RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE, NO. II.
Owing to my absence from England, I was unable to answer the Queries which were put to me (No 94., p. 116.) by your respected correspondent J. E. The word guistroun (as also Salhanas) was merely an error of the press; and with respect to the others, I concur, for the most part, in the learned observations of MR. SINGER (No 96., p. 159.). Quistroun, it may be added, is found in a MS. chronicle quoted in the preface to the French version of Havelok, and with the explanation "de sa quisyne." The singular form of chaunsemlees is written chauncemele in the Promptuar. Parvul., and rendered subtelaris, which, according to Ducange, would correspond exactly to slipper.
I now beg to present your readers with a fresh series of extracts from the same volume. The first, though rather long, will not easily bear abbreviation. It is somewhat in the style of Piers Ploughman, but earlier by several years. The subject is the unfaithfulness of the clergy in the former half of the fourteenth century:—
"Þis word is mekil agen þese clerkis
Þt schuld kenne lewid folk good werkis,
And gader hem to goddis hord
Wiþ rightful lyf and goddis word.
Hem auhte þinke if þei wer wise
How þei schul stonde at goddis assise,
And gelden acountes of all hir wit