Vt loquitur vulgus loquor,’ &c.
There, as here, the excuse is prefatory to an attack on Church dignitaries.
19113. persuacioun: five syllables in the metre.
19117. The application of this reference, which is here lost, may be supplied from Vox Clam. iii. 1145 ff., where the instance is quoted, as here, in condemnation of the laxity of bishops.
19315. The leaf which is here lost contained the full number of 192 lines without any rubric, as we may see by the point at which the present stanza begins. The author is still on the subject of bishops.
19333 ff. With the substance of this and the following stanza cp. Conf. Am. Prol. 449 ff.
19345. An unfavourable view of the bee is generally taken by our author: cp. 5437 ff.
19372 f. ‘The wanton prelate, who is bound to God, separates himself grievously from him by reason of the sting’: ‘q’a dieu se joynt’ seems only meant to express the fact that by his office he is near to God.
19377. Referring to some such passage as Gal. v. 16 f.
19380. ‘would be in better case if they had no sting.’