Jessica W. Hamlin (W); 11Oct67; R419693. HAMM, JOHN E. The English hire-purchase act, 1938.

She gathereth floures, partie white and red, To make a sotel gerlond for hire bed, And as an angel hevenlich she song.

And to tho ydoles, thei offren alle weys hyre first mylk of hire bestes, and also of hire metes, and of hire drynkes, before thei eten.

Wherfore it semethe wel, that God lovethe hem and is plesed with hire creance, for hire gode dedes.

And the cause whi that they wepen, when hire children ben born, is this, for whan thei comen in to this world, thei comen to labour, sorwe and hevynesse: and whi thei maken ioye and gladnesse at hire dyenge, is be cause that, as thei seyn, thanne thei gon to Paradys, where the ryveres rennen mylk and hony, where that men seen hem in ioye and in habundance of godes, with outen sorwe and labour.

And aftre that thei ben zolden, anon thei sleen hem alle, and kutten of hire eres, and sowcen hem in vynegre, and there of thei maken gret servyse for lordes.

And so my boke (alle be it that many men ne list not to zeve credence to no thing, but to that that thei seen with hire eye, ne be the auctour ne the persone never so trewe) is affermed and preved be oure holy fadir, in maner and forme as I have seyd.

Also whan thei wille make hire ydoles, or an ymage of ony of hire frendes, for to have remembrance of hym, thei maken alle weys the ymage alle naked, with outen any maner of clothinge.

And thanne in that contree, dwellen manye gode Cristene men, the whiche that laften hire godes, and wolde han fled in to Grece: and whan they weren in a playn, that highte Megon, anon this cursed emperour mett with hem, with his hoost, for to have slayn hem, and hewen hem to peces.

And the moste synne, that ony man may do, is to pissen in hire houses, that thei dwellen in.

The firste ryvere is clept Phison, that is to seyne in hire langage, Assemblee: for many other ryveres meten hem there, and gon in to that ryvere.

And in the gardin at the sonne uprist She walketh up and doun wher as hire list.

For righte as the bokes of the Scripture of hem techen the clerkes, how and in what manere thei schulle beleeven, righte so the ymages and the peyntynges techen the lewed folk to worschipen the seyntes, and to have hem in hire mynde, in whoos name that the ymages ben made aftre.

There weren enclosed 22 kynges with hire peple, that duelleden betwene the mountaynes of Sythye.

And whan thei han eten, thei wypen hire hondes upon hire skirtes: for thei use non naperye, ne towaylles, but zif it be before grete lordes: but the common peple hathe none.

Ther was also a nonne, a prioresse, That of hire smiling was full simp' and coy, Hire greatest othe was but by Seint Eloy! Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1388).

But of hire song, it was as loud and yerne As any swalow sitting on a berne.

Their property, bought on the hire system out of hard-earned wages, was not, they thought, in the least likely to be smashed into small bits or carried off as loot.

For thei trowen, that aftre hire dethe, thei schulle be etynge and drynkynge in that other world, and solacynge hem with hire wifes, as thei diden here.

And thanne alle his frendes maken hire avaunt and hire dalyance, how the fowles comen thider, here 5, here 6, here 10, and there 20, and so forthe: and thei rejoyssen hem hugely for to speke there of.

Also whan thei wille make hire ydoles, or an ymage of ony of hire frendes, for to have remembrance of hym, thei maken alle weys the ymage alle naked, with outen any maner of clothinge.