'For vilany makith vilayn;
And by his dedis a cherl is seyn.'
1165. 'Incunabula Tulli Hostilii agreste tugurium cepit: ejusdem
adolescentia in pecore pascendo fuit occupata: validior aetas imperium
Romanum rexit, et duplicavit: senectus excellentissimis ornamentis decorata
in altissimo majestatis fastigio fulsit.'--Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. c. 4
(De Humili Loco Natis). Cf. Livy, i. 22; Dionysius Halicarnasseus, iii;
Ælian, xiv. 36.
1168. _Senek_, Seneca. _Boece_, Boethius; see note to 1109.
1184. Ll. 1183-1190 are imitated from the following; 'Honesta, inquit
[Epicurus], res est laeta paupertas. Illa uero non est paupertas, si laeta
est. Cui enim cum paupertate bene conuenit, diues est. Non qui parum habet,
sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.'--Seneca, Epist. ii. § 4. This passage is
quoted by John of Salisbury, Policraticus, l. vii. c. 13.
_Othere clerkes_ also includes Epicurus, whose sentiments Seneca here
expresses; see Diogenes Laertius, x. 11. MS. E. here quotes the words
'honesta res est laeta paupertas' in the margin, and refers to 'Seneca, in
epistola.' It also has:--'Pauper est qui eget, eo quod non habet; sed qui
non habet, nec appetit habere, ille diues est; de quo intelligitur id
Apocalypsis tertio [Rev. iii. 17]--dicis quia diues sum.' With l. 1187 cf.
Rom. de la Rose, 18766:--'Et convoitise fait povrece.'
1191. All the editions adopt the reading _is sinne_, as in all the MSS.
except E. and Cm. (the two best); see footnote, p. 354. But surely this is
nonsense, and exactly contradicts l. 1183.
1192. In the margin of MS. E. are quoted two lines from Juvenal, [321] Sat.
x. 21,22:--'Cantabit uacuus coram latrone uiator; Et nocte ad lumen
trepidabit arundinis umbram.' The latter of these lines should come first,
and the usual readings are _motae_ (not _nocte_), _lunam_, and
_trepidabis_. However, it is only the other (and favourite) line that is
here alluded to. The same line is quoted in Piers Plowman, B. xiv. 305; and
is alluded to in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 5. 129-130. In
Wyclif's Works, ed. Arnold, ii. 364, is the remark:--'For _it is said
comounli_, that a wey-goer, whan he is voide, singith sure bi the theef.'
1195. In the margin of E. is written:--'Secundus philosophus: Paupertas est
odibile bonum, sanitatis mater, curarum remocio, sapientie reparatrix,
possessio sine calumpnia.' This is the very passage quoted, even more
fully, in Piers Plowman, B. xiv. 275 (C. xvii. 117). Tyrwhitt's note
is--'In this commendation of Poverty, our author seems plainly to have had
in view the following passage of a fabulous conference between the emperor
Adrian and Secundus the philosopher, reported by Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum Historiale, lib. x. cap. 71. "Quid est paupertas? Odibile bonum,
sanitatis mater, remotio curarum, sapientie repertrix, negotium sine damno,
possessio absque calumnia, sine sollicitudine felicitas." What Vincent has
there published seems to have been extracted from a larger collection of
_Gnomae_ under the name of Secundus, which are still extant in Greek and
Latin. See Fabricius, Bib. Gr., l. vi. c. x, and MS. Harl. 399.' Thus l.
1195 is a translation of _Paupertas est odibile bonum_, so that the
proposal by Dr. Morris (Aldine edition of Chaucer, vol. i. p. vi) to adopt
the reading _hatel_ from MSS. Cp. Pt. Ln. instead of _hateful_, is founded
on a mistake. The expression is contradictory, but it is so intentionally.
'Poverty is a gift which its possessors hate' is, of course, the meaning.
Dryden well explains it:--
'Want is a bitter and a hateful good,
Because its virtues are not understood.'