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“Three Messengers of Death” (DIMEV 5387)

Three Messengers of Death: FOOTNOTES


1 And bow there where our masters go

2 Lines 21–24: Death is an obstacle to wrestlers; / I do not know the bounds of Death; / In happy times, / Let him beware, regardless of his age

3 And unless we be repentant, we shall pay the price

4 Lines 89–92: When I endure sickness, / I bear love of religion. / Lacking sickness, / I am not mindful of this love

5 Fully provided with a cold cloth (marked by the chill of death, i.e., a winding sheet)

6 Lines 159–60: When Death has come, men are cast therein / all naked, other than a shroud

7 [That] would not deliver him from punishment (see note)

 

 

 

Three Messengers of Death: EXPLANATORY NOTES


ABBREVIATIONS: A version: Lydgate, Dance of Death (Selden); B version: Lydgate, Dance of Death (Lansdowne); CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ed. Benson; D: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 322 (SC 21896); DMF: Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500); DOST: Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue; FP: Lydgate, Fall of Princes, ed. Bergen; Gray: “Two Songs of Death,” ed. Gray; Hassell: Hassell, Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases; MED: Middle English Dictionary; ODNB: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases.

This narrative poem is found in the monumental and closely related Vernon and Simeon manuscripts (both dated c. 1390–1400), enormous collections of devotional poetry, romance, and other works, mainly in the vernacular; for a discussion of their contents see, in particular, the new facsimile edition Facsimile of the Vernon Manuscript, ed. Scase and Kennedy; and Scase, Making the Vernon Manuscript. The poem, like the rest of the Vernon Manuscript, is written in the West Midlands dialect, thus reminding us of the spread of death-related poetry through England.

The poem presents Death as having three trusty messengers: “Aventures” (literally “Adventure” but better translated in the sense of chance, diversion, fortune, or hazard), Sickness, and Old Age. Chance, the poem relates, steals people away like a thief in the night (lines 61–62), a description that, like many of the other works in this volume, uses the figure of the violent criminal to characterize the suddenness of Death’s approach. This thief, not choosy in his victims, steals a child that is but one day old (line 37–38), an image also seen in the Danse macabre and Lydgate’s Dance of Death. The poem compares the blithely unaware to a “foul in the lift” (bird in the air, line 98), playing on the notion of the dying person’s ephemeral beauty and fragility, as we also see in “A Mirror for Ladies at Their Toilet” (DIMEV 3454) and in “Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person” (DIMEV 3624). The second messenger, Sickness, treats the dying with greater honesty: Sickness “apertely” (line 73) announces Death’s approach, unlike his compatriot Chance who steals up unawares. Sickness also moves people to contrition, although the speaker sneers that such emotion is often short-lived once the illness is cured (lines 85–96). The poem thus critiques the hypocrisy of human religiosity when it flares up only in times of distress and emergency. Finally, Old Age, in the poem’s longest section, is characterized as a servant, forever at the gate and barred from entering into Death’s domain but pointing the way inside (lines 117–24). This detail is reminiscent of the metaphor for death in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, in which the Old Man is ever knocking “on the ground, which is [his] moodres gate” without ever being let in (CT VI[C] 729) and speaks to the broader significance of architectural motifs to the death poetry tradition. This section also elaborates the trope, familiar from the danse macabre tradition, of Death’s inevitability and relentlessness in going after people of all social ranks, including the pope and the emperor (lines 139–40).

The Old Age section brings a few more generic motifs into play that we have not seen as much in other works in this edition. It cites learned authorities — St. Paul and Augustine — to bolster its claims concerning death’s inevitability and the importance of repentance and briefly paraphrases St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” passage from 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 when discussing Sickness. The poem also features a brief ubi sunt moment concerning the passing of wealthy nobility that once amused themselves with hunting and hawking (lines 141–44), which we also see in “The Dawnce of Makabre” (DIMEV 4104). The poet goes on to present an Everyman figure at a churchyard, in which decorated tombs cover rotting bodies with wealth and finery. This stark image reminds the reader both of the physical presence of danse macabre imagery in churchyards, as well as of the vogue for transi tombs and their elaborate representation upon their valuable surfaces of the decomposing flesh within.

From here, the poem seamlessly moves into a brief vision of hell, which it chillingly and rather brilliantly imagines as a “pore halle” (line 157) with a low ceiling and close sides, filled with naked bodies, fittingly reminding us of a charnel house. Here the poem showcases some vivid turns of phrase, describing the dead as wrapped “in cloth of colde” (in a cloth of the chill of death, line 156) and highlights its characterization of hell as a cramped building by punning on the terms “helewowe” (end wall of a building) and “hell woe” (line 163). In this way, the poem builds up the architectural motifs introduced with the figure of Old Age as the servant at Death’s door. At this point, it also delves into the Signs of Death tradition, as it asserts the necessity of contemplating the visual spectacle of the body’s decomposition and consumption by maggots (lines 165–72). It thus also offers the mangled, rotting body as a paradoxical object of veneration and contemplation as we also see in “Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person” (DIMEV 3624).

This work is further enlivened by its macaronic quality: it intercalates two short Latin quatrains (lines 21–24, 89–92), which are roughly paraphrased in the English text in a manner reminiscent of Langland’s intercalation of Latin devotional verses and biblical citations, with vernacular translation and paraphrase, in Piers Plowman.




3 Job. Protagonist of the Book of Job in the Old Testament, Job is a paradigmatic figure of human suffering and perseverance. To disprove Satan, who maintains that humans only love God when in good fortune and prosperity, God chooses a wealthy and happy man, Job, and tests his faith by sending him a series of cataclysmic misfortunes. Job loses his livelihood, his family, is afflicted with disease, but, though embittered, ultimately maintains his faith and gains insight into the mysterious and, from the human perspective, arbitrary workings of the divine.

7 And seide his lyf nas bote a breth. Compare Job 7:7: “Remember that my life is but wind, and my eyes shall not return to see good things.”

10 For his righte wol he not lete. The subject of this line is Death.

45 dedly synne. The Christian church recognizes two classes of sin: venial and mortal. Venial sins are a violation of the moral law that merit punishment on earth but do not break the covenant with God, although their repeated occurrence may predispose one to graver infractions. Mortal sins break the covenant with God through a severe violation of Christian precepts and, without full repentance and divine forgiveness, ratified through the Church, result in eternal exclusion from the kingdom of Heaven.

46 veyghe. An alternate spelling of ME weien, this word literally means, according to the MED, “To weigh (somebody, a soul, one’s deeds, etc. in or as in a balance) to determine worthiness of divine punishment or reward, damnation or salvation; weigh (the soul) on the divine balance at the Day of Judgment” (sense 1b(a)).

47 ginne. Ginne has the same wide semantic field as the French engin: thus, according to the MED: “Inventive talent, ingenuity, cleverness; an expedient, scheme; strategy; trickery, treachery; ruse, wile; an ingenious device or contrivance, machine; an instrument; a machine or structure used in assaulting or defending fortifications, a siege machine or tower.” The semantic breadth of the word lends richness to the characterization of Aventures.

53 Seint Poul bit we schulden awake. An allusion to 1 Thessalonians 5:6: “Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober.”

68 hende. Literally “handsy,” the same adjective applied to Nicholas in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale. See CT I (A) 3199.

100 Bereveth hem bothe hosel and schrift. The consequence of dying without repenting and receiving forgiveness for mortal sin is, according to the Christian church, eternal damnation. Compare note to line 45 above.
hosel. The Eucharist is a Christian rite that goes back to the biblical New Testament, when Jesus instructed His followers during the Last Supper, on the night before His Crucifixion, to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of His body and blood. Still practiced today, the rite consists of parishioners imbibing wine and bread blessed by a priest at the conclusion of a church service.

105 ure Lordes kniht. This phrase is apposite to Seynt Poul. On St Paul’s illness, compare 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 and Galatians 4:12–14.

141–44 Wher ben heo . . . . uppon heore steeden. This passage represents a well-known medieval motif known as ubi sunt, a lament for the death of revered figures from the past and for the inexorable passage of time that draws us, in the present, further from an imagined Golden Age. The convention of using the Latin phrase ubi sunt (meaning “where are they?”) goes back to an early use of the motif in the Book of Baruch 3:16–19. Modern readers may recognize the well-known phrase “But where are the snows of yester-year?” as exemplifying this motif; the phrase comes from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1870 translation of the medieval French poet François Villon’s Ballade des dames du temps jadis (1461). In addition to invoking the general ubi sunt motif, this stanza in Three Messengers of Death is a textual allusion to the Sayings of Saint Bernard, a popular Middle English poem composed c. 1275: see Furnivall’s edition of the Sayings in Minor Poems, pp. 511–22, especially lines 181–86 (p. 521).

163 Me may reche the helewowe. Surely there is wordplay here on helewough (end wall of building), continuing the architectural motif earlier in the stanza, and hell woe, or the suffering found in hell.

172 him. The antecedent of “him” is Death in line 160.

180 that is wormes mete. Proverbial. See Whiting W675.

186 Matussalé. Methuselah is mentioned in Genesis 5:21–27 as the longest-living person in the Hebrew Bible, dying at the age of 969 years old; he is also an important member of the genealogy connecting Adam and Noah, as the son of Enoch and father of Lamech. His name also comes up in passing in 1 Chronicles 1:3 and Luke 3:37.

191 prime. This indication of time refers to one of the set times for prayer, by which Christian clergy structure their day; this practice is known as the Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Office, or the canonical hours.

194 seynt Austyn. St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) was a Christian theologian and church father (that is, a founding figure for Christian thought) living in a Roman province of Northern Africa, where he served as bishop of Hippo Regius. His writings, such as The City of God, On Christian Doctrine and his autobiographical Confessions, have been enormous influences on the development of the Western theological and philosophical traditions. The author seems to be invoking Augustine in this moment to lend his words additional authority.

208 Ne scholden him of pyne bringe. The antecedent of “him” in this line is the man in line 201.

222 Trinité. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that the Christian God is one God in three coequal and coeternal manifestations that are distinct from one another but of one substance: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Ghost. A useful popular comparison is to consider the physical properties of water, whereby ice, water, and vapor are three different manifestations of the same substance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Messengers of Death: TEXTUAL NOTES


MANUSCRIPTS:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. a.1 (SC 3938) [Vernon MS], fols. 297vc–98rb (basis for this edition)
London, British Library, MS Additional 22283 [Simeon MS], fols. 88vb–89ra

EDITIONS:
Horstmann, Carl, ed. “Nachträge zu den Legenden 5: The Messengers of Death.” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 79 (1887), 432–34.
Furnivall, Frederick James, ed. “Of Þre Messagers of Deeth.” In The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., Part II (with a few from the Digby MSS. 2 and 86). EETS o.s. 177. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1901. Pp. 443–48.
Doyle, I. A., ed. The Vernon Manuscript. A Facsimile of Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Eng. Poet.a.1, with an introduction by A.I. Doyle. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1987. Fols. 297vc–98rb.
Scase, Wendy, and Nick Kennedy, eds. A Facsimile Edition of the Vernon Manuscript: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. A. 1. Oxford: The Bodleian Library, 2011. Fols. 297vc–98rb.

ABBREVIATIONS: A1: London, British Library Additional 37049 fols. 31v–32r (basis for “Dawnce of Makabre”); A2: London, British Library Additional 15225, fols. 15r–16r (basis for “Shaking of the Sheets”); BD: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ 1.1.6 (Bannatyne MS Draft), pp. 43r–44r; BM: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ 1.1.6 (Bannatyne MS Main), fols. 56r–57r (basis for “Resoning betuix Death and Man”); Brown: Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, ed. Brown, p. 241; Brunner: “Mittelenglische Todesgedichte,” ed. Brunner, pp. 27–28, 30; C: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library Ff.5.45, fols. 13r–14r; Cov: Coventry, Coventry Archives Acc. 325/1, fols. 70rb–74vb; Cutler: Cutler, John L. “A Middle English Acrostic,” p. 88; D: Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 322 (SC 21896), fols. 19vb–20ra (basis for “Death’s Warning to the World”); Doty: “An Edition of British Museum MS Additional 37049: a Religious Miscellany,” ed. Doty, pp. 206–11; Dufour: La dance macabre peinte sous les charniers des Saints Innocents de Paris, ed. Dufour; F: Bibliothèque nationale de France fonds français 14989, fols. 1r–12v (basis for French Danse macabre); Fein: The Danse Macabre Printed by Guyot Marchant, ed. Fein; Furnivall: “Of Þre Messagers of Deeth,” ed. Furnivall, 2:443–48; H1: London, British Library Harley 1706, fols. 19v–20r; H2: London, British Library, Harley 116, fols. 128r–v (basis for “A Mirror for Young Ladies at their Toilet”); Horstmann: “Nachträge zu den Legenden 5: The Messengers of Death,” ed. Horstmann, pp. on 432–34; L: British Library MS Lansdowne 669, fols. 41v–50v (basis for Lydgate, Dance of Death, B version), fols. 41v–50v; Lincy: “La danse macabre reproduite textuellement d’apres l’unique exemplaire connu de l’édition princeps de Guyot Marchant,” ed. Le Roux de Lincy, pp. 291–317; N: New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 493, fols. 51v–60v; P: Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.62; R: Oxford, Bodleian Library 4o Rawl. 566 (203); RV: Rome, Venerable English College (AVCAU) MS 1405, fols. 111r–21r; S: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Selden Supra 53, fols. 148r–58v (basis for Lydgate, Dance of Death, A version); Saugnieux: “La danse macabre française de Guyot Marchant (1486),” ed. Saugnieux, pp. 143–64; Silverstein: “Cest le Myrroure pur les Iofenes Dames,” ed. Silverstein, pp. 121–22; Sim: London, British Library Addit. 22283 [Simeon MS], fols. 88vb–89ra; V: Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. a.1 (SC 3938) [Vernon MS], fols. 297vc–98rb (basis for “Three Messengers of Death”); Warren: The Dance of Death, ed. Warren and White; W1: Oxford, Bodleian Library Wood 401 (60) (Wing H2013A); W2: Oxford, Bodleian Library Wood 402 (48) (Wing H2013B).

Title Three Messengers of Death. This title is derived from the Vernon Manuscript’s rubric to the work (fol. 297vc).

Rubric Her biginneth . . . iwis. So V. Not in Sim.

6 sore he. So V. Sim: Sore al he.

21 vetat. So V. Horstmann, Furnivall amend to necat.

23 Inter. So Horstmann, Furnivall. V, Sim: iter.

24 quelibet. So V. Sim: quilibet.

29 this messagers. So V. Sim: the messagers.

38 Theih. So V. Sim: þauh.
o. So V. Sim: on.

39 and. So V. Sim: an.

50 Withouten. So V. Sim: Withoute.

64 mowe. So V. Sim: mowen.

77 beoth. So V. Sim: ben.

82 habben. So V. Sim: habbe.

84 wolen. So V. Sim: wolleþ.

97 ben. So V. Sim: beoþ.

98 in the lift. So V. Sim: doth in the lift.

101 heore. So V. Sim: her.

110 messagers. So V. Sim: messager.

114 bekneth. So V. Sim: bekeneþ.

120 porter. So Sim, Horstmann, Furnivall. V: poter.

123 atte yate. So V. Sim: at the yate.

142 weore. So V. Sim: weoren.

144 An. So V. Sim: And.

183 doth us. So V. Sim: doth him.

205 alle men. So V. Sim: al the men.

206 Weore prestes masses to synge. So V. Sim: Weore prestes and masses dude singe.

210 in atte helle. So V. Sim: in at the helle.

217 he falleth. So V. Sim: thu falles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 








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Her biginneth a tretis
Of threo messagers of deth, iwis.

The mon that is of wommon ibore,
His lyf nis heere but a throwe.
So seith Job us heer bifore
Al in a bok that I wel knowe.

He hedde is muynde al of his deth;
Wel sore he con grone and grunte,
And seide his lyf nas bote a breth.
Heer mou we none stounde stunte.

From Deth may no mon be fre;
For his righte wol he not lete.
Now beoth ther messagers thre
Among monkuynde for to meete:

Aventures, Seeknesse, and Elde,
Theos beoth messagers of Deth.
To hem we moten us alle yelde
And louten ther ur maystres geth.1

Whon Deth cometh that is so derk,
Ther may no mon him withstonde;
I take witnesse on a noble clerk
That wrot theos vers with his honde:

Mors vetat athletas;
Ego mortis nescio metas;
Inter res letas
Caveat sibi quelibet etas.
2

Deth, he sleth this kempes kene,
And kynges in heore worthly won,
Riche and pore alle bidene,
Yong ne old, spareth he non.

Ther is on of this messagers
That of no mon wol take mede.
He is so hardi and so fers
That alle men of him have drede.

The messager hette Aventours.
Ageynes him may beo no strif;
Whon he cometh to a monnes hous,
He taketh bothe hosebonde and the wyf.

He taketh the child in his cradel,
Theih he beo bot o niht old;
The kniht and horse in his sadel
I-armed, beo he never so bold.

Of him beo uche mon iwar
And mak him clene, ar he beo hent.
For ther nis no geynchar
Whon Aventures cometh to tornement.

Mony mon lihth in dedly synne
And weneth that he beo not veyghe,
And Aventures cometh with his ginne
And hontuth til he have his preye.

In dedly sunne he is ifounde
Withouten schrift and repentaunce.
He geth in to helle grounde,
Ther to suffre his penaunce.

Seint Poul bit we schulden awake —
This clerkes witen as wel as I —
That we schulden us clene make
And of ur sinnes ben sori.

And bote we ben, we schulen abugge;3
Ther schal no pledur plede that.
Ther God us fynt, he wol us jugge —
Nou uche mon be war bi that.

For Aventures wol come as a thef
Be nihte, whon mon ben aslepe,
And taken awey that him is leef.
Nou awaketh, that ye mowe him kepe.

Another messager ther is
Of Deth, whon Crist wol him sende —
Seknesse — ic have iherd ar this
The messager is swithe hende.

Whon Seeknesse cometh to a mon,
He may bewar yif he is sleih,
And greithen his in, yif that he con,
And thenken that Deth is swithe neih.

For Seknesse cometh apertely;
He ne dareth not in his den.
Hit is ure lordes cortesy
With Seknesse for to warne men.

Mony men, whon that heo beoth seke,
To Jhesu Crist a clepen and criye
And to his mylde mooder eke
And sigge: “Now thou help, Marie!

Yif that we mowe be sound and save
And kevere, that we mowen habben ur hele,
Al the good that we have
For Godes love we wolen hit dele.”

We love wel God in al ur thought
While we beo seeke and sore smerte.
Whon we beoth hol, we loven him nought,
He nis no lengor in ure herte.

Cum fero langorem,
Fero religionis amorem;
Expers langoris
Non sum memor huius amoris.
4

Of Crist ne taketh he non hede;
He nath no more with him to donne.
To thonken him for his goode dede;
He thenketh no more theruppone.

Suche men ben ofte alone ilet
To pleye as the foul in the lift,
Til Aventures have with hem met,
Bereveth hem bothe hosel and schrift.

Men oughten holden up bothe heore honden
To God, while heo ben hol and feere,
To sende, whon he wol hem fonden,
Seeknesse to ben heore messagere.

Seynt Poul seith, ure Lordes kniht,
In a pistel that he wrot,
That he was strengest and most of miht
Whon God him with Seknesse smot.

Now ichulle siggen ou of Elde;
Of messagers he is the thridde.
Whon monnes hed biginneth to elde,
He may not do but beodes bidde.

And he leoneth uppon his crucche,
Whon Deth him bekneth, comen he mot.
Hit helpeth nought thauh he grucche,
He schal withstonde never a fot.

Also fareth Elde as doth a sweyn
That stondeth at his lordes yate
And mot not wenden in ageyn,
For the porter that is therate.

For no yiftes that he may yiven,
Ne feire wordes that he mai speken,
He worth out atte yate idriven;
Anon the yate for him is steken.

Yif a mon may libben heer
And ben of pouwer for to go
The elde of fourescore yer,
That other del is serwe and wo.

For hose wole his lyf beholde
From biginnynge to the ende,
Wel ofte may his herte colde
That not what wey he schal wende.

Wel we witen we schule be ded;
Ur dwellyng her nis bote a while.
Jhesu Crist us wisse and rede,
That never the Fend ne do us gyle.

Nou is Deth a wonder thing
And grislich for to thenken on.
He ne spareth emperour ne kyng,
Ne pope for al the good that he con.

Wher ben heo that biforen us weoren,
That weore so mihti in heore deden?
Houndes ladden and haukes beeren
An hontyng heighe uppon heore steeden?

Deth hit hath hem al byraft,
With hem ther nis no more pley.
And al that bereth monnes schaft,
Schal go that ilke selve wey.

Uche mon may be sore aferd
That hath a soule for to save,
Whon he geth bi a chirche yerd
And seoth wher dede men beth igrave.

Riche men habbeth riche stones,
That alle men mouwe biholde:
Therunder liggeth foule bones,
Ibeddet al in cloth of colde.5

Wel pore halle ther is imaked
Withouten eny worldes winne;
Save a clout, men beoth al naked,
Whon Deth is comen, icast therinne.6

The halle roof is cast ful lowe,
Ther beoth none chaumbres wyde;
Me may reche the helewowe
And the wal on uche a syde.

Heore bodies that weoren so softe ibathen
And ibrought forth with mete and drynk,
Ther hit schal crepe ful of mathen —
In al this world nis foulore stynk.

A mon that such a bodi seye,
Whon wormes hit hath thorwsouht,
He oughte wepe with his eye
And evere have him in his thouht.

Ther nis non so luyte ne so muche,
That is of flesch, blod, and bon,
That we ne schule ben alle suche,
Whon we ben huled under a ston.

Hou may eny mon be proud
For eny thing that he may gete,
Whon he is huled under a schroud,
That thing that is wormes mete?

That thing that is ur moste fo —
Therfore we don a gret folye
To love that thing that doth us wo,
And eke ur dedliche enemye.

Yif a mon may libben heer
As longe as dude Matussalé —
Nighene hundred and nyne and sixti yer
So longe on eorthe livede he —

That nis not also muche tyme
Ageynes the tyme that cometh afterward
As fro the sonne rysing to prime:
To sunfol men that is ful hard.

That, I schal seye, nou taketh kepe,
I drawe to witnesse seynt Austyn:
That a mon schal more wepe
That damned is to helle pyn

Then is water under the sonne,
And he wepe uche day a ter.
Aviseth ow now, yif that ye cunne,
And doth that ye ne come not ther.

A mon that dampned is to helle,
His peyne may not ben forbought,
Ac endeles he schall ther dwelle;
Almes dede helpeth him nouht.

Thei alle men that libbeth nouthe
Weore prestes masses to synge,
And duden al that thei ever couthe,
Ne scholden him of pyne bringe.7

That ilke soule that is dryven
With fendes in atte helle yate,
And his juggement be him yiven,
To bidde merci hit is to late.

Hevene hit is ure heritage,
To ure bihove hit is diht.
We han do feuté and homage
To ure Lord, as hit is riht.

Synful mon, yif that he falleth,
Arys up and mak thi pees,
And cum to Crist, whon that he calleth
To joye that is endeles.

He that is almihti kyng,
That heighe sitteth in Trinité,
Graunt us alle his blessyng.
Amen, Amen, par charité.
Here; treatise; (t-note)(t-note)
three; certainly

man; woman; born
is not; little while
says; (see note)


occupied his mind entirely with
can groan (complain); (t-note)
was not but a breath; (see note)
never tarry briefly

free
will; surrender; (see note)
there are; three
With mankind; clash

Chance (Accident), Sickness; Old Age
These are
must; yield


dismal (wicked)

appeal for reference to
wrote; hand

(t-note)

(t-note)
(t-note)

slays; stalwart wrestlers
their splendid abode
together
spares

one; (t-note)
reward
brave; fierce
fear

is named Chance (Accident)

man’s
both husband


Though; but one night; (t-note)
saddle; (t-note)


each; vigilant
himself guiltless, lest he be snatched
is no escape
challenge

lies; sin; (see note)
believes; doomed; (see note)
(see note)
hunts; has

sin; found
confession; (t-note)
goes; grounds of hell


bids; should; (see note)
know
make ourselves pure (i.e., confess)
our; be repentant


advocate plead
finds; judge
Now each; mindful of that

will; thief
By night
that which pleases him
you may; ward off; (t-note)


wishes to send him
heard before
exceedingly skilled (crafty); (see note)


clever
make ready his home; can
think; very nigh

openly (without hesitation)
lurk; lair
our


they are sick; (t-note)
call; cry
his gentle mother also
say

may; safe
delivered; may have; salvation; (t-note)

distribute [as alms]; (t-note)


are sick; in pain
are healthy; love
longer; our







Nor has; to do
thank
thinks

are; left; (t-note)
bird; air; (t-note)

Deprives; Eucharist; confession; (see note)

their hands; (t-note)
they are hale and hearty
wishes; to find
be; their

(see note)
epistle
strongest; might


I wish to speak to you
third; (t-note)
When man’s attention (head); to grow old
recite prayers

leans
beckons; must; (t-note)
though he grumbles
not even a foot

behaves; servant
gate
may not walk
Because of; right there; (t-note)

gifts; give
fair; speak
shall at [the] gate be driven out; (t-note)
shut

If; live here
be; power; to reach
old age; eighty years
remainder [of his life]; sorrow

he who wishes to

grow cold [with fear]
does not know; way

know; shall
here is not but
instructs; teaches
[So] that the Devil never can deceive us

Now; strange
horrible; think
spares
knows

are they who were before us
their deeds; (t-note)
led; hawks bore
hunting loftily; their steeds; (see note)(t-note)

it; them all snatched away
action (activity)
bear human shape
very same

afraid

goes; yard
sees; dead; are buried

have elaborate gravestones
So that; may
lie


Very poor; made
any worldly wealth




are no
Men; touch (reckon); end wall; (see note)
each

Their; were so gently bathed
reared
creep; maggots
there is no fouler

sees
dug through
weep
always; thought; (see note)

is no one so slender or so big

all the same
are kept

How; any
get
kept; shroud
meat; (see note)

our greatest foe
do; folly
causes us woe; (t-note)
also [is] our mortal

live here
did Methuselah; (see note)
Nine


is not as much
In comparison with
the time between six and nine a.m.; (see note)
sinful; difficult

So that; take heed
Augustine; (see note)
weep
pains of hell

Than [there is]; sun
each; tear
Contemplate; if you can
act so that


punishment; redeemed
But rather
Alms-giving; not at all

Even if; live now; (t-note)
Were to sing priests’ Masses; (t-note)
did; could
(see note)

same; driven
fiends; hell’s gate; (t-note)
is given to him
it; too

it (Heaven); our inheritance
sake; prepared
have done fealty
our; right

falls; (t-note)
make your peace
calls


almighty
sits aloft; (see note)

by charity

 


Go to “A Warning Spoken by the Soul of a Dead Person” (DIMEV 3624)