WISDOM: FOOTNOTES

1 Wisdom is more splendid than the sun (Wisdom 7:29)

2 I am black, but beautiful O ye daughters of Jerusalem (Canticles 1:4)

3 “Nigra . . . Salomonis”: I am black, but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon (Canticles 1:4)

4 Lines 169–70: Because I am dark, look not upon me, / For the sun of Jove has discolored me (Compare Canticles 1:5)

5 And he who created me rested in my tabernacle (Ecclesiasticus 24:11–12)

6 You are completely beautiful, etc. (Canticles 4:7)

7 Lines 377–78: I shall make it appear to him that perfection is sin, / And prove virtue to be wickedness

8 Why do you stand the whole day here in idleness? (Matthew 20:6)

9 To abandon the job that properly belongs to him

10 Truth does not collect damage because of wealth

11 Lines 996–97: Greater than the sea is your breach, your contrition; what can comfort you? / She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks (Lamentations 2:13 and 1:2)

12 Line 1065, s.d.: What can I render to the Lord for all that he has given me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord (Psalm 115:12–13)

13 Lines 1084–85: You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, / With one glance of your eyes (Canticles 4:9)

14 Lines 1120–21: Be not conformed to this world, / But be transformed by the renewing of your spiritual senses (Romans 12:2)

15 Lines 1128–29: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, / And put on the new man, created in God’s likeness (Ephesians 4:23–24)

16 Lines 1136–37: I would put away the old man with his deeds, / And clothe yourself like a new man in the knowledge of God (Colossians 3:9)

17 Lines 1144–45: The Lord is good to all, / And his tender mercies are over all his works (Psalm 144:9)

18 Being justified by faith, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1)

19 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7)

20 Lines 1156–57: To you who fear the Lord / Shall the sun of righteousness arise (Malachias 4:2)
 

WISDOM: NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; D: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 133; MED: Middle English Dictionary; M: Macro Manuscript, Washington DC; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; s.d. : stage direction; Tilley: Tilley, Dictionary of Proverbs in England; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases.

1, s.d. Wisdom’s elaborate costume is composed almost entirely of elements whose use was restricted to royalty by sumptuary laws, and the orb and scepter which he holds confirm his identification as a regal figure. Contemporary art would also identify Wisdom as Christ in majesty, an equation for which there is ample scriptural tradition (see, for example, Isaias 11:1–2, 1 Corinthians 1:24, or Luke 11:49). Wisdom’s description of the Crucifixion at the end of the play (lines 1096–1107) confirms his identification with Christ.

16, s.d. chappelet. M: chappetelot, Eccles’ emendation. Anima’s costume is symbolic of the dual nature of man’s soul, at once divine and sinful. Her furred white garment, representing the soul’s eternal and divine nature, is covered with a black mantle indicating its fallen state; a coronet or small crown indicates her nobility.

17 Hanc amavi et exquisivi. The passage is from the Wisdom of Solomon, one of the “deuterocanonical” books of the Bible, which differ from the “canonical” books in that they do not occur in the Hebrew Bible. Anima cites the first line of the passage in Latin, but her speech continues to translate the text: “Hanc amavi et exquisivi a iuventute mea, et quaesivi sponsam mihi adsumere et amator factus sum formae illius” [Her have I loved, and have sought her out from my youth, and have desired to take for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty]. The playwright is clearly not concerned by the (unequivocally) female Anima speaking a passage directed in its scriptural source to a female lover.

25 Of. M: Off. Here, as elsewhere, I have transcribed ff as f to avoid confusion between the of/off prepositions.

63–64 This sentiment echoes the spiritual belief of St. Bonaventure in The Mind’s Road to God, as well as in the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing, wherein God is only knowable through experience, and that experience cannot be put into words.

103–06 Wisdom describes the creation of man in God’s image as it appears in Genesis 1:27 and following, prior to Adam’s offence, as described in Genesis 3:6–19.

111 The “original sin” of which Wisdom speaks describes the fallen state of man following Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Although all men and women have not individually committed the sin of Adam and Eve, their sin and expulsion is directly responsible for man’s fallen state. As Paul ex-plained the doctrine, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sin-ners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

124 the sacramentys sevyn. Although Wisdom refers to the seven sacraments, he only specifically mentions baptism. The others are eucharist, confession, confirmation, marriage, ordination of priests, and extreme unction (also called anointing of the sick).

134 Although the character of Anima is clearly feminine and is portrayed as the bride of Wisdom/Christ, the sources (especially those in Latin) are ambiguous about the soul’s gender, and occasional masculine pronouns slip into the text, especially when the soul is presented in its regal capacity. See also lines 147 and, especially, 289 and 1125. “He” sometimes, however, designates either male or female (e.g., Pride of Life, line 68).

178 The association of the soul’s three faculties with the Trinity derives from St. Augustine’s treatise De Trinitate (Book xv, chapter 23), in which Mind, Understanding, and Will are associated respectively with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

183–212 Mind is showing off here with elaborate word-play on his name. He is mindful of the frailty of his mind, but it is his mind which leads him to God, whom he asks to be mindful of him.

269–74 The equation of God and charity (divine love) is a commonplace of medieval theology. Although repeated by virtually all writers, the most frequently cited source for the idea is St. Augustine’s De doctrina christiana, though the initial source is likely such passages as “Deus caritas est” (God is love) in 1 John 4.8.

276 The “tabernacle” is the human body which has been created in God’s image (“lyknes,” line 274). God “rests” in man as an indication of the divine nature of his soul.

294 The traditional three enemies of Mankind, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, appear in several other plays as well, notably in the Digby play of Mary Magdalene and The Castle of Perseverance. Though the idea — a sort of evil parallel to the Trinity — was widespread, it may derive ultimately from the Meditations attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Chapter 12, “De tribus inimicis hominis, carne, mundo, et diabolo” (“On the Three Enemies of Man, the Flesh, the World, and the Devil”). See also Wenzel, “Three Enemies of Man.”

321 The story of the oil of mercy is apocryphal, and its primary source is the Gospel of Nichodemus, which also tells the story of the Harrowing of Hell. According to the apocryphal account, immediately following the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam is given a promise that at the end of his life he would receive the oil of mercy. At the age of 130, Adam asks his third son Seth, an obedient son born long after the killing of Abel, to go to Paradise for the promised oil of mercy. Seth travels to Paradise, where the archangel Michael allows him a vision of Paradise. Incorporated into the vision is the image of a child, whom Michael identifies as the coming Christ, who is the promised oil of mercy. For the full text, see Kim, Gospel of Nichodemus, pp. 37–38 (Latin); or James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 126–28 (English translation).

324, s.d. Lucifer is “disguised”: his devil’s costume “without” covers a gallant’s flamboyant clothing “within,” so that his costume change at line 408 simply involves removing the devil’s attire. The description here suggests that the gallant’s dress may be at least partially visible beneath the devil costume. Beside this stage direction a hand different from that of the text has marked a cross in the left margin; such marginal crosses also appear at twenty-six other places in the text, eleven of them opposite stage directions. John Marshall has suggested that they may have been a production aid, perhaps indicating significant changes of stage-picture. See Marshall, “Marginal Staging Marks.”

325 “Out, harrow” is a frequent cry of the devils in the biblical plays, generally signifying anger and frustration, though it is also the reaction of the poor widow and her daughters to the fox’s capture of Chaunteclere in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale (CT VII[B²]4570).

327–28 My place to restore, / God hath made man! The plays commonly assert the proposition that mankind was created to fill the gap left when Satan and his horde of angels fell. E.g., York Cycle 7.23–24, 37.13–16; and N-Town 11.48 ff. (Parliament of Heaven). See also Gower, CA 8.30–36 and Cursor Mundi 514–16. The idea figures prominently in St. Augustine’s Enchiridion, ch. 29.

341–42 Lucifer’s “wyly . . . knowynge,” that is worldly knowledge, is a direct contrast to a very different kind of knowledge, the wisdom represented by Christ.

343 compleccyons. Elemental humors of the body (melancholy, bile, choler, phlegm) through which humankind is especially vulnerable.

380, s.d. See note to line 324, s.d.; although the stage direction indicates that Lucifer goes offstage to remove his devil costume, there is no practical reason why he must do so. Perhaps he simply steps behind a curtain in order to deposit his now superfluous attire.

381–92 As Riggio has pointed out, these opening speeches of the returning Mights indicate a clear differentiation of intellect: Mind, representing higher reason and therefore the most intellectual, is concerned with studying God’s doctrine; Understanding, representing lower worldly reason, will follow God’s law; and Will, representing sense and passion, will offer God praise. See Riggio, Play of Wisdom, pp. 229–30.

394 Lucifer’s first attack on the three Mights is based on a quotation from Scripture, hinting at the way he will twist theological arguments to his own purpose.

401 Again, Lucifer refers to a scriptural passage which the audience (and the three Mights) would undoubtedly recognize (Ecclesiastes 3:1–3).

413 Mertha. Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus. See Luke 10:38–42. During the Middle Ages, she was regarded as typifying the active life. See Aquinas, Catena Aurea, Luke 10:38–42.

414 Maria. Maria is the contemplative sister of Martha, who typifies the active life. (See Luke 10:38–42.) The activities of Martha please God greatly (line 413) but Maria pleases God more, since the “Contemplatyff lyff ys sett befor” (line 417). This Mary was traditionally identified with Mary Magdalene. See the Digby Mary Magdalene play.

428 How one reads Lucifer’s arguments in favor of the “mixed life” is crucial in the context of interpreting the play as a whole. A life which combined contemplation with living in the world (as opposed to a strictly cloistered life) was often held up as an ideal, as the mode of life which Christ himself led (lines 419–28). If the three Mights, as their arguments would suggest, are presented as cloistered monks, Lucifer’s arguments could be seen as more effective than advice to abandon contemplation entirely. Much of the argument is derived from Walter Hilton’s fourteenth-century treatise On the Mixed Life, and David Bevington has suggested that the playwright is in fact arguing in favor of the mixed life despite presenting the case in the voice of Lucifer, since Lucifer’s arguments represent a substantial distortion of Hilton’s explanation (Macro Plays, p. xiii).

431 ff. Lucifer’s success at seducing Mind through logical argument is signaled by Mind’s admission that Lucifer has “reason” (line 445).

433 Lucifer’s warning against the difficulties of the contemplative life echoes the advice given by Thomas à Kempis, De imitatione Christi, Book 1, chapter 19.4: “Numquam sis ex toto otiosus, sed aut legens, aut scribens, aut orans, aut meditans, aut aliquid utilitatis pro communi laborans” (Never be completely idle, but either reading or writing, or praying or meditating, or at some useful work for the common good).

445 me seme ye have reson. Lucifer’s arguments against the contemplative life and his rejection of “harde lyvynge, and goynge wyth dyscyplyne dew” (line 434, as well as Mind’s defense of the contemplative life, line 446) imply that the three Mights are dressed as contemplatives.

451–56 Lucifer’s seduction of Understanding is centered on the offer of power and authority as well as their outward signs, that is, fine clothing. Lucifer appeals to Understanding’s five wits as a source of “delectacyon,” as well as the “dominacyon” or power inherent in those who dress well and present an authoritative aspect.

468 Lucifer’s twisted discussion of what best pleases God may be the catalyst for Wisdom’s concluding sermon on the Nine Virtues, lines 998–1065.

473–76 What synne ys in met? In ale? In wyn? / Wat synne ys in ryches? In clothynge fyne? / All thynge Gode ordenyde to man to inclyne. / Leve your nyse chastyté, and take a wyff! Lucifer offers Will the physical pleasures of the senses, good food and drink, wealth, and sex. Since Will is not much given to logical argument, he falls easily.

479 Wisdom has already warned against basing conclusions solely on the informa-tion of the five senses (lines 295–300).

488 Riggio (Play of Wisdom, p. 243) suggests that “thes prechors” might well refer to members of the audience. This would certainly accord with Lucifer’s other interactions with the audience (lines 433–40, 490, and possibly 518).

490 The line could be directed at a clerical member of the audience.

492 sett my soule on a mery pynne. The phrase is proverbial, and appears in other plays, such as Henry Medwall’s Nature (lines 865 and 1084). See Whiting, P215, and Tilley, P335. A “pynne” is a peg, perhaps of a musical instrument, and the phrase means to “direct one’s thoughts towards pleasure.”

494 Throughout his conversation with the three Mights, Lucifer has been directly subverting the arguments of Wisdom which opened the play; here he concludes by redefining the “clene soull” (which Wisdom had identified as “Godys restynge place,” line 193) as “mery.”

510 Change that syde aray. Lucifer advises Mind to change his long gown (“syde aray”), presumably for a shorter, more fashionable coat. A primary focus of anti-fashion satire in the fifteenth century was the short coat which provided little protection from the elements but displayed the wearer’s attributes to advantage. So in Mankind, Newguise disapproves of Mankind’s practical “syde gown” and recommends replacing it with a “jakett” (lines 671–72).

511 The meaning here is a bit unclear, signaled by the very different readings in the two manuscripts (“and it hap” in Digby, “hanip” in Macro). “La plu joly” would seem to be the name of a song. The Digby reading might mean “if it happen [to the tune of . . .].”

513–15 The idea figures prominently in St. Augustine’s Enchiridion 29, entitled “The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels Lost.”

522 Resone I have made both deff and dumme. Lucifer has perverted reason, making it “deff and dumme.” As he gloats about his success in the seduction of the three Mights, he indicates precisely the three sins to which they will be subject: Mind will be governed by Pride, the principal sin of the intellect; Understanding by Avarice or Covetousness, the principal sin of worldliness; and Will by Lechery, the principal sin of the physical body.

530–31 Covetousness is the sin to which Humanum Genus (“Mankind”) succumbs at the end of his life in Castle of Perseverance (lines 2700 ff.).

542 Wyll clenness ys in mankyn. M: Wyll clennes ys mankyn. Neither Davis nor Bevington emend. Coldeway suggests “Wyll in clenness ys mankyn,” but the Wisdom-playwright would not be likely to use such inverted diction.

549, s.d. The naughty boy whom Lucifer carries off with him might be a plant by the acting company or a mischievous and annoying child in the audience. Although several editions of the play gloss “boy” as “young man,” it would be important for the victim to be small enough to be picked up and carried with relative ease. Lucifer’s abduction of an annoying child is intended as a warning to the audience of his power over them.

550–61 Each of the Mights indicates that his new relationship to Lucifer is displayed physically by new (and fashionable) clothes.

551 Wyppe, wyrre, care awey! The interjections here (and at 762 and 890) are clear enough in their general sense, though their exact meaning is uncertain. They may well simply be expressions of pleasure or, in the latter two cases, of alarm.

601 Simony, the buying or selling of church offices for profit, was a substantial problem in the Middle Ages, when many churchmen held temporal administrative positions in addition to their spiritual positions within the church. Dante’s Inferno condemned the simoniacs to the eighth circle of Hell. A fourteenth-century poem “The Simonie,” linking simony and covetousness or greed, is found in Dean, Medieval English Political Writings, pp. 193–212.

602–03 This definition of falseness as wisdom is, of course, the inversion on which the play turns: true wisdom (that is oneness with Christ) has been perverted into worldly wisdom (that is falseness and deceit).

616–18 Several three-part drinking songs survive in the Fayrfax and Ritson manu-scripts (British Library MS Add. 5465 and 5665 respectively, both edited by John Stevens in Early Tudor Songs and Carols). The Powers identify their parts: Will is the treble or top part, Understanding the mean or middle part, and Mind the tenor or lower part.

632–35 Mind presents, in effect, a definition of Maintenance, the character he will adopt in the first dance. Described by Bevington as “the chief legal abuse of the age,” Maintenance involved the support or “maintaining” of a large body of liveried retainers for the specific purpose of interfering in legal proceedings. Maintenance represented a defiance of the central authority of the law, and both Richard III and Henry VII passed legislation intended to restrict its abuse. See Bevington, Tudor Drama and Politics, p. 30. The closest modern equivalent would likely be “graft” or “obstruction of justice.”

636–43 Whereas Mind’s perversion of the legal system was aimed at gaining power and authority (“myghty lordeschyppe,” line 629) in support of his sin of Pride, Understanding will use the courts for financial gain to satisfy his sin of Avarice. His methods will include simony (the selling of ecclesiastical offices, see note to line 601) and bribery.

684 A marginal note at this point reads “va . . .” which is completed at line 784 with “. . . cat” (also in the margin). The word “vacat” (“it may be omitted”) in the same hand as the playtext clearly indicates that the scribe envisioned more than one performance, with the possibility of omitting the dances (and thus eliminating the need for eighteen dancers). Such an omission might anticipate a smaller venue, a less costly performance, or a performance intended for touring. The initial direction (“va . . .”) also appears in the Digby manuscript; the closing direction would presumably have appeared in the section of the manuscript which is now lost.

691, s.d. The dancers are “dysgysed” (masked) and are dressed in the “sute” or livery of Mind. Their costuming is based on images of power and authority: red beards, lions rampant (standing upright, usually upon one hind leg, in a position of attack), and carrying clubs or batonlike weapons. Each of the Mights is followed by six named dancers costumed identically (or, in the case of Lechery, in two gendered groups of three), and these followers associate their leader directly with one of the three traditional enemies of mankind: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Mind/Maintenance is followed by representatives of the Devil’s sins, Pride, Envy, and Wrath (line 752).

696 discorde. M dycorde; reading from D.

697 Lovedays defined periods of time during which lawsuits and other legal matters might be settled out of court as well as the agreements made on such occasions. See Bennett, “Mediaeval Loveday.”

706 “Madame Regent” is likely to be the name of the dance which the trumpets play, but it is unknown. Very little dance music survives from late fifteenth-century England, although a recently discovered manuscript in the Derbyshire Record Office associated with the Gresley family gives the tenors for eight dances over which the players would improvise one or more parts. See Fallows, “Gresley Dance Collection.” One possible reconstruction of these dances can be found online at .

717 Cloaked Collusion, one of the Vices in John Skelton’s Magnyfycence (printed around 1530), says that he himself bears “two faces in a hood” (line 710).

720 The inquest or jury of Holborn; the district of Holborn was well known as the legal quarter of London, housing not only the law schools and the Inns of Court but also the Fleet Prison.

723, s.d. Understanding/Perjury’s dancers wear “hattys of Meyntenance,” that is, they are liveried indicating their allegiance to a patron. His followers each represent qualities used to gain advantage in a legal suit and thus to accumulate wealth through fraud.

730 evyll endyrecte. So D. M reads entyrecte, which Eccles glosses as “ointment.” I have followed D here, as does Riggio, who trans­lates “evil twist.”

740 This sounds like a proverb, though it is not recorded as such. It might be a variant of the proverb “There goes the hare away,” Whiting H120 and Tilley H157. Whiting discusses the use of proverbs in the play in Proverbs in the Earlier English Drama, pp. 75–77.

751, s.d. There seems to be no ambiguity about Will/Lechery’s dancers: they are six women, three of them cross-dressed as gallants. Although it is frequently claimed that women did not appear on the stage in England until after the Restoration, there is clear evidence of female performers in the Middle Ages. See Brown and Parolin, Women Players in England, where a number of the essays assume the existence of female performers prior to 1500. Also, these women are dancers rather than actors, and records of female dancers are common in the fifteenth century. The meaning of “conregent” is not clear. The base meaning would seem to be “ruling together” (as the OED gives it) or “having the same author­ity,” so it likely indicates that they wear the same livery. A hornpipe is a wind instrument constructed at least partially of animal horn, thus representing here an image of cuckoldry. Animal horns were used in the construction of several kinds of instruments, including bagpipes, fipple flutes (like recorders), and pibcorns.

758 “Bete,” or “Betty,” would seem to be a generic name for a loose woman.

762 The exact meaning of the interjection is uncertain, and it may simply be an expression of surprise (see also 551 and 890).

764 ff. The dance degenerates into a fight between the three Mights, symbolic of the discord and lack of order into which they have fallen after their seduction by Lucifer.

775, s.d. It is Wyll’s six dancers who leave (the “dumb show”), not the three Mights.

783 by the bon. A relatively mild oath, a less offensive variant of “By God’s bones.” It may also have a phallic overtone, since Wyll has now become Lechery.

788 Westminster Hall (just north of Westminster Abbey, near the present site of the Houses of Parliament) was the venue for three of the most important courts: King’s Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancery. In the moral interlude Hick Scorner (c. 1514), Imagination claims: “And yet I can imagine things subtle / For to get money plenty. / In Westminster Hall every term I am” (Lancashire, Two Tudor Interludes, lines 215–17).

792–93 The area around St. Paul’s was a center for the conduct of business, both com­mercial and legal, centering on the parvise, the enclosed and covered area at the west door. Writing during Elizabeth I’s reign, William Harrison notes that “[t]he time hath been that our lawyers did sit in Paul’s upon stools against the pillars and walls to get clients” (Description of England, p. 174).

803 engrose. M: engose, Eccles’ emendation.

808 nether. M: nther, Riggio’s emendation.

818 A noble was worth 6 s. 8 d, or one third of a pound.

831 St. Audrey was the common anglicization of the Anglo-Saxon St. Etheldreda, founder (in 673) and patron saint of the cathedral at Ely; the London resi­dence of the bishop of Ely was on Ely Place, just at the east end of the district of Hol­born, next to a church dedicated to St. Etheldreda.

833 N. likely stands for nomen (name) and the performer would insert the last name of someone local or a member of the audience.

849–50 Having a person arrested in one county (shire) while indicting him in another county at the same time was an effective means of guaranteeing his conviction. Since he would have been required to be present at both hearings, his absence at one would ensure his conviction at the second.

852 The Marshalsea Court was held before the king’s steward and knight-marshal, and dealt primarily with cases involving members of the royal household as well as with cases involving trespass in the vicinity of royal property.

853 The High Court of the Admiralty was given jurisdiction under Edward III over a variety of acts committed at sea, including piracy and ownership of wrecks. Its jurisdiction seems to have expanded quickly to include a variety of civil dis­putes, since legislation was found to be necessary under both Richard II and Henry IV to restrain the spread of the High Court’s actions.

854 A writ of praemunire facias (“you shall warn”; the manuscript reading is incorrect) required the sheriff to summon someone accused of pursuing a suit in a foreign country which should be pursued in an English court.

857 the crose and the pyll. From the French la croix et la pile, the phrase refers to the two sides of a coin, exactly equivalent to “heads and tails.”

870 The frequent use of the word “mery” following the fall of the Mights gives it a strong association with their sinful, revelous state.

890 whowe. The exact meaning of the interjection is uncertain, and it may simply be an expression of disbelief, like “whoa” (see also 551 and 762).

900 dysvyguryde. M: dyvyguryde, Eccles’ emendation. At line 697 the M scribe ap­pears to have misread D’s discorde as dycorde, and it is possible that he has made the same mistake here, though without this page of D it is not possible to tell.

907 A rechace is the call that is sounded to muster the hounds for a hunt; the “sounds” of the three Mights have called the Devil.

911, s.d. The manuscript reads “vi small boys” but this is likely a scribal error for “vii,” since Wisdom explicitly connects them (line 979) with the Seven Deadly Sins. Riggio, following the events of the Mights’ masque dances, suggests that Anima is to be taken as the seventh devil in the same way that each of the Mights becomes a seventh along with his six dancers. The equation of Anima with one of the Seven Deadly Sins would, however, be theologically inappropriate.

934 dysyrvynge. M: dysyrynge, Eccles’ emendation. This may be another case of M mis­reading an “I” if D’s reading was dysyrvinge.

972–74 very contrycyon. Wisdom outlines the traditional form of penance, defined as con­trition, or sorrow of heart; confession to an appropriate ecclesiastical authority; and satisfaction or restitution. This explanation appears in a wide variety of sources, among them Hilton’s Scale of Perfection (see Appendix 1).

985 your charter. The playwright’s image of a formal charter which the penitent soul receives through confession likely comes from Hilton’s Scale of Perfection (see Appendix 1).

988 comfort. M: mercy, Eccles’ emendation.

999 The Nine Points (Novem Virtutes) are described in several fifteenth-century texts in both Latin and English, and in both prose and verse. The English versions are not as close to Wisdom as the Latin prose text printed in Appendix 1, pp. 89–90. In general, the nine points involve a personal and emotional commit­ment to God, rather than a formal or public involvement. As such, they are in line with the tenets of devotio moderna as seen in such texts as Thomas à Kempis’ De imitatione Christi (c. 1418).

1018 thryve. M: prywe, Eccles’ emendation.

1024 kyngys. The texts of the Novem Virtutes read “knights” at this point, and, while “kyngys” could be an error for “knyghtys,” it is also possible that the play­wright changed the text deliberately since references to royalty are more im­portant in Wisdom than references to mere nobility.

1043–45 Upon thy nakyde feet and bare / Tyll the blode folwude . . . Ande aftyr eche stepe yt sene were. Compare the bloody feet of the poor plowman’s pitiable wife in “Piers the Plowman’s Crede,” line 436, as she walks barefoot across icy terrain; there the emotive force of the image provokes compassion in the audience.

1065, s.d. The crowns which Anima, the Five Wits, and the three Mights now wear are more elaborate than the “chappelets” they wore at their first appearance.

1096–1107 In these lines, possibly the most extraordinary passage in the whole play, Wisdom (now explicitly equated with Christ) explains to Anima how his five senses, perfect in their lack of sin, are able to make atonement for her where her sinful senses fail. This explanation revolves around an emotional descrip­tion of the pains which the crucifixion brought to each of Christ’s senses, the images clearly drawn from the fifteenth-century devotional mode of affective piety, best exemplified by Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ. Love explains the principle of imagining one’s self in the place of Christ: “For to him that wolde serche the passion of oure lorde with alle his herte & alle his inwarde affeccione, there shuld come many deuout felynges & stirynges that he neuer supposede before. Of the whech he shuld fele a newe compassion & a newe loue, & haue newe gostly confortes, thorh the whech he shold perceyue him self turnede as it were in to a newe astate of soule, in the which astate thoo forseide gostly felynges, shold seme to him as a nerneste & partie of the blisse & joy to come” (p. 160).

1107 dovehous. The “dovehouse” image seems to have been traditional; Eccles gives examples of it in the Ayenbite of Inwit, the Orologium, Richard Rolle’s Medi­tiations on the Passion, and The Book of Margery Kempe.

1108 plesere. M: plesynge, Eccles’ emendation (for the rhyme with line 1106).

1123 Each of the Mights is returned to a state of grace through one of the theological virtues; Mind through “gostly felynge,” that is faith, Understanding through hope (line 1127), and Will through love or charity (line 1135).

1137 This line is not in the manuscript, but there is no doubt that a line is missing from the stanza, and since the stanzas of the other three Mights and Anima each give a Latin couplet at this point, this would be the appropriate place for the missing line. The line immediately following in Colossians (3:9) does not fit, since it does not rhyme with “foly” in the next line; however, the line as quoted by Hilton in Scale of Perfection, Book 2, Chapter 31 does rhyme, and has been inserted here (following Eccles and Riggio). See Appendix 1.

1156 There is no change of speaker indicated in the manuscript at this point, though there is a line drawn across the page, which in almost all cases the scribe uses to indicate either a change of speaker or the beginning of a stage direction. Riggio has pro­posed that the scribe has drawn the usual line, but has forgotten to note the new speaker; she points out that it would be odd for Anima to offer the final blessing, noting that in the other Macro moralities the concluding benediction is given by “the figure representing divine authority: God the Father in [The Castle of] Perseverance and Mercy in Mankind” (Play of Wisdom, p. 307).

1159 Our. M: on, Eccles’ emendation.