[Footnote 67: biddeth.] [Footnote 68: hard rider.] [Footnote 69: spurring.] [Footnote 70: wrought on the edge.] [Footnote 71: a fine kind of fur.] [Footnote 72: bald.] [Footnote 73: bright.] [Footnote 74: Shone like a furnace under a cauldron.] [Footnote 75: tormented.] [Footnote 76: Friar.] [Footnote 77: A friar with a licence to beg within certain limits.] [Footnote 78: Unto.] [Footnote 79: country gentlemen.] [Footnote 80: knew.] [Footnote 81: have.] [Footnote 82: poor.] [Footnote 83: shriven.] [Footnote 84: durst make a boast.] [Footnote 85: must.] [Footnote 86: stuffed.] [Footnote 87: a stringed instrument.] [Footnote 88: story telling.] [Footnote 89: have.] [Footnote 90: profit.] [Footnote 91: poor people.] [Footnote 92: farm. This couplet only appears in the Hengwrt MS. As Mr. Pollard says, it is probably Chaucer's, but may have been omitted by him as it interrupts the sentence. Cf. _Globe_ Chaucer.] [Footnote 93: ere.] [Footnote 94: The proceeds of his begging exceeded his fixed income.] [Footnote 95: Days appointed for the amicable settlement of differences.] [Footnote 96: half cloak.] JOHN LYDGATE. (1373?-1460.) IV. THE LONDON LACKPENNY. This is an admirable picture of London life early in the fifteenth century. The poem first appeared among Lydgate's fugitive pieces, and has been preserved in the Harleian MSS. To London once my steps I bent, Where truth in no wise should be faint; To Westminster-ward I forthwith went, To a man of Law to make complaint. I said, "For Mary's love, that holy saint, Pity the poor that would proceed!"[97] But for lack of money, I could not speed. And, as I thrust the press among, By froward chance my hood was gone; Yet for all that I stayed not long Till to the King's Bench I was come. Before the Judge I kneeled anon And prayed him for God's sake take heed. But for lack of money, I might not speed. Beneath them sat clerks a great rout,[98] Which fast did write by one assent; There stood up one and cried about "Richard, Robert, and John of Kent!" I wist not well what this man meant, He cried so thickly there indeed. But he that lacked money might not speed. To the Common Pleas I yode tho,[99] There sat one with a silken hood: I 'gan him reverence for to do, And told my case as well as I could; How my goods were defrauded me by falsehood; I got not a mum of his mouth for my meed,[100] And for lack of money I might not speed. Unto the Rolls I gat me from thence, Before the clerks of the Chancery; Where many I found earning of pence; But none at all once regarded me. I gave them my plaint upon my knee; They liked it well when they had it read; But, lacking money, I could not be sped.