595. _on an eller._ It was the prevailing belief during the middle ages,
that the tree on which Judas hanged himself was an elder. Maundevile tells
us that this tree was still in existence, when he visited Jerusalem. "Also
streghte from Natatorie Siloe is an ymage of ston and of olde auncyen werk,
that Absalon leet make; and because thereof, men clepen it the hond of
Absalon. And faste by is yit the _tree of eldre_ that Judas henge himself
upon for despeyr that he hadde, whan he solde and betrayed oure Lord." The
same notion continued to exist in the age of Shakespeare, and is alluded to
by Shakespeare himself, Ben Jonson, and others.
_Hol._ What mean you, sir?
_Boyet._ To make Judas hang himself.
_Hol._ Begin, sir; you are _my elder_.
_Biron._ Well followed: _Judas was hang'd on an elder._
_Love's Labours Lost_, v, 2.
681. _Lucifer with legions._ The story of Lucifer's rebellion and fall was
extremely popular in the middle ages, and particularly among the
Anglo-Saxons, who, in the fine poem ascribed to Cædmon, had given it almost
as much detail as Milton had done at a later date. This legend is related
in prose in an Anglo-Saxon tract in MS. Cotton. Vespas. D. xiv, fol. 2.
682. The second Trin. Col. MS. has, _Leride it in hevene, | and as the
lovelokest | to loke on, aftir oure Lord_.
697-704. Instead of these lines, we find the following in Whitaker's text:
Lord, why wolde he tho,
Thulke wrechede Lucifer,
Lepen on a-lofte
In the northe syde,
To sitten in the sonne side
Ther the day roweth,
Ne were it for northerne men,
Anon ich wolde telle:
Ac ich wolle lacke no lyf,
Quath that lady sotthly.
'Hyt is sykerer by southe,
Ther the sonne regneth,
Than in the north, by meny notes,
No man loyne other.
For theder as the fend flegh,
Hus fote for to sette,
Ther he failede and fuel,
And hus felawes alle.
And helle is ther he is,
And he ther y-bounde,
Evene contrarie suteth Criste,
Cierkus knowen the sothe,
_Dixit Dominus Domino meo, sede a dextris
meis._
'Ac of this matere
No more mene ich nelle,
He was in the halyday
After heten wayten,
They care noght thauh it be cold
Knaves wen thei worchen.'
Whitaker has translated the last four lines of the foregoing extract thus,
"Excepting that hyndes on the holyday look out for warm places, but knaves
(servants) when working hard, are indifferent to cold."
695. Isaiah xiv, 14. The citation varies a little from the text of the
printed vulgate.
707. _Somme in the eyr._ The monks in the middle ages endeavoured to
explain the existence of different classes of spirits and fairies, which
the popular creed represented as harmless, or even beneficent creatures, by
supposing that some of the angels who fell with Lucifer were less guilty
than others, and were allowed to occupy the different elements on the earth
instead of being condemned to "the pit." In "The Master of Oxford's
Catechism," written early in the fifteenth century, and printed in the
Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i, p. 231, we have the following question and
answer,--"_C._ Where be the anjelles that God put out of heven, and bycam
devilles? _M._ Som into hell, and som reyned in the skye, and som in the
erth, and som in waters and in wodys."
815. Mark iv, 24. In qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis, et
adjicietur vobis.
835. Epist. Jac. ii, 17. Sic et fides, si non habeat opera, mortua est in
semetipsa.