to Chaucer. Johns, in his Flowers of the Field, says-' Atropa belladonna (Deadly Nightshade, Dwale). ... Buchanan relates that the Scots mixed the juice of Belladonna with the bread and drink, with which by their truce they were supposed to supply the Danes, which so intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greater part of Sweno's army while asleep.'

Dwale, something stupefying or causing delirium, being connected with the A. S. dwolung, dotage, dwala, an error, gedwola, an error, gedwolman, an impostor, gedwolsum, erroneous, gedwælan, to deceive, dwelian or dwolian, to err, also to deceive; with the Dutch dwalen, to err, dwaaltuin, a labyrinth, dwaallicht, a will-of-the-wisp; Dan. dvale, a trance, torpor, stupor, dvale-drik, a soporific (dwale-drink); O. H. G. twalmgetrank, a soporific (dwale-drink); twalm, enchantment. It is allied to E. dull and dwell.

There is a remarkable passage in the A. S. poem of St. Andrew (ed. Grein, 1. 33) which is worth quoting in connection with the present passage:

'Syddan him gebléondan bitere tósomne
dryas purh dwolcraft drync unheórne

se onwende gewit, wera ingeþanc.'

I. e. 'Then they blended for them bitterly together,
These magicians, by magic art, a horrible drink

Which perverted the wit, the mind of the men.'

383. Hadden, might have; subj. mood. Fyndynge, provision. On which Pecock, in his Repressor, ed. Babington, ii. 390, remarks-' this word fynding, forto speke of such fynding as is mynystring of costis and expensis and other necessarie or profitable thingis into that a certeyn deede be doon and executid'—which is sufficient to shew that it properly means 'provision for all necessary purposes only.'

386. Gradde, cried aloud; from A. S. grædan, to cry out. After grace, for God's favour.

Here the poem ends. Conscience, hard beset by Pride and Sloth, has besought Contrition to come and help him; but Contrition slumbers, benumbed by the deadly potion with which the flattering friar has enchanted him. With a last effort Conscience arouses himself, and seizes his pilgrim's staff, determined to wander wide over the world till he shall find Piers the Plowman, the true Saviour of mankind. His last loud cry for God's help awakes the sleeper from his Vision.

Dr. Whitaker suggested that the poem is not perfect; that it must have been designed to have a more satisfactory ending, and not one so suggestive of disappointment and gloom. I am convinced that this opinion is erroneous; not so much from the fact that nearly all the MSS. have here the word Explicit, as from the very nature of the case. What other ending can there be? or rather, the end is not yet. We may be defeated, yet not cast down; we may be dying, and behold, we live. We are all still pilgrims upon earth. This is the truth which the author's mighty genius would impress upon us in his parting words.

Just as the poet awakes in ecstacy at the end of the poem of Dobet, where he dreams of that which has been already accomplished, so here he is awoke by the cry of Conscience for help, and is silent at the thought of how much remains to be done. So far from ending carelessly, he seems to me to have ceased speaking at the right moment, and to have managed a very difficult matter with consummate skill.

NOTES

ΤΟ

'RICHARD THE REDELESS.'

NOTES TO THE PROLOGUE.

THE parallel passages in the Vision are cited in the footnotes, which

see.

2. Bristow, Bristol. It was from Bristol that Richard set sail for Ireland, and it was there that Henry gave one of the first proofs of his power, by the execution of Lord Scrope and others; see note to Pass. ii. 152 below.

3, 4. An allusion to the Church of the Holy Trinity, described in Barrett's Bristol, p. 464. It was in the very centre of the old town, at one of the corners where the four principal streets, High Street, Broad Street, Corn Street, and Wine Street met. See a plan of Bristol in 1479 in Ricart's Kalendar, edited by Miss L. T. Smith for the Camden Society, p. 10.

10. wild Yrisshe. This was a common phrase, and occurs several times in a poem entitled-' Of the commodities of Irelonde, and policye and kepynge therof, and conquerynge of wylde Iryshe? See Polit. Poems, ed. Wright, ii. 185. See also the French Chronicle of the Betrayal and Death of Richard II., ed. B. Williams, p. 171; Spenser, View of the State of Ireland; and A. Borde's Introduction of Knowledge, ed. Furnivall, pp. 132, 334.

11. On the est halfe, on the Eastern side of England, viz. near Ravenspurgh in Yorkshire, where Henry landed on the 4th of July, 1399. (This is a fresh proof, were any needed, of the absurdity of Froissart's statement as to the landing of Henry at Plymouth.) Richard returned from Ireland to England about the 25th of July, landing (as it would appear) at Harlech. See note to Shakespeare's Rich. II., ed. Clark and Wright, Act iii. Sc. 2. The French Chronicle edited by Mr. B. Williams gives this date as August 13, which seems far more likely; for else we have to suppose that Henry took several weeks to find Richard, which is improbable.

5. sourdid, arose; from O. F. sourdre, Lat. surgere; it occurs in Chaucer.

8. 'So violent (or angry) were the sayings on both sides.' No doubt much partisanship was displayed, and great differences of opinion arose. 14. serue commonly means to deserve; but here it is, 'that he should serve them the same,' viz. by righting their wrongs.

17. Observe the author's uncertainty as to the end of it all; cf. II. 24, 27.

19. Some repented;' i. e. those who had applauded Henry's acts at Bristol began to turn again to Richard. L. 21 means that they expressed their opinion that it was a pity the king's reason had not enabled him to reform the misrule from which the country suffered.'

22. in endurid, continued in. Read in durede; endurid is a mere gloss upon durede, and makes the line halt.

33. preise, praise. I think preie (pray) would be better.

37. And if it please him to peruse a leaf or two (of this treatise), that is written to amend him.'

41. grame, (I would) be sorry, be vexed.

42. The sense passes on to l. 45, ll. 43 and 44 being parenthetical. 'Every prince might learn from my words; yea, every Christian king that wears a crown might do so, if he only could read English.'

47. my beste, i. e. the best I have.

49. and I couthe, i. e. if I could, if I knew how.

53. 3oure, i.e. the king's hand.

Sovereigns were addressed as ye; equals as thou. So ze is used below; and hence also the use of the plural imperative redeth.

54. rewis an hundrid, a hundred rows or lines.

61. 'For at present it is secret, and so it shall remain some time longer, till wiser men have looked it over.' The author's intention was to get some friend to correct it before it should be presented to the king. But the course of events defeated his wishes.

66. 'To take away their ennui, that so often bores them.' For young people to be soon 'bored' is nothing new.

69. Since youth always supposes it [i. e. fault-finding, criticism] to be (a proof of) wisdom.'

72. with the culorum, with the sequel thereof; see Glossary.

73. 'It would not hurt them a whit.' A peere means a pear, i. e. to the extent of the value of a pear; just as we say not worth a kerse, i. e. a blade of grass; for which phrase see P. Pl. B. x. 17. The expression 'not worth a pere' occurs in Morte Arthure, Bk. xv. Cap. vi.; Globe edition, p. 377.

80. be, the subjunctive or imperative mood; 'may it never be my will.' So in 1. 85, ho be is 'whosoever may be.'

82. Probably a direct allusion to the 'Vision;' particularly to the strife between Poverty and the Seven Deadly Sins in C. Pass. xvii. 58, etc.

NOTES TO PASSUS I.

"

1. Richard the redeles, i. e. devoid of counsel.

Such is also the true

meaning of the title Unready as applied to Æthelred; see Freeman, Old Eng. Hist. for Children, p. 190. Cf. note above to Prol. 1. 53.

2. leddyn, for ledden, 2 p. pl.; your life and ruled your people.

used with a double meaning; viz. led

4. y-lyfte, lifted, removed. Mr. Wright prints y-lyste, with the explanation listed, taken ;' which I do not understand, unless it means that listed is put for enlisted. But this would hardly be the language of the fourteenth century.

11. An enumeration of things that do not promote allegiance amongst subjects, viz. dread or awe, blows, unjust judgments, bad coinage, pillage of the people, self-will of the king, taxes imposed in time of peace and exacted by ruthless plunderers.

17. Here preysinge obviously means appraising, as in C. 7. 384; of means by means of; and polaxis is put for the men who used them, viz. the king's officers; see Pass. iii. 328. They appraised the goods of the king's subjects at whatever value was most convenient.

18. 'Or whether by the debts thou contractest in dice-playing, judge as thou findest it.' The verb deme governs 1. 10 and all that follows. The change from you to thou is remarkable, and probably due to the mention of dice-playing, which is charged upon the king as being a personal vice. 19. 'Or by right guidance of the law, justly tempered with love.' Cf. 1. 24 below.

25. gostis, spirits. An allusion to the king's favourites, such as De Vere and De la Pole.

26. That never wore armour, nor (felt) showers of hail.'

30. They mourned over the pleasures of lordship which they once had; but never let fall one tear for their sins.'

42. y-doutid of, feared by. See the parallel passages in A. 2. 10-14; B. 2. 10-17; C. 3. 11-16. In 1. 44, yloke means locked, joined.

47. traylid, fenced round; cf. trellis. treste, trust.

51. nest, nighest. The allusion is probably to the extreme intimacy between the king and his favourites, the 'graceless ghosts' mentioned in 1. 25 above.

54. of tiliers, from husbandmen. Compare C. 5. 45-65.

57. De Vere was Duke of Ireland; and De la Pole Earl of Suffolk. Though the latter was but an Earl, he is probably alluded to. Three other of 'Richard's dukes' were the Dukes of Albemarle, Surrey, and Exeter. Lingard, says that, in 1397, Richard 'created his two cousins of Derby and Rutland, Dukes of Hereford and Albemarle; his two uterine brothers, the Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, Dukes of Surrey and Exeter;' etc. Albemarle is Shakespeare's Aumerle, who was devoted to Richard; and the Dukes of Surrey and Exeter were put to death by Henry IV. : 58. We find in Hazlitt's English Proverbs the four following-'Drum