MS. Ashmole 61 (Bodleian Library), fol. 20, about 1500.
p. 21. _Seven Sciences_, _i.e._, knowledges, hence Arts. The
introduction is nearly identical, but very few of the maxims agree.
p. 22. _What you get with your hands._ One of the many allusions which
suggest adaptation to the middle class. Others are to buying and
selling, to getting your money honestly, &c. The stress upon morals
rather than manners is perhaps due to the same cause.
p. 25. _At the school._ The inference seems to be that they would learn
manners there.
p. 25. _Quoth Kate._ The same name occurs at the end of the three next
poems as they appear in MS. Ashmole 61. It is probably a corruption,
unless we have here one of the rare instances of a woman copyist. _Cato_
suggests itself as the most likely original; and in this way. He was
undoubtedly identified with the _Wise Man_, as appears from the _Luytel
Caton_ of the Vernon MS. (see p. 189, below). Accordingly, _Quod Cato_
might have stood at the end of this poem, and have become confused with
Kate from Katharine or Catherine.