JOHN LYDGATE (?), PROHEMY OF A MARIAGE BETWIXT AN OLDE MAN AND A YONGE WIFE, AND THE COUNSAIL, FOOTNOTES
1 Wherever this flattery rules, this wicked offense
2 Lines 15-18: My old dear friend, why do you ask advice of me / Whether you shall wed in order to have joy in your life? / Eagerly would you learn, if it were an advantage / For you to have a goodly one to wife
3[Her] weeping is a wicked trap, no doubt about it
4 Lines 61-62: And that which the good man (the old husband) had, he (the knave) shall have it / At last, the young [one] who can well bestir himself (is energetic)
5 And well lined with good red silk (thread), i.e., bloodshot
6 Lines 113-14: Beware the illness called the pank [? a fabricated ailment to cover sexual desire]. / [Beware] a term of court (i.e., when you are away attending to your legal affairs), for the tide (i.e., time) waits for no man
7 Unless he (i.e., the husband) is [a good "surgeon"], the wife will find a man who is able [?knows]
8 On your forehead [the marks (i.e., wrinkles)] of many Fridays (i.e., days of fasting and penance) [appear], this is no lie
9 Lines 155-56: She will chastise you, if you love honesty / Avoiding slander [thereby], [and] accuse you of jealousy
10 Like priests who hear confession, they will whisper secretly
11 Beware then the part of the tally stick kept by the creditor (i.e., beware the debt you incur with marriage)
12 Lines 173-75: And whoever gives counsel [to the husband] contrary thereto (i.e., to the wife's will), / She makes him (i.e., that counselor) anxious, because some [wives] sorely hate / Those whom their husbands love, and no man more so
13 Lines 246-47: But be very wary of supposed cousins, / Or god-relations, or the maintenance of retainers
14 Lines 255-56: Of a rich man who, according to everyone, / Had great power and might, both [to] loosen and [to] bind [others in servitude]
15 Lines 282-87: Onto the ground, and said, "Would [to] God of might / [That] I had been born, by heavenly influence, / So fortunate, that I might justly / Do true service, as a female handmaiden ever in sight / Unto her [watchful] lord, and never refrain regardless of age, / [I] who was never [thought] apt (appropriate) to such a marriage [as you propose]"
16 Lines 419-20: And look about for that which may grieve you, / Because I could not care less what [your] anger might cause [you to do]
JOHN LYDGATE (?), PROHEMY OF A MARIAGE BETWIXT AN OLDE MAN AND A YONGE WIFE, AND THE COUNSAIL, SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
[The initial editing of this poem was done by Mary Elizabeth Ellzey and Douglas Moffatt.]
Manuscript
British Library MS Harley 372, fols. 45a-51a (1440-60).
Editions
Halliwell, James Orchard. A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate. London: Printed for the Percy Society by C. Richards, 1840. Pp. 27-46. [Under the title Advice to an Old Gentleman Who Wished for a Young Wife. The work was first printed by Caxton as The Complainte of Them That Ben To Late Maryed.]
JOHN LYDGATE (?), PROHEMY OF A MARIAGE BETWIXT AN OLDE MAN AND A YONGE WIFE, AND THE COUNSAIL, NOTES
Abbreviations: MS: British Library MS Harley 372, fols. 45a-51a; Ha: James Orchard Halliwell.
Incipit The title appears in the upper right margin of the MS, separated from the body of the text.
1 philosophre. Here philosophre probably means "scholar, learned man; wise man" rather than anything more specific.
clerk seculer. The term probably refers to a priest who has not taken vows of a religious order or rule: "secular" as opposed to "regular," from Latin regula "rule."
3 such. Ha adds final -e.
23-35 All the major characters of Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale are mentioned in these lines: Justinius, Placebo, January, May, Damian, Pluto, and Proserpina.
24 The long cart offte hath hevy cariage. The meaning of this proverb is not trans-parent. It probably refers here to the heavy responsibility of marriage since it was imagined to last a lifetime. Cariage is defined in Whiting as "burden." See C55.
30 There seems to be something missing from this line. Descryveth is demanded by the rhyme, but the apparent subject, Chauuceres, is genitive. However, to add a word like book, tale, or Merchant would seem to make the line overlong. Perhaps the adjective mayster, so commonly appended to Chaucer's name in the fifteenth century, was a later insertion that led to the subsequent omission of the verb's original subject.
43-49 This is a difficult series of analogies. Here is one interpretation. The first two lines describe the woman playing the stereotypical beloved; the last line states that her behavior is really a means of entrapment and does not represent her true nature. The philosopher states that beasts of ignoble stature (kite and cur) are wary of entrapment while noble beasts (hawk and greyhound) are easily caught. The old friend would be inclined to align himself with the noble beasts particularly as a lover; he would tend to think of himself as a hawk rather than a kite. The philosopher shows his old friend the consequence of following his noble nature in this case: captivity, i.e., marriage. The philosopher is attempting to undermine the romantic love games that the old man wants to play and, according to the philosopher, the young girl can play only too well.
53-56 The philosopher is fond of puns. What is being said is that many an old rooster appears to be in charge of his flock, but in fact the hens are being served by younger cocks. What is more, the eggs (and chicks) are the young cock's progeny, not the old rooster's.
67 cache. MS: cachche. Ha: cache.
80 inowe. Ha: I nowe.
91 astaunche. The MED has only this example for astaunchen meaning "satisfy (sexual desire)." The more common staunchen frequently means "satisfy (hunger, thirst, greed, etc.)," so it seems likely that the poet has extended that primary meaning to sexual desire. Hence the use of appetite as the verb's object.
92-95 The stomach was often viewed as the seat of sexual passion in the Middle Ages. The idea that the old man's cold belly might be covered and remedied by a warm young woman perhaps relates to old Januarie's remarks on "bely-naked" Adam, for whom God created Eve as his comfort(er):
The hye God, whan he hadde Adam maked,
And saugh him al allone, bely-naked,
God of his grete goodnesse seyde than,
"Lat us now make an helpe unto this man
Lyk to hymself"; and thanne he made him Eve.
Heere may ye se, and heerby may ye preve,
That wyf is mannes help and his confort. (CT IV[E]1325-31)
96 juvencle. This word derives from Latin iuvencula (youth).
104 This is the first of a number of references to the "battle of the sexes."
106 Compare The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1248-55):
And sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee,
And folwed ay his bodily delyt
On wommen, ther as was his appetyt,
As doon thise fooles that been seculeer.
And whan that he was passed sixty yeer,
Were it for hoolynesse or for dotage
I kan nat seye, but swich a greet corage
Hadde this knyght to been a wedded man.
113-15 pank . . . male de flank. Pank is a word of obscure origin attested only here. The MED entry for pank n. speculates on the term as "coinage to rime with flanke," mal de flanke, which suggests "inordinate sexual desire." Male de flank is a term more widely attested.
132 them. The couple the philosopher has just described is the referent of them.
144 junesse. The noun means "youth" or "youthfulness." See note to line 96.
152-54 than thouh . . . . The syntax here is difficult. It seems the wife has the potential to swink her husband to death in a manner made famous by the Wife of Bath.
161 countertaile. The tally stick was a means by which debtor and creditor each kept a record of their transaction. The amount of the debt was recorded on both ends of the stick, which was then broken in two, each party receiving half. The countertaile must refer to the tally of acquittance held by the creditor, which could be offered as proof of debt to the debtor, or to a court in case of legal action. The idea of marriage partners incurring a "debt" becomes crucial in the story of July and December; see lines 433-41. Of course, the possibility of punning on countertaile should not be overlooked. Compare The Wife of Bath's Prologue (III[D]152 ff.) and 1 Corinthians 7:3-4.
162-68 Compare The Wife of Bath's Tale (III[D]1258-64):
and Jhesu Crist us sende
Housbondes meeke, yonge, and fressh abedde,
And grace t'overbyde hem that we wedde;
And eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves;
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soone verray pestilence!
167 mydnythe, matynes, evensong, prime, and houres. The canonical hours. Note that the wife plays the role of the monk.
169-75 Compare The Franklin's Tale (V[F]744-52 ff.):
And for to lede the moore in blisse hir lyves,
Of his free wyl he swoor hire as a knyght
That nevere in al his lyf he, day ne nyght,
Ne sholde upon hym take no maistrie
Agayn hir wyl, ne kithe hire jalousie,
But hire obeye, and folwe hir wyl in al,
As any lovere to his lady shal,
Save that the name of soveraynetee,
That wolde he have for shame of his degree.
176 Compare the situation of the Wife of Bath, who has had only five husbands.
183-86 Compare The Wife of Bath's Prologue (III[D]564-71, 587-92):
I seye that in the feeldes walked we,
Til trewely we hadde swich daliance,
This clerk and I, that of my purveiance
I spak to hym and seyde hym how that he,
If I were wydwe, sholde wedde me.
For certeinly - I sey for no bobance -
Yet was I nevere withouten purveiance
Of mariage, n'of othere thynges eek.
. . . .
Whan that my fourthe housbonde was on beere,
I weep algate, and made sory cheere,
As wyves mooten, for it is usage,
And with my coverchief covered my visage,
But for that I was purveyed of a make,
I wepte but smal, and that I undertake.
198 mantle and the ryng. The mantle and the ring are signs of widowhood. Compare similar collocations in the MED's entry for mantel n. 1(g).
199 Whil thou levest. MS: there is a word crossed out before levest.
213 The situation insinuated here is reminiscent of Damian and May in The Merchant's Tale.
223 And he and she shal have lond. MS: the word preceding have is crossed out.
224 Avaunt, rebel, of thy sore goten goode. MS: sore is written above grete. This line appears to be addressed to the servant-lover in much the way that Chaucer's Merchant breaks the fictive framework of his narrative to scold Januarie and Damian (e.g., IV[E]1869-74, 2107-10).
232-38 This stanza refers to letters of introduction that the wife receives from high personages that will provide a pretext for her dealing with her lover. The ruse seems to be that the letters plead with the wife to take pity on the man in question, who is in fact already her lover.
246-49 The philosopher here provides a catalogue of tricks by which young wives and their lovers hoodwink old husbands. The lordes lettres (line 248; compare lines 232-38) are mentioned again along with pretended kinship, apparent abduction, horseplay, and (perhaps) the need to have retinue (myght of mayntenaunce, line 247). Cosynage (line 246) meaning "kinship" with a pun on cozenage ("cuckoldry") appears three times in Chaucer's The Shipman's Tale (VII[B2]1226, 1329, 1599).
254 Lo! here a tale. Compare the Wife of Bath's "wol ye heere the tale?" (III[D]951), as she introduces the story of Midas and his wife.
260, 274 Compare The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1410-14):
And I wol fonde t'espien, on my syde,
To whom I may be wedded hastily.
But forasmuche as ye been mo than I,
Ye shullen rather swich a thyng espyen
Than I, and where me best were to allyen.
264 indigence. The adjective indigente would be better, but it ruins the rhyme.
279-80 Although the old man seems to be asking if she will marry him not simply because of his wealth - by spousayle fortunate, / Notwithstandyng his richesse and estate, that is, by a marriage which is fortune in and of itself even without his properties - he is really asking if she will marry him despite his age.
334 lakketh. Ha: talketh.
347 Compare The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1823-27):
He lulleth hire; he kisseth hire ful ofte;
With thikke brustles of his berd unsofte,
Lyk to the skyn of houndfyssh, sharp as brere -
For he was shave al newe in his manere -
He rubbeth hire aboute hir tendre face.
358-61 This is the plighting of troth, which is the heart of the wedding ceremony. For a discussion of the English customs of trothplight and wedding, see George Caspar Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941; rpt. 1942, 1960, 1975), pp. 160-76.
362 What shuld I lenger tary. MS: the line begins with two words crossed out.
365-68 The day was comen . . . And my paper it conteyne ne may. Compare The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1709, 1732-39):
Thus been they wedded with solempnitee. . . .
Hoold thou thy pees, thou poete Marcian,
That writest us that ilke weddyng murie
Of hire Philologie and hym Mercurie,
And of the songes that the Muses songe!
To smal is bothe thy penne, and eek thy tonge,
For to descryven of this mariage.
Whan tendre youthe hath wedded stoupyng age,
Ther is swich myrthe that it may nat be writen.
Or The Squire's Tale (V[F]61, 63-64, 72):
And halt his feeste so solempne and so ryche . . .
Of which if I shal tellen al th'array,
Thanne wolde it occupie a someres day . . . .
Ther nys no man that may reporten al.
371 And. Ha: An.
372-75 Lydgate's amusing account of the husband's indolence and the wife's desire to be fed (line 375) resonates well against Chaucer's presentation of Januarie on his wedding night. Unlike Lydgate's worthi man . . . of age (line 372) old Januarie at least makes a feeble show of virility on his wedding night as he takes May "faste in armes" and "kisseth hire ful ofte" and rubs her face with the "thikke brustles of his berd unsofte," then "laboureth" till day break (see IV[E]1821-42); May, however, finds his playing not "worth a bene" (IV[E]1854). In the next account of his would-be-love-making he is more like Lydgate's old man as he kisses her and then goes to sleep, "and that anon" (IV[E]1946-49). May, however, does not poke his back and ask for it, as in Lydgate; rather she simply settles on Damyan.
378 of a gentle governaunce. MS: word crossed out before gentle.
385 ywroke. The MS reads ywroke, which if it is the authorial reading, would seem to pick up the "sexual intercourse as combat" motif used elsewhere in the poem. However, ywoke, "awakened" is a defensible emendation.
391 As appetyt ran on in hir corage. MS: in hir is preceded by two crossed-out words.
402 turnemente. This is likely another euphemism for sexual intercourse.
404-06 It would appear that December expected either an immediate cure for his three points or, at least, no recrimination until the cures have been effected. He accuses her of breaking their agreement.
406 covenaunt. Ha: covenawt.
414-16 July's remedy for the first point is that no matter how wrathful he gets, she will be more wrathful still. She seems to suggest in lines 418-19 that nothing else will ever cause him to be angry again, because her anger will be so fierce that it will supersede all other possible irritants. Compare the Wife of Bath's treatment of her older husbands and Jankyn.
421-27 The remedy for the second point is that he will not be angry without cause, because she will give him plenty of cause. This may be in reference to how she will act generally or to how she will "cure" his first point. However, the cause may well be the "cure" for the third point, which she is about to explain. List in line 427 is ambiguous. If it means "desire," then the second "cure" will be effected at no specific time. However, if list means "listen, hear," then the last line reads: "When you hear [what I am about to say], you shall have plenty of cause."
435-41 The "cure" for the third point depends upon the idea, expressed in Church doctrine and more generally, that marriage partners must engage in sexual intercourse just as debtors must pay their debts. One alternative might be for the partners to agree to a chaste marriage. December is relieved, remewed (line 437), of his marriage debt to July, because of noun power (line 438) "destitution," which of course refers to the impotence he revealed earlier. This is his third point. But July reasons that the debt can still be paid, if other assets can be liquidated to that end. Therefore, she proposes that December use his considerable other assets, silver, gold, and fee, to hire someone who can pay this particular debt to her in his stead. The "cure" is such that not only will December remain impotent, he will hire his own cuckold as well.
438 noun power. MED defines as "lack of power," "weakness," and "destitution."
444 the might mean "then," in which case it is superfluous. It may well be a textual corruption.
446 that the male so wryes. A common saying; see MED male n.2 (c). However, a pun on male "male, i.e., man" and a reading of so wryes as "but the man so twists" or, perhaps, "is twisted" is not out of the question in this poem. N.b. The Wife of Bath's Prologue: "how soore I hym twiste" (III[C]494). The scribe crosses out two words preceding that the.
447-48 Compare Proserpyne's retort in The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]2265-67):
Now by my moodres sires soule I swere
That I shal yeven hire suffisant answere,
And alle wommen after, for hir sake.
451-52 It seems to be a reference to the marriage debt.
455 Sith not is golde . . . golde doth shyne. Proverbial; see Whiting G282.
456-57 Appeles and peres . . . roten by the core. Proverbial; a variant of "under fair cheer poison is often hid" (Whiting C177).
477-83 The question at the end of this stanza can be interpreted in at least two ways. Who is he in line 481 can be read in a rather vague, generalized way as "who is the one." One might expect she here rather than he, given the actions described in the following line, but he can have vague gender specificity: "tell who is the person who can make you an issue (i.e., a child) and beget you an heir who will not shorten and worsen your life?" The question for the philosopher is rhetorical; no woman, who could fulfil the requirements of line 481, would not also bring about the calamities mentioned in line 482. An alternative interpretation, which can only be sketched here, provides a positive answer to the question. The injunction in lines 477-80 for the old friend to give alms raises the question of bequests and wills, which among the rich, always included considerable benefactions for religious houses and institutions of various kinds, which were considered to be acts of almsgiving. Furthermore, the giving of alms to the poor would often have been done most easily through the offices of a Church institution. And in the first clause in almost all medieval wills the testator bequeathed his soul to Christ. That is, for what is most important, his soul, the old friend does have a true benefactor, Christ who will give him eternal life, in answer to line 483. One might argue further that God the Father answers to the requirements of line 482, since he begat the true issue and heir, his Son, for the old friend's benefit. It seems unnecessary to prove that men of some substance in late medieval England would have been familiar with the formulaic structure of the opening clauses of wills, so the philosopher can afford to be subtle here.
485-87 As seith Seynt Poule . . . . From 1 Corinthians 7:9.
494-95 Compare The Merchant's Tale (IV[E]1562): "Ye shul nat plesen hire fully yeres thre." Deye (line 495) is an unusual noun form for "death."
504 And hardly it shal away. MS: two words crossed out before shal away.
505 Compare Troilus and Criseyde 5.1786 and The Clerk's Tale (IV[E]1177-212, and also lines 1142-76), where the Clerk deflects possible criticism from the Wife of Bath and others for his portrayal of Griselda. The poet realized that his poem will displease women, because it claims that their sole intention in marrying is to acquire goods, even if only a small amount. "Mortal myschaunce" (line 508) may refer to something more than misery and death; the implication may be that women endanger men's souls as well. However, unlike the Clerk, this poet does not try to appease "jolly bodies" by restricting the applicability of his work.
515-16 The poet here attacks those who would accuse him of ribaldry, i.e., lack of decorum and even licentiousness, because of the plainness of his language. Any who make these accusations are to be regarded as hypocrites. Compare The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, lines 725-42, and The Miller's Prologue (I[A]3167-86); however, note that Chaucer coyly abjures responsibility for the language of his poems by claiming that he is only repeating the words of others, while this poet boldly takes responsibility for what he has written.