2819-2822. The discipline here described seems to have been peculiar to the chapter-house of the monasteries. Matth. Paris, p. 848, has an anecdote which illustrates curiously this passage of Piers Ploughman. In speaking of the turbulent Falcasius de Breuté, who had been warned in a vision to offer himself to suffer penance in the monastery of St. Albans, in the reign of Henry III, he says, "Vestibus igitur spoliatus cum suis militibus, similiter indumentis spoliatis, ferens in manu virgam quam vulgariter _baleis_ appellamus, et confitens culpam suam, ... a singulis fratribus disciplinas nuda carne suscepit." 2846. In the text which Whitaker has printed, the confession of Wrath was followed by that of Luxury or Lechery. It stands as follows in the copy of the same text in MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. xvi. (_See_ l. 8713, of our present text.) Thanne seide Lecherie, Alas! And to oure Ladi criede, 'Ladi, for thi leve sone, Loute for me nouthe, That he have pité on me, putour, For his pure merci.' 'With that I schal,' quod that schrewe, 'Saterdaies, for thi love, Drynke with the doke, And dine but ones.' I, gulti in gost, To God I me schrive, As in likyng of lecherige My licames gultes, In wordes, in wedes, In waityng of eyen, To eche maide that I mette I made here a sigge, Semyng to synne-ward, And summe can I taste Aboute the mouth, and binethe Bigon I to grope, Til bothe oure wil was on, To werke we yeden, As wel fastyng daies, And hi festes eves, And wel in Lente as out of Lente, Al tymes i-liche; Swiche werkes with us Weren nevere out of seson, Til we mighten ne more, Tho hadde we muri tales Of putrige and of paramours, And provede thorw speche, Handelyng, and halsyng, And also thorw cussyng, Excityng heither other To oure elde synne; Sotilde songes, And sente out elde baudes For te wynne to my wil Wemmen with gile; Bi sorcerie sum time, And sum time be maistrie, I lai bi the lovelokest, And lovede hem nevere aftur. Whan I was eld and hor, And hadde i-lorn that kynde, I hadde likyng to lige Of lecherous tales. Now, lord, for thi lewté, On lecheres have merci. 2850. _Sire Hervy._ Whitaker and Price (in Warton) suppose that there is here a personal allusion, which at the time had become proverbial. 2874. _Symme at the Style._ Whit. 2881. _To Wy and to Wynchestre | I wente to the feyre._ Warton (Hist. of Eng. p. ii, 55, edit. 1840) supposes Wy to be Weyhill, in Hampshire, "where a famous fair still subsists." In fact it is one of the greatest fairs in England, lasting ten days. For anecdotes of the celebrity of the great fair at Winchester in former times, and for some interesting observations on fairs in general, _see_ Warton, loc. cit.