OF THESE FRER MYNOURS: FOOTNOTES

1 That have grown so proud, who once were humble

2 They lie about Saint Francis, on my father's soul

3 To disparage clerics [when they themselves] don't know their Creed

4 For this false, mistaken belief they shall pay dearly

5 I.e., They require only a fire for all of them to be burned

6 And may all those who help [the burning] prosper

7 The town is ransacked for good food for their mouths

8 Spacious are their dwellings and beautifully constructed

9 Murder and villainy have paid dearly for (the great houses)

10 [For sixpence they will] Slay your father and seduce your mother, and they will confess you

OF THES FRER MYNOURS: NOTES

1 RHR thinks this poem alludes to Franciscan wall paintings rather than to "pageants and theatrical shows."

2 hauteyn, that. The manuscript features medial punctuation (caesura, indicated by a period stop) in many lines.

5 With an O and an I. The significance of these letters has not been adequately explained, but several suggestions have appeared (including the notion that the letters are a debased form of "Ho there! Hi!"). R. H. Robbins notes that there are fourteen other poems with a similar refrain (the so-called "O and I" poems), but Robbins did not know about the secular "love" lyric with this refrain formula. See D. C. Cox, "A New O-and-I Lyric and Its Provenance," Medium Ævum 54 (1985), 33-46. See also the several poems - concerning Jesus's birth and Crucifixion - printed by Heuser in Anglia, 27 (1904), 285-89. There are Middle English lyrics with other refrains marked by letters, including "When adam delf & eue span, spir, if þou wil spede" (Index § 3921 printed in RL XIV, pp. 96-97), which features an "E & I" refrain. The presence of "E & I" refrains tends to call into question the "Ho there! Hi!" explanation of the "O and I" refrain. Preste, Ne Monke, Ne Yit Chanoun adduces the letters C, A, I, and M (anagram for Abel's brother Cain) to attack the friars. Richard L. Greene explains the "o" and "i" as "with two strokes of the pen," that is, "very quickly and surely," after line 100 of Dante's Inferno 24 ("A Middle English Love Poem and the 'O-and-I' Refrain Phrase," Medium Ævum, 30 [1961], 170-75); and Joseph E. Grennen argues that "o" and "i" are "grammatological" - referring to the eschatological phrase in ictu oculi - rather than "purely idiophonic" ("The 'O and I' Refrain in Middle English Poems: A Grammatology of Judgment Day," Neophilologus 71 [1987], 614-25).

6 seyn. So MS, RHR, and Grennen; Wr, Heuser, Cook, and Krochalis and Peters seyn[t]; Davies Seint.

8 him. The pronoun in this line and in the next stanza refers to contemporary depictions of Saint Francis, who was compared with Christ. The author attacks what he regards as the idolatry of Francis along with the rise of friars to power and prominence.

12 thai. So MS, Wr, Heuser, Krochalis and Peters (þai); Davies thay. Cook, RHR, and Grennen emend to þat.

14 on him. So MS, Cook, and Heuser; Wr on hym. RHR, Davies, Grennen in him. For an illustration of St. Francis receiving the stigmata while Christ hovers above on the Cross (and as if on wings), see the reproduction from the Beaufort Hours (British Library MS Royal 2.A XVIII fol. 9v, fifteenth century) in Edward A. Armstrong, Saint Francis: Nature Mystic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), pl. 6.

17 still. So MS, RHR, Davies, and Grennen. Wr, Cook, Krochalis and Peters stille; Heuser stylle.

18 Armachan. Richard FitzRalph (d. 1360), archbishop of Armagh, who denounced mendicancy and fraternal poverty in De pauperie Salvatoris (On the Savior's poverty, 1356) and in Defensio curatorum (Defense of priests, 1357).

19 grey goun. Franciscan friars wore grey habits. See also line 32. As in line 8 the reference here is to Saint Francis himself.

26-27 a frere blede . . . woundes wyde. Saint Francis was said to have received the stigmata, and this was often represented in paintings and frescoes, notably by Giotto in the Bardi Chapel fresco, Santa Croce, Florence. (See also above, note to line 14.) RHR and Grennen read bled in line 26; Davies omits this stanza.

28 the pope mot abyde. A criticism often made against the friars was that they answered only to their Provincial and then the pope; hence they bypassed the ecclesiastical hierarchy observed by other religious institutions.

31-33 A cart . . . be brent. Condemned criminals stood in carts when they went off to hanging or burning. The poem's author applauds the vision of a greyfriar in a fiery cart since he wants nothing more than to see friars at the stake. These lines also allude - satirically and derisively - to the friars' claim to be the heirs of Elijah, whom God collected at the end of his life in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). Elijah, who appeared at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17), was expected to convert the Jews just before the Second Coming. For this other perspective on Elijah and the friars, see The Lanterne of Light 433 and note.

39 Wyde . . . wroght. For a satirical description of a spacious friary, see PPC lines 157-218.