The whole is signed #Will[~m] Billyng#. It has been frequently suggested
that Billyng was the author of these poems, but it is evident that he
was not the author of _Erthe upon Erthe_, though his may be one of the
earliest transcripts of the B version, and the lines _Pes maketh plente_
also occur elsewhere, cf. MS. Digby 230 (fifteenth century). He may have
been the author of _The Five Wounds of Christ_, but it is more probable,
considering the usual origin of other fifteenth-century collections of
the kind, that he was merely the collector and transcriber of the texts.
Cf. F. J. Furnivall, _Notes and Queries_, IV. iii. 103. It is possible
that this may be the William Billyng who, in 1474, became rector of Toft
Monks in Norfolk on the presentation of the Provost and Scholars of
King's College, Cambridge, and who appears to have held the benefice
until 1506 (see _Notes and Queries_, III. iv. 173; Blomefield,
_Norfolk_, viii. 63).[1] The parchment roll was formerly preserved in
Bateman's collection of antiquities at Lomberdale House, Derbyshire.
This collection was broken up and sold after Bateman's death, the
archaeological remains being purchased by the Sheffield Museum, and the
books and MSS. sold at Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge's rooms in
1893, but all attempts to trace Billyng's MS. after the breaking up of
the collection have been unsuccessful. A copy of the printed text is in
the British Museum.
Montgomery's reprint of the poem in 1827 was taken from Bateman's
version, and differs from it only in some very slight corrections in
spelling. It has been suggested that this reprint was the source of the
_Earth upon Earth_ Epitaphs which occur, but these were current from the
sixteenth century on, and, as has been already pointed out (see
Introduction, pp. xxxvi ff.), the usual form of the Epitaph, even in the
latest versions, differed from that of the actual poem.
#Page 7.# #MS. Selden Supra 53.# This text omits verse 5, and inverts
the normal order of verses 4 and 6 (see Table on p. xvii of
Introduction). The text is written in a neat hand in the left-hand
column on the back of a spare leaf (fol. 159) at the end of the MS.,
after Lydgate's _Dance of Macabre_. The right-hand column contains Latin
scribblings, perhaps by the scribe who re-wrote small portions of _Erthe
upon Erthe_ (see p. 7, footnotes). A few lines are scribbled in another
hand upon the front side of the leaf, which is otherwise blank. The back
of the leaf was evidently unprotected, and is much rubbed and worn. The
space below Lydgate's last verse and colophon on fol. 158 v^o contains
two odd stanzas in English in the same metre as Lydgate's poem,
beginning 'Let se your hand my ladi, dam emperys', in a hand of the late
fifteenth century, and a French stanza of four lines ('Qui met son cuer
tout en Deu, Il a son cuer et si a Deu', &c.) in a French hand, perhaps
as late as 1500. Both of these were quite possibly inserted in the MS.
later than _Erthe upon Erthe_, the exact date of which is indeterminate,
but it was probably copied in between 1450 and 1500.
#Page 8.# #MS. Egerton 1995.# This MS. was evidently a Commonplace book.
Its contents are described by Gairdner, _Collections of a London
Citizen_ (Camden Society, 1876). The MS. is written throughout in
fifteenth-century hand, and appears to be the work of one scribe.
Gairdner thinks the whole collection may be ascribed to William Gregory
of the Skinners' Company, who was Mayor of London in 1451, and who seems
to have been the author of part, at least, of the Chronicle of London at
the end of the MS.
#Page 10.# #MS. Brighton.# Fiedler's account of this MS. is as
follows:-- 'Noch eine andre Fassung des Gedichtes habe ich mir vor
einigen Jahren aus einer Handschrift abgeschrieben, die damals im
Besitze eines Antiquars in Brighton war, über deren weiteren Verbleib
ich aber nichts ermitteln könnte. Es war eine Pergamenthandschrift,
folio, von 90 Blättern. Sie enthielt eine lateinische Abhandlung über
die sieben Sacramente "Oculi Sacerdotis", und auf der ursprünglich frei
gebliebenen Rückseite des letzten Blattes war von einer Hand des
fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts das englische Gedicht eingetragen.' (_Mod.
Lang. Review_, III. iii. 219.)
#Page 11.# #Stratford-on-Avon Inscription.# A full account of this
inscription has been given in the Introduction, p. xii. The lines
'Whosoo hym be thowghte', there mentioned as being inscribed beneath
_Erthe upon Erthe_, are given by Fisher as follows:--
Whosoo hym be thowght Inwardly and ofte
How hard hyt ys to flett
From bede to peyt From peyt to peyne that neu{er}
Schall seys Certen
He wold not doo no syn all þ{is} world to wynne.
The same lines are found on other monumental inscriptions. Weever
(_Ancient Funeral Monuments_, p. 425) mentions them as occurring in
sixteenth-century inscriptions in Churches at Saffron Walden and
Faversham respectively, and Rogers (_Monuments and Monumental
Inscriptions in Scotland_, ii. 210) quotes them from a tombstone in the
parish of Dun. The following version is from Bodl. MS. Tanner 407, fol.
36, v^o (sixteenth century):--
He that hath thoughte
ful in-wardly and ofte
how hard it is to flyt
fro bedde on to pyt
fro pytte on to pyne
whiche neuyr schal haue fyne
for alle thys world to wynne
wold not do a synne.
#Page 16.# #MS. Laud Misc. 23.# This is the only text which is not
written in metrical lines. The MS. being small, it was not as a rule
possible to fit one line of the poem into a single line of the page,
and the run-on lines involved waste of space. The scribe wrote verse 1
in metrical lines, verses 2 and 3 as if in two long lines, and the
remainder of the poem in paragraphs, each paragraph coinciding with a
verse. Each new line or paragraph is indicated by a red capital, and the
metrical lines are distinguished by pause-marks ([V.], ·, [V], |), and
by touching up the first letter of the line in red. In vv. 6, 7, and 8,
the scribe appears to have lost count of the lines, as the three verses
are written in two paragraphs, and letters in the middle of a line are
often marked in red. At the top of the first leaf a later hand has
scribbled the words _haue made me_. A few other such scribbles occur
elsewhere in the MS.
[[The first and third "pause-marks" are root sign with and without
under-dot.]]
l. 26 (p. 17). _Thi body that was rank and louyd of alle men, is hatyd._
The reading is inferior to MS. Lambeth, l. 27:
þan þi bodi þat was rank & undeuout of alle men is bihatid--
and the change led to the placing of the pause (indicated in the MS.)
after men.
l. 27. _Out of the erthe cam to this erthe his wantyng garnement._ This
line seems to be a compromise between the readings of MSS. Lamb. and
Rawl. P.
(_MS. Lamb. 28_)
Out of þis erþe cam to þis erþe þis wrecchid garnement.
(_MS. Rawl. P. 37_)
Oute of the erthe cam the erthe wantynge his garnament.
But the rest of the verse follows Lamb, rather than Rawl. P., cf. _ruly,
raggid and rent_, _hidous turment_, beside Rawl. P. _disgesily ragged
and to-rent_, _ful grete turment_.
l. 34 has the correct reading _stinke_, as in MSS. Harl. 4486 and Rawl.
P.; Lamb. repeats _swynk_.
l. 39 (p. 18). _Wolde therfore this erthe on this erthe on this hertly
thinke_, is superior to the exaggeratedly long line in Lamb. 40, but
both are inferior to MS. Rawl. P., ll. 53, 54, where the correct rime is
preserved:
thinkynge : risynge : rekenynge : kynge.
l. 47. _Lord God that erthe madist & for the erthe suffredist peynys
ille._ It is difficult to determine what was the original form of this
line. The readings of the other texts which have the verse are as
follows:--
(_Harl. 4486, 33_)
Now Lorde that madyst for erthe & sufferdyst paynes ille.
(_Lamb. 48_)
O þou Lord that madist þis erþe for þis erþe
& suffridist heere peynes ille.
(_Rawl. P. 125-6_).
Lord God that erthe tokist in erthe And suffredist paynes ful stille.
Possibly MS. Laud has transposed the _and_, and the correct reading
should be _that erthe madist for the erthe & suffredist paynes ille_, in
which case Harl. 4486 has merely omitted the first _erthe_, while the
other two texts have modified the older version.
#Page 24.# #MS. Porkington 10.# _Erthe upon Erthe_ is preceded by the
two following stanzas:--
Lo wordly folk{es} thou[gh] þ{is} p{ro}cese of dethe
Be not swete, ne synke not i{n} your mynde.
Whe{n} age co{m}myþ & schorteth is her brethe,
And dethe co{m}myþ, he is not far behynde;
The{n} her dyscressio{n} schal wel knov & fynde
That to have mynd of deþ it is ful nesseserry,
Ffor deth wyl co{m}e; dovtl{es} he wyl not long tarry.
Of what estate [gh]e be, [gh]ovng or wold,
That redyth vppon þ{is} dredful storrye,
As in a myrrovr her [gh]e may be-holde
The ferful ende of al your joy & glorie;
Therfor þ{is} mat{er} redvs vs to yovr memory:--
[Gh]e þ{at} syttyþ nowe hye vppon þe whele,
Thynke vppo{n} yovr end, & alle schal be we[le].
The MS. is in Lord Harlech's library at Brogyntyn (formerly Porkington)
near Oswestry, Salop.
#Page 28.# #MS. Balliol 354.# l. 48. _Go to seynt Poulis, & see þer the
portratowre._ Cf. Stow, _Survey of London_, 1598: 'There was also one
great cloister on the north side of this church (St. Paul's), environing
a plot of ground, of old time called Pardon churchyard . . . About this
cloister was artificially and richly painted the Dance of Machabray, or
Dance of Death, commonly called the Dance of Paul's; the like whereof
was painted about St. Innocent's cloister at Paris, in France. The
metres or poesy of this dance were translated out of French into English
by John Lidgate, monk of Bury, and with the picture of death leading all
estates, painted about the cloister, at the special request and in the
dispence of Jenken Carpenter, in the reign of Henry V.'
_Ibid._ 'John Carpenter, townclerk of London, in the reign of Henry V,
caused with great expense to be curiously painted upon board, about the
north cloister of Paule's, a monument of Death leading all estates, with
the speeches of Death, and answer of every state. This cloister was
pulled down 1549.'
Cf. Sir T. More, _Works_ (ed. 1557, folio), p. 77: 'We wer never so
gretly moved by the beholding of the Daunce of Deth pictured in
Paule's.'
#Page 30.# #Maitland MS.# Omitted by Pinkerton from his printed text of
the Maitland MS. as 'a silly jingling piece, shewing the vanity of man,
who is but earth, building upon earth: priding himself in gold which is
but earth', &c. Pinkerton also knew of 'several pieces of the same kind
in MSS. of Old English poetry', see Note on MS. Harl. 2253, p. 36. He
had strong views against the indiscriminate printing of old MSS., and
was unwilling to sacrifice 'the character of a man of taste to that of
an antiquary; as of all characters he should the least chuse that of an
hoarder of ancient dirt'.
#Page 32.# #MS. Cambridge# (Univ. Libr. I. 1. iv. 9). l. 17. The reading
_slogh_ is supported by Professor Skeat. It is difficult to see what
meaning could be attached to _flogh_, as in Heuser's text.
#Page 33.# l. 48. _As wroth as the wynde_ was a favourite mediaeval
proverb. Cf. _Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight_, l. 319: he wex as wroth
as wynde; _Piers Plowman_, C. iv. 486: As wroth as the wynd wex Mede
ther-after; _Richard the Redeles_, iii. 153: thei woll be wroth as the
wynde.