The publication of this valuable semi-Saxon or Early English treatise on
the duties of monastic life, recently put forth by the Camden Society,
under the editorship of the Rev. James Morton, is extremely acceptable, and
both the Society and the editor deserve the cordial thanks of all who are
interested in the history of our language. As one much interested in the
subject, and who many years since entertained the design now so ably
executed by Mr. Morton, I may perhaps be allowed to offer a few remarks on
the work itself, and on the manuscripts which contain it. Mr. Morton is
unquestionably right in his statement that the Latin MS. in Magdalen
College, Oxford, No. 67., is only an abridged translation of the original
vernacular text. Twenty-three years ago I had access to the same MS. by
permission of the Rev. Dr. Routh, the President of Magdalen College, and
after reading and making extracts from it[1], I came to the same conclusion
as Mr. Morton. It hardly admits, I think, of a doubt; for even without the
internal evidence furnished by the Latin copy, the age of the manuscripts
containing the Early English text at once set aside the supposition that
Simon of Ghent (Bishop of Salisbury from 1297 to 1315) was the original
author of the work. The copy in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, I have
not seen, but of the three copies in the British Museum I feel confident
that the one marked Cleopatra C. vi. was actually written before Bishop
Simon of Ghent had emerged from the nursery. This copy is not only the
oldest, but the most curious, from the corrections and alterations made in
it by a somewhat later hand, the chief of which are noticed in the printed
edition. The collation, however, of this MS. might have been, with
advantage, made more minutely, for at present many readings are passed
over. Thus, at p. 8., for _unweote_ the second hand has _congoun_; at p.
62., for _herigen_ it has _preisen_; at p. 90., for _on cheafle_, it reads
_o muþe_, &c. The original hand has also some remarkable variations, which
would cause a suspicion that this was the first draft of the author's work.
Thus, at p. 12., for _scandle_, the first hand has _schonde_; at p. 62.,
for _baldeliche_ it reads _bradliche_; at p. 88., for _nout for_, it has
_anonden_, and the second hand _aneust_; at p. 90., for _sunderliche_ it
reads _sunderlepes_, &c. All these, and many other curious variations, are
not noticed in the printed edition. On the fly-leaf of this MS. is written,
in a hand of the time of Edward I., as follows: "_Datum abbatie et
conventui de Leghe per Dame M. de Clare._" The lady here referred to was
doubtless Maud de Clare, second wife of Richard de Clare, Earl of Hereford
and Gloucester, who, at the beginning of the reign of Edward I., is known
to have changed the Augustinian Canons of Leghe, in Devonshire, into an
abbess and nuns of the same order; and it was probably at the same period
she bestowed this volume on them. The conjecture of Mr. Morton, that Bishop
Poore, who died in 1237, might have been the original author of the _Ancren
Riwle_, is by no means improbable, and deserves farther inquiry. The error
as to Simon of Ghent is due, in the first place, not to Dr. Smith, but to
Richard James (Sir Robert Cotton's librarian), who wrote on the fly-leaves
of all the MSS. in the Cottonian Library a note of their respective
contents, and who is implicitly followed by Smith. Wanley is more blamable,
and does not here evince his usual critical accuracy, but (as remarked by
Mr. Morton) he could only have looked at a few pages of the work. The real
fact seems to be that Simon of Ghent made the abridged Latin version of the
seven books of the _Riwle_ now preserved in Magdalen College, and this
supposition may well enough be reconciled with the words of Leland, who
says of him,--
"Edidit inter cætera, libros _septem_ de Vita Solitaria, {6} ad
Virgines Tarentinas, Duriæ cultrices."--_Comment_., p. 316.
A second copy of the Latin version was formerly in the Cottonian collection
(Vitellius E. vii.), but no fragment of it has hitherto been recovered from
the mass of burnt crusts and leaves left after the fire of 1731. I am
happy, however, to add, that within the last few months, the manuscript
marked Vitellius F. vii., containing a French translation of the _Riwle_,
made in the fourteenth century (very closely agreeing with the vernacular
text), has been entirely restored, except that the top margins of the
leaves have been burnt at each end of the volume. This damage has,
unfortunately, carried away the original heading of the treatise, and the
title given us by Smith is copied partly from James's note. This copy of
the French version appears to be unique, and is the more interesting from
its having a note at the end (now half obliterated by the fire), stating
that it belonged to Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, whose motto is
also added, "_Plesance. M [mil]. en vn_." The personage in question was
Eleanor, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and wife of
Thomas of Woodstock, who ended her days as a nun in the convent at Barking
in 1399. Is any other instance known of the use of this motto? Before I
conclude these brief remarks, I may mention a _fifth_ copy of the _Ancren
Riwle_, which has escaped the notice of Mr. Morton. It is buried in the
enormous folio manuscript of old English poetry and prose called the Vernon
MS., in the Bodleian Library, written in the reign of Richard II., and
occurs at pp. 371^b.--392. In the table of contents prefixed to this volume
it is entitled "The Roule of Reclous;" and although the phraseology is
somewhat modernised, it agrees better with the MS. Cleopatra C. vi, than
with Nero A. xiv., from which Mr. Morton's edition is printed. This copy is
not complete, some leaves having been cut out in the sixth book, and the
scribe leaves off at p. 420. of the printed edition.
It is very much to be wished that Mr. Morton would undertake the task of
editing another volume of legends, homilies, and poems, of the same age as
the _Ancren Riwle_, still existing in various manuscripts. One of the
homilies, entitled "Sawles Warde," in the Bodley MS. 34., Cott. MS. Titus
D. xviii., and Old Royal MS. 17A. xxvii., is very curious, and well
deserves to be printed.