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_Page Layout:_
In the original book, the EETS catalogue material was wrapped around the
body of the text, with pp. 1-6 at the start of the book and 7-12 at the
end. This has all been moved to the end.
_Headnotes_ appeared at the top of some pages, like subsidiary chapter
headings. They have been retained and moved to the beginning of the most
appropriate paragraph.
_Footnotes_ were numbered separately for each page. In this e-text,
footnotes are numbered for each section, and grouped at the end of the
section. In one section, there are two types of footnotes, referring to
two parallel texts. One type of these footnotes uses numbers, the other
uses letters a, b, c etc, as in the original book. Footnote markers
[1]like so[1] denote that the footnote applies to the passage of text
that appears between the markers; the footnote itself is numbered [1-1].
English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books.
Early English Text Society,
Extra Series, XC.
1903.
BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN.
NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT.
PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books
WITH
TWO COLOURED FACSIMILES
FROM
Medieval Prymers.
EDITED BY
HENRY LITTLEHALES.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LIMITED,
DRYDEN HOUSE, 43, GERRARD STREET, SOHO, W.
1903
NOTE.
The two coloured facsimiles of this little pamphlet explain themselves.
The Manual, which was the medieval priest’s handbook for the services of
Baptism, Marriage, Visitation of the Sick, Burial, etc., is virtually the
only one of the medieval Latin service-books which contained invariably a
certain proportion of its text in English. The text of the English varies
in a measure in different MSS.
Extra Series, XC.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY.
_From the British Museum Manual, MS. 30,506_ (XV cent.).
FROM THE SERVICE FOR BAPTISM.
* * * * *
[1]N. I cristene þe in þe name of þe fader, and of þe sone, and
of þe holy gost.
* * * * *
[2]Godfaderis and godmoderis, I charge ȝow, and þe fader and þe
moder, that þis child be kept þis seuen ȝer fro wat{er}, fro
feer, fro hors [3]fot, fro hondes toth; and þat he ligge not
be þe fader an be þe moder vn-to tyme he co{n}ne sey “ligge
outter,” and þat he be confermyd of a byschop that next cometh
to contre be seuen myle behalue, and þat [he] be tauȝt his beleue,
þat is for to sey, Pat{er} n{oste}r, Aue maria, and Credo; And þat
ȝe wasche ȝo{ur} hondes er ȝe goon owt of chirche, in peyne of
fastyng xl fridayes.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] leaf 23.
[2] leaf 23, back.
[3] leaf 24.
FROM THE MARRIAGE SERVICE.
* * * * *
[1]I aske þe banes betwen I de B and A de C. ȝif any man or woman
kan sey or put any lettenge of sybrede, wherfor they may not, ne
owght not, to come togedere be lawe of holy chirche, do vs to wete.
* * * * *
[2]Lo, syres, we been her gadered togedere befor god and alle his
aungelis and his seyntis, in þe sith of holi cherche, to knette
togedere two bodies, that is to sey, þis man and þis woman, to þis
ende, þat fro{m} þis tyme forward þei moste be o flesch, and two
sowles in þe feith and in þe lawe of god, to deserue togedere euer
lastyng lyf in amendement of that þat þei haue do amys herbefore:
wherfor I amones ȝow alle, that, ȝif þer be any of ȝow þat knowe
any lawful lettyng whi þis man and þis woma{n} mai not be wedded
togedere lawfulli, þat now he sey and knowliche it.
* * * * *
Also I charge ȝow, bothe man and woman, þat ȝif ony of ȝow haue made
any contract p{r}iuyli [3]before þis tyme, or any avow mad, or ony
other cause knowe, whi þat ȝe mai not come to-gedere lawfulli, now
knowliche it.
* * * * *
N. Wiltow haue þis woman to þin wyf, and loue here, and worshipe
here, and holde hire, and kepe here in seknes and in hele, as an
hosbonde owyth to his wif, and alle oþer women to forsaken for hire,
and only to drawe to hire as longe as ȝowre bothe lyues to ged{er}e
lasten?
* * * * *
[4]N. Wiltow haue þis man to þin housbonde, to been buxum to hym,
and serue hym, and loue hym, and worschipe hym, and kepe hym in
syknes and in hele, as a wif owith to do here housbonde, and alle
oþer men forsaken for hym, and only to drawe to hym as longe as
ȝowre bothyn lyues to-gedere lasten?
* * * * *
I .N. take the N. to myn wedded wyf, to haue and to holde from þis
day forward, for beter, for wers, for richere, for porere, for
fayrere, for fowlere, in seknes and in helthe, til deth vs departe,
ȝif holy chirche it wil ordeyne: and therto I plithe þe myn trewthe.
* * * * *
I .N. take the N, to myn weddid housbonde, to haue and to holde from
þis day forward, for beter, for wers, for richer, for porere, for
fayrere, for fowlere, in seknes and in hele, to be boner and buxu{m},
[5]as a wyf owyd to hur husb[an]dd,[5] til deth vs departe, as holi
cherche it [5]wil[5] ordeyne: and therto i plith the myn trowthe.
* * * * *
[6]With þis ryng I þe wedde, and þis gold and siluer I þe ȝeue, and
with al myn bodi I the worschepe, and with al myn wordlich catel
I the honowre.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] leaf 25.
[2] leaf 25, back.
[3] leaf 26.
[4] leaf 26, back.
[5-5] In a later hand.
[6] leaf 27, back.
FROM THE OFFICE FOR THE VISITATION OF THE SICK.
_From the British Museum
Manual, MS. 32,320_ (xv cent.).
How men þat ben in hele sculde
visite sike men.
[1]Beleuyst þow in god, fader [a]My dere sone or douȝtere in god,
almythi, makere of heuene and hyt semith þat þou hyest þe
of erthe? faste in þe wey fro þis life to
* * * * * godward, þere þou schalt cee
I beleue. al þy forme-fadris, apostelis,
martiris, confessouris and
Beleuyst þow i{n} his sone, þe uirgynis, & all men and
secunde p{er}sone in trinite, [b]wo{m}men þat bene saued; and
crist ih{es}u, the whiche was fore gladnes of suche felauschip
conseyuyd be þe myght of þe holy be þou of good co{n}fort in god,
gost, and born of þe blessid þynke how þow muste after þis
mayden, owre ladi seynt marie? lyfe leye a stone in þe waỻ of
þe cite of heuene, sclely witħ
Credo. outen noise or strife, and
þ{er}fore, or þou wende out of þis
Beleuest thow that he leued here world, þou polisscħ þi stoon and
two and thritty ȝer and more, make it redi, ȝif þou wolt not
and suffred at þe last, deth on þere be lettid.
þe cros for þe loue of mankende?
¶ Þis stoon is þy soule, whiche
Credo. þou muste make stronge
þorougħ right bileue; and faire
Beleuyst þow that he wente to þ{o}u muste hit clense, þorougħ
helle & took owt adam and eue hope of goddis m{er}ci and
and the sowles þat were þerynne, p{er}fite charite, the whiche
the whych myȝth not come to coueritħ þe multitude of synnes.
blysse til cristes passiou{n}? þe noyse ..——
Credo.
Beleuyst thow þat he ros vp fro [c]How a man schulde conforte
deth on estir day, and dwellede annothere, þ{a}t he gruche nought
her til ascensiou{n} day, to preue when he is seke.
ve[2]rily his resurrecciou{n}?
Credo.
Beleuyst þow that thanne he Broþer or sisterʼ, louyst þou god þi
styed vp in-to heuene be his lorde? he or sche, ȝif þey may
myȝth, god and man, and there speke, woỻ sey ‘ȝhee,’ [d]or
is euyn in maieste w{i}t{h} his p{er}auenture, ȝif þey may not
fader? speke, þenke ‘ȝhee.’
Credo. ¶ þan þus, ȝif þou lovest god....
Beleuyst þow þat he schal come [e]Ȝiffe detħ goo faste on a man,
at the day of dome to deme þe Speke to hym thesse wordis.
gode and þe badde?
Broþer or Systere in god, ȝif þou
Credo. see or....
Beleuyst þow in þe holi gost, the [f]Now when þou hast seyde aỻ þis,
thridde p{er}sone in trinite, and or ȝif þow maist not seye aỻ for
in holy cherche, and þat þe hastynge of detħ, beginne her{e}
sacrementis of holy chirche or his mynde go from hy{m}. Broþer
aren ordeyned in remissiou{n} of or sister, art þou glad þ{a}t
ma{n}nys senne? þow schalt dye in cristyn feythe?
Credo.
Beleuyst þow in þe sacrament of R’. ȝhe.
þe auter, þat is cristes bodi
whiche was born of marie, knowlechist þou ...
wiche criste lefte her among vs [_Rest missing._]
as for þe most p{re}ciows iewel,
whan he schulde departe be
deth from his disciples?
Credo.
Beleuest þow þat alle tho þat been in good lif schul haue part of
alle [3]the[3] gode dedys, and preyeres that been doon in holy
chirche, and [þat] alle tho þat been knet to-gedere here in holy
chirche be grace, schul ben knet to-gedere in eu{er}lastyng ioye?
Credo.
Trustis thow in þe mercy of god, wiche wil not the deth of a synful
man ȝif he be sory of hys senne and schreuen, and in wyl to amende
hym?
Credo.
Trustis þow þat thow schal haue mercy ȝif þow be sori of þin senne?
Credo.
Trustis thow þat thow, and eu{er}y man and woman, schal rise vp at
þe day of dome in body and in sowle, the badde to be dampned in
endeles peyne, and þe gode to be take, bodi and sowle, in-to
euerelasty{n}g blisse?
[4]Credo.
Art þow in wil fulli to forȝeue alle maner of men and women that
þat þey haue trespased to the, so that þow art in wil to kepe no
rancowr ne malise to hym in þe herte, but to be in loue and charite
with eche man and woman?
* * * * *
I knowliche to god, and to owre lady seynt marie, and to alle þe
halwen of heuene, that I haue senned, with mowth spoken, with
feet goon, w{i}t{h} eyen seyen, with eren hered, with nose
smelled, with herte þowht, and with al myn senful body myswrowth;
therfore i preye owre ladi seynt marie and alle the halwyn of
heuene, prey for me; and the prest, þat thow beseche for me,
and me asoyle, for charite.
Ȝif the seke mai speke after that he is schriue, and hath mad his
gen{er}al confessiou{n}, asoyle the prest hym on þis wyse.
* * * * *
[5]Now, brodir or sister, ȝif þow beholde any cros, or ony ymage
mad with ma{n}nes hond, wite wel þat it is not god; therfore
thinke or seye in þin herte: I wot well that þow art not my{n}
god, but maked aft{er} hym, to make me haue more mynde on myn
god; therfore, lord fader þat art in heuene, m{er}ci i aske of
alle þe sennes that i haue trespased aȝens the wilful passiou{n}
of owre lord ih{es}u crist, the whiche he suffred for al mankende.
merciful fader, of thi goodnesse and thi grete mercy, do awey al
my{n} wikkednesse!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] leaf 50, back.
[2] leaf 51.
[3-3] In a later hand.
[4] leaf 51, back.
[5] leaf 52.
[a] leaf 13, back.
[b] leaf 14.
[c] leaf 15, back.
[d] leaf 16.
[e] leaf 18.
[f] leaf 19, back.
THE GENERAL SENTENCE.
This form of excommunication, read four times a year, has been printed
from an excellent text in the Early English Text Society’s volume
entitled _Instructions for Parish Priests_. The General Sentence is
commonly found in the printed or later Manuals, but appears to have had
no distinct place in any medieval service-book.
_Mr. Henry Littlehales, who, in 1898, gave the Chaucer Society his ~Notes
on the Road from London to Canterbury~, no. 30 of the Society’s Second
Series, and who also edited for the Early English Text Society “The
Prymer, or Lay Folk’s Prayer-Book,” from a Cambridge University MS. ab.
1420, nos. 105, 109 in the Original Series, has kindly given the Chaucer
Society 250 copies of each of the Facsimiles of two Illuminated pages in
Fifteenth-Century MS. Prymers in the British Museum._
_They are issued herewith, but are not made one of the Society’s
publications, because we cannot undertake to reproduce them when the
present copies run out. Every Member will decide for himself whether he
puts these Facsimiles into one of the Society’s Texts, or keeps them
apart in his picture-album._
_All will join in thanking Mr. Littlehales for his pretty and welcome
gift._
_F. J. Furnivall._
_1 August, 1903._
[Illustration: A page of a fifteenth century Prymer, (the common medieval
layfolks prayer book) From the Brit. Mus. MS. 2 A. XVIII.
Full size.]
[Illustration: A page of a fifteenth century Prymer, Brit. Mus. MS. Harl.
2915. This is the common picture before the Office for the Dead.
Full Size.]
Early English Text Society. Extra Series, XC.
English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books
WITH
TWO COLOURED FACSIMILES
FROM
Medieval Prymers.
EDITED BY
HENRY LITTLEHALES.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LIMITED,
DRYDEN HOUSE, 43, GERRARD STREET, SOHO, W.
1903
_Price Five Shillings._
Early English Text Society.
=Committee of Management:=
=Director:= DR. FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, M.A.
=Treasurer:= HENRY B. WHEATLEY, ESQ.
=Hon. Sec.:= W. A. DALZIEL, ESQ., 67 VICTORIA ROAD, FINSBURY PARK, N.
=Hon. Secs. for America:=
{ North & East: Prof. G. L. KITTREDGE, Harvard Coll., Cambr., Mass.
{ South & West: Prof. J. W. BRIGHT, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore.
LORD ALDENHAM, M.A.
ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A.
SIDNEY L. LEE, M.A., D.LIT.
REV. PROF. J. E. B. MAYOR, M.A.
DR. J. A. H. MURRAY, M.A.
PROF. NAPIER, M.A., PH.D.
EDWARD B. PEACOCK, ESQ.
ALFRED W. POLLARD, M.A.
REV. PROF. WALTER W. SKEAT, LITT.D.
DR. HENRY SWEET, M.A.
DR. W. ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A.
(_With power to add Workers to their number._)
=Bankers:= THE UNION BANK OF LONDON, 2, PRINCES STREET, E.C.
The Early English Text Society was started by Dr. Furnivall in 1864 for
the purpose of bringing the mass of Old English Literature within the
reach of the ordinary student, and of wiping away the reproach under
which England had long rested, of having felt little interest in the
monuments of her early language and life.
On the starting of the Society, so many Texts of importance were at once
taken in hand by its Editors, that it became necessary in 1867 to open,
besides the _Original Series_ with which the Society began, an _Extra
Series_ which should be mainly devoted to fresh editions of all that is
most valuable in printed MSS. and Caxton’s and other black-letter books,
though first editions of MSS. will not be excluded when the convenience
of issuing them demands their inclusion in the Extra Series.
During the thirty-nine years of the Society’s existence, it has produced,
with whatever shortcomings, an amount of good solid work for which all
students of our Language, and some of our Literature, must be grateful,
and which has rendered possible the beginnings (at least) of proper
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But the Society’s experience has shown the very small number of those
inheritors of the speech of Cynewulf, Chaucer, and Shakspere, who care
two guineas a year for the records of that speech. ‘Let the dead past
bury its dead’ is still the cry of Great Britain and her Colonies, and
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trust that every Member will bring before his or her friends and
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The Subscription to the Society, which constitutes membership, is £1
1_s._ a year for the ORIGINAL SERIES, and £1 1_s._ for the EXTRA SERIES,
due in advance on the 1st of JANUARY, and should be paid by Cheque,
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prepaid Subscriptions 1_s._ for the Original Series, and 1_s._ for the
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the prices put after them in the Lists; but Members can get back-Texts
at one-third less than the List-prices by sending the cash for them in
advance to the Hon. Secretary.
☞ The Society intends to complete, as soon as its funds will allow, the
Reprints of its out-of-print Texts of the year 1866, and also of nos. 20,
26 and 33. Prof. Skeat has finisht _Partenay_; Dr. McKnight of Ohio _King
Horn_ and _Floris and Blancheflour_; and Dr. Furnivall his _Political,
Religious and Love Poems_ and _Myrc’s Duties of a Parish Priest_. Dr.
Otto Glauning has undertaken _Seinte Marherete_; and Dr. Furnivall has
_Hali Meidenhad_ in type. As the cost of these Reprints, if they were
not needed, would have been devoted to fresh Texts, the Reprints will
be sent to all Members in lieu of such Texts. Though called ‘Reprints,’
these books are new editions, generally with valuable additions, a fact
not noticed by a few careless receivers of them, who have complained
that they already had the volumes. As the Society’s copies of the
_Facsimile of the Epinal MS._ issued as an Extra Volume in 1883 are
exhausted, Mr. J. H. Hessels, M.A., of St. John’s Coll., Cambridge, has
kindly undertaken an edition of the MS. for the Society. This will be
substituted for the Facsimile as an 1883 book, but will be also issued to
all the present Members.
[Sidenote: _Original and Extra Series Books 1903-1906._]
=July 1904.= The Original-Series Texts for 1903 were: No. 122, Part II of
_The Laud MS. Troy-Book_, edited from the unique Laud MS. 595 by Dr. J.
E. Wülfing; and No. 123, Part II of Robert of Brunne’s _Handlyng Synne_,
and its French original, ed. by Dr. F. J. Furnivall.
The Extra-Series Texts for 1903 are to be: No. LXXXVIII, _Le Morte
Arthur_, in 8-line stanzas, re-edited from the unique MS. Harl. 2252,
by Prof. J. Douglas Bruce (issued), No. LXXXIX, Lydgate’s _Reason and
Sensuality_, edited by Dr. Ernst Sieper, Part II, and No. XC, _English
Fragments from Latin Medieval Service-Books_, edited, and given to the
Society, by Mr. Henry Littlehales.
The Original-Series Texts for 1904 will be No. 124, t. Hen. V,
_Twenty-six Political and other Poems_ from the Digby MS. 102, &c.,
edited by Dr. J. Kail, and No. 125, Part I of the _Medieval Records of
a London City Church_ (St. Mary-at-Hill), A.D. 1420-1559, copied and
edited by Mr. Henry Littlehales from the Church Records in the Guildhall,
the cost of the setting and corrections of the text being generously
borne by its Editor. This book will show the income and outlay of the
church; the drink provided for its Palm-Sunday players, its officers’
excursions into Kent and Essex, its dealing with the Plague, the disposal
of its goods at the Reformation, &c., &c., and will help our members to
realize the church-life of its time. The third Text will be Part I of
_An Alphabet of Tales_, a very interesting collection, englisht in the
Northern Dialect, about 1440, from the Latin _Alphabetum Narrationum_ by
Etienne de Bésançon, and edited by Mrs. M. M. Banks from the unique MS.
in the King’s Library in the British Museum; the above-named three texts
are now ready for issue. Those for 1905 and 1906 will probably be chosen
from Part II of the _Exeter Book_—Anglo-Saxon Poems from the unique
MS. in Exeter Cathedral—re-edited by Israel Gollancz, M.A.; Part II of
Prof. Dr. Holthausen’s _Vices and Virtues_; Part II of _Jacob’s Well_,
edited by Dr. Brandeis; the Alliterative _Siege of Jerusalem_, edited
by the late Prof. Dr. E. Kölbing and Prof. Dr. Kaluza; an Introduction
and Glossary to the _Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._ by H. Hartley, M.A.;
Alain Chartier’s _Quadrilogue_, edited from the unique MS. Univ. Coll.
Oxford MS. No. 85, by Mr. J. W. H. Atkins of Owen’s College; a Northern
Verse _Chronicle of England_ to 1327 A.D., in 42,000 lines, about 1420
A.D., edited by M. L. Perrin, B.A.; Prof. Bruce’s Introduction to _The
English Conquest of Ireland_, Part II; and Dr. Furnivall’s edition of
the _Lichfield Gilds_, which is all printed, and waits only for the
Introduction, that Prof. E. C. K. Gonner has kindly undertaken to write
for the book. Canon Wordsworth of Marlborough has given the Society a
copy of the Leofric Canonical Rule, Latin and Anglo-Saxon, Parker MS.
191, C. C. C. Cambridge, and Prof. Napier will edit it, with a fragment
of the englisht Capitula of Bp. Theodulf. The _Coventry Leet Book_
is being copied for the Society by Miss M. Dormer Harris—helpt by a
contribution from the Common Council of the City,—and will be publisht by
the Society (Miss Harris editing), as its contribution to our knowledge
of the provincial city life of the 15th century.
Dr. Brie of Berlin has undertaken to edit the prose _Brut_ or _Chronicle
of Britain_ attributed to Sir John Mandeville, and printed by Caxton. He
has already examined more than 100 English MSS. and several French ones,
to get the best text, and find out its source.
The Extra-Series Texts for 1904 will be chosen from Lydgate’s
_DeGuilleville’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_, Part III, edited by
Miss Locock; Dr. M. Konrath’s re-edition of _William of Shoreham’s
Poems_, Part II; Dr. E. A. Kock’s edition of Lovelich’s _Merlin_ from the
unique MS. in Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge; the _Macro Plays_, edited
from Mr. Gurney’s MS. by Dr. Furnivall and A. W. Pollard, M.A.; Prof.
Erdmann’s re-edition of Lydgate’s _Siege of Thebes_ (issued also by the
Chaucer Society); Miss Rickert’s re-edition of the Romance of _Emare_;
Prof. I. Gollancz’s re-edition of two Alliterative Poems, _Winner and
Waster_, &c., ab. 1360, lately issued for the Roxburghe Club; Dr. Norman
Moore’s re-edition of _The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital, London_, from the unique MS. ab. 1425, which gives an account
of the Founder, Rahere, and the miraculous cures wrought at the Hospital;
_The Craft of Nombrynge_, with other of the earliest englisht Treatises
on Arithmetic, edited by R. Steele, B.A.; and Miss Warren’s two-text
edition of _The Dance of Death_ from the Ellesmere and other MSS.
These Extra-Series Texts ought to be completed by their Editors: the
Second Part of the prose Romance of _Melusine_—Introduction, with ten
facsimiles of the best woodblocks of the old foreign black-letter
editions, Glossary, &c., by A. K. Donald, B.A. (now in India); and a
new edition of the famous Early-English Dictionary (English and Latin),
_Promptorium Parvulorum_, from the Winchester MS., ab. 1440 A.D.: in
this, the Editor, the Rev. A. L. Mayhew, M.A., will follow and print his
MS. not only in its arrangement of nouns first, and verbs second, under
every letter of the Alphabet, but also in its giving of the flexions of
the words. The Society’s edition will thus be the first modern one that
really represents its original, a point on which Mr. Mayhew’s insistence
will meet with the sympathy of all our Members.
[Sidenote: _Texts preparing: The Texts for 1906, 1907 &c._]
The Texts for the Extra Series in 1906 and 1907 will be chosen from _The
Three Kings’ Sons_, Part II, the Introduction &c. by Prof. Dr. Leon
Kellner; Part II of _The Chester Plays_, re-edited from the MSS., with a
full collation of the formerly missing Devonshire MS., by Mr. G. England
and Dr. Matthews; the Parallel-Text of the only two MSS. of the _Owl and
Nightingale_, edited by Mr. G. F. H. Sykes (at press); Prof. Jespersen’s
editions of John Hart’s _Orthographie_ (MS. 1551 A.D.; blackletter 1569),
and _Method to teach Reading_, 1570; Deguilleville’s _Pilgrimage of the
Sowle_, in English prose, edited by Prof. Dr. L. Kellner. (For the three
prose versions of _The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_—two English, one
French—an Editor is wanted.) Members are askt to realise the fact that
the Society has now 50 years’ work on its Lists,—at its present rate of
production,—and that there is from 100 to 200 more years’ work to come
after that. The year 2000 will not see finisht all the Texts that the
Society ought to print. The need of more Members and money is pressing.
Offers of help from willing Editors have continually to be declined
because the Society has no funds to print their Texts.
An urgent appeal is hereby made to Members to increase the list of
Subscribers to the E. E. Text Society. It is nothing less than a scandal
that the Hellenic Society should have nearly 1000 members, while the
Early English Text Society has not 300!
[Sidenote: _Deguilleville._]
Before his death in 1895, Mr. G. N. Currie was preparing an edition of
the 15th and 16th century Prose Versions of Guillaume de Deguilleville’s
_Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_, with the French prose version by Jean
Gallopes, from Lord Aldenham’s MS., he having generously promist to pay
the extra cost of printing the French text, and engraving one or two
of the illuminations in his MS. But Mr. Currie, when on his deathbed,
charged a friend to burn _all_ his MSS. which lay in a corner of his
room, and unluckily all the E. E. T. S.’s copies of the Deguilleville
prose versions were with them, and were burnt with them, so that the
Society will be put to the cost of fresh copies, Mr. Currie having died
in debt.
Guillaume de Deguilleville, monk of the Cistercian abbey of Chaalis, in
the diocese of Senlis, wrote his first verse _Pèlerinaige de l’Homme_
in 1330-1 when he was 36.[1] Twenty-five (or six) years after, in 1355,
he revised his poem, and issued a second version of it,[2] a revision
of which was printed ab. 1500. Of the prose representative of the first
version, 1330-1, a prose Englishing, about 1430 A.D., was edited by Mr.
Aldis Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1869, from MS. Ff. 5. 30 in the
Cambridge University Library. Other copies of this prose English are
in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Q. 2. 25; Sion College, London; and
the Laud Collection in the Bodleian, no. 740.[3] A copy in the Northern
dialect is MS. G. 21, in St. John’s Coll., Cambridge, and this is the
MS. which will be edited for the E. E. Text Society. The Laud MS. 740
was somewhat condenst and modernised, in the 17th century, into MS. Ff.
6. 30, in the Cambridge University Library:[4] “The Pilgrime or the
Pilgrimage of Man in this World,” copied by Will. Baspoole, whose copy
“was verbatim written by Walter Parker, 1645, and from thence transcribed
by G. G. 1649; and from thence by W. A. 1655.” This last copy may have
been read by, or its story reported to, Bunyan, and may have been the
groundwork of his _Pilgrim’s Progress_. It will be edited for the E.
E. T. Soc., its text running under the earlier English, as in Mr.
Herrtage’s edition of the _Gesta Romanorum_ for the Society. In February
1464,[5] Jean Gallopes—a clerk of Angers, afterwards chaplain to John,
Duke of Bedford, Regent of France—turned Deguilleville’s first verse
_Pèlerinaige_ into a prose _Pèlerinage de la vie humaine_.[6] By the
kindness of Lord Aldenham, as above mentiond, Gallopes’s French text will
be printed opposite the early prose northern Englishing in the Society’s
edition.
The Second Version of Deguilleville’s _Pèlerinaige de l’Homme_, A.D. 1355
or -6, was englisht in verse by Lydgate in 1426. Of Lydgate’s poem, the
larger part is in the Cotton MS. Vitellius C. xiii (leaves 2-308). This
MS. leaves out Chaucer’s englishing of Deguilleville’s _A B C_ or _Prayer
to the Virgin_, of which the successive stanzas start with A, B, C, and
run all thro’ the alphabet; and it has 2 main gaps, besides many small
ones from the tops of leaves being burnt in the Cotton fire. All these
gaps (save the A B C) have been fild up from the Stowe MS. 952 (which old
John Stowe completed) and from the end of the other imperfect MS. Cotton,
Tiberius A vii. Thanks to the diligence of the old Elizabethan tailor
and manuscript-lover, a complete text of Lydgate’s poem can be given,
though that of an inserted theological prose treatise is incomplete. The
British Museum French MSS. (Harleian 4399,[7] and Additional 22,937[8]
and 25,594[9]) are all of the First Version.
Besides his first _Pèlerinaige de l’homme_ in its two versions,
Deguilleville wrote a second, “de l’ame separee du corps,” and a third,
“de nostre seigneur Iesus.” Of the second, a prose Englishing of 1413,
_The Pilgrimage of the Sowle_ (with poems by Hoccleve, already printed
for the Society with that author’s _Regement of Princes_), exists in the
Egerton MS. 615,[10] at Hatfield, Cambridge (Univ. Kk. 1. 7, and Caius),
Oxford (Univ. Coll. and Corpus), and in Caxton’s edition of 1483. This
version has ‘somewhat of addicions’ as Caxton says, and some shortenings
too, as the maker of both, the first translater, tells us in the MSS.
Caxton leaves out the earlier englisher’s interesting Epilog in the
Egerton MS. This prose englishing of the _Sowle_ will be edited for the
Society by Prof. Dr. Leon Kellner after that of the _Man_ is finisht, and
will have Gallopes’s French opposite it, from Lord Aldenham’s MS., as his
gift to the Society. Of the Pilgrimage of Jesus, no englishing is known.
[Sidenote: _Anglo-Saxon Psalters._]
As to the MS. Anglo-Saxon Psalters, Dr. Hy. Sweet has edited the oldest
MS., the Vespasian, in his _Oldest English Texts_ for the Society, and
Mr. Harsley has edited the latest, c. 1150, Eadwine’s Canterbury Psalter.
The other MSS., except the Paris one, being interlinear versions,—some
of the Roman-Latin redaction, and some of the Gallican,—Prof. Logeman
has prepared for press, a Parallel-Text edition of the first twelve
Psalms, to start the complete work. He will do his best to get the Paris
Psalter—tho’ it is not an interlinear one—into this collective edition;
but the additional matter, especially in the Verse-Psalms, is very
difficult to manage. If the Paris text cannot be parallelised, it will
form a separate volume. The Early English Psalters are all independent
versions, and will follow separately in due course.
[Sidenote: _More Money wanted._]
Through the good offices of the Examiners, some of the books for the
Early-English Examinations of the University of London will be chosen
from the Society’s publications, the Committee having undertaken to
supply such books to students at a large reduction in price. The net
profits from these sales will be applied to the Society’s Reprints.
Members are reminded that _fresh Subscribers are always wanted_, and
that the Committee can at any time, on short notice, send to press an
additional Thousand Pounds’ worth of work.
[Sidenote: _Saints’ Lives._]
The Subscribers to the Original Series must be prepared for the issue
of the whole of the Early English _Lives of Saints_, sooner or later.
The Society cannot leave out any of them, even though some are dull. The
Sinners would doubtless be much more interesting. But in many Saints’
Lives will be found valuable incidental details of our forefathers’
social state, and all are worthful for the history of our language. The
Lives may be lookt on as the religious romances or story-books of their
period.
The Standard Collection of Saints’ Lives in the Corpus and Ashmole MSS.,
the Harleian MS. 2277, &c. will repeat the Laud set, our No. 87, with
additions, and in right order. (The foundation MS. (Laud 108) had to be
printed first, to prevent quite unwieldy collations.) The Supplementary
Lives from the Vernon and other MSS. will form one or two separate
volumes.
Besides the Saints’ Lives, Trevisa’s englishing of _Bartholomæus de
Proprietatibus Rerum_, the mediæval Cyclopædia of Science, &c., will
be the Society’s next big undertaking. Dr. R. von Fleischhacker will
edit it. Prof. Napier of Oxford, wishing to have the whole of our MS.
Anglo-Saxon in type, and accessible to students, will edit for the
Society all the unprinted and other Anglo-Saxon Homilies which are not
included in Thorpe’s edition of Ælfric’s prose,[11] Dr. Morris’s of the
Blickling Homilies, and Prof. Skeat’s of Ælfric’s Metrical Homilies.
The late Prof. Kölbing left complete his text, for the Society, of the
_Ancren Riwle_, from the best MS., with collations of the other four, and
this will be edited for the Society by Dr. Thümmler. Mr. Harvey means to
prepare an edition of the three MSS. of the _Earliest English Metrical
Psalter_, one of which was edited by the late Mr. Stevenson for the
Surtees Society.
Members of the Society will learn with pleasure that its example has been
followed, not only by the Old French Text Society which has done such
admirable work under its founders Profs. Paul Meyer and Gaston Paris, but
also by the Early Russian Text Society, which was set on foot in 1877,
and has since issued many excellent editions of old MS. Chronicles, &c.
Members will also note with pleasure the annexation of large tracts of
our Early English territory by the important German contingent, the
late Professors Zupitza and Kölbing, the living Hausknecht, Einenkel,
Haenisch, Kaluza, Hupe, Adam, Holthausen, Schick, Herzfeld, Brandeis,
Sieper, Konrath, Wülfing, &c. Scandinavia has also sent us Prof. Erdmann
and Dr. E. A. Kock; Holland, Prof. H. Logeman, who is now working in
Belgium; France, Prof. Paul Meyer—with Gaston Paris as adviser (alas,
now dead);—Italy, Prof. Lattanzi; Austria, Dr. von Fleischhacker; while
America is represented by the late Prof. Child, by Dr. Mary Noyes
Colvin, Miss Rickert, Profs. Mead, McKnight, Triggs, Perrin, &c. The
sympathy, the ready help, which the Society’s work has cald forth from
the Continent and the United States, have been among the pleasantest
experiences of the Society’s life, a real aid and cheer amid all troubles
and discouragements. All our Members are grateful for it, and recognise
that the bond their work has woven between them and the lovers of
language and antiquity across the seas is one of the most welcome results
of the Society’s efforts.
=ORIGINAL SERIES.=
1. =Early English Alliterative Poems=, ab. 1360 A.D., ed. Rev.
Dr. R. Morris. 16_s._ 1864
2. =Arthur=, ab. 1440, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A. 4_s._ „
3. =Lauder on the Dewtie of Kyngis, &c.=, 1556, ed. F. Hall,
D.C.L. 4_s._ „
4. =Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight=, ab. 1360, ed. Rev. Dr.
R. Morris. 10_s._ „
5. =Hume’s Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue=,
ab. 1617, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4_s._ 1865
6. =Lancelot of the Laik=, ab. 1500, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 8_s._ „
7. =Genesis & Exodus=, ab. 1250, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 8_s._ „
8. =Morte Arthure=, ab. 1440, ed. E. Brock. 7_s._ „
9. =Thynne on Speght’s ed. of Chaucer=, A.D. 1599, ed. Dr. G.
Kingsley and Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 10_s._ „
10. =Merlin=, ab. 1440, Part I., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 2_s._ 6_d._ „
11. =Lyndesay’s Monarche, &c.=, 1552, Part I., ed. J. Small, M.A.
3_s._ „
12. =Wright’s Chaste Wife=, ab. 1462, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A.
1_s._ „
13. =Seinte Marherete=, 1200-1330, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne;
re-edited by Dr. Otto Glauning. [_Out of print._ 1866
14. =Kyng Horn, Floris and Blancheflour, &c.=, ed. Rev. J. R.
Lumby, B.D., re-ed. Dr. G. H. McKnight. 5_s._ „
15. =Political, Religious, and Love Poems=, ed. F. J. Furnivall.
7_s._ 6_d._ „
16. =The Book of Quinte Essence=, ab. 1460-70, ed. F. J.
Furnivall. 1_s._ „
17. =Parallel Extracts from 45 MSS. of Piers the Plowman=, ed.
Rev. W. W. Skeat. 1_s._ „
18. =Hali Meidenhad=, ab. 1200, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne, re-edited
by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. [_At Press._ „
19. =Lyndesay’s Monarche, &c.=, Part II., ed. J. Small, M.A.
3_s._ 6_d._ „
20. =Hampole’s English Prose Treatises=, ed. Rev. G. G. Perry.
1_s._ [_Out of print._ „
21. =Merlin=, Part II., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4_s._ „
22. =Partenay= or =Lusignen=, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. „
23. =Dan Michel’s Ayenbite of Inwyt=, 1340, ed. Rev. Dr. R.
Morris. 10_s._ 6_d._ „
24. =Hymns to the Virgin and Christ; the Parliament of Devils,
&c.=, ab. 1430, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 1867
25. =The Stacions of Rome, the Pilgrims’ Sea-voyage, with Clene
Maydenhod=, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 1_s._ „
26. =Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse=, from R. Thornton’s MS.,
ed. Rev. G. G. Perry. 2_s._ [_Out of print._ „
27. =Levins’s Manipulus Vocabulorum, a ryming Dictionary=, 1570,
ed. H. B. Wheatley. 12_s._ „
28. =William’s Vision of Piers the Plowman=, 1362 A.D.; Text A,
Part I., ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 6_s._ „
29. =Old English Homilies= (ab. 1220-30 A.D.). Series I, Part I.
Edited by Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 7_s._ „
30. =Pierce the Ploughmans Crede=, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 2_s._ „
31. =Myrc’s Duties of a Parish Priest=, in Verse, ab. 1420 A.D.,
ed. E. Peacock. 4_s._ 1868
32. =Early English Meals and Manners: the Boke of Norture of John
Russell, the Bokes of Keruynge, Curtasye, and Demeanor, the
Babees Book, Urbanitatis, &c.=, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 12_s._ „
33. =The Knight de la Tour Landry=, ab. 1440 A.D. A Book for
Daughters, ed. T. Wright, M.A. [_Out of print._ „
34. =Old English Homilies= (before 1300 A.D.). Series I, Part II.,
ed. R. Morris, LL.D. 8_s._ „
35. =Lyndesay’s Works=, Part III.: The Historie and Testament of
Squyer Meldrum, ed. F. Hall. 2_s._ „
36. =Merlin=, Part III. Ed. H. B. Wheatley. On Arthurian
Localities, by J. S. Stuart Glennie. 12_s._ 1869
37. =Sir David Lyndesay’s Works=, Part IV., Ane Satyre of the Three
Estaits. Ed. F. Hall, D.C.L. 4_s._ „
38. =William’s Vision of Piers the Plowman=, Part II. Text B. Ed.
Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 10_s._ 6_d._ „
39. =Alliterative Romance of the Destruction of Troy.= Ed. D.
Donaldson & G. A. Panton. Pt. I. 10_s._ 6_d._ „
40. =English Gilds=, their Statutes and Customs, 1389 A.D. Edit.
Toulmin Smith and Lucy T. Smith, with an Essay on Gilds and
Trades-Unions, by Dr. L. Brentano. 21_s._ 1870
41. =William Lauder’s Minor Poems.= Ed. F. J. Furnivall. 3_s._ „
42. =Bernardus De Cura Rei Famuliaris=, Early Scottish Prophecies,
&c. Ed. J. R. Lumby, M.A. 2_s._ „
43. =Ratis Raving=, and other Moral and Religious Pieces. Ed. J.
R. Lumby, M.A. „
44. =The Alliterative Romance of Joseph of Arimathie=, or =The
Holy Grail=: from the Vernon MS.; with W. de Worde’s and
Pynson’s Lives of Joseph: ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 5_s._ 1871
45. =King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care=,
edited from 2 MSS., with an English translation, by Henry
Sweet, Esq., B.A., Balliol College, Oxford. Part I. 10_s._ „
46. =Legends of the Holy Rood, Symbols of the Passion and Cross
Poems=, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 10_s._ „
47. =Sir David Lyndesay’s Works=, Part V., ed. Dr. J. A. H.
Murray. 3_s._ „
48. =The Times’ Whistle=, and other Poems, by R. C., 1616; ed. by
J. M. Cowper, Esq. 6_s._ „
49. =An Old English Miscellany=, containing a Bestiary, Kentish
Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, and Religious Poems of the 13th
cent., ed. from the MSS. by the Rev. R. Morris, LL.D. 10_s._ 1872
50. =King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care=,
ed. H. Sweet, M.A. Part II. 10_s._ „
51. =The Life of St Juliana=, 2 versions, A.D. 1230, with
translations; ed. T. O. Cockayne & E. Brock. 2_s._ „
52. =Palladius on Husbondrie=, englisht (ab. 1420 A.D.), ed. Rev.
Barton Lodge, M.A. Part I. 10_s._ „
53. =Old-English Homilies=, Series II., and three Hymns to the
Virgin and God, 13th-century, with the music to two of them,
in old and modern notation; ed. Rev. R. Morris, LL.D. 8_s._ 1873
54. =The Vision of Piers Plowman=, Text C: =Richard the Redeles=
(by William, the author of the _Vision_) and =The Crowned
King=; Part III., ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 18_s._ „
55. =Generydes=, a Romance, ab. 1440 A.D., ed. W. Aldis Wright,
M.A. Part I. 3_s._ „
56. =The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy=, in
alliterative verse; ed. by D. Donaldson, Esq., and the late
Rev. G. A. Panton. Part II. 10_s._ 6_d._ 1874
57. =The Early English Version of the “Cursor Mundi”=; in four
Texts, edited by the Rev. R. Morris, M.A., LL.D. Part I,
with 2 photolithographic facsimiles. 10_s._ 6_d._ „
58. =The Blickling Homilies=, 971 A.D., ed. Rev. R. Morris, LL.D.
Part I. 8_s._ „
59. =The “Cursor Mundi,”= in four Texts, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris.