L' NOTES. INE 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, And saide, mercy, madame, Wat may this be to mene, (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 1. 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, Ac for it profitith yow to pors-warde, Ye prelates soffren That lewede men in mysbylyve Ich lyve wel, by oure Lorde! Ful on hem that free were, And losten Archa Dei, And fore hure syre sauh hem syngen, And wolde noght rebukie hem, Fro hus chaire thare he sat, That he but noght hus children. Youre masse and youre matynes, 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 xiie, xiiie, et xive 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, To preche the peple And ben clerkis of the kinges bench 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 Et d'un vin foible, fet. i. fort. Thewyn 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; 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 againt 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. Biron. Well followed: Judas was hang'd on an elder. Love's Labours Lost, v, 2. |