PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES 75 



fuses to serve except by day ; ' a labourer will not serve 

 by term but only by day.'' 



Wages clause. A mower receives I2d. in excess, con- 

 trary to the form of the statute, a carpenter similarly 

 4od. ; 3 a long list of artisans, their occupations specified, 

 receive wages higher than the rates previous to the 

 plague or higher than those of the twentieth and twenty- 

 first years ; ■* household servants are also guilty of re- 

 ceiving excess wages ;5 employers are occasionally in- 

 dicted ; thus a reeve hires reapers in a public place at an 

 illegal rate,^ a mistress gives excess wages to her spin- 

 ning women, and a rector overpays his household ser- 

 vants. ^ 



Price clause. Artisans are frequently indicted for tak- 

 ing excess prices for their products as well as excess 

 wages ; ^ victuallers of all kinds are taking illegal prices. 



'196. 



'224. The petition quoted pt. ii, ch. ii, s. 4, includes a complaint that 

 labourers wish to serve by the day only. A passage in Gower's Vox 

 Clamantis written soon after the great revolt is so applicable that it 

 belongs here (^Complete Works, iv). 

 Lib. quintus; cap. ix. 

 " Sunt etenim tardi, sunt rari, sunt et auari. 

 Ex minimo quod agunt praemia plura petunt: 

 Nunc venit hie usus, petit en plus rusticus vnus, 

 Tempore preterito quam peciere duo; 



cap. X. 



Hii sunt qui cuiquam nolunt seruire per annum, 



Hos vix si solo mense tenebit homo; 



Set conventiciis tales conduco dietis, 



Nunc hie, nunc alibi, nunc michi nuncque tibi. 



Horum de mille vix est operarius ille 



Qui tibi vult pacto fidus inesse suo." 



'163. *i82; 174. '216. 



•227. "227. •'iSz. 



