6186. _mausede._ An error of the press for _mansede_. See the Glossary.
6191. _Offyn and Fynes_. Ophni and Phinees. See 1 Samuel iv. (in the
Vulgate called 1 Kings).
6199. Psal. xlix, 21.
6207. Isai. lvi, 10.
6217. The text of the Trin. Coll. MS. 2, differs very much from ours in
this part of the poem. Instead of 6217-6277, we have the following lines:--
Ac now is Religioun a ridere
And a rennere aboute,
A ledere of ladies,
And a lond biggere;
Poperith on a palfrey
To toune and to toune;
A bidowe or a biselard
He berith be his side;
Godis flessh and his fet
And hise fyve woundis
Arn more in his mynde
Than the memorie of his foundours.
This is the lif of this lordis
That lyven shulde with Do-bet,
And wel awey wers,
And I shulde al telle.
I wende that kinghed and knighthed,
And caiseris with erlis,
Wern Do-wel and Do-bet
And Do-best-of-hem-alle.
For I have seighe it myself,
And siththen red it aftir,
How Crist counseilleth the comune,
And kenneth hem this tale,
_Super cathedram Moisi sederunt principes_
For-thi I wende that tho wyes
Wern Do-best-of-alle.
I nile not scorne, etc.
6223. _an heepe of houndes._ "Walter de Suffield, bishop of Norwich,
bequeathed by will his pack of hounds to the king, in 1256. Blomefield's
Norf. ii, 347. See Chaucer's Monke, Prol. v, 165. This was a common topic
of satire. It occurs again fol. xxvii, a [l. 3321, of the present Edition].
See Chaucer's Testament of Love, page 492, col. ii, Urr. The Archdeacon of
Richmond, on his visitation, comes to the priory of Bridlington in
Yorkshire, in 1216, with ninety-seven horses, twenty dogs, and three hawks.
Dugd. Mon. ii, 65." WARTON.
6251. Psal. xix, 8.
6259. _the abbot of Abyngdone._ There was a very ancient and famous abbey
at Abingdon in Berkshire. Geoffrey of Monmouth was abbot there. It was the
house into which the monks, strictly so called, were first introduced in
England, and is, therefore, very properly introduced as the representative
of English monachism.
6266. Isai. xiv, 4, 5.
6289. Ecclesiasticus x, 10.
6291. Catonis Distich. iv, 4.
Dilige denari, sed parce dilige, formam;
Quem nemo sanctus nec honestus captat ab ære.
6327. Colos. iii, 1.
6353. _moechaberis._ A mistake in the original MS. for _necaberis_, as it
is rightly printed in Crowley's edition.
6372. John iii, 13.
6414. Matth. xxiii, 2. Super cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribæ et Pharisæi.
6440. Psal. xxxv, 8.
6476. Ecclesiastes ix, 1.
6504. Matth. x, 18. The quotation is not quite literal.
6528. For _idiotæ irapiunt_, read _idiotæ vi rapiunt_: the error was caused
accidentally in the printing, and has escaped in the present edition.
6571. Matth. xx, 4.
6741. John iii, 3.
6755. Matth. vii, 1.
6764. Psal. l, 21.
6815. Isai. lv, 1.
6825. Mark xvi, 16.
6831. _may no cherl chartre make._ Such was the law of _vileinage_, then in
existence. There is a curious story illustrative of the condition of the
_cherl_ or peasant, in the Descriptio Norfolciensium, in my Early Mysteries
and other Latin Poems of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, p. 94. The
'cherl,' vilein, or bondman, could not even be put apprentice without the
licence of the lord of the soil. In the curious poem on the Constitution of
Masonry (14th cent.) published by Mr. Halliwell, the master is particularly
cautioned on this point:--
The fowrthe artycul thys moste be,
That the mayster hym wel be-se
That he no bondemon prentys make,
Ny for no covetyse do hym take;
For the lord that he ys bonde to,
May fache the prentes whersever he go.
_Early History of Freemasonry in England_, p. 14.
6859. _Trojanus._ 6869. _Gregorie._ The legend here alluded to is given
briefly as follows, in the life of St. Gregory in the Golden Legend, fol.
lxxxxvii,--
"In the tyme that Trayan themperour regned, and on a tyme as he wente
toward a batayll out of Rome, it happed that in hys waye as he shold ryde a
woman a wydowe came to hym wepyng and sayd: I praye thee, syre, that thou
avenge the deth of one my sone, whyche innocently and wythout cause hath
ben slayn. Themperour answerd: yf I come agayn fro the batayll hool and
sounde, thenne I shall do justyce for the deth of thy sone. Thenne sayd the
wydowe: Syre, and yf thou deye in the bataylle, who shall thenne avenge hys
deth for me? And the wydowe sayd, is it not better that thou do to me
justice, and have the meryte thereof of God, than another have it for thee?
Then had Trayan pyté, and descended fro his horse, and dyde justyce in
avengynge the deth of her sone. On a tyme saynt Gregory went by the marked
of Rome whyche is called the marked of Trayan. And thenne he remembred of
the justyce and other good dedes of Trayan, and how he had ben pyteous and
debonayr, and was moche sorowfull that he had ben a paynem; and he tourned
to the chyrche of saynt Peter waylyng for thorrour of the mescreaunce of
Trayan. Thenne answerd a voys fro God, sayng: I have now herd thy prayer,
and have spared Trayan fro the payne perpetuelly. By thys thus, as somme
saye, the payne perpetuell due to Trayan as a mescreaunt was somme dele
take awaye, but for all that was he not quyte fro the pryson of helle; for
the sowle may well be in helle, and fele ther no payne, by the mercy of
God."
6907. 1 John iii, 15.
6938. Luke xiv, 12.
6964. John viii, 34.
6981. Galat. vi, 2.
7015. Matth. vii, 3.
7063. Luke x, 40.
7072. Luke x, 42.
7113. Although our writer quotes the circumstance from Luke xviii, the
words he gives are from Matth. xix, 21.