Of ghostly gladness sovereign suffisánce, To whom all things created bow the knee. The prince was slain, the servant went at large; Sealed with five wounds He payéd our ransom Is not man bound,-I ask this questioun- Within my closet, on my little couch, O blessed Jesu, and by my bedside, My precious lodestar, and my sovereign guide! Which to thy name devoutly bow the knee. There is no love that perfectly is grounded, For upon Jesus perfectness is founded, Do Our tower, our fort 'gainst power infernál, To whom all things that are shall bow the knee. mercy, Jesus, ere that we hence pace Out of this perilous, dreadful pilgrimage, Beset with brigand foes in every place With fierce assault to hinder our passage! Among the rest, I, that be fallen in age, I Feeble and week with old infirmity, cry to Jesus for my sin's outráge, Right with whole heart thus kneeling on my knee. Let not be lost that thou hast bought so dear, With gold nor silver, but with thy precious blood. Our flesh is frail and short abiding here; Malicious is the old serpent, fell and wood [raging]; Against all these I hold this counsel good Let me not rest, O Lord, nor have quiét, Let me in Thee feel all my affiance. I feel my heart broken and ruinous, Not pure for Thee, Jesu, therein to rest; So, Jesu, Thou of all wise men the best, Repair my thought broke with misgovernance, Grant, ere I die, shrift, pardon, repentance.1 The latter part of the poem represents the encouraging answer of our Saviour, and ends with the following verse: Tarry no longer toward thine heritage; Haste on thy way, and be of right good cheer; Go each day onward in thy pilgrimage ; Think that thou dost abide but short time here. Thy place is made above the starry sphere, In William Billyngs' poem on the Five Wounds of Christ, dating about 1400-30, occur those quaint lines, which may be familiar to the reader, upon 'Earth':Earth out of earth is wondrously wrought; For earth hath gotten of earth a noble thing of nought ; How earth upon earth may be high brought. 1 Dan John Lydgate's Minor Poems: Testament, ed. by J. O. Halliwell for Percy Society: 2 Id. Ne song so swete unto the audience Terye no lenger toward thyn heritage Hast on thy weye and be of rihte good cheere. Earth upon earth yet would be a king ; But how earth shall to earth thinketh he nothing; Earth winneth upon earth both castles and towers; But when earth upon earth hath builded all his bowers, Earth buildeth upon earth, as mould upon mould; And justly then shall earth go to earth sooner than he wolde. Let never earth from this earth bear mischief and spill ; So that earth from this earth may climb up to Thine high Some meditations from the seven Penitential Psalms are supposed to have been written in 1414 by Thomas Brampton, a Franciscan monk, professor of theology. He introduces them with a preface about the circumstances which led him to write these verses : In winter time, when it was cold, Be help to me, for He might best ; How I had sinned, and what degree; He repeated some verses from his book of prayers, and then went, with sorrowful heart, to his confessor, who instructed him to repeat the seven penitential psalms. The subsequent lines consist of a short meditation upon 1 Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, ii. 284; and E.E.T.S. 4 (Furnivall), 24: Erth owt of erth is wondyrly wrought, For erth hath goten of erth a nobul thyng of noght. 2 T. Brampton's Paraphrases, ed. by W. H. Black for Percy Society : 'In wynter whan the wedir was cold.' each verse in these psalms, with the refrain in each case, 'Ne reminiscaris, Domine.' I quote four of them :— On Psalm xxxii. 41— The hand of vengeance, more and more Is hard upon me, day and night; But mercy, Lord, as thou hast hight [promised] I know no succour in this plight But 'Ne reminiscaris, Domine !' On Psalm xxxviii. 42— My guilt is grown above my head; They draw me down unto the ground. From Psalm li. 103 My heart hath been defiled with sin; O, cleanse me, therefore, Lord, within! That I may ever sin eschew, And if my heart shall froward be, With 'Ne reminiscaris, Domine.' From Psalm cxxx. 64— Fully I trust that thou wilt keep My soul from mischief day and night; 1 Brampton's Paraphrases. The Latin verse is: Quoniam die ac nocte gravata est super me manus tua: conversus sum in ærumna mea, dum configitur spina.' The hand of vengeaunce, more and more. 2 'Quoniam iniquitates meæ supergressæ sunt caput meum: et sicut onus grave gravatæ sunt super me. My gylt is growyn over myn heed. 3 'Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceri bus meis.' Myn herte hath be dyffoyled with synne. 4 'A custodia matutina usque ad noctem : speret Israel in Domino.' I truste fully Thou wylt me kepe. John Audelay, or Awdlay, was a devout monk who lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century in the monastery of Haghmon, in Shropshire, the ruins of which are still existing. In a short note inserted above the colophon of the manuscript, we are told that he was living in that religious house in the year 1426, and that he was blind and deaf. He tells in his poems that he had lived sinfully in earlier life. He detested the opinions of Wickliffe, and thought them perilous in the extreme; but he was very earnestly desirous of a great reformation in religious life and discipline. This is all that is known of him. His writings, with the exception of some lines on Henry VI., are all of a religious character. He says of his book: As I lay sick in my langúre, In an abbey here by west, Meekly to take Thy visiting; He assures his readers that what he wrote was not his own, for his own speech were but folly; it was put into his heart by the Holy Spirit. Then he concludes his preface with the words: 1 The Seven Penitential Psalms. Supposed to have been written by Thomas Brampton in the year 1414, ed. by W. H. Black for the Percy Society, 1841. 2 Poems of John Audelay, ed. by J. O. Halliwell for the Percy Society : As I lay seke in my langure, In an abbay here be west. |