[What Profits a Kingdom (1401)]

(Bodleian Library Oxford MS Digby 102 fols. 100r-101v)

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TRUTHE, RESTE, AND PES: FOOTNOTES

1 On account of false witnesses, who misreport [the] truth

2 Truth does not seek out corners where reputation is crippled

3 Justice is appointed as God's representative

TRUTHE, RESTE, AND PES: NOTES

2 For. MS ffor. I substitute capital F for ff at the beginning of lines throughout this poem. RHR, of the complaints in 1401-02, quotes the following from English Chronicle: "And aboute this tyme the peple of this land began to grucche ayens kyng Harri, and beer him hevy, because he took thair good and paide not therfore; and desirid to haue ayeen king Richarde. Also lettri cam to certayn frendis of Richard, as thay hadde be sent from hymself, and saide that he was alive; wherof moche peple was glad and desirid to haue him kynge ayeen." Kail and RHR base their dating of the poem (1401) on allusions like this.

45-46 A kyng may not al aspie. Embree has identified the content of these two lines as a topos: the "king's ignorance." See "The King's Ignorance: A Topos for Evil Times," Medium Ævum 54 (1985), 121-26 at 121. See also The Simonie lines 313-24.

52 the lawe to telle. This looks like dittography from line 50. Perhaps the correct reading in line 52 = the lawe to selle (?).

55-56 Rathere . . . bighe hym pes. See Luke 22:36: "But now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip, and he that hath not, let him sell his coat, and buy a sword." And compare Matt. 19:21: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." See also the note to lines 57-60.

57-60 A worthi knyght . . . the firste het. These lines include a rough paraphrase of a famous passage from the Sermon on the Mount: "But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other: And if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him" (Matt. 5:39-40).

60 at the firste het. RHR: "at the first go."

76 Wel lyvyng man, hardy of kynde. The man who lives well (as opposed to the "wikked lyvere"), is by nature courageous. Living well here means living virtuously. See also line 79: "The good lyvere hath God in mynde." The syntax of lines 76-80 is difficult.

78 mes. Kail glosses this as "adversity," while RHR has "mass, sacrament." The idea is that death is the final rite of passage for the soul, whether for a "wel lyvyng man" or for a "wikked lyvere."

94 In the margin next to this line appears the word nota, "note."

98 For the concept of the "comoun profit," see Russell A. Peck, Kingship and Common Profit in Gower's Confessio Amantis (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), and Alford, Glossary, s.v. Commune Profit.

140 To felle Goddis foon. "Written apparently in support of the statute De Haeretico Comburendo passed in 1401" (RHR). This statute authorized the burning of heretics and had a chilling effect especially on the Lollards.

145 chery fayre. "A frequent symbol for the transitoriness of life; compare Gower, Conf. Amantis, Pro. I.19: 'For al is but a chery feire / This worldes good'; Hoccleve, De Reg. Principum, clxxxv.47: 'Thy lyfe, my sone, is but a chery feire"' (RHR). See also Chaucer's Troilus: " . . . and thynketh al nys but a faire, / This world that passeth soone as floures faire" (5.1840-41).

159 math. Syncopated form of maketh.

163 The MS lacks a line here.