IV 

 OF THE CROWN OF THORNS 



" AND if all it be so, that men say, that this crown is of 

 thorns, ye shall understand that, it was of jonkes of the 

 sea, that is to say, rushes of the sea, that prick as sharply 

 as thorns. For I have seen and beholden many times 

 that of Paris and that of Constantinople ; for they were 

 both one, made of rushes of the sea. But man have 

 departed them in two parts : of the which one part is at 

 Paris, and the other part is at Constantinople. And I 

 have one of those precious thorns that seemeth like a 

 White Thorn ; and that was given to me for great 

 speciality. For there are many of them broken and 

 fallen into the vessel that the crown lieth in ; for they 

 break for dryness when the men move them to show to 

 great lords that come hither. 



" And ye shall understand, that our Lord Jesu, in that 

 night that he was taken, he was led into a garden ; and 

 there he was first examined right sharply ; and there 

 the Jews scorned him, and made him a crown of the 

 branches of the Albespine, that is White Thorn, that 

 grew in that same garden, and set it on his head, so fast 

 and so sore, that the blood ran down by many places of 

 his visage, and of his neck, and of his shoulders. And 

 therefore hath the White Thorn many virtues, for he 

 that beareth a branch on him thereof, no thunder or no 

 manner of tempest may dere him ; nor in the house that 

 it is in may no evil ghost enter nor come into the place 



185 2 A 



