William Langland

“ B. xvi, from which Price has given a long extract in his edition of Warton, has here "With wyne of Oseye | and wyn of Gascoyne." Whitaker's reading is "Whit wyn of Oseye and of Gascoyne." Price observes, in a note, "good wyne of Gaskyne, and the wyne of Osee [is the reading of MS. Harl. No. 875] .—The same hand already noticed has corrected wyn to weyte (wheat) of Gascoyne;—an obvious improvement." I by no means partake in this opinion: wine of Gascony, and not wheat of Gascony, is perpetually alluded to in the literature of France and England from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. ”

“ The Carmelites, or White Friars, pretended to be of great antiquity, and were originally established at Mount Carmel, from whence they were driven by the Saracens about the year 1238. They were brought into England in 1244, and settled first at Alnwick in Northumberland, and at Ailesford in Kent.
About the date (or a little before) of our poem, the Carmelites appear to have been very active in asserting in a boasting manner the superiority of their order over the others. ”

“ People who had the power of turning themselves into, or were turned into, wolves. This fearful superstition, which is very ancient, was extremely prevalent in the middle ages. In French they were called Loup-garous. ”

“ The Latin name for a pearl (margarita) seems to be the origin of this expression.
5634. a love day | to lette with truthe. Love days (Dies amoris) were days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to law or to violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the principal share in the management of these transactions, which throughout the Visions of Piers Ploughman appear to be censured as the means of hindering justice and of enriching the clergy. A little further on, Religion is blamed for being "a ledere of love-dayes." ”

“ There is perhaps here an allusion to the famous satire on the Monkish orders entitled Apocalypsis Goliæ, printed among the poems of Walter Mapes.
967. the kynrede of Caym. In the popular belief of the middle ages, hob-goblins and evil spirits (which haunted the wilds and the waters) literally, and bad men figuratively, were represented as being descended from the first murderer, Cain. In Old-English poetry, Caymes kyn is a common epithet for very wicked people. In the Anglo-Saxon romance of Beowulf, the Grendel is said to be of "Cain's kin." ”

“ A cross was the common mark on the reverse of our English money at this period, and for a long time previous to it. The point of satirical wit in this passage of Piers Ploughman appears to be taken from the old Latin rhymes of the beginning of the thirteenth century. See the curious poem De Cruce Denarii, in Walter Mapes, p. 223. Another poem in the same volume (p. 38) speaks thus of the court of Rome:—
Nummis in hac curia non est qui non vacet ”

“ Horses appear to have been comparatively little used for riding among the Anglo-Saxons until they were introduced by the Norman favourites of Edward the Confessor, in whose reign we read that the Anglo-Saxon soldiers in Herefordshire were defeated by the Welsh owing to their awkwardness on horseback, having been unadvisedly mounted by their Norman commander. ”

“ Quum culpent alios, nemo sine crimine vivit.
It may be observed here, that Whitaker, in his note on this passage, has very much misunderstood Tyrwhitt (in Chaucer, Cant. T. 3227) , in making him the authority for calling the author of the Disticha de Moribus an obscure French writer. Tyrwhitt says that the mode in which Chaucer spells his name (Caton) seems to show that the French translation was more read than the Latin original. The same observation would apply to the present poem: but I am very doubtful how far it is correct. ”

“ I am not sure that Ritson is right in taking the Randolf erl of Chester of Piers Ploughman, to be Ranulf de Blundevile: it is quite as probable that he was the Ranulf of Chester of the days of Stephen, whose turbulent deeds may have been the subject of popular ballads. Warton (H. E. P. ii, 373) , quoting the passage of Piers Ploughman with the word erl omitted, conceives it to mean Ralph Higden, and imagines the rymes to be the Chester Mysteries, of which he conjectured that Ralph Higden was the author. ”

“ I have here to preserve the alliteration, adopted 'giltles,' from the second Trin. Coll. MS., and one of the printed editions, in place of 'synneles,' which the other MS. has. Though we find instances of irregularity in the sub-letters (or alliterative letters in the first line) in Pierce Plowman, the chief letter is not so often neglected. In Whitaker's text the account of the minstrels is very confused. ”

“ As society advanced in refinement, people sought to live less and less in public, and the heads of the household gradually deserted the hall, except on special occasions, and lived more in the parlour and in the "chambre with a chymenee." ”

“ And thei conne yow telle
What ich soffrede an [d] seih,
And som tyme hadde,
And what ich knew and couthe,
Of wat kyn ich kam of;
Al ich wolde that men wuste,
When it to pruyde sonede,
As to preised among the puple,
Thauh ich povre semede.'
Si hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem. Nemo potest duobus dominis servire.
'Now God, of hus goodnesse,
Geve the grace to amende!'
Quath Repentaunce ryght with that;
And thenne roos Envye.
The description of Envy, which follows, is shorter in Whitaker's text, and differs much from our text. ”

“ Thre thynges. This proverb is frequently quoted by the satirical and facetious writers of the middle ages. Thus in Chaucer (C. T. 5860) :—
Thou saist, that droppyng houses, and eek smoke,
And chydyng wyves, maken men to fle
Out of here oughne hous.
In the poem entitled Golias de Conjuge non ducenda, in Walter Mapes, p. 83, the proverb is alluded to in the following words:—
Fumus, et mulier, et stillicidia,
Expellunt hominem a domo propria.
There was an old French proverbial distich to the same effect,—
Fumée, pluye, et femme sans raison,
Chassent l'homme de sa maison. ”

“ Septies enim cadet justus, et resurget; impii autem corruent in malum.
4963. To falle and to stonde. I by no means agree with Price's interpretation of this phrase, or in his preference of the reading to falle if he stonde. (Note on Warton ii, 67.) The motion of the boat causes the firm man alternately to fall and stand; be he ever so stable, he stumbles now and then, but his strength is shown in his being able to recover himself. Such are the moral slips which even the just man cannot avoid. ”

“ Edmund the martyr, king of East Anglia, and king Edward the Confessor.
10124. Psal. iv, 9 .
10159. Antony and Egidie. Whitaker has Antonie and Ersenie. St. Antony is well known as the father and patron of monks, and for the persecutions he underwent from the devil. St. Giles, or Egidius, is said to have been a Greek, who came to France about the end of the seventh century, and established himself in a hermitage near the mouth of the Rhone, and afterwards in the neighbourhood of Nismes. ”

“ A moton of golde. A mutton (mouton) was a small French coin of gold, which bore the stamp of a lamb or sheep. See Ducange, v. Multo.
1501. Matth. vi, 3 .
1523. Regrating, or the buying up of provisions and other things to make extravagant profits by retailing them, was one of the great sources of oppression of the poor by the rich in the middle ages, and was a constant subject of popular complaint.
1529. Whitaker's text adds here ”

“ Perhaps the reference in the present case is to the fable of the Peacock who complained of his voice, the 39th in the collection which M. Robert calls Ysopet, in the morality to which are the following lines:—
Les riches conteront
Des biens qu'il aront
En ce siecle conquis.
Cil qui petit ara,
De petit contera
Au Roy de paradis.
Qui vit en povreté,
Sans point d'iniquité,
Moult ara grant richesse
Es cieux, en paradis,
O dieux et ses amis
Seront joyeux et aise.
7961. Whitaker's text reads here ”

“ These coins were the subject of legislation in 1346, 1347, 1348, and 1351; so that the grievance must have been at its greatest height at the period to which the poem of Piers Ploughman especially belongs. Many of these coins are preserved, and found in the cabinets of collectors; they are in general very much like the contemporary English coinage, and might easily be taken for it, but the metal is very base.
10368. Grammer, the ground of al. In the scholastic learning of the middle ages, grammar was considered as the first of the seven sciences, and the foundation-stone of all the rest. ”

“ Albans, in the reign of Henry III, he says, "Vestibus igitur spoliatus cum suis militibus, similiter indumentis spoliatis, ferens in manu virgam quam vulgariter baleis appellamus, et confitens culpam suam, ... a singulis fratribus disciplinas nuda carne suscepit."
2846. In the text which Whitaker has printed, the confession of Wrath was followed by that of Luxury or Lechery. It stands as follows in the copy of the same text in MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. xvi. (See l. 8713, of our present text.) ”

“ Where there is an evident reference to the "tour on a toft," which has been previously mentioned in the more correct text.
43, 44. Dr. Whitaker, misunderstanding this passage, has printed 'ther' for 'that,' which is in all the MSS. In his gloss, he interprets 'wonnen' by 'to dwell;' and he paraphrases the sentence, 'some destroying themselves by gluttony and excess,' translating it, I suppose, "And there dwell wasters whom gluttony destroyeth." The meaning is, the ploughmen worked hard, "and obtained (wan) that which wasters destroy with their gluttony." The writer of the second Trin. Coll. ”

“ But if the man in the boat be too weak to arise again and place himself at the helm, his boat and himself will be lost for want of strength and guidance. So it is with the wicked man. The completion of the phrase quoted from Proverbs, as given in the preceding note, shows the justice of this explanation. ”

“ According to Fabyan, John Chichester was mayor only once, in 1368, 1369, which was the period of the "thirde mortalytie." The other authorities seem to agree in giving this as the year of Chichester's mayoralty. He may perhaps have been mayor more than once. ”

“ Whitaker's text reads after this line:—
Leel and ful of love,
And no lord dreden,
Merciable to meek,
And mylde to the goode,
And bytynge on badde men
Bote yf thei wolde amende,
And dredeth nat for no deth
To distruye by here powere
Lecherie among lordes,
And hure luther custymes,
And sithen lyve as thei lereth men,
Oure lorde Treuthe hem graunteth,
To be peeres to Apostles, &c.
4525. sette scolers to scole. It was common in the scholastic ages for scholars to wander about gathering money to support them at the universities. In a poem in MS. Lansdowne, No. ”

“ In the Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard II (printed for the Camden Society) , p. 21, the clergy is blamed for not preaching against the new fashions in dress:—
For wolde they blame the burnes
That broughte newe gysis,
And dryve out the dagges
And alle the Duche cotis.
Whitaker gives the following singular explanation of this passage:—"Let dagge hus clothes, probably, let them fall to the ground, or divested himself of them; for warriors are 'succinct' for battle as well as 'for speed!'"
14269. A glazene howve. ”

“ In a curious religious poem preserved in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, written about the year 1460, from which some extracts are printed in the "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," ii, 27-29, we have the following satirical allusion to this custom:—
I can fynde no man now that wille enquere
The parfyte wais unto Dunmow;
For they repent hem within a yere,
And many within a weke, and sonner, men trow;
That cawsith the weis to be rowgh and over-grow,
That no man may fynd path or gap,
The world is turnyd to another shap. ”

“ The simple meaning of the passage, as given by Whitaker, is, "Unless holy church and charity chop down such shrivers (confessors) , the greatest mischief of the world is increasing fast." The present text affords a better and equally clear meaning, "Unless holy church and they hold better together, the greatest mischief in the world is increasing, or gaining ground very fast."
141. of falshede of fastynge, the comma has slipped in by accident. The meaning is "of breaking fast-days."
147. He bunchith hem, MS. Trin. 2.
168. the pestilence tyme. ”

“ Moreover in the 44. of Edward the third, John Chichester being maior of London, I read in the visions of Pierce Plowman, a booke so called, as followeth. There was a careful commune when no cart came to towne with baked bread from Stratford: tho gan beggers weepe, and workemen were agast, a little this will be thought long in the date of our Dirte, in a drie Averell a thousand and three hundred, twise thirtie and ten, &c. I reade also in the 20. ”

“ These are the same class of malefactors who are named Roberdesmen in the Statutes, 5 Ed. III. c. 14. "Et diverses roberies, homicides, et felonies ont esté faitz eintz ces heures par gentz qui sont appellez Roberdesmen, Wastours, et Draghelatche, si est acordé et establi que si homme eit suspecion de mal de nuls tielx, soit-il de jour soit-il de nuyt, que meintenant soient arestus par les conestables des villes." This law was confirmed by 7 Ric. II. c. 5, where the word is again introduced. Whitaker supposes, without any reason, the 'Roberdes knaves' to be Robin Hood's men. The other Trin. ”

“ Still earlier (12th cent.) a scribe says of one of his brothers, "Secundus dicebatur Robertus, quia a re nomen habuit, spoliator enim diu fuit et prædo." (Polit. Songs, p. 354.)
3419. Dysmas. In middle-age legends, Dismas and Gestas were the names of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ. The former was the one who believed in the Saviour, and received a promise of paradise.
3443. Before this line, Whitaker's text has the following passage:—
Ac whiche be the braunches
That bryngeth me to sleuthe,
Ys wanne a man mourneth nat
For hus mysdedes ”

“ Whitaker and Price (in Warton) suppose that there is here a personal allusion, which at the time had become proverbial.
2874. Symme at the Style. Whit.
2881. To Wy and to Wynchestre | I wente to the feyre. Warton (Hist. of Eng. p. ii, 55, edit. 1840) supposes Wy to be Weyhill, in Hampshire, "where a famous fair still subsists." In fact it is one of the greatest fairs in England, lasting ten days. For anecdotes of the celebrity of the great fair at Winchester in former times, and for some interesting observations on fairs in general, see Warton, loc. cit.
2933. The Roode of Bromholm. ”

“ The more mythic form of this legend gives eight things to the formation of the body, instead of four. Our earliest notice of this legend in England occurs in the prose Anglo-Saxon Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon (Thorpe's Analecta, p. 95) :—"Saga me þæt andworc þe Adám wæs of-ge-worht se ærusta man? ”