MSS. of the A Version:
1. MS. Harl. 2253, fol. 57, v^o, dated c. 1307. Four lines
inserted between a French poem on the Death of Simon de Montfort,
and an English poem on the Execution of Simon Fraser. Printed by
J. Ritson, _Ancient Songs and Ballads from the Reign of K. Henry
II to the Revolution_, p. 13 (1790), by E. Flügel, _Anglia_, xxvi.
216 (1903), and by W. Heuser, _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (_Bonner
Beiträge zur Anglistik_, xiv. 179) (1904). (See the facsimile
opposite the title-page.)
2. MS. Harl. 913, fol. 62, r^o (c. 1308-1330). Seven six-lined
English stanzas alternating with seven of the same purport in
Latin. Printed by T. Wright, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 216 (1841),
by F. J. Furnivall, _Early Eng. Poems and Lives of Saints_, p. 150
(printed for the Philological Society, Berlin, 1862), and by
W. Heuser, _ibid._, p. 180.
MSS. of the B Version:
1. William Billyng's MS. (dated 1400-1430). Five four-lined
stanzas, preceded by the figure of a naked body, rudely drawn,
having a mattock in its right hand, and a spade at its feet. At
the end of the poem is a prone figure of a skeleton accompanied by
two draped figures.[3] Printed by W. Bateman, _Billyng's Five
Wounds of Christ_, no. 3 (Manchester, 1814),[4] 'from a finely
written and illuminated parchment roll, about two and
three-quarter yards in length: it is without date, but by
comparing it with other poetry, it appears to have been written
early in the fifteenth century; the illuminations and ornaments
with which it is decorated correspond to those of missals written
about the reign of Henry V; the style may therefore fix its date
between the years 1400 and 1430. The author[5] gives his name and
mark at the bottom of the roll.' Reprinted from Bateman's text by
J. Montgomery, _The Christian Poet_, edit. 1 and 2, p. 45 (1827),
edit. 3, p. 58 (1828).
2. MS. Thornton (Lincoln Cath. Libr.), fol. 279 (c. 1440). Five
stanzas[6] without mark of strophic division. Printed by G. G.
Perry, _Religious Poems in Prose and Verse_, p. 95 (E.E.T.S., No.
xxvi, 1867, reprinted 1889, p. 96), and by C. Horstmann,
_Yorkshire Writers (Richard Rolle of Hampole)_, i. 373 (1895).
3. MS. Selden supra 53, fol. 159, v^o (c. 1450). Six stanzas
(strophic division indicated in the first two), written in a
different hand on the back of a spare leaf at the end of the MS.;
stanza 5 of the usual B version omitted. Quoted by H. G. Fiedler,
_Modern Language Review_ (April 1908), III. iii. 221. Not printed
before.
4. MS. Egerton 1995, fol. 55, r^o (William Gregory's Commonplace
Book, dated c. 1430-1450, cf. J. Gairdner, _Collections of a
London Citizen_. Camden. Soc. 1876 n.s. xvii). Seven stanzas
without strophic division. Not printed before.
5. MS. Harl. 1671, fol. 1*, r^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas
written in the left-hand column on the fly-leaf at the beginning
of the MS., which consists of a 'large Theological Treatise,
imperfect at both ends, which seemeth to have been entituled "The
Weye to Paradys"'.[7] The upper portion of the leaf contains a
poem in praise of St. Herasmius. Not printed before.
6. MS. Brighton, fol. 90, v^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas.
Printed by Fiedler, _M. L. R._ III. iii. 219, from the last leaf
of a MS. formerly seen by him in possession of an antiquary at
Brighton, and containing a Latin treatise on the seven Sacraments.
7. Stratford-on-Avon Inscription (after 1450). Seven stanzas,
formerly on the west wall of the nave in the Chapel of the Trinity
at Stratford-on-Avon, cf. R. B. Wheler, _Hist. and Antiq. of
Stratford-on-Avon_, p. 98: 'against the west wall of the nave,
upon the south side of the arch was painted the martyrdom of
Thomas à Becket, whilst kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict in
Canterbury Cathedral; below this was represented the figure of an
angel (probably St. Michael) supporting a long scroll, upon which
were written the following rude verses: Erth oute of erthe,' &c.
'Beneath were two men, holding another scroll over a body wrapt in
a winding sheet, and covered with some emblems of mortality with
these lines: Whosoo hym be thowghte,' &c. (v. Note on p. 36).
These paintings were probably added in the reign of Henry VII,
when the Chapel was restored by Sir Hugh Clopton (died 1496), who
built New Place opposite the Chapel in 1483. They were discovered
in 1804 beneath a coating of whitewash, and were copied and
engraved, but have since been more than once re-coated with
whitewash, and all trace of the poem has now disappeared.
Facsimiles, etched and coloured by hand, exist in Thomas Fisher's
_Series of Ancient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary
Paintings in fresco, discovered on the walls of the Chapel of the
Trinity, belonging to the Gild of the Holy Cross, at
Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, from drawings made at the time
of their discovery_ (1807). Printed by R. B. Wheler, _ibid._
(1806), by Longfellow, _Outre-Mer_ (_Père-La-Chaise_, note on
p. 67), 1851, and by W. P. Reeves, _Mod. Lang. Notes_, IX. iv. 203
(April 1894).
8. MS. Rawlinson C. 307, fol. 2, r^o (after 1458). Eight stanzas,
of which three are peculiar to this MS., and are of a more
distinctly Northern dialect than the remainder. The poem is the
only English text in a MS. containing Latin prose and verse. Two
Latin poems in the same hand as _Erthe upon Erthe_ refer to the
death of Gilbert Pynchbeck at York in 1458, which would fix the
date c. 1460, or later. The three independent stanzas were printed
by Fiedler, _ibid._ p. 221.
9. [8]MS. Harl. 4486, fol. 146, r^o (fifteenth century). Eight
stanzas added on the last leaf but one of a copy of _Le Livre de
Sydrac_, immediately after the colophon. The last two leaves and
the cover of the MS. contain various scribblings in
fifteenth-century hands, chiefly of Latin aphorisms and rimes.
Folio 147, v^o, contains the signature of Tho. Baker, who may
possibly have transcribed the English poem. Not printed before.
10. MS. Lambeth 853, fol. 35 (c. 1430-1450). Twelve stanzas.
Printed by F. J. Furnivall, _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ_,
p. 88 (E.E.T.S. 1867, No. xxiv, reprinted 1895).
11. MS. Laud Misc. 23, fol. 111, v^o (before 1450). Twelve
stanzas, varying very slightly from MS. Lambeth. Not printed
before.
12. MS. Cotton Titus A xxvi, fol. 153, r^o (fifteenth century).
Six four-lined stanzas, apparently the beginning of a transcript
of MS. Lambeth. Not printed before.
13. MS. Rawlinson Poetic. 32, v^o (after 1450). Thirty-two
stanzas, each of four short lines, corresponding to half the
normal stanza; stanzas 17 to 30 are peculiar to this MS. The
greater part printed by Fiedler, _ibid._ p. 222.
14. MS. Porkington 10, fol. 79, v^o (fifteenth century). Twelve
six-lined stanzas, of which stanzas 7 to 11 are peculiar to this
MS. Printed by Halliwell, _Early Eng. Misc. in Prose and Verse,
selected from an inedited MS. of the 15th cent._, p. 39 (Warton
Club, 1855), and by Fiedler, ibid. p. 225.
15. MS. Balliol 354, fol. 207, v^o (Richard Hill's Commonplace
Book, dated before 1504). Sixteen stanzas, of which stanzas 6 to
14 introduce an independent digression on the Nine Worthies.
Printed by Flügel, _Anglia_, xxvi. 94 (1903), and by Roman
Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Misc. Poems_, p. 90 (E.E.T.S.
1907, extra ser. ci).
16. MS. Harl. 984, fol. 72, r^o (sixteenth century). The preceding
leaf of the MS. has been torn out, leaving only two lines of what
may be assumed to be verse 6, and the whole of verse 7, which
occur with other fragments on the last leaf but one.
17. The Maitland MS. Pepysian Library, Magd. Coll. Cambr., MS.
2553, p. 338 (c. 1555-1585). Seven stanzas in the Lowland Scots
dialect, with the ascription 'quod Marsar'. Thomas Pinkerton
published portions of the MS. in his _Ancient Scottish Poems never
before in print . . . from the MS. Collections of Sir Richard
Maitland_ (London, 1786), but omitted _Eird upon Eird_. Not
printed before.
18. The Reidpeth MS. Cambridge Univ. Libr. Ll. 5. 10, fol. 43,
v^o, copied 1622-1623 'a me Joanne Reidpeth'. Seven stanzas,
probably transcribed from the Maitland MS., but concluding 'quod
Dumbar'. Not printed before.
MS. of the C Version:
The Cambridge Text. Cambr. Univ. Libr. Ii. 4. 9, fol. 67, r^o
(fifteenth century). Eighty-two lines comprising twenty-two or
twenty-three stanzas. The text is followed by a coloured picture
of a young knight, standing on a hill with a skeleton below.
A scroll proceeding from the knight has the words: _Festina tempus
et memento finis_, while one proceeding from the skeleton runs:
_In omni opere memorare nouissima et in eternum non peccabis_.
Printed by Heuser, _Kildare-Gedichte_, p. 213.