The A version exists in two forms, one a short popular stanza of four
lines (MS. Harl. 2253), apparently of the nature of a riddle, the other
a longer poem of seven English and seven Latin stanzas (MS. Harl. 913),
each English verse being followed by its Latin equivalent. The metrical
form of the Latin verses is one often used in Latin poems of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, a six-lined stanza, rimed _aaaabb_, with the
rhythm of the well-known
_méum ést propósitúm_ | _ín tabérna móri._
The English verses are also in the form of a six-lined stanza _aaaabb_,
but the first four lines have the same loose four-stress rhythm as the
lines in MS. Harl. 2253, and the concluding couplet is on the principle
of the septenarius. Both the English and the Latin lines rime at the
caesura as well as at the end of the line, but this is less uniformly
the rule in the English verses. There is close verbal connexion between
the four lines in MS. Harl. 2253, and the opening lines of the longer
poem, as will appear from a comparison of the two:--
_MS. Harl._ 2253.
Erþe toc of erþe erþe wyþ woh
erþe oþer erþe to þe erþe droh
erþe leyde erþe in erþene þroh
þo heuede erþe of erþe erþe ynoh
_MS. Harl._ 913.
whan erþ haþ erþ . iwonne wiþ wow
þan erþ mai of erþ . nim hir inow
erþ vp erþ . falliþ fol frow
erþ toward erþ . delful him drow.
of erþ þou were makid . _and_ mon þou art ilich
in on erþ awaked . þe pore _and_ þe riche.
The connexion between these two versions might be explained in two ways.
The short version of MS. Harl. 2253 may be the beginning of a transcript
of the longer poem in which the scribe broke off because his memory
failed him, or because he was only acquainted with a popular version of
the opening lines. On the other hand, the short version may be the
older, and the more learned composer of the poem in MS. Harl. 913 may
have been elaborating this and other such riddling stanzas current at
the time. But any attempt to decide between these two possibilities must
necessarily depend upon the conclusion formed as to the relation of the
Latin stanzas in MS. Harl. 913 to their English equivalents, and this
question will be more conveniently discussed in connexion with the
general origin of the _Erthe upon Erthe_ poems. As regards the date of
the two MSS., MS. Harl. 2253 is generally ascribed to the beginning of
the fourteenth century, and the Kildare MS. (MS. Harl. 913) is dated c.
1308 by Crofton Croker, c. 1308 to 1330 by Heuser, while Paul Meyer is
of opinion that it may belong to an earlier period still. The dialect of
both poems is South Midland, probably of the western part of the
district. MS. Harl. 2253, which is commonly associated with Leominster,
has _heuede_ (4). MS. Harl. 913 has _lutil_, _schrud_, _muntid_, _heo_,
_mon_, _lond_, and S. Midl. forms of verbs. We have therefore two types
of the A version, standing in close verbal relation to each other, of
much the same date and dialect, and representing in all probability the
kind of _Erthe_ poem current at the end of the thirteenth century in the
South-west Midland district.