Marie Magdalene
By mores levede and dewes;
Love and leel byleyve
Heeld lyf and soule togedere.
Maria Egyptiaca
Eet in thyrty wynter
Bote thre lytel loves,
And love was her souel.
Ich can nat rekene hem ryght now,
Ne reherce here names,
That lyveden thus for oure Lordes love
Meny longe yeres,
Whitoute borwyng other beggyng,
Other the boke lyeth;
And woneden in wildernesse
Among wilde bestes;
Ac dorst no beste byten hem
By daye ne by nyghte,
Bote myldeliche whan thei metten
Maden louh chere,
And feyre byfore tho men
Fauhnede whith the tayles.
Ac bestes brouhte hem no mete,
Bote onliche the fouweles;
In tokenynge that trywe man
Alle tymes sholde
Fynde honeste men in holy men
And other ryghtful peuple.
For wolde never feithful goud
That freres and monkes token
Lyflode of luther wynnynges
In al here lyf tyme;
As wytnesseth holy writt
Whot Thobie deyde
To is wif, whan he was blynde,
Herde a lambe blete,--
'A! wyf, be war,' quath he,
'What ye have here ynne.
Lord leyve,' quath the lede,
'No stole thyng be here!'
_Videte ne furtum sit. Et alibi, Melius
est mori quam male vivere._
This is no more to mene,
Bote men of holy churche
Sholde receyve ryght nauth
Bot that ryght wolde,
And refuse reverences
And raveneres offrynges;
Thenne wolde lordes and ladies
Be loth to agulte,
And to take of here tenaunts
More than treuthe wolde;
And marchauns merciable wolde be,
And men of lawe bothe.
Wold religeouse refuse
Raveneres almesse,
Then Grace sholde growe yut
And grene-leved wexe,
And Charité, that child is now,
Sholde chaufen of hem self,
And comfortye all crystene,
Wold holy churche amende.
Job the parfit patriarch
This proverbe wrot and tauhte,
To makye a man lovye mesure,
That monkes beeth and freeres.
_Nunquam dicit Job, rugiet onager, etc._
Throughout this part of the poem, Whitaker's text differs very much in
words and phraseology from the one now printed, but it would take up too
much space to point out all these variations.
10247. Job vi, 5.
10270. 2 Corinth, ix, 9.
10303. These sentences appear to be quotations from the fathers of the
Latin Church.
10322. _lussheburwes._ A foreign coin, much adulterated, common in England
in the middle of the fourteenth century. Chaucer (C. T. 15445) uses the
word in a very expressive passage:--
This maketh that oure wyfes wol assaye
Religious folk, for thay may bettre paye
Of Venus payementes than may we:
God woot! no _lusscheburghes_ paye ye.
Among the foreign money, mostly of a base quality, which came into this
country in the fourteenth century, the coinage of the counts of Luxemburg,
or, as it was then called, Lusenburg (hence called _lussheburwes_ and
_lusscheburghes_), seems to have been the most abundant, and to have given
most trouble. These coins were the subject of legislation in 1346, 1347,
1348, and 1351; so that the grievance must have been at its greatest height
at the period to which the poem of Piers Ploughman especially belongs. Many
of these coins are preserved, and found in the cabinets of collectors; they
are in general very much like the contemporary English coinage, and might
easily be taken for it, but the metal is very base.
10368. _Grammer, the ground of al._ In the scholastic learning of the
middle ages, grammar was considered as the first of the seven sciences, and
the foundation-stone of all the rest. See my Essay on Anglo-Saxon
Literature, introductory to vol. i. of the _Biographia Britannica
Literaria_, p. 72. The importance of grammar is thus stated in the _Image
du Monde_ of Gautier de Metz (thirteenth century):--
Li primeraine des vij. ars,
Dont or n'est pas seus li quars,
A ichest tans, chou est gramaire,
Sans laquele nus ne vaut gaire
Qui à clergie veut aprendre:
Car petit puet sans li entendre.
Gramaires si est fondemens
De clergie et coumenchemens;
Cou est li porte de science,
Par cui on vient à sapience.
De lettres en gramaire escole
Qui ensegne et forme parole,
Soit en Latin ou en Roumans,
Ou en tous langages palans;
Qui bien saroit toute gramaire,
Toute parole saroit faire.
Par parole fist Dius le monde,
Et sentence est parole monde.
10398. _Corpus Christi feeste._ Corpus Christi day was a high festival of
the Church of Rome, held annually on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in
memory, as was said, of the miraculous confirmation of transubstantiation
under pope Urban IV.
10418. _This Makometh._ This account of Mohammed was the one most popularly
current in the middle ages. According to Hildebert, who wrote a life of the
pseudo-prophet in Latin verse in the twelfth century, Mohammed was a
Christian, skilled in magical arts, who, on the death of the patriarch of
Jerusalem, aspired to succeed him:--
Nam male devotus quidam baptismate lotus,
Plenus perfidia vixit in ecclesia.
. . . . . .
Nam cum transisset Pater illius urbis, et isset
In coelum subito corpore disposito,
Tunc exaltari magus hic et pontificari
Affectans avide; se tamen hæc pavide
Dixit facturum, nisi sciret non nociturum
Si præsul fiat, cum Deus hoc cupiat.
His intrigues being discovered, the emperor drives him away, and in revenge
he goes and founds a new sect. The story of the pigeon (which is not in
Hildebert) is found in Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. Hist. lib. xxiii, c. 40.
This story is said to be founded in truth. Neither of them are found in the
Roman de Mahomet (by Alexander du Pont), written in the thirteenth century,
and edited by MM. Reinaud and Michel, Paris, 1831, 8vo, a work which
contains much information concerning the Christian notions relative to
Mohammed in the middle ages.
10478. John xvi, 24.
10481, 10486. Matth. v, 13.
10499. _Ellevene holy men._ The eleven apostles who remained after the
apostasy of Judas and the crucifixion of their Lord.
10550. _Ne fesauntz y-bake._ The pheasant was formerly held in the same
honour as the peacock (see before the note on l. 7915), and was served at
table in the same manner. It was considered one of the most precious
dishes. See Le Grand d'Aussy, Hist. de la Vie privée des François, ii, 19.
The Miroir de l'Ome (MS. in the possession of Mr. Russell Smith) says
(punning) of the luxurious prelates of the fourteenth century,--
Pour le phesant et le bon vin
Le bien-faisant et le divin
L'evesque laist à nonchalure;
Si quiert la coupe et crusequin,
Ainz que la culpe du cristin
Pour corriger et mettre en cure.
10553. Matth. xxii, 4.
10581. Mark xvi, 15.
10585. _So manye prelates._ 10699. _that huppe aboute in Engelond._ The
pope appointed many titular bishops of foreign sees in which, from the
nature of circumstances, they could not possibly reside, and who therefore
were a burthen upon the church. Some of these prelates appear to have
resorted to England, and to have exercised the episcopal functions,
consecrating churches, &c. The church of Elsfield, in Oxfordshire, was
consecrated by a foreign bishop. (See Kennett's Parochial Antiquities.)
10593. John x, 11.
10599. Matth. xx, 4, 7.
10606. Matth. vii, 7.
10617. Galat. vi, 14.
10632. _That roode thei honoure._ A cross was the common mark on the
reverse of our English money at this period, and for a long time previous
to it. The point of satirical wit in this passage of Piers Ploughman
appears to be taken from the old Latin rhymes of the beginning of the
thirteenth century. See the curious poem _De Cruce Denarii_, in Walter
Mapes, p. 223. Another poem in the same volume (p. 38) speaks thus of the
court of Rome:--
Nummis in hac curia non est qui non vacet;
_Crux_ placet, rotunditas, et albedo placet.
10637. _Shul torne as templers dide._ The suppression of the order of the
Templars was at this time fresh in people's memories. It was the general
belief, and not without some foundation, that the Templars had entirely
degenerated from their original sanctity and faithfulness, and that before
the dissolution of the order they were addicted to degrading vices and
superstitions; and they were accused of sacrificing everything else to
their grasping covetousness.
10659. _Whan Constantyn._ The Christian church began first to be endowed
with wealth and power under the emperor Constantine the Great.
10649. Luke i, 52.