Here the speech is put into the mouth of a member of the Roman court, for which cp. Vox Clam. iii. 817 ff., where a similarly cynical avowal is put into the mouth of the Pope.
18539. perchera. I am disposed to take this as a future of ‘percevoir,’ in the sense ‘receive,’ ‘collect,’ (‘parcevoir rentes’ Godefr.). Roquefort (Suppl.) gives ‘perchoir’ as a possible form of the word.
18542. serrons, from ‘serrer.’
18553. Cp. Vox Clam. iii. 141,
‘Clauiger ethereus Petrus extitit, isteque poscit
Claues thesauri regis habere sibi.’
18556. Cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 206 ff., where the parallel is very close.
18580. The allusion is to the cross upon the reverse of the English gold coinage of Edward III’s time, as also on that of some other countries and perhaps on the pound sterling, see 25270.
18584. cil huissier, ‘the doorkeepers.’
18589. This form of sentence is characteristic of our author: cp. Bal. xviii. 2,