His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright,
As don the sterrès in a frosty night.
This worthy limitour was cleped Hubèrd.
[59] a fair one for the mastership.
[60] hunting.
[61] dainty.
[62] pass.
[63] did not care a plucked hen for the text.
[64] careless; removed from the restraints of his order and vows.
[65] mad.
[66] toil.
[67] biddeth.
[68] hard rider.
[69] spurring.
[70] wrought on the edge.
[71] a fine kind of fur.
[72] bald.
[73] bright.
[74] Shone like a furnace under a cauldron.
[75] tormented.
[76] Friar.
[77] A friar with a licence to beg within certain limits.
[78] Unto.
[79] country gentlemen.
[80] knew.
[81] have.
[82] poor.
[83] shriven.
[84] durst make a boast.
[85] must.
[86] stuffed.
[87] a stringed instrument.
[88] story telling.
[89] have.
[90] profit.
[91] poor people.
[92] farm. This couplet only appears in the Hengwrt MS. As Mr. Pollard says, it is probably Chaucer's, but may have been omitted by him as it interrupts the sentence. Cf. Globe Chaucer.
[93] ere.
[94] The proceeds of his begging exceeded his fixed income.
[95] Days appointed for the amicable settlement of differences.
[96] half cloak.
JOHN LYDGATE.
(1373?-1460.)
[IV.] THE LONDON LACKPENNY.
This is an admirable picture of London life early in the fifteenth century. The poem first appeared among Lydgate's fugitive pieces, and has been preserved in the Harleian MSS.
To London once my steps I bent,
Where truth in no wise should be faint;