herefore gan pay;
Sore a hungred away I yede,
For well London lykke peny for ones eye,
For lake of money I may not spede.

Then I hyed me to Byllingesgate,
And cried wagge wagge gow hens;
I praye a barge man, for Gods sake,
That they would spare me myn expens;
He sayde, ryse up, man, and get the hens,
What menist thow, I will do on the no almes dede,
Here scapeth no man byneth ij pens,
For lacke of money I myght not spede.

Then I conveyed me into Kent;
For of the law would I medle no more,
By caus no man to me would take entent,
I dight me to the plowe even as I did before.
Thus save London that in Bethelem was bore,
And every trew man of law God graunt hymsels med,
And they that be othar, God theyr state restore;
For he that lacketh money with them he shall not spede.

EXPLICIT LONDON LIKKE PENY.

LONDON LYCKPENY.

A BALLADE COMPYLED BY DAN JOHN LYDGATE MONKE OF BERY, ABOUT ---- YERES
AGOE, AND NOW NEWLY OVERSENE AND AMENDED.

[_Harleian MSS._ 367, f. 126, 127.]

To London once, my stepps I bent,
Where trouth in no wyse should be faynt:
To Westmynster ward I forthwith went,
To a man of law to make complaynt.
I sayd, for Mary's love that holy saynt,
Pity the poore that would proceede;
But for lack of mony I cold not spede.

And as I thrust the prese amonge,
By froward chaunce my hood was gone;
Yet for all that I stayd not longe,
Tyll at the kynge bench I was come.
Before the judge I kneled anon,
And prayd hym for Gods sake to take heede;
But for lack of money I myght not spede.

Beneth them sat clarkes a great rout,
Which fast dyd wryte by one assent;
There stoode up one and cryed about,
Rychard, Robert, and John of Kent;
I wyst not wele what this man ment:
He cryed so thycke there indede,
But he that lackt mony myght not spede.

Unto the common place I yode thoo,
Where sat one with a sylken hoode;
I dyd hym reverence, for I ought to do so,
And told my case as well as I coud,
How my goods were defrauded me by falshood.
I gat not a mum of his mouth for my meed,
And for lack of mony I myght not spede.

Unto the Rolls I gat me from thence,
Before the clarkes of the chauncerye,
Where many I found earnyng of pence,
But none at all once regarded mee:
I gave them my playnt uppon my knee;
They lyked it well when they had it reade,
But lackyng mony I could not be sped.

In Westmynster hall I found out one,
Which went in a long gown of raye;
I crouched and kneled before hym anon:
For Marye