And the wey, I telle you, is comborous and thyk,
And thou might stomble, and take the cryk;
Therfor bide at home, what so ever hap
Tylle the world be turnyd into another shap.
One or two other allusions to this custom have been found in manuscripts of the fifteenth century, and in the sixteenth century these allusions become more numerous.
[5563]. 1 Corinth. vii, 1.
[5613]. Margery perles. A margarite pearl, perle marguerite. The Latin name for a pearl (margarita) seems to be the origin of this expression.
[5634]. a love day | to lette with truthe. Love days (Dies amoris) were days fixed for settling differences by umpire, without having recourse to law or to violence. The ecclesiastics seem generally to have had the principal share in the management of these transactions, which throughout the Visions of Piers Ploughman appear to be censured as the means of hindering justice and of enriching the clergy. A little further on, Religion is blamed for being "a ledere of love-dayes." (l. [6219].) In Chaucer, it is said of the friar:—
And over'al, ther eny profyt schulde arise,
Curteys he was, and lowe of servyse.