As will appear from the foregoing account of the MSS., the eighteen
texts of the B version vary considerably in length, many of them
introducing stanzas which do not recur elsewhere. A comparison of the
number and arrangement of the stanzas in each text is given on the next
page, the stanzas being numbered according to the order of their
arrangement in the text to which they belong, and the corresponding
stanzas in the various texts grouped under columns. MSS. Thornton,
Selden, and Egerton have no mark of strophic division, but fall
naturally into mono-rimed stanzas of four lines. All the remaining texts
are arranged in four-lined stanzas with mono-rime,[9] with the exception
of MS. Porkington, which represents an evident expansion of the original
metrical scheme, an additional long line being attached to each stanza
by means of a short bob-line, giving a six-lined stanza, _aaaabb_. In
MS. Rawl. Poet. each long line is written as two short lines, so that
the usual four-lined stanza appears in this text as two stanzas, each
consisting of four half-lines. This arrangement is facilitated by the
regular internal rime on the word _erthe_. The order of the
fifteenth-century MSS. of the B version observed in the table
corresponds to that in the foregoing list of MSS., and in the printed
text, and is not always strictly chronological, it being more convenient
for purposes of comparison to group the texts according to their length.
It will be seen that the three late texts (MSS. Harl. 984, Maitland, and
Reidpeth) revert to the normal seven-stanza type, and that this appears
to have been the form of the poem known to the compiler of the Cambridge
text, a comparison of which is added.
[Transcriber's Note:
The printed table has been rotated 90% for this plain-text version.
The numerical key (1-18, Cam) and the lettered notes (A, B...) were
also added by the transcriber.]
1. Wm. Billyng's Text
2. MS. Thornton
3. MS. Selden, supra 53
4. MS. Egerton 1995
5. MS. Harl. 1671
6. MS. Brighton
7. Stratford Inscription
8. MS. Rawl. C. 307
9. MS. Harl. 4486
10. MS. Lambeth 853
11. MS. Laud Misc. 23
12. MS. Cotton Titus A. xxvi
13. MS. Rawl. Poet.
14. MS. Porkington 10
15. MS. Balliol 354
16. MS. Harl. 984[10]
17. MS. Maitland
18. MS. Reidpeth
Cam The Cambridge Text
CS Common Stanzas
IS Independent Stanzas
Text| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9|10|11|12| 13 |14|15|16 |17|18| Cam
----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+--+--+---+--+--+----
CS | 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.2. 1 1 (1) 1 1 1
| 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3.4. 2 2 (2) 2 2 3.8.
| 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 6.5. 3 3 (3) 3 3 2
| 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 7.8. 4 4 (4) 4 4 10
| 5 5 -- 5 5 5 5 5 5 8 8 -- 11.12. 5 5 (5) 5 5 9
|-- -- 4 6 6 6 6 -- 6 9 9 -- -- 6 15 6 6 6 11
|-- -- 6 7 7 7 7 -- 7 11 11 -- -- 12 16 7 7 7 --
| 8 12 12 -- 31.32.
| 5 5 5 15.16.
| 6 6 6 --
| 7 7 -- 9.10.
| 10 10 -- 13.14.
----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+--+--+--+---+--+---
IS | [A] [B] [C][D] [E]
[A] stanzas 6. 7. 8. (3)
[B] 17 to 30. (14)
[C] 7 to 11 (5)
[D] 6 to 14 (9)
[E] 6. 7. 13. 18 resemble A Version.
4. 5. 12. 14 to 17. 19 to 22 independent (11)
It will be seen from the table that eleven of these texts have seven
stanzas in common, and that fifteen of them have five in common. Of the
three remaining texts, MS. Harl. 984 has a missing leaf, but would
clearly appear to belong to the seven-stanza type, raising the above
numbers to twelve texts of seven stanzas, and sixteen of five. MS.
Selden again obviously represents the usual seven-stanza type with the
accidental omission of verse 5. MS. Titus has four of the customary five
verses, breaks off to follow the arrangement of the Lambeth MS., and
comes to an end after copying two of the additional verses in the
Lambeth text before reaching the usual fifth verse. Assuming that it
represents a transcription of the Lambeth text, MS. Titus might be
classed with the five-stanza type, or possibly, like MS. Lambeth, with
the seven-stanza type. It may therefore be assumed that all eighteen of
the B texts have five stanzas in common, or are based upon such a common
type, and that thirteen, or possibly fourteen of them, represent a
common type with seven stanzas, six of which are further found in the
Cambridge text. These common stanzas vary very little in the different
MSS. as regards either the actual text or the order of lines and
stanzas, and it seems probable that the normal B version consisted of
seven stanzas, ending with a personal exhortation which has been
omitted, or possibly not yet added, in five of the texts. In four
MSS.--Lambeth, Laud, Rawl. P., and Harl. 4486--an interesting final
stanza, containing a prayer, has been added. Three of these texts, MSS.
Lamb., Laud, and Rawl. P., correspond in three other additional stanzas,
which seems to point to some closer relationship between them, and two,
or more strictly one and a half, of these additional stanzas are also
found in MS. Titus, which appears to be a transcript of the Lambeth
text. The scribe of MS. Titus followed the Lambeth text until he reached
the middle of verse 6, when he apparently wearied of the task, and broke
off with a new couplet of his own, entirely foreign in idea and metre to
the _Erthe upon Erthe_ poems:--
Lewe thy syne & lyffe in right,
And þan shalt thou lyffe in heuyn as a knyght.
The text, as a whole, is badly written with many erasures, and points to
a careless hand.
The additional stanzas cited in the table as independent contain mere
variations on the main theme, and it is highly probable that the more
expanded texts are the later, and represent individual additions to a
popular poem, since they generally fail to maintain the internal rime on
the word _erthe_ which is an evident characteristic of the genuine
verses. In the case of the five MSS. in question, MS. Harl. 4486 might
be taken to represent the original type, and MSS. Lamb., Laud[11], and
Titus an expansion of this, while the author of Rawl. P. was obviously
acquainted with the Lambeth text, or its original, and added to it
certain stanzas of his own, leaving out three of the verses in Lambeth
to make room for these. Whether the eighth stanza which MSS. Harl. 4486,
Lamb., Laud, and Rawl. P. have in common belongs to the original type of
the B version, or was itself a later addition, can scarcely be
determined, but as it seems to be confined to these four texts, the
latter view is perhaps the more probable. It must, however, have been
added early, as it occurs already in MSS. Lamb. and Laud before 1450,
and preserves the principle of the internal rime on _erthe_. The
relative dates of MSS. Lambeth and Rawl. P. as fixed by Furnivall and
Madden (MS. Lamb. 1430-1450, R. P. after 1450) would bear out this
theory of the relationship between these two texts, and it may further
be noted that both have the same prefatory _De terra plasmasti me_,
otherwise found only in MS. Harl. 1671, and that both exhibit the same
tendency to employ a direct personal mode of address, and to lengthen
out the original text by superfluous words.