Mercy and Trouthe mette on an hih mounteyn Briht as the sonne with his beemys cleer, Pees and Justicia walkyng on the pleyn, And with foure sustryn, moost goodly of ther cheer, List nat departe nor severe in no maneer, Of oon accoord by vertuous encrees, Joyned in charité, pryncessis moost enteer, Mercy and Trouthe, Rihtwisnesse and Pees.
12361. _a tale of Waltrot._ This name, like Wade in Chaucer, appears to have been that of a hero of romances and tales, or a personage belonging to the popular superstitions. Perhaps it may be connected with the old German _Waltschrat_ (_satyrus_, _pilosus_). See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 270.
12599. _a spirit speketh to helle._ The picture of the "Harrowing of Hell," which here fol, bears a striking resemblance to the analogous scene in the old Mysteries, particularly in that edited by Mr. Halliwell under this title, 8vo, 1840. Compare the play on the same subject in the Towneley Mysteries, p. 244.
12645, 12669, 12676. _sevene hundred wynter ... thritty wynter ... two and thritty wynter._ Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers always counted duration of time by _winters_ and _nights_; for so many years, they said so many winters, and so many nights for so many days. This form continued long in popular usage, and still remains in our words _fortnight_ and _se'nnight_.
12663. _Gobelyn._ Goblin is a name still applied to a devil. It belongs properly to a being of the old Teutonic popular mythology, a hob-goblin, the "lubber-fiend" of the poet, and seems to be identical with the German _kobold_. (See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 286.) _Gobelin_ occurs as the name of one of the shepherds in the Mystery of the Nativity, printed by M. Jubinal in his Mystères inédits, vol. ii, p. 71. It occurs as the name of a devil in a song of the commencement of the fourteenth century, Political Songs, p. 238:--
Sathanas huere syre Seyde on is sawe, Gobelyn made is gerner Of gromene mawe.
12679. _to warne Pilates wif._ This is an allusion to a popular legend prevalent at this time that the devil wished to hinder Christ's crucifixion, and that he appeared to Pilate's wife in a dream, and caused her to beseech her husband not to condemn the Saviour. It was founded on the passage in Matthew xxvii, 19. Sedente autem illo pro tribunali, misit ad eum uxor ejus, dicens: Nihil tibi et justo illi: multa enim passa sum hodie per visum propter eum. The most complete illustration of the passage of Piers Ploughman will be found in Halliwell's Coventry Mysteries, p. 308, "Pilate's Wife's Dream."