VII.

Clamavi ad te, Domine Deus, tu es spes.
I cride, and sayde, Thow art my trist,
My part in the lond of hem that lyve :
Ther thow art lyf, lykyng, and list;
Ther drede of deth to deme is dryve.
Ther is non hongur, ne no thrist;
Al care lyth closid undir clive:
But al the wele that may be wyst,

Thow partist hit, Lord, man to zeive.

VIII.

Fac mecum signum in bono, ut videant.
Do with me sum token in gode,

That they mow sen, and schamid be,
That have me hatyd: for thow, Lord, stode
To helpyn and [to] counfort me.
My gostly fon, that ben so wode,
Confundě hem, for thi pyté;
And me conforte with gostly fode,
That al my lyst be layd on thé.

NOTES.

Stanza 1.-" In wynter, whan the wedir was cold."—It was the fashion of the poets of that age, to begin their poems with a description, or at least a notice, of the season; and, in the present instance, the author's devotional poem is much enlivened with this introduction. Chaucer's 66 Canterbury

Tales," and especially his "Flower and the Leaf," open in this way; and there is a religious meditation among Hoccleve's poems (quoted on stanza LXXXIII.), which opens in a similar manner.

Ibid.—" Knockyng upon my brest."-So Chaucer, treating of" Penance," says " Than is discipline eke, in knocking of thy brest, in scourging with yerdes, in tribulation, in suffring patiently wronges that ben don to thee; and eke in patient suffring of maladies, or losing of worldly catel, or wif, or child, or other frendes." (Chaucer's Persones Tale, Canterbury Tales, ed. Oxford, 1798, 4to. II. 386.) This act is borrowed from the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican; of whom the latter "percutiebat pectus suum, dicens, Deus! propitius esto mihi peccatori." (Luc. xviii. 13.)

Page 1.—Ne reminiscaris, &c.—This passage, from which the burden of the whole poem is borrowed, is found in ancient Breviaries as the antiphona at the end of the seven Penitential Psalms, next before the Litany. Hence it has been adopted in the English Common Prayer-Book, and stands in the Litany, between the response to the third invo

cation, and the first of the deprecations, in these words:— "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood; and be not angry with us for ever." This is an exact translation of the old antiphona, excepting the last clause, which would complete it thus,— "and give not thine inheritance into perdition." A MS. Breviary, written in England in the fifteenth century, (in the editor's possession) adds these words, propter nomen sanctum tuum (“because of thy holy name"); where it occurs at the end of the fifteen Graduals (which follow the seven Penitential) Psalms, and immediately before the rubric " Sequatur Letania." It is composed from the following texts, partly apocryphal and partly scriptural :—

"Et nunc, Domine, memor esto mei; et ne vindictam sumas de peccatis meis: neque reminiscaris delicta nostra, vel parentum meorum." (Tobit. iii. 3.)

"Te ergo quæsumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos prætioso sanguine redemisti." (Hymnus sanctorum Ambrosii et Augustini, inc. Te Deum.)

Numquid in æternum irasceris nobis? aut extendes iram tuam a generatione in generationem?" (Psalm. lxxxv. 5.)

Stanza IV." To schryve me clene and aske penaunce."See notes on stanza XXII.

Stanza VI.- -" Or evere."-So in the MS. but in other places er evere (see st. xxii. xxxii. lxxxIII.); and the word er frequently occurs for before, in this poem.

Stanza VIII. In the Latin text, omnia is an addition to the text of the Psalters: yet it occurs also in two MS. copies of the Penitential Psalms, in the editor's hands.

Stanza IX.-The Latin text omits sed before "tu," which is in all other copies.

Stanza x.- "To the kyng and knave."-" Tho, that thou clepest thy thralles, ben Goddes peple: for humble folk ben Cristes frendes; they ben contubernial with the Lord, thy King. Thinke also, that of swiche seed as cherles springen, of swiche seed springen lordes. The same deth that taketh the cherl, swiche deth taketh the lord," &c. (Chaucer's Persones Tale, p. 352.)

Stanza XIII." In town and felde."-MS. "add" for and.

Stanza XIV." Fro Iosaphath, that gret vale."-Alluding to a vulgar tradition, that the general judgment is to take place in the valley of Jehosaphat, under the wall of Jerusalem. Either the proper name ought to be pronounced in four syllables, or the word "gret" must be written and read gretě, to complete this line.

Ibid.—“ And cursede wretchys departe fro me."-The verb here is not neuter, or in the second person plural, as it is in the English translation of this verse, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity" (Ps. vi. 8.): but is an active verb, meaning Separate those from me; as in the old words of plighting, "till death us departe," altered in the modern print to "do part." "Departe" occurs, as a verb neuter, in st. LII.; but otherwise in st. LIII.

Stanza xvI.-" Thi mercy, Lord, I muste ataine."- The rhyme requires atame, which is most probably the true reading, and would mean conciliate, from the Anglo-Saxon atamian. The MS. is ambiguous.

Stanza XX.

-"The hand of vengeance."-Apparently a mistake for Thi; as in the Latin, manus tua.

Ibid..—“The prycke of conscyence.”—This idea is undoubtedly borrowed from the title of the most popular religious poem of the middle ages, Hampole's Prick (or sting) of Conscience; which is too well known to need more than a passing mention.

Ibid." Un to thé."-The measure requires the first of these syllables to be omitted; as also “ myn,” in the first line of st. XXI.

Stanza XXI.

"My synnes fele."-By comparing st. xv. it will be seen that "fele" is not the verb to feel, but an adjective meaning many.

Stanza XXII.- -"Of thi synnes wilt thé schryve."-Chaucer quotes this verse of the Psalm thus: "I say, quoth David, I purposed fermely to shrive me; and thou, Lord, relesedst my sinne.” (Persones Tale, p. 302.)

Ibid." Whil thou wilt here thi penance dryve.”—That is, exercise repentance. That painful discipline was not meant by the word penance (as in st. Iv.), is evident from the whole tenor of the "Persones Tale," especially the following passage:

"Seint Ambrose sayth, That penance is the plaining of man for the gilt that he hath don, and no more to do any thing for which him ought to plaine. And som Doctour sayth: Penance is the waymenting of man that sorweth for his sinne, and peineth himself, for he hath misdon. Penance with certain circumstances, is veray repentance of man, that holdeth himself in sorwe and other peine, for his giltes; and for he schal be veray penitent, he shal first bewailen the sinnes that he hath don, and stedfastly purpose in his herte to have shrift of mouth, and to don satisfaction, and never to don thing, for which him ought more to bewayle or complaine, and