a 284. Lammasse tyme: August 1, when the new corn (l. 294) would be in. On this day a loaf was offered as firstfruits: whence the name, OE. hlāf-mæsse.
a 307 ff. Owing to repeated famines, the wages of manual labour rose throughout the first half of the fourteenth century. A crisis was reached when the Black Death (1349) so reduced the number of workers that the survivors were able to demand wages on a scale which seemed unconscionable to their employers. By the Statute of Labourers (1350 and 1351) an attempt was made to force wages and prices back to the level of 1346. For a day's haymaking 1d. was to be the maximum wage; for reaping 2d. or 3d. Throughout the second half of the fourteenth century vain attempts were made to enforce these maxima, and the penalties did much to fan the unrest that broke out in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
a 309-10. From Bk. i of the Disticha of Dionysius Cato, a collection of proverbs famous throughout the Middle Ages.
a 321. Saturn was a malevolent planet, as we see from his speech in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, 1595 ff.
a 324. Deth: the Plague.
b 1. Cornehulle. Cornhill was one of the liveliest quarters of fourteenth-century London, and a haunt of idlers, beggars, and doubtful characters. Its pillory and stocks were famous. Its market where, if The London Lickpenny is to be credited, dealing in stolen clothes was a speciality, was privileged above all others in the city. See the documents in Riley's Memorials of London.
b 2. Kytte: In the B-text, Passus xviii. 425-6, Kytte is mentioned again:
and riȝt with þat I waked
And called Kitte my wyf and Kalote my douȝter.
b 4. lollares of London: The followers of Wiclif were called 'Lollards' by their opponents; but the word here seems to mean 'idlers' as in l. 31. lewede heremytes: 'lay hermits': hermits were not necessarily in holy orders, and so far from seeking complete solitude, they often lived in the cities or near the great highways, where many passers would have opportunity to recognize their merit by giving alms. See Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, pp. 93 ff.