[12566]. Matth. xiv, 28.
[12599]. a spirit speketh to helle. The picture of the "Harrowing of Hell," which here fol, bears a striking resemblance to the analogous scene in the old Mysteries, particularly in that edited by Mr. Halliwell under this title, 8vo, 1840. Compare the play on the same subject in the Towneley Mysteries, p. 244.
[12601]. Psal. xxiii, 7, 9.
[12645], [12669], [12676]. sevene hundred wynter ... thritty wynter ... two and thritty wynter. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers always counted duration of time by winters and nights; for so many years, they said so many winters, and so many nights for so many days. This form continued long in popular usage, and still remains in our words fortnight and se'nnight.
[12663]. Gobelyn. Goblin is a name still applied to a devil. It belongs properly to a being of the old Teutonic popular mythology, a hob-goblin, the "lubber-fiend" of the poet, and seems to be identical with the German kobold. (See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 286.) Gobelin occurs as the name of one of the shepherds in the Mystery of the Nativity, printed by M. Jubinal in his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. 71. It occurs as the name of a devil in a song of the commencement of the fourteenth century, Political Songs, p. 238:—
Sathanas huere syre
Seyde on is sawe,
Gobelyn made is gerner
Of gromene mawe.
[12679]. to warne Pilates wif. This is an allusion to a popular legend prevalent at this time that the devil wished to hinder Christ's crucifixion, and that he appeared to Pilate's wife in a dream, and caused her to beseech her husband not to condemn the Saviour. It was founded on the passage in Matthew xxvii, 19. Sedente autem illo pro tribunali, misit ad eum uxor ejus, dicens: Nihil tibi et justo illi: multa enim passa sum hodie per visum propter eum. The most complete illustration of the passage of Piers Ploughman will be found in Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 308, "Pilate's Wife's Dream."