[Song on the Venality of the Judges]

(British Library MS Harley 913 fols. 59r-59v)

[Blessed are they who hunger and thirst, and do justice, and hate and avoid the wickedness of injustice; whom neither abundance of gold nor the jewels of the rich draw from their inflexibility, or from the cry of the poor; they judge what is just, and do not fall off from the right for the sake of the rich. / But now the age deceives many in a wonderful manner, and draws them into danger, for love of the world, that they may lick up honors. The cause of this is money, to which almost every court has now wedded itself. / There are judges, whom partiality and bribes seduce from justice; these are they, I remember well, that pay toll to the devil and serve him alone. / For the law of nature commands that a judge in giving judgment should not be an acceptor of anybody either for prayer or money. What therefore, O good Jesus, will be done with the judges, who for prayers or gifts recede from what is just? / In fact such judges have numerous messengers - listen for what purpose: If you wish to claim land, a messenger will come to you and speak in confidence, saying, "Dear friend, do you wish to plead? I am one who can help you in various ways with the judge; if you wish to obtain anything by his aid, give me half, and I will help you." / At his feet sit clerks, who are like people half-famished, gaping for gifts; and proclaiming it as law, that those who give nothing, although they come early, will have to wait. / But if some noble lady, fair and lovely, with horns on her head, and that encircled with gold, come for judgment, such a one despatches her business without having to say a word. / If the woman be poor and has no gifts, neither beauty nor wealthy background, whom Venus does not stimulate, she goes home without effecting her business, sorrowful at heart. / There are some at this court who express judgment, whom they call relaters, worse than the others. They take with both hands and so deceive those whose defenders they are. And what shall we say to the door-keepers? who say to the poor that follow the court, "Poor man, why do you trouble yourself? Why do you wait here? Unless you give money to everybody in this court, you labor in vain. Why then, wretch, do you lament? If you have brought nothing, you will stand altogether out of doors." / Concerning the sheriffs, who can relate with sufficient fulness how hard they are to the poor? He who has nothing to give is dragged hither and thither, and is placed in the assises, and is obliged to take his oath, without daring to murmur. But if he should murmur, unless he immediately make satisfaction, it is all salt sea. / The same people have this vice, when they enter the house of some countryman, or of a famous abbey, where drink and victuals, and all things necessary, are given to them devoutly. Such things are of no avail, unless by and by the jewels follow after the meal, and are distributed to all, beadles and attendant boys, and all who are with them. Nor even yet are they paid, unless robes of various colors are sent to their wives. If these are not sent privately, then they proceed as follows: whatever cattle they find are driven off violently to their own manors, and the owners themselves are put in confinement until they make satisfaction, so that they give the double; then at length they are liberated. / I laugh at their clerks, whom I see at first indigent enough, and possessing next to nothing, when they receive a bailiwick; which received, they next show themselves proud, and their teeth grow. Holding up their necks they begin very hastily to buy lands and houses, and agreeable rents; amassing money themselves, they despise the poor and make new laws, oppressing their neighbors; and they become wise men. In this they do wickedness and deceive their country, sparing no one. (Wright's translation)]

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BEATI QUI ESURIUNT: NOTES

1 Beati qui esuriunt. A poetic rendition of Matt. 5:6: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill."

3 justiciam. So Harley MS (i[us]ticia[m]); Wr justitiam. See also line 5: nequiciam/ nequitiam, and passim.

7 encennia. The Royal MS reads exhennia, treasures.

34 cedunt. Above this word the MS scribe has written "i. re" or "i.e., recedunt."

59 cum capite cornuto. "The head dress of the ladies of rank and fashion at this period was arranged in the form of two horns" (Wr).

73 relatores. Middlemen who deliver the complaint to the judges.

78 janitores. Door-keepers in venality satires always present special difficulties to those wishing access to courts. For similar lines, see Crux est denarii potens in seculo (De cruce denarii) especially lines 77-100; or Qui potest capere quod loquor capiat (De mundi cupiditate) lines 53-68. See also Yunck, The Lineage of Lady Meed, p. 80 (citing a Latin poem attacking the Court of Rome): "Si das, intrabis protinus: si non, stas, stabis eminus" (If you give, you shall quickly enter: if you don't, you remain standing; you shall remain standing, far off), and The Simonie lines 142-44: "The porter hath comaundement to holde hem widoute the gate, / In the fen. / Hu mihte theih loven that Loverd, that serven thus His men?"

111 bedellis. Bailiffs and beadles were associated with legal and bureaucratic harassment in venality satire and complaint literature. A bailiff was "an officer of justice under a sheriff, who executes writs and processes, distrains and arrests"; a beadle was "a messenger of justice; a warrant officer; an under-bailiff" (Alford, Glossary, s.v. Baillif and Bedele). Alford cites PP B.3.2: "Now is mede . . . Wiþ bedelis & baillifs ybrout to þe king." For a similar view of beadles, see The Simonie 337-41, and Song of the Husbandman 37-39, 51-56. The beadle became proverbial for overzealous officiousness, as the beadle in Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV (V.iv) whom Doll Tearsheet calls, among other things, a "thin man in a censer" and a "filthy-famish'd correctioner."

114 transmittantur. Wr's emendation of MS transmutantur.

119 averia. "The term averium is commonly used to signify all kinds of moveable property; but more particularly to signify cattle and horses" (Wr).

126 Clericos. "The scribe has written above this word, in the MS. "i. pauperes."

130 ballivam. Wr translates as "bailiwick," the jurisdiction or district of a bailiff. For similar views of bailiffs, see The Simonie, lines 289-94; Song of the Husbandman, lines, 25-28; and God Spede the Plough, lines 37-39.