Where so he rode in peace or elles in warre.’
103. Noua villa Macedo, i.e. Alexander Neville: a very bad attempt on the part of our author.
104. maledixit. The particular form of curse in this case was translation to the see of S. Andrew, which he could not occupy because Scotland was Clementine.
107. Hic proceres odit, &c. He is said to have especially urged the king to take strong measures against Warwick (Malverne, p. 105).
109. de puteo Michaelis, ‘of Michael de la Pool.’ The same view of the meaning of the name is taken in Shakspere, 2 Henry VI, iv. l. 70, by the murderer of William, duke of Suffolk, son of this Michael, ‘Pole, Pool, sir Pool, lord! Ay, kennel, puddle, sink.’
111 ff. This is Thomas Rushook, a Dominican, who was translated from Llandaff to Chichester by the king’s special desire in 1385. He had incurred much suspicion and odium as the king’s confessor and supposed private adviser. Walsingham says, ‘ipse sibi conscius fugam iniit’ (ii. 172); but he certainly appeared at the bar of Parliament and was sentenced to forfeiture of his goods (Rot. Parl. iii. 241, Malverne, p. 156).
113. ater: alluding to his Dominican habit.
121 ff. Cp. Knighton, ii. 255 f. All the five Appellants seem to have entered the Tower, but the three spoken of here are of course the three leaders, referred to in l. 41 and afterwards. Knighton says that the king invited the five to stay for the night, but only the earls of Derby and Nottingham accepted the invitation. The fact that Gower here assigns no political action to his hero the earl of Derby (who was under twenty years old), but gives all the credit to the three leaders, shows clearly that the young Henry played a very subordinate part.
131. covnata: that is, ‘co-unata,’ meaning ‘assembled.’
133 ff. Cp. Knighton, ii. 292.