LONDON LICKPENNY: FOOTNOTES
1 Do you think I will perform an act of charity for you? / Here no man gets away with paying less than twopence
2 And God grant reward to the souls of every true lawyer
LONDON LICKPENNY: NOTES
2 trouthe. So MS; Hammond, Holthausen truthe.
5 Marys. MS maris.
6 procede. Bring legal proceedings, litigate.
7 I would gyve sylvar. MS reads I would gyve money sylvar. The scribe may have anticipated money in line 8. my purs is faynt. For this language about purses and money, see Chaucer's humorous short lyric "The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse," with its considerable word-play on "heavy" and "light."
10 my hode was gonn, that is, stolen. See lines 99-100. The hood in this sense is a covering for the head worn under a hat.
12 kyngs benche. "One of the three superior courts of common law (the other two being the Exchequer and the Court of Common Pleas)." "The King's Bench was concerned primarily with criminal law; the Court of Common Pleas, with civil actions." See Alford, Glossary, s.v. Bench and Kinges Bench, and Alford's citations from Piers Plowman. Of the courts in Westminster, Hammond quotes from Stow's Survey of London: "At the entry on the right hand the common place [i.e. Common Pleas], where ciuill matters are to be pleaded, especially such as touch lands or contracts; at the vpper end of the Hall, on the right hand or Southest corner, the king's bench, where pleas of the Crowne haue their hearing; and on the left hand or Southwest corner sitteth the Lord Chancellor, accompanied with the master of the Rowles and other men . . . called maisters of the Chauncerie." She comments: "This last-named court [Chancery] handled all cases relating to revenue, and the King's Bench and Common Pleas, as Stow says, took cognizance respectively of trespasses against the King's peace and of disputes between private persons" (English Verse, p. 476).
20 Richard . . . Kent. Apparently clerks are calling names for impending court cases. The "one of Kent" might be the Kentish countryman.
25 the Comon Place. "Held at Westminster, the Court of Common Pleas had jurisdiction over civil actions brought by one subject against another, all real actions, and the decisions of local and manorial courts; it was inferior to the Court of King's Bench, since error lay from it to that court" (Alford, Glossary, s.v. Commune Court).
26 a sylken houde. Worn by sergeants at law. Alford quotes from Piers Plowman: "Shal no sergeant for þat seruice were a silk howue, / Ne no pelure in his panelon for pledynge at þe barre" (B.3.295; Glossary s.v. Sergeaunt II).
31 would not . . . mouthe. Wouldn't even say "mum"; i.e., said nothing.
34 Chauncerie. This court functioned as a court of appeals, "moderating the rigour of the common law, and giving relief in cases where there was no remedy in the common-law courts" (OED).
35 qui tollis. Apparently a legal formula by which clerks would summon claimants to the bar. Hammond suggests: "Thou who hast a grievance, present it."
42 gowne of ray. "Ray, a striped cloth, was much worn by lawyers" (Hammond).
49 In all Westminstar Hall. MS In all westminstallr hall. The scribe seems to have anticipated the -all of hall.
51 Flemings grete woon. A great abundance of Flemings. For this signification of woon, see OED s.v. Wone sb.3 (obsolete and poetic) II.3, 4. Stow or his copy-text rewrites this passage to: "which seing, I gat me out of the doore / where flemynge began on me for to cry" (lines 45-46 of Hammond's edition of Harley 367). The Flemings were introduced into England to help increase the wool trade, and a number of them emigrated to England, bringing with them their expertise in cloth-making. But English laborers resented the competition from the Flemings, and many Flemings were killed during the Great Rising of 1381.
54 felt hatts. These words also appear in the margin of the MS.
65 In to London. "Our countryman crossed Long Ditch after leaving Westminster Hall by the Gate, walked by White Hall along the Strand, entered the City through Ludgate, and passed along Fleet Street to St. Paul's and the west end of Cheapside" (Hammond).
73 Chepe. The ward of Cheap, one of the great market areas of medieval London. In 1319 Cheap contained "mercers, pepperers, fishmongers, cheesemongers, bakers, poulterers, and cordwainers" (D. W. Robertson, Chaucer's London [New York: Wiley, 1968], p. 23). This Cheap in the west, near the Shambles and Newgate, should be distinguished from Eastcheap, which the narrator also visits (see lines 89-96). The word chepe appears in the margin of the MS.
74 sawe. MS saywe.
76 umple. "A fine kind of linen stuff" (OED s.v. Umple); "Fine gauze or lawn" (Hammond). Earliest OED citation = mid-fifteenth century. Stow or copy-text rewrites to: "here is parys thred the fynest in the land" (line 68 of Hammond's edition of Harley 367).
79 hewre. MED reads this word as an error for hewve, houve, houwe (from OE h_fe): "A headdress; esp. a close-fitting cap or coif." See MED s.v. houve (a). The word herwe appears in the left margin of the MS.
81 London Stone. The so-called "London Stone," or part of it, was built into the wall of St. Swithin's church. It originally might have been a Roman milliarium stone, or milestone, which measured distances. John V. Morris's map of fourteenth-century London on p. 14 of Chaucer's London designates the "London Stone" as landmark no. 29.
82 Canywike strete, or Candlewick Street, one of the wards of the city (near Walbrook), which contained "chandlers, weavers, and drapers" (Robertson, Chaucer's London, p. 41). For the location, consult the detailed fold-out "Sketch Map of London in the Time of the Peasants' Revolt, 1381," in Ruth Bird, The Turbulent London of Richard II (London: Longman, 1949), following p. 156. This is based on a map by M. B. Honeybourne.
83 Drapers deal in cloth and other fabrics.
89 Estchepe. East Cheap, between Candlewick Street and Tower Street, contained "butcher's stalls, the shops of turners and basketmakers, and some cookshops" (Robertson, Chaucer's London, p. 59).
93 "Ye by Cokke!" "Nay by Cokke!'' "Yes, by God!" "No, by God!" Cokke = euphemism for God, as in the Host's oath in Chaucer's Manciple's Prologue: "see how, for cokkes bones, / That he wol falle fro his hors atones!" (CT IX.9-10).
94 Jenken and Julian. "Evidently a song or songs by itinerant beggars" (Hammond).
97 Cornhill. Another great market ward of medieval London, which contained a great variety of merchants as well as more transient populations. Robertson lists the following as for sale in Cornhill: "laces, points, bows, caps, light coats, purses, hats, spurs, gaming-tables, paternosters, pen-cases, boxwood combs, pepper mills, thread, girdles, paper, and parchment" (Chaucer's London, p. 48). The narrator of the C text of Piers Plowman claims he lives in Cornhill as well as in the north country (passus 11).
100 in Westminstar. Hammond surmises that these words might be gloss (scribal or editorial) that has been worked into the text.
113 Byllingesgate. Billingsgate, one of the city gates (between Botolph's Wharf and the Wool Quay), and the fish market there, which was notorious for its bustle, noise, and abusive language.
118 on the my almes-dede. MS on the my no almes dede. The superscript no is in a different hand.