BEATI QUI ESURIUNT: NOTES
1 Beati qui esuriunt. A poetic rendition of Matt. 5:6: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill."
3 justiciam. So Harley MS (i[us]ticia[m]); Wr justitiam. See also line 5: nequiciam/ nequitiam, and passim.
7 encennia. The Royal MS reads exhennia, treasures.
34 cedunt. Above this word the MS scribe has written "i. re" or "i.e., recedunt."
59 cum capite cornuto. "The head dress of the ladies of rank and fashion at this period was arranged in the form of two horns" (Wr).
73 relatores. Middlemen who deliver the complaint to the judges.
78 janitores. Door-keepers in venality satires always present special difficulties to those wishing access to courts. For similar lines, see Crux est denarii potens in seculo (De cruce denarii) especially lines 77-100; or Qui potest capere quod loquor capiat (De mundi cupiditate) lines 53-68. See also Yunck, The Lineage of Lady Meed, p. 80 (citing a Latin poem attacking the Court of Rome): "Si das, intrabis protinus: si non, stas, stabis eminus" (If you give, you shall quickly enter: if you don't, you remain standing; you shall remain standing, far off), and The Simonie lines 142-44: "The porter hath comaundement to holde hem widoute the gate, / In the fen. / Hu mihte theih loven that Loverd, that serven thus His men?"
111 bedellis. Bailiffs and beadles were associated with legal and bureaucratic harassment in venality satire and complaint literature. A bailiff was "an officer of justice under a sheriff, who executes writs and processes, distrains and arrests"; a beadle was "a messenger of justice; a warrant officer; an under-bailiff" (Alford, Glossary, s.v. Baillif and Bedele). Alford cites PP B.3.2: "Now is mede . . . Wiþ bedelis & baillifs ybrout to þe king." For a similar view of beadles, see The Simonie 337-41, and Song of the Husbandman 37-39, 51-56. The beadle became proverbial for overzealous officiousness, as the beadle in Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV (V.iv) whom Doll Tearsheet calls, among other things, a "thin man in a censer" and a "filthy-famish'd correctioner."
114 transmittantur. Wr's emendation of MS transmutantur.
119 averia. "The term averium is commonly used to signify all kinds of moveable property; but more particularly to signify cattle and horses" (Wr).
126 Clericos. "The scribe has written above this word, in the MS. "i. pauperes."
130 ballivam. Wr translates as "bailiwick," the jurisdiction or district of a bailiff. For similar views of bailiffs, see The Simonie, lines 289-94; Song of the Husbandman, lines, 25-28; and God Spede the Plough, lines 37-39.
114 transmittantur. Wr's emendation of MS transmutantur.
119 averia. "The term averium is commonly used to signify all kinds of moveable property; but more particularly to signify cattle and horses" (Wr).
126 Clericos. "The scribe has written above this word, in the MS. "i. pauperes."
130 ballivam. Wr translates as "bailiwick," the jurisdiction or district of a bailiff. For similar views of bailiffs, see The Simonie, lines 289-94; Song of the Husbandman, lines, 25-28; and God Spede the Plough, lines 37-39.