'Be war that thou be nought oppressed
With anticristes _lollardie_,' &c.
See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. iii. 355-358; Wordsworth's Eccl. Biography, i.
331, note.
1180. 'He shall not give us any commentary on a gospel.' To _glose_ is to
comment upon, with occasional free introduction of irrelevant matter. The
_gospel_ is the text, or portion of the Gospel commented upon.
1181. 'We all agree in the one fundamental article of faith'; by which he
insinuates--'and let that suffice; we want no theological subtilties
discussed here.'
1183. _springen_, scatter, _sprink_-le. The pt. t. is _spreynde_ or
_spreynte_; the pp. _spreynd_ occurs in B. 422, 1830.--M. Gower, Conf.
Amantis, bk. v., ed. Pauli, ii. 190, speaks of _lollardie_
'Which now is come for to dwelle,
To sowe cockel with the corne.'
1185. _body_, i. e. self. Cf. _lyf_ = a person, in P. Plowman, B. iii.
292.--M.
1186. See B. 3984, which suggests that there is a play upon words here. The
Shipman will make his horse's bells ring loudly enough to awake them all;
or he will ring so merry a peal, as to rouse them like a church bell that
awakes a sleeper.
1189. It is plain that the unmeaning words _phislyas_ and _phillyas_, as in
the MSS., must be corruptions of some difficult form. I think that form is
certainly _physices_, with reference to the Physics of Aristotle, here
conjoined with 'philosophy' and 'law' in order to include the chief forms
of medieval learning. Aristotle was only known, in Chaucer's time, in Latin
translations, and _Physices Liber_ would be a possible title for such a
translation. Lewis and Short's Lat. Dict. gives '_physica_, gen. [168]
_physicae_, and _physice_, gen. _physices_, f., = [Greek: phusikê], natural
science, natural philosophy, physics, Cicero, Academ. 1. 7. 25; id. De
Finibus, 3. 21. 72; 3. 22. 73.' Magister Artium et _Physices_ was the name
of a degree; see Longfellow's Golden Legend, § vi.
That Chaucer should use the gen. _physices_ alone, is just in his usual
manner; cf. _Iudicum_, B. 3236; _Eneidos_, B. 4549; _Metamorphoseos_, B.
93. Tyrwhitt's reading _of physike_ gives the same sense.