Cr1.15.434KD.15.429 Salte saue thy cattel sayen the wyues .
C.15.428KD.15.429 Salt saues catell · saynge this wyues
F.11.446KD.15.429/ [¶] Salt saveþ þe Catelle / as seyn sadde wyves.F.11.446: F omits the following 68 lines, reflecting the contents either of a single leaf or (more likely) opening from his
exemplar. E. Talbot Donaldson noted this fact in "MSS R and F in the B-Tradition of Piers Plowman," Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (1955): 185 n. 19, rightly attributing the error to a copyist between F and alpha. More recently Sean Taylor, "The F Scribe
and the R Manuscript of Piers Plowman B," English Studies 77 (1996): 530-48, reminds us that this lacuna coincides with the opening of fols. 78v-79r in R and argues, we think unconvincingly, that F was copied directly from R. The omitted lines follow:
Vos estis sal terre &c.
The heuedes of holy chirche and þei holy were
Crist calleþ hem salt for cristene soules
Et si sal euanuerit in quo salietur
Ac fressh flessh ouþer fissh whan it salt failleþ
It is vnsauory forsoþe ysoden or ybake
So is mannes soule sooþly þat seeþ no good ensample
Of hem of holi chirche þat þe heighe wey sholde teche
And be gide and go bifore as a good Banyer
And hardie hem þat bihynde ben and ȝyue hem good euidence
Elleuene holy men al þe world tornede
Into lele bileue þe lightloker me þinkeþ
Sholde alle maner men we han so manye maistres
Preestes and prechours and a pope aboue
That goddes salt sholde be to saue mannes soule
Al was hethynesse som-tyme Engelond and Walis
Til Gregory garte clerkes to go here and preche
Austyn at Caunterbury cristnede þe kyng
And þoruȝ miracles as men mow rede al þat marche he tornede
To crist and to cristendom and cros to honoure
And follede folk faste and þe feiþ tauȝte
Moore þoruȝ miracles þan þoruȝ muche prechyng
As wel þoruȝ hise werkes as wiþ hise holy wordes
And seide hem what fullynge and feiþ was to mene
Clooþ þat comeþ fro þe weuyng is noȝt comly to were
Til it is fulled vnder foot or in fullyng stokkes
Wasshen wel wiþ water and wiþ taseles cracched
Ytouked and yteynted and vnder taillours hande
And so it fareþ by a barn þat born is of wombe
Til it be cristned in cristes name and confermed of þe bisshop
It is heþene as to heueneward and helplees to þe soule
Heþen is to mene after heeþ and vntiled erþe
As in wilde wildernesse wexeþ wilde beestes
Rude and vnresonable rennynge wiþ-outen cropers (or keperes)
Ye mynnen wel how Mathew seiþ how a man made a feste
He fedde hem wiþ no venyson ne fesauntz ybake
But wiþ foweles þat fram hym nolde but folwede his whistlyng
Ecce altilia mea & omnia parata sunt &c.
And wiþ calues flessh he fedde þe folk þat he louede
The calf bitokneþ clennesse in hem þat kepeþ lawes
For as þe Cow þoruȝ kynde mylk þe calf norisseþ til an Oxe
So loue and leaute lele men susteneþ
And maidenes and mylde men mercy desiren
Right as þe cow calf coueiteþ swete melke
So doon riȝtfulle men mercy and truþeThe text for the next fourteen lines is from R, though without its pointing or indication of abbreviations. Beta witnesses
lack this passage.
And by þe hande fedde foules his folk vnderstonde
Þat loth ben to louye with-outen lernynge of ensaumples
Riȝt as capones in a court cometh to mennes whistlynge
In menynge after mete folweth men þat whistlen
Riȝt so rude men þat litel reson cunneth
Louen and byleuen by lettred mennes doynges
And by here wordes and werkes wenen and trowen
And as tho foules to fynde fode after whistlynge
So hope þei to haue heuene þoruȝ her whistlynge
And by þe man þat made þe feste þe mageste bymeneth
That is god of his grace gyueth al men blisse
With wederes and with wondres he warneth vs with a whistlere
Where þat his wille is to worschipen vs alle
And feden vs and festen vs for euere more at ones
Ac who beþ þat excuseþ hem þat arn persons and preestes
That heuedes of holy chirche ben þat han hir wil here
Wiþ-outen trauaille þe tiþe deel þat trewe men biswynken
They wol be wrooþ for I write þus ac to witnesse I take
Boþe Mathew and Marc and Memento domine dauid
Ecce audiuimus eam in effrata &c.
What pope or prelat now parfourneþ þat crist highte
Ite in vniuersum mundum & predicate &c.
Allas þat men so longe on Makometh sholde bileue