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Sire monke also / with ȝowre blake abite
Ȝe mai no lenger / holde here soioure
Ther is no thinge / that mai ȝow here respite
Aȝeyn my myght / ȝow for to do socoure
Ȝe mote accounte / towchyng ȝowre laboure
How ȝe haue spente hit / in dede worde & thowght
To erthe and asshes / turneth eueri floure
The life of man / is but a thynge of nowght.
your black habit
I had leuere / in [the] cloystre be
Atte my boke / and studie my seruice
Whiche is a place / contemplatif to se
But I haue spente / my life in many vise
Liche as a fole / dissolute and nyce
God of his merci / graunte me repentaunce
Be chere owtewarde / harde to deuyce
Al ben not meri / whiche that men seen daunce.
had leuere: would rather
Liche as a fole: Like a fool
Thow vserere loke vp & be-holde
Un to wynnynge / thow settest al thi peyne
Whose couetise / wexeth neuer colde
Thi gredi thruste / so sore the dothe constreyne
But thow shalt neuer / thi desire atteyne
Suche an etik / thyn herte frete shal
That but of pite / God his honde refreyne
Oo parilous stroke / shal make the lese al.
Now me behoueth / sodeynly to dey
Whiche is to me / grete peyne & grete greuaunce
Socowre to fynde / I see no maner weie
Of golde ne siluer / be no cheuisshaunce
Dethe thrugh his haste / a-bitte no puruiaunce
Of folkes blynde / that can not loke welle
Ful ofte happeth / be kynde or fatal chaunce
Somme haue feyre yȝen / that seen neuer a dele.
Now I must die suddenly
cheuisshaunce: borrowing or lending money
Usure to god / is ful grete offence
And in his sight / a grete abusioun
The pore borweth / par cas for Indigence
The riche lent / be fals collucioun
Onli for lucre / in his entencioun
Dethe shal hem bothe / to accomptes fette
To make rekennynge / be computacioun
No man is quytte / that is be-hynde of dette.
hem: them, fette: fetch
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Death mentions the monk's black robe: »ȝowre blake abite«. Sophie Oosterwijk ("John Lydgate, The Dance of Death" p. 233) points out that the corresponding text in the French La Danse Macabre doesn't mention which order this monk belongs to, but that the Benedictine habit was black.
The picture on the right shows how John Lydgate himself wore a black Benedictine habit.
The poor man is not really a part of the dance, but is included in order to characterize the usurer - just as the pope is characterized by his triple cross and the physician by his urine glass. However, in most of the French and English manuscripts he gets his own speech.
Medieval dances of death
St. Paul's, London
Monk & usurer