O look ye, sirs, I ask and pray,
Since this I made with good intent,
Revering God Omnipotent,

Pray for me, ye that be presént;
My name is John the blind Awdlay.

In his principal work he discusses in verse a number of religious and moral subjects, such as the various sins, the Commandments, works of mercy, the five senses, faith, hope, and charity, the baptismal covenant, true wisdom, obedience as the test of love. Then, in the second part, he takes one after another some Latin text or moral proverb, and draws some lesson from it adapted to his times, in very simple but not unforcible verses. He is very much in earnest, ever kindly and charitable, but somewhat despondent about the evils around him. In dwelling upon one of his principal topics the duties of good monks and good priests-he laments that these are not they who win the favour of the people. A priest who is spiritual and sedulous in his devotion is called among men a hypocrite, a nought, and a niggard :

A holy priest men set not by ;

They keep not of their company;
To them men be unkind.

The popular favour is given to the 'meré (merry) mon' and 'jolye araid,' the man who can harp and sing

Thus is the wicked world pleased with vanity,

And wittingly men anger God unwisely evermore.

God of His grace grant them that be guilty,

That here in life their deeds they mend therefore;
And never let them for their lust, Lord, be forelore [lost],
But send them sorrow in their heart their sins to slake,
And so into Thy court and kingdom them restore;
And us, O Trinity, from all temptation take,

That we thy hests fulfil.1

Especially he entreats his 'blessid broder Salomon' to 'spare not to say the sooth' and 'move the matter

1 Poems of John Audelay, 16: 'Thus this wyckyd world is plesid with

vanité.

masterfully to priest and to frere,' without fear or flattery:

Who spareth for to speak, he spareth for to speed;

And he that speaks and speedeth not, spells out but wind;

Better to speak and speed, than hold it in the mind.1

He finishes these admonitions by saying that he doubts not he shall have hard words for saying the sooth without fair words and flattery:

I will not preach the people for to pay [please],
Nor will I, by my knowledge, wrath my God,
As God have mercy on me, John Audlay,
At my most need.

I reck not who it hear,
Be it priest, or be it frere ;
For men of fools may lere
If they take heed.2

There is a good deal of fervour in some of his devotional poems, as in this :

O Jesu, grant me grace to thirst

For springs of life that aye shall last—
The well ever flowing,—

With all the longing of my heart
To leave my sin with tears that smart,
Here, Lord, in my living.

O Jesu, Thou saidst specially,
'In manus tuas, Domine,

Commendo spiritum meum.'

Out of this world when I shall wend,
My soul to Thee I recommend ;
Father, to Thee I come!

And make me worthy, Father dear,
That Thy sweet calling I may hear,
In th' hour of my partíng:
Come unto me, chosen and blest
And have the bliss that aye shall last
For worlds without endíng.'

1 Poems of John Audelay, 28: 'Whosoever sparys fore to speke, sparys for to spede.

2 Id. 51:

wyl preche the pepul apert hem for to pay. I nel not wrath my God at my wetyng. 3 Id. 64: 'O Jhesu, graunt me grace to thorst.'

The following are some pleasing lines from a poem

on The Service of the Church:—

When in the church ye kneel adown,
With good heart and devotioún,

Hold ye your hand up then ;
And for yourselves ye first shall pray,
Father and mother next, I say,

And then for all thy kin;

And for thy friend, and for thy foe,
For those that did thee good also,

Many as thou canst myn [mind],
And for the priest that singeth mass,
That God forgive him his trespass,
And for all that be therein.

If that the priest who mass doth sing
Shall not be after thy liking,

Let not this hinder aught;
For thee his mass is good to hear
As any monk's, or any frere ;

Take thou this in thy thought.
Yea, and although his prayer and boon
Should not be hearkened half so soon
As though he well had wrought;
Yet put away from you despair;
The Sacrament none may impair,
If that wise men say ought.1

Some touching verses remain to us from the fifteenth century expressive of the Saviour's pleading against the sin and ingratitude of men. I quote a part of one of the earliest and best of them. It is entitled The Complaint of Christ, and dates from about 1430:

O man, I love thee, whom lov'st thou ?

I am thy friend; why wilt thou feyne [hate]?
I forgave thee, and thou me slough [slew];
O who hath rent our love in twain?

Turn to Me! O bethink thee, how,

Thou hast gone amiss; come home again,
And thou shalt be as welcome now
As he that sin did never stain.
Think what I said to Mawdelaine,
And what to Thomas, he of Ind.

I grant thee bliss; why lov'st thou pain?
Why art thou to thy friend unkind?

J. Audelay's Poems, 72: 'Then in the cherche ye knele adowne.'

For of a friend the foremost prief [proof]
Is love, and dread, and nought-displease;
Never was thing to me so lief [dear]

As man, whom nothing can appease.
For thee I suffered great reprief [reproof],

Of heaven's bliss thy soul to seize [get possession of]: I was y-hangéd as a thief:

Thou didst the deed, I had th' unease;

Thou canst me never thank nor please,

Nor do good deed, nor have me in mind.

I am thy leech in thy disease:

Why art thou to thy friend unkind?

Ah, I have bought thy love full dear;
Unkind! why goest thou from mine?
I gave thee heart and blood in fere [alike];
Unkind! O why not give me thine?

Thou art an unkind homagere,

For with my foe thou mak'st thy fyn [peace]; Thou servest me with feeble cheer,

To him thy heart will all incline;

And I am Lord of bliss and pyne [pain],
And everything may loose and bind;
Against thee I my gates will tyne [bar]
While thou art to thy friend unkind!

O man, bethink thee what thou art,

Whence come, and whether thou art boun [bound], Whole thou mayst be to-day and qwart [in ease], To-morrow I may put thee down.

Let meekness melt into thine heart,

And think with grief on my passioún,

Of my wide wounds, both deep and smerte [painful],
The cross, the nails, the spear, the crown.

Let dread and good discretioún

Thy will towards me wholly bind ;

Thou hast good wit, thou hast reasoún,
And if thou wilt, thou may'st be kind.

O Lord! 'gainst Thee we will not plete [plead],
For as Thou wilt it is and was.

We have deserved Thy anger hete [hot],
And now we yield us to Thy grace.

Yea, we will bow, and Thou shalt beat
And chasten us for our trespass,

And let mercy for us entreat

That never fiend our souls may chase!
G

Ah, blessed Lady, fair of face,

Help us, for far we be behind,

And well may cry with tears, 'Alas,

That we were to our Friend unkind!' Amen.1

From another collection of fifteenth century poems I quote the following, entitled Richard de Castro's Prayer to Jesus (c. 1430):

Jesu, Lord, that madest me,

And with Thy blessed blood hast bought,
Forgive that I have grievéd Thee

With words, with will, and eke with thought.

Jesu, in whom is all my trust,

Thou that didst die on the rood tree,
Withdraw my heart from fleshly lust,
And from all worldly vanity.

Jesu, for Thy woundés smart,

On feet and on Thy handés two,
Make me meek and low of heart,
And Thee to love as I should do.

Jesu, for Thy bitter wound,

That pierced e'en to Thy heart's root,
For sin that hath my heart y-bound,
Thy blessed blood must be my boot.
And Jesu Christ, to Thee I call,

Thou that art God and full of might,
O keep me clean that I ne'er fall
In deadly sin by day nor night.

Jesu, for them I Thee beseech
That anger Thee in any wise;

Withhold from them Thy hand of wreak,
And let them live in Thy servíce.

Jesu, most comfort for to see,

Of all Thy saintés every one,

O comfort them that careworn be

And help them that be woe-begone.

Jesu, O keep them that be good,

And them amend that have grieved Thee,

And send us fruits of earthly food

As each man needs in his degree.

1 Hymns Political and Religious, E. E.T.S. 15: 'This is Goddis own complaynt.'