Of what condicion or what degree
That he were of, nat sholde hardy be
For to despute of the feith openly;
And ther-upon sundry peynes sette he,
That peril sholde eschuëd be therby.'
Minor Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 14.
Compare with this the fourth stanza of Balade I.
We may regret that Hoccleve's desire to make an example of heretics was so soon fulfilled. Only three years later, in Dec. 1418, Sir John Oldcastle was captured in Wales, brought up to London, and publicly burnt.
My text follows the sole good MS. (Phillipps 8151); which I have collated with the earliest printed text, that of 1542. There is, indeed, another MS. copy of the poem in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (R. 3. 15); but it is only a late copy made from the printed book.