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The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman, Volume 4. Traugott Lawler
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Автор произведения Traugott Lawler
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Chaucer plays wickedly with the same topos (“Ther may no man han parfite blisses two”) in the Merchant’s Tale, where January fears that the “parfit felicitee” of marriage will cause “that I shal have myn hevene in erthe heere” and so lose the chance to “Come to the blisse ther Crist eterne on lyve ys” (E1634–54). Though Justinus reassures him by promising that his wife may in fact be his purgatory, the paradisal garden January creates maintains the reference, and indeed the whole poem is built on playing the idea of marriage as heaven against the idea of marriage as hell (see also the Wife’s Prologue, D495–96).
7 (B.14.139) for drede of dessallouwynge: Lest he be discredited, i.e., judged after all not to have earned what he was paid in advance, and so to be not only owed nothing but actually in debt (3–4, B. 14.134–35). In B the term repeats and spells out the metaphorical disalowed 131. See Alford, Gloss., s.v. allowen, disallowen. At 12.195, Recklessness has uttered the counterpart statement, that the poor are “allowed of oure lord at here laste ende.”
8 (B.14.140) hit semeth nat þat ʒe sholle: “It isn’t fitting that you should” (Economou; similarly Pearsall); not “It doesn’t seem you ought to” (Donaldson).
B.14.148 rewful, 152 rewfulliche: Both words refer to compassion rather than repentance; they hark back to 145, “if ye riche haue ruþe and rewarde wel þe poore,” which itself echoes the major line spoken by Holy Church in the first passus, “Forthy I rede yow riche, haue reuthe on the pore” (B.1.175, A.1.149). L’s semi-Pelagianism comes to the fore here, as in the taper passage, 19.187–213, which also moves on to excoriate the unkind rich: Christ has mercy on those who are themselves merciful; ruth in us prompts an answering ruth in him. From start to finish, the call to the rich to take pity on the poor is on the tip of L’s tongue.
B.14.144a De delicijs ad delicias difficile est transire: Alford cites Jerome, Epistle 118 (to Julian), PL 22.965; the full statement (which Alford shortens) is as follows: “Difficile, imo impossibile est ut et praesentibus quis et futuris fruatur bonis: ut et hic ventrem, et ibi mentem impleat; ut de deliciis transeat ad delicias; ut in utroque saeculo primus sit; ut et in coelo et in terra appareat gloriosus” (It is hard, indeed impossible, that anyone should enjoy both present and future goods; that he should fill his belly here, and his mind there; that he should pass from delights to delights; that he should be first in both worlds; that he should appear in glory both in heaven and on earth). Alford says that the part L quotes is “quoted frequently,” a statement that searching in the online PL supports, modestly, only if the search is reduced to “‘de deliciis’ near ‘ad delicias.’” The sentence in its entirety seems to lie behind L’s whole passage. To the references Alford gives, add Peter of Blois, Letter 102 (PL 207.316): “Quem enim legimus a saecularibus deliciis ad deliciis aeternas demigrasse?” (Where do we read that anyone has made the transition from delights in this world to eternal delights?) This wording (“Where do we read?”) seems echoed in 155–56 below, “it is but selde yseien, as by holy seintes bookes,/That god rewarded double reste to any riche wye.” For L’s knowledge of this letter, see B.15.332–43a n. Cf. B.14.212n.
B.14.149–51 as an hyne … aboue his couenaunt: A companion to the simile at 142–43: there the servant makes a brazen false claim that he wasn’t paid in advance; here the lord offers a bonus freely for a job well done. But the simile seems not quite to fit, since both rewards that Christ gives, forgiveness now and bliss later, seem to come in response to a life of ruth; neither gift of his quite corresponds to the servant’s having his hire er he bigonne.
B.14.155–56 as by holy seintes bokes … riche wye: Numerous saints whose lives appear in The Golden Legend are said to have been born rich, noble, or even royal, but virtually all give all they have to the poor and live an ascetic life. The pre-eminent examples are St Francis and St Elizabeth of Hungary; I count nearly forty more. The few born rich who do not give up their wealth are either martyred or become prelates of notable sanctity; none use their wealth for their own pleasure. Thus there are in fact no examples at all of double reste. See also 15.277–86 (B.14.102–8). In his entry on All Saints’ Day, Jacobus says we celebrate the saints in order to imitate them, that is, “to follow their example by making little of earthly goods and setting our hearts on the things of heaven” (trans. Ryan 2.273–74). See the previous note.
10–16 (B.14.158–63) Muche murthe is in may … reuthe is to here: For a different treatment of rich and poor in terms of summer and winter, see Recklessness’s praise of patient poverty, in which the rich are summer seeds that rot easily, the poor are tough winter seeds (12.187–201).
10–11 (B.14.158–59) murthe, solace: i.e., sexual heat; for the terms, cf. Alison and Nicholas “in bisynesse of myrthe and of solas,” Miller’s Tale A3654; for the idea, cf. the smale foules pricked by nature in Chaucer’s opening sentence, and my discussion of them in Lawler 2017:177–78. See MED, s.v. mirthe, 3c; solas 1d. In the application of the simile to men in lines 12 (B.14.157) (murthe) and 17 (solace) the meaning is broader; still the gist of the prayer in line 17 is that beggars might feel some of the zest that animals feel in May.
13 (B.14.160) myssomur: June 24 and the time around it. Wheat bread is at its highest price in the last weeks before harvest at the end of July, the so-called “hungry gap” (cf. Frank, Jr. 1995:229–30); see 8.305, 312, 321 (B.6.283, 289, 299, A.7.267, 273, 283), where the people (though they don’t starve) must eat “bean bread” and “pea bread” (“pese loof” 8.176; B.6.179, A.7.164) “til lamasse tyme” 312 (B.6.289, A.7.273) (August 1). See also B.14.178 below.
14 (B.14.161) weetshoed: as the dreamer will later go, apparently in the time before Lent: 20.1 (B.18.1). Winter hunger has been dramatized in passus 8 when Hunger first appears at the plowing of the winter corn field, 8.171–203 (B.6.174–98, A.7.159–85; for the medieval farming year, cf. Burrow 1965:256, citing Homans 1941:356); then “þat was bake for bayard was bote for many hungry,/Drosenes and dregges drynke for many beggares” (8.192–93, B.6.193).
15–16 (B.14.162–63) rebuked/And arated: presumably a year-round fact of life; the meaning is that in winter beggars are wet, thirsty, and hungry in addition to being abused as usual—or worse than usual, if winter makes the rich yet more ill-tempered, and stingier with food.
Patience prays for the poor, then for all; then he lectures (16.17–42, B.14.164–201)
17–35 Now, lord, sende hem somur … a chartre made (B.14.164–95 Now, lord, sende hem somer … but þei be poore of herte): The prayer that starts here in both versions with the touching lord, sende hem somur—as you already do for beasts, 15.291 (B.14.116)—lasts in C through line 28, where the mood of the verbs shifts from imperative to indicative. The prayer is at first for beggars, but extended at line 22 to thy renkes alle. Conceivably “thy renkes” means the poor, God’s favorites, as “goddes men” seems to at 17.67 (the only appearance of that phrase); see also 19.252–53 (B.17.271–72) and note; but more likely the thought here moves from the reflection that diversity of fortune is for the best to extending the prayer for that reason (Riht so 22) to all humankind, as the move from the third-person references to the poor to vs 23 implies: make us all, the prayer says, whether actually poor or not, meek, low, and of herte