Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

III. (a) JOHN LYDGATE. 375Canewykestrete is mentioned at p. 478 ; and John de Londoneston occursas a proper name at p. 91, Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. iv. 6.Met I. Altered to co7nes me in the MS., though perhaps with littlereason.Rysbes. rushes ; misprinted ryster by Halliwell. Greete, cry aloud.12. By cock, a vulgar coriiiption, answering to the old French parde,i. e. par dieu.Jenhen and Jtdyati, evidently the subjects of street-ballads. PossiblyJulian is the St. Julian whose life is narrated in Caxton's GoldenLegende, and in an old MS. metrical Lives of the Saints. Chaucer compareshis Franklin to St. Julian, and Sir John Mandeville identifiessaint with Simon the leper. See Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, i. cxlviii.(ed. 1840); i. 247 (ed. 1871).There mede, their reward.14. Taverner ; see note to st. 8.They sang to get pence.Yede, went. In st, 13 we have^oJ^; cf. A. S. code.15. / lyst not; the true reading is probably me list not, it does notplease me. List in Old English is commonly an impersonal verb. Theboatman tells him that it is not yet his pleasure to bestow an alms.16. Convayd me, conveyed myself, made my way. Lydgate does nottell us bow he got across the Thames. Probably he went over LondonBridge ; if so, there could have been, in his day, no toll to be paid byfoot passengers.Of the law, with the law.Dyght me, prepared myself, resolved ;thehe resolved to do as he hadever done, i. e. to put up with grievances, and get on as well as he could.We may compare Lydgate's experience with a piece which Wartonquotes as a specimen of Sir Thomas More's juvenile poetry :'A man of lawe that never saweThe wayes to bye and sell,Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse,I praye God spede hym wellA marchaunt eke, that wyll goo sekeBy all the meanes he may,To fall in sute tyll he disputeHis money cleane away,Pletyng the lawe for every strawe.Shall prove a thrifty manWith bate and strife ;I cannot tell you whan !but, by my life,'