The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2

In this edition line numbers are displayed on every tenth line--in the printed work they were synchronised to the pagination, with sometimes only one number per page. Lines mark...

"Allas!" quod Haukyn the actif man tho, "That after my cristendom I ne hadde be deed and dolven For Do-welis sake! So hard it is," quod Haukyn, "To lyve and to do no synne. Synn...

"Right so, ye riche, Ye robeth that ben riche, And helpeth hem that helpeth yow, And gyveth ther no nede is. 10290 As who so filled a toune Of a fressh ryver, And wente forth wi...

And in the wombe of that wenche Was he fourty woukes, Til he weex a faunt thorugh hir flessh, And of fightyng kouthe, To have y-foughte with the fend Er ful tyme come. And Piers...

"Ac though my thombe and my fyngres Bothe were to-shullen, 11750 And the myddel of myn hand Withoute _male-ese_, In many kynnes maneres I myghte myself helpe, Bothe mene and ame...

"If no nyght ne weere, No man, as I leeve, Sholde nevere wite witterly What day is to meene. Sholde nevere right riche man, {382} That lyveth in reste and ese, Wite what wo is,...

"The knyghtes that kepten it 13250 Bi-knewe it hemselven, That aungeles and archaungeles Er the day spronge Come knelynge to the corps, {405} And songen _Christus resurgens_, Ve...

"And God al his grete joye Goostliche he lefte, And cam and took mankynde, And bi-cam nedy. So nedy he was, as seith the book, In manye sondry places, That he seide in his sorwe...

Then wennede I to wytten, And with a whight I mette, A Minoure in a morwe-tide; And to this man I saide, "Sire, for greate Godes love! The graith thou me tell, Of what myddel-er...

Thanne turnede I me forth, And talked to myselfe Of the falshede of this folke, Whow feythles thei weren. And as I wente by the way Wepynge for sorowe, I seigh a sely man me by,...

"Leve thou in oure Loverd God 1585 That al the werld wrought, {498} Holy heven eke on hey Holliche he fourmede, And is almyghti hymself Over alle his werkes. 1590 And wrought as...

Thenne cam Pees into parlement, And putte up a bylle. How that Wrong wilfullich Hadde hus wif for-leyen; And how he ravysed Rose, The riche widewe, by nyghte; And Margarete of h...

Ac whiche be the braunches That bryngeth me to sleuthe, Ys wanne a man mourneth nat For hus mysdedes; The penaunce that the prest enjoyneth Parfourmeth uvele; Doth non almys-ded...

5157. _of four kynnes thynges._ The medieval notion of the manner in which the elements were mixed together in the formation of the human body, here alluded to, appears to parta...

Thus consaileth Crist In comun ous alle, 'Ho so coveyteth to come To my kynriche, He mot forsake hymself, Hus suster, and hus brother, And al that the worlde wolde, And my wil f...

8133-8137. These are the indications of different Psalms. Psalm li begins with the words, _Miserere mei, Deus_, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. The thirty-first Psalm commen...

11518, 11520. _lo! here silver ... two pens._ It must be remembered that at this period the mass of the coinage, including pence, halfpence, and farthings, was of silver; copper...

auncer (A.N.) 90, _a small vessel or cup_. In Low-Latin it is called _anceria_. See Ducange, s. v., who quotes from a charter of the date of 1320 the words, Una cum cuppis, _anc...

kyn, _gen. s._ kynnes (A.S.) 40, _kin, kind_. This word is used in the genitive case in such phrases as the following: of foure kynnes thynges, 151, _of four kinds of things_. o...

hayward (A.N.) 415, _a man employed to watch and guard the inclosed fields, or hays_. An illustration of this word will be found in the passage from Whitaker's text given in the...

ne (A.S.) _not_. The negative _ne_ is combined with the verb _to will, to be_, &c.; as _nelle_, for _ne wille_, _nel, nyl_, for _ne wil_, _nere_, for _ne were_, _nolde_, for _ne...

Its occurrence in Piers Ploughman shows that Weber was not right in supposing it a mere alteration of the word _time_ for the sake of rhyme. See also Sir F. Madden's Glossary to...