He is ay angry as is a piffemire. 7410 Though that he have all that he can defire;' O Thomas, je vous die, Thomas, Thomas! And therof wol I fpeke a word or two. Now mainter, quod the wif, er that I go, What wol ye dine? I wol go theraboute. Now Dame, quod he, jeo vous die fanz doute, 7420 Have I not of a capon but the liver, And of your white bred nat but a fhiver, (But I ne wolde for me no beeft were ded) 7425 pray you, Dame, that ye be nought annoied 7430 Though I fo frendly you my confeil fhewe; By God I n'old have told it but a fewe Now Sire, quod fhe, but o word er I go. My child is ded within thise wekes two, Sone after that ye went out of this toun. His deth faw I by revelatioun, They may now, God be thanked of his lone, 7435 1 7440 7445 Thanking him of my revelation. 7450 For, Sire and Dame, trusteth me right wel Our orifons ben more effectuel, And more we feen of Criftes fecree thinges, Than borel folk, although that they be kinges. We live in poverte and in abstinence, 7455 And borel folk in richeffe and difpence Of mete and drinke, and in hir foule delit: V. 7442. fifty yere] See Du Cange, in v. Sempecæ. Peculiar honours and immunities were granted by the rule of St. Benedict to thofe monks " qui quinquaginta annos in ordine exe. 64 gerant, quos annum jubilæum exegiffe vulgo dicimus." It is probable that fome fimilar regulation obtained in the other orders. Lazar and Dives lividen diversely, And divers guerdon hadden they therby. Who fo wol pray he must fast and be clene, Lo, Moifes forty daies and forty night Aaron, that had the temple in governance, 7460 7465 7470 7475 To praien for the peple, and do fervise, They n'olden drinken in no maner wife 7480 No drinke which that might hem dronken make, But ther in abftinence pray and wake Left that they deiden. Take heed what I fay- 7485 Yave us enfample of fasting and praieres; To weping, mifericorde, and to clenenesse; 7490 (1 fpeke of us, we mendiants, we freres) ... Ben to the highe God more acceptable 7495 Than youres, with your feftes at your table. Fro Paradis firft, if I fhal not lie, Was man out chased for his glotonie; And chaft was man in Paradis certain.. But herken now, Thomas, what I fhal fain: 7500 I have no text of it as I fuppofe, But I fhal find it in a maner glofe; That specially our fwete Lord Jefus Spake this by freres whan he fayde thus, 7505 7510 v. 7488. mendiants] In mf. A. it is mendinants, both here and below, ver 7494, which reading, though not agreeable to analogy, is perhaps the true one, as I find the word conftantly fo spelled in the ftat. 12 R. II. c. 7, 8, 9, 10. Me thinketh they ben like Jovinian, Fat as a whale, and walken as a fwan ; Whan they for foules say the Pfalm of Davit, 7515 Lo, buf they say, Gor meum eructavit. Who foloweth Criftes gospel and his lore But we, that humble ben, and chast and pore, Therfore right as an hauke upon a fours 7520 Up fpringeth into the aire, right fo praieres Of charitable and chaft besy freres Maken hir fours to Goddes eres two. 7525 N'ere thou our broder fhuldeft thou not thrive. In our chapitre pray we day and night To Crist that he thee fende hele and might .7511. Jovinian] Against whom St. Jerome wrote, or perhaps the fuppofed emperour of that name in the Gefta Romanorum, c. lix, whofe ftory was worked up into a morality, under the title of L'orgueil et préfomption de l'Empereur Fovinian--à 19 perfonages. It was printed at Lions 1581, 8vo, fur une vieille copie. Du Verdier, in v. Fovinien.The fame story is told of a Robert King of Sicily, in an old English poem, mf. Harl. 1701. Mr. Warton has given large extracts from an Oxford mf. as I fuppofe, of the fame poem, Hift. of Eng. Po. p. 184. .7514. of jul gret reverence] The editt. have changed this to ful litel; but the reading of the mff. may ftand, if it be understood ironically. Volume III. H |