Piers Plowman

Passus quintus de visione .

The king and his knights to the church went

Commentaries

Vaughan

1 The unanimity achieved in the royal entourage at the end of the preceding passus is marked by the communal participation in religious services (matins and Mass) and in sharing a meal together.

To hearmatins and mass, and to the meat after .

Then waked I of my winking, and woe was with all

Commentaries

Vaughan

3ff. The waking of the Dreamer here marks him as separated from the community in the preceding lines. His 'wo,' then, may be at his waking to a world in which this dreamed ideal is missing. If his weakness ('feyntise'--l. 5) is the result of hunger, his exclusion from the spiritual and earthly 'mete' enjoyed by the others is significant. It is not'realistic' to attribute, as he does, his inability to walk more than a furlong (a few hundred yards) to a literal lack of sleep: he's only been awake a few minutes, after all. If it is his absence from the sleeping world of his dream that is being emphasized, then this may reflect on his own moral and spiritual condition. His saying his creed is not an adequate substitute for Matins and Mass, and babbling probably has sufficiently negative connotations to make us suspect his status as something of an 'outsider' at this transitional point between the two dreams.

That I not had slept sadder and seen more.

Ere I had fared a furlong faintness me hente ,

That I not might further a foot , for default of sleeping.

I sat softly adown , and said my belief ,

And so I babbled on my beads they brought me asleep .

Commentaries

Vaughan

8 The basic meaning of 'bedis' is prayers. Bennett (B Text, p. 151, n.) notes that they may refer to prayer beads, a rosary (or equivalent) for counting repetitive prayers, such as the Pater or Ave (Lord's Prayer and 'Hail Mary').

Then saw I much more than I before tolde,

Commentaries

Vaughan

9 The dream is presented as a continuation, or another episode, of the preceding dream. Conscience is replaced in the B Version by Reason. The 'cros' is probably here best interpreted as a bishop's crozier. A number of the elements in the sermon echo those in Reason's speech in the previous passus: Pernel and her 'purfil'; chastising children; requiring to priests practice what they preach; seeking St. Truth instead of going on pilgrimage to St. James or Rome.

For I saw the field full of folk that I before of told ,

And Conscience with a cross came for to preach.

He prayed the people have pity on them selves ,

And proved that pestilence was for pure sin,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

13 There were recurrent epidemics or plagues in the middle of the fourteenth century, the most famous of which, the Black Death, struck England in 1348-49 after ravaging much of the continent. There were notable pestilences also in 1361-62 and 1368-69. The specific reference, if one was intended, depends on what date we assign the poem.

13. the pestilence. See INTRODUCTION, The Pestilence. If we accept the later date (1369-70) for the composition of the A-text, there were three violent epidemics in England which may be alluded to here: 1348-49, 1361-62, and 1368-69. Some A manuscripts have the reading "Ã¾ise pestilences"; see TEXTUAL NOTES on this line.

And the southwest wind on Saturday at evening

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

14 There was a famous storm with a southwest wind on Saturday, 15 January 1362. The pairing with the pestilence in the previous line may point to 1362 as the date after which ( terminus a quo ) the poem was written A number of the detailed effects of the storm here correspond to those mentioned in the chronicles. Footnote: Fowler 14. the southwest wynd refers to a storm which occurred on Saturday, January 15, 1362.

14.

Was apertly for pride , and for no point else ;

Piries and plumtrees were puffed to the earth,

In example , segges , that you should do the better!

Beeches and broad oaks were blown to the ground,

Commentaries

Vaughan

18-20 The mention of Doomsday (20) suggests that the image of trees with their roots turned upward is to be associated with the familiar tradition of the Fifteen Signs of Doomsday, which includes this as the XXXth sign: see Heist.

And turned upward their tail in tokening of dread

That deadly sin ere doomsday shall fordo them all.

Of this matter Imight mamele full long,

Ac I shall say as I saw -- so me God help --

How Conscience with a cross commenced to preache.

He bade waster go work what he best could ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

24-5 The linking of 'winning' and 'wasting,' while probably a conventional alliteration, recalls the ME poem Wynnere and Wastour , one of the earliest poems of the so-called Alliterative Revival, which has an opening very similar to that in Piers . Wynnere is dated to about 134? Much of its social and economic criticism also has echoes in Piers .

And win that he wasted with some manner craft;

And prayed Pernel her purfil to leave,

And keep it in her coffer for cattle at need;

Thomas he taught to take two staves,

Commentaries

Vaughan

28 The 'pyne' probably refers to the 'pynyng stolis' mentioned earlier (III.66). Wives were often punished publicly for shrewishness or gossiping. Tom is being told that it is his duty to correct his wife, with beatings if required, to prevent her having to be punished by ducking or sitting in the stocks.

And fetch homePhyllisno fro wives' pain;

He warned Walter his wife was to blame,

That her head was worth a mark and his hood not worth a groat;

Commentaries

Vaughan

31 A case of spending an unconscionable amount on an ostentatious headdress: a mark (13s 4d) would be approximately a month's salary for a good worker, and forty times the cost of Watte's hood.

He charged chapmen to chasten their children --

"Let no winning forwanye hem while they be young."

He prayed prelates and priests together ,

That they preach the people and prove it them selves --

"And live as you learn us, we will love you the better."

And siththe he redde religion their rule to hold --

"Lest the king and his council your commons apeire ,

And be steward of your stead till you be stowed better.

And you that seek Saint James, and saints at Rome,

Seek Saint Truth , for he may save you all:

Qui cum patre et filio, fair mote you befall ."

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

42 This is probably best taken as the common ending of Latin liturgical prayers (to the Holy Spirit): 'who with the Father and the Son [live and reign, One God, forever and ever].' (The words appear, in a less 'conclusive' form in the Nicene Creed said at Mass, where it also refers to the Holy Spirit.) It identifies Seint Treuthe here, therefore, with the Third Person of the Trinity, rather than with the Father or Son (Jesus).

42. Qui cum patre et filio. This is the formula with which sermons were concluded "Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever." Here "Son" is substituted for "Holy Spirit," the latter apparently being identified with St. Truth in the preceding line.

Then ran Repentance and rehearsed his theme,

Commentaries

Vaughan

43ff. With the appearance of Repentaunce, we begin the episode usually called the Confession of the Deadly Sins. These sins are traditionally seven in number: Pride, Lechery, Envy, Covetousness, Gluttony, Sloth, and Anger. However, the number (and the identity) of the sins varies from time to time: see Bloomfield. In this episode Anger is omitted from the usual seven. Some have attributed substantial significance to this: for instance it shows that there has been corruption in the transmission of the text; or it suggests that the poet considers anger a righteous emotion rather than a vice (given the conditions of his time); or anger has been subsumed into Envy.

And made Will to weep water with his eyes .

Commentaries

Bennett

Vaughan

44ff. (= B Text 62) Wille may be (1) a momentarily personified abstraction of the human will--referring to the wilful offenders about to express contrition: or (2) a personal name (in two MSS of A the form is William; H2 has Wylcoc [Kane wylkoc]): in which case it is either an everyday name for a typical auditor or the dreamer (usually referred to as 'I'; but at xv. 148 as Longe Wille) or the author as distinct from the persona of the dreamer. A Wille evidently intended to represent a person (perhaps the poet) is introduced at A viii. 42-4 (but not in B); and at A ix. 118 (= B viii. 124) the poet indirectly but unmistakably indicates that his own name is 'Wille', as at B xv. 148. But the only strictly textual authority for Wille(e) as the name of the author is A xii. 99 (I MS.)--a conclusion probably added by one John Butt, perhaps from first-hand knowledge, perhaps as a deduction from the present and similar ll., perhaps from the colophon at the end of A viii, C x in some MSS. For occurrences in C v. Kane Evidence for Authorship, p. 63. The long series of confessions that follows has long attracted attention, not only because of their vividness but also because the presentation differs considerably in each recension (though details of formal confession are found in each). The 219 ll. extant in A are extended to 457 in B and 596 in C, which cancels some of B's matter but adds much that is new-mainly from B xiii where one Haukyn the actyf man appears with his coat of Christendom (i.e. his white robe of baptismal innocence fouled with the capital sins). The omission of Wrath in A and the supposedly inappropriate confession that he makes in B were seized on some sixty years ago by certain critics as evidence in favour or 'multiple authorship'; J. M. Manly further claimed that the treatment of the confessions as a whole was intentionally different from A where they are 'sudden outcries from hearts wrought to repentance', significant of A's crypto-protestant views; but he exaggerated the differences. The subsequent discussions may be followed in The PPl Controversy (EETS, o.s. 139, extra issue, 1910) The theme of the seven capital sins in medieval literature has been exhaustively treated by M. W. Bloomfield (The Seven Deadly Sins, Michigan 1952); v . also R. Tuve, Allegorical Imagery (1966), p. 90 etc., and S. Wenzel, Speculum, 43 (1968), 1-22. It is clear that L was indebted to a tradition far more than to a particular source-though the appearance of the sins in earlier (or even later) Latin and vernacular texts may well throw light on his manipulation of the theme. thus it is worth noting that the Sins are given seven 'pageants' in the Beverley Paternoster Play (1469), as in a play performed at Tours in 1390 (E. K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage, ii. 154), and the York Paternoster Play (apparently well-established by 1378) evidently included representation of Accidia and the other sins (H. Craig, English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages (1955), p. 338); cf. also The Castell of Perseverance, 830ff. (in Macro Plays). the influence of priests' manuals touching on confession is plausibly suggested by Pantin, p. 226; the poet's emphasis on the circumstances of the sin is certainly found in such manuals. Archbishop Thoresby's 'Catechism' (EETS 118) or summary of instructions on the seven sins, virtues, etc., had been put into English verse before 1356 (Pantin, p. 212); and the Speculum Christiani (1360-80) includes English quatrains in which the sins speak in the order: Superbia, Invidia, Ira, Avaritia, Accidia, Gula, Luxuria, somewhat unrepentantly. Bloomfield shows that from patristic times the capital sins were usually enumerated in two orders--the Gregorian (as above) or Cassian's, which begins with Gluttony. L follows Gregory inasmuch as he begins with Superbia, but no special significance can be attached to his ordering, which varies elsewhere in the poem (and considerably in the other texts). Pride comes first as the first sin denounced in the sermon; the sin of inward pride ('hei3 sub>e herte') is emphasized, but the delight in ostentatious display typical of Lady Meed and touched on at 26 is also adverted to (66). As a sin lacking the 'degrees' of other sins it cannot be easily described in concrete terms; C extends the confession to 58 lines, but only by introducing allied vices; in any case Pride has already been embodied to some extent in Meed. It is perhaps for this reason that this sin (alone) is presented as a woman; though it also figures as a woman (that is to say as feminine) in (e.g.) the A-N 'Marriage of the Daughters of the Devil' ( v . ii. 68 n.) and in De Guilleville's Pélerinage (tr. Lydgate, 14826 ff.). For the iconography of the sins v . Tuve, op. cit., passim, and A. Caiger Smith, English Medieval Mural Paintings(1964). Some of the sins are illustrated in Cambridge MS Gg. 4. 27 (CT), others on bench ends at Blythburgh, Suffolk.

44 The character Wil probably here stands for the personified human will, which is moved by Repentance's sermon to show his contrition by his tears. The theology of Confession (Penance) in the Middle Ages involves the necessity of three elements: contrition of heart, confession of mouth, and satisfaction in deed. In other words, in order to receive sacramental forgivenss of sins, the penitent must feel genuine sorrow, articulate the sins in words to the priest, and carry out the peniential actions he commends. The specifically detailed sins that follow require voluntary and genuine acknowledgment of sin within--in the heart, in the consciousness, in the will.

Pernel proud heart plat her to the earth,

Commentaries

Fowler

45 ff. Here begins the confessions of the Seven Deadly sins, so frequently referred to in medieval literature. They are: Pride, Lechery, Envy, Wrath, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth. It will be noted that Wrath is omitted from this series. Manly's much-discussed theory of the lost leaf ( MP , III [1906], 359-66) is an attempt to account for the omission of Wrath and at the same time explain the rather sudden transition in the confession of Sloth from a vow to attend church regularly, to a promise to restore wicked winnings, made by a person identified as "Roberd the robbour." Briefly, Manly's theory is as follows. In a MS which was the archetype of all extant A manuscripts, a leaf next to the innermost of a gathering was lost, thus creating two gaps in the text of which subsequent copyists were unaware. The first of these missing folios belonged between lines 5.105 and 106, and probably contained the conclusion of the confession of Envy as well as the whole of the confession of Wrath. The second belonged between lines 5.227 and 228, introducing "Roberd the Robbour." Between these two gaps in the text there are 122 lines, which would fill a leaf averaging about thirty lines to the page. The bearing of this theory on the problem of the authorship of the three version of the poem can easily be seen by observing the unsatisfactory alterations and adjustments made by the B and C revisers.

And lay long ere she looked , and "Lord mercy" cried ,

And behight to him that us all made

She should unsew her sark and there there an hair

Commentaries

Vaughan

48. Her 'serke' was the equivalent of a modern undershirt. Unlike the modern item, however, these were seldom removed, having been sewn after they were put on, and infrequently (?annually) replaced. 48ff. Vices are corrected by penitential discipline (like the hair shirt here) and by actively practising the virtue that counters them. Here Pernel promises humility or meekness as a corrective to pride. Her identifying envy also as one of her sins indicates that these vices are not conceived as fully distinct and that we are dealing with more 'real' human personifications of sinful behavior than with absolutely distinct abstract allegorizations.

For to affaiten her flesh , that fierce fresh was to sin:

Commentaries

Vaughan

49 In the context fers may be more likely derived from OFr fier, 'proud' than from forms meaning 'eager' or 'wild; animal-like'--though, obviously, the latter is not altogether impossible here.

"Shall never high heart me hente, but hold me low,

And suffer to be missaid , and so did I never;

But now will I meek me, and mercy beseech

Of all that I have had envy in my heart."

Lechour said "Allas," and on our lady cried

Commentaries

Vaughan

54ff. Invoking 'oure lady' (Mary, the Virgin Mother of Jesus) is appropriate for a lecher. His promise to be abstemious of drink and food suggests that lechery and gluttony are connected.

To make mercy for his misdeeds between God and his soul ,

With that he should the Saturday , seveyears there after ,

Drink but with the duck and dine but once .

Envy, with heavy heart, asked after no ,

And carefully his guilt begins to show .

He was as pale as a pellet, in the palsy he seemed ,

Clothed in a caury-maury, I could it nought describe ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

61ff. CHECK: does all the clothing suit a friar? The caury-maury and fore-sleeves seem to (see Bennett). Or is this an odd composite, meant to suggest that envy is NOT limited to friars?

A kertil and a courtepy , a knife by his side ,

Of a friar's frock were the fore-sleeves.

As a leek that had lain long in the sun ,

So looked he with lene cheeks , louring foul.

His body was bolnid for wrath that he bit his lips ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

66ff. These lines, with their prominent mention of 'wraththe' (66, and cf. 79) and 'wrothliche' (67), may indicate that 'Envye' combines elements of both Invidia and (the 'missing') Ira . (The connection is made explicit at the beginning of this confession in the Z Version: 'Envye ant yre ayther wep faste' [V.91]. And Wrath's confession follows Envye's in both B and C.) As noted earlier, however, many of these characters are not limited to features of the particular vices whose name they bear. this is perhaps intended to indicate that such vices 'come not single spies but in battalions' (as Hamlet said of his ?troubles).

And wrathfully he wrung his fist , to wreak him he thought

With works or with words , when he saw his time.

"Venom or verjous or vinegar, I trow,

Commentaries

Vaughan

69ff. needs a note (passage is only in A)

wallows in my womb, and waxes , as I ween.

I might not many day do as a man ought ,

Such wind in my womb waxes ere I dine.

I have a neighbor nigh me, I have annoyed him often,

And blamed him behind his back to bring him in fame;

To apeire him by my power I have pursued full often,

And belied him to lords , to do him lose silver ,

And do his friends be his foes, through my false tongue ;

His grace and his good haps grieved me full sore.

Between him and his meyne I have made wrath ;

Both his limb and his life was lost through my tongue .

When I met him in market that I most hated ,

I halside him as handily as I his friend were .

He is doughtier than I; I dare no harm dohim .

Ac had I mastery and might , I would murder him for ever!

When I come to the church , and kneel to the rood,

To pray for the people, as the priest teaches ,

Then I cry on my knees that Christ give them sorrow

That bore away my bowl and my broken sheet .

From the altar my eye I turn and behold

How Heyne has a new coat, and his wife another ;

Then I wish it were mine , and all the web after .

And of his losing I laugh -- it likes my heart;

Ac for his winning I weep, and wail the time.

I deem men there they do ill, and yet I do worse ;

I would that each wight were my knave;

And who so has more than I, that angers my heart.

Thus I live loveless, like a lyther dog,

That all my breast bolnith for bitter of my gall;

100

May no sugar nor sweet thing assuage it unnethe ,

Nor no dyapendyon driveit from my heart;

If that shrift should, it shaped a great wonder ."

Commentaries

Vaughan

101 Envy's expression of doubt about the power of the sacrament to cure sin prompts Repentaunce's response about the power of contrition.

"Yes, readily ," quoth Repentance , and redde him to good ,

"Sorrow for sin saves well many."

105

"I am sorry," quoth Envy, " I am but seldom other ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

104f. This play on the idea of 'sorrow' is one of the few 'jokes' in the poem. Unlike the previous sins (and those that follow), Envy doesn't evidence any serious sign of contrition, sorror for his sin.

And that makes me so mad, for I not may me avenge ."

Then came Covetousness -- I can him not describe --

So hungry and hollow , Sir Harvey him looked .

Commentaries

Vaughan

107 The 'Sire' here suggests that that this Harvey (identity unknown) was of some importance, or was an ordained priest.

He was beetle-browed and babirlippid , with two bleared eyes ;

Commentaries

Textual

the division of this and following two lines is quite irregular in Ra.

110

And as a leathern purs lolled his cheeks ;

In a torn tabard of twelve winters age --

But if a louse could leap, I may it nought believe

He should wander on that walsshe , so was threadbare .

"I have been covetous ," quoth this caitiff , "I beknowe it here .

115

Commentaries

Textual

This line combines the second half of the preceding line from K-F, with a rather formulaic extension. The second half of the preceding line in Ra also has the feeling of being 'filler.'

For some time I served Symme at the oak,

Commentaries

Vaughan

114 The phrase 'at the [sign of the] oak' would identify where Simon conducts his business.

And was his apprentice plighted , his profit to look.

First I learned to lie a leaf or two ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

116 He is studying the pages of his textbook of avarice. There are recurrent terms running through this passage associated with school: see 'lessoun' (117, 124) and 'donet to lerne' below (122). His education in the ways of avarice starts with basics (those practiced, at least in the first instance here, in the wool and cloth trades). Many of the specific acts of fraud here are legislated against in contemporary ordinances: see Lipson, The Economic History of England (1959), pp. 274, 329, 461-65. (CHECK pages).

Wickedly to weigh was my first lesson.

120

To Winchester and to Wey I went to the fair ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

118 The cathedral town of Winchester and Weyhill in Hampshire were sites of important fairs. Winchester was particularly important in the wool trade with France.

With many manner merchandise , as my master me highte ;

Nor had the grace of guile gone among my wares,

It had been unsold these seven years, so me God help!

Then drew I me among drapers my Donatus to learn ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

122 The Latin grammar of Donatus was a standard school text for beginning students.

125

To draw the list along, the longer it seemed .

new the rich rayes I rendered a lesson,

broached them with a pack-needle , and plaited them together ,

Put them in a press, and pinned them there in

Till ten yards or twelve tolled out thirteen.

Commentaries

Textual

This line is not in Ra: a unique omission.

130

My wife was a wynstere , and woollen cloth made,

And spake to the spinsters to spin it softe.

The pound that she paid by peiside a quarter more

Than mine aunsel did, when I weighed truth .

I bought her barley -- she brewed it to sell ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

132ff. Fraudulent practises in the production and sale of ale are commonplace: see Lipson, 295-6 (461-5). Penny-ale (a penny a gallon) is apparently the cheapest. It's not clear what 'pile-whey' is (B/C has 'pudding-ale'), but it is likely that the mixture is intended not to improve the drink as to 'stretch' the thin penny-ale. Bringing out the choice ale from back room, for four times the price of penny-ale, could also permit deceptions in quality/measure. The alewife's 'private reserve' might have not more than the appearance of quality.

135

Penny-ale and pile-whey she poured together

For laborers and low folk that lay by them selves .

Commentaries

Bennett

134 ff. (B Text 221-5) hymselve (Crowley itselue): 'lay' can hardly refer to 'low folk'; the barrel from which they were served stood apart from the rest. hemselue (C) would imply that there were two barrels, one supposedly containing thin ale, the other thick. The best ale was kept in the parlour or bedroom, and one paid twice the usual price for it, as something special ('þerafter'). Moreover, ('And &yogh;it') she sold it by the cup, and could thus give short measure (especially if it was dented or had a false bottom).

The best in my bed chamber lay by the wall ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

135-6 It is unlikely that anyone would willingly pay a grote for even the choicest ale if the ordinary was one-quarter that. The point is probably that by selling it only in (perhaps 'short') cups or pints, she was able to increase the real cost of a gallon.

And who so bummed therof bought it there after ,

A gallon for a groat, God wot, no less ,

140

When it came in cupmeal ale -- that craft my wife used .

Rose the regratour was her right name;

She has held huckstering eleven winters.

Ac I swear now soothly, that sin shall I let,

Nor never wickedly weigh , nor wicked chaffare use ;

145

But wend to Walsingham , and my wife also ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

143 On Walsingham see <a href="file:///D:/Piers%20Edition/Vaughan%27s%20Notes/Explanatory/Prologue/Prologue.note.51.html"> Pr. 51 </a>

143. Walsyngham. See note on pr. 46 ff.

And bid the rood of Bromholm bring me out of debt."

Commentaries

Bennett

Vaughan

144 (=B Text 231) Bromholm was (near) the site of the Priory of St. Andrew, Norfolk, founded in 1113 and originally subordinate to the Cluniac house of Castle Acre. Its possession of a patriarchal chross made from the true Cross and brought from Constantinople in 1223 or earlier made it famous even beyond England, and many miracles were attributed to it; cf. CT , A 4286. For a 14th-c. Latin prayer probably meant for recitation at the foot of the cross (. . . me defendas de peccato Et de facto desperato [trans. (MFV): protect me from sin and from desperate action]) v. VCH Norfolk, ii. 362, and M. R. James, Cat. of Fitzwilliam MSS. (1895), pp. 138-9. Pilgrims to Walsingham would be likely to visit Bromholm, only a few miles away; but a chapman would in any case know of it from the annual fair held there on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 Sept.) and the day before and after it. oute of dette: i.e. save him from the debita of the Dominical Prayer. A concudes the confession at this point, but in B the promise of such a prayer is not sufficient to satisfy Repentance, whose searching question is the occasion for a self-portrait of Avarice in a new character--that of broker and money-lender.

144 The priory at Bromholm, near Walsingham, had a relic of the cross (rood) on which Jesus was crucified. The 'dette' here is that referred to in the Lord's Prayer: forgive us our debts.

Now begins Glutton for to go to shrift ,

And carries him to churchwards , his sins for to show ;

And Betoun the brewster bade him good morrow ,

150

And she asked of him whitherward he would .

"To holy church ," quoth he, "for to hear mass;

And sithen I will be shriven , and sin no more."

"I have good ale, gossip ," quoth she ; "Glutton, will thou assay ?"

"Have thou ought in thy purse," quoth he, " any hot spices ?"

Commentaries

Bennett

152 (=B Text 311-13): He feels the need of something to nibble (? as a remedy against flatulence) whlst still half inclined to observe the fast (mandatory on Friday). Fennel seed was 'of much use to expell wind' (J. Parkinson's Paradisus , 1629). Peony seed was drunk with wine as a cure for palsy. Glutton knows than an alewife would be likely to have them on hand for use in brewing: cf. Roman de la Rose, 10896-8 (Romaunt, 6025-8). Spices were added to wines to mitigate their acidity, producing the mixture called piment, used much like a modern liqueur: cf. Meals and Manners (EETS), p. 87. Does Bet tempt Glutton in by suggesting that these seeds will 'keep him going' without really infringing his fast?

155

" Yes , Glutton, gossip ," quoth she, "God wot, well hot;

I have pepper and peony , and a pound of garlic ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

154-5 The passage seems to claim that chewing spices may not break one's fast (since they are not real food). We may infer from line 203 that is is occuring on a Friday, which was regularly a day of abstinence from eating meat. In modern Ireland, it was usual to refer to it as a 'fast day.' Fennel might be mentioned because of its reputed ability to lessen flatulence, and similar benefits may have been imputed to the others. Alternatively, chewing garlick, pepper, or other 'hote spices' could be a means of masking signs of drinking.

And a fathing's worth of fennel seed , for fasting days."

Then goes Glutton in, and great oaths after ;

Cisse the sewstere sat on the bench,

160

Walt the warrener , and his wife ,

Tom the tinker, and twain of his knaves,

Hikke the hackneyman, and Hogge the needler ,

Claris of Cock's Lane , and the clerk of the church ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

161 Cock's Lane was a site of brothels in medieval London. Unless the 'clerk of the chirche' is a parish clerk (like Chaucer's Absolon in the Miller's Tale) and the first of the unnamed figures in this list, then it appears that Sire Pers of Pridye is the name of an incompetent priest: Qui pridie marks the beginning of the prayer of consecration at the Mass, and the point at which a priest must begin again, if he has forgotten to bring to the altar the required bread and wine.

Sir Piers of Pridye, and Pernel of Flanders,

Commentaries

Textual

This line (in Knott-Fowler, but not Kane) is omitted from Ra and from many other MSS. Kane suggests its appearance in A Mss is influenced by the B Version's line.

165

Dawe the diker, and a dozen others;

A ribibour , a ratoner, and a raker of Cheap,

A roper, a redyng-king, and Rose the disher ,

Godfrei of Garlekithe, and Griffin the Welsh;

Commentaries

Textual

this line (in Knott-Fowler, but not Kane) is missing from Ra (and many other Mss). Kane suggests its appearance here is influenced by its presence in the B Version.

And upholders a heap, early by the morrow ,

170

Gave Glutton with glad cheer good ale to handsel .

Clement the cobbler cast off his cloak,

And at the new fair he named it to sell.

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

170ff. The 'new fair' is a game (?=forfeits) in which an exchange of goods occurs, and the 'profits' are used to buy drinks for the judges and participants. There was, presumably, a general interest in how the exchange goods were valued and who 'won' (i.e., who had to fill the cup). In this instance, Clemen's cloak was judged of less worth than Hikke's hood, so Clement had to pay the difference in drinks for the company.

17 the newe feire was a game of mock-bargaining designed for the entertainment of the company. Cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 981-89.0

Hikke the ostler hit his hood after ,

And bade Bette the butcher be on his side .

175

There were chapmen chosen , that chaffare to prize;

Who so had the hood should have amends of the cloak.

They rose up in a rape, and rouneden together ,

And prized the pennyworths aperte by them selves ;

There were oaths a heap, who so it heard ,

180

They could not by their conscience accord together ,

Till Robyn the roper was red to rise ,

And named him for a umpire , that no debate were .

Hikke the ostler had the cloak,

In covenant that Clement should the cup fill,

185

And have Hick's hood the ostler , and hold him served ;

And who so repented rathest should arise after ,

And greet Sir Glutton with a gallon ale.

There was laughing and louryng and "let go the cup !"

Bargains and beverages began to rise ,

190

And set so till evensong , and sang some while ,

Till Glutton had gulped a gallon and a gill .

He pissed a pottle, in a pater noster while,

Commentaries

Vaughan

190. in a pater noster while: in the time it takes to say the Lord's Prayer. Pater noster are the opening words of the prayer.

And blew the round rewet at the rigge-bones end,

And all that heard that horn held their nose after ,

195

And wished it had been waxed with a wisp of furze .

He had no strength to stand, ere he his staff had,

And then began he to go like a gleeman's bitch ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Textual

195 This is probably a dog taught to do this as a comic turn. Bennett rightly rejects Skeat's suggestion that it's a guide-dog for a blind fiddler: such a dog would would presumably be retained for her ability to go straight.

Ra conflates two lines in K-F and Kane.

Some time aside, and some time areartrue

Like who so lays lines to latch with fowl.

200

When he drew to the door, then dimmed his eyes;

Commentaries

Vaughan

198-99 His eyes long accustomed to the dark of the tavern and his senses affected by drink, when he got close to the door he was bllinded by the daylight (even though it's past evensong!)

He stumbled on the threshold , and threw to the earth,

That with all the wo of the world, his wife and his wench

Bore him home to his bed, and brought him there in .

And after all this surfeit, an excess he had,

205

That he slept Saturday and Sunday , till sun yede to rest.

Then woke he of his winking, and wiped his eyes ;

The first word that he spoke was, "Where is the bowl?"

Commentaries

Vaughan

205 A nice realistic touch: when he first wakes, he thinks he's still in the tavern, and is feeling 'dry.'

His wife blamed him then, of wickedness and sin.

Then was the shrew ashamed , and scraped his ears ,

210

And began grete grimly, and great dole to make

For his lither life , that he lived had,

And avowed to fas, for hunger or for thirst :

"Shall never fish on the Friday defy in my maw,

Commentaries

Vaughan

211 Having broken the Friday fast (abstain from eating meat), his proposed penance here goes beyond what is required, and excludes even eating fish (which could be eaten on Fridays).

Ere Abstinence my aunt have given me leave;

215

And yet yet have I hated her all my life time."

Sloth for sorrow fell down aswowen ,

Till Vigilate, the veil , fetched water at his eyes ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

215 The watchman ('veil') has the Latin name Vigilate, meaning 'watch; wake up; stay awake.' It may be intended as a specifically allusion to Matt. 26: 41 -- or to other passages in the New Testament: e.g., Mark 13: 33-7; 1 Cor. 16: 13; or 1 Peter 5: 8.

215. Vigilate. A character by the name of "Watch" exhorts Sloth to repentance. Vigilate is apparently thought of as a nun ('þe veil"), though Skeat takes "veil" to mean "watcher" (OF veile, LAT vigilia). The Latin name, according to Skeat, is taken from Mark 13:37. In like manner we find in line 234 Reddite, "Make restitution" (Rom. 13:7), and in line 251 Latro, "Thief" (Luke 23:39).

And flatte on his face, and fast on him cried ,

And said , "Ware thee, for wanhope will thee betray.

220

'I am sorry for my sins ,' say to thy self ,

And beat thy self on the breast, and bid him of grace;

For is no guilt here so great that his goodness isn't more."

Commentaries

Textual

This line (in K-F and Kane) is omitted by Ra.

Then sat Sloth up, and signed him fast,

And made avow before God, for his foul sloth:

225

"Shall no Sunday be these seven years, but sickness it make,

That I not shall do me ere day to the dear church ,

And hear mass and matins , as I a monk were;

Shall no ale after meat hold me thence ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

226ff As in other cases, Sloth's confesses to other sins associated with Gluttony and Covetousness. His proposed pilgrimage to Truth (rather than Rome) recalls Conscience's sermon at the beginning of the passus (40-1).

Till I have evensong heard, I behote to the rood.

230

And yet will I yield again , if I so much have,

All that I wickedly won , sithen I wit had;

Commentaries

Vaughan

229. sithen I wyt hadde likely alludes to the idea that one reached a state of moral responsibility ('age of reason') sometime late in the first decade of life. Only from that point on, moral theologians held, could the individual be said to be capable of committing sin. The modern Catholic tradition suggests this occurs around the age of seven, at which point children are introducted to the Sacrament of Penance and allowed to receive Holy Communion.

And though my livelihood lack , let I won't

That each man shall have his, ere I hence wend;

And with the residue and the remnant -- by the rood of Chester --

Commentaries

Vaughan

232 A legendary cross stood on Rood Eye (i.e., Cross Island) in the River Dee, near the walls of Chester.

235

I will seek Truth , ere I seek Rome."

Robert the robber on Reddite looked ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

234ff Moved by Sloth's repentance (or by the entire series), an individual sinner despairs since he cannot see himself able to pay back (Reddite) what he has stolen The term may allude to Rom. 13: 7 or Matt. 22: 21 (or Mark 12: 17; Luke 20:25).

Ac for there was nought where with , he wept swithe sore;

Ac yet the sinful shrew said to him self :

"Christ, that on Calvary upon the cross died ,

240

When Dismas my brother besought thee of grace --

Commentaries

Vaughan

238 Dismas is traditionally the name of the penitent thief crucified beside Jesus. In Luke's account only are the two distinguished. The memento ('remember') in line 239 is taken from this passage of Luke (23: 42).

And thou had mercy on that man for memento sake --

Commentaries

Fowler

239. memento. "remember" (Luke 23:42).

Thy will work upon me, as I have well deserved ,

To have hell for ever if that hope weren't .

So rue on this robber , that no red have ,

245

Nor never ween to win with craft that I know ;

But for thy much mercy, mitigation I beseech :

Damn me not at doomsday , for I did so ill ."

Ac what befell of this felon, I can not fairly show;

Commentaries

Vaughan

246 The narrator's uncertainty about the fate of Robert stresses his individual humanity, a nicely realistic touch after the confessions of the abstracted deadly sins. The doubt seems to derive from the fact that however repentant Robert is and however genuine and lasting his cries for forgiveness, he does not avail himself of the ordinary sacramental means to ensure forgiveness for sins contritely confessed to a priest.

Well I woot he wept fast water with his eyes ,

250

And acknowledged his guilt to Christ yet eft-sones ,

That Penitence his pike should polish new,

And leap with him over lond, all his life time;

For he had lain by Latro, Lucifer's aunt.

A thousand of men then thronged together ,

255

Weeping and wailing for their wicked deeds,

Cried upward to Christ, and to his clean mother ,

To have grace to seek Truth , so God left that they might .

Passus 5