Fumée, pluye, et femme sans raison,
Chassent l'homme de sa maison.
12040. 2 Corinth. xii, 9.
12097. _to be dubbed._ These and the following lines contain a continued
allusion to the ceremonies of knighthood and tournaments.
12106. Psal. cxvii, 26.
12211. Matth. xxvii, 54.
12232, 12244. _Longeus ... this blynde bacheler._ This alludes to one of
the many legends which the monks engrafted upon the scripture history.
Longeus is said to have been the name of the soldier who pierced the side
of Christ with his spear; and it is pretended that he was previously blind
from his birth, but that the blood of the Saviour ran down his spear, and a
drop of it touching his eye, he was instantly restored to sight, by which
miracle he was converted. See, in illustration of this subject, Halliwell's
Coventry Mysteries, p. 334; The Towneley Mysteries, p. 321; Jubinal,
Mystères inédits du quinzième Siècle, tom. ii, pp. 254-257; &c.
12319, 12418, 12420. _Mercy and Truthe, ... Pees ... Rightwisnesse._
Lydgate seems to have had this passage in his mind, when he described the
four sisters in the following lines at the commencement of one of his poems
(MS. Harl. 2255, fol. 21):--
Mercy and Trouthe mette on an hih mounteyn
Briht as the sonne with his beemys cleer,
Pees and Justicia walkyng on the pleyn,
And with foure sustryn, moost goodly of ther cheer,
List nat departe nor severe in no maneer,
Of oon accoord by vertuous encrees,
Joyned in charité, pryncessis moost enteer,
Mercy and Trouthe, Rihtwisnesse and Pees.
12361. _a tale of Waltrot._ This name, like Wade in Chaucer, appears to
have been that of a hero of romances and tales, or a personage belonging to
the popular superstitions. Perhaps it may be connected with the old German
_Waltschrat_ (_satyrus_, _pilosus_). See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p.
270.
12438. Psal. xxix, 6.
12566. Matth. xiv, 28.
12599. _a spirit speketh to helle._ The picture of the "Harrowing of Hell,"
which here fol, bears a striking resemblance to the analogous scene in the
old Mysteries, particularly in that edited by Mr. Halliwell under this
title, 8vo, 1840. Compare the play on the same subject in the Towneley
Mysteries, p. 244.
12601. Psal. xxiii, 7, 9.
12645, 12669, 12676. _sevene hundred wynter ... thritty wynter ... two and
thritty wynter._ Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers always counted duration of
time by _winters_ and _nights_; for so many years, they said so many
winters, and so many nights for so many days. This form continued long in
popular usage, and still remains in our words _fortnight_ and _se'nnight_.
12663. _Gobelyn._ Goblin is a name still applied to a devil. It belongs
properly to a being of the old Teutonic popular mythology, a hob-goblin,
the "lubber-fiend" of the poet, and seems to be identical with the German
_kobold_. (See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 286.) _Gobelin_ occurs as the
name of one of the shepherds in the Mystery of the Nativity, printed by M.
Jubinal in his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. 71. It occurs as the name of a
devil in a song of the commencement of the fourteenth century, Political
Songs, p. 238:--
Sathanas huere syre
Seyde on is sawe,
Gobelyn made is gerner
Of gromene mawe.
12679. _to warne Pilates wif._ This is an allusion to a popular legend
prevalent at this time that the devil wished to hinder Christ's
crucifixion, and that he appeared to Pilate's wife in a dream, and caused
her to beseech her husband not to condemn the Saviour. It was founded on
the passage in Matthew xxvii, 19. Sedente autem illo pro tribunali, misit
ad eum uxor ejus, dicens: Nihil tibi et justo illi: multa enim passa sum
hodie per visum propter eum. The most complete illustration of the passage
of Piers Ploughman will be found in Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 308,
"Pilate's Wife's Dream."
12691. _And now I se wher a soule | Cometh hiderward seillynge, | With
glorie, &c._ With this beautiful passage may be compared a very similar one
in the Samson Agonistes of Milton:--
But who is this, what thing of sea or land?
Female of sex it seems,
That so bedeck'd, ornate and gay,
_Comes this way sailing_
Like a stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles
Of Javan or Gadire,
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim.
12753. _y-lik a lusard._ In the illuminations of manuscripts representing
the scene of the temptation, the serpent is often figured with legs like a
lizard or crocodile, and a human face.
12759. Matth. v, 38.
12781. Matth. v, 17.
12801. _thorugh a tree._ Some of the medieval legends go still farther, and
pretended that the tree from which the wood of the cross was made was
descended directly from a plant from the tree in Paradise of which Adam and
Eve were tempted to eat the fruit.
12805. Psal. vii, 16.
12840. Psal. l, 6.
12876. 2 Corinth. xii, 4.
12886. Psal. cxlii, 2.
12896. _Astroth._ This name, as given to one of the devils, occurs in a
curious list of actors in the Miracle Play of St. Martin, given by M.
Jubinal, in the preface to his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. ix. It is
similarly used in the Miracle Play of the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St.
Paul, Jubinal, ib. vol. i, p. 69. In one of the Towneley Mysteries (p.
246), this name is likewise given to one of the devils:--
Calle up _Astarot_ and Anaballe,
To gyf us counselle in this case.
12937. Psal. lxxxiv, 11.
12943. Psal. cxxxii, 1.
13222. 1 Sam. xviii, 7.
13274. Luke xxiv, 46.
13317. John xx, 29.
13375. _Veni creator spiritus._ The first line of the hymn at vespers, on
the feast of Pentecost.
13412. 1 Corinth. xii, 4.