[106] Cerberus, et seq.—Compare the seven deadly sins in Langland’s Vision of Piers Plowman, Pride, Luxury (lecherie), Envy, Wrath, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth. See also Chaucer’s Persones Tale, passim. A description of these seven sins occurs very frequently in old authors.
[107] What brought you here.—Pride is the greatest of all the deadly sins. Compare Spenser’s Faery Queen I. c. IV, where “proud Lucifera, as men did call her,” was attended by “her six sage counsellors”—the other sins. Shakespere names this sin Ambition:
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition,
For by this sin fell the angels.
[108] Sarah.—v. Apocrypha, the book of Tobit, c. VI.
[110] If she and her scholars—Cp.:
At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus atque
sincerum cupimus vas incrustare. probus quis
nobiscum vivit multum demissus homo: illi
tardo cognomen pingui damus. his fugit omnes
insidias nullique malo latus obdit apertum pro bene sano
at non incauto fictum astutumque vocamus.—Horace: Sat. I. iii.