'Now God, of hus goodnesse,
Geve the grace to amende!'
Quath Repentaunce ryght with that;
And thenne roos Envye.
The description of Envy, which follows, is shorter in Whitaker's text, and differs much from our text.
[2819]-[2822]. The discipline here described seems to have been peculiar to the chapter-house of the monasteries. Matth. Paris, p. 848, has an anecdote which illustrates curiously this passage of Piers Ploughman. In speaking of the turbulent Falcasius de Breuté, who had been warned in a vision to offer himself to suffer penance in the monastery of St. Albans, in the reign of Henry III, he says, "Vestibus igitur spoliatus cum suis militibus, similiter indumentis spoliatis, ferens in manu virgam quam vulgariter baleis appellamus, et confitens culpam suam, ... a singulis fratribus disciplinas nuda carne suscepit."
[2846]. In the text which Whitaker has printed, the confession of Wrath was followed by that of Luxury or Lechery. It stands as follows in the copy of the same text in MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. xvi. (See l. [8713], of our present text.)
Thanne seide Lecherie, Alas!
And to oure Ladi criede,
'Ladi, for thi leve sone,