1 O ye al whilk that by me cummes and gothe. This poem presents itself as an epitaph or memorial inscription, addressing itself to passersby. For more on the ‘speaking’ tombstone, see the notes to lines 76 and 78 below.↩back to note source

8–14 Why art thou . . . has sone pasayge. This second stanza touches on each of the seven deadly sins: pride (“prowde elacyon”), avarice (“wordly covetyse”), anger (“wrathe”), envy (“invyos swellyng”), gluttony (“glotony”), sloth (“Brynnyng in slomer and slawly in corayge”), and lust (“to be lycheros”).↩back to note source

22 Salomon . . . with al his prudence. Solomon is the Old Testament Israelite king known for his wisdom and traditionally considered the author of the biblical books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.↩back to note source

23 myghty Sampson duk invyncybyll. In the Old Testament Book of Judges 13–16, Samson is a leader of the Israelites who possesses extraordinary physical strength. His strength failed after his long hair was cut by his mistress Delilah, in violation of his Nazarite vow.↩back to note source

24 Tullyus the retrysciane with al his eloquence. Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106 BCE–42 BCE), is a Roman politician and rhetorician whose letters were an important stylistic model for medieval writers.↩back to note source

25 Arystotil. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) is considered one of the founders of the Western philosophical tradition.↩back to note source

26 Or this emprour Octavy mest pessybyll. Gaius Octavius Augustus is the first Roman emperor, grandnephew of Julius Caesar. His reign (27 BCE–14 CE) coincided with a period of relative peace known as the pax romana.↩back to note source

22–27 Wher is Salomon . . . Jonathas ful amyabyll. This 6line stanza with an ababbb rhyme scheme breaks from the poem’s regular 7-line ababbcc stanza form. This stanza is an example of the ubi sunt (where are they?) trope, which reflects on the greatness of departed figures from the past. See also the note to lines 141–44 in “Three Messengers of Death” (DIMEV 5387) in this edition.↩back to note source

27 swete Jonathas ful amyabyll. Jonathan is considered a model of loyalty, whose friendship with King David is described in 1 Kings 18.↩back to note source

30 twynkillyng of ane ee. Proverbial. See Whiting T547.↩back to note source

38 As Job says in his funerall obsequye. The protagonist of the biblical book of Job is considered a model of devout and patient suffering; see also the note to line 3 in “Three Messengers of Death” (DIMEV 5387) above. The more specific reference here may be to Pety Job, a popular poetic meditation on the Office of the Dead, written in the midfifteenth century. Pety Job quotes from and imaginatively expands upon a series of verses drawn from Job’s speeches, as well as material from the Book of Psalms. As “The Dawnse of Makabre” (DIMEV 4104) says, the purpose of Pety Job is that readers “may lerne to dye.” The “tretys” mentioned in line 40 refers to the biblical Book of Job.↩back to note source

42–43 O erthly man . . . sal to erth. An allusion to Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” This theme also reappears in line 58. See also Whiting E22.↩back to note source

51 Into powdyr we sal fall. The phrase evokes the Order for the Burial of the Dead in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer (“I Commende thy soule to God the father almightie, and thy bodye to the grounde, earth to earth, asshes to asshes, duste to dust, in sure and certayne hope of resurreccion to eternall lyfe, through our Lorde Iesus Christe” sig. T6v; STC 16272) which itself alludes to Genesis 18:27: “And Abraham answered, and said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes.’”↩back to note source

63 Man remembyr of the dawnce of makabre. This is the only explicit reference to the danse macabre in the poem. The injunction for the reader to remember echoes line 18 of the A version of Lydgate’s Dance of Death, which suggests that readers imprint the Dance in their “memorial” or memory.↩back to note source

76 ite venite. Literally, “go, come” (e.g., come from here), this Latin phrase was a common inscription on tombstones. The phrase evokes the address to those who “by me cummes and gothe” in the first line of the poem.↩back to note source

78 this litterall scripture. A pun. The poem is literally inscribed on the tombstone.↩back to note source