St. Bernard, translated into English (EETS. Vernon Ms. II, pp. 515, 692) furnish good examples:

and:

Vnstable is thi lyf I-diht,

Now art thou heuy, now artou liht,
Nou thou richest, and nou thou porest,
Nou thou sek, nou thou rekeuerest.

I wolde witten of sum wys wiht
Witterly what this world were;
It fareth as a foules fliht,

Now is it henne, now is hit here.

Ne be we neuer so muche of miht,

Now be we on benche, now be we on bere,
And be we neuer so war and wiht

Now be we sek, now beo we fere.

That such expressions of care and sorrow were popular also in continental Shepherd plays is evidenced by a Tyrolean play of the 15th or 16th century (ed. Weinhold, Weihnacht-Spiele, p. 153):

[1st Shepherd]: Ich lig jezt Tag und Nacht in Sorgen, dass mir möcht heunt oder morgen. Ich kann vor Frost nit schlafen gar, Es steigt mir auf vom Kopf das Har, Es hat mir ja der Wolf auch fert drei gute Schaf nieder gemerrt.

[2nd Shepherd]: In grösten Sorgen auf freier Weid lig ich bei Winters und Sommers Zeit, in grösten Sorgen hab ich gewacht in Wind und Schne bei Tag und Nacht, in Gröstem Kummer und schwerer Not, etc., etc.

1-25. Cf. Ch. II, 1-9; T. IV, 1-5, 123-128.

20. 'Whatever happens, I am sure to have trouble.'

38. By my wit to try to set the world in order.'

Cf. 1. 487. Related to the expression at sixes and sevens,' meaning 'in disorder.' In 1. 487, however, the meaning may be, who created all in seven days.'

64 ff. Cf. T. IV, 28-45, and note.

97-99. Quoted in John Ray's Collection of Proverbs, 1742.

100. Another proverb; see T. IV, 591, and note. 101-178. Eaton (Mod. Lang. Notes 14. 265) has shown that this very humorous episode is an old folk-tale, printed in Oesterley's A Hundred Merry Tales (1526), No. 24, and Hazlitt's Shakespere's Jest-Books 3. 4. It is one of the many tales fathered upon the 'fools of Gotham'; see l. 180, and note. This episode is one of the few things not recast for T. IV, where another folk-tale, the story of Mak, was substituted.

124. A singular expression, probably meaning 'a little grace.'

150-151. Meaning obscure; hyte (see hait in N. E. D.) is the exclamation used for urging on horses. This sentence may mean, therefore, it is fair to urge them on until it comes to a fight'; see Glossary.

180. This has become a proverbial expression, although here it is used as a specific reference; cf. note on ll. 101-178. The inhabitants of Gotham in Nottinghamshire achieved this reputation in the reign of King John, when, to ward off a threatened visit from the King, they pretended to be idiotic. Boyde, a native of the town, published in the 16th century a collection of the many tales of idiocy, which had been fathered upon his townsmen, under the title The Merrie Tales of The Wise Men of Gotham, and this did much to spread their fame.

188-190. Cf. T. IV, 177–182.

208-240. Cf. Ch. II, 101-136.

212 ff. Taylor (Mod. Phil. July 1907, p. 14) gives as a parallel to the grotesque meal of the shepherds a 'grotesque receipt' taken from Reliquiæ Antiquæ 1. 325:

Take nine pound of thunder, six legs of a swan,
The wool of a frog,

The juice of a log,

Well parboiled together in the skin of a hog.

All this, however, seems to me to have less to do with the shepherds' meal than with the caldron scene in Macbeth. Cf. Ch. II, 113 ff.

332-403. The survival of the prophet element in Shepherd plays, the oldest form of Christmas drama, is interesting. The prophecies here follow the pseudo-Augustinian sermon very closely (cf. note on Y. I, 1-132) and, considering the wide divergence between the sermon and most late versions, we are safe in affirming that this passage shows direct influence of the sermon. Cf. also C. V,

26-60.

359-366. One of the most popular allegorical interpretations of Old Testament stories. Cf. Chaucer, Prologe of the Prioresses Tale 1. 16:

O bush unbrent, brenninge in Moyses sighte!
And in the A. B. C. to the Virgin, 11. 89 ff.

Moises that saugh the bush with flaumes rede
Brenninge, of which ther never a stikke brende,
Was signe of thyn unwemmed maidenhede.
Thou art the bush on which ther gan descende
The Holy Gost, the which that Moyses wende
Had ben a-fyr; and this was in figure.

See also the index to Livius, The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers, under Mary as the burning bush.

386-403. The inappropriateness of putting these prophecies into the mouths of shepherds is most apparent here. This quotation is from the fourth Eclogue. Cf. note on Y. I, 1-132.

392. The Disticha de Moribus of Dionysius Cato, a book of moral maxims, of the 3rd or 4th century, used throughout the Middle Ages as a text-book; hence, as here, standing for Latin in general.

413-430. Cf. Ch. II, 358-435, note; T. IV, 656-664.

413. Pollard explains: 'he brought 24 short notes to a long.'

453-457. Cf. Ch. II, 481-2, 549–551.

458 ff. Taylor (Mod. Phil. July 1907) gives several examples of the popular Middle English 'hail' lyrics. Cf. the other Shepherd plays: C. V, 90 ff., and note; Ch. II, 552 ff.; also Ch. II, 153-156; Y. 41, 320 ff., 46. 273 ff.

One of the many referred to by Taylor is quite close to this passage, and I quote it as a specimen (Vernon MS. I. 24, ed. EETS.):

Heil Ihesu, godus sone,
Holigost from heuene i-come,
Kyng thou art i-Coren.
Heil mon of most miht,
Godus sone that art so briht,
Of Marie thou were boren.
Heil God, best the be,
heil blosme uppon tre,
Heried beo thi sonde.
Heil fruit, heil floure,
Heil be thou, Saveour

Of watur and of londe.
Heil kyng, heil knyht,
Heil mon of most miht,
Prince in thi trone.
Heil Duyk, heil Emperoure,
Heil beo thou gouernour

Of all this worldus wone.
Heil flesch, heil blod,
Heil mon of mylde mod,
Heil beo thow kyng.
Heil God ffarest,

Heil be thow, bern best,

Thow madest alle thyng.

Heil Rose vppon Rys,
heil mon of most prys.

ffor us thou were ded.

Heil God ful of miht,

Godus sone that art so briht.

In fourme thow art of bred.

466. Cf. Ch. II, 559.

469. Milksop in a very unusual sense, merely signifying a small child.

482-483. This sounds like a proverb, but I have been unable to locate it elsewhere.

487. Cf. note on 1. 38.

491, 495. Cf. Ch. II, 536-539, and note.

TOWNELEY SHEPHERDS (IV).

1-15. Cf. Ch. II, 1-9; T. III, 1-25; T. IV, 123–128. 10-45. An expansion of T. III, 28-36, on the oppression of the poor by the rich. To this is added the idea of the 'prowde swane' in T. III, 55-81; see note on ll. 28–45.

20. They make the plough stick fast, a contrast to the old toast "Speed the plough."'--Pollard.

28-45. Cf. T. III, 64 ff. Shakespeare's description of another prowde swane' of the same period is similar; cf. I Henry IV, I. 3. 30 ff.:

Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drest,
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin new reap'd
Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner.

and still he smiled and talked,

and as the soldiers bare dead bodies by,
He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Between the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He questioned me.

I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
Out of my grief, and my impatience

To be so pestered with a popinjay,

Answered neglectingly

for he made me mad

To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman

Of guns and drums and wounds.

37. 'In the days of Sumptuary Laws an embroidered sleeve would presumably betoken a man of rank.'-Pollard. In England we hear much from writers of the 14th century of the extravagance of dress at that period. They remark both