7152. This shews that Fals-Semblaunt does not _really_ condemn the book; he
only says it is best to suppress it _for the present_, till Antichrist
comes to strengthen the friars' cause. The satire is of the keenest. Note
that, in l. 7164, Fals-Semblaunt shamelessly calls the Eternal Gospel
'_our_ book.' See also ll. 7211-2.
7173. I am obliged to supply two lines by guess here, to make out the
sense. The F. text has:--
'Par Pierre voil le Pape entendre,
Et les clers seculiers comprendre
Qui la loi Iesu-Crist tendront,' &c.
I. e. By Peter I wish you to understand the pope, and to include also the
secular clerks, &c. John represents the friars (l. 7185).
7178. I. e. 'against those friars who maintain all (this book), and falsely
teach the people; and John betokens those (the friars) who preach, to the
effect that there is no law so suitable as that Eternal Gospel, sent by the
Holy Ghost to convert such as have gone astray.' The notion is, that the
teaching of John (the type of the law of love, as expounded by the friars)
is to supersede the teaching of Peter (the type of the pope and other
obsolete secular teachers). Such was the 'Eternal Gospel'; no wonder that
the Pope condemned it as being too advanced.
7197-7204. Obscure; and not fully in the F. text.
7217. The mother of Faux-Semblaunt was Hypocrisy (l. 6779).
7227. 'But he who dreads my brethren more than Christ subjects himself to
Christ's wrath.'
7243. _patren_, to repeat Pater-nosters; see Plowm. Crede, 6.
7256. _Beggers_ is here used as a proper name, answering to F. _Beguins_.
The _Beguins_, members of certain lay brotherhoods which arose in the Low
Countries in the beginning of the thirteenth century, were also called
_Beguards_ or _Begards_, which in E. became _Beggars_. There can be now no
doubt that the mod. E. _beggar_ is the same word, and the verb _to beg_ was
merely evolved from it. See the articles on _Beg_, _Beggar_, _Beghard_, and
_Beguine_ in the New E. Dict. All these names were derived from a certain
Lambert Bègue. The Béguins were condemned at the council of Cologne in
1261, and at the general council of Vienne, in 1311. It seems probable that
the term _Beggars_ (_Beguins_) is here used derisively; the people really
described seem to be the Franciscan friars, also called Gray friars; see l.
7258.
7259. _fretted_, ornamented, decked; from A. S. _frætwian_, to adorn; cf.
l. 4705, and Leg. of Good Women, 1117; here ironical.
_tatarwagges_, ragged shreds, i. e. patches coarsely sewn on. See _tatter_
in my Etym. Dict. The ending _-wagges_ is allied to _wag_.
The F. text has: 'Toutes fretelées de crotes,' which means all bedaubed
with dirt; see _frestelé_ in Godefroy. The translation freely varies from
the original, in a score of places. See next line.
7260. _knopped_, knobbed, _dagges_, clouts, patches. A more usual sense of
_dagge_ is a strip of cloth; see _dagge_ in Stratmann.
7261. _frouncen_, shew wrinkles; cf. ll. 155, 3137. The comparison to a
quail-pipe seems like a guess; in the F. text, we have _Hosiaus froncis_,
wrinkled hose, and 'large boots like a _borce à caillier_,' said (in Méon)
to mean a net for quails. Any way, the translation is sufficiently
inaccurate.
7262. _riveling_, shewing wrinkles; _gype_, a frock or cassock; cf.
_gipoun_ in Prol. A 75.
7265. _Take_, betake, offer.
7282. Here again, _Beggar_ answers to F. _Beguin_; see l. 7256.
7283. _papelard_, hypocrite; see l. 6796 and note to l. 415.
7288. _casting_, vomit; see 2 Pet. ii. 22.
7302. See note to l. 6068.
7316. 'Read _flayn_ for _slayn_; F. Tant qu'il soit escorchiés.'--Kaluza.