Expellunt hominem a domo propria.
There was an old French proverbial distich to the same effect,—
Fumée, pluye, et femme sans raison,
Chassent l'homme de sa maison.
[12040]. 2 Corinth. xii, 9.
[12097]. to be dubbed. These and the following lines contain a continued allusion to the ceremonies of knighthood and tournaments.
[12106]. Psal. cxvii, 26.
[12211]. Matth. xxvii, 54.
[12232], [12244]. Longeus ... this blynde bacheler. This alludes to one of the many legends which the monks engrafted upon the scripture history. Longeus is said to have been the name of the soldier who pierced the side of Christ with his spear; and it is pretended that he was previously blind from his birth, but that the blood of the Saviour ran down his spear, and a drop of it touching his eye, he was instantly restored to sight, by which miracle he was converted. See, in illustration of this subject, Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 334; The Towneley Mysteries, p. 321; Jubinal, Mystères inédits du quinzième Siècle, tom. ii, pp. 254-257; &c.
[12319], [12418], [12420]. Mercy and Truthe, ... Pees ... Rightwisnesse. Lydgate seems to have had this passage in his mind, when he described the four sisters in the following lines at the commencement of one of his poems (MS. Harl. 2255, fol. 21):—