50. Reaping time. Labourers reaping corn under the supervision of the hayward. From the MS. 2 B. vii., fol. 78 _b_. English, early fourteenth century. “They dwell in fayre houses, and we haue the payne and traueyle, rayne and wynd in the feldes” (speech of John Ball, in Lord Berners’ Froissart, chap. ccclxxxi). The overseer shown in the drawing may possibly be a bailiff: “Supervidere debet ballivus falcatores, messores, cariatores,” &c. (“Fleta,” cap. 73), or a provost, who had about the same duties, but was practically chosen by the peasants themselves. But it seems more likely to be a hayward; the dress and attitude better suit a man in that station. The care of seeing that “repemen . . . repe besili and clenli,” was sometimes entrusted to such officers; see Skeat, “Notes to Piers the Plowman,” Early English Text Society, 1877, p. 273. A horn, such as our man bears, was always carried by haywards, who used to blow it to warn off people from straying in the crops. The rough and commanding attitude seen in the drawing would not be so readily expected from a bailiff with his juridical knowledge and comparatively high function, or from a provost appointed by the peasants themselves, as from a hayward or _garde champêtre_ • 267 51. In the stocks. A woman and a monk are put into them; a gentleman abuses them. From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 187, where it forms part of a series of drawings illustrating a _fabliau_ of the same sort as the one alluded to above (illustration No. 28). It is called, _Du soucretain et de la fame au chevalier_; the author is Rutebeuf, and it may be found in the works of this the most famous of the French thirteenth-century poets (ed. Jubinal, or ed. Kressner) • 272 52. Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford; present state, a drawing by Aug. de Blignières • 274 53. Beggars. A cripple and other beggars helped by a generous king to his own garments. From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 261 _b_ • 275 54. A friar (Chaucer’s friar). From the Ellesmere MS. “And it shall be lawful for such as shall be compelled by necessity to be shod, . . . and they are not to ride unless some manifest necessity or infirmity oblige them.” “The rule of the Friars Minors,” Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” 1817, vol. vi. part iii. p. 1504 • 283 55. “When Adam delved and Eve span”—the text of John Ball’s harangue (same idea in Wace’s “Roman de Rou,” l. 6027), illustrated from the early fourteenth-century MS., 2 B. vii., 4 _b_, in the British Museum. (English) • 287 56. A worldly ecclesiastic— “Ful wel biloved and familiar was he . . . with worthie wommen.” (Prologue of the “Canterbury Tales”). From the MS. 10 E. IV., fol. 185. Belongs to the same story as No. 48 • 292