The question as to the source of the poem _Erthe upon Erthe_, and the
relationship of the A and B versions to the original, and to each other,
is a difficult one. The existence of a parallel Latin version in one of
the oldest MSS. is clearly an important point to be taken into
consideration in any attempt at an investigation of the origin of the
poem, and it will be well before proceeding further to form some
conclusion as to the relation in which the English and Latin stanzas in
MS. Harl. 913 stand to each other. The correspondence of the two
versions is not strictly verbal, but it is evident that either the
English or the Latin stanzas represent a rather free rendering of the
verses which accompany them. In favour of a Latin origin it may be
pointed out that the metrical form of the Latin stanzas is one
frequently employed in Latin poems of the time, that the subject is a
favourite monastic theme, and that the manner of the poem is in keeping
with contemporary Anglo-Latin compositions, such as the well-known _Cur
mundus militat sub vana gloria_. The natural tendency would be to
attribute a poem of the kind to Latin origin, especially if, as in this
case, a Latin version were forthcoming.
On the other hand, it may be pointed out that the Latin text is not
known to exist in any other MS., and appears indeed to have no separate
existence from the English stanzas which accompany it, whereas English
texts of the poem without trace of a Latin rendering or original are
very common.[14] The text was one frequently used in epitaphs, but no
Latin epitaph of the kind is known to have existed, although Latin was
commonly used in epitaphs at the time when the poem was most widely
popular.
Further, word-plays of the kind found here upon the word _erthe_ are
certainly not common in Latin verse of the time, and the Latin text does
not render the play as effectively as the English does, employing
alternately the three terms _terra_, _vesta_, _humus_, in place of the
English _erthe_, and failing to maintain these consistently. The play on
the word _earth_, which is the most essential feature of the poem, could
not have been given with the same effect as in English either in Latin
or in any mediaeval language.[15]
Thirdly, in support of an English origin it may be urged that close
verbal connexion can be traced between the English text of both
versions, but more especially of the earlier (A), and other poems dating
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, particularly the various
Dialogues of _The Soul and the Body_:--
_MS. Harl._ 913, l. 17 (A).
When erþ is in erþe, þe rof is on þe chynne.
_MS. Cambr. Univ. Libr._ Ii. 4. 9, l. 25 (C)
When erthe is in erth for wormys wyn,
Þe rof of his hows xal ly on his chyn.
Cf. _Dialogues of Soul and Body_, (_Worcester fragment_)
12th cent.
'nu þu havest neowe hus inne beþrungen, lowe beoþ helewes.
Þin rof liþ on þine breoste, ful . . . colde is þe ibedded.
(_Bodl. Fragm._) 12th cent.
Þe rof bið ibyld þire broste ful neh.
(_MS. Auchinleck_) 13th cent.
Wiþ wormes is now ytaken þin in,
Þi bour is bilt wel cold in clay,
Þe rof _shal take to_[16] þi chin.
(_MS. Harl._ 2253) 14th cent.
When þe flor is at þy rug,
Þe rof ys at þy neose.
Cf. _Death_ 152 (13th cent.) in Morris, _O. E. Misc._, p. 168
(_Jesus MS._).
Þi bur is sone ibuld
Þat þu schalt wunyen inne,
Þe rof _& þe virste_[17]
Schal ligge on þine chynne.
Nu þe schulen wurmes
Wunyen wiþinne.
_MS. Harl._ 913, l. 66 (A).
Erþ bilt castles, & erþe bilt toures;
Whan erþ is on erþe, blak beþ þe boures.
_MS. Harl._ 4486 (B); _so other_ B _texts_.
Erthe apon erthe wynneth{e} castelles & towres.
Then seythe erthe to erthe: 'These byth{e} alle owres'.
When erthe apon erthe hath byggede vp his bowres,
Then schalle erthe for the erthe suffre scharpe schowres.
_MS. Cambr._ 63 (C).
Erthe bygyth hallys & erth bygith towres,
When erþ is layd in erth, blayke is his bours;
_ibid._ 5-8
Erthe vpon erthe has hallys & towris _&c._
Cf. _Soul & Body Dialogues_ (_MSS. Auchinleck, Digby, Vernon,
Laud_).
Whare be þine castels & þine tours,
Þine chaumbres & þine hei[gh]e halle,
. . . . .
Wrecche, ful derk it is þi bour
To morn þou schalt þerin falle.
(_ibid._)
Halles hei[gh]e & bours bri[gh]t
Y hadde y bilt & mirþes mo.
(_MS. Harl._ 2253).
thi castles & thy toures.
Cf. _Death_ 29.
Ah seoþþen mony mon
By-yet bures & halle,
Forþi þe wrecche soule
Schal into pyne falle.
_MS. Harl._ 913. 42 (A).
Be þou þre ni[gh]t in a þrou[gh], þi frendschip is ilor.[18]
Cf. _Visio Philiberti_ (_MS. Porkington_).
When þou art dede þi frenschype is aslepe.
Cf. _Soul & Body_ (_MS. Auchinleck_).
that alle þine frend beon fro þe fledde.
Cf. _Death_ 97.
Hwer beoð alle þine freond
Þet fayre þe bi-hehte
And fayre þe igretten
Bi weyes and bi strete.
Nu heo walleþ wrecche
Alle þe forlete
Nolde heo non herestonkes[19]
Nu þe imete.
_MS. Cambr._ l. 21 (C).
When erth has gotyn erthe alle that he maye
He schal haue but seven fote at his laste daye.
Cf. _Soul & Body_ (_MSS. Auchinl._, _Digby_).
Now schaltow haue at al þi siþe
Bot seuen fet, vnneþe þat.
The play upon the word _earth_ recurs in other English poems. Cf.
_A Song on the Times_ (MS. Harl. 913), early fourteenth century--
[20]Whan erthe hath erthe i-gette
And of erthe so hath i-nou[gh],
When he is therin i-stekke,
Wo is him that was in wou[gh].
where the idea and the two rime-words are the same as in _MS. Harl._
2253--
Erþe toe 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.
It will be remembered that these two MSS. (Harl. 913 and 2253) are the
two which preserve texts of the A version, and the opening lines of the
_Song on the Times_ would appear to give further proof of a connexion
between the two A texts.
Further, in _MS. Lansdowne_ 762 (v. _Reliquiae Antiquae_ I. 260), under
the heading _Terram terra tegat_, occur these lines:--
First to the erthe I bequethe his parte,
My wretched careyn is but fowle claye,
Like than to like, erthe in erthe to laye;
Sith it is, according by it I wolle abide,
As for the first parte of my wille, that erthe erthe hide.
In this case the English words are evidently based upon the Latin
phrase, but this does not disprove an English origin for the poem _Erthe
upon Erthe_, since any verses of the kind must ultimately have been
based on the idea that man is dust, and the idea itself must have been
first presented and have become widely known through such Latin elegiac
phrases as _Memento homo quod cinis es et in cinerem reverteris_, or _De
terra plasmasti me_, both of which so frequently accompany _Erthe upon
Erthe_, or as the above cited _Terram terra tegat_. The verse in _MS.
Lansdowne_ might rather be considered as supplying further proof of the
popular tendency to replace such phrases by English verses, expressing
the same idea, but themselves English, not Latin in origin, and making
the most of the possible word-play. Such word-plays were evidently
popular between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Cf. the
well-known passage in _Piers Plowman_, c. xxi. 389.
So lyf shal lyf lete ther lyf hath lyf anyented,
So that lyf quyte lyf, the olde lawe hit asketh.
_Ergo_, soule shal soule quyte and synne to synne wende.
In view of this evidence, I am inclined to think that the Latin version
in MS. Harl. 913 is the translation, and the English the original, and
that the oldest form of _Erthe upon Erthe_ which has been preserved is
that found in the four lines in MS. Harl. 2253:--
Erþe toc of erþe erþe wyþ woh &c.
Short riddling stanzas of the kind, based upon the Latin phrases
mentioned above, may have been popular in the thirteenth century, and
this particular one was evidently known and used by the author of the
_Song on the Times_.[21] The writer of the version preserved in MS.
Harl. 913 seems to have been a more learned man, acquainted with poems
like the Dialogues between _the Soul and the Body_, who elaborated the
four lines of MS. Harl. 2253, and perhaps other verses of the same kind,
into a poem of seven six-lined stanzas, the additional couplet often
introducing a new idea precisely as in the case of the similarly
expanded verse-form in MS. Porkington. Either this man or a later
transcriber appears to have added the Latin rendering which accompanies
the poem, and to have further exercised himself in varying the
word-play. Heuser[22] points out that the mistakes in the MS. would
support the view that the English text is a copy of an original in
another dialect, and it is possible that the Latin version belongs to
this MS. alone, since a second poem in the same MS. is accompanied by an
unfinished translation into Latin.
This theory as to the origin of the two texts of the A version receives
further support from the fact that it also accounts most satisfactorily
for the development and popularity of the B version. Apart from the play
on the word _erthe_ and the similarity of the theme, there is only one
point of close verbal connexion between the two versions. In MS. Harl.
913 (A) the sixth stanza runs as follows:--
Erþ gette on erþ gersom & gold,
Erþ is þi moder, in erþ is þi mold.
Erþ uppon erþ be þi soule hold;
Er erþe go to erþe, bild þi long bold.
Erþ bilt castles, and erþe bilt toures;
Whan erþ is on erþe, blak beþ þe boures.
In the B version, the rimes _gold_ : _mold_, _toures_ : _boures_,
regularly recur in the third and fourth stanzas, and line 5 of the A
text is preserved in slightly modified form in the first line of verse
3:-- (MS. Harl. 4486, vv. 3 and 4)
Erthe apon erthe wynnethe castelles and towres.
Then seythe erthe to erthe: 'These bythe alle owres.'
When erthe apon erthe hath byggede vp his bowres,
Then schalle erthe for the erthe suffre scharpe schowres.
Erthe gothe apon erthe as molde apon molde.
So goethe erthe apon erthe alle gleterynge in golde,
Lyke as erthe unto erthe neuer go scholde,
And [gh]et schalle erthe into erthe rather then he wolde.
In the Cambridge text the rime-words _towres_ : _bours_ are introduced
twice over, representing both the versions given above:--
(ll. 63, 64) Erthe bygyth hallys & erthe bygith towres,
When erth is layd in erth, blayke is his bours;
as in the _A_ version;
(ll. 5, 7) Erthe vpon erth has hallys & towris . . .
But quan erth vpon erth has bygyd his bowres,
as in the B version.
The two stanzas of the B version which contain these rime-words are the
two which recur most frequently on tombstones and mural inscriptions,
and it seems possible that they represent a second early form of the
_Erthe_ poems. It is evident that the rime-words _gold_ : _mold_,
_bowres_ : _towres_, depend upon an early tradition. Probably verses
similar to the short stanza in MS. Harl. 2253, and containing these
words, were in existence before the learned writer of the longer A text
in MS. Harl. 913 introduced them in his poem, and, becoming widely
known, formed the nucleus of the B version. Both the A and the B
versions might therefore be held to depend upon popular stanzas of this
kind, which gave rise about the end of the thirteenth century to the
long poem of MS. Harl. 913, and during the fourteenth century to the
original of the B version, a poem in seven four-lined stanzas. The
earlier version is connected more particularly with the Southwest
Midland district; the later seems to have originated rather in the North
or North Midlands, but it soon became known all over England, and is
found in the South of Scotland shortly after 1500. Only one
fifteenth-century writer, the author of the Cambridge text, shows direct
knowledge of the A text, but the B version was evidently widely known,
and a favourite theme for additions and modifications. On tombstones and
mural inscriptions it survived up to the nineteenth century.