And bereth name of Neptalym,
Of Nynyve and Damaske.
For when the holy kynge of hevene
Sende hus sone to eerthe,
Meny myracles he wroughte,
Man for to turne,
In ensample that men sholde
See by sad reyson
That men myghte nat be savede
Bote thorw mercy and grace,
And thorw penaunce and passioun,
And parfyght byleyve;
And bycam a man of a mayde,
And _metropolitanus_
And baptisede an busshoppede
Whit the blode of hus herte,
Alle that wilnede other wolde
Whit inwhight byleyve hit.
Meny seint sitthe
Suffrede deth alsoo,
For to enferme the faithe
Ful wyde where deyden,
In Inde and in Alisaundrie,
In Ermanye, in Spayne;
An fro mysbyleve
Meny man turnede.
In savacion of mannys saule
Seynt Thomas of Cauntelbury
Among unkynde Cristene
In holy churche was sleye,
And alle holy churche
Honourede for that deyinge:
He is a forbusur to alle busshopes,
And a bryghthe myrour,
And sovereynliche to alle suche
That of Surrye bereth name,
And nat in Engelounde to huppe aboute,
And halewen men auters.
In the remainder of this passus, Whitaker's text differs much from the one
I have printed, but in such a manner that to give here the variations it
would be necessary to reprint the whole. In the remainder of the poem, the
variations are not great or important, being only such as we always find in
different copies of poems which enjoyed considerable popularity.
10716. Isai. iii, 7.
10721. Malach. iii, 10.
10733. Luke x, 27. Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota
anima tua, et ex omni mente tua, et proximum tuum sicut teipsum.
10755. John xi, 43.
10787. _litlum and litlum_, by little and little, gradually. It is the pure
Anglo-Saxon phrase. In the Anglo-Saxon version of Genesis xl, 10, the Latin
_paulatim_ is rendered by _lytlum and lytlum_.
10844. Psal. xxxvi, 24.
10891. Matth. xii, 32.
11000. Luke i, 38.
11023. Matth. ix, 12. Mark ii, 17. Luke v, 31.
11033. Matth. xxvi, 37.
11044. Matth. xi, 18.
11075. Matth. xxi, 13.
11121. Matth. xviii, 7.
11238. Matth. xxvii, 46, and Mark xv, 34.
11300. Rom. iv, 13.
11322. John i, 29 and 36.
11396. Matth. xx, 40.
11518, 11520. _lo! here silver ... two pens._ It must be remembered that at
this period the mass of the coinage, including pence, halfpence, and
farthings, was of silver; copper came into use for the smaller coinage at a
later period. Two pence of Edward III would be worth about two shillings of
our modern money.
11670. John xii, 32.
11708. _tu fabricator omnium._ This was one of the hymns of the catholic
church.
11866. Luke xiii, 27.
11883. 1 Corinth. xiii, 1.
11894. Matth. vii, 21.
11998. _Thre thynges._ This proverb is frequently quoted by the satirical
and facetious writers of the middle ages. Thus in Chaucer (C. T. 5860):--
Thou saist, that droppyng houses, and eek smoke,
And chydyng wyves, maken men to fle
Out of here oughne hous.
In the poem entitled Golias de Conjuge non ducenda, in Walter Mapes, p. 83,
the proverb is alluded to in the following words:--
Fumus, et mulier, et stillicidia,
Expellunt hominem a domo propria.