406. _blakeberied._ The line means--'Though their souls go
a-blackberrying'; i. e. wander wherever they like. This is a well-known
_crux_, which all the editors have given up as unintelligible. I have been
so fortunate as to obtain the complete solution of it, which was printed in
Notes and Queries, 4 S. x. 222, xii. 45, and again in my preface to the
C-text of Piers the Plowman, p. lxxxvii. The simple explanation is that, by
a grammatical construction which was [273] probably due (as will be shewn)
to an error, the verb _go_ could be combined with what was _apparently_ a
past participle, in such a manner as to give the participle the force of a
verbal substantive. In other words, instead of saying 'he goes a-hunting,'
our forefathers sometimes said 'he goes a-hunted.' The examples of this use
are at least seven. The clearest is in Piers Plowman, C. ix. 138, where we
read of 'folk that gon a-begged,' i. e. folk that go a-begging. In Chaucer,
we not only have 'goon a-begged,' Frank. Tale, F. 1580, and the instance in
the present passage, but yet a third example in the Wyf of Bath's Tale,
Group D. 354, where we have 'goon a-caterwawed,' with the sense of 'to go
a-caterwauling'; and it is a fortunate circumstance that in two of these
cases the idiomatic forms occur at the end of a line, so that the rime has
preserved them from being tampered with. Gower (Conf. Amant. bk. i. ed.
Chalmers, pp. 32, 33, or ed. Pauli, i. 110) speaks of a king of Hungary
riding out 'in the month of May,' adding--
'This king with noble purueiance
Hath for him-selfe his chare [_car_] arayed,
Wherein he wolde ryde _amayed_,' &c.
that is, wherein he wished to ride _a-Maying_. Again (in bk. v, ed.
Chalmers, p. 124, col. 2, or ed. Pauli, ii. 132) we read of a drunken
priest losing his way:--
'This prest was dronke, and _goth a-strayed_';
i. e. he goes a-straying, or goes astray.
The explanation of this construction I take to be this; the _-ed_ was not
really a sign of the past participle, but a corruption of the ending _-eth_
(A. S._-að_) which is sometimes found at the end of a verbal substantive.
Hence it is that, in the passage from Piers Plowman above quoted, one of
the best and earliest MSS. actually reads 'folk that gon a-beggeth.' And
again, in another passage (P. Pl., C. ix. 246) is the phrase 'gon
abrybeth,' or, in some MSS., 'gon abrybed,' i. e. go a-bribing or go
a-thieving, since Mid. Eng. _briben_ often means to rob. This form is
clearly an imitation of the form _a-hunteth_ in the old phrase _gon
a-hunteth_ or _riden an honteth_, used by Robert of Gloucester (Specimens
of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, p. 14, l. 387):--
'As he _rod an honteth_, and par-auntre [h]is hors spurnde.'
Now this _honteth_ is the dat. case of a substantive, viz. of the A. S.
_huntað_ or _huntoð_. This substantive would easily be mistaken for a part
of a verb, and, particularly, for the past participle of a verb; just as
many people at this day are quite unable to distinguish between the true
verbal substantive and the present participle in _-ing_. This mistake once
established, the ending _-ed_ would be freely used after the verbs _go_ or
_ride_. In D. 1778, we even find _go walked_, without a.
The result is that the present phrase, hitherto so puzzling, is a mere
variation of 'gon a blake-berying,' i. e. 'go a-gathering blackberries,' a
humorous expression for 'wander wherever they please.' A not very [274]
dissimilar expression occurs in the proverbial saying--'his wits are gone
a-wool-gathering.'
The Pardoner says, in effect, 'I promise them full absolution; however,
when they die and are buried, it matters little to me in what direction
their souls go.'
407. Tyrwhitt aptly adduces a parallel passage from the Romaunt of the
Rose, l. 5763 (or l. 5129 in the French)--
'For oft good predicacioun
Cometh of evel entencioun.'
'Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife'; Phil. i. 15.