No More Learning

The note of simplicity of utterance, often combined with
1 The quotations are from T. Wright's text, in Political Poems and Songs, but see
also the first volume of Hakluys and The Libell of Englishe Policye, 1436, Text und
metrische Übersetzung von W. Hertzberg, Mit einer geschichtlichen Einleitung von R.
Pauli, Leipzig, 1878. Cf. also the poem On England's Commercial Policy, Wright's
Political Poems and Songs, vol. II, p. 282.
2 Political, Religious and Love Poems, Lambeth MS, etc. , ed. Farnivall, F. J. ,
E. E. T. S. 1866, new edition, 1903.
* Saintsbury, G. , A History of English Prosody, vol. I, p. 261.


## p. 425 (#443) ############################################

Lyrics and Carols
425
perfection of form, which is struck in such poems as the
thirteenth or early fourteenth century lyric from the Egerton MS
Somer is comen and winter is gon,
this day beginniz to longe,
And this foules everichon
joye hem wit songe!
So stronge kare me bint,
Al wit joye that is funde
in londe,
Al for a child
That is so milde
of hondel,
is found again in the Sayings of St Bernard in the Vernon MS
Where ben heo that biforen us weren,
That houndes ladden and haukes beeren,
And hedden feld and wode;
This Riche ladys in heore bour,
That wereden gold in heore tressour,
With heore brihte rode 237
It is carried on by Michael of Kildare, in a hymn written at the
beginning of the fourteenth century in which there are move-
ments like this:
This worldis love is gon 8-wai,
So dew on grasse in someris dai,
Few ther beth, weilawai!
that lovith Goddis lore";
it becomes exquisitely melodious in the northern Hampole poems
of, approximately, the middle of the fourteenth century, notably
in the alliterative verses beginning
My trewest tresowre sa trayturly taken,
Sa bytterly bondyn wyth bytand bandes;
How sone of thi servandes was thou forsaken,
And lathly for my lufe hurld with thair handes",
and in Eve's lines in the 'Coventry' play:
Alas! that evyr that speche was spokyn
That the fals aungel seyd onto me.
Alas! oure makers byddyng is brokyn
Ffor I have towchyd his owyn dere tre.
Oure filesely eyn byn al unlokyn,
Nakyd for synne ouresylf we see,
That sory appyl that we han sokyn
To dethe hathe brouth my spouse and mo®.
1 Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. 1, p. 100.
? complexion.
& Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, with poems from Digby MS, vol. 11, p. 521, ed.
Furnivall, F. J. , E. E. T. S. 1901.
* Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. 11, p. 190.
5 Horstman's ed. , vol. I, p. 72.
& Ludus Coventriae, ed. Halliwell, J. O. , pp. 27, 28, 1841.


## p. 426 (#444) ############################################

426
Political and Religious Verse
It exerts magical power in the beautiful carol from the early
fifteenth century Sloane MS :
I syng of a mayden that is makeles,
Kyng of alle kynges to here sone che ches.
He cam also stylle ther his moder was,
As dew in Aprylle that fallyt on the gras.
He cam also stylle to his moderes bowr,
As dew in Aprille that fallyt on the flour.
He cam also stylle ther his moder lay,
As dew in Aprille that fallyt on the sprayl;
it shows itself capable of infinite pathos in the appeal of Isaac to
his father in the Chester play:
Alas! father, is that your will,
Your owne childe here for to spill
Upon this hilles brynke?
Yf I have trespassed in any degree,
With a yard you maye beate me;
Put up your sword if your will be,
For I am but a Childe
Abraham
Come hither, my Child, that art so sweete;
Thou must be bounden hand and feetea;
it reveals passion, strong though subdued to that it works in,
in the Quia amore langueo of the Lambeth MS c. 14308; and it
finds an echo in the poem to the Virgin, printed towards the
close of the fifteenth century in Speculum Christiani, beginning
Mary moder, wel thou be!
Mary moder, thenke on me.
There are, of course, duller and more sophisticated utterances
than these. Mysticism often acts as a clog and didactic aim
frequently achieves its usual end and produces boredom. But
that happy sense of familiarity with the company of Heaven,
which is one of the characteristics of an age of profound faith,
finds delightful expression in hymns from Christ to His 'deintiest
damme'' and, above all, in the religious plays. These last,
which were written to be understood by the common folk, are
1 Songs and Carols, ed. Wright, T. , Warton Club, 1861, p. 30.
Chester Plays, ed. Deimling, H. , E. E. T. S. , 1893, p. 75. The extant MSS of the
Chester cycle belong to the end of the sixteenth century, but the substantial features
of the passage quoted above are found in the fifteenth century Brome play on the same
subject (Anglia, VII, pp. 816-337), with which the Chester play would seem to be
connected.
3 Political etc. Poems, ed. Furnivall, F. J. , p. 177.
• Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, ed. Furnivall, F. J. , p. 3, E. E. T. S. 1867.


## p. 427 (#445) ############################################

Didactic Literature
427
mirrors which reflect the tastes of the people, in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. An ingenuous audience wished to be
moved easily to tears and laughter; rough humour and simple
pathos jostled each other on the booths or travelling stages on
which were set forth the shrewishness of Noah's wife, and Isaac
submissive to his father's stroke, the boisterous comedy of
quarrelling shepherds and their criticism of the angelic voices.
It was not gold and frankincense and myrrh that would appeal
most to the imagination of the idler in the market place, but a
ball, a bird and 'a bob of cherys,' which the visiting shepherds
give to the Child-Christ, as they address him with
Hayll, lytyll tyne mop!
Of oure crede thou art crop;
I wold drynk on thy cop,
Lytyll day starnel.
Truly these writers and actors 'served God in their mirth,'but
they were not allowed to go on their way unmolested. There are
poems against miracle plays as against friars, and sermons too;
and in the mass of carols and love lyrics, whether amorous or
divine, which form a characteristic feature of fourteenth and
fifteenth century English poetry, and which are treated in an
earlier chapter in this volume, there appear now and then the
spoil-sports who think 'the worlde is but a vanyte'? and, when
the briar holds the huntsman in full flight, only take it as a
warning to ponder on more solemn things.
Of the purely didactic literature that was intended for daily
needs, a typical example may be seen in John Mirk's Instructions
for Parish Priests, a versified translation from Latin of a very
practical kind, concerned with the things that are to be done
or left undone, the duties of priests and what they are to teach
and all such items as entered into the daily religious life of the
peoples. To this we may add 'babees' books' and poems of homely
instruction, in which the wise man teaches his son and the good
wife her daughter. For those who were soon able to buy printed
books, there were works like the first dated book published in
England, the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, whilst
Caxton's Book of Curtesye, addressed to 'lytyl John,' and his
printing of a Great and Little Cato sufficiently indicate the
popularity of precept and wisdom literature. The middle of the
2
3
· Towneley Plays, ed. England, G. and Pollard, A. W. , 1897, p. 139.
Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, pp. 83 and 91.
Ed. Peacock, E. , E. E. T. 8. 1848.


## p. 428 (#446) ############################################

428
Political and Religious Verse
fifteenth century gives us the Book of Quinte Essence, an early
treatise on 'natural science,' in which, among other wonderful
things, we learn how 'to reduce an oold feble evangelik man to
the firste strenkthe of yongthe' and how 'to make a man that is
a coward, hardy and strong. ' And, in a fourteenth century MS you
may run your eyes over medical recipes", which vary between
cures 'for the fever quarteyn' and devices 'to make a woman say
the what thu askes hir. Woman was ever a disturbing factor,
'
and the songs of medieval satirists do not spare her. One of
them ends his verses with the counsel of despair:
I hold that man ryght wele at ese,
That can turn up hur haltar and lat hur goa.
To the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries belongs the figure
of Robin Hood the outlaw, who was known to the writers of
Piers Plowman in the middle of the fourteenth century and
stories of whose deeds were first printed by Wynkyn de Worde
at the close of the fifteenth century, in the Lytell Geste; and
with a reference to him this brief summary of 'rank and file'
literature must close. He is the typical hero of English medieval
popular romance, open-handed, brave, merciful, given to archery
and venery, good-humoured, jocular, loyal, woman-protecting,
priestcraft-hating, Mary-loving, God-fearing, somewhat rough
withal, caring little for the refinements of life, and fond of a fight
above all things': In this combination of qualities we may fitly
see that blending of Norman and Englishman which helped to
make the England of the ages of faith a ‘merrie England. ' Akin
in many ways to Hereward the Englishman and Fulk Fitz-Warin
the Norman, he represents, in the ballads that grew up around
his name, the spirit of revolt against lordly tyranny, and he
stands for the free open life of the greenwood and the oppressed
folk. The ruling classes had their Arthur and his knights,
their 'romances of prys,' the placid dream-world in which moved
the abstractions of Stephen Hawes and the bloodless creatures
.
1 Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. 1, p. 51.
Ibid. p. 77. A more gallant feeling is shown in the records of the Pui, a
fourteenth century association established in London originally by foreign merchants
in imitation of similar associations in France, en le honour de Dier, Madame Seinte
Marie and all saints, por ceo qe jolietes, pais, honestez, douceur, deboneiretes, e bon
amour, sanz infinite, soit maintenue. In that society, no lady or other woman being
allowed to be present at the festival of song, it was held to be the duty of members de
honurer, cheir, et loer trestotes dames, totes houres en touz lieus, au taunt en lour absence
come en lour presence. See Munimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis, vol. 11, p. 225, Liber
custumarum, Rolls Series, 1860, ed. Riley, H. T.
8 Hales, J. W. , Peroy Folio.


## p. 429 (#447) ############################################

The Fifteenth Century 429
of the 'court-poetry. The people had their songs by the way-
side, their ballads born of communal dance and their more or less
pagan festivals, at which sons of the soil, maidens and apprentices
who had been bidden to
Suffer maister and maistresse paciently
And doo their biddyng obediently
Serve atte the tabille manerly 1
could, for a while, escape from these duties and enter into a life of
a
a
their own.
A word may be permitted by way of postscript, not merely
to this chapter but also to the present volume. It has been
sometimes urged that the fifteenth century, in the matter of
purely English literature, is dull and uninteresting ; that it is an
uninviting, barren waste, in which it were idle and unprofitable
to spend one's time when it can be fleeted carelessly in 'the
demesnes that here adjacent lie,' belonging to the stately pleasure
houses of Chaucer and the Elizabethans on the one side and on
the other. It would rather appear that a century, the beginning
of which saw the English Mandeville translators at work, and
the end of which saw one of those versions printed; a century
to which may be credited The Flower and the Leaf, the Paston
letters, Caxton's prefaces and translations, the immortal Malory,
lyrics innumerable, sacred and secular, certain ballads, in the
main, as we now know them, The Nut Brown Maid (in itself
sufficient, in form and music and theme, to make the fortune' of
any century), carols and many of the miracle plays in their
present form, can well hold its own in the history of our literature
as against the centuries that precede or follow it. At least it is
not deficient either in variety of utterance or in many-sidedness
of interest. It is not merely full of the promise that all periods
of transition possess, but its actual accomplishment is not to be
contemned and its products are not devoid either of humour or
of beauty,
· Reliquiac Antiquae, vol. II, p. 223.


## p. 430 (#448) ############################################

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II
The following parallel passages from the two Wyclifite versions will show
some of the differences between them. Broadly speaking, these differences
are greatest in the earlier part of the Old Testament, and are only small in
parts of the New Testament. It should be noticed that the order of the
books in the Old Testament and Apocrypha is different from that of
the A. V. , following the Vulgate.
EARLIER VERSION.
LATER VERSION.
Exodus xv, 1-5.
1 Synge we to the Lord, forsothe 1 Synge we to the Lord, for he is
gloriously he is magnyfied; the hors magnefied gloriousli; he castide doun
and the steyer up he threwe doun into the hors and the stiere in to the see.
the see. 2 My strengthe and my prey. 2 My strengthe and my preisyng is
syng the Lord; and he is maad to me the Lord; and he is maad to ine in
into helthe. This my God, and hym to heelthe. This is my God, and Y
Y shal gloryfie; the God of my fader, schal glorifie hym; the God of my
and hym Y shal enhaunce. 3 The fadir, and Y schal enhaunse bym,
Lord as a man fizter, Almyzti his 3 The Lord is as a man fizter, his
name; 4 the cbare of Pharao and his name is Almizti; "he castide doun in
oost he threwe fer into the see. His to the see the charis of Farao, and
chosan princes weren turned vpse- his oost. Hise chosun princis weren
doun in the reed see: 5 the depe drenchid in the reed see; 5 the depe
watris conerden hem; thei descen- watris hiliden hem; thei jeden doun
diden into the depthe as a stoon. in to the depthe as a stoon.
Isaiah vi, 1-4.
1 In the ser in which diede king 1 In the zeer in which the king Osie
Osias, I say the Lord sittende vp on was deed", Y siz the Lord sittynge
an heiz sete, and rered vp; and ful on an hiz sete, and reisid; and the
was the hous of his mageste, and tho housb was ful of his mageste, and
thingus that vnder hym weren, fulfil- the thingis that weren vndur hym,
den temple. 2 Serafyn stoden vp on filliden the temple. 2 Serafyn stoden
it, sixe wenges to the oon, and sixe on it, sixe wyngis weren to oon, and
to the other; with two thei couereden sixe wyngis to the tothir: with twei
the face of hym, and with two thei wyngis thei hiliden the face of hym,
couereden the feet of hym, and with and with wyngis thei hiliden the feet
two thei flown. 3 And they crieden of hym, and with twei wyngis thei
the tother (var. toon) to the tother, flowen. 3 And thei criden the toon
and seiden, Hoeli, hoeli, hoeli, Lord to the tother, and seiden, Hooli, hooli,
God of ostes; ful is al the erthe of hooli is Lord God of oostis; al erthe
the glorie of hym. 4 And to-moned is ful of his glorie. 4 And the lyntels
ben the thresholdes of the heenglis aboue of the herris were moued to-
fro the vois of the criende, and the gidere of the vois of the criere, and
hous fulfild is with smoke.
the hous was fillid with smoke.


## p. 431 (#449) ############################################

Appendix to Chapter II
431
a
As an illustration of the glosses on the above extract (in the later
edition), the following are given:
was deed; not bi departing of the soule from the bodi, but in which
zeer he was smytun of God with lepre, for he wolde take amys to him the
office of priest; for fro that tyme he was arettid deed to the world, as Rabbi
Salomon seith.
o the hous; that is, the temple bildid of Salamon; netheless this clause,
and the hous was ful of his mageste is not in Ebreu, neither in bokis
amended.
EARLIER VERSION.
LATER VERSION.
St Matthew vi, 1–4.
1 Take zee hede, lest je don jour 1 Takith hede, that ze do not goure
riztwisnesse before men, that see be riztwisnesse bifor men, to be seyn of
seen of hem, ellis 30 shule nat han hem, ellis ze schulen haue no meede
meede at zoure fadir that is in herenes. at zoure fadir that is in heuenes.
2 Therfore whan thou dost almesse, 2 Therefore whanne thou doist almes
nyle thon synge before thee in a nyle thou trumpe tofore thee, as ypo-
trumpe, as ypocritis don in synagogis critis doon in synagogis and streetis,
and streetis, that thei ben maad wor- that thei be worschipid of men, sotheli
shipful of men; forsothe Y saye to Y seie to zou, they had resseyued her
300, thei han resceyued her meede. meede. 3 But whanne thou doist
3 But thee doynge almesse, knowe almes, knowe not thi left hond what
nat the left hond what the rizt hond thi rizt hond doith, 4 that thin almes
doth, 4 that thi almes be in hidlis, and be in hidils, and thi fadir that seeth
thi fadir that seeth in hidlis, sal zelde in hiddils, schal quyte thee.
to thee.
If a passage such as Ephesians ii be taken, the differences between the
two versions will be found even slighter than in the above.
These extracts
are taken from the edition by Forshall and Madden, but its exhibition of the
textual evidence leaves much to be desired. It must be borne in mind that
many different workers, in all probability, took part in the translation of each
version.
J, P. W.


## p. 432 (#450) ############################################

BIBLIOGRAPHIES
CHAPTER I
6
PIERS THE PLOWMAN AND ITS SEQUENCE
THE MANUSCRIPTS.
Piers the Plowman. The forty-five known MSS of Piers the Plowman are
described by Skeat in vols. I, II, III and iv of his edition of the poem for
the Early English Text Society, and, less fully, in vol. II of his large
Clarendon Press edition. In 1865, Skeat published, for the E. E. T. S. ,
Parallel Extracts from Twenty-nine MSS of Piers the Plowman, and,
in 1885, Parallel Extracts from Forty-five MSS of Piers the Plowman,
A facsimile of MS Laud 656 (C-text) is prefixed to vol. 11 of the E. E. T. S.
edition; and one of Land Misc. 581 (B-text) may be found in Skeat's
Twelve Facsimiles of Old English MSS (Oxford, 1892). It has been
suggested that MS Laud Misc. 581 is the author's antograph, or, at
least, was carefully revised by him, but examination of the corrections
made and the errors left unnoted indicates that this is not probable.
A MS of the poem (but of what version is unknown) is mentioned in
a Yorkshire will of 1396 as 'unum librum vocatum Pers Plewman'
(Testam. Eborac. I, 209, Surtees Soc. ); another, in the will of John
Wyndhill, rector of Arncliffe in Craven, in 1431 (ib. 11, 34); and still
another in the will of Thomas Roos, of London, in 1433 (Fifty Earliest
English Wills, ed. Furnivall, Additions, p. 2).
Mum, Sothsegger (Richard the Redeless). The only MS now known is that
marked Ll. 4. 14 in the Cambridge University Library, described by
Skeat, The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman (E. E. T. S. )
II, pp. xx f. and 111, pp. ciü ff.
The Parlement of the Thre Ages and Wynnere and Wastoure. The MSS
are described by Gollancz in his edition.
Letters of the Insurgent Leaders. These are in Knighton's Chronicon and
Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, the MSS of which are described by
the respective editors, Luard and Riley (Rolls Series).
Peres the Ploughmans Crede. The MSS are described in Skeat's editions.
The Ploughman's Tale. No MS is known to exist.
Jacke Upland, etc. No MS of Jacke Upland is known to exist. The Reply
of Friar Daw Topias and Jack Upland's Rejoinder are preserved in MS
Digby 41 of the Bodleian Library, of. Wright, Political Poems and
Songs, II, p. 39 n.
The Crowned King is preserved in MS Douce 95 of the Bodleian Library,
of. Skeat's E. E. T. S. ed. of Piers the Plowman, 111, pp. 523 ff.
Death and Liffe and The Scotish Ffeilde are preserved in the Peroy Folio
MS; an imperfect copy of the latter is also contained in a MS of queen
Elizabeth's time belonging to the Legh family at Lyme Hall, Cheshire,
and published in 1855 (see below).


## p. 433 (#451) ############################################

Chapter 1
433
EDITIONS.
Piers the Plowman.
(B-text. )
The Vision of Pierce Plowman, now fyrste imprynted by Roberte Crowley,
dwellyng in Ely rentes in Holburne. Anno Domini. 1505 (for 1550).
Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. Two other impressions, both
said to be nowe the seconde time imprinted,' were issued by Crowley in
the same year; see Skeat's editions for descriptions.
The Vision of Pierce Plowman, newlye imprynted after the authours olde
copy, with a brefe summary of the principall matters set before euery
part called Passus. Wherevnto is also annexed the Crede of Pierce
Plowman, neuer imprinted with the booke before. ſ Imprynted at
London, by Owen Rogers, dwellyng neare vnto great Saint Bartelmewes
Gate, at the sygne of the Spred Egle. 9 The yere of our Lorde God,
a thousand, fyne hundred, thre score and one. The . XXI. daye of the
Moneth of Februarye. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. (AC-
cording to Skeat, this is a careless reprint of Crowley's third impression. )
The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman. Ed. Wright, T. 2 vols. 1842.
Second and revised edition, 1856. New edition, 1895.
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, together with Vita de
Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, Secundum Wit et Resoan, by William Langland.
Ed. Skeat, W. W. E. E. T. S. 1869.
The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman by William Langland
(or Langley). [Prologue and Passus, 1-v11. ) Ed. Skeat, W. W. Oxford,
1896. See also editions of various years from 1874 to 1893.
(C-text. )
Visio Willi de Petro Ploughman, Item Visiones ejusdem de Dowel, Dobet, et
Dobest. Or the Vision of William concerning Piers Plouhman, and the
Visions of the same concerning the Origin, Progress, and Perfection of
the Christian Life. Ascribed to Robert Langland, a secular Priest of
the county of Salop; and written in, or immediately after, the year
MCCCLXII. Printed from a MS contemporary with the author, collated
with two others of great antiquity, and exhibiting the original text;
together with an introductory discourse, a perpetual commentary, annota-
tions, and a glossary. Ed. Whitaker, T. D. 1813.
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, Dowel, Dobet, and
Dobest, by William Langland (1393 A. D. ). . . Richard the Redeless, by
the same author. (1399 A. D. ) The Crowned King, by another hand,
Ed. Skeat, W. W. E. E. T. S. 1873.
(A-text. )
The Vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, together with Vita de
Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, Secundum Wit
et Resoun, by William Langland.
(1362 A. D. ) Ed. Skeat, W. W. E. E. T. S. 1867.
(The Three Texts. )
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman in three parallel texts
together with Richard the Redeless. By William Langland (about
1362-1399 A. D. ). Ed. from numerous manuscripts with Preface, Notes
and a Glossary by Skeat, W. W. 2 vols. Oxford, 1886.
The edition for the E. E. T. S. , by Skeat, was begun in 1867 with the publi-
cation of the A-text, and completed in 1884 with the publication of Part iv,
containing General Introduction, Notes, Indexes and Glossary.
E. L. II.
28


## p. 434 (#452) ############################################

434
Bibliography
Mum, Sothsegger (Richard the Redeless).
A Contemporary Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of King Richard II,
from an unique MS at Cambridge. With the Latin Poem on the same
King by Richard de Maydestone, from a MS at Oxford. Ed. Wright, T.
Camden Soc. 1838.
Political Poems and Songs relating to English History, composed during the
period from the Accession of Edward III to that of Richard III. Ed.
Wright, T. Rolls Series. 1859. Vol. 1, pp. 368-416.
Also in Skeat's E. E. T. S. edition of Piers the Plowman. Vol. II (C-text),
and his Parallel Text edition of Piers the Plowman, as above.
The Parlement of the Thre Ages and Wynnere and Wastoure.
The Parlement of the Thre Ages, an alliterative poem of the xivth century,
now first edited, from manuscripts in the British Museum, with Intro-
duction, Notes and Appendixes containing the poem of Winnere and
Wastoure, by Israel Gollancz. Roxburghe Club. 1897.
Letters of the Insurgent Leaders.
These are given partly in Walsingham, Historia Anglicana (Rolls Series, II,
33-4), and partly in Knighton, Chronicon (Rolls Series, 11, 138–140). The
earliest edition of Walsingham is that by Matthew Parker, 1574: Historia
Brevis ab Edwardo I ad Henricum V. The earliest edition of Knighton
is in Twysden's Scriptores X, 1652. Some of the letters are printed by
Maurice, C. Edmund, English Popular Leaders, 11: Tyler, Ball, Oldcastle,
1875, pp. 157-161; and by Trevelyan, G. M. , England in the Age of
Wycliffe, 1899 (3rd ed. 1900), pp. 203-4.
Peres the Ploughmans Crede.
Pierce the Plonghmans Crede. (Colophon:] Imprinted at London by
:)
Reynold Wolfe, anno Domini M. D.