And alle the Duche cotis.
Whitaker gives the following singular explanation of this passage:—"Let dagge hus clothes, probably, let them fall to the ground, or divested himself of them; for warriors are 'succinct' for battle as well as 'for speed!'"
[14269]. A glazene howve. I suppose this means that, in return for his gold, Physic gave him a hood of glass, i. e. a very frail protection for his person.
[14367]. of the Marche of Walys. Whitaker's text reads, of the Marche of Yrelonde. The clergy of the Welsh border appear, from allusions in other works, to have been proverbial for their ignorance and irregularity of life.
[14438]. Psal. cxlvi, 4.
[14444]. wage menne to werre. This is a curious account of the composition of an army in the fourteenth century.
[14482]. Exod. xx, 17.
[14511]. suffre the dede in dette, i. e., The friars persuade people to leave to them, under pretence of saving their souls, the property which was due to their creditors, and thus, after their death, their debts remain unpaid.
[14615], [14617]. this lymytour ... he salvede so oure wommen. The whole of this passage, taken with what precedes, is an amusing satire upon the limitour. Compare the description of the limitour given by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales, ll. 208-271, who alludes to his kindness for the women. The limitour was a friar licensed to visit and beg within certain limits. His pertinacity and inquisitiveness in visiting, alluded to in the name given him in Piers Ploughman (Sir Penetrans-domos), is admirably satirized by Chaucer, in the opening of the "Wif of Bathes Tale:"—
In olde dayes of the kyng Arthour,