MUM AND THE SOTHSEGGER: FOOTNOTES



1 When tax collectors arrive to take what they have
2 And though your treasurer be loyal and builds not too high
3 Be sure that you do not advantage the rich and [that you] take pity on the poor
4 And hear them out as sincerely as though you had payment (hire) from them
5 And if you wish to know what the man is called
6 And if he speak too forthrightly, he is turned out
7 Lines 42-43: There is no clerk of the king's who ever clothed him [the Soothsayer] even once / Although he [the clerk] clothed himself at Christmas and all the next year
8 But babbles on boisterously like an unschooled child
9 With trickery and with bribery to devise deceptions
10 How truth might be contravened and turned aside
11 Through the image of the impression that remains in the palm (see note)
12 Lines 70-71: I liken that to liars, for in the long run, / Of every man's speech the truth will be known
13 For which you might be harmed and receive back what you deliver
14 If your brother sins against you set him straight etc.
15 To such a simple post, look where you please
16 And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth, etc. David
17 And recounted the misrule that grew in the realm
18 For there is no man from the king's retinue, more influential nor less
19 For although men burn the town where the man dwells
20 And turn it into good fortune, for the rest of your life
21 Well known and notable and astute in warfare
22 Lines 250-51: While sergeants-at-law search for you to drag you into court / Because of your wild words which often cause anger and dissension
23 Do not hold company with nay-sayers at all
24 For I sense by your fable-making that you are malicious in your actions
25 And ever you keep close so that you are not left behind
26 You will not engage with people unless there is profit in doing so
27 He who can reform but who secretly neglects to do so shares the fault of the evil-doer
28 No harm comes from remaining silent, harm comes from speaking
29 Called into question the Soothsayer as curtly as he could
30 And set up many compasses, as the [geometric] art requires
31 Selected for the professorial chair to chastise fools
32 And more responsive to his bidding than young apprentice to the master
33 To argue subtly or to seek out any deeper meanings
34 It is some pernicious foolishness of the new fashion
35 That no priest should preach except poor holy friars
36 You yourself must be vulnerable to the law you imposed
37 "That the knave rendered a judgment which came back to haunt him later"
38 Then has the licensed friar permission to learn where he may come (see note)
39 He abandons the inferior portion for the better
40 These good men of God gather everything to themselves
41 Neither by word nor will as surely indeed
42 Honour the Lord with thy substance. The Prophet
43 For when they come to your cottage to beg what they need
44 C, because it is crooked, for Carmelites you must understand
45 M, for these Minorites (Franciscans, Friars Minor), cursed are their works
46 They leap over lightly (i.e., overlook wrongs), and lie wondrously much
47 For they have engaged in jousts against Jesus' works
48 Lines 520a-b: Let him carry off the treacherous people, of the believers in the last things; / Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and with the just let them not be written
49 They have turned charity into cupidity. Wisdom
50 To repair their church and to sustain their income
51 To where the principle of pluralities (multiple benefices) was nobly established (see note)
52 But they always remained near the food bin and the manger
53 Scarcely contain the flesh unless it should rupture
54 And had not their guts groaned where they were girt
55 For filching of foodstuffs beyond the legal amount
56 Do not possess gold or silver in your purses
57 Lines 576-77: And every man that I encountered believed I was mad because of my words / they knew no other [explanation]
58 And lest I was looking for trouble, cease [the search] immediately
59 But explain it to a sovereign so it can be proved afterwards (see note)
60 But he did not utter a single syllable on that matter
61 For seven years on Sundays and feast-days
62 For truth's sake do away with all human affections
63 That which you call God's share, let God's men (the poor) have it
64 You must agree with the majority (the most) if you desire to maintain your health
65 For he is intimate with the proudest and takes his price from that association
66 Lines 691-92: He squanders no speech unless bribes cause it, / Until he knows which way desire will tend
67 For if you come into their clutches, you may not creep away from there
68 So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works
69 Wished for water afterwards with which to wash his hands
70 When the head ails the other members grieve
71 For I will go down no path unless crafty precaution shows the way
72 Where any grousing or complaining or difficulty should arise
73 And spoke up for the [influential] party and ignored the merits of the legal pleading
74 And went toward the door and stayed there no longer
75 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice's sake. Gospel
76 With a broad broom-shaped beard, a little bald
77 Well proportioned and vigorous for his age
78 And I continued to draw nearer to him as near as I should
79 He who labors not does not eat. Bernard
80 Gladly, good man, your bidding shall be done
81 Could not design their rafters nor imitate their works
82 Their living-quarters are partitioned, I prove it by their honeycombs
83 And each chamber has a leader who keeps the peace in his quarter
84 And all the principals are ready for the prince when they are needed
85 Believe it well, the least among them know their language
86 Whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame. Paul
87 But hear how they end with their whole gathering
88 Nothing is so harsh as the poor man when he is raised to an exalted position. Gregory
89 And investigated spiritual authorities without stint despite anger [directed against me]
90 Such as peers of the realm who have the power to refuse and to allow
91 He who is able to denounce sin and does not is the doer of sin. Sidrac
92 They lead men the long way round and break love-days [appointed for reconciliation]
93 To accept bribes, and to sol-fa before they sing (see note)
94 Influence and reward, fear and hatred pervert true justice. Canon [Law]
95 Cursedness or oppression or contrivance of fraud
96 He spreads his lines in such a way that may be called desire
97 He does not shirk [his duty] for income or payment that he might receive
98 "Many thanks, gardener," I said, "and God reward you
99 Would to God that each man who has taken a degree in school
100 He who enters not by the door into the sheepfold but from another place / is a thief and a robber. / Gospel
101 Speed you hence to his house and hop straight in
102 For poverty has a jailer when he steps over his bounds
103 Then Dread with a door-bar drives out the most virtuous people
104 He will sooner grow angrier than follow your advice
105 Woe to those who sell sin for money. Grosseteste
106 There is a volume of fifteen pages on the archdeacon's visitation [to check on priests]
107 But they are rooted in a row (in the roll-book) to enrich the nobility
108 These parsons and these canons (prebendiaries) who have plural benefices
109 Lines 1380-81: For the poor of their parish, and they should be present among them / To heal the wounds of their sheep (congregation) when they were sick
110 Flee from gossip lest you begin to be taken for their author
111 May those who have damaged Henry experience misfortunes
112 And complain when the tax collection happens that applies to all of us
113 I say if their destiny were so appointed and in similar circumstances
114 Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation
115 Such that they were placed in slavery by kings of surrounding countries
116 I never heard of harder [laws], and yet they were followed
117 They did not spare the blood of their own offspring
118 He who would have grieved for a groat would have moaned at that
119 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity
120 We cannot be equals with the more powerful. Wisdom
121 When a court pleading is told, if it concerns powerful men
122 They will approach no nearer unless they think to cause trouble
123 Though no damage occurs except aggravated hearts
124 And behave such that household goods and provisions are damaged
125 Wrath inspires hatred; peacefulness nourishes love
126 Nay, I will maintain my dignity, despite those who complain
127 Wrath may not rest in a sound mind or body. Solomon
128 Pride brings forth all wickedness even unto death. Solomon
129 To contend at law where there is no offence due to property [recorded in an account]
130 "If he were slow to prosecute, though eager for his object" (D&S)
131 And he thought less of in the shire and round about
132 To inaugurate legal proceedings whose basis is not clear
133 And withdraw gracefully lest force assaults you
134 For if you quit before you are defeated then will your reputation rise
135 Gold (money) and property so unite them that they cannot be separated
136 That it would be better for him to lose his land than to be so long in litigation
137 And a miracle to poor men who know little of legal debate
138 Unless the laws are executed, what may they avail
139 But then he makes provision for the poor when the sun goes down (i.e., at the end of his life)
140 Who bestows his property for God's sake when his spirit has departed
141 For although a fifteenth were bequeathed, a receipt shall be given
142 For so long as they have half of it, they must hold themselves contented
143 And interpret as straightforwardly as the Ram is horned (i.e., convolutedly)
144 What should happen a week before Sunday
145 They purchased no church appointments from a prince or someone else


MUM AND THE SOTHSEGGER: NOTES






Abbreviations: B: Barr's edition of Mum; D&S: Day and Steele's edition of Mum; IMEV: Carlton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse; MED: Middle English Dictionary; MEPW: Dean, ed., Medieval English Political Writings; MS: MS British Library Additional 41666; OED2: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.; PP: Piers Plowman, ed. Schmidt; PPCr: Piers the Plowman's Crede, in 6ES; RiR: Richard the Redeless; 6ES: Dean, ed., Six Ecclesiastical Satires; Sk: Skeat's 1886 edition of RiR; Sz: Szarmach's transcription of the MS; Usk: The Chronicle of Adam Usk, ed. Given-Wilson; WGO: Dean, The World Grown Old in Later Medieval Literature; Wr: Wright's 1838 edition of RiR

1 Hough. A corrector D&S designate "M" has written how in the left-hand margin. D&S differentiate among four main correctors or editors (A, B, C, and D), who place a dot over the word to be corrected, and other correctors, including M (whom they suspect is the scribe of the MS); N (who underlines words to be corrected); P (who inserts with a caret); S, in two hands (who uses interlineation or marginal corrections); O (who designates words for omission); and L (who inserts single letters). Both Barr and Doyle believe that fewer editors and correctors were involved in marking the MS. That material has been lost from the beginning is clear from the lack of a large initial letter (such as the one that appears at line 29).

The sentiment and wording of line 1 is repeated in line 1650. covetous peuple may refer to Henry's first supporters - notably the Percies of Northumberland, including the Duke of Northumberland and his son, Henry Percy (called Hotspur) - who helped put him on the throne but who felt neglected once he became king.

4 profit of grete. MS: profit of ožer. Emended by D&S and B, adopting the marginal suggestion of one of the correctors (called, by D&S, "A"). The MS's ožer seems to be dittography (inadvertent repetition) from the ožer at the end of line 3. The "A" corrector has placed a dot over the ožer of line 4 and has written the word grete in the right-hand margin. In this line "A" has placed a dot over departid and, in the left margin, written parte, with a dot over it.

5 Leste uncunnyng come yn and caste. So MS; D&S and B use the corrector's marginal gloss "comyn," interpreting come yn as the commons. I read uncunnyng substantively rather than adjectivally. D&S comment: "caste vp že halter: cast off restraint. Perhaps 'že' should be inserted before 'vncunnyng'" (p. 106).

6 According to K. B. McFarlane, Henry IV's councils were not fixed, predictable sessions but instead were "nebulous" and "indistinct." See "Council and Parliament" in Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972), pp. 82-89.

7 smaicche of the smoke. The word smaicche - "taste" - signifies a sampling of something (Old English smęc), usually something pleasant (as nectar), but here the connotation is ironic.

9 tymbre not to high. This wording seems to have been suggested by : "žei tymbred nou3t so hei3e" (PP, B III.85; compare A III.74, C III.84).

11-12 For two yere . . . leued men tellen. The idea here is that even a loyal Treasurer may make a small fortune in a brief time of service. D&S summarize: "Even if the Treasurer be honest, he can do well for himself, for in two years (men say) he will make enough to live as a lord for twenty years." The "A" corrector wants to substitute "leude," presumably ignorant, for leued, men who may be believed or men in the know.

17 Sergeantz . . . atte barre. The A text of PP contains similar language: "Seriauntis, it semide, žat seruide at že Barre; / Pleted for penis and poundes že lawe, / And nou3t for loue of Oure Lord vnlose here lippes ones" (Prol.85-87). "Sergeants were the most prestigious and powerful lawyers of Chaucer's time; they ranked above esquires, and were the equal of knights. Their group, called the Order of the Coif, was small (only twenty-one sergeants were created during Richard II's reign), chosen from among the most accomplished apprentices who had spent at least sixteen years studying and practicing law. They had exclusive rights to plead cases in the Court of Common Pleas, and all judges were chosen from this group" (Patricia J. Eberle in The Riverside Chaucer, p. 811).

18 prentys of court. The apprentices "were practising lawyers who had received legal training in the central law courts, or . . . students who were currently receiving such training. These lawyers might practise as advocates, attorneys, advisers, clerks or officials." See Maureen Jurkowski, "Lawyers and Lollardy in the Early Fifteenth Century," in Lollardy and the Gentry in the Later Middle Ages, ed. Margaret Aston and Colin Richmond (New York:St. Martin's Press, 1997), pp. 155, 156 respectively.

19 reeche not of the riche. The MS does not include not. D&S and B properly insert it.

24 graunteth thaym. So D&S, B; MS: graunteth hym.

with a good chiere. The meaning of chiere is usually "demeanor," "countenance," but a corrector or reader - identified by D&S as the "E" corrector, has written "wille" in the right-hand margin.

25 writtz . . . waxe. The narrator asks that the "penylees" be granted legal redress in the form of writtz and then sealed in waxe. In some Middle English complaint poems the green wax sealing legal writs was reason for consternation. See, for example, Song of the Husbandman, note to line 55, in MEPW, p. 261.

27 mayntenance. Maintenance was the practice of wrongfully supporting one side in litigation, often accompanied by threats of violence or other forms of intimidation. A "meyntenour," explains Sk in his note to RiR II.78, is "a technical term for one who abets another in wrong-doing, and supports him in defeating justice" (II, p. 292).

29 Now. There "is space left for cap N; only small letter for prompt to rubricator" (Sz).

38 Sothesigger. My convention throughout the text and notes of the poem is to capitalize the one "Sothesegger" who is the object of the narrator's quest (parallel to Langland's Piers Plowman) but to use lower-case "sothesegger" for the generic type: "the Sothesegger" versus "a sothesegger."

41 And yf . . . undre. The idea here is that if a soothsayer oversteps what people want to hear, he will be summarily ousted.

42-43 There is . . . yere after. My translation of these lines is speculative and based on the readings of D&S and B. The sense of the lines seems to be that the Soothsayer provides his own clothes because no one wants to sponsor him. Hence he is called, in line 44, "Alexander without livery."

42-46 There is . . . But the. The left-hand margin has been cut away so as to omit the first letters of lines 42-44 and the first words of lines 45-46. D&S reconstructed them, and I follow their suggestions.

52 pure poynt . . . sothe. The truth in effect lances the wound and drives out the disease of falseness and corruption.

61 peynture. MS: preynte. Stricken, with peynture written faintly in the margin. The scribe reduplicated the subsequent preynte, though the reduplication makes sense too. The impression in this case is of a coin which has greased someone's palm. The "crosse" in line 66 also refers to the impression from a coin.

66 crosse. See note to line 61.

76 For. MS: Fort. D&S and B emend to For. The "D" corrector suggests now.

81a Si peccauerit . . . corrige etc. The wording is based on Matthew 18.15: "But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone." The Latin is in the right-hand margin and marked by an editor to be placed after line 81.

87-89 And he . . . to have. D&S translate the important part of these lines: "'He that is most of might shall . . . have regard of a reasonable man,' i.e. thyself" (p. 107). The "he" who is "most of might," however, might be Christ rather than a temporal lord.

88 soeth. "So P (dot and caret)" (D&S, p. 29).

106 mede. So D&S, B. MS: soulde but "A" corrector suggests mede.

113 though . . . after. I.e., although what the Soothsayer said proved to be true after he left the service for which he was held to be foolish.

114-24 But muche . . . woo falle. The narrator wonders that oure corouned king (line 115) does not have a soothsayer to help govern the realm. The poor, he claims, have many such to help them manage their wealth and guide them when misfortune should arise. King Henry did in fact have at least one advisor who risked his wrath with stern advice.

115a Et nunc . . . David. This is based on Psalm 2.10 and is inserted in the right-hand margin next to line 120, but with a mark indicating that the Latin should be inserted after line 115, which is where it appears in D&S.

116 saye. So D&S, B, based on a correction ("B"). MS: telle. The scribe may have anticipated the beginning of line 120. At the top of fol. 2a and "keyed to end of 116" (Sz) four verse lines in English are appended:
Thorough mayntenance and mysrewle of maisters above
And al is consail to že king / he knoweth not že fawtes
For lacke of a loresman / žat lesinges hateth
That wold telle hym že trouthe / and trippe not aside (Sz's transcription)
120 Next to this line appears the following verses (transcribed by Sz):

And souuerayns sothely / žay serue but a whiles / yit shuld hit lengthe žayre lyves / and že lawe mende.

At the bottom of fol. 2a similar verses appear, with the "margin cut away" for the opening words (transcribed by Sz):
[And] souuerayns soethly / žay serve but a whiles
[Yit] shuld hit lengthe žayre lives / and že lawe mende.
124 ware, ere. There is a caesural mark, a virgule, between these two words, which I have marked with a comma in the text.

134-39 Hough . . . But. The margin for these lines is lost. I follow D&S's reconstruction of the initial letters of the first words of these lines.

141-42 Forto telle . . . with other. A soothsayer - "fabuler" - could enlighten the king as to the true situation (the texte) without obfuscating it with misleading rhetoric (the glose or glozing). This truth teller could explain how words work with respect to both truth and falsehood (the oon and the other).

143 king . . . londe. A reference to Henry Bolingbroke's landing at Ravenspur on his return from exile in France in July, 1399, at which time Henry was seeking allies for his cause against Richard, who had confiscated his father's estates. This action is mentioned at the beginning of RiR. See note to Prol.11.

148 the crosse. Perhaps the Bristol cross featured in RiR Prol.56 ("the rode of Chester"). "The market-cross was everywhere the place where proclamations were made" (D&S, p. 108).

149 and. I adopt B's excellent emendation, since customs and taxation of the people - the latter much discussed in this poem - are different things but both cause for abuses. A corrector has inserted the word and above the line between custume and of.

152-55 But piez . . . owen peeris. D&S in their marginal paraphrase of these lines say, "The magpies who once disputed with the parrot were punished, and dare not now complain openly" (p. 32). In their explanatory notes they offer: "Once some of the commons discussed their grievances with some one of higher rank, and consequently suffered fines and imprisonments. Now they dare not speak, except privately among themselves" (p. 108). The semantics of the lines do not permit such confidence about the relationship between and among the magpies and the parrot, as B observes in her discussion of parle (line 155). The magpies may be holding a conclave with or disputing with the parrot - they may be allies or foes. B speculates that if the magpies and parrot are allies, then these lines may refer to the Cirencester rebellion of 1399-1400. The magpie would be Sir Ralph Lumley, "whose heraldic charge was three parrots." The rebels "were not executed for their part in the rebellion but were imprisoned for a short time in the Tower of London. This would fit the caige of line 153" (p. 299).

166 mynde. This is the reading that a corrector suggests in the left-hand margin. The MS reads warne but that word does not alliterate according to the poet's usual pattern. D&S and B, on the strength of line 285, emend mynde to mynne, "remind."

169 yblent. So MS (y blent); D&S and B emend to y-brent ("burned") on the strength of a corrector.

176 haylstones. These hailstones are part of the extended metaphor of the silencing of truth, which is hounded, shouted down, shunned, and injured by princes. The extended metaphor begins at line 171.

179 fro greve. So D&S, B, based on a corrector's oute of greue; MS: fro grayen (perhaps anticipating his grayne later in the same line).

180 A corrector or editor has added, at the bottom of the page, "that draweth al to goodnesse and gouuernaunce after" for insertion into the text between lines 180 and 181 (Sz).

181 goyng uppon erthe means simply "alive," as also at line 212.

196 tabart. A tabard was a short gown, often emblazoned and worn over armor. The phrase "tuck at your tabard" means to pay someone back.

205a Here . . . the Sothsigger. This statement occurs in the right-hand margin. Previous editions have not included it in the textual portion.

228-31 Leste . . . Of . . . That . . . There. The left-hand margin is torn for the initial letters of these words. I follow D&S's reconstruction of them.

234 not is suggested by a corrector and is required for the sense.

238 Forto . . . passe. D&S gloss "Seeing that thy desire (to talk) will set aside thy understanding" (p. 109). Mum upholds the virtues of reticence and silence, which can be admirable qualities. But the debate between Mum and the Soothsayer concerns when it is better to speak out and properly advise the king and his council than to hold one's tongue.

240 knytte . . . knotte. D&S explain this phrase as "broke off what I intended to do"(p. 110); B glosses as "to conclude" with the sense of "coming to a decision." But the meaning here must be something like paused for the length of time it takes to compose a knot: the narrator as Soothsayer appropriately stops talking for a time after Mum's harangue.

244 sittith. So D&S and B; MS: fittith.

247 for oyle. Oil, as in line 271, is associated with flattery. See RiR III.186 and note.

254 Oon . . . waye. This phrase means "only twenty minutes" (time measured by distance). Lines 252-54 may be paraphrased "You would be better served to follow me (Mum) for eighty long years than be a soothsayer, God help me, for twenty short minutes."

256 contra here and in line 262 has the sense of a contrarious speaker, someone who causes strife with his words. D&S translate this line "have nothing to do with contradiction" (p. 110).

262 coveite . . . cumpaignie. The syntax of this phrase and of lines 261-62 is difficult. B emends his cumpaignie to thy cumpaignie. The meaning is clearly that nobody will want to be in the same room with Soothsayer while he is so quarrelsome as to have Contra for a companion.

266 casting. So D&S and B; MS: cafting. My translation of this line is based on B's glosses.

269 glaunsyng of boltes. These shafts are metaphorical. The Soothsayer says Mum keeps himself well out of harm's way through his flattering, non-controversial speech.

272 bouche . . . cnave. Mum knows when to keep quiet so as not to interfere with his sinecure from the court (his bouche) for both his beast and his serving-man. The MS reads caue rather than cnaue, the emendation formulated by D&S and adopted by B.

273 yit. So a corrector, D&S, and B; MS: yf.

274a ffacientis . . . in secretis etc. Attributed to Gregory the Great in the Speculum Christiani: A Middle English Religious Treatise of the Fourteenth Century, ed. G. Holmstedt, EETS o. s. 182 (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), p. 63 and passim. The English translation reads: "Wyth-outen doute he has the gylte of the doynge that recke3 not to amende that thyng that [he] myghte correcte, et cetera."

276 Do Bette is one of three stages of action and sometimes an allegorical figure in PP, the other two being Dowel (Do Well) and Dobest (Do Best). The narrator of PP goes on a long search for Dowel over the course of the poem.

281 ynowe. So MS (y nowe), B (y-nowe). D&S: add [and fele] to the end of the line based on a corrector's "feble" and line 1298.

289 Caton. A reference to The Distichs of Cato (third century?), an immensely popular and influential series of sayings, authorship unknown, studied by every schoolchild as part of his early training in Latin, as the narrator acknowledges when he says, of Cato's book, "I saw hit in youthe" (line 290). The name "Cato" became attached to the Monostichs (one-line adages) and Distichs (couplets) because the author was thought to be "Dionysius Cato" or Marcus Porcius Cato of Utica (Cato the Censor's great-grandson). The Monostichs were known as Petit Cato or Little Cato and the Distichs as Magnus Cato or Great Cato. Perhaps the best-known aphorism is from Book 1, distich 3, which appears in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde as "firste vertu is to kepe tonge" (III.294); see also The Manciple's Tale, IX (H)332-33. Another of Cato's oft-quoted sayings is alluded to below in line 875 (and see note to that line).

291a Nam . . . locutum. From Cato's Distichs (Magnus Cato) 1.12. The Latin is marked for insertion between lines 291 and 292 (Sz). A Middle English translation of this Latin couplet reads:

For to be still may no3te dysplese,
& mekyll speche dose oft dysese,
Bot it be rewled be ryght.
much; often causes harm

From the edition of Sarah M. Horrall, "Christian Cato: A Middle English Translation of the Disticha Catonis," Florilegium 3 (1980), 158-97, at p. 164 (lines 73-75).

304 Sidrac and Salomonis termes. The narrator is on a quest for wisdom and help trying to make sense of Mum and his own situation. He turns to authors and works regarded in the late Middle Ages as containing important sayings and truth. Sidrac was said to be a descendant of Japhet born 847 years after the Flood. In Middle English poems (IMEV 772, longer version; IMEV 2147, shorter version), king Boctus asked Sidras 847 questions. "The result is a comprehensive medieval encyclopedia, one of the largest, in dialogue form" (F. L. Utley, in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, Vol. 3, ed. A. E. Hartung [New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972], p. 745). "Sydrac and Boctus" is item 75 in Utley's section on "Dialogues, Debates, and Catechisms." "By Solomon the middle ages understood all the Wisdom literature, as in Melibeus 2249-50, where two passages from Ecclesiasticus are assigned to Jhesus Syrak and Salomon respectively" (D&S, p. xxv). For these three wisdom literature figures cited together, see The Tale of Beryn, line 2666 and note, in the Canterbury Tales: Fifteenth-Century Continuations and Additions, ed. John M. Bowers (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992), pp. 129, 188.

305 Seneca the sage refers to a collection of aphorisms attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca. Solomon, Seneca, and Sidrac are cited again in line 1212.

311 the newe jette. MS: yette. So D&S, B: iette. The phrase "new jet" appears often in medieval satires on clothing fashion and refers both to new fashions and to an arrogant manner of carrying oneself, one's demeanor. See MED s.v. get n.1 (a) and (b); Chaucer's General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales I(A)682 (said of the Pardoner); and MEPW The Simonie, line 118 and note. The author of Mum uses the word for new fashions in academic inquiry as well, as when the Doctor of Philosophy renders his opinion of Mum's argument: "Hit is sum noyous nyceté of the newe jette" (line 375).

313 good. D&S (on the strength of a corrector) and B insert this word, which is required for the alliteration and metrics of the line. MS: žat gouuernance.

321-91 The narrator in these lines visits universities at Cambridge, Oxford, and Orleans in search of sure knowledge about Mum and the Sothsegger. "The episode," explains B, "satirises the uselessness of academic learning in a fashion reminiscent of Wycliffite polemics" (p. 24).

322-23 Cambrigge . . . Orleance. The English universities were highly regarded for theology and law; Orleans was famous for its school of law.

328 seven sciences. The narrator has wandered to the universities to seek academic wisdom about when to speak and when to keep silent. He queries the Liberal Arts of Grammar, Music, Physics, Astronomy, Rhetoric, Logic, and Geometry but, like the narrator of PP or of PPCr, he is little the wiser for this visit to the great universities.

329 for doute . . . better. For uncertainty of the better world (i.e., heaven). The MS reads dome / and doute of že better but a corrector suggests for for and, and B adopts that correction. D&S read And how we dwellid in [dwere] / and doute of že better. Dwere means doubt.

330 Sire Grumbald is an allegorical figure for the stern Grammarian who wants words to fit together neatly and to make sense. The Grammarian's expertise fails when it comes to parsing the issues that separate Mum from the Sothsegger.

334 the. So D&S, B (based on a corrector). MS: y; Sz: "MS = y, almost ž [sans e]."

337 of his make. MS: on the skyes, which anticipates line 338. So D&S and B on the strength of a corrector (with his make).

342 shophister. Logic, who can manipulate words.

343 the. So D&S, B, based on a corrector. MS: a.

345 as choghe was ever. So a corrector. D&S, B: as choghe was he euer; MS: and couche was he neuer. The chough is a crowlike bird regarded as noisy and chattering, as in "Jack Upland's" rejoinder to Friar Daw's Reply. Upland claims that Friar Daw - whose name means a chattering bird - "grounded his logic" on "cursynges and false glose, / Chidyng with blasfemie, on chyteryng as chowghes" (6ES, p. 204, lines 4-5).

354 semely sage. Described as a "doctour of doutz" (line 360), the sage is a Doctor of Theology.

368 letter. So D&S, B (based on a corrector's lettrure). MS: better.

373-77 Yit knewe . . . endith. D&S paraphrase: "Neither I nor they have ever heard of such a question as you have brought forward. It is some foolish newfangled idea, for orthodox doctrine only tells us how good governorship has good results" (p. 38).

387-88 Saynt Nicholas . . . the glose. Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars, so these scholars abandon study and give themselves over to flattery and easy reading (the gloss, which explains the text).

392 foure ordres. The four orders, as in PPCr, are the Franciscans (Greyfriars, or Friars Minor), the Dominicans (Blackfriars, or Preaching Friars), the Augustinians, and the Carmelites (White Friars).

397 shorte. So D&S, B. MS: shotte.

398 every couple. The friars traveled in pairs, so the narrator interrogates pairs of friars about his caas - Mum versus the Soothsayer. The antifraternal lyric Preste, Ne Monke, Ne Yit Chanoun laments "that ever it shuld be so, / Suche clerkes as thai about shuld go, / Fro toun to toun by two and two, / To seke thair sustynaunce" (MEPW, p. 48).

399 Til the cloistre and the quyre. "The sense of the line . . . appears to be that in all departments of the friars' houses, from the religious to the more secular, Mum was lord" (D&S, p. 112).

409 stirid a statute. This may imply that friars were behind parliamentary legislation authorizing friars to preach, to the detriment of parish priests and, later on, Lollards.Wyclifif and Wycliffite writers such as the author of Jack Upland denounced the expanded role of the friars in matters traditionally the preserve of the parish priest. The most important anti-Lollard legislation was the statute De haeretico comburendo, passed shortly after William Sawtrey was burned as a heretic, in 1401.

411 deede. So D&S, B (based on a corrector). MS omits.

417 manieres. So MS, B; D&S: names (based on a corrector). D&S argue vigorously on behalf of the corrector's reading saying "the sense clearly is that friars first gave Lollards their names, and now they must have the same name given them" (p. 112). That is, because the friars have visited destruction on the Lollards through branding them, they must suffer a similar fate. The author of Mum alludes to the hanging of Franciscans (and others) on Tyburn Hill in 1402 for spreading rumors - judged as treason - that Richard II was still alive. See also a possible allusion to this event in Upland's Rejoinder, lines 271-72, in 6ES. For critical and historical commentary, see McNiven, Heresy and Politics in the Reign of Henry IV, pp. 95-97, and the Eulogium historiarum (monastic prose chronicle), ed. F. Haydon, 3.393 (under the year 1402), and Chronica et annales, ed. H. T. Riley, pp. 340 (one Franciscan executed for proclaiming that Richard II lives) and 341 (eight Franciscans executed for treason, exact reason unstated). The story is also told by E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century, pp. 27-29 (drawing heavily on the Eulogium).

420a Patere . . . tuleris. The MS is torn at this point and D&S have reconstructed from . . . egem qu? . . . eris. This line in the Vernon Little Cato is translated as follows:
Suche lawe as žou hast brou3t
And haunted hast bi-fore
Žou most hit mekely suffre,
ffor winnyng or for lore.
Lines 93-96, in The Minor Poems of the Vernon Manuscript, Part II, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS o.s. 117 (London: Kegan Paul, 1901), p. 560. B places the quotation after line 422, although the mark for insertion follows line 420. The quotation is not from Seneca but from Monostichs of Cato.

426-27 Thay goon . . . softe wolle. An issue that arose with respect to mendicant poverty was whether friars should wear shoes. PPCr (lines 298-300) portrays friars as favoring shoes despite the rule against them:

Fraunces bad his bretheren barfote to wenden.
Nou han thei bucled shon for blenynge of her heles,
And hosen in harde weder, yhamled by the ancle.
 go
buckled shoes; sores on
cut short at
430 stiren hit . . . sticke. Because the Franciscan rule forbids friars to accept money, they handled money with a stick.

431 by obedience of th'ordre. This phrase, like so much else in this passage, is highly ironic. The mendicants are indeed supposed to submit to the discipline of their order - they take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience - but in this case their obedience is more like indulgence: they are ordered to accept money (with a stick) and to beg for cash in specific limited districts. See note to line 440.

436-37 They casten . . . parcelle-mele. The Provincial Chapter meetings included the parceling out of begging districts called "limitacions" (see line 438). Those so licensed to beg in a district were termed, like Chaucer's Friar Huberd, "limitour[s]" (line 440). Friar Huberd was "the beste beggere in his hous" (General Prologue I [A]252), which means that he contrived the greatest income.

440 limitour. A limiter was assigned to a particular area and was licensed to beg within it. See also the note to lines 436-37 above.

451 frere be fatt. One of the persistent charges against friars in antifraternal literature was that they pampered themselves and were overfed. The narrator of PPCr, for example, comes upon a huge, grotesque Dominican in the convent's refectory, "A greet cherl and a grym, growen as a tonne [barrel], / With a face as fat as a full bledder / Blowen bretfull of breth . . . " (lines 221-23). Chaucer's limiter, "a wantowne and a merye," fills his "double worstede . . . semycope" as "rounded as a belle out of a presse," he is so fat (General Prologue I [A]208, 262-63).

454 But that . . . hevene. A corrector adds in the right-hand margin: "ne to noo creature žat can ony reason" (Sz).

456 balle his heede. So MS; D&S, B: balle [with] his [browe], with the notation "MS omits." A corrector suggests "liste ball with his browe" (Sz). The question posed in lines 455-56 is, "What use is it to beg from a beggar unless you would break hard stones by smashing your head against them?"

461-65 Thorough crafte . . . guilen the poure. D&S paraphrase these lines: "They aim at controlling the great by means of the sacrament of penance" (p. 40).

468 forsothe. So D&S, B: [for] sothe; MS: sothe.

469a Honora dominum. From Proverbs 3.9.

473 sauce. Friars should receive, that is, a "piquant accompaniment" (D&S, p. 157) with their food - namely, a lecture on truth telling. The condiment metaphor continues in line 479 with the word "spicerie."

475 symonie. Simony was the practice of selling church pardons, offices, and benefits, widely regarded as corrupt among Wycliffites, Lollards, and reformists generally. It takes its name from Simon Magus, who attempted to purchase with money the power of God dispensed through the Apostles' hands (Acts 8.18-19).

481 Covetise . . . the grene. Covetousness here is depicted as a knight - "Sire Covetise" - who has the better of another knight in a jousting tournament. The other knight is overcome with greed. Lines 481-86 chronicle the spread of Covetousness into Westminster, council chambers, and the courts.

482 woneth at Westmynstre. A corrector or editor adds in the margin: "At shire and at sessions thaire shoon žay appeire" (Sz).

483 while the crosse walketh. The "cross" refers to the back of a coin, hence a figure for covetousness, with wordplay on the Veneration of the Cross at the Good Friday ceremony mentioned in PP B 18.428, "And crepež to že cros on knees, and kissež it for a iuwel." Compare C 20.474. Here the "cross" walks in procession, as money goes from hand to hand.

485 mayntenance. See above, note to line 27.

487 toquen. The "token" in case is a piece of truth from the non-fraternal or anti-mendicant perspective: the wonder is that "holy" people such as the friars have not yielded even one martyr in more than a century (according to the narrator).

490 seven. So D&S, B based on "the conventional number for such formulae"; MS: viij. "Note the play on the words 'Confessors' and 'Martyrs' - two of the classes of saints in the Liturgy" (D&S, p. 115).

491 thay. So D&S, B based on a corrector; MS omits.

492 in no. So D&S, B. "[in no]: MS: not with a space after it; crossed out by original scribe and in no added above line by M" (D&S, p. 41).

493-98 of Caym thaire werkes . . . clerc tolde. In antifraternal literature the friars were compared both with Antichrist and with Cain (who was one of the first two "brothers" and the first fratricide). Piers in PPCr testifies that friars are "Of the kynrede of Caym" (line 486); and in Jack Upland they are said to be "Caymes castel-makers" (and see Friar Daw's Reply, line 105). In 6ES, pp. 122 and 153. Cain was said to be the founder of mendicant orders:

It semes sothe that men sayne of hame
In many dyvers londe,
That that caytyfe cursed Cayme
First this ordre fonde.
 them
See MEPW, p. 50. Cain appears thematically as an evil principle in PP. For critical discussions of Cain in this literature, see Penn Szittya, The Antifraternal Tradition in Medieval Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 163-64, 229-30 and WGO, pp. 120-25; 205-12.

494 fundre of alle the foure ordres. The issue of the origins of the fraternal orders vis-a-vis the historical church was important to the mendicants and their critics alike. Christ never authorized the mendicant orders; and they were not part of the apostolic church either. Wyclif and writers in the PP tradition returned to this question often. Each of the friars questioned by the narrator of PPCr tries to claim primacy for his order. The Franciscan says that "we Menures most scheweth / The pure Apostells life," while the Dominican claims "oure foundement was first of the othere" (lines 103-04; 250). The Austin friar traces his order's founding back to "Paul, primus heremite" (line 308), while the Carmelite boasts "we Karmes first comen / Even in Elyes tyme, first of hem all" (lines 382-83). Antifraternal writers trace the origins back even further - to the first brother-slayer and constructor of the city of man.

496 Armacanes. Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh, and scourge of friars in well-known sermons preached at St. Paul's Cross in 1357. For FitzRalph's influence on the anti-mendicant literature of the later fourteenth century, see Penn R. Szittya, The Antifraternal Tradition in Medieval Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), chapter 3: "The Antifraternal Ecclesiology of Archbishop Richard FitzRalph," pp. 123-54.

499 this worde . . . titil. The worde mentioned signifies Caym. titil refers to the abbreviation mark (a macron) over the y in the name Caym; that is, the name "Caym" must be written out in full to include the four letters that signify the four orders. See note to line 500.

500 foure lettres. These four letters - C, A, I, and M - in the form of an acrostic was a favorite with late medieval English antifraternal writers. D&S trace the derivation to Wyclif's Trialogus 4.33. In Preste, Ne Monke, Ne Yit Chanoun appears the following lines:

Nou se the sothe whedre it be swa,
That frere Carmes come of a k
The frer Austynes come of a,
Frer Iacobynes of i,
Of M comen the frer Menours.
Thus grounded Caym thes four ordours,
That fillen the world ful of errours
And of ypocrisy. (lines 109-16)
 Now observe; truth whether
In MEPW, p. 50; see note to line 110 on p. 100.

505 A corrector or editor adds at the bottom of fol. 6a: "Hit shal not greue a good frere though gilty be amendid" (Sz).

514 in justes. So D&S, B based on a corrector (who reads ioustes); MS: iustice.

520a-b The first quotation is from the hymn "Placare Christi servulis" for the Vesper of All Saints. The quotation beginning Deleantur de libro vivencium is Psalm 68.29.

535 A corrector or editor adds next to this line:
Yit gesse I žat good men of grey and of blake
And of že white witerly I wote wel been many
But dan conuent že compaignie as my credo techeth
Cunen mo crokes / žan crist euer taught.
536 Thenne passid I. The narrator turns away from the friars and looks for help among the monastic houses; but he receives as little help from the monks as he did from the friars. He cannot even enter the monastery (line 552).

544 fundacions of. So MS. D&S: fundacion of; B: fundacion as.

544-45 For . . . serve. Although the syntax is difficult, the meaning seems to be: "For the founders intended the founding [of the monastic houses] to be established for God's men, though it serves the powerful."

545a Mutauerunt . . . in cupiditatem. Although the attribution to Sapientia would suggest that the quotation is from the Book of Wisdom, it is from some other source.

549 ysopid. So D&S, B; MS: y sepid.

555 pluralité. Pluralism was the holding of more than one benefice with the cure of souls. Pluralism, a widespread practice that led to absentee benefice-holders, was forbidden by Lateran IV and other decrees.

560 cracche. So D&S and B (based on a corrector); MS: racke, which does not alliterate. Cracche can mean horse's manger. Both cracche and mangier in this line seem to refer to the choir's food provisions.

566 The offering at Mass and tithes were to be distributed to the support of the parish priest, to the upkeep of the church, and to the poor.

566-69 And n'adde . . . atte leste. D&S, glossing Belial, suggest a possible paraphrase for these lines: "Having given nothing to the poor, they travel with money in their purses. Hence (though they may be blamed by Christ), they will never be blamed by the devil [Belial]" (p. 116).

567 purses. So MS; D&S, B: purses [bottume] based on a corrector.

569a A corrector has added Matthei 10 capitulo. Matthew 10.9 reads "Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your purses."

588 that. So B; MS, D&S: hit, which may be anticipation of the hit in line 589. The syntax of the lines in this section is difficult, but the meaning is clearly that God approves the narrator's course of action and sends him safe-conduct through the dangerous political climate in which he finds himself. God does not want the narrator to alter his current course of action (lines 587-88).

589 But showe . . . after. My translation is very provisional. A corrector adds at the bottom of fol. 7a, for insertion after this line, "the high maker of molde and man with his handes" (Sz). The corrector apparently wants to gloss souvrayn; according to this explanation, God would seem to want the narrator to maintain his course of action and not seek shelter in some figment of his "wittes."

594 ballid. So MS, B; D&S: bablid. B suggests that "the sounds of men and bells clashing together . . . belittle[s] the institutionalised services of the established church" (p. 319).

603 plummes. So D&S and B based on a corrector; MS: notes.

604 An expander writes, at the bottom of fol. 7b, for inclusion after this line (Sz):
of lyke and of lynne seede of lambes and egges
of coltes and of calues / žat že cow lycketh
of benes and of boutre / žat bele doo make
610 what-so. So D&S, B; MS: so. A corrector suggests "or what so ye wynne."

621 leve. So D&S; B: lene. Sz: leue but with the notation "almost looks like lene."

623 An expander adds "To hire of žair holy nesse for harvest is sake" (Sz).

637 According to the MED, a laudate as a term of abuse means "?an unlearned priest who knows only these two, most frequently recited, Psalms." See also below lines 1358-59.

639 derve. So D&S; B: derne. Sz: derue but with the notation derne?

641 ever. So D&S, B based on a corrector. MS: were. Since the narrator has been emphasizing the martyrs' love of God as opposed to instruction, ever makes best sense.

644-50 Ne by . . . usen. The rhetorical device of repeating the first word(s) of verse lines was known as anaphora. The Mum-poet uses this technique to good effect in these lines, contrasting the clerks of former days with their modern-day counterparts.

647 double dees. "Daises above the ordinary height" (D&S, p. 118), hence another indication of modern-day clerical arrogance.

655 lith. So D&S, B. MS: light.

666 two dooles. Both portions: that for the poor and that for the church.

685 As. MS: as.D&S, B emend to And.

692 Til he . . . drawe, "i.e., which is going to be the popular side" (D&S, p. 118).

694 And getith . . . beste. D&S translate: "And gets for himself a great reward, which may be accounted among the best" (p. 119).

707-08 prelatz . . . do there. Bishops in their clerical role were not permitted to take part in death sentences; hence they would have to leave Parliament during such discussions.

713a Sic luceat . . . opera vestra bona etc. From Matthew 5.16.

719 never. Sz, noting that this word is in darker ink, asks "later?"

720 a-twart. MS: tw and a space afterwards. So D&S, B based on a corrector.

745 qui . . . videtur. Underlined in red (Sz).

752-57 Yf a freeke . . . trewe lawe. In felony trials the accused was compelled to state how he would be tried after a plea of not guilty. He was supposed to respond, "By God and my country" in order for the trial to proceed. If he said nothing - if he "stood mute" - a jury had to decide whether he was deliberately trying to forestall the trial process or whether he was deaf or dumb. Mum's citing this precedent is ironic and self-condemnatory, since the prisoner's silence is taken for guilt unless he is physically unable to hear or speak; in this legal situation it is better to be a truth teller than mum.

761-62 That lightly . . . caste for hit. "Which (quarrels) the Church might easily have prevented by its action, if it had devised wise counsel against the occasion" (D&S, p. 120).

775 Lucas. B explains MS lucas as "a common name which fits the alliteration," while D&S gloss it, tentatively, as "? 'luck-ace,' luckless person," since ace is "the lowest throw of the dice." MS reads yf an othir rather than for an othir, D&S's emendation accepted by B.

792 To bachillers, to banerettz, to barons and erles. Bachelor knights and knights banneret define the two grades of knighthood, the second - the banner-bearing knights - being of a higher rank. Barons and earls, then princes and peers (line 793), complete the progression toward lofty, worldly establishment.

796 sothesiggerz. So D&S, B. MS: sothe sigger.

798 yee. So D&S, B. MS: ee.

803 al . . . lyvraye. A reference to identifying uniforms and often badges worn by private armies in the service of magnates. Parliament tried to check the abuses associated with such activities with the Statute of Livery and Maintenance in 1390. See RiR II.2 and note; see also Paul Strohm, Appendix 2: "The Literature of Livery," in Hochon's Arrow: The Social Imagination of Fourteenth-Century Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 179-85.

820 yere-is gifte. Refers to gifts bestowed either at New Year's (see PP B X.47; A XI.34) or at the beginning of a term of office (PP B III.100; A III.92).

824 sergeantz. So D&S, B based on a correction; MS: a sergeant (but a crossed out and z added to sergeant). The same pluralization of MS sergeant occurs in line 833.

837-40 "the Sothesigger . . . suche frendes." Following D&S and B, I place these words in quotation marks as direct speech rather than reported speech; but it might be reported speech.

847a Beati . . . propter iusticiam. Matthew 5.10.

865 a heepe. D&S and B spell this a-heepe and gloss it "in a crowd" (D&S, p. 133), and "a-plenty" (B, p. 168). I suggest "a heap of other common fellows."

875 Caton . . . bokes. Cato's Distichs 2.31 - Somnia ne cures - paraphrased by Pertelote in Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale as "Ne do no fors of dremes" (VII [B2]2941): pay no heed to dreams. A Middle English translation of 2.31 reads: "On dremes, son thynke žou not lang, / Bot also žai com, so lat žaim gange, / & pas out of ži mynd" (lines 448-50 in Sarah M. Horrall's edition, "Christian Cato: A Middle English Translation of the disticha Catonis," Florilegium 3 [1981], 176).

928 burnysshid. Refers to the antlers, which have been scraped clean of velvet.

935 ne so hevenely. So MS; D&S, B: ne so hevenely [sounes].

939 cheerly. So D&S, B; MS: cleerly, which spoils the alliteration on ch.

946 freholde. An estate held in fee simple or owned outright for the term of one's life.

954 a sage. Here begins a long sequence within the narrator's dream on a beekeeper who is also a gardener. This wise man, himself a truth teller, explains that the Sothsegger may be located "Yn manis herte" (line 1224); "And mynde," he adds, "is his mansion that made alle th'estres" or rooms (line 1225). The beekeeper sequence concludes at line 1287, when the narrator awakens.

959 sene. So D&S, B; MS: seme.

976 garth. So D&S; MS, B: gate, which B glosses as "plot of land" or "furrow" or "track to the ploughed" (p. 336). She points out that the beekeeper also "digs" and "delves" in the land (as in line 977). As gardener the beekeeper anticipates the Gardener of Shakespeare's Richard II, who roots out "The noisome weeds which without profit suck / The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers" (3.4.38-39) - as Richard II should have done from his commonwealth.

978 leyghttone. See MED s.v. leigh-toun, "A garden; esp. a kitchen garden, herb garden." The word derives from the Old English word for "leek-enclosure," leac- or leah-tun.

982 doon worste. To "do worst" is the polar opposite of the social and spiritual idea in PP - to "do best." The drones not only undermine the common profit, they also subvert the spiritual enterprise - "the deveil hym quelle," says the gardener. Later on the gardener speaks of Lucifer, sower of poisonous weeds (heretics and schismatics), who fears "forto do wel" (line 1170), a reversal of the dreamer's quest in PP. Mum's servant, Antichrist's angel and a "muche shrewe," lurks at truth's door to debate "eche day with Do-welle withynne" (lines 1254, 1258). The gardener finally identified composing a work on truth-telling as the best he can do: "thou mays do no better" (line 1278).

987a Qui . . . manducet. The quotation from St. Bernard derives from 2 Thessalonians 3.10: "if any man will not work, neither let him eat." In Speculum Christiani: A Middle English Religious Treatise of the Fourteenth Century, ed. Gustaf Holmstedt (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), pp. 64, 65 this is attributed to Apostolus and is translated into Middle English as "He that trauels [works] not, lete hym not ete" (p. 64). The idea is picked up in PP B.7, where Hunger helps Piers keep people employed.

1001 the boke. Refers to De proprietatibus rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, thirteenth-century Franciscan writer, whom the beekeeper cites at lines 1028 and 1054 ("Bartholomew the Bestiary"). The De proprietatibus rerum is an encyclopedic work on such subjects as theology, philosophy, botany, and zoology, including the bee lore that found its way into Mum. See On the Properties of Things: John Trevisa's Translatioin of Bartholomaeus Anglicus de proprietatibus rerum, a critical text, ed. M. C. Seymour, et al. 2 vols (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1975).

1006 cope. So D&S, B (suggested by a corrector); MS: erthe.

1011 wythynne. So D&S, B: [wy]-thynne; MS: by žynne.

1026 Thay. So D&S, B; MS: That.

1030 lydene. So D&S, B; MS: lydenys.

1044 drane . . . hym. So MS, B; D&S: drane[s] . . . žaym.

1045 in thaire wide . . . hide. The point is that the drones have eaten them.

1048a Quorum . . . confusione. Philippians 3.19. "Could presumably go after 1046 (so D&S) though positioned at 1048 in marg." (Sz). I have followed Sz's suggestion for positioning after line 1048.

1054 Bartholomew the Bestiary sounds like a title or designation for De proprietatibus rerum, but that work contains much more than a bestiary. The designation or title does appear in other writings. See Klaus Bitterling, "Mum and the Sothsegger und Bartholomaeus Anglicus," Archiv für das Studium der neuren Sprachen und Literatur 216 (1979), 345-56.

1062 shal. So D&S (based on a corrector), B; MS: shald.

1089 hit is to mistike. The authors of both RiR and Mum include these built-in disclaimers about their allegorical sections. See RiR "derkliche endited," I.20, and note, and III.63.

1115 of. So D&S, B; MS: ffor al.

1117 more and moulde. The expression seems to mean that Lucifer is the origin and exemplar of evil deeds. B emends the phrase to more, [a] moulde.

1117-21 There is a large oval hole in the manuscript at these lines, but the scribe has worked the lines around on both sides of it, as he did on the verso side of fol. 13 at lines 1163-65.

1118-28 And principally . . . trouble. D&S paraphrase these lines: "This I can prove by what happens in Parliament, where the knights of the shire should speak out boldly their complaints, lest they fester as an abcess within their hearts and break out in rebellion" (p. 59).

1140a Qui potest . . . peccati. The side-note identifies the quotation as from "Sidrac" but it does not appear in the common extant Sidrac collections (D&S, p. 123).

1147 solve ere thay singe. That is, they would perform complicated musical exercises before they know how to sing at all. The word solve here is the same as modern solfčge or solfeggio: "vocal exercises sung to a vowel (a, o, u) or the syllables of solmization (ut [do], re, mi, etc.), which are used instead of a text" (Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. [Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972], p. 785).

1159 sowe . . . seede. This line (with a glance back to "grounde" and "graffe" in the previous line) inaugurates an extended yet very familiar metaphor about the devil and his "crop," namely weeds (tares). The language is drawn from Christ's parables, especially the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). See also line 1165a and note.

1164 hent . . . hoke. The devil and Christ were both cast as fishers of men in Christian art and iconography. Christ said to Peter and other disciples, who were fishermen, that he would make "fishers of men" (Matthew 4.19, Mark 1.17). The devil would try to hook humans and snare them into hell, but Christ would trap the trapper and rescue souls from the great serpent or whale.

1165a Seminator . . . diaboli. Heretics were said to be zizannia, darnels or cockels - noxious weeds growing up among the orthodox wheat (Matthew 13.25). See, for example, the language of Pope Gregory XI's condemnation of John Wyclif in his Bull directed to Oxford University: "you through a certain sloth and neglect allow tares to spring up amidst the pure wheat in the fields of your glorious University" (as quoted in Jeanne Krochalis and Edward Peters, eds., The World of Piers Plowman [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975], p. 128). The Bull is recorded in the great collection of anti-Lollard texts known as Fasciculi zizaniorum in the Rolls Series. The Host of the Canterbury Tales takes exception to the Parson's condemnation of his oaths by saying "I smelle a Lollere in the wynd" and "He wolde sowen som difficulte / Or springen cokkel in our clene corn" (Epilogue of The Man of Law's Tale, II[B1]1173, 1182-83). Gower uses the same metaphor in his discussion of Christianity in Book 5.1874-87 ("To sowe cokkel with the corn," line 1881) and in his Latin verse treatise on the evils of Richard's time ("Carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia") he exploits the coincidence of the word Lollard and the Latin for "darnel," lollia (line 29). He also speaks of the Lollards as spreading their bad seed among the sacred fields: "Semina perfidie sacros dispersa per agros" (line 22). See The Complete Works of John Gower, ed. G. C. Macaulay (Oxford: Clarendon, 1902), 4: 347, 346. For a brief discussion of the linguistic history of lollia in a context of English heresy, see Strohm, England's Empty Throne, p. 37.

1173 the contrary. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: be contrary.

1179 An expander has prepared for insertion after this line this declaration: "Iuris consultus / Cicivs debet homo omnia mala pati quam malo consentire" (Sz), or "A man versed in law ought rather to suffer every ill than consent to evil."

1207 quitance . . . been up. A quitance is a release from debt or receipt. When there are no more quarrels - no more struggle between evil and good, Lucifer and Christ, and no more "novellerie that noyeth men ofte" (line 1208) - then the ones who have done well will have their reward in heaven. The language in this section is reminiscent of the famous pardon scene from PP passus VII. For a good introduction to the theological implications of this theme, see James Simpson, Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text (London: Longman, 1990), pp. 75-87.

1215 thow. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: do.

1216 seasonable. So D&S; MS, B: reasonable.

1223 thee. D&S, B: the; MS: hym.

1225a In corde . . . veritatis. The thought is a medieval commonplace. D&S, p. 123, direct to Proverbs 14.33 ( "In the heart of the prudent resteth wisdom") and to PP: "Thow shalt see in žiselue Treuže sitte in žyn herte" (B V.606).

1226 feoffed hym. The metaphoric language is legal, with God depicted as a feudal lord bestowing on Adam and his issue (his successors) possession of the earthly Paradise "and hevene afterwardes" (line 1230) as their inheritance as a reward for following truth, which the gardener/beekeeper here equates with truth telling or soothsaying.

1235 Noe-is dayes. According to Matthew 24.37, earthly conditions were similar to the last days before Christ's Second Coming.

1236 while mytres . . . sale. That is, while bishoprics are up for the highest bidder, a reference to the scandal of simony in the Church. See above, note to line 475.

1238a Qui non intrat . . . latro. Based on John 10.1.

1247 And he is. MS: And is.

1303 hit. So D&S (based on a corrector); MS, B: he.

1309-33 swevenes. The author grounds the truth of his dream-vision in spiritual revelations such as Daniel's regarding Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon and Joseph's of his rise to prominence over his older brothers and the years of feast and famine. Medieval literary writings often include discussions of the meaning and truth-claims of dreams. Chaucer features such discussions in the House of Fame and in Chauntecleer and Pertelote's quarrel in The Nun's Priest's Tale. Pertelote, who cites Cato's "Ne do no fors of dremes" (VII [B2]2941), scorns dreams as insignificant. Chauntecleer, who champions dreams as revelations of truth, turns out to be correct in this fiction. In Mum the dream and the gardener's advice in it license the author to compose his narrative.

1336 Forto . . . I passe. So D&S, B (based on a scribal expander); MS omits. A line like this is needed to lead into line 1337.

1343-75 Now forto . . . deedes proveth. For a discussion of the implications of the various documents the author of Mum brings forward in these lines - "the disruptive potential of literacy itself" - see Richard Firth Green, A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), pp. 280-81. He concludes: "The material solidity of his actual documents, reminiscent of the reassuringly solid weds [symbolic tokens] of the old trothplight, supplies an ironic counterpoint to this depiction of universal faithlessness" (p. 281).

1343-47 Now forto conseille . . . half wintre. The author in these lines stresses the perils of trying to relate true aspects of good government to a sovereign and his court. As he characterizes the situation, the relevant writings have existed in unopened boxes and bags which he now intends to bring to light.

1353 There is . . . leves. The bishop or archdeacon would visit dioceses or parishes and record what he found in a book. But sometimes, according to the narrator, the bishop would accept bribes in return for not setting down abuses ("prestes been ypassid over," line 1354), such as a priest's abandoning his parish to go to London and live a life of ease and luxury in the court of a nobleman (line 1356). Chaucer's narrator praises the Parson for staying at home, with his parish, and not running off to London and St. Paul's.

1354 prestes. D&S, B: prestis.

1357 lille for lalle. This phrase was used to translate Exodus 21.25, livorem pro livore, "stripe for stripe" (Rheims). The charge here is that priests are engaging in sexual hanky-panky with uneducated, uncaring sluts rather than tending to their home congregations - and, worse, the archdeacon is turning a deaf ear to it.

kitte. So D&S and B, based on a reading suggested by a corrector. MS: light.

1360 Pernelle. See RiR III.156 and note.

1373 Poperyng. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: Properyng. "Palefrays" were fine riding horses. Chaucer's pilgrim Monk rides a palfrey (General Prologue I [A]207).

1374-77 And lernen . . . seye other. "The higher clergy vie with the common people in immorality, as we see by their deeds. They justify themselves by arguments, declaring, in their own support, that all are the children of Adam, as is certain" (D&S, p. 126).

1377 man. So D&S, B; MS: may.

1383a Ve pastoribus. From Jeremiah 23.1, which reads, "Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord."

1404a Rumores . . . haberi. This is the first line of Cato's Distichs 1.12, whose second verse was quoted at line 291a. A commentator in the margin says of this: "but caton is al contra, and his consail bothe."

1414 Changwys. Or Genghis (Jenghiz) Khan (died 1227), Mongol conqueror. Mention of Genghis Khan in this line begins an exemplum on this great ruler drawn largely or entirely from chapter 24 of John Mandeville's Travels (the "cronicle" mentioned in line 1429), an immensely popular "travel book" composed in the mid-fourteenth century and quickly translated into many languages. Of the so-called Ysya Chan - the "many statutes and ordynances" that Changuys or the "Grete Chane" ordained partly in order to test his subjects from the seven nations - Mandeville writes:
After he [Changuys] commanded to the princypales of the vii. lynages that thei scholde leuen and forsaken alle that thei hadden in godes and heritage and fro thensforth to holden hem payd of that that he wolde yeue hem of his grace. And thei diden so anon. After he commaunded to the princypales of the vii. lynages that euery of hem scholde brynge his eldest sone before him and with here owne handes smyten of here hedes withouten taryenge. And anon his commandement was performed. (p. 162)
The point of the Genghis Khan exemplum is similar to that of the drone-squashing beekeeper of lines 954-1287: it is sometimes necessary to take harsh measures against those who would subvert the common profit. For a description and account of the manuscripts and bibliographical references to Mandeville's Travels, see Christian K. Zacher, Curiosity and Pilgrimage: The Literature of Discovery in Fourteenth-Century England (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), chapter 6; and Zacher, "Travel Literature," in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, Vol. 7, pp. 2239-41, 2452-57.

1420a Omne . . . desolabitur. Luke 11.17; Matthew 12.25. This quotation is a favorite with political and theological writers. See, e.g., RiR II.52 and Dante's De monarchia 1.5. Gower in the Prologue to Confessio Amantis establishes division - in the human psyche and in the political world - as the cause of the world's decline from earlier times. He especially focuses on the Schism and Lollardy. See WGO, chapter 6, esp. pp. 250-55.

1424 principalz. So B; MS, D&S: principal. Principal should agree in number with "souvrayns" of line 1422.

1425 in vision. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: by nightes.

1437 sese hym in hire lande. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: žaym in his handes.

1446 peuple. So D&S, B; MS: pleuple.

1448 whenne he. So D&S, B; MS omits.

1470 tayl. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: tale.

1472 hond. MS: hoode, stricken, with hond in right margin. D&S amend to [honde]. Perhaps no emendation is necessary in that hoode makes sense.

1482a Potencioribus . . . non possumus. B, p. 356, directs to Ecclesiasticus 8.1, "Non litiges cum homine potente, ne forte incidas in manus illius" ("Strive not with a powerful man, lest thou fall into his hands"). The MS is torn away here; I follow Sz's reconstruction, which is based on D&S. B reads Potencioribus pares non esse non possumus. Sapiencia.

1483 labbing. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: babling.

1503 mene. So D&S, B; MS: more.

1504-11 For whenne . . . or elles. D&S paraphrase these lines: "Even in a trifling matter, they will waste their estates in legal proceedings. Their neighbors will be involved, because a friend will believe in and help his friend's cause" (p. 70).

1505 hertz. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: herg.

1513 breggurdelle. An Old English word for waist, loins, or things connected with these (loin-cloth, for example), from brec-gyrdle. See MED s.v. brech-girdel (n.)2. The idea in these lines 1513-14 seems to be that one may safely venture into water (that is, enter into arguments with powerful men) to a certain point - the breggurdelle - but venturing further may result in being over one's head.

1514a Ira . . . amorem, from Cato's Distichs 1.36. The Vernon MS English version of this line reads, "Wražže gederež gret hate, / Loue norisschež sau3tynge [reconciliation]."

1515 I. So D&S, B; MS omits.

1523 And. So D&S, B; MS: A.

1524 eschewid. So D&S, B; MS: so thewid.

1528 wilde and. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS omits and.

1530a Ira . . . ac corporis. Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 7.10, "ne velox sis ad irascendum quia ira in sinu stulti requiescit" ("Be not quickly angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of a fool"). The book of Ecclesiastes was attributed to Solomon in the Middle Ages. Parts of this left-hand marginal quotation are "torn away." "Less appears legible now" (Sz).

1534 hande. So MS, B; D&S emend to lande but mar the alliteration in so doing. The general idea, as D&S suggest in a side margin, is that "It is foolish to waste money thus where nothing material is at stake" (p. 71).

1538a Superbia . . . ad mortem. B, p. 358, cites Ecclesiasticus 10.5: "for pride is the beginning of all sin: he that holdeth it, shall be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end." The notion that radix malorum est cupiditas (money is the root of all evil, I Timothy 6.10) was a medieval commonplace, providing the theme for Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale.

1545 aretted. So D&S, B; MS: sette, perhaps in anticipation of "ysette" in line 1546.

1547 peuple. So D&S, B; MS: pleuple.

1557-58 For yf . . . thou hatis. D&S paraphrase these lines: "If you stop before you are defeated, then the report will be spread concerning you that, unless your story is a good one, you will refuse to go to law" (p. 128).

1563 mote. So B; MS, D&S: more. Mote meaning discussion, debate, issue, or case in law (OE mot, moot) has been used in lines 278 and 1138. See also "motyng" (litigation), in line 1566.

1565 raggeman rolle. A legal document, with ragged edges, containing accusations. The term "rigmarole" or "rigamarole" derives from the alleged petty legalisms of these rolled-up parchment documents.

Ragenelle is the name of a devil or demon.

1568 hockerope. D&S explain: "Hock-tide is the Monday and Tuesday following the second Sunday after Easter. 'On Hock-Monday, the women "hocked" the men; that is to say, they went abroad with ropes, caught and bound any man they came across, and exacted a forfeit. On Hock-Tuesday, the men retaliated in similar fashion upon the women. Bishop Carpenter of Worcester forbade this practice in his diocese in 1450.' (Sir E. K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage, i.155, q.v. for further descriptions of Hock-tide customs.) The description here, however, more resembles a tug-of-war" (p. 129).

1569-73 Til the strong . . . there nomore. The syntax of these lines is difficult, and scribes and modern editors have been busy trying to sort out their complexities. The sense of the lines is that legal wranglings and tugs-or-war - rigmaroles - develop in district courts of assize such that householders, because of the intimate connections between money and property (line 1571), lose their dwellings: "they dine no longer in their houses" (line 1573). D&S rearrange lines and phrases but without improvement of the sense. I have kept the words and lines as they appear in the MS.

1582 goky. This rare word means a fool or here specifically a hapless poor man at a great disadvantage when pitted against influential, powerful men in courts of law. In PP a goky is someone who commits errors in mass offices (see MED s.v. goki and the reference to PP B XI.299-300: "Že gome žat gloseth so chartres for a goky [vr. gooky; C: goky; vr. gouky] is holden; So is it a goky, by god, žat in his gospel failleth, Or in masse or in matynes maketh any defaute.)

1585a Munera . . . non accipies. Adapted from Psalm 14.5: "he that hath not put out his money to usury, nor taken bribes against the innocent."

1587 fleuble. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: peuple.

1593 strength. So D&S, B (based on a corrector's strenght); MS: lawe, which is followed by a blank space. A corrector has emended MS status to statutz.

1594-97 For though . . . hurle ever. D&S paraphrase these lines as referring to the powerful: "For the great, if defeated once, will go on again without feeling any loss" (p. 73).

1595 nonsuytes. So D&S, B; MS: nonsuyte. Non-suits were suits that were never brought to conclusion, either because the plaintiff failed to proceed with his case or because he was unable to bring sufficient evidence.

1619 Civile. Civil Law is comprised of statutes created for the secular government and courts, based on the Roman Law.

1621 Cristis . . . Canon. Canon Law is the officially established rules governing the faith and practices of Christians, formulated by and ratified in church councils. The narrator observes in line 1622 that the Bible is the basis for all law, civil and canon. D&S and B place a hyphen between lawe and is, but is is a verb not a possessive.

1623 A corrector has added next to this line a phrase from Pope Innocent III's De miseria humane conditionis: "nullum malum impunitum. euangelium." That is, "No evil shall go unpunished (Gospel)."

1624 my credo. "My personal belief." The narrator brings inward resources to bear on issues of law that he knows intimately.

1626 librarie of lordes. "There is a collection of books concerning lords who infringe on the king's revenue" (D&S, p. 74).

1640 th'olde . . . newe. Because of encroachments on the king's revenues, the crown is deprived of both its regular sources of revenue ("th'olde") and the monies levied by Parliament ("the newe").
1641 Notwithstanding. So D&S, B; MS: Not wistanding.

1648-53 Thees knightz . . . halfendele and more. These lines represent criticism of Henry's "temporal and spiritual lords who had got into their hands by brants or leases or other methods the endowed revenues of the crown" (E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485), p. 79, citing B. P. Wolffe, "Acts of Resumption in the Lancastrian Parliaments," English Historical Review 73 [1958], 587).

1650 kepe . . . peuple. This phrase echoes the opening of the poem (as we have it). See note to line 1.

1660-62 The right-hand margin is torn away at these lines. I follow D&S's reconstruction of the words.

1664-68 For nedis . . . long indure. D&S paraphrase these lines in the margin: "The king must have money to support his household. It should come from his own estate, not from taxes, or the people will suffer" (p. 75).

1665 haynous werres. The MS is blank after for his. A corrector supplies "haynous werres."

1666 other. The right-hand margin is torn away at this word and "bringge" in line 1667. I follow D&S's reconstruction of the words.

1670 To you . . . tyme. "To you who owe money it would then be time to pay up" (D&S, p. 130).

1671-82 For trusteth . . . he have oughte. The sense is: "For trust well, despite what men may say, twisting and turning twice in a week, calling clerics and others to the council and complaining at Parliament, unless it happens that the crown is brought back into the picture (?) - clear as it should (?), little by little as is required by law - then may we want and wish what we please, our profit and praise will be the less with knights and with the commons until the king has in his hands all [the revenues] that he should have."

1684 hath. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS omits.

1687 maisons deu. "Houses of God," were hospitals. The complaint in lines 1683-88 is that some people make a great deal of money dishonestly and live lavishly but without giving any of their ill-gotten gains to the poor until the very end of their lives, when they donate money for the building of hospitals. The end of line 1687 is torn away in the MS; I follow D&S's reconstruction of them.

1697 lite. D&S and B needlessly emend to [title]. "Little" designates a portion.

1702 wordes. This word and the last words of lines 1703-05 have been torn away in the MS. I follow D&S's reconstructions.

1704-05 For though . . . never. "Even if a whole fifteenth is bequeathed and a receipt given, the executors keep the donations for themselves" (B, p. 366).

1706-12 Ne do noght for . . . oure tale. The left-hand margin is torn at these lines. I follow D&S's reconstructions.

1724 mervailles that Merlyn dide devyse. These refer to the many prophecies - retrospective predictions in verse - attributed to Merlin, the magician of King Arthur legends. See, for example, the three "Merlin" prophecies included in the section "Poems of Political Prophecy," in MEPW, pp. 9-10. For a discussion of Merlin prophecies and contemporary English politics, see Paul Strohm, England's Empty Throne, chapter 1 ("Prophecy and Kingship"), esp. pp. 6-9. For general information on the Merlin prophecies, see R. H. Robbins, "Poems on Contemporary Conditions: The Merlin Prophecies," in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, Vol. 5, pp. 1519-22; 1714-16.

1731-33 on mone . . . thaire workes. Eckhardt interprets this as an allusion to the Percies, who wore a crescent moon on their badge. She adduces Adam Usk, who speaks of the "horns of the moon" meaning Hotspur and his uncle. See "Another Historical Allusion," p. 496.

1741 ought. So D&S, B (based on a corrector); MS: shuld.

1746 How . . . . The left-hand margin is torn away at this line and through line 1751. I follow D&S's reconstruction.