"This day _witsonday_ is cald,
For wisdom & wit seuene fald
Was youen to þe apostles as þis day
For wise in alle þingis wer thay,
To spek wt outen mannes lore
Al maner langage eueri whore.
þei spak _latyn_, _frensch_ & _grew_,
_Saresenay_, _deuenisch_ & _ebrew_,
_Gascoyne_, _Pikard_, Englisch & Walsch
And oþer speche spak þei als."
5. At p. 372. we have an interesting picture of a nun persecuted by the
rest of the sisterhood on account of her stricter living:
"Hir cher was ay semand sori
Hir felawis held hir wod forþ'i,
And made of hir ful gret skornyng
And callid hir oule & outcasting:
For alle þe nonnes þ't were thore
Wend wel þt sche fonned wore,
And summe on hir foul water keste,
And sumtyme draf & sometyme yeste,
And summe rubbid hir wiþ oute
Wiþ ground mustard al a boute;
But sche made no grucching
For al hir euyl skornying,
Bul al sche suffrid ful mekeli
And to hir seruise was ay redi,
For ofte tymes sche grecid hir schos,
And wisch hir vessel as a guystroun dos,
And what so euer þei put hir to
W't a good wil al dide scho.
Hir hed was wounden al a boute
Wiþ a foul lynen cloute,
And for sche was so onlikli
Alle þei letin of hir skornfulli,
But yet sche was ful derworthi
Beforn our lord god almyghti."
6. I will add, in conclusion, a sample from one of the prose treatises
contained in the same volume (p. 464.):
"Oþere spices þer ben of pride whiche men & women ben founden
inne, & it encresiþ fro day to day, of dyuers atire about þ'e
bodi: as ofte streyte clothes & schorte daggid hodis, chaunsemlees
(i.e. _shoes_) disgised & teyde op strayt in v. or vi. stedis:
women with schorte clothis unneþe to þ'e hipes, _booses_ &
_lokettes_ about þe heed, & vile stynkend hornes longe & brode, &
oþer dyuers atire, þ't I can nought witen ne discryen of surche
þinges. Eueri man & woman be his owne juge & loke weel if it be
nought þus."