe, To gyf us counselle in this case.
12937. Psal. lxxxiv, 11 .
12943. Psal. cxxxii, 1 .
13222. 1 Sam. xviii, 7 .
13274. Luke xxiv, 46 .
13317. John xx, 29 .
13375. Veni creator spiritus. The first line of the hymn at vespers, on the feast of Pentecost.
13412. 1 Corinth. xii, 4 .
13550. Cato, Distich. 14, lib. ii:—
Esto forti animo cum sis damnatus inique; Nemo diu gaudet qui judice vincit iniquo.
13789. I knew nevere cardynal. The contributions levied upon the clergy for the support of the pope's messengers and agents was a frequent subject of complaint in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
13807. At Avynone among the Jewes. In the middle ages there was a large congregation of Jews at Avignon, as in most of the principal cities in the south of France. In the civil dissensions which disturbed Italy during this century, the pope was frequently obliged to take shelter at Avignon and other places within the French territory.
13825. Matth. v, 45 .
13855. Rom. xii, 19 ; Hebr. x, 30 .
14142. Kynde cessede. The lines which follow contain an allusion to the dissipation of manners which followed the pestilence.
14191, 14196. Westmynstre Halle ... the Arches. The law courts have been held at Westminster from the earliest Anglo-Norman times, it being the king's chief palace. The court of the arches was a very ancient consistory court of the archbishop of Canterbury, held at Bow church in London, which was called St. Mary de Arcubus or St. Mary le Bow, from the circumstance of its having been built on arches.
14211. leet daggen hise clothes. An account of the mode in which the rich fashionable robes of the dandies of the fourteenth century were dagged, or cut in slits at the edges and borders, will be found in any work on costume: it is frequently represented in the contemporary illuminations in manuscripts. Chaucer, in the "Persones Tale," when treating of pride and of the "superfluitee of clothing," speaks of "the costlewe furring in hir gounes, so moche pounsoning of chesel to maken holes, so moche dagging of sheres," &c. And again, "if so be that they wolden yeve swiche pounsoned and dagged clothing to the povre peple, it is not convenient to were for hir estate," &c. In the Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard II (printed for the Camden Society), p. 21, the clergy is blamed for not preaching against the new fashions in dress:—
For wolde they blame the burnes That broughte newe gysis, And dryve out the dagges And alle the Duche cotis.
Whitaker gives the following singular explanation of this passage:—"Let dagge hus clothes, probably, let them fall to the ground, or divested himself of them; for warriors are 'succinct' for battle as well as 'for speed!'"
14269. A glazene howve. I suppose this means that, in return for his gold, Physic gave him a hood of glass, i. e. a very frail protection for his person.
14367. of the Marche of Walys. Whitaker's text reads, of the Marche of Yrelonde. The clergy of the Welsh border appear, from allusions in other works, to have been proverbial for their ignorance and irregularity of life.
14438. Psal. cxlvi, 4 .
14444. wage menne to werre. This is a curious account of the composition of an army in the fourteenth century.
14482. Exod. xx, 17 .
14511. suffre the dede in dette, i. e., The friars persuade people to leave to them, under pretence of saving their souls, the property which was due to their creditors, and thus, after their death, their debts remain unpaid.
14615, 14617. this lymytour ... he salvede so oure wommen. The whole of this passage, taken with what precedes, is an amusing satire upon the limitour. Compare the description of the limitour given by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales, ll. 208-271, who alludes to his kindness for the women. The limitour was a friar licensed to visit and beg within certain limits. His pertinacity and inquisitiveness in visiting, alluded to in the name given him in Piers Ploughman (Sir Penetrans-domos), is admirably satirized by Chaucer, in the opening of the "Wif of Bathes Tale:"—
In olde dayes of the kyng Arthour, Of which that Britouns speken gret honour, Al was this lond fulfilled of fayrie; The elf-queen, with hir joly compaignye, Daunced ful oft in many a grene mede. This was the old oppynyoun, as I rede I speke of many hundrid yer ago; But now can no man see noon elves mo. For now the grete charité and prayeres Of lymytours and other holy freres, That sechen every lond and every streem, As thik as motis in the sonne-beem, Blesynge halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures, Citees and burghes, castels hihe, and toures, Thropes and bernes, shepnes and dayeries, This makith that ther ben no fayeries: For ther as wont was to walken an elf, Ther walkith noon but the lymytour himself, In undermeles and in morwenynges, And saith his matyns and his holy thinges, As he goth in his lymytacioun.
NOTES TO THE CREED.
65. a Minoure. These were the Gray or Franciscan Friars, founded at the beginning of the thirteenth century by St. Francis of Assise. They are supposed to have come to England in 1224, when they settled, first at Canterbury, and afterwards at London.
75. a Carm. 95. Maries men. The Carmelites, or White Friars, pretended to be of great antiquity, and were originally established at Mount Carmel, from whence they were driven by the Saracens about the year 1238. They were brought into England in 1244, and settled first at Alnwick in Northumberland, and at Ailesford in Kent.
About the date (or a little before) of our poem, the Carmelites appear to have been very active in asserting in a boasting manner the superiority of their order over the others. An anecdote told by Fuller (History of Cambridge, p. 113), under the year 1371, affords a curious illustration. "John Stokes, a Dominican, born at Sudbury, in Suffolk, but studying in Cambridge, as champion of his order, fell foul on the Carmelites, chiefly for calling themselves 'The brothers of the Blessed Virgin,' and then by consequence all knew whose uncle they pretend themselves. He put them to prove their pedigree by Scripture, how the kindred came in. In brief, Bale saith, 'he left red notes in the white coats of the Carmelites,' he so belaboured them with his lashing language. But John Hornby a Carmelite (born at Boston in Lincolnshire) undertook him, called by Bale Cornutus, by others Hornet-bee, so stinging his stile. He proved the brothership of his order to the Virgin Mary by visions, allowed true by the infallible popes, so that no good Christian durst deny it."
130. Freres of the Pye. The Fratres de Pica, or Friars of the Pye, are said to have received their name from the circumstance of their wearing their outer garment black and white like a magpie. Very little is known of their history. They are said to have had but one house in England.
143. Robartes men. See before the notes on the Vision, ll. 88 and ll. 3410.
155. miracles of mydwyves. The monks had many relics and superstitious practices to preserve and aid women in childbirth. One of the commissioners for the suppression of the monasteries mentions among the relics of a house he had visited, "Mare Magdalens girdell, and yt is wrappyde and coveride with white, sent also with gret reverence to women traveling:" he had previously spoken of "oure Lades gyrdell of Bruton, rede silke, wiche is a solemne reliquie sent to women travelyng wiche shall not miscarie in partu." (MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv, fol. 249.) See the account of a gem, which had a similar virtue, in Matthew Paris's History of the Abbots of St. Albans.
305. the Prechoures. The Black Friars, or Dominicans, were founded by St. Dominic, a Spanish monk of the end of the eleventh century. They were called Friars Preachers, because their chief duty was to preach and convert heretics. They came into England in 1221, and had their first houses in Oxford.
327. posternes in privité. These private posterns are frequently alluded to in the reports of the Commissioners for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. One of them, speaking of the abbey of Langden, says, "Wheras immediatly descendying fro my horse, I sent Bartlett your servant, with all my servantes to circumcept the abbay and surely to kepe all bake dorres and startyng hoilles, and I myself went alone to the abbottes logeying joyning upon the feldes and wode, evyn lyke a cony clapper full of startyng hoilles." (MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv, fol. 127.) Another commissioner (MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. iv, fol. 35), in a letter concerning the monks of the Charter-house in London, says, "These charterhowse monkes wolde be callyde solytary, but to the cloyster dore ther be above xxiiij. keys in the handes of xxiiij. persons, and hit is lyke my letters, unprofytable tayles and tydinges and sumtyme perverse concell commythe and goythe by reason therof. Allso to the buttrey dore ther be xij. sundrye keys in xij. [mens] handes wherin symythe to be small husbandrye."
351. merkes of merchauntes. Their ciphers or badges painted in the windows. For examples, see the note in Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. ii, p. 98, last edition.
481. euelles. Perhaps for evel-les, i. e. without evil.
534. the Austyns. The Austin Friars, or Friars Eremites of the order of St. Augustine, came into England about the year 1250. Before the end of the fourteenth century they possessed a great number of houses in this island.
566. the foure ordres. The four principal orders of Mendicant Friars. See note on the Vision, l. 116.
721. harkne at Herdforthe. This appears to be an allusion to some event which had recently occurred among the Franciscans at Hertford, or at Hereford: if the latter, perhaps they had been active in the persecution of Walter Brut. See below, l. 1309.
745. than ther lefte in Lucifere. Than there existed in Lucifer, before his fall. See before, the note on l. 681 of the Vision.
771. couuen. Probably an error of the old printed edition for connen.
869. lath. Perhaps an error of the printer of the first edition for lay.
911. Matth. vii, 15 .
913. werwolves. People who had the power of turning themselves into, or were turned into, wolves. This fearful superstition, which is very ancient, was extremely prevalent in the middle ages. In French they were called Loup-garous. The history of a personage of this kind forms the subject of the Lai de Bisclaveret, by Marie de France. Sir Frederick Madden has published a very remarkable Early-English metrical romance on the subject of "William and the Werwolf." See on this superstition Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 620-622.
954. Golias. There is perhaps here an allusion to the famous satire on the Monkish orders entitled Apocalypsis Goliæ, printed among the poems of Walter Mapes.
967. the kynrede of Caym. In the popular belief of the middle ages, hob-goblins and evil spirits (which haunted the wilds and the waters) literally, and bad men figuratively, were represented as being descended from the first murderer, Cain. In Old-English poetry, Caymes kyn is a common epithet for very wicked people. In the Anglo-Saxon romance of Beowulf, the Grendel is said to be of "Cain's kin."
1051. wytnes on Wyclif. In the persecutions to which Wycliffe was subjected for his opinions in 1382, his most violent opponents were the Mendicants. He died in 1384, quietly at his living of Lutterworth.
1189. a lymytoure. See before, the note on l. 14615 of the Vision.
1178. stumlen in tales. An allusion to the idle and superstitious tales with which the monks filled their sermons, in place of simple and sound doctrine.
1309. Water Brut. Walter Brut (or Bright) was a native of Herefordshire, and was prosecuted by the Bishop of Hereford for heresy in 1393. A long account of his defence will be found in Foxe's Acts and Monuments.
1401. Hildegare. I suppose this refers to St. Hildegardis, a nun who flourished in the middle of the twelfth century, and who was celebrated among the Roman Catholics as a prophetess. Her prophecies are not uncommon in manuscripts, and they have been printed. Those which relate to the future corruptions in the monkish orders are given in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, book vi, and in other works.