And let every crysome-child creepe to its owne mother.
White Paternoster! Amen.'
The mention of St. Peter's brother is remarkable. It is a substitution for the older 'Saint Peter's sister' here mentioned. Again, St. Peter's sister is a substitution for St. Peter's daughter, who is a well-known saint, usually called St. Petronilla, or, in English, Saint Parnell, once a very common female name, and subsequently a surname. Her day is May 31, and she was said to cure the quartan ague; see Brand, Pop. Antiq., ed. Ellis, i. 363. A curious passage in the Ancren Riwle, p. 47, gives directions for crossing oneself at night, and particularly mentions the use of four crosses on 'four halves,' or in the original, 'vour creoices a uour halue'; with the remark 'Crux fugat omne malum,' &c. For 'Rural Charms,' see the chapter in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.; and see the charm against rats in Political and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 23. I may add that, in Kemble's Solomon and Saturn, p. 136, is an A. S. poem, in which the Paternoster is personified, and destroys evil spirits. In Longfellow's Golden Legend, § II., Lucifer is made to say a Black Paternoster.
3507. 'That, if you betray me, you shall go mad (as a punishment).'
3509. labbe, chatterbox, talkative person. In P. Plowm. C. xiii. 39, we find the phrase 'ne labbe it out,' i. e. do not chatter about it, do not utter it foolishly. In the Romans of Partenay, ed. Skeat, 3751, we find: 'a labbyng tonge'; and Chaucer has elsewhere: 'a labbing shrewe,' E. 2428. Sewel's Du. Dict. (1754) gives: 'labben, or labbekakken, to blab, chat'; also 'labbekak, a tattling gossip, a common blab'; and 'labbery, chat, idle talk.'
3512. him, i. e. Christ. The story of the Harrowing (or despoiling) of Hell by Christ is derived from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, and is a favourite and common subject in our older authors. It describes the descent of Christ into hell, after His crucifixion, in order to release the souls of the patriarchs, whom He takes with Him to paradise. It is given at length in P. Plowman, Text C. Pass. xxi; and was usually introduced into the mystery plays; see the Coventry Mysteries, the York Plays, &c. See also Cursor Mundi, 17,863; Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 12; &c.
3516. 'On Monday next, at the end of the first quarter of the night,' i. e. about 9 P.M. Cf. ll. 3554, 3645.
3530. See Ecclesiasticus, xxxii. 24 [Eng. version, 19]; this was not said by 'Solomon,' but by Jesus, son of Sirach. It is quoted again in the Tale of Melibeus; B. 2193.
3539. 'The trouble endured by Noah and his company.' Noë is the form in the Latin Vulgate version. The allusion is to the intentionally comic scene introduced into the mystery plays, as, e. g. in the Chester Plays, the Towneley Plays, and the York Plays, in which Noah and his sons (felawshipe) have much ado to induce Noah's wife to enter the ark; and, in the course of the scene, she gives Noah a sound box on the ear.