Front matter (continued 14)

116. From Troil. iii. 1656-9.

129-38. Perhaps the finest passage in the treatise, but not very original. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxi. 456-7; Ch. Boeth. bk. iv. met. 6. 20-3.

133. Cf. 'ones a yere al thinges renovelen'; Ch. C. T., I 1027.

134. Cf. 'To be gayer than the heven'; Book of the Duch. 407.

139. Imitated from Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 2. 54-5; but with the substitution of 'garmentes' for 'tonnes.'

143. proverbe, proverb. 'When bale is hext (highest), then bote is next'; Proverbs of Hending; see notes to Gamelyn, ll. 32, 631, in vol. v. pp. 478, 486. For hext our author substitutes a nyebore, i.e. a neighbour, nigh at hand.

151. The truth of astrology is here assumed.

155-70. I suspect that this account of the days of the week (though no doubt familiar in those days to many) was really copied from Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, part ii. sect. 12 (vol. iii. p. 197). For it contains a remarkable blunder. The word noon in l. 163 should, of course, be midnight; but, as Chaucer omits to say when the first planetary hour of the day occurs, the author was left to himself in regard to this point. Few people understand why the day after Sunday must needs be Monday; yet it is very simple. The principle is given in the footnote to vol. iii. p. 197 (cf. vol. v. p. 86), but may here be stated a little more plainly. The earth being taken as the centre of the planetary system, the planets are arranged in the order of the radii of their orbits. The nearest planet is the Moon, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These were arranged by the astrologers in the reverse order; viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon; after which the rotation began over again, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, &c.; as before. If we now divide Sunday into twenty-four hours, and assign the first of these to the Sun, the second to Venus (next in rotation), the third to Mercury, and so on, the eighth hour will again fall to the Sun, and so will the fifteenth and the twenty-second. Consequently, the twenty-third (like the second) belongs to Venus, the twenty-fourth to Mercury, and the twenty-fifth to the Moon. But the twenty-fifth hour is the first hour of the new day, which is therefore the day of the Moon. And so throughout.

Since the twenty-second hour belongs to the Sun, and the twenty-fifth to the Moon, the planetary interval from day to day is really obtained by pitching upon every third planet in the series, i.e. by skipping two. Hence the order of ruling planets for each day (which rule depends upon the assignment of the first hour) is obviously—the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn; or, in Anglo-Saxon terminology, the Sun, the Moon, Tīw, Wōden, Thunor (Thur), Frige, and Sætern (Sæter).

178. Cf. 'here wo into wele wende mote atte laste'; P. Plowman, C. xxi. 210. See notes to ch. 13. 86 below, and bk. i. 3. 153.

180. Cf. Troil. iv. 836, and the note (vol. ii. p. 490).

196. slawe, slain; the usual expression; cf. Compl. of Mars, 186; Compl. unto Pitè, 112.

Chap. X. 1-6. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 9. 1-4; pr. 10. 1-4.

7. three lyves; as mentioned above, bk. ii. ch. 4. 44-6.

18. firste sayde; viz. in bk. ii. ch. 4. 56.

28-34. Borrowed from Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. met. 7.

37. a fair parcel. Similarly, Boethius recites his former good fortune; bk. ii. pr. 3. 20-43.

45. He insists that he was only a servant of conspirators; he would have nothing to do with the plot (l. 50); yet he repented of it (l. 49); and it is clear that he betrayed it (bk. i. ch. 6. l. 189).

58. farn, for faren, fared. Fortune; cf. the complaints of Boethius, bk. i. met. 1. 19; pr. 4. 8; bk. ii. met. 1.

68-71. From Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 4. 57-61.

81-3. From the same; bk. ii. pr. 4. 122; pr. 3. 61.

84-7. From the same; pr. 4. 127-32.

88-105. From the same; pr. 3. 48-63.

96. both, booth; Chaucer has tabernacle; pr. 3. 56.

105-10; 115-20. From the same; bk. ii. pr. 4. 33-42.

126-9. From the same; ll. 43-7.

133. Here begins a new chapter in Thynne; with a large capital C. See note to book ii. ch. i.

148-50. From Ch. Boeth. bk. ii. pr. 4. 97-101.

155. 'The soules of men ne mowe nat deyen in no wyse'; the same, ll. 122-3.

163. oon of three; see ch. 10. 10 above (p. 83).

Chap. XI. 11-3. Not in character; the author forgets that Love is supposed to be the speaker, and speaks in his own person.

40-8. From Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. met. 8. 3-7, 16-8; pr. ix. 12-16, 66-70; somewhat varied.

56. over his soule; cf. 'but only upon his body'; the same, bk. ii. pr. 6. 31.

56-69. The general idea corresponds with the same, bk. iii. pr. 9. I observe no verbal resemblance.

82. Thynne begins a new chapter here, with a large capital T. See note to bk. ii. ch. i.

93. Plato. This story is told of Socrates, and is given in the note to C. T., I 670, in vol. v. p. 466; from Seneca, De Ira, lib. i. c. 15.

111. conclude seems here to mean 'include,' as in C. T., G 429.

121. habit ... monk; 'Cucullus non facit monachum'; a common medieval proverb; see Rom. Rose, 6192, and the note.

125. cordiacle is Thynne's misprint for cardiacle; cf. 'That I almost have caught a cardiacle'; C.T., C 313.

Chap. XII. 8. in place, i.e. present; chafinge, warming.

14. neigheth, approaches; and it ... be, if it can be.

17. Donet, primer, elementary book of instruction; named from Donatus, the grammarian; see note to P. Plowman, C. vii. 215.

32. muskle; referring to bk. i. ch. 3. 78.

35. excellence of coloures, its (outward) blue colour. Blue was the emblem of constancy and truth; see note to C. T., F 644 (vol. v. p. 386). For coloures we should rather read colour; the same error occurs in l. 43 below (see footnote).

45. 'When pleasant weather is above.'

46. 'Betokening steadfastness (continuance) in peace'; cf. note to l. 35 above.

47. The following is Pliny's account of the Pearl, as translated by Holland; bk. ix. c. 35.

'This shell-fish which is the mother of Pearle, differs not much in the manner of breeding and generation from the Oysters; for when the season of the yeare requireth that they should engender, they seeme to yawne and gape, and so do open wide; and then (by report) they conceive a certaine moist dew as seed, wherewith they swell and grow big; ... and the fruit of these shell-fishes are the Pear[l]es, better or worse, great or small, according to the qualitie and quantitie of the dew which they receiued. For if the dew were pure and cleare which went into them, then are the Pearles white, faire, and Orient: but if grosse and troubled, the Pearles likewise are dimme, foule, and duskish; ... according as the morning is faire, so are they cleere; but otherwise, if it were misty and cloudy, they also will be thicke and muddy in colour.'

50. The sense of Margaryte in this passage is the visible church of Christ, as the context shews. In book iii. ch. 9. 160, the author tells us that it signifies 'grace, lerning, or wisdom of god, or els holy church.'

52. mekenesse, humility; cf. l. 63. The church is descended from Christ, who is the heavenly dew.

56. reduced in-to good, connected with good; mene, intermediate.

58. beestes, living things that cannot move; the very word used by Chaucer, Boeth. bk. v. pr. 5. 20; compare the passage.

64. There is something wrong; either discendeth should be discended, or we should understand and before to; and perhaps downe should be dewe; cf. l. 68. The reference seems to be to the Incarnation.

68. Here the Protean word Margaryte means 'the wisdom of god,' judging by the context; see note to l. 50 above.

78. This does not mean 'I would have explained it better,' but 'I should like to have it better explained.'

86. Margaryte here means the visible church, as before (l. 50); to the end of the chapter.

91. welde, possess; and all that he now possesses is his life.

108. yvel spekers; this seems to allude to the Lollards, who ought (he says) to be 'stopped and ashamed.'

114. This shews that Margarete does not mean a woman; for it is declared to be as precious as a woman, to whom it is likened.

121. deedly, mortal. Hence Margarete does not mean the church in general, but the visible church at the time of writing, the church militant.

Chap. XIII. 11. 'To be evil, is to be nothing.' The general argument follows Ch. Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 2. 143-94, and pr. 4.

23. a this halfe, on this side of, under; cf. note to bk. i. ch. 9. 39.

30. determinison, determination; a correct form. Cf. venison from Lat. acc. uenationem. Accordingly, the O.F. forms were determinaison, -eson, -oison, as given by Godefroy. He supplies the example: 'Definicio, difinicion ou determineson,' from an old glossary. Hence determination is here used in the sense of 'definition,' as is obvious from the context. Thynne prints determission, which makes nonsense; and there is no such word. The present passage is entered in the New E. Dict. under determission, with the suggestion that it is an error; it might have been better to enter it under determinison (or -eson); but it is always difficult to know how to deal with these mistakes of printers and editors.

33. your-selfe sayd; referring to l. 4 above.

35. y-sayd good, called 'good.'

40. participacion; from Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 10. 110.

43. Austen, St. Augustin; and so Pope, Essay on Man, i. 294:—'One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.'

49. Boece, Boethius; whom the author here mentions just once more; see his former allusion in bk. i. prologue, 110. The reference is to bk. iii. pr. 10. 153-84.

53. apeted to, sought after, longed for, desired. Apete is a correct form, as it represents an O.F. *apeter; but the usual O.F. form is appeter (Littré, s.v. appéter), from Lat. appetere. See New E. Dict., s.v. Appete, where a quotation is given from Chaucer, L. G. W. 1582. But the right reading in that line is surely appetyteth, as appeteth will not scan; unless we strongly accent the initial As. See vol. ii. p. 137, l. 1582 and footnote, and the note to the line, at p. 328.

56. This stands for This is, as usual; see notes to C. T., A 1091, E 56.

71. betterer, better; not necessarily a misprint. The form bettyrer occurs in the Catholicon Anglicum.

72. his kyndely place, its natural position; cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 11. 100-2.

77. blacke; cf. Troil. i. 642.

82. yeven by the ayre, endowed by the air with little goodness and virtue; because the dew that produced the pearl fell through the air; see note to ch. xii. 47 above. Hence matier is material, viz. the dew.

86. unpees, war. The general argument, with the contrast of colours above mentioned, occurs in P. Plowman, C. xxi. 209-21; cf. also ll. 144-66. Of these lines, ll. 210 and 212 have already been explicitly cited above: see notes to bk. i. ch. 3. 153, and to bk. ii. ch. 9. 178.

92. Pallas; we should have expected 'Minerva'; however, Pallas occurs five times in Troilus.

94. and Mercurie, if Mercury; but it is obscure.

99. a dewe and a deblys. Under Adieu, in the New E. Dict., we find: 'fig. an expression of regret at the loss or departure of anything; or a mere exclamatory recognition of its disappearance; = away, no longer, no more, all is over with. c. 1400 Test. Love ii. (1560) 292/1. Adewe and adewe blis.'

Something has gone wrong here; the edition of 1561 (not 1560) has, at fol. 306, back (not 292) the reading 'a dewe and a deblis'; as in the text. The same reading occurs in all the earlier black-letter editions and in Chalmers; there being no other authority except Thynne. I do not understand the passage; the apparent sense is: 'his name is given a dieu and to devils'; i.e. (I suppose) is renounced. Deblis for 'devils' is a possible form; at any rate, we find deblet, deblerie, for devilet and diablerie; see New E. Dict., under Dablet and Deblerie.

115-6. 'That which is good, seems to me to be wholly good.' This is extremely significant. 'The church is good, and therefore wholly good,' is evidently intended. In other words, it needs no reform; the Lollards should let it alone. In ch. 14. 24, he plainly speaks of 'heretics,' and of the errors of 'mismeninge people.'

130. leve, believe. L. 120 shews that he hopes for mercy and pity; we may safely conclude that he had been a Lollard once. Cf. ch. 14. 2-4.

Chap. XIV. 6. Proverbes. He refers to Prov. vii. 7-22: 'Considero uecordem iuuenem, qui ... graditur in obscuro, in noctis tenebris; et ecce occurrit illi mulier ornatu meretricio, praeparata ad capiendas animas, garrula et uaga, quietis impatiens ... dicens ... ueni, inebriemur uberibus, et fruamur cupitis amplexibus ... statim eam sequitur quasi bos ductus ad uictimam.'

25. skleren and wimplen, veil and cover over. He probably found the word skleire, a veil, in P. Plowman, C. ix. 5 (cf. also B. vi. 7, A. vii. 7), as that is the only known example of the substantive. The verb occurs here only. Other spellings of skleire, sb., in the MSS., are sklayre, scleyre, slaire, skleir, sleire, sleyre. Cf. Du. sluier, G. Schleier.

29. by experience; i.e. the author had himself been inclined to 'heresy'; he was even in danger of 'never returning' (l. 38).

36. weyved, rejected; he had rejected temptations to Lollardry.

38. shewed thee thy Margarite; meaning (I suppose) shewn thee the excellence of the church as it is.

40. Siloë, Siloam. It is a wonder where the author found this description of the waters of the pool of Siloam; but I much suspect that it arose from a gross misunderstanding of Isaiah, viii. 6, 7, thus:—'the waters of Shiloah that go softly ... shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.' In the Vulgate: 'aquas Siloë, quae uadunt cum silentio ... ascendet super omnes riuos eius, et fluet super uniuersas ripas eius.' Hence cankes in l. 44 is certainly an error for bankes; the initial c was caught from the preceding circuit.

46. After Mercurius supply servaunts or children. The children or servants of Mercury mean the clerks or writers. The expression is taken from Ch. C. T., D 697:—

47. Veneriens, followers of Venus; taken from Ch. C. T., D 609.

52. that ben fallas; that is to say, deceptions. See Fallace in the New E. Dict.

60. sote of the smoke, soot of the smoke of the fire prepared for the sacrificed ox; 'bos ductus ad uictimam'; Prov. vii. 22.

61. it founde, didst find it; referring, apparently, to thy langoring deth.

67-8. thilke Margaryte, the church; by serving which he was to be delivered from danger, by means of his amendment.

70. disese, misery, discomfort; because he had to do penance.

74. He had formerly sinned against the church.

80. 'And yet thou didst expect to have been rejected for ever.'

83. lache, loosen (it); from O.F. lascher, to loosen, relax. Or it may mean 'turn cowardly.'

85. 'Inueni Dauid seruum meum; oleo sancto meo unxi eum'; Ps. lxxxix. 20 (lxxxviii. 21, Vulgate).

93. openly; hence the author had publicly recanted.

Book III.

Chap. I. This chapter is really a Prologue to the Third Book.

2. discrete, separate; tellinge, counting.

3. Three was considered a perfect number; see below.

6. Time was divided into three ages; first, the age of Error, before the coming of Christ; all that died then went to hell, whence some were rescued by Christ when He descended thither. The second, the age of Grace, from the time of Christ's coming till His second advent. The third, the age of Joy, enduring for ever in heaven.

Deviacion; Thynne prints Demacion, an obvious error for Deuiacion (m for ui); in l. 26, it is replaced by Errour of misgoinge, which has the same sense, and in bk. ii. ch. 8. 126, it is called out-waye-going. The New E. Dict. has no quotation for deviation older than 1603; but here we find it.

25. I. e. Book I treats of Error or Deviation; Book II, of Grace; and Book III, of Joy.

28. whiche is faylinge without desert, which is failure without merit; these words are out of place here, and perhaps belong to the preceding clause (after shewed in l. 26). thilke, &c.; amending that first fault.

29. Perhaps for and read an; it refers to guidance into the right path.

37. He says that the English alter the name Margarite-perle into Margery-perle, whereas Latin, French, and many other languages keep the true form. Cf. Lat. margarita, O.F. marguerite, margarete, Gk. μαργαρίτης, Pers. marwārīd, Arab. marjān; all from Skt. manjarī, a pearl.

45. the more Britayne, greater Britain (England and Scotland), as distinguished from lesser Britain (Brittany); see note to bk. ii. ch. 12. 47 above. Pliny says (tr. by Holland, bk. ix. c. 35):—'In Brittaine it is certain that some [pearls] do grow; but they be small, dim of colour, and nothing orient.'

56. conninge, certain knowledge; opinion, uncertain knowledge, supposition; as he proceeds to say.

62. We thus learn that it was at this date an open question, whether the sun was bigger than the earth; there were some who imagined it to be so.

68. He here mentions the quadrivium, or group of four of the seven sciences, viz. arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; see note to P. Plowman, C. xii. 98.

73. These are the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude; see note to P. Plowman, C. i. 131.

79. Why 'two things' are mentioned, is not clear. It was usual to introduce here the trivium, or second group of the seven arts (see note to l. 68); which contained logic, grammar, and rhetoric. For the two former he has substituted 'art,' the general term.

99. twey, two; viz. natural and reasonable; cf. l. 53. The third is moral. Hence we have the following scheme.

Philosophy relating to the body natural: the quadrivium.

reasonable: the trivium.

relating to the soul: moral: the cardinal virtues.

Law law: natural.

right: reasonable.

custom written: constitution.

unwritten: usage.

122. I. e. 'so that harm, (as punishment) for harm, should restrain evil-doers by the bridle of fear.'

125. contrarioustee of, that which is contrary to.

130. and unworthy, even if they be unworthy.

professe and reguler; the 'professed' were such as, after a year of probation, had been received into a monastic order; the 'regular' were such as were bound by the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

131. obediencer, bound by obedience; used adjectivally; cf. Low Lat. obedientiarius.

134. Thus the author was himself bound by monastic vows, and was one of the 'regular' clergy.

146-7. abouten, about (me), near at hand. eche, to increase, lengthen.

156. refrete, refrain, burden of a song; O.F. refrait, refret (Godefroy). 'Sobs are a ready (ever-present) refrain in its meditations'; where his (its) refers to goost, or spirit, in l. 155.

157-8. comming about I not than, recurring I know not when. For than read whan, to make sense.

160. he, Christ; referring to Matt. xxi. 16.

161. whos spirit; 'Spiritus ubi uult spirat'; John, iii. 8; 'Spiritus, diuidens singulis prout uult'; 1 Cor. xii. 11.

170. wyte that, lay the blame for that upon. Such is the right idiom; cf. 'Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I yow preye'; Ch. C. T., A 3140. Thynne prints with for wite or wyte, making nonsense of the passage.

Chap. II. 14. lybel of departicion, bill (or writ) of separation; taken from libellum repudii in Matt. v. 31, which Wyclif translates by 'a libel of forsakyng.'

16. 'I find, in no law, (provision for) recompensing and rewarding in a bounteous way, those who are guilty, according to their deserts.'

19. Paulyn, Paulinus. But there is some mistake. Perhaps he refers to L. Aemilius Paulus, brother of M. Aemilius Lepidus the Triumvir. This Paulus was once a determined enemy of Caesar, but was won over to his side by a large bribe.

21-3. I cannot explain or understand this clause; something seems to be omitted, to which it refers.

23. Julius Caesar was accounted as following Cato in justice. The statement is obscure.

25. Perdiccas, according to the romances, succeeded Alexander the Great; see note to Bk. ii. c. 2. 116. I do not find the anecdote referring to Porus. It is not improbable that the author was thinking of Philip the physician, who revealed to Alexander 'a privy hate' entertained against that monarch by Parmenion; see the Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, 2559-83.

49. right as mater. Cf. 'sicut ad formam de forma procedere materiam notum est'; an often quoted passage in Guido delle Colonne's Historia Troiae; see note to Legend of Good Women, 1582 (vol. iii. p. 329).

65. and right, if right-doing were not in the original working.

82. muste do good nedes, must necessarily do good.

87. ende, object. The reference seems to be to Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bk. i. c. 1, c. 2, or c. 5.

90. goodly, with a good motive. In l. 99, it simply means 'a good motive.'

112. praysing ne lacking, praise nor blame.

115. The Latin would be nemo inuite beatus; but I do not know where to find it.

128. free arbitrement, Lat. liberum arbitrium; introduced in order to lead up to a discussion of free will, necessity, and providence; as in Boeth. bk. v.

140. closing, including, implying.

154-60. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 3. 1-18.

Chap. III. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 3 and pr. 4.

26. Cf. the same, pr. iii. 29, and the context.

58. for I love, i.e. because (or since) I love.

74. commende, coming; probably the original MS. had command, the Northern form. We have a similar form lykende, in l. 133 below. In ll. 82, 83, the usual form comming appears.

82-3. In many places, comming is used nearly with the sense of 'future'; cf. ll. 177-8.

126. Here again we have the usual ridiculous contradictions; the sense is—'being wet, I burn; without wasting, I fade.' Cf. Rom. Rose, Eng. version, 4703-50.

128. Thynne has (here and in ch. 6. 147, p. 132) vnbyde, an obvious error for onbyde, i.e. abide, remain; see ch. 7. 161, 163.

131. 'God grant (that) that thing may soon draw nigh to thee.' Neigh is here a verb, as in Bk. ii. ch. 12. 14.

164. that, that which; with nothing, yet not so as to be constrained by anything else.

171. rysinge of the sonne, rising of the sun; this example is borrowed from Ch. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 6. 103, 165.

Chap. IV. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 6. 157-89.

29. and nedeful is, 'and it is necessary that, in order to desire (a thing), he may also not desire (it)'; otherwise, he does not make any choice.

30-1. The words 'But thilke ... the same to wilne' are repeated in Thynne's edition, to the destruction of the sense.

59. as now, present; cf. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 6. 28-32.

96-9. A clear case of reasoning in a circle.

112. 'Constituisti terminos eius, qui praeteriri non poterunt'; Job, xiv. 5.

121-6. See Rom. viii. 29, 30. conformes; the Vulgate has: 'Nam quos praesciuit, et praedestinauit conformes fieri imaginis Filii sui.'

129. Cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. v. pr. 6. 35, 71-8.

140. Cf. the same, 12-9, 28-33, &c.

152. Referring to ll. 121-6 above.

165. close and one, are closed and united; here close and one seem to be verbs.

169. by, with reference to.

198-9. no art, in no way (?); but surely an error for nat, as wrytest nat is repeated in l. 200.

206. defendeth, 'forbids something to be movable,' &c.

220. Too obscure to deserve the encomium for perspicuity which follows in ll. 222-5.

232. for right, &c.; 'for nothing at all exists there (i.e. in eternity) after the manner of that which is temporal.'

243. ben to ben, are to come because of God's knowledge.

249. philosophical poete; Chaucer, because he translated The Consolation of Philosophy, and introduced passages from it into his poem of Troilus, notably in Book iv. 963-6, 974-1078. In l. 254, Troilus is expressly mentioned. Most likely, the allusion is to Bk. iv. 974-1078; although this deals rather with predestination than with the origin of evil.

257. storiers, gen. pl. of storier, a teller of a story; cf. O.F. historieur, an historian (Godefroy). Thynne prints starieres; which gives no sense.

262. two the laste, the last two; chapters 13 and 14; but chapter 14 has little to do with the subject.

Chap. V. 4. 'Or as an ook comth of a litel spyr'; Troil. ii. 1335.

33-7. The word welked occurs twice in Chaucer, C. T., C 738, D 277; and wiver once, Troil. iii. 1010.

57. with yvel ... acomered, desires not to be encumbered with evil.

63. 'Why, as soon as one has sprung up on high, does not the other spring up also?' Here 'one' and 'the other' seem to refer to 'will' and 'bliss'; cf. ll. 16, 17, 70, 71.

73-6. Cf. HF. 737-46; Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 11. 98-101.

Chap. VI. 4-7. Imitated from Ch. Boeth. bk. i. met. 6. 5-11.

10. seconde boke; cf. Book ii. ch. 11. 51-69, 102.

12. setling; misprinted setteles; but see setling in ch. 5. l. 23.

17. He here contemplates the possibility of yielding to persecution and threats.

50-1. The five wits are the five senses; P. Plowman, C. ii. 15, and the note.

60. aptes, natural tendencies; used here only; see New E. Dict.

64. terme of equivocas, terms of like signification; terme being an error for termes. Answering to Lat. uerba aequiuoca, words of like signification; Isidore, Orig. ii. 26 (Lewis and Short). Equivocas is formed by adding the Eng. pl. -s to the Lat. neuter plural (New E. Dict.).

Cf. the passage in P. Plowman, where Liberum-arbitrium recites his names; C. xvii. 201. The first name, 'instrument of willing,' corresponds to animus: 'dum uult, animus est'; but the rest vary.

68. reson. Compare the same passage: 'dum iudicat, racio est.'

73. Compare the same: 'dum recolit, memoria est.'

77. affeccion: a disposition to wish for sleep.

90. that lambes, who scorn and despise lambs.

104. Thynne has vs, which is a not uncommon spelling of 'use.' I merely print 'us[e]' because us looks so unintelligible. In l. 103, the word is usage; in l. 110, we have use.

140. thinges; viz. riches, honour, and power; discussed in Book ii. chapters 5-7.

147. onbyde, misprinted unbyde; see note above, to ch. 3. 128.

Chap. VII. 11. The idea of this Tree is copied from P. Plowman, C. xix. 4-14. Thus in l. 11, the ground in which the tree grows is said to be 'ful in thyne herte'; and in P. Plowman, the tree grows in cor-hominis, the heart of man. In P. Plowman, the tree is called True-love, the blossoms are Benign-Speech (cf. l. 16), and the fruits are deeds of Charity. See note to l. 69 below.

38. Cf. 'As, wry the gleed, and hotter is the fyr'; Legend of Good Women, 735.

50. pype; see Troil. v. 1433; C. T., A 1838 (and note).

53. no wode lay use, sing no mad song.

59. Aristotel. The reference appears to be to Aristotle, De Interpretatione (περὶ ἑρμηνείας), ch. 1. Voice seems to mean 'a word unrelated to a sentence,' i.e. not related to something else as forming part of a sentence.

69. So in P. Plowman, C. xix. 29, the tree is attacked by three wicked winds; especially 'in flouryng-tyme,' l. 35.

97. A marchaunt; so in Chaucer, C. T., G 945-50.

99. So ofte; from Ch. Troil. ii. 1380-3; note the epithet happy, the use of the sb. sweigh or swaye, and the phrase come al at ones, in both passages.

101. Cf. 'Gutta cauat lapidem'; Ovid, Ex Ponto, iv. 10. 5.

lethy, weak; see Prompt. Parv., and Gloss. to P. Plowman.

117-121. Compare Bk. iii. ch. 2. 122-9.

123. 'Quod debuimus facere, fecimus'; Luke, xvii. 10.

145. al is, it is all to be accounted to her wholly. To wyte usually has a bad sense; as implying blame.

160. this lady; i.e. Heavenly Love suddenly took up its place in his heart. This is rather inartistic; no wonder that the author was much astonished at such a proceeding (ch. 8. 2 below). This of course puts an end to the dialogue, but in Thynne's misarranged print the lady speaks to him again, as if it were out of his heart!

Chap. VIII. 7. lynes, written lines of writing, which he imagines to be imprinted on his understanding; see ll. 8, 13, 14 below.

10. me might, one might; me for men = man, as often.

21. but for, except because; so in l. 22. wol, desires.

42. owe I not alowe, I ought not to applaud.

46. it make, cause it (to be so); as in Troil. ii. 959.

91. 'Quia Christi bonus odor sumus Deo, in iis qui salui fiunt; ... aliis quidem odor mortis in mortem'; 2 Cor. ii. 15-6.

120. ne had, had; disregarding ne, which is inserted after the word denyed.

123. without ... nede, without any kind of necessity.

125. him nedeth, something is lacking to him.

146. forward, thenceforward, afterwards.

155-6. in his owne comodité, in what is suitable for him; comodites, desires that are suitable. The examples of the word in this passage are older than any given, s.v. Commodity, in the New E. Dict. Cf. ll. 159, 165.

Chap. IX. 7. destenee, destiny; cf. Ch. Boeth. bk. iv. pr. 6. 39, 44.

12. non inconvenient, convenient; i.e. befitting.

21. chapitre, chapter; viz. ch. 3 of Book iii.

46. Here Thynne's text returns to the right order.

52. The author now concludes his work with a prayer and a short recommendation of his book to the reader. Ll. 58-61 speak of its imperfections; ll. 61-6 tell us that the effort of writing it has done him good. In ll. 67-75 he anticipates future freedom from anxiety, and continuance 'in good plight.' He was then evidently unaware that his death was near at hand.

86. 'My dull wit is hindred by the stepmother named Forgetfulness.' A curious expression.

92. horisons, put for orisons, prayers.

98. sightful, visible; an obvious allusion to the eucharist (l. 100). Similarly, a gem denotes a pearl, or 'margaret'; and Margaret (a woman's name) denotes grace, learning, or wisdom of God, or else holy church.

104. From John, vi. 63.

107. From 2 Cor. iii. 6.

109, 110. Printed as prose in Thynne; but two riming verses seem to be intended. If so, al-le is dissyllabic.

II. THE PLOWMAN'S TALE.

Numerous references are given to Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ed. Skeat (E.E.T.S.); a poem by the same author. See the Introduction.

9. tabard; a ploughman's loose frock; as in Ch. C. T., A 541.

11. saynt Thomas; i.e. his shrine at Canterbury.

30. therwith to fynd, to provide for thereby.

40. queynt, quenched; because, in the solemn form of excommunication used in the Romish church, a bell was tolled, the book of offices for the purpose was used, and three candles were extinguished. See Nares, s.v. Bell, Book, and Candle. Cf. ll. 165, 1241.

44. Four lines are here lost, the stanza being incomplete. We might supply them thus:—

53. stryf, strife. The struggle was between the secular and regular clergy on the one hand, and the Lollards on the other; see ll. 61-76. Each side accused the other of falseness, and the author hopes that the falser of them may suffer shame. He evidently sides with the Lollards; but, not caring to decide so weighty a question for himself, he contrives that the dispute shall be carried on by two birds, the Griffin and the Pelican.

55. sedes, seeds. The Lollards were accused of sowing tares (lolia). The author hints that seeds were sown by both of the contending parties.

57. some; referring rather to the sowers than to the seeds. In any case, it refers to the two parties.

58. souple; the text has souble, which is an obvious error. The O.F. souple means 'humble,' which is the sense here intended.

71. a-cale, chilled, frozen; cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 439; and see the New E. Dict.

72. ever in oon, always in the same condition, without increasing in wealth.

73. I-cleped, called; the old text has Iclepeth, but some editions make this obvious correction. lollers, idle fellows; see the note to P. Plowman, C. x. 213.

74. 'Whoever looks on them (sees that) they are the reverse of tall.' Cf. 'a tall fellow,' and 'a tall man of his hands' in Shakespeare.

81. wro, nook; see wrā in Stratmann.

86. Griffon, griffin; a fabulous monster with the head and wings of an eagle, and the hinder parts of a lion; with probable reference to the Vulture. 'In that contre ben many griffounes ... thei han the body upward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun.... But o griffoun is more strong thanne .viij. lyouns'; Mandeville's Travels; ch. xxvi. See l. 1317 below.

87. 'A Pelican laid his lure to (attracted to him) these lollers.' The Pelican was supposed to feed its young with blood which it drew from its own breast by wounding it, and was early considered as the type of Christian love or Charity, or of Christ himself; see l. 1293. See the illustration at p. 172 of Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris. Hence it is here supposed to plead on behalf of meekness, in the long passages contained in ll. 95-716, 719-988, 991-1072, 1110-32, 1177-232, 1245-68. The Pelican is responsible for the greater part of the poem, as the author distinctly says in l. 1373. Anything that is amiss, we are told, must be put down to the Pelican; the author is irresponsible, as it is only a fable.

106. pelure, costly fur; also spelt pellour; but pylloure (as in the old text) is a bad spelling. See Gloss. to P. Plowman.

111. batail, battle. It was notorious that William Spenser, bishop of Norwich, used to lead military expeditions. Thus he led one such expedition into Flanders, in 1382. Cf. l. 128.

129. 'God is not the master of them that consider no man equal to them.'

130. peragall, equal; spelt 'peragal' or 'paragal' in Rich. the Redeless, i. 71. The old text has permagall, where the m is clearly for in; the spelling peringall being intended. Godefroy has O.F. parivel, also parigal, paregal, perigal, paringal [with intrusive n], 'adj. et s., tout à fait ègal, tout à fait semblable.' From Lat. peraequalis.

135. 'Painted and adorned with colours.' Cf. 'peynt and portred'; P. Pl. Crede, 192; 'portreid and paynt,' 121.

139. boystous, rough. The O.F. boistous meant 'lame' (F. boiteux); but Godefroy shews, in his Supplement, that it was also applied to a very rough road (as being likely to lame one); hence, generally, rough, and finally, rude, noisy, as in the E. boisterous; a word of which the etymology has not yet been fully accounted for, but may be thus explained.

159. perrey, precious stones, jewellery; see Perree in the Glossary (vol. vi). The old text has pyrrey.

162. gown, an obvious correction; old text, gold, repeated from l. 161. For 'grene gownes,' see l. 925 below.

178. This line seems to be corrupt.

186. crallit, curled, twisted; cf. crulle in Chaucer; see New E. Dict.

187. gold-mastling is a compound word, and should have been printed with a hyphen. It means the same as latoun, unless latoun was an imitation of an older and richer alloy. Thus, in Wright's A.S. Vocabularies, we find: 'Auricalcum, goldmæslinc,' col. 334, 10; 'Auricalcum, goldmestling,' col. 550, 34; 'Auricalcum, Anglice latoun,' col. 567, 5. As to latoun, see note in vol. v. p. 270. Cf. A.S. mæstling, G. Messing; words of uncertain origin.

193-4. Cf. 1 John, iv. 3. admirall, prince, chief.

198. demed; an easy correction; old text, done, which will not scan.

201. All-holyest, i.e. Sanctissimus (l. 230); a title given to the head of a religious order.

208. 'The very thing which Christ forbad to the apostles.'

212. 'They regard him (the pope) as wholly omnipotent.'

213-6. He, the Pope. another, (apparently) a head of a religious order, an abbot or prior. mystere, ministry, office.

220. 'He reserves nothing at all'; opin, open, a thing that is free; joint, a thing that is connected.

226. An angell; see Rev. xxii. 9.

235. Read Christ his; 'Christ keep his people from them'; the printer evidently regarded Christ his as a form of the genitive case. The proper sense of wisse is guide, or direct.

242. which of hem, which of the two popes. The rival popes were Boniface IX, elected Nov. 2, 1389, and Benedict XIII, elected Sept. 28, 1394. Clement VIII, predecessor of the latter, died Sept. 16, 1394.

245. 'Omnes enim, qui acceperint gladium, gladio peribunt'; Matt. xxvi. 52.

255. Swearing was a dismembering of Christ; see note to C. T., C 474 (vol. v. p. 275).

264. 'But curse all that oppose them.'

275. 'But he, who so acquires it, shall part from it.'

281. rent, income, profit; the method of doing this is explained in The Freres Tale, D 1371-4.

282. 'They anoint the sheep's sore'; as a shepherd does with tar; see Tar-box in Halliwell; and cf. l. 707.

298. Maximien; Galerius Valerius Maximianus, usually called Galerius; emperor of Rome, 305-11; a cruel persecutor of the Christians.

297. 'They follow Christ (who went upward) to heaven, just as a bucket (that goes downward) into a well.' Said ironically; their ascent towards heaven is in a downward direction; cf. l. 402. wall for 'well' is rare, but not unexampled; cf. walle-stream, well-stream, in Layamon, vol. i. p. 121, and see walle in Stratmann.

305. 'The truth has (often) slain such men.'

306. 'They comb their "crockets" with a crystal comb.' A crocket was a curl or roll of hair, as formerly worn; see the New E. Dict. There is a lost romance entitled 'King Adelstane with gilden kroket'; see footnote to Havelok, ed. Skeat, p. vi. Sir F. Madden remarks that 'the term crocket points out the period [i.e. the earliest possible date] of the poem's composition, since the fashion of wearing those large rolls of hair so called, only arose at the latter end of the reign of Henry III.'

321. Cf. 'turpis lucri'; Tit. i. 7, 11; 1 Pet. v. 2.

322. meynall, perhaps better spelt meyneall. It is the adj. formed from M.E. meynee, a household, and is the same word as mod. E. menial. Wyclif uses meyneal to translate Lat. domesticam in Rom. xvi. 5. The sense here is—the exaction of tithes is, with these masters, a household business, a part of their usual domestic arrangements.

325. Lit. 'They betake to farm to their sumners,' i.e. they farm out to their sumners the power of harming people as much as they can; they let their sumners make exactions. The method of doing this is fully exposed in Chaucer's Freres Tale. Cf. ll. 328, 725.

333. 'Such rascals are sure to slander men, in order to induce them to win their favour'; i.e. by compounding.

338. call, caul or head-dress, richly ornamented, and therefore expensive; see note to C. T., D 1018 (vol. v. p. 318).

375. 'Or, to commit such a tool (instrument) to such cursed men.'

402. 'As good a bishop as is my horse Ball.' Said ironically; 'no better a bishop than,' &c. Ball was, and still is, a very common name for a horse.

406. nothing, not at all, not a whit.

410. Old text, one fors, with s attached to the wrong word.

417-8. goodes, property. somme totall, sum total of wealth.

421, 431. for Christes love, for love of Christ. The words forsake in l. 421, and wake in l. 431, are used ironically.

434. Lamuall, Lemuel; who was a king; Prov. xxxi. 1.

443. the stoon, the rock; Matt. xvi. 18; cf. 1 Cor. x. 4.

445. croysery, crusade, as in Rob. of Glouc. 9938. No serious crusade was intended at this time; however, the author affirms that the rival popes discouraged the idea; for each wanted men to fight for him.

464. hye seet, sat aloft; the form seet occurs in Ch. C. T., A 2075.

471. fettes, fetch; observe the use of this Northern plural.

473. 'Their servants are unfaithful [or unserviceable] to them unless they can double their rental.'

477. The author can find no more rimes to rime with fall, so he proceeds to 'shew' or propose another word, viz. amend.

487. 'They tell men nothing, nor (explain) how; yet, in God's word, they tell of (or count) many a slip, or omission,' i.e. find errors in the Scriptures. See Balk in the New E. Dict.

490. offrend; O.F. offrende; cf. 'Offrande, an offering'; Cotgrave.

520. Read punishëments, as in the old edition; it is a word of four syllables; from O.F. punissement (Godefroy), which often appears in verse as a word of four syllables.

531. 'They hate guests of the poor,' i.e. hate to entertain them; cf. l. 747.

542. careckes, characters, signs, marks; see the New E. Dict.

567. 'One, to curse to hell; the other, to slay men here (on earth)'; cf. Luke, xxii. 38.

575. 'A sword is no implement to guard sheep with, except for shepherds that would devour the sheep.' In later English, at any rate, a sheep-biter meant a thief (Halliwell). Cf. l. 583.

594. untrend, unrolled; not rolled up, but freshly pulled off.

605. Sathan, Satan; Heb. sātān, adversary, opponent.

610. Read reprende; cf. comprende in Chaucer.

625. ensyse, variant of assyse, fashion, sort; 'they are, surely, of the same sort.' See Assize, sect. 8, in the New E. Dict. Bailey gives: 'Ensise, quality, stamp; Old word'; with reference, doubtless, to this very line. Cf. assyse, fashion, manner, in l. 843 below.

626. frend, evidently put for fremde, strange, foreign, averse; which was difficult to pronounce.

633. Read maundements, i.e. commandments (trisyllabic). The form commaundementes is too long for the line. See mandement in Stratmann and in Chaucer.

642. to prison. Evidently written before 1401, when Lollards were frequently sent to the stake for heresy. Cf. l. 650; and see note to l. 827.

645. 'The king's law will judge no man angrily, without allowing the accused to answer.'

661. testament, a will; the friars had much to do with the making of wills.

681. 'For they (the people) are faster in their bonds, worse beaten, and more bitterly burnt than is known to the king.' For the word brent, see note to l. 827.

693. The emperour; Constantine, according to a legend which the Lollards loved to repeat; see the full note to P. Plowman, C. xviii. 220.

695. sely kyme, innocent (or silly) wretch. Kyme answers to an A.S. *cȳma = *kūm-ja, lit. 'one who laments,' from the verb found in O.H.G. kūmjan, to lament, chū-mo, a lament; cf. Gk. γόος, wailing; Skt. gu, to sound. See O.H.G. cūm, cūmjan in Schade; and the Idg. root gu, in Fick.

723. 'A title of dignity, to be as a play-mate to them'; a curious expression. Godefroy gives O.F. 'personage, s.m., dignité, bénéfice ecclésiastique; en particulier personnat, dignité ecclésiastique qui donnait quelque prééminence au chanoine qui en était revêtu dans le chapitre auquel il appartenait.' Cotgrave has: 'Personat, a place, or title of honour, enjoyed by a beneficed person, without any manner of jurisdiction, in the church.'

724. Possibly copied from P. Plowman, B. prol. 92:—'Somme serven the king, and his silver tellen.' These ecclesiastics often busied themselves in the law-courts, to their great profit. Cf. l. 790.

725. 'And let out to farm all that business.'

743. builde; so in P. Pl. Crede, 118: 'For we buldeth a burwgh, a brod and a large.' Cf. Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 380.

748. 'Nor (will they) send anything to Him who hath given them everything.'

759. gigges, concubines; see Stratmann. Roquefort has: 'Gigues, fille gaie, vive.' Cf. giglot in Shakespeare. (Initial g is here sounded as j.)

760. 'And provide them with fine clothes.'

773. Here all the 'seven sins' are mentioned except gluttony.

780. 'The wisdom of such willers is not worth a needle.'

791. jay; so also in Chaucer, C. T., A 642.

801. maynteyners, abettors of wrongdoers; see note to P. Plowman, B. iii. 90.

827. brent, burnt; still more strongly put in l. 1234. That heretics were sometimes burnt before 1401, is certain from Wyclif's Sermons, ed. Arnold, vol. i. pp. x, 205, as compared with p. 354. There is a case given in Bracton of a man who was burnt as early as in the reign of Henry III. See the whole subject discussed in my edition of P. Plowman (E. E. T. S.), in the Pref. to B-text, p. v, Pref. to C-text, pp. xi-xiv, and the note to B. xv. 81, where Langland has 'ledeth me to brennynge.' Observe that the king is here spoken of as not presuming to burn heretics.

855. The seven sacraments of the Romish church; cf. l. 875.

856. Compare—'And also y sey coveitise catel to fongen'; P. Pl. Crede, 146.

857. 'They want to meddle in everything, and to perform matters amiss is their amusement.'

868. sturte, variant of sterte, start up; stryve, struggle.

870. at the nale = at then ale, at the ale-house; cf. note to P. Plowman, C. i. 43.

871. Cf. 'At marketts and miracles we medleth us nevere'; P. Pl. Crede, 107.

872. 'They dance and hoot with the cry of "heave and hale."' Heave is here to use exertion; cf. Troil. ii. 1289; and hale is to haul or pull. Heave and hale, or heave and hoe, was a cry used for men to pull all together; hence with heve and hale just corresponds to the modern 'with might and main.' Cotgrave has (s.v. Cor) the phrase: 'À cor et à cry, by proclamation; also, by might and maine, with heave and hoe, eagerly, vehemently, seriously.'

878. they, i.e. the husbands; sory, aggrieved.

880. For, for fear of being summoned.

893. stocke, i.e. some image of a saint. An image of a favourite saint was honoured with many candles burning before it; whilst other saints were left in the dark, because they could work no miracles. The most favourite image was that of Mary; see l. 902, and cf. P. Pl. Crede, 79.

915. 'And alle povere in gost god himself blisseth'; P. Pl. Crede, 521.

918. Baudriks, belts; baselardes, short swords, sometimes curved. See note to P. Plowman, C. iv. 461.

927. counten ... of gownes, they think much (counten) of scarlet and green gowns, that must be made in the latest fashion, in order to embrace and kiss the damsels. An awkward sentence.

929. sewe, sue, suit, lit. follow; unless it be for schewe, i.e. shew.

930. pykes, peaks. Long-peaked shoes were much in fashion; cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 219.

941. 'Such men will ask them (i.e. those that confess to them) for money for shriving them.' is = es, them; a curious form of the plural pronoun of the third person; see es in Stratmann.

942. 'And they desire men to creep to the cross.' 'Creeping to the cross' was an old ceremony of penance, most practised on Good Friday; see note to P. Plowman, C. xxi. 475.

943. askes, ashes; alluding to the sacrament of penance. For all other sacraments (as baptism, confirmation, holy orders, the eucharist, matrimony, and extreme unction) men had to pay.

955. sans ... dyre, without (saying) 'if I may say so.' That is, ose je dyre, (dare I say it) is an apologetic phrase for introducing an unpalatable remark.

957. 'Either they give the bishops (some reason) why.'

961. agryse, dread, here used in an imperative sense; 'let such men dread God's anger.' Cf. ll. 964, 1216.

979. for he, because he would fain earn something.

993. Benet, Benedict; cf. Ch. C. T., A 173, and note.

1002. Cf. 'Of double worstede y-dight'; P. Pl. Crede, 228.

1035. Compare—'And his syre a soutere' (cobbler); P. Pl. Crede, 752.

1042-4. honged, hung upon, followed after. Cf. 'opon the plow hongen,' P. Pl. Crede, 421. And compare also the same, 784-8.

1050. The line is imperfect. I have supplied but, but the right word is not. For cherelich means 'expensive' or 'prodigal,' from O.F. cher, dear. This we know from the occurrence of the same rare form as an adverb in P. Pl. Crede, 582; where the sense is—'but to maintain his chamber as expensively (chereliche) as a chieftain.' See cherely in the New E. Dict. The parallel phrase not lordlych occurs in l. 1052.

1066. Crede, i.e. Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, written shortly before by the same author, and describing at length the four orders of friars.

1089. sad, sated, tired. The more usual old sense was 'staid.'

1097. 'If they were poor, filthy, and dirty.'

1102. honest, honourable, worthy of respect; cf. l. 1105.

1115. Maysters, masters; Matt. xxiii. 10. Cf. P. Pl. Crede, 574-6, 838; and C. T., D 2185, and the note (vol. v. p. 340).

1135. Read leve, not lyve; with hir leve, with what is permitted to them. For leve (leave), see l. 1238.

1153. For ye woll, because you wish to.

1166. distaunce, disagreement, strife; see Mätzner.

1174. 'Why do ye meddle, who have nothing to do with it?'

1189. lette, to prevent men from living in that way.

1193. soule-hele, salvation for the soul.

1200. Pronounce this is as this.

1212. Wedding, matrimony; considered as a sacrament.

1222. 'subject or accident'; cf. note to C. T., C 539.

1231. The line should end with a semicolon.

1244. 'Unless ye will act otherwise.'

1271. cockes, euphemistic for goddes.

1272. doule, small feather, down-feather. I derive it from O.F. doulle, variant of douille, soft, something soft, from Lat. ductilis. Hence it meant something downy, and, in particular, the 'down-feather' of a bird. This is clearly the sense in Shakespeare also, where Ariel uses the expression—'one dowle that's in my plume'; Temp. iii. 3. 65; i.e. one down-feather (small feather) that is in my plumage. Dr. Schmidt is in doubt whether plume here means 'plumage,' but the stage-direction expressly says that 'Ariel enters like a harpy, and claps his wings upon the table.' It is very interesting to see how well this passage illustrates Shakespeare. See Mr. Wright's note for other passages where dowl means 'soft down.' Of course, the words dowl and down are in no way connected. See my note in Phil. Soc. Trans. 1888-90, p. 3.

1280. God wolde, i.e. oh! that it might be God's will. Cf. would God, Numb. xi. 29; Deut. xxviii. 67; 2 Kings, v. 3; Rich. II, iv. 1. 117.

1293. Christ was likened to the pelican; see note to l. 87.

1305. The foul, the former or bird-like part of the griffin; see note to l. 86, and cf. l. 1317.

1315. 'Because bribery may break God's prohibition.'

1317. Referring to the form of the griffin; see notes to ll. 86, 1305.

1336. Y-gurd, lit. girt; hence, prepared, ready.

1339. ly, lie, i.e. deceive; because the lapwing tries to delude those who search for its nest.

1340. for-gerd, destroyed, utterly done away with; from M.E. for-garen.

1343. the Phenix. The Phœnix is here supposed, as being an unique bird, to be the king or master of all birds, and to execute vengeance on evil-doers.

1359. The sense of of is here uncertain. Perhaps of flight means 'as regards my flight,' and so 'to protect my flight.'

1361. This line is somewhat 'set back,' as in the original. But there seems to be no reason for it.

1362. The original has: 'And the lambe that slayn was'; imperfect.

1367. Here the author speaks for himself, and excuses the Pelican's language.

III. JACK UPLAND.

To this piece, which is an attack upon the friars, a reply was made by one of them (probably a Dominican, see notes to ll. 100, 130), which is printed at length in Wright's Political Poems and Songs (Record Series), vol. ii. pp. 39-114; together with a rejoinder by Jack Upland, printed on the same pages. The friar's reply is often cited in the Notes below, where the number refers to the page of the above-named volume. See further in the Introduction.

1. Jack Uplande, Jack the Countryman, a nickname for one who is supposed to have had but little education; cf. the Plowman's Tale.

6. fellest folk, the wickedest people; referring to the friars.

7. The friar's reply copies several of these expressions: thus we find—'On wounder wise, seith Jak, freres, ye ben growun'; p. 42.

8. 'sowen in youre sectes of Anticristis hondes'; p. 42.

9. not obedient; 'unboxom to bishopis, not lege men to kynges'; p. 42. The friar asserts that they do obey the bishops; but carefully adds—'although not so fer forth as seculer preestes'; p. 44.

11. 'wede, corn, ne gras, wil ye not hewen'; p. 42; repeated on p. 44. The friar retorts that they are not expected to cleanse ditches, like a Jack Upland; p. 44. We thus learn that woode in l. 11 is almost certainly an error for weede.

15. where to been, where they will (hereafter) go to.

21. See 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.

27. skilfully, reasonably; skill often has the sense of reason.

28. The friar evades the question as to the number of orders, and replies that he is of Christ's order; pp. 59-61.

35. Reply: St. James makes mention of two kinds of life, the active and the contemplative; we belong to the latter; pp. 63-6.

37. apostata, apostate; a term applied to a friar who left his order (see l. 42) after his year of probation had been completed, or else (see l. 42) after a probation of three months. See ll. 273-5, and 310-2 below; and the note to P. Plowman, C. ii. 98 (B. i. 104). The question here put was not answered.

40-1. Reply: it is shocking to speak of men leaving their wives like this; we are not wedded to our habit any more than a priest is to his tonsure; p. 67.

44. Reply: no. We are only punished for leaving off our habits because it implies forsaking of our rule. Our habits are not sendal, nor satin nor golden; pp. 67-8.

50. Reply: what, Jack, does your tippet mean? My wide cope signifies charity. My hood, patience in adversity. The scapulary denotes obedience to our superiors. As for the knotted girdle, ask the Franciscans; pp. 68-71.

52. Reply: Why do most of the Lollards wear gray clothes? p. 71.

58. No reply to this question.

60. Reply: see Eccles. iii. 7; Prov. xxv. 28; p. 71.

62. Reply: a question rather for monks than friars. Why do you not put your dining-table in your cow-house? p. 72.

65. Reply: perhaps some of us go to Rome for dispensations, but most of us have need to stay at home, to keep watch over Lollards; p. 73.

70. Reply: you have forgotten the text, 2 Cor. vi. 9; p. 74.

74. Reply: Christ, at His transfiguration, had only three witnesses from among His apostles. And He chose only twelve apostles, out of His many followers; and see Prov. xii. 15; p. 75.

77. Reply: a man is better than a beast; yet even for your beasts you make cattle-sheds and stables. Our houses are often poor ones. Did you ever see any that resembled the Tower, or Windsor Castle, or Woodstock? Your lies are shameless; pp. 77-8. I note here Jack Upland's rejoinder; he says that he does not object to the friars having houses, but he objects to the needless grandeur of them; for it does not follow that a man who drinks a quart of wine must therefore proceed to drink a gallon; p. 76.

83. Reply: you say that we let the whole realm to farm. Why, it is not ours at all! It belongs to the king. We have no more estate in the country than you have in heaven; pp. 78-9. The incompleteness of this reply is amazing.

86. The original reading must have been different here. The friar puts the question thus: Why do you pay no tribute to the king, whereas Christ paid tribute to the emperor? Reply: Christ did not pay it as a debt, but only to perform the law in meekness. The Jewish priests did not pay taxes like the commons. Priests may pay if they are willing, but not friars; pp. 79, 80.

90. Reply: we are glad to have the prayers of the poor, if their letters of fraternity are genuine; but we do not desire your paternosters; p. 80.

92. Reply: we do not make men more perfect than their baptism makes them; p. 81.

95. Reply: the golden trental, 'that now is purchasid of preestis out of freris hondis,' delivers no soul, except as it is deserved; p. 81. See note to Ch. C. T., D 1717 (vol. v. p. 331).

100. Reply: you are quite mistaken. Perhaps some Carmelite told you this, or some Franciscan. The Austin friars and the Dominicans do not say so; p. 82.

105. Reply: if you accuse us of stealing children, Christ practically did the same, by enticing disciples to follow him. See Matt. xix. 21; Luke, xiv. 33; John, xv. 19. To win souls is no robbery; pp. 83-4.

109. undernime, reprove. Reply: according to you, not even the king should maintain any discipline. The pope has a prison; and so has the bishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London. But you do not like prisons, for you often experience them; pp. 85-6.

114. Reply: burial is not a sacrament, as you say. You contradict yourself; p. 86.

116. Reply: if, as you say, we never shrive the poor, why are parish-priests so angry with us for doing so? p. 87. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xiii. 21. Questions 26, 27, and 28 are passed over.

127. Reply: we do right to live of the gospel; see 1 Cor. ix. 14; Luke, x. 7; Rom. xv. 26.

130. Reply: God knows how much good the preaching of the friars has wrought; p. 89. The Dominicans especially were proud of their preaching.

133. The friar here remarks that the Wycliffites are heretics, and ought to be burnt; p. 90. The same remark is all the answer made to question 32.

141. Reply: the friars do not sell the mass; they only freely give it to those who freely give to them. Even if we did sell it, surely the parish-priests receive money for the same; this is not simony; pp. 93-5. See note to Ch. C. T., D 1749; vol. v. p. 333.

149. Reply: we write down the names only to help our own memories; for special prayers are very profitable for souls; pp. 99, 100. See note to Ch. C. T., D 1741; vol. v. p. 332.

153. berest god in honde, accusest Christ. Reply: Christ was lord of all spiritually; but, as a man, he was needy. David says of Him, 'I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me'; Ps. xl. 17. I refer you to Matt. viii. 20; pp. 95-8.

156. No special answer is given to questions 36-9.

187. Reply: you expect your servant to call you 'master.' It is not the being called 'master,' but ambition, that Christ forbids; pp. 100-1. Cf. note to Ch. C. T., D 2185; vol. v. p. 340.

189. The reply is singular, to the effect that pope John XXIV wrote against this matter, and the friars Minors (Franciscans) against him. 'Examyne her actis, and loke who hath the beter; and knowe noon other ordre this perfitnesse approveth'; p. 101.

208. There is no reply to question 42.

211. Reply; going two and two together is a scriptural custom. Barnabas and Paul did so. So did Paul and Timothy. Besides, there were two tables in the law, two cherubim in the temple, and two in the tabernacle. It was not good for Adam to be alone; pp. 101-3. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xi. 8; and to Chaucer, C. T., C 1740.

213. There seems to be no reply to questions 44-8.

246. As regards question 49, the friar replies to ll. 249-51, saying that, according to this, no one could pray for any one; for we cannot tell his future destiny; p. 103. Cf. note to Ch. C. T., D 2126; vol. v. p. 339.

258. Questions 50 and 51 do not seem to be noticed. Question 52 is partly answered in the reply to question 22. See l. 105.

277. Reply: you admit (l. 283) that God made all things according to weight, number, and measure. But a friar is something; ergo, God made friars according to weight, &c. Why are priests so numerous? As to a man's hand (l. 287), the number of fingers is fixed, and an extra finger is monstrous. But neither God nor holy church have fixed the number of priests or friars. 'Many hondis togider maken light werk'; pp. 105-6. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 270.

At this point the friar introduces a subject not discussed in the copy of Jack Upland here printed, viz. the subject of transubstantiation. He says that Jack accuses the friars of saying that the bread is not Christ's body, but mere roundness and whiteness, and accident without subject; and Wyclif is adduced as saying that it remains material bread, and only Christ's body in a figurative sense; pp. 106-10. The rest of the friar's reply (which goes but little further) is inapplicable to our text, so that the latter part of the treatise, ll. 294-end, is left unanswered. Perhaps sections 54-64 were, at first, a somewhat later addition.

296. This has been partly said before; see l. 77 above.

310. It was thought that to die in a friar's habit increased a man's chance of salvation; see l. 100 above.

320. Cf. note to P. Plowman, C. xiii. 21. See l. 246 above.

336. Cf. P. Plowman, C. xxiii. 323-72.

368. This enquiry takes up a large portion of the Ploughman's Crede. The jealousy of one order against the other was very remarkable. See note to l. 100 above.

399. See James, i. 27; cf. l. 36 above.

411. See Matt. xi. 30. Wyclif has—'For my yok is softe, and my charge light.'

421. The Franciscans claimed that St. Francis sat in heaven above the Seraphim, upon the throne from which Lucifer fell; see note to P. Plowman, C. ii. 105 (B. i. 105).

424-7. Evidently intended for four alliterative lines, but the third is too long; read—'And whan ye han soiled that I saide,' &c. Again, the first is too short; read—'Go, frere, now forth,' &c.

430. even-Christen, fellow-Christian; see Gloss. to P. Plowman.

433. 'Benefac humili, et non dederis impio: prohibe panes illi dari, ne in ipsis potentior te sit'; Ecclus. xii. 6.

IV. GOWER: THE PRAISE OF PEACE.

This piece has no English title except that printed at p. 205; for the Latin title, see p. 216. See the Introduction.

12, 13. Henry founded his title on conquest, hereditary right, and election. The first of these is referred to in ll. 9, 10; the second, in l. 12; and the third, in l. 13. See note in vol. i. p. 564, to XIX. 23.

17. boun, ready; better than the reading bounde.

21. I note here an unimportant variation. For this is, the MS. has is this.

27. I find that there is no need to insert the. Read requeste, in three syllables, as it really had a final e, being a feminine substantive. Cf. 'Et lor requestë refaison'; Rom. Rose, 4767. Requeste is trisyllabic in Troil. iv. 57; L. Good Wom. 448.

36. According to the romance of Alexander, the god Serapis, appearing in a dream, told him that his great deeds would be remembered for ever. Before this, Alexander had told his men that he hoped to conquer all the earth—'with the graunt of my god.' See Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, ll. 990, 1095.

57. This obviously refers to Bolingbroke's invasion, when he came, as he said, to claim his inheritance; cf. l. 65.

81. Of pestilence, out of pestilence, to free him from pestilence.

86. lyf, person, man; lit. 'living soul.' Common in P. Plowman.

174, 179. Matt. v. 9; John, xiv. 27.

185. out of herre, out of (off) the hinge; like mod. E. 'out of joint.' A favourite phrase of Gower's; see his Conf. Amant. ii. 139; iii. 43, 52, 203, 211.

197. Knights were expected to defend the faith; see note to P. Plowman, C. ix. 26. Cf. ll. 243-5.

202. I supply alday (i.e. continually) to complete the line.

204. wayted, watched, carefully guarded; in contrast to l. 207.

211. For any perhaps read a; the line runs badly.

218. 'It is easier to keep a thing than acquire it.'

236. assysed, appointed; as in Conf. Amant. i. 181; iii. 228.

251. 'Let men be armed to fight against the Saracens.'

253. Three points; stated in ll. 254, 261-2, and 268; i.e. the church is divided; Christian nations are at variance; and the heathen threaten us.

281-3. These are the nine worthies; of whom three were heathen (281), three Jewish (282), and three Christian (283); as noted in Reliquiæ Antiquæ, i. 287. Sometimes they varied; thus Shakespeare introduces Hercules and Pompey among the number; L. L. L. v. 2. 538. Machabeus, Judas Maccabeus. Godfray, Godfrey of Bouillon. Arthus, King Arthur.

294. For men, MS. T. has pes = pees; which perhaps is better.

295. For tennes, as in Thynne, the Trentham MS. has the older spelling tenetz, which gives the etymology of 'tennis.' Tenetz is the imperative plural of the verb tenir, and must have been a cry frequently used in the jeu de paume; probably it was used to call attention, like the modern 'play!' This is the earliest passage in which the word occurs. 'No one can tell whether he will win or lose a "chace" at tennis, till the ball has run its course.' Chace is a term 'applied to the second impact on the floor (or in a gallery) of a ball which the opponent has failed or declined to return; the value of which is determined by the nearness of the spot of impact to the end wall. If the opponent, on both sides being changed, can "better" this stroke (i.e. cause his ball to rebound nearer the wall) he wins and scores it; if not, it is scored by the first player; until it is so decided, the "chace" is a stroke in abeyance'; New E. Dict.

306. be gete, begotten, be obtained; begete gives no sense.

323. lyf, life; not as in l. 86. See 1 Cor. xiii. 1.

330. Cassodore, Cassiodorus. Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, born about A.D. 468, was a statesman and author; his chief work being his Variarum Epistolarum Libri XII, which is six times quoted in Chaucer's Tale of Melibeus. Gower, in his Conf. Amantis, iii. 191, quotes this very passage again; thus—

I find: 'Pietas est quae regit et celos'; Cass. Var. xi. 40.

332. assysed, fixed, set; cf. l. 236. Unless it means assessed, rated; a sense which is also found in Gower, viz. in his Conf. Amant. i. 5; see the New E. Dict. The passage is a little obscure.

336. 'On account of which mercy should turn aside.'

339. Constantyn, Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from A.D. 306 to 337. Eusebius wrote a life of him in four books, which is rather a panegyric than a biography. The story here told is hardly consistent with the facts, as Constantine caused the death of his own son Crispus and of young Licinius; as to which Gibbon (c. xviii) remarks that 'the courtly bishop, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and pieties of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject of these tragic events.' In his Conf. Amantis, iii. 192, Gower again says:—

But the particular story about the 'yonge children' to which Gower here alludes is given at length in the Conf. Amantis, bk. ii. vol. i. pp. 266-77. Very briefly, it comes to this. Constantine, while still a heathen, was afflicted with leprosy. The physicians said he could only be healed by bathing in the blood of young children. On due reflection, he preferred to retain his leprosy; whereupon, he was directed in a vision to apply to pope Silvester, who converted him and baptised him; and he was cured of his leprosy when immersed in the baptismal font. The whole city followed the emperor's example, and was converted to Christianity. This explains ll. 354-5:—'so that the dear ones, (converted) from being the hateful ones who had formerly been at enmity with Christ,' &c.

363. For debated, MS. T. has deleated, for delated, i.e. deferred; see Dilate in the New E. Dict.

380. 'these other Christian princes'; viz. in particular, Charles VI, king of France, and Robert III, king of Scotland.

393. These interesting lines tell us that blindness befell the poet in the first year of Henry IV (Sept. 30, 1399—Sept. 29, 1400); and we gather that the present poem was meant to be his last. As a matter of fact, he wrote a still later couplet in the following words:—

These lines occur in MSS. of his Vox Clamantis; see Morley, Eng. Writers, iv. 157. Notwithstanding his infirmity, Gower survived till the autumn of 1408; and was interred, as is well known, in the church of St. Mary Overies—now St. Saviour's—in Southwark, towards the rebuilding of which he had liberally contributed.

It appears that negotiations for peace, both with Scotland and France, were being prosecuted in the latter part of 1399; see Wylie, History of Henry IV, i. 82, 86. It is also probable that Gower must have written the 'Praise of Peace' before the death of Richard II in Feb. 1400, as he makes no allusion to that event, nor to the dangerous conspiracy against Henry's life in the early part of January. For these reasons, we may safely date the poem in the end of the year 1399.

V. THOMAS HOCCLEVE: THE LETTER OF CUPID.

This poem is imitated, rather than translated, from the French poem entitled L'Epistre au Dieu d'Amours, written by Christine de Pisan in May, 1399; printed in Œuvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan, publiées par Maurice Roy, ii. 1-27; Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1891. Hoccleve even rearranges some of the material; and Dr. Furnivall has printed all the lines of the original of which the English poet has made use, in the Notes to his edition of Hoccleve's Works, published for the Early English Text Society, in 1892. It thus appears that the lines of Christine's poem are to be taken in the following order: 1-116, 537-54, 126-30, 531-4, 131-96, 721-5, 259-520, 321-5, 271-4, 387-460, 643-77, 608-23, 559-75, 759-800. The following stanzas, on the other hand, are wholly Hoccleve's own: 71-7, 92-8, 127-33, 141-7, 162-8, 176-89, 267-73, 316-29, 379-434. The last set extends to 56 lines.

Cupid, god of Love, is supposed to write a letter to all lovers, who are his subjects, reproving men for their slander and ill-treatment of women, and defending women against all that is alleged against them. In fact, it is a reply, by Christine de Pisan, to the numerous severe things that Jean de Meun had said about women in the famous Roman de la Rose. He is expressly mentioned by name in l. 281.

I here quote, as a specimen, the first 7 lines of the original, answering to Hoccleve's first stanza—

5. 'Son of the goddess Cithera,' i.e. Venus. Cithera is an alternative spelling of Citherea, occurring in the Cambridge and Petworth MSS. of the Cant. Tales, A 2215. For the construction, see note to Ch. C. T., F 209.

16. Albion. Of course Hoccleve has adapted the poem for English readers. The original has:—'Sur tous païs se complaignent de France.'

28. I read mot for the sake of the grammar and scansion; the MSS. have most, bad spelling for most-e, the past tense. But moot occurs, correctly, as the emphatic form of mot, in l. 35. Cf. l. 410.

30. As doth, pray, do; a common idiom; see note to C. T., E 7.

37. man, i.e. 'human being'; used generally, and including women.

38. 'When no word can proceed out of his mouth but such as may reasonably please any one, it apparently comes from the heart.'

50. 'Has the pot by the handle'; i.e. holds it securely.

54. Note the accentuation: 'Aný womán.' This accentuation of words on the latter syllable in rather unlikely cases, is a marked peculiarity of Hoccleve's verse. Cf. womán in l. 79, journéy in l. 106; axíng in l. 122, purpós in l. 130. Cf. wommán in l. 170 with wómman in l. 174.

71. To here? to her? Dr. Furnivall notes that Hoccleve frequently makes here dissyllabic, when it represents the personal pronoun. Cf. l. 70; and see his Preface, p. xli. The reading 'To hir name yet was yt no reprefe,' given in Dr. Furnivall's edition from one MS. only, affords no sense, and will not scan, as name is properly dissyllabic.

90. souneth in-to, tends to; cf. note to C. T., B 3157.

95. 'They procure such assistants as have a double face.' The accentuation of prócuren on the o was at this time common; we even find the form proker (see Stratmann).

120-2. wolde ... Men wiste, would like men to know.

131. 'Unless he be so far advanced in madness as to spoil all with open coarseness; for that, as I suppose, women do not like.'

145. 'Reason follows it so slowly and leisurely.'

184. dishonest, unworthy of honour, blameworthy. Ray gives the proverb—'it's an ill bird that bewrays its own nest'; and compares the Greek—τὸν οἴκοι θησαυρὸν διαβάλλε.

192. lakken, blame, find fault with; as in Chaucer.

196. bilowen, lied against; pp. of bilēoȝen, A.S. bilēogan.

204. Alluding to Ovid's Remedium Amoris. Cf. Ch. C. T., D 688-710.

215. 'They say, it is profitable to consider peril.'

225. Rather close to the original French:—

257. hente, caught; in hir daunger, under their control, within their power.

258. It was thought that one poison would expel another; see P. Plowman, C. xxi. 156-8, and the notes.

272. 'It cannot long abide upon one object.'

281. Jean de Meun, author of the latter and more satirical part of the famous Roman de la Rose; see vol. i.

298. 'They are not so void of constancy.' Read cónstauncè.

302. See Ch. Legend of Good Women, 1580.

305. wold, desired; pp. of willen; see note to C. T., B 2615.

309. See Ch. Legend of Good Women, 924.

316-29. These two stanzas are wholly original. Hoccleve, remembering that the examples of Medea and Dido both occur in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, here takes occasion to make an express reference to that work, which he here calls 'my Legende of Martres.' My refers to Cupid; Legend, to Chaucer's title; and Martres, to the Latin titles to some of the Legends. Thus the Legend of Hypsipyle and Medea is entitled—'Incipit Legenda Ysiphile et Medee, Martirum.' Instead of Martres, Thynne has the ridiculous reading Natures, which the editions carefully retain.

357. 'And, had it not been for the devil,' &c.

360. her, the serpent. There was a legend that the serpent had the face of a beautiful virgin. See Ch. C. T., B 360, and note; P. Plowman, B. xviii. 335, and note.

379-434. These eight stanzas are all Hoccleve's own.

393. happy to, fortunate for; because it brought about Christ's incarnation. The allusion is to the oft-quoted sentence—'O felix culpa, O necessarium peccatum Ade,' from the Sarum missal. See note to P. Plowman, C. viii. 126. Cf. l. 396.

421. The day of St. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr, was July 20, in the Latin Church. See the edition of Seinte Marherete, by O. Cockayne, E. E. T. S., 1866.

428. I, i.e. Cupid. This stanza is spoken by Cupid, in his own character; cf. l. 431. In l. 464, he assumes the royal style of we. It is, moreover, obvious that this stanza would hardly have been approved of by Christine.

473-6. Imitated from the closing lines of Christine's poem:—

It thus appears that 'the lusty month of May,' in l. 472, is merely copied from the French; but, to the fortunate circumstance that Christine gives the exact date of her poem as 1399, we owe the fact that Hoccleve likewise gives the exact date of his poem as being 1402.

VI. THOMAS HOCCLEVE: TO THE KING; AND TO THE KNIGHTS OF THE GARTER.

These two Balades, each of 32 lines, are written in a highly artificial metre; for, in each case, the four stanzas of which each consists shew the same rimes throughout. The riming syllables in Balade 1 are -esse, -our, and -alle; and in Balade 2, are -ame, -aunce, and -ee. A similar example of metrical arrangement occurs in Chaucer's Balade to Rosemounde.

2. king, Henry V, as we see from the French title.

3. Justinian; emperor of Constantinople, A.D. 527-65, whose fame rests upon the justly celebrated Justinian Code of laws. The reference, fortunately, is explained by Hoccleve himself, in a longer Balade concerning Sir John Oldcastel, printed in Anglia, v. 23; and again in Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 8. Hoccleve is praising Justinian's orthodoxy, to which (as he tells us) Henry V was heir; and the exact reference is to the following clause in one of Justinian's laws, which is quoted in full in the margin of the Balade above mentioned; see Anglia, v. 28; or Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 14. 'Nemo clericus vel militaris, vel cuiuslibet alterius conditionis de fide Christiana publice turbis coadunatis et audientibus tractare conetur,' &c. So that Justinian's 'devout tenderness in the faith' was exhibited by repressing religious discussion; cf. l. 27. See Gibbon's Roman Empire, ch. 44.

5. the Garter. The noble Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III on St. George's day, Apr. 23, 1349; cf. l. 54.

10. Constantyn. He now proceeds to liken Henry V to Constantine the Great, who was a great supporter of the church; see note above, to Poem no. IV, l. 339. Cf. Anglia, v. 29; or Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 15; st. 28.

15. do forth, proceed, continue to do as you have done in the past. Not a common expression; see forth in Mätzner.

18. Very characteristic of Hoccleve; the accents required by the verse are thrown upon the weak words your and the. But perhaps your is emphatic. Cf. fullý in l. 20, á sharp, 21.

30. Hoccleve is clearly urging the King to repress Lollardry.

37. 'God would have it so; and your allegiance would also have it so.' This is explained in a sidenote in the margin: 'quia Rex illam iustissimam partem tenet.' That is, the lords ought to put down heresy, because their master the king was against it.

41. Your style, your motto; the famous 'Honi soit qui mal y pense.' Hence shame here means scandal; but foos to shame is an awkward expression in this connexion.

47. nuisaunce, annoyance; referring to heresy; cf. l. 50.

52. Slepë nat this, be not sleepy about this; a rare construction.

58. norice of distaunce, nurse of debate or strife.

60. 'Variation from the faith would be a damnable thing.'

64. The remark—Cest tout—instead of the usual word explicit, occurs at the end of several poems by Hoccleve; see his Poems, ed. Furnivall, pp. 8, 24, 47, 51, 57, 58, 61, 62, 64, &c.

VII. HENRY SCOGAN: A MORAL BALADE.

For remarks upon the heading of this poem, see the Introduction.

3. Sende; that is, he did not come and recite the poem himself.

8. This reminds us of the Knight's appeal: 'Now late us ryde, and herkneth what I seye'; C. T., A 855.

30. to queme, according to your pleasure. Queme is here a substantive; see Stratmann. Cf. to pay in Chaucer.

49. Tak'th is monosyllabic, as in l. 57. So also Think'th, in l. 59.

51. From James, ii. 17.

56. 'To the honour of your life and the benefit of your soul.'

65. The exclamation shews that Chaucer was then dead.

67. The quotation is inexact; cf. ll. 120, 121 below. The reference is to the Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 1121:—

81. Read Think'th; so also Dryv'th in l. 86; Tak'th in l. 89.

97. Here the quotation, again from the Wyf of Bathes Tale (D 1131), is very close:—

100. 'Therefore God is the source of virtuous nobleness.' This depends on a passage in Boethius, bk. iii. met. 6. l. 2; see notes to poem XIV, in vol. i. pp. 553-5.

105. See this poem of Chaucer's in vol. i. p. 392.

143. ful rage, very fierce. But I know of no other example of rage as an adjective.

146. kalends, the beginning; as in Troil. v. 1634.

150. The passage in Boethius is in Book i. met. 6. 11-15. Cf. Ch. vol. ii. p. 19.

166. From Chaucer, Wyf of Bathes Tale, D 1165:—

And Chaucer found it in Valerius Maximus, iii. 4; see vol. v. p. 320.

168. From Chaucer, Monkes Tale, B 3862. But it may be doubted if Caesar's alleged poverty is an historical fact. Cf. p. 24, l. 128 (above).

174. Read the story of Nero in the Monkes Tale, B 3653; that of Balthasar (Belshazzar) in the same, B 3373; and that of Antiochus in the same, B 3765. Compare the lines in B 3800-1:—

187. 'I should be sorry, if ye choose amiss.'

VIII. JOHN LYDGATE; COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT.

There are some excellent notes relative to this poem in Schick's edition of Lydgate's Temple of Glas (E. E. T. S.); I refer to them below as 'Schick, T. G.'

4. Bole, Bull. The sun entered Taurus, in the fifteenth century, just before the middle of April. Hence the phrase Amid the Bole refers, not to the first degree of the sign, but (literally) to the middle of it. The reference must be to May 1, when the sun had just passed a little beyond the middle (or 15th degree) of Taurus.

Even here we trace the influence of Chaucer's translation of the Romaunt of the Rose; for which see notes to ll. 36, 74 below. Chaucer reiterates the mention of May, R. R. 49, 51, 55, 74, 86; and ll. 1 and 2 of the present poem answer to R. R. 53-56:—

12. with seint Johan, with St. John for their security or protection; probably suggested by The Compleynt of Mars, l. 9, which opens in a similar strain; cf. note to C. T., F 596; vol. v. p. 385.

15, 16. Compare Rom. Rose (Chaucer's version), ll. 94-5.

21. halt, holds, constrains; the present tense.

22, 23. Compare Rom. Rose (Chaucer's version), ll. 100-1.

28. Lydgate is fond of calling the sun Tytan; Chaucer has the name only once; in Troil. iii. 1464. Lydgate is here thinking of the passage in the Knightes Tale, A 1493-6, about fyry Phebus. Note that he is fond of the word persaunt; see ll. 358, 591, 613; cf. Schick, note to T. G. 328.

33. It is odd that no MS. has the form splayen; yet the final n is required for the metre, or, at any rate, to save an hiatus.

36. Lydgate here copies l. 134 of the English Romaunt of the Rose—'The river-syde costeying'—and is a witness to the genuineness of Fragment A of that poem; as appears more clearly below; see note to l. 75. The whole passage seems founded upon the Romaunt; for this walk by the river brings him to a park (a garden in the Romaunt) enclosed by a wall that had a small gate in it. It is further obvious that l. 42 is borrowed from l. 122 of the Parliament of Foules—'Right of a park walled with grene stoon.' I may remark here that I have seen a wall constructed of red sandstone so entirely covered with a very minute kind of vegetable growth as to present to the eye a bright green surface.

40. gate smal; usually called a wiket in similar poems; see Rom. Rose, 528, and Schick, note to T. G. 39.

43-49. This stanza answers to Rom. Rose, ll. 105-8, 78-9.

52. celúred, canopied, over-arched (New E. Dict.).

53-6. Cf. Rom. Rose, 1398-1400.

57. attempre, temperate; observe that this word occurs in the Rom. Rose, l. 131 (only three lines above the line quoted in the note to l. 36), where the F. text has atrempee.

62. take, take effect, take hold, become set; an early example of this curious intransitive use of the verb.

63. 'Ready for (men) to shake off the fruit.'

64. Daphne. Cf. Troil. iii. 726:—'O Phebus, thenk whan Dane hirselven shette Under the bark, and laurer wex for drede.' And cf. C. T., A 2062; and Schick, note to T. G. 115.

66. myrre; see Troil. iv. 1138-9.

67. Cf. the mention of laurel, pine, and cedar in Rom. Rose, 1313-4.

68. The resemblance of philbert (Philibert's nut) to Phyllis is accidental, but it was then believed that the connexion was real; merely because Vergil has 'Phyllis amat corylos'; Ecl. vii. 63. Thus Gower has (Conf. Amant. ii. 30):—

and he gives the story of Phyllis and Demophon, saying that Phyllis hanged herself on a nut-tree. See the Legend of Good Women, 2557. Pliny alludes to 'the almond-tree whereon ladie Phyllis hanged herselfe'; Nat. Hist. xvi. 26 (in Holland's translation). See further in Schick, note to T. G. 86.

71. hawethorn; often mentioned in poems of this period; see Schick, note to T. G. 505. Cf. XX. 272, p. 369; XXIV. 1433, p. 447.

74, 75. The list of trees was evidently suggested by the Rom. Rose; see Chaucer's translation, 1379-86. Hence the next thing mentioned is a well; see the same, ll. 1409-11, 109-30. Note that the water was cold, as in R. R. 116; under a hill, as in R. R. 114; and ran over gravel, as in R. R. 127, 1556. And then note the same, 1417-20:—

It is remarkable that the French original merely has 'Poignoit l'erbe freschete et drue,' without any mention of softe or of veluët. It thus becomes clear that Lydgate is actually quoting Chaucer's version.

81. The reading seems to be lustily cam springing; it would be a great improvement to transpose the words, and read cam lustily springing. Cf. 'Abouten it is gras springing'; R. R. 1563.

82. Cf. 'That shadwed was with braunches grene'; R. R. 1511.

87. Narcisus, Narcissus; introduced as a matter of course, because he is here mentioned in the Romaunt; see R. R. 1468—'Here starf the faire Narcisus.'

88. Cupyde; cf. R. R. 1523—'Wel couthe Love him wreke tho.' And see the same, 1601-29.

89. Cf. R. R. 1617—'Hath sowen there of love the seed.'

92. pitte, i.e. well of Helicon, most likely; which Chaucer mixed up with the Castalian spring on Parnassus; see note to Anelida, 15. And cf. the Pegasee in C. T., F 207; and 'I sleep never on the mount of Pernaso,' F 721.

95. Dyane, Diana; see C. T., A 2065-6.

97. his houndes, his own dogs; not her, as in several MSS. For see C. T., A 2067—'his houndes have him caught.'

102. pensifheed, pensiveness; common in Lydgate; see Schick, note to T. G. 2.

103. Cf. 'To drinke and fresshe him wel withalle'; R. R. 1513.

107-12. Suggested by R. R. 1507-16; especially 1515-6.

127. 'Of gras and floures, inde and pers'; R. R. 67. And compare l. 126 with R. R. 68.

129. hulfere, holly; Icel. hulfr, dogwood. Spelt hulwur, huluyr in the Prompt. Parv. 'The holly is still called in Norfolk hulver, and in Suffolk hulva'; Way. Cotgrave has:—'Houx, the holly, holme, or hulver-tree.' Also 'Petit houx, kneehulver, butchers broom.'

131. MS. P. has of colour; which suggests the reading—'In blakke and whyte, of colour pale and wan'; but this, though a better line, cannot stand, as it makes the words also of his hewe in l. 132 superfluous; indeed l. 132 then becomes unmeaning.

136. accesse, feverish attack; see Schick, note to T. G. 358.

151. ure, destiny; O.F. eur, Lat. augurium; cf. F. mal-heur. See l. 302 below, and Barbour's Bruce, i. 312.

154. among; so in all the copies; among as, whilst.

161. ado, to do; put for at do; a Northern idiom.

168. awhaped, stupefied: see Gloss. in vol. vi. amat, dismayed. Cf. Schick, note to T. G. 401.

169. sitting, suitable; cf. R. R. 986.

172. grounde (dissyllabic) improves the line; but ground is the correct form.

176. Here the Ashmole MS. inserts 'La compleynt du Chiualier'; but wrongly. For see l. 218.

178. Niobe; mentioned in Troil. i. 699. So woful Myrre, Troil. iv. 1139.

227. cheste, receptacle; 'cheste of every care'; Troil. v. 1368.

229. Cf. Troil. i. 420; also Rom. Rose, 4746-50.

233. fro, from being, after being.

250. Daunger; see Schick, note to T. G. 156.

253. Cf. 'his arwes ... fyle'; Parl. Foules, 212.

260. Male-Bouche, Evil Tongue; cf. R. R. 7357, &c.; where Fragment C has 'Wikkid-Tonge,' the F. original has Male Bouche. Cf. IX. 84 (p. 269). See Schick, note to T. G. 153.

274-6. forjuged and excused only give an assonance, not a rime.

291. through-girt ... wounde; from C. T., A 1010.

303. purveyaunce, providence; a reminiscence of the argument in Troil. iv. 961, &c.

304. god; for the god; but the article is unnecessary; see Schick, note to T. G. 132.

305. 'And true men have fallen off the wheel'; i.e. the wheel of Fortune; cf. Troil. iv. 6.

330. Palamides, Palamedes. There were two different heroes of this name. One was the son of Nauplius, king of Euboea, who lost his life before Troy, by the artifices of Ulysses. It is said that Ulysses, envious of his fame, forged a letter to him purporting to come from Priam, and then accused him of treachery; whereupon he was condemned to be stoned to death. But the reference is rather to a much later hero, the unsuccessful lover of La bele Isoude. He was defeated by the celebrated knight Sir Tristram, who made him promise to resign his pretensions to the lady; a promise which he did not keep. See Sir T. Malory, Morte Arthure, bk. viii. c. 10, &c.

344. Hercules. See the Monkes Tale, B 3285.

349. Gades, Cadiz; where, according to Guido, Hercules set up some columns or pillars, to shew that he had come to the end of the world. There is an extraordinary confusion as to the locality and maker of these pillars. Lydgate here follows the account in the Alexander romances, viz. that Alexander set up a pillar of marble in the furthest end of India (l. 351); on which was inscribed—'Ego Alexander Philippi Macedonis post obitum Darii usque ad hunc locum expugnando viriliter militaui'; see Alexander and Dindimus, ed. Skeat, p. 42. Lydgate has confused the two accounts.

354. Copied from Troil. i. 518:—'Of hem that Love list febly for to avaunce'; which is preceded by 'he may goon in the daunce'; see the next line.

358. Phebus. Cf. 'Whan Phebus dwelled here in this erthe adoun'; C. T., H 1. Lydgate is not, however, referring to the story in the Manciples Tale, but rather to the hopeless love of Phoebus for the daughter of Admetus; for which see Troil. i. 659-65. Cf. Schick, note to T. G. 112.

365. Piramus. See Legend of Good Women, 724; and Schick, note to T. G. 80.

366. Tristram. See notes to Parl. Foules, 288, and to Rosamounde, 20; and to Temple of Glas, ed. Schick, l. 77.

367. Achilles fell in love with Polyxena, a daughter of Priam, according to Guido; see note to Book of the Duch. 1070; and Schick, note to T. G. 94. Antonius, Antony; see Legend of Good Women, 588.

368. See the Knightes Tale; but it is a little extraordinary that Lydgate should instance Palamon here.

372. Jason; see Legend of Good Women, 1580. For Theseus, see the same, 1945; and for Enee (Aeneas), the same, 924.