a 235 ff. Matthew xxv. 14 ff.; Luke xix. 12 ff.
a 245. Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf. The merits of these two ways of life were endlessly disputed in the Middle Ages. In XI b Wiclif attacks the position of the monks and of Rolle's followers; and the author of Pearl (VI 61 ff.) takes up the related question of salvation by works or by grace.
a 246. Psalm cxxviii. 1.
a 264. Jusserand gives a brief account of the old-time physicians in English Wayfaring Life, pp. 177 ff. The best were somewhat haphazard in their methods, and the mountebanks brought discredit on the profession. Here are a few fourteenth-century prescriptions:
For hym that haves the squynansy ['quinsy']:—
Tak a fatte katte, and fla hit wele and clene, and draw oute the guttes; and tak the grees of an urcheon ['hedgehog'], and the fatte of a bare, and resynes, and feinygreke ['fenugreek'], and sauge ['sage'], and gumme of wodebynde, and virgyn wax: al this mye ['grate'] smal, and farse ['stuff'] the catte within als thu farses a gos: rost hit hale, and geder the grees, and enoynt hym tharwith. (Reliquiae Antiquae, ed. Wright and Halliwell (1841), vol. i, p. 51.)
Ȝyf a woud hund hat ybite a man:—
Take tou<n>karsyn ['towncress'], and pulyole ['penny-royal'], and seþ hit in water, and ȝef hym to drynke, and hit schal caste out þe venym: and ȝif þou miste ['might'] haue of þe hundys here, ley hit þerto, and hit schal hele hit. (Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century, ed. G. Henslow, London 1899, p. 19.)
A goud oynement for þe goute:—
Take þe grece of a bor, and þe grece of a ratoun, and cattys grece, and voxis grece, and hors grece, and þe grece of a brok ['badger']; and take feþeruoye ['feverfew'] and eysyl ['vinegar'], and stampe hem togedre; and take a litel lynnesed, and stampe hit wel, and do hit þerto; and meng al togedre, and het hit in a scherd, and þerwith anoynte þe goute by the fuyre. Do so ofte and hit schal be hol. (Ibid., p. 20.)