3127. as to my doom, in my judgment.
3130. Scan the line—Bút a góvernoúr wylý and wýs. The Petworth MS. inserts 'boþ' before 'wyly': but this requires the very unlikely accentuation 'govérnour' and an emphasis on a. The line would scan better if we might insert art, or lyk, after But, but there is no authority for this.
3132. Read—A wél-faríng persónë, after which comes the pause, as marked in E. and Hn.
3139. The monk's semi-cope, which seems to have been an ample one, is mentioned in the Prologue, A. 262. In Jack Upland, § 4, a friar is asked what is signified by his 'wide cope.'
3142. 'Shaven very high on his crown'; alluding to the tonsure.
3144. the corn, i. e. the chief part or share.
3145. borel men, lay-men. Borel means 'rude, unlearned, ignorant,' and seems to have arisen from a peculiar use of borel or burel, sb., a coarse cloth; so that its original sense, as an adj., was 'in coarse clothing,' or 'rudely clad.' See borrel and burel in the New Eng. Dictionary.
shrimpes, diminutive or poor creatures.
3146. wrecched impes, poor grafts, weakly shoots. Cf. A. S. impian, to graft, imp, a graft; borrowed from Low Lat. impotus, a graft, from Gk. ἔμφυτος, engrafted.
3152. lussheburghes, light coins. In P. Plowman, B. xv. 342, we are told that 'in Lussheborwes is a lyther alay (bad alloy), and yet loketh he lyke a sterlynge.' They were spurious coins imported into England from Luxembourg, whence the name. See Liber Albus, ed. Riley, 1841, p. 495; and Blount's Nomolexicon. Luxembourg is called Lusscheburghe in the Allit. Morte Arthure, l. 2388. The importation of this false money was frequently forbidden, viz. in 1347, 1348, and 1351.