[P. 11], l. 1, lucro Lucam ... Marco marcam ... libræ librum.—These puns are frequently repeated in the satirical poetry of the thirteenth century. They will be found further on in the present volume, pp. [16] and [31], as well as in some of the poems of Walter Mapes. Giraldus Cambrensis uses a similar pun in relating his journey to Rome, where he says he differed in one particular from others who went there, for he offered libros, non libras. Libra in the song should probably be translated a pound, as at p. [31], not the scales.
[P. 12], l. 1, Joannes ... decanus.—For Joannes, the King’s MS. has canes, which is perhaps right, as canus and canit in the following line seem to be continued puns upon the word.
[P. 12], l. 10, Heliensis.—Eustace, Bishop of Ely, from 1197 to 1214. As has been observed, he was one of the three who published the pope’s interdict.
—— l. 19, Wolstani subambule.—Maugerius, Bishop of Worcester, from 1200 to 1212. He was also one of those who published the interdict, and having like the others fled to the Continent, he died in exile at Pontiniac, in 1212. It is hardly necessary to observe that St. Wolstan had held the see of Worcester in the eleventh century.
[P. 13], l. 6, De Roffensi episcopo.—Gilbert de Glanville, Bishop of Rochester, from 1185 to 1214. Between him and his monks there was perpetual contention, and he diminished much the goods of his church. See Godwin.
—— l. 10, pauper Sarisburiæ.—Robert, Bishop of Salisbury, who seems to have lived in obscurity. Godwin says he could find no other information relating to him, except the date of his being bishop.
—— l. 15, I Romam.—Flacius Illyricus gives here the following side-note—“Golias ad librum, vel Gualterus Mapes.”
[P. 14], l. 6-10.—This information is conveyed in two side-notes in Flacius Illyricus, who has printed this Song imperfectly; but whether these notes were composed by the editor, or found in the manuscript, we are not told. There are no circumstances in the Song itself which would lead us to fix it to this date rather than to any other in the first half of the thirteenth century. The two notes are at the beginning,—“Leo, Joannes Rex; aselli, episcopi sunt;”—and at the end, “Jupiter Rex Joannes est: Pluto, Romanus pontifex.” On reference, however, to Bale, I find that he speaks of Mapes as calling King John sometimes a lion and sometimes Jupiter, and as designating the Pope by the name of Pluto, and the bishops as asses, which seems to prove that he had read these side-notes, perhaps in the manuscript from which Flacius’s transcript was made. It is not indeed improbable that the latter obtained it from Bale himself, who was perhaps the author of the side-notes.
—— l. 11, Song on the Times.—Flacius has printed this Song in his Varia Doctorum, etc. Poemata, p. 406, with the omission of the three first stanzas, which he had previously given as a separate song at p. 159. The text now printed is made up from a comparison of the manuscript with the printed text. The variations are as follows:—L. 1, utor, Flacius.—3, deaurati belli, Fl.—9, Facies in opere, MS.—10, Tegunt partem an., Fl.—[P. 15], l. 2, congruit ramum in, Fl.—3, caput mundi, Fl.—5, Trahit enim ... et sec., Fl.—7, singula, Fl.—9, Romæ sunt v., Fl.—11, In hoc cons., Fl.—17, petunt quando petis, Fl.—18, seminas, eadem tu metis, Fl.—[P. 16], l. 4, Munus al. pollet sing., Fl.—6, rot. placet, totum pl., Fl.—7, Et c. ita pl. ... Romanis, Fl.—10, objiciat, Fl.—12, transeunt, ut bursa det g., Fl.—13, Romam avaritiæ vitet manus p., Fl.—16, At est, MS.—[P. 17], l. 1, non sit, Fl.—2, Respondet, hæc tybia non est michi tanti, MS.—4, pappare, Fl.—5, nomen Gallicum, Fl.—6, Paies, paies, dist le mot, Fl.—7-10, These four lines are not found in the MS.—11, Da istis, da aliis, addas, Fl.—[P. 18], l. 1, Burse, Fl.—4, Ut cum fiat vacuus, magis imp., Fl.—6, habet Pl., Fl.—In Fl. the two last tetrastichs are transposed.