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Ne never I was but of my body trewe.
Unto the devel rough and blak of hiewe
Give I thy body and the panne also!'
And whan the devyl herd hir curse so
Upon hir knees, he sayd in this manere:
'Now, Mabely, myn owne modir deere,
Is this your wil in ernest that ye seye?'
'The devel,' quod sche, 'fecche him er he deye,
And panne and al, but he wol him repente!'
'Nay, olde stot, that is not myn entente,'
Quod this sompnour, 'for to repente me
For eny thing that I have had of the;
I wold I had thy smok and every cloth.'

'Now brothir,' quod the devyl, 'be not wroth;
Thy body and this panne is myn by right.'
Thow schalt with me to helle yit to night,
Wher thou schalt knowen of our privete
More than a maister of divinite.'

And with that word the foule fend him hente;
Body and soule, he with the devyl wente,
Wher as the sompnours han her heritage;
And God that maked after his ymage
Mankynde, save and gyde us alle and some,
And leeve this sompnour good man to bycome.
'Lordyngs, I couth han told yow,' quod the frere,

'Had I had leysir for this sompnour here,
After the text of Crist, and Powel, and Jon,
And of oure other doctours many oon,
Such peynes that our herte might agrise,
Al be it so, no tonge may devyse,

Though that I might a thousand wynter telle,
The peyn of thilke cursed hous of helle.
But for to kepe us from that cursed place,
Wakith, and prayeth Jhesu for his grace,

1 The widow's curse, being uttered from her heart, gives the Devil a right to carry away the sompnour. This condition, which agrees exactly with the Latin story published by Mr. Wright in the Archerologia, did not apply to the curse of the carter, who spak oon thing. and thought another.'

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So kepe us fro the temptour Sathauas.
Herknith this word, beth war as in this cas.
The lyoun syt in his awayt alway1

To slen the innocent, if that he may.
Disposith youre hertes to withstonde

The fend, that wolde make yow thral and bonde;
He may not tempte yow over your might,
For Crist wol be your champioun and knight;
And prayeth, that oure Sompnour him repente
Of his mysdede, er that the fend him hente.'

THE SOMPNOURES PROLOGE.

THIS

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HIS Sompnour in his styrop up he stood,
Upon the Frere his herte was so wood,
That lyk an aspen leef he quok for ire.
'Lordyngs,' quod he, but oon thing I desire;
I yow biseke, that of your curtesye,
Syn ye han herd this false Frere lye,
As suffrith me I may my tale telle.
This Frere bosteth that he knowith helle,
And, God it wot, that is litil wonder,
Freres and feendes been but litel asonder.
For, pardy, ye han often tyme herd telle,
How that a frere ravyscht was to helle'
In spirit ones by a visioun,

And as an aungel lad him up and doun,
To schewen him the peynes that ther were,
In al the place saugh he not a frere,
Of other folk he saugh y-nowe in wo.
Unto this aungel spak this frere tho:

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3 A favourite mode of awakening the careless in the middle ages. Bede relates a story of a monk thus favoured with a glimpse of the other world, upon whom it made such an impression that he never after was seen to smile. The idea is probably derived from the descent, in the Odyssey and Eneid, of Ulysses and Eneas into the infernal regions.

"Now, sire,' quod he, 'han freres such a grace,
That noon of hem schal comen in this place?
Yis,' quod this aungil, many a mylioun.'
And unto Sathanas he lad him doun.
'And now hath Sathanas,' saith he, 'a tayl
Broder than of a carrik is the sayl.'

Hold up thy tayl, thou Sathanas,' quod he,
'Schew forth thyn ers, and let the frere se
Wher is the nest of freres in this place.'
And er than half a forlong way of space,
Right so as bees swarmen out of an hyve,
Out of the develes ers thay gonne dryve,
Twenty thousand freres on a route,
And thorughout helle swarmed al aboute,
And comen agen, as fast as thay may goon,
And in his ers thay crepen everichoon.
He clappid his tayl agayn, and lay ful stille.
This frere, whan he loked had his fille
Upon the torment of this sory place,
His spirit God restored of his grace
Unto his body agayn, and he awook;
But natheles for fere yit he quook,
So was the develes ers yit in his mynde,
That is his heritage of verray kynde.
God save yow alle, save this cursed Frere;
My proloug wol I ende in this manere.'

THE SOMPNOURES TALE.

LORDYNGS, ther is in Engelond, I gesse,

A mersschly lond called Holdernesse,'

In which ther went a lymytour aboute

2

To preche, and eek to begge, it is no doubte.

1 A district on the coast of Yorkshire.

2 The object of St. Francis of Assissi and St. Dominic, the founders of the mendicant orders, was to supply the want of popular preaching and active zeal, to which the parochial and older monastic systems

And so bifel it on a day this frere
Had preched at a chirch in this manere,
And specially aboven every thing
Excited he the poepul in his preching
To trentals,' and to give for Goddis sake,
Wherwith men mighten holy houses make,
Ther as divine servys is honoured,
Nought ther as it is wasted and devoured;
Neither it needeth not for to be give
As to possessioneres,' that mow lyve,
Thanked be God, in wele and abundaunce.
'Trentals,' sayd he, 'delyvereth fro penaunce
Her frendes soules, as wel eld as yonge,
Ye, whanne that thay hastily ben songe,
Nought for to hold a prest jolif and gay,
He syngith not but oon masse in a day.
Delyverith out,' quod he, 'anoon' the soules.
Ful hard it is, with fleischhok or with oules
To ben y-clawed, or brend, or i-bake;*
Now speed yow hastily for Cristes sake.'

were not, as they supposed, practically conducive. They proposed to attain this object by raising up a class of men who should be unshackled by worldly possessions or hopes of preferment, and who, by their education, should be enabled to satisfy the awakening thirst for knowledge among the people. The friars, therefore, as indicated in the text, were the popular preachers of the middle ages; and there can be no doubt that the general diffusion of a knowledge of Scripture, and the discussion of religious subjects by the lower classes, to which their preachings gave rise, prepared the popular mind for forming a decision respecting those metaphysical questions upon which the Reformaticu was ostensibly founded.

Thirty masses celebrated for the benefit of souls in purgatory.

The friar invidiously calls the monks, who could possess property in common, and the parochial clergy, who of course possessed it as laymen did, possessioners. The friars, by their rule, were obliged to beg their bread, but so irrational a rule was, as might be expected, Boon evaded. 3 Harl. MS. omits anoon.

4 The popular preachers and painters of the middle ages used to represent the punishments of sin as consisting of a literal tearing, burning, and freezing of the flesh, intending them to be understood metaphorically; but the unlearned of course applied these representations in a literal sense. In Albert Durer's Der Kleine Passion' is a very curious example.

And whan this frere had sayd al his entent,
With qui cum patre,' forth his way he went.
Whan folk in chirch had give him what hem lest,
He went his way, no lenger wold he rest,
With scrip and pyked staf, y-touked hye;
In every hous he gan to pore
and prye,
And beggyd mele or chese, or ellis corn.
His felaw had a staf typped with horn,
A payr of tablis al of yvory,
And a poyntel y-polischt fetisly,

And wroot the names alway as he stood
Of alle folk that gaf him eny good,
Ascaunce that he wolde for hem preye.
'Gif us a busshel whet, or malt, or reye,
A Goddes kichil,' or a trip of chese,
Or elles what yow list, we may not chese;
A Goddes halpeny, or a masse peny;*
Or gif us of youre braune, if ye have eny,
A dagoun of your blanket, leeve dame,
Oure suster deer,-lo! her I write your name—
Bacoun or beef, or such thing as we fynde.'

A stourdy harlot ay went hem byhynde,

This is part of the formula with which prayers and sermons are still sometimes concluded in the Church of England.

2 Thus Jacke Upland asks the supposed friar, Why writest thou her names in thy tables that yeveth thee mony? sith God knoweth al thing for it semeth by thy writing, that God would not reward hem; but thou writest in thy tables, God would els forgotten it.' The meaning of recording the names, however, was that they might be remembered in the prayers of the brotherhood.

3 Tyrwhitt, after showing the absurdity of Speght's interpretation of this expression, says that it is common in French, and that the meaning is explained by M. de la Monnoye, in a note upon the Contes de B. D. Periers, tom. ii., p. 107:- Rien n'est plus commun dans la bouche des bonnes vieilles, que ces especes d'Hebraismes: Il m'en coûte un bel écu de Dieu; il ne me reste que ce pauvre enfant de Dieu; donnez-moi une benite aumône de Dieu."

4 A masse peny is probably a penny for saying a mass. Thus, Jacke Upland:- Freer, when thou receivest a penie for to say a masse, whether sellest thou God's bodie? &c. He might as well have said that St. Paul sold the Gospel because he sometimes accepted pecuulary aid from his converts.

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