part ii

. chap. 2, note _m_.

[181] Though it cannot be positively asserted it is generally believed that the author was Robert Longlande, a monk of Malvern. See introduction to Wright's edition of "The Vision." The latter part of the year 1362 is believed to be the time of its composition.

[182] The passage is so remarkable as to be worth giving here, for the immediate reference of such readers as may not have ready access to the original. We modernize the spelling from Mr. Wright's edition:--

But there shall come a king, And confess you religious, And award you as the Bible telleth For breaking of your rule.

* * * * *

And then shall the Abbot of Abingdon And all his issue for ever, Have a knock of a king, And incurable the wound.

[183] Ep. ad Att. Lib. x. Ep. 4.

[184] Ep. ad Att. Lib. vi. Ep. 6.

[185] This remarkable confession I find in Menage's "Observations sur la Langue Françoise,"