'Than on the grounde together rounde
With many a sadde stroke
They roule and rumble, they turne and tumble,
_As pygges do in a poke_.'
Sir T. More, A Merrie Iest, &c. (1510).
This juvenile poem by Sir T. More is printed in Hazlitt's Popular Poetry,
iii. 128, and in the Preface to Todd's Johnson.
4286. _Bromeholm._ A piece of what was supposed to be the true cross was
brought from the East by an English priest to Norfolk in 1223, and
immediately became famous as an object of pilgrimage. It is called the
'Rode [rood] of Bromeholme' in P. Plowman, B. v. 231; see my note to that
line.
4287. The full form is quoted in the note to Scott's Marmion, can. ii. st.
13:--'In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum; a vinculis enim mortis
redemisti me, Domine veritatis, Amen.' In [127] Ratis Raving, &c., ed.
Lumby, p. 8, l. 263, the form ends with 'spiritum meum, domine, deus
veritatis.' In Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 235, the following translation of the
Latin form is given:--
'Loverd Godd, in hondes thine I bequethe soule mine;
Thu me boctest with thi deadd, Loverd Godd of sothfastheedd.'
It here occurs in company with the Creed, the Paternoster, and the Ave
Maria; so that it was one of the very common religious formulae which were
familiar, even in the Latin form, to people of no education. They
frequently knew the words of these forms, without knowing more than the
general sense. _In manus tuas_, &c., was even recited by criminals before
being hung; see Skelton's Works, ed. Dyce, i. 5, 292, ii. 268. The words
are mostly taken from the Vulgate version of Luke, xxiii. 46.
4290. _oon_, one, some one; not common at this date.
4295. Cf. Roman de la Rose, 12720:--'Qui set bien de l'ostel les _estres_,'
i. e. who knows well the inner parts of the hostel. See note to A. 1971
above.
4302. _volupeer_, nightcap; see note to A. 3241.
4307. _harrow_, a cry for help; see note to A. 3286.
4320. _Him thar_, lit. 'it needs him,' i. e. he need, he must. For _thar_,
ed. 1532 has _dare_, which Tyrwhitt rightly corrects to _thar_, which
occurs again in D. 329, 336, 1365, and H. 352. It is common enough in early
authors; the full form is _tharf_, as in Owl and Nightingale, 803 (or 180),
Moral Ode (Jesus MS.), 44; spelt _tharrf_, Ormulum, 12886; _therf_, Ancren
Riwle, p. 192; _darf_, Floris and Blancheflur, 315; _derf_, O. Eng.
Homilies, ed. Morris, i. 187, l. 31; _dar_, Octovian, 1337; &c. The pt. t.
is _thurfte_, _thurte_, _thorte_; see _tharf_ and _thurfen_ in Stratmann,
and cf. A. S. _thearf_, pt. t. _thurfte_. For _wene_, the correct reading,
Tyrwhitt substitutes _winne_, against all authority, because he could make
no sense of _wene_. It is odd that he should have missed the sense so
completely. _Wene_ is to imagine, think, also to expect; and the line means
'he must not expect good who does evil.' The very word is preserved by Ray,
in his Proverbs, 3rd ed., 1737, p. 288:--'He that evil does, never good
_weines_.' Hazlitt quotes a proverb to a like effect: 'He that does what he
should not, shall feel what he would not.' Cf. 'Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap'; Gal. vi. 7.
4321. A common proverb; cf. Ps. vii. 16, ix. 15.
'For often he that will beguile
Is guiled with the same guile,
And thus the guiler is beguiled.'
Gower, Conf. Amant (bk. vi), iii. 47.
'Begyled is the gyler thanne'; Rom. Rose, 5759.
See further in my note to P. Plowman, C. xxxi. 166, and Kemble's Solomon
and Saturn, p. 63. Le Rom. de la Rose, 7381, has:--'Qui les deceveors
deçoivent.' [128]
I can add another example from Caxton's Fables of Æsop, lib. ii. fab. 12
(The Fox and the Stork):--'And therfore he that begyleth other is oftyme
begyled hymself.'