This book belongs to

THE LIBRARY

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

Toronto 5, Canada

I , &-II

Original and Extra Series Books, 1901-1904. 3

llaT The Society intends to complete forthwith the Reprints of its out-of-print Texts of
the year 1866. Prof. Skeat has finisht Partenay ; Dr. M c Enight of Ohio King Horn and
Floris and Blancheflour ; and Dr. Furnivall Myrc's Duties of a Parish Priest. Dr. Otto
Claiming has undertaken Seinte Marherete ; and Dr. Furnivall has Hali Meidenhad and his
Political, Religious and Love Poems in type, so that the Society may have all its Texts
in print by 1904. As the cost of these Reprints, if they were not needed, would have been
devoted to fresh Texts, the Reprints will be sent to all Members in lieu of such Texts.
Though called ' Reprints,' these books are new editions, generally with valuable additions, a
fact not noticed by a few careless receivers of them, who have complained that they already
had the volumes.

i^ The friends of the Society's Founder and Director, Dr. F. J. Furnivall, to com-
memorate his 75th Birthday on Feb. 4, 1900, raised a Fund to present him with his
Portrait, and a big three-sculling Boat for his Sunday outings, and to benefit his Early
English Text Society. Out of this Fund, its Committee decided to devote 200 towards a
new edition of Dr. F.'s Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, A.D. 1303, and its French
original, William of Waddington's Manuel des Pechiez, ab. 1260 (Roxburghe Club, 1861), for
the Original Series of the E. E. T. Soc. in 1901-2, -3 ; and another 200 to lessen the
Society's debts to its printers, Clay and Sons, and the Clarendon Press. These sums have
now been paid, and will set free the like part of the Society's money for its Reprints,
which are necessary to enable it to supply complete sets of its Texts. The thanks of the
Society are hereby given to the Subscribers to the Furnivall Birthday Fund.

December 1902. The Original-Series Texts for 1901 were, No. 117, Part II of the
Minor Poems of the Vernon MS. edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall ; The Lay Folks Catechism by
Archbp. Thoresby, edited by the late Canon Simmons and the Rev. H. E. Nolloth, M.A. ;
and Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, A.D. 1303, and the French poem on which it
was founded, Wm. of Waddington's Manuel des Pechiez, ab. 1260 A.D., Part I.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1901 were, No. LXXXIJ, Gower's Confessio Amantis, vol. 2,
edited by G. C. Macaulay, M.A., No. LXXXIII, Lydgate's DeGuilleville's Pilgrimage of the
Life of Man, Part II, edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall, and No. LXXXIV, Lydgate's Reason
and Sensuality, edited by Dr. Ernst Sieper, Part I.

The Original-Series Texts for 1902 are : No. 120, The Rule of St. Benet in unique
Northern prose and Northern verse texts, with Caxton's Summary of the Rule, edited by
Dr. E A. Kock of Lund, and No. 121, The Laud MS. Troy-Book, edited from the unique
Laud MS. 595 by Dr. J. Ernst Wiilfing of Bonn, Part I.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1902 are to be, No. LXXXV, Alexander Scott's Poems, 1568,
re-edited from the unique Edinburgh MS. by A. K. Donald, B.A. ; No. LXXXVI, William
ofSnoreham's Poems, re-edited from the unique MS. by Dr. M. Konrath, Part I.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1903 ought to be the Second Part of the prose Romance of
Melusine Introduction, with ten facsimiles of the best woodblocks of the old foreign black-
letter editions, Glossary, &c., by A. K. Donald, B.A. (now in India) ; and a new edition of
the famous Early-English Dictionary (English and Latin), Promptorium Parvulorum, from
the Winchester MS., ab. 1440 A.D. : in this, the Editor, the Rev. A. L. May hew, M. A., will
follow and print his MS. not only in its arrangement of nouns first, and verbs second, under
every letter of the Alphabet, but also in its giving of the flexions of the words. The Society's
edition will thus be the first modern one that really represents its original, a point on which
Mr. Mayhew's insistence will meet with the sympathy of all our Members. But if these
Texts are not ready, as they probably will not be, substitutes will be taken from the others
next mentioned.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1903 will be chosen from Lydgate's DeGuillemlle' s Pilgrimage
of the Life of Man, Part III, edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall ; Dr. M. Konrath's re-edition
of William of Shoreham's Poems, Part II. ; Lydgate's Reason and Sensuality, edited by Dr.
Ernst Sieper, Part II ; Prof. Erdmann's re-edition of Lydgate's Siege of Thebes (issued also
by the Chaucer Society) ; Miss Rickert's re-edition of the Romance of Emare ; Mr. I.
Gollancz's re-edition of two Alliterative Poems, Winner and Waster, &c., ab. 1360, lately
issued for the Roxburghe Club ; Dr. Norman Moore's re-edition of The Book of the Foundation
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, from the unique MS. ab. 1425, which gives an account
of the Founder, Rahere, and the miraculous cures wrought at the Hospital ; The Craft of
Nombrynge, with other of the earliest englisht Treatises on Arithmetic, edited by R.
Steele, B.A.

The Original-Series Texts for 1903 and 1904 will probably be chosen from Part II of
Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, ed. by Dr. F. J. Furnivall; Part II of the Exeter Book
Anglo-Saxon Poems from the unique MS. in Exeter Cathedral re-edited by Israel Gollancz,
M.A. ; Part II of Prof. Dr. Holthausen's Vices and Virtues; Part II of Jacob's Well, edited
by Dr. Brandeis ; the Alliterative Siege of Jerusalem, edited by the late Prof. Dr. E. Kblbing
and Prof. Dr. Kaluza ; an Introduction and Glossary to the Minor Poems of the Vernon
MS. by Mr. H. Hartley; a Northern Verse Chronicle of England to 1327 A.D., in 42,000
lines, about 1420 A.D., edited by M. L. Perrin, B.A. ; Prof. Bruce's Introduction to The

4 Texts preparing : The Texts for 1904, 1905, $c. Deguilleville.

English Conquest of Ireland, Part II. Dr. Furnivall's edition of the Lichfield Gilds, which
is all printed, and waits only for the Introduction, that Prof. E. C. K. Gonner has kindly
undertaken to write for the book.

The Texts for the Extra Series in 1904 and 1905 will be chosen from The Three Kings'
Sons, Part II, the Introduction &c. by Prof, Dr. Leon Kellner ; Part II of The Chester Plays,
re-edited from the MSS., with a full collation of the formerly missing Devonshire MS., by
Mr." G. England and Dr. Matthews ; the Parallel-Text of the only two MSS. of the Owl and
Nightingale, edited by Mr. G. F. H. Sykes (at press) ; Prof. Jespersen's editions of John
Hart's Orthographic (MS. 1551 A.D. ; blackletter 1569), and Method to teach Reading, 1570 ;
Deguilleville's Pilgrimage of the Sowle, in English prose, edited by Prof. Dr. L. Kellner.
(For the three prose versions of The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man two English, one
French an Editor is wanted. ) Members are askt to realise the fact that the Society has
now 50 years' work on its Lists, at its present rate of production, and that there is from
100 to 200 more years' work to come after that. The year 2000 will not see finisht all the
Texts that the Society ought to print. The need of more Members and money is pressing.
Offers of help from willing Editors have continually to be declined because the Society has
no funds to print their Texts.

An urgent appeal is hereby made to Members to increase the list of Subscribers to the
E. E. Text Society. It is nothing less than a scandal that the Hellenic Society should have
nearly 1000 members, while the Early English Text Society has not 300 !

Before his death in 1895, Mr. G. N. Currie was preparing an edition of the 15th and 16th
century Prose Versions of Guillaume de Deguilleville's Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, with
the French prose version by Jean Gallopes, from Lord Aldenham's MS., he having generously
promist to pay the extra cost of printing the French text, and engraving one or two of the
illuminations in his MS. But Mr. Currie, when on his deathbed, charged a friend to burn
all his MSS. which lay in a corner of his room, and unluckily all the E. E. T. S.'s copies of
the Deguilleville prose versions were with them, and were burnt with them, so that the
Society will be put to the cost of fresh copies, Mr. Currie having died in debt.

Guillaume de Deguilleville, monk of the Cistercian abbey of Chaalis, in the diocese of
Senlis, wrote his first verse Pelerinaige de I'Homme in 1330-1 when he was 36. : Twenty-five
(or six) years after, in 1355, he revised his poem, and issued a second version of it, 2 a revision
of which was printed ab. 1500. Of the prose representative of the first version, 1330-1,
a prose Englishing, about 1430 A.D., was edited by Mr, Aldis Wright for the Roxburghe Club
in 1869, from MS. Ff. 5. 30 in the Cambridge University Library. Other copies of this prose
English are in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Q. 2. 25 ; Sion College, London ; and the
Laud Collection in the Bodleian, no. 740. 3 A copy in the Northern dialect is MS. G. 21, in
St. John's Coll., Cambridge, and this is the MS. which will be edited for the E. E. Text
Society. The Laud MS. 740 was somewhat coudenst and modernised, in the 17th century,
into MS. Ff. 6. 30, in the Cambridge University Library: 4 "The Pilgrime or the Pil-
grimage of Man in this World," copied by Will, Baspoole, whose copy "was verbatim
written by Walter Parker, 1645, and from thence transcribed by G. G. 1649 ; and from thence
by W. A. 1655." This last copy may have been read by, or its story reported to, Bunyan,
and may have been the groundwork of his Pilgrim's Progress. It will be edited for the E.
E. T. Soc., its text running under the earlier English, as in Mr. Herrtage's edition of the
Gesta Romanorum for the Society. In February 1464, 5 Jean Gallopes a clerk of Angers,
afterwards chaplain to John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France turned Deguilleville's' first
verse Pelerinaige into a prose Pelerinage de la vie humaine. By the kindness of Lord Alden-
ham, as above mentiond, Gallopes's French text will be printed opposite the early prose
northern Englishing in the Society's edition.

The Second Version of Deguilleville's Pelerinaige de I'Homme, A.D. 1355 or -6, was englisht
in verse by Lydgate in 1426. Of Lydgate's poem, the larger part is in the Cotton MS.
Vitellius C. xiii (leaves 2-308). This MS. leaves out Chaucer's englishing of Deguilleville's
A B or Prayer to the Virgin, of which the successive stanzas start with A, B, C, and run all
thro' the alphabet ; and it has 2 main gaps, besides many small ones from the tops of leaves
being burnt in the Cotton fire. All these gaps (save the ABC) have been fild up from the
Stowe MS. 952 (which old John Stowe completed) and from the end of the other imperfect
MS. Cotton, Tiberius A vii. Thanks to the diligence of the old Elizabethan tailor and
manuscript-lover, a complete text of Lydgate's poem can be, given, though that of an inserted

1 He was born about 1295. See Abbe GOUJET'S Bibliotheque francaise, Vol IX p 73-4 P M The
Roxburghe Club printed the 1st version in 1893.

2 The Roxburghe Club's copy of this 2nd version was lent to Mr. Currie, and unluckily burnt too with
his other MSS.

3 These 3 MSS. have not yet been collated, but are believed to be all of the same version

4 Another MS. is in the Pepys Library.

5 According to Lord Aldenham's MS.

6 These were printed in Prance, late in the 15th or early in the 16th century.

Anglo-Saxon Psalters. More Money wanted. Saints' Lives. 5

theological prose treatise is incomplete. The British Museum French MSS. (Harleian 4399, 1
and Additional 22, 937 2 and 25, 594 3 ) are all of the First Version.

Besides his first Pelerinaige de I'homme in its two versions, Deguilleville wrote a second,
" de Tame separee du corps," and a third, " de nostre seigneur lesus." Of the second, a prose
Englishing of 1413, The Pilgrimage of the Soivle (with poems by Hoccleve, already printed
for the Society with that author's Regement of Princes}, exists in the Egertou MS. 615, 4 at
Hatfield, Cambridge (Ihriv. Kk. 1. 7, and Caius), Oxford (Univ. Coll. and Corpus), and in Cax-
ton's edition of 1483. This version has 'somewhat of addicions' as Caxton says, and some
shortenings too, as the maker of both, the first translater, tells us in the MSS. Caxton leaves
out the earlier englisher's interesting Epilog in the Egerton MS. This prose englishing of
the Sowle will be edited for the Society by Prof. Dr. Leon Kellner after that of the Man is
finisht, and will have Gallopes's French opposite it, from Lord Aldenham's MS. , as his gift
to the Society. Of the Pilgrimage of Jesus, no englishing is known.

As to the MS. Anglo-Saxon Psalters, Dr. Hy. Sweet has edited the oldest MS., the
Vespasian, in his Oldest English Texts for the Society, and Mr. Harsley has edited the
latest, c. 1150, Eadwine's Canterbury Psalter. The other MSS., except the Paris one, being
interlinear versions, some of the Roman-Latin redaction, and some of the Gallican, Prof.
Logeman has prepared for press, a Parallel-Text edition of the first twelve Psalms, to start the
complete work. He will do his best to get the Paris Psalter tho' it is not an interlinear
one into this collective edition ; but the additional matter, especially in the Verse-Psalms,
is very difficult to manage. If the Paris text cannot be parallelised, it will form a separate
volume. The Early English Psalters are all independent versions, and will follow separately
in due course.

Through the good offices of the Examiners, some of the books for the Early-English Ex-
aminations of the University of London will be chosen from the Society's publications, the
Committee having undertaken to supply such books to students at a large reduction in price.
The net profits from these sales will be applied to the Society's Reprints.

Members are reminded that fresh Subscribers are always wanted, and that the Committee
can at any time, on short notice, send to press an additional Thousand Pounds' worth of work.

The Subscribers to the Original Series must be prepared for the issue of the whole of the
Early English Lives of Saints, sooner or later. The Society cannot leave out any of them,
even though some are dull. The Sinners would doubtless be much more interesting. But in
many Saints' Lives will be found valuable incidental details of our forefathers' social state,
and all are worthful for the history of our language. The Lives may be lookt on as the
religious romances or story-books of their period.

The Standard Collection of Saints' Lives in the Corpus and Ashmole MSS., the Harleian
MS. 2277, &c. will repeat the Laud set, our No. 87, with additions, and in right order. (The
foundation MS. (Laud 108) had to be printed first, to prevent quite unwieldy collations.) The
Supplementary Lives from the Vernon and other MSS. will form one or two separate volumes.

Besides the Saints' Lives, Trevisa's englishing of Bartholomceus de Proprietatibus Rerum,
the mediaeval Cyclopaedia of Science, &c. , will be the Society's next big undertaking. Dr.
R. von Fleischhacker will edit it. Prof. Napier of Oxford, wishing to have the whole of
our MS. Anglo-Saxon in type, and accessible to students, will edit for the Society all the
unprinted and other Anglo-Saxon Homilies which are not included in Thorpe's edition of
jElfric's prose, 5 Dr. Morris's of the Blickling Homilies, and Prof. Skeat's of ^Elfric's Metrical
Homilies. The late Prof. Kolbing left complete his text, for the Society, of the Ancren
Riwle, from the best MS. , with collations of the other four, and this will 'be edited for the
Society by Dr. Thiimmler. Mr. Harvey means to prepare an edition of the three MSS. of
the Earliest English Metrical Psalter, one of which was edited by the late Mr. Stevenson
for the Surtees Society.

Members of the Society will learn with pleasure that its example has been followed, not
only by the Old French Text Society which has done such admirable work under its founders
Profs. Paul Meyer and Gaston Paris, but also by the Early Russian Text Society, which was
set on foot in 1877, and has since issued many excellent editions of old MS. Chronicles &c.

Members will also note with pleasure the annexation of large tracts of our Early English
territory by the important German contingent, the late Professors Zupitza and Kolbing, the
living Hausknecht, Einenkel, Haenisch, Kaluza, Hupe, Adam, Holthausen, Schick, Herzfeld,
Brandeis, Sieper, Konrath, Wiilfing, &c. Scandinavia has also sent us Prof. Erdmann and
Dr. E. A. Kock ; Holland, Prof. H. Logeman, who is now working in Belgium ; France, Prof.

1 15th cent., containing only the Vie humaine.

2 15th cent., containing all the 3 Pilgrimages, the 3rd being Jesus Christ's.

3 14th cent., containing the Vie humaine and the 2nd Pilgrimage, de I'Ame : both incomplete.

4 Ab. 1430, 106 leaves (leaf 1 of text wanting), with illuminations of nice little devils red, green, tawny,
&c. and damnd souls, fires, angels <fec.

5 Of these, Mr. Harsley is preparing a new edition, with collations of all the MSS. Many copies of
Thorpe's book, not issued by the JSlfric Society, are still in stock.

Of the Vercelli Homilies, the Society has bought the copy made by Prof. G. Lattanzi.

The Original Series of the " Early English Text Society."

von

Paul Meyer with Gaston Paris as adviser ; Italy, Prof. Lattanzi ; Austria, Dr.
Fleischhacker ; while America is represented by the late Prof. Child, by Dr. Mary Noyes
Colvin, Miss Rickert, Profs. Mead, McKuight, Triggs, Perrin, &c. The sympathy, the ready
help, which the Society's work has cald forth from the Continent and the United States,
have been among the pleasantest experiences of the Society's life, a real aid and cheer amid
all troubles and discouragements. All our Members are grateful for it, and recognise that
the bond their work has woven between them and the lovers 'of language and antiquity
across the seas is one of the most welcome results of the Society's efforts.

ORIGINAL SERIES.

1. Early English Alliterative Poems, ab. 1360 A.D., ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 16s. 1864

2. Arthur, ab. 1440, ed. P. J. Furnivall, M.A. 4s.

3. Lauder on the Dewtie of Kyngis, &c., 1556, ed. F. Hall, D.C.L. 4s.

4. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, ab. 1360, eel. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 10s.

5. Hume's Orthographic and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue, ab 1617, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4s.

6. Lancelot of the Laik, ab. 1500, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 8s

7. Genesis & Exodus, ab. 1250, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 8s.

8. Morte Arthure, ab. 1440, ed. E. Brock. 7s.

9. Thynne on Speght's ed. of Chaucer, A.D. 1599, ed. Dr. G. Kingsley and Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 10s.

10. Merlin, ab. 1440, Part I., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 2s. 6d.

11. Lyndesay's Monarche, &c., 1552, Part I., ed. J. Small, M.A. 3s.

12. Wright's Chaste Wife, ab. 1462, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A. Is.

13. Seinte Marherete, 1200-1330, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne : re-edited by Dr. Otto Glauniug. [Out of print. 1866

14. Kyng Horn, Floris and Blancheflour, &c., ed. Rev. J. R. Lumby, B.D., re-ed. Dr. G. H. McKnight. 5s. ..

15. Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. F. J. Furnivall. [At Press.

16. The Book of Quinte Essence, ab. 1460-70, ed. F. J. Furnivall. Is.

17. Parallel Extracts from 45 MSS. of Piers the Plowman, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. Is.

18. Hali Meidenhad, ab. 1200, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne, re-edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. [At Press.

19. Lyndesay's Monarche, &c., Part II., ed. J. Small, M.A. 3s. 6d.

20. Hampole's English Prose Treatises, ed. Rev. G. G. Perry. Is. [Out of print

21. Merlin, Part II., ed. H. 3. Wheatley. 4s.

22. Partenay or Lusignen, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat.

23. Dan Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt, 1340, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 10s. 6d.

24. Hymns to the Virgin and Christ ; the Parliament of Devils, &c. , ab. 1430, ed. F. J. Furnival]. 1 867

25. The Stacions of Rome, the Pilgrims' Sea-voyage, with Clene Maydenhod, ed. F. J. Furnival]. Is.

26. Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, from R. Thornton's MS., ed. Rev. G. G. Perry. 2s. [Out of print. ,,

27. Levins' s Manipulus Vocabulorum, a ryming Dictionary, 1570, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 12s. ,,

28. William's Vision of Piers the Plowman, 1362 A.D. ; Text A, Part I., ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 6s.

29. Old English Homilies (ab. 1220-30 A.D. ). Parti. Edited by Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 7s.

30. Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 2s.

31. Myrc's Duties of a Parish Priest, in Verse, ab. 1420 A.D., ed. E. Peacock. 4s. 1868

32. Early English Meals and Manners : the Boke of Norture of John Russell, the Bokes of Keruynge.

Curtasye, and Demeanor, the Babees Book, TJrbanitatis, &c. , ed. F. J. Furnivall. 12s.

33. The Knight de la Tour Landry, ab. 1440 A.D. A Book for Daughters, ed. T. Wright, M. A. 8s. , ,

34. Old English Homilies (before 1300 A.D.). Part II., ed. R. Morris, LL.D. 8s.

35. Lyndesay's Works, Part III. : The Historic and Testament of Squyer Meldrum, ed. F. Hall. 2s.

36. Merlin, Part III. Ed. H. B. Wheatley. On Arthurian Localities, by J. S. Stuart Glennie. 12s. 1^69

37. Sir David Lyndesay's Works, Part IV., Ane Satyre of the Three Estaits. Ed. F. Hall, D.C.L. 4s.

38. William's Vision of Piers the Plowman, Part II. Text B. Ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 10s. 6d.

39. Alliterative Romance of the Destruction of Troy. Ed. D. Donaldson <fo G. A. Panton. Pt. I. 10s. 6d. ,,

40. English Gilds, their Statutes and Customs, 1389 A.D. Edit. Toulmin Smith and Lucy T. Smith,

with an Essay on Gilds and Trades-Unions, by Dr. L. Brentano. 21s. 1870

41. William Lauder' s Minor Poems. Ed. F. J. Furnivall. 3s. ,,

42. Bernardus De Cura Rei Famuliaris, Early Scottish Prophecies, <fec. Ed. J. R. Lumby, M.A. 2s.

43. Ratis Raving, and other Moral and Religious Pieces. Ed. J. R Lumby, M.A. ,,

44. The Alliterative Romance of Joseph of Arimathie, or The Holy Grail : from the Vernon MS. ;

with W. de Worde's and Pynson's Lives of Joseph : ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 5s. 1871

45. King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, edited from 2 MSS., with an

English translation, by Henry Sweet, Esq., B. A., Balliol College, Oxford. Parti. 10s. ,,

46. Legends of the Holy Rood, Symbols of the Passion and Cross Poems, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 10s. ,,

47. Sir David Lyndesay's Works, Part V.,ed. Dr. J. A. H. Murray. 3s. ,,

48. The Times' Whistle, and other Poems, by R. C., 1616'; ed. by J. M. Cowper, Esq. 6s.

49. An Old English Miscellany, containing a Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, and

Religious Poems of the 13th cent, ed. from the MSS. by the Rev. R. Morris, LL.D. 10s. 1S72

50. King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. H. Sweet, M.A. Part II. 10s. ,,

51. The Life of St Juliana, 2 versions, A.D. 1230, with translations ; ed. T. O. Cockayne & E. Brock. 2s. ,,

The Original Series of the " Early English Text Society" 1

1872
1873

3 The Extra Series of the " Early English Text Society."

113. Queen Elizabeth's Englishings of Boethius, Plutarch &c. &c., ed. Miss C. Pemberton. 15s. 1899

114. Aelfric's Metrical Lives of Saints, Part IV and last, ed. Prof. Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D. 10s. 1900

115. Jacob's Well, edited from the unique Salisbury Cathedral MS. by Dr. A. Brandeis. Part I. 10s. ,,

116. An Old-English Martyrology, re-edited by Dr. G. Herzfeld. 10s. ,,

117. Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. Part II. 15s. 1901

118. The Lay Folks' Catechism, ed. by Canon Simmons and Rev. H. E. Nollotli, M.A. 5<.

119. Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne (1303), and its French original, re-ed. by Dr. Furnivall. Pt. I. 10s. ,,

120. The Rule of St. Benet, in Northern Prose and Verse, & Caxton's Summary,'ed. Dr. B. A. Kock. 15s. 1902

121. The Laud MS. Troy-Book, ed. from the unique Laud MS. 595, by Dr. J. E. Wulfing. Part I. 15s. ,,

122. The Laud MS. Troy-Book, ed. from the unique Laud MS. 595, by Dr. J. E. Wulfing. Part II. 1903

123. Robert of Brunne's Handlyng Synne, 1130-37, and its French original, re-ed. by Dr. Furnivall. Pt. II. ,,

EXTRA SEHIES.

The Publications for 1867-1901 (one guinea each year) are:

I. William of Palerne ; or, William and the Werwolf. Re-edited by Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 13s. 1867

II. Early English Pronunciation with especial Reference to Shakspere and Chaucer, by A. J. Ellis,
F.R.S. Part I. 10s.

III. Caxton's Book of Curtesye, in Three Versions. Ed. F. J. Furnivall. 5s. 1868

IV. Havelokthe Dane. Re-edited by the Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 10s.

V. Chaucer's Boethius. Edited from the two best MSS. by Rev. Dr. R. Morris 12s. ,,

VI. Chevelere Assigne. Re-edited from the unique MS. by Lord Aid enham, M.A. 3s. ,,

VII. Early English Pronunciation, by A. J. Ellis, F.R.S. Part II. 10s. 1869

VIII. Queene Elizabethes Achademy, &c. Ed. F. J. Furnivall. Essays on early Italian and German
Books of Courtesy, by W. M. Rossetti and Dr. E. Oswald. 13s. ,,

IX. A wdeley's Fraternity e of Vacabondes, Harman's Caveat, &c. Ed. E. Viles & F. J. Furnivall. 7s. 6d. ,,

X. Andrew Boorde's Introduction of Knowledge, 1547, Dyetary of Helth, 1542, Barnes in Defence of the
Berde, 1542-3. Ed. F. J. Furnivall. 18s. 1870

XI. Barbour's Bruce, Part I. Ed. from MSS. and editions, by Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 12s.

XII. England in Henry VLTI.'s Time : a Dialogue between Cardinal Pole & Lupset, by Thorn. Starkey,
Chaplain to Henry VIII. Ed. J. M. Cowper. Part II. 12s. (Part I. is No. XXXII, 1878, 8s.) 1871

XIII. A Supplicacyon of the Beggers, by Simon Fish, 1528-9 A.D., ed. F. J. Furnivall ; with A Suppli-
cation to our Moste Soueraigne Lorde ; A Supplication of the Poore Commons ; and The Decaye of
England by the Great Multitude of Sheep, ed. by J. M. Cowper, Esq. 6s.

XIV. Early English Pronunciation, by A. J. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Part III. 10s.

XV. Robert Crowley's Thirty-One Epigrams, Voyce of the Last Trumpet, Way to Wealth, &c., A. P.
1550-1, edited by J. M. Cowper, Esq. 12s. 1872

XVI. Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe. Ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 6s. ,,

XVII. The Complaynt of Scotlande, 1549 A.D., with 4 Tracts (1542-48), ed. Dr. Murray. Part I. 10s.

XVIII. The Complaynt of Scotlande, 1549 A.D., ed. Dr. Murray. Part II. 8s. 1873

XIX. Oure Ladyes Myroure, A.D. 1530, ed. Rev. J. H. Blunt, M.A. 24s. ,,

XX. Lovelich's History of the Holy Grail (ab. 1450 A.D.), ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A., Ph.D. Part I. 8s. 1874

XXI. Barbour's Bruce, Part II., ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 4s.

XXII. Henry Brinklow's Complaynt of Eoderyck Mors (ab. 1542) : and The Lamentacion of a Christian
against the Citie of London, made by Roderigo Mors, A.D. 1545. Ed. J. M. Cowper. 9s. M

XXIII. Early English Pronunciation, by A. J. Ellis, F.R.S. Part IV. 10s.

XXIV. Lovelich's History of the Holy Grail, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A. , Ph.D. Partll. 10s. 1875

XXV. Guy of Warwick, 15th-century Version, ed. Prof. Zupitza. Parti. 20s.

XXVI. Guy of Warwick, 15th-century Version, ed. Prof. Zupitza. Part II. 14s. 1876

XXVII. Bp. Fisher's English Works (died 1535). ed. by Prof. J. E. B. Mayor. Part I, the Text. 16s.

XXVIII. Lovelich's Holy Grail, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A., Ph.D. Part III. 10s. 1877

XXIX. Barbour's Bruce. Part III., ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat, M.A. 21s.

XXX. Lovelich's Holy Grail, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A., Ph.D. Part IV. 15s. 1878

XXXI. The Alliterative Romance of Alexander and Dindimus. ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 6s.

XXXII. Starkey' s "England in Henry VLTTs time." Pt. I. Starkey'sLife and Letters, ed. S. J. Herrtage. 8s. ,,

XXXIII. Gesta Romanorum (englisht ab. 1440), ed. S. J. Herrtage, B.A. 15 1879

XXXIV. The Charlemagne Romances : 1. Sir Ferumbras, from Ashm. MS. 33, ed. S. J. Herrtage. 15s.

XXXV. Charlemagne Romances : 2. The Sege off Melayne, SirOtuell, <fec., ed. S. J. Herrtage. 12s. 1880

XXXVI. Charlemagne Romances: 3. Lyf of Charles the Grete, Pt. I., ed. S. J. Herrtage. 16s.

XXXVII. Charlemagne Romances : 4. Lyf of Charles the Grete, Pt. II., ed. S. J. Herrtage. 15s. 188]

XXXVIII. Charlemagne Romances : 5. The Sowdone of Babylone, ed. Dr. Hausknecht. 15s.

XXXIX. Charlemagne Romances : 6. RaufColyear, Roland, Otuel, Ac., ed. S.J. Herrtage, B.A. 15s. 1882
XL. Charlemagne Romances : 7. Huon of Burdeux, by Lord Berners, ed. S. L. Lee, B.A. Part I. 15s. ,,
XLI. Charlemagne Romances : 8. Huon of Burdeux, by Lord Berners, ed. S. L. Lee, B.A. Pt. II. 15s. 1883
XLII. Guy of Warwick : 2 texts (Auchinleck MS. and Caius MS.), ed. Prof. Zupitza. Part I. 15s. ,,
XLIII. Charlemagne Romances : 9. Huon of Burdeux, by Lord Berners, ed. S. L. Lee, B.A. Pt. III. 15s. 1884

Works preparing for the " Early English Text Society." 9

XLIV. Charlemagne Romances : 10. The Four Sons of Aymon, ed. Miss Octavia Richardson. Pt. I. 15s. 1884
XLV. Charlemagne Romances : 11. The Four Sons of Aymon, ed. Miss 0. Richardson. Pt. II. 20s. 1885
XLVI. SirBevis of Hamton, from the Auchinleck and other MSS., ed. Prof. E. Kolbing, Ph.D. Part I. 10s. ,,
XLVII. The Wars of Alexander, ed. Rev. Prof. Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D. 20s. 1S86

XLVIII. SirBevis of Hamton, ed. Prof. E. Kolbing, Ph.D. Part II. 10s.

XLIX. Guy of Warwick, 2 texts (Auchinleck and Caius MSS.), Pt. II., ed. Prof. J. Zupitza, Ph.D. 15s. 1887
L. Charlemagne Romances : 12. Huon of Burdeux, by Lord Berners, ed. S. L. Lee, B.A. Part IV. 5s. ,,
LI. Torrent of Portyngale, from the unique MS. in the Chetham Library, ed. E. Adam, Ph.D. 10s. ,,

LIL Bullein's Dialogue againstthe Feuer Pestilence, 1578 (ed. 1, 1564). Ed. M. & A. H. Bullen. 10s. 1888
LIII. Vicary's Anatomie of the Body of Man, 1548, ed. 1577, ed. F. J. & Percy Furnivall. Part I. 15s. ,,
LIV. Caxton's Englishing of Alain Chartier's Curial, ed. Dr. F. J. Furnivall & Prof. P. Meyer. 5s. ,,

LV. Barbour's Bruce, ed. Rev. Prof. Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D. Part IV. 5s. 1889

LVI. Early English Pronunciation, by A. J. Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Pt. V., the present English Dialects. 25s. ,,
LVII. Caxton's Eneydos, A.D. 1490, coll. with its French, ed. M. T. Culley, M.A. & Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 13s. 1890
LVIII. Caxton's Blanchardyn & Eglantine, c. 1489, extracts from ed. 1595, & French, ed. Dr. L. Kellner. 1 7s. ,,
LIX. Guy of Warwick, 2 texts (Auchinleck and Caius MSS.), Part III., ed. Prof. J. Zupitza, Ph.D. 15s. 1891
LX. Lydgate's Temple of Glass, re-edited from the MSS. by Dr. J. Schick. 15s. ,,

LXI. Hoccleve's Minor Poems, I., from the Phillipps and Durham MSS., ed. F. J. Furnivall, Ph.D. 15s. 1892
LXII. The Chester Plays, re-edited from the MSS. by the late Dr. Hermann Deiniling. Part I. 15s. ,,

LXIII. Thomas a Kempis's De Imitatione Christi, englisht ab. 1440, & 1502, ed. Prof. J. K. Ingram. 15s. 1893
LXIV. Caxton's Godfrey of Boloyne, or Last Siege of Jerusalem, 1481, ed. Dr. Mary N. Colvin. 15s. ,,

LXV. Sir Bevis of Hamton, ed. Prof. E. Kolbing, Ph.D. Part III. 15s. 1894

LXVI. Lydgate's and Burgh's Secrees of Philisoffres. ab. 144550, ed. R. Steele, B.A. 15s.
LXVII. The Three Kings' Sons, a Romance, ab. 1500, Part I., the Text, ed. Dr. Furnivall. 10s. 1895

LXVIII. Melusine, the prose Romance, ab. 1500, Part I, the Text, ed. A. K. Donald. 20s.
LXIX. Lydgate's Assembly of the Gods, ed. Prof. Oscar L. Triggs, M.A., Ph.D. 15s. 1896

LXX. The Digby Plays, edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 15s. ,,

LXXI. The Towneley Plays, ed.Geo. England and A. W. Pollard, M.A. 15s. 1897

LXXII. Hoccleve's Regement of Princes, 1411-12, and 14 Poems, edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 15s.
LXXIII. Hoccleve's Minor Poems, II., from the Ashburnhnm MS., ed. I. Gollancz, M.A. [At Press.
LXXIV. Secreta Secretorum, 3 prose Englishings, by Jas. Yonge, 1428, ed. R. Steele, B.A. Part I. 20s. 1898
LXXV. Speculum Guidonis de Warwyk, edited by Miss G. L. Morrill, M.A., Ph.D. 10s.

LXXVI. George Ashby's Poems, &c , ed. Miss Mary Bateson. 15s. 1899

LXXVII. Lydgate's DeGuilleville's Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, 1426, ed. Dr. F. J. Furnivall. Part I. 10s. ,,
LXXVIII. The Life and Death of Mary Magdalene, by T. Robinson, c. 1620, ed. Dr. H. O. Sommer. 5s.
LXXIX. Caxton's Dialogues, English and French, c. 1483, ed. Henry Bradley, M.A. 10s. 1900

LXXX. Lydgate's Two Nightingale Poems, ed. Dr. Otto Glauning. 5s.
LXXXI. Gower's Confessio Amantis, edited by G. C. Macaulay, M.A. Vol. I. 15s.

LXXXII. Gower'a Confessio Amantis, edited by G. C. Macaulay, M.A. Vol.11. 15s. 1901

LXXXIII. Lydgate's DeGuilleville's Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, 1426, ed. Dr. F. J. Furnivall. Pt. II. 10s. ,,
LXXXIV. Lydgate's Reason and Sensuality, ed. Dr. E. Sieper. Part I. 5s.

LXXXV. Alexander Scott's Poems, 1568, from the unique Edinburgh MS., ed. A. K. Donald, B.A. 10s. 1902
LXXXVI. William of Shoreham's Poems, re-ed. from the unique MS. by Dr. M. Konrath. Part I. 10s. ,,
LXXXVII. Two Coventry Corpus- Christi Plays, re-edited by Hardin Craig, M.A. [At Press.
LXXXVIII. William of Shoreham's Poems, re-ed. from the unique MS. by Dr. M. Konrath. Part II. 1903

EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY TEXTS PREPARING.

Besides the Texts named as at press on p. 12 of the Cover of the Early English Text
Society's last Books, the following Texts are also slowly preparing for the Society:

ORIGINAL SERIES.

The Earliest English Prose Psalter, ed. Dr. K. D. Buelbring. Part II.

The Earliest English Verse Psalter, 3 texts, ed. Rev. R. Harvey, M.A.

Anglo-Saxon Poems, from the Vercelli MS., re-edited by I. Gollancz, M.A.

Anglo-Saxon Glosses to Latin Prayers and Hymns, edited by Dr. F. Holthausen.

All the Anglo-Saxon Homilies and Lives of Saints not accessible in English editions, including those of the

Vercelli MS. &c., edited by Prof. Napier, M.A., Ph.D.

The Anglo-Saxon Psalms ; all the MSS. in Parallel Texts, ed. Dr. H. Logeman and F. Harsley, B.A.
Beowulf, a critical Text, &c., edited by a Pupil of the late Prof. Zupitza, Ph.D.
Byrhtferth's Handboc, edited by Prof. G. Hempl.

The Seven Sages, in the Northern Dialect, from a Cotton MS., edited by Dr. Squires.
The Master of the Game, a Book of Huntynge for Hen. V. when Prince of Wales. (Editor wanted.)
Ailred's Rule of Nuns, &c., edited from the Vernon MS., by the Rev. Canon H. R. Bramley, M.A.
Lonelich's Merlin (verse), from the unique MS. in Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge. (Editor wanted.)
Early English Verse Lives of Saints, Standard Collection, from the Harl. MS. (Editor wanted.)

10 Works preparing for the "Early English Text Society.' 1 '

Early English Confessionals, edited by Dr. R. von Fleischhacker.

A Lapidary, from Lord Tollemache's MS., &c., edited by Dr. R. von Fleischhacker.

Early English Deeds and Documents, from unique MSS., ed. Dr. Lorenz Morsbach.

Gilbert Banastre's Poems, and other Boccaccio englishings, ed. by Prof. Dr. Max Forster.

Lanfranc's Cirurgie, ab. 1400 A.D., ed. Dr. R. von Fleischhacker, Part II.

William of Nassington's Mirror of Life, from Jn. of Waldby, edited by J. A. Herbert, M.A.

More Early English Wills from the Probate Registry at Somerset House'. ( Editor Wanted.}

Early Lincoln Wills and Documents from the Bishops' Registers, &c., edited by Dr. F. J. Furnivall.

Early Canterbury Wills, edited by William Cowper, B.A., and J. Meadows Cowper.

Early Norwich Wills, edited by Walter Rye and F. J. Furnivall.

The Cartularies of Oseney Abbey and Godstow Nunnery, englisht ab. 1450, ed. Rev. A Clark, M.A.

The Macro Moralities, edited from Mr. Gurney's unique MS., by Alfred W. Pollard. M.A.

Early Lyrical Poems from the Harl. MS. 2253. re-edited by Prof. Hall Griffin, M.A.

Alliterative Prophecies, edited from the MSS. by Prof, firandl, Ph. D.

Miscellaneous Alliterative Poems, edited from the MSS. by Dr. L. Morsbach.

Bird and Beast Poems, a collection from MSS., edited by Dr. K. D. Buelbring.

Scire Mori, &c., from the Lichfield MS. 16, ed. Mrs. L. Grindon, LL.A., and Miss Florence Gilbert.

Nicholas Trivet's French Chronicle, from Sir A. Acland-Hood's unique MS., ed. by Miss Mary Bateson.

Stories for Sermons, edited from the Addit. MS. 25,719 by Mrs. M. M. Banks.

Early English Homilies in Harl. 2276 &e., c. 1400, ed. J. Friedlander.

Extracts from the Registers of Boughton, ed. Hy. Littlehales, Esq.

The Diary of Prior Moore of Worcester, A.D. 1518-35, from the unique MS., ed. Henry Littlehales, Esq.

The Pore Caitif, edited from its MSS., by Mr. Peake.

EXTRA SERIES.

Bp. Fisher's English Works, Pt. II., with his Life and Letters, ed. Rev. Ronald Bayne, B.A. [At Press.

John of Arderne's Surgery, c. 1425, ed. J. F. Payne, M.D., and W. Anderson, F.R.C.S.

De Guilleville's Pilgrimage of the Sowle, edited by Prof. Dr. Leon Kellner.

Vicary's Anatomic, 1548, from the unique MS. copy by George Jeans, edited by F. J. & Percy Furnivall.

Vicary's Anatomic, 1548, ed. 1577, edited by F. J. & Percy Furnivall. Part II. [At Press.

A Compilacion of Surgerye, from H. de Mandeville and Lanfrank, A.D. 1392, ed. Dr. J. F. Payne.

William Staunton's St. Patrick's Purgatory, &c., ed. Mr. G, P. Krapp, U.S.A.

Trevisa'sBartholomseus de Proprietatibus Rerum, re-edited by Dr. R. von Fleischhacker.

Bullein's Dialogue against the Feuer Pestilence, 1564, 1573, 1578. Ed. A. H. and M. Bullen. Pt. II.

The Romance of Boctus and Sidrac, edited from the MSS. by Dr. K. D. Buelbring.

The Romance of Clariodus, re-edited by Dr. K. D. Buelbring.

Sir Amadas, re-edited from the MSS. by Dr. K. D. Buelbring.

Sir Degrevant, edited from the MSS. by Dr. K. Luick.

Robert of Brunne's Chronicle of England, from the Inner Temple MS., ed. by Prof. W. E. Mead, Ph.D.

Maundeville's Voiage and Travaile, re-edited from the Cotton MS. Titus C. 16, &c., by Miss M. Bateson.

Avowynge of Arthur, re-edited from the unique Ireland MS. by Dr. K. D. Buelbring.

Guy of Warwick, Copland's version, edited by a pupil of the late Prof. Zupitza, Ph.D.

Awdelay's Poems, re-edited from the unique MS. Douce 302, by Prof. Dr. E. Wiilfing.

The Wyse Chylde and other early Treatises on Education, Northwich School, Harl. 2099 .fee., ed. G. Collar, B.A.

Caxton's Dictes and Sayengis of Philosophirs, 1477, with Lord Tollemache's MS. version, ed. S. I. Butler, Esq.

Caxton's Book of the Ordre of Chyualry, collated with Loutfut's Scotch copy. (Editor wanted.)

Lydgate's Court of Sapience, edited by Dr. Borsdorf.

Lydgate's Lyfe of oure Lady, ed. by Prof. Georg Fiedler, Ph.D.

Lydgate's Dance of Death, edited by Miss Florence Warren.

Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, edited from the MSS. by Dr. Axel Erdinaun.

Lydgate's Triumph Poems, edited by Dr. E. Sieper.

Lydgate's Minor Poems, edited by Dr. Otto Glauning.

Richard Goer de Lion, re-edited from Harl. MS. 4690, by Prof. Hausknecht, Ph.D.

The Romance of Athelstan, re-edited by a pupil of the late Prof. J. Zupitza, Ph.D.

The Romance of Sir Degare, re-edited by Dr. Breul.

Mulcaster's Positions 1581. and Elementarie 1582, ed. Dr. Th. Klaehr, Dresden.

Walton's verse Boethius de Consolatione, edited by Mark H. Liddell, U.S.A.

The Gospel of Nichodemus, edited by Ernest Riedel.

Sir Landeval and Sir Launfal, edited by Dr. Zimmermann.

The Subscription to the Society, which constitutes membership, is 1 Is. a year for the ORIGINAL
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paid by Cheque, Postal Order, or Money-Order, crost 'Union Bank of London,' to the Hon. Secre-
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the cash for them in advance to the Hon. Secretary.

BERLIN : ASHEB & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN.
NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT.
PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

(A.D. 1446.)

EDITED FROM THE MSS.
WITH INTEODUCTION, NOTES, AND GLOSSARY

BY

OTTO GLAUNING, PH.D.

LONDON :

PUBLISHED FOE THE EAKLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY

BY KEGAN PAUL, TEENCH, TRUBNEE & CO., LIMITED,

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD.

1900

PR

1113

E5
to- 80

a

<*tra m, LXXX.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNOAY.

CONTENTS.

;... PAGE

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION :

1. THE TITLE xi

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE MSS xi

3. GENEALOGY AND CRITICISM OF THE TEXTS ... xvii

4. THE METRE ... ... ... ... ... xx

5. THE LANGUAGE ... ., xxvi

6. THE AUTHORSHIP xxxiv

7. THE DATE xxxvi

8. THE SOURCES ... ... ... ... ... xxxviii

9. CONCLUDING EEMARKS xlvi

THE FIRST POEM: THE NIGHTINGALE 1

THE SECOND POEM: A SAYENGE OF THE NYGHTYNGALE 16

NOTES 29

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 77

GLOSSARY.. 79

TO MY PARENTS.

Vll

PREFACE.

ABOUT two generations ago the works of Lydgate were very little
known even among scholars in Middle-English literature, and the
monk of Bury had little credit as a poet. 1 To the late Professor
Zupitza it is due that, in the second half of the nineteenth century,
more attention has been paid to the study of Lydgate's life and
works. About this first real period of Lydgate study, inaugurated
by the editor of Guy of Warwick, Professor Schick gives us a concise
account on pp. xii and xiii of the Introduction to his excellent edition
of the Temple of Glas. This fundamental work itself stands at the
end of this period ; and in it, for the first time, nothing has been
neglected which could give a vivid picture of Lydgate's life and
works as a whole ; and his qualities as a poet have found a more
favourable judgment than before.

The edition of the Temple of Glas has therefore served, in a way,
as a basis for all the following publications of works of Lydgate.

To give a brief account of the further progress made in the study
of Lydgate, I include in the following list all the editions of works
of the monk, published in this second period, as far as they have
come to my knowledge : 2

STEELE, Eobert, Lydgate and Burgh's Secrees of old Philisoffres. A
version of the ' Secreta Secretorum.' Edited from the Sloane
MS. 2464, with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. (Publica-
tions of the Early English Text Society, Extra Series, LXVI.)
London, 1894.

1 See Ritson's "this voluminous, prosaick, and driveling monk," and "in
truth, and fact, these stupid and fatigueing productions, which by no means
deserve the name of poetry, and their stil more stupid and disgusting author,
who disgraces the name and patronage of his master Chaucer, are neither worth
collecting (unless it be as typographical curiositys, or on account of the beauty-
ful illuminations in some of his presentation-copys), nor even worthy of pre-
servation: being only suitablely adapted 'adficum & piper em,' and other more
base and servile uses." Bibl. Poet. (1802), p. 87, 88.

2 Th. Arnold's publication of Lydgate's verses on Bury St. Edmunds was
not accessible to me.

viii Preface.

TRIGGS, Oscar Lovell, The Assembly of Gods : or The Accord of
Reason and Sensuality in the Fear of Death by John Lydgate.
Edited from the MSS. with Introduction, Notes, Index of
Persons and Places, and Glossary. (Publications of the Early
English Text Society, Extra Series, LXIX.) London, 1896.

KRAUSSER, Emil, Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight. Text
mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen. Inaugural-Dissertation zur
Erlangung der philosophischen Doctorwiirde der philosophi-
schen Fakultat der Universitat Heidelberg. [Sonderabdruck
aus Anglia, Bd. xix.] Halle a. S., 1896.

ROBINSON, Ered N., On two Manuscripts of Lydgate's Guy of
Warwick. Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature,
Vol. v. (Child Memorial Volume.) [Harvard University.]
Boston, 1896, pp. 177-220.

SCHLEICH, Gustav, Lydgate's Fabula duorum mercatorum. Aus dem
Nachlasse des Herrn Prof. Dr. I. Zupitza, Litt.D., nach samt-
lichen Handschriften herausgegeben. (Quellen und Forschungen
zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Volker.
LXXXIII.) Strassburg, 1897.

SKEAT, Walter W., Chaucerian and other pieces. Edited, from
numerous manuscripts. Being a supplement to the Complete
Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford, in six volumes, 1894).
Oxford, 1897. [No. 8 : The Complaint of the Black Knight.
No. 9 : The Flour of Curtesye. No. 10 : A Balade; in Com-
mendation of Our Lady. No. 11 : To my Soverain Lady.
No. 12 : Ballad of Good Counsel. No. 13 : Beware of Double-
ness. No. 14 : A Balade : Warning Men to beware of deceitful
Women. No. 15 : Three Sayings. No. 22 : A Goodly Balade.
No. 23 : Go forth, King.]

HAMMOND, Eleanor P., London Lickpenny in Anglia, xx (1898), p.
404 ff. Halle, 1898.

HAMMOND, Eleanor P., Lydgate's Mumming at Hertford in Anglia,
xxii (1899), p. 364 ff. Halle, 1899.

FURNIVALL, F. J., The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, Englisht by
John Lydgate, A.D. 1426, from the French of Guillaume de
Deguileville, A.D. 1335. Edited . . . Parts I and II (Publica-
tions of the Early English Text Society, Extra Series, LXXVII.
LXXXIII). London, 1899, 1900. 1

DEGENHART, Max, Lydgate's Horse, Goose, and Sheep. Mit Einleit-
1 Part II was not accessible to me.

Preface. ix

ung und Anmerkungen herausgegeben. (Miinchener Beitrage zur
Eomanischen und Englischen Philologie. Heft xix.) Erlangen
und Leipzig,' 1900.

BROTANEK, Rudolf, Die Englischen Maskenspiele. (Wiener Beitrage
zur Englischen Philologie xv.) Wien, 1902.

With the exception of the Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, for the
edition of which the students of Middle-English language and litera-
ture are infinitely obliged to the labour of Dr. Furnivall, the larger
works of the monk still 1 have to wait for critical or even handy
editions. Of some of the so-called Minor Poems some accurate
editions have been published, as we have mentioned ; for the rest
the student has still to recur to the edition by Halliwell, which has
now turned out to be insufficient for modern researches. Therefore
I have not looked upon it as a superfluous task to undertake, with
Dr. Furnivall's approbation, a new edition of Lydgate's Minor Poems
in critical texts for the Early English Text Society, of which the
present two poems are to be the first part.

The pleasant, if somewhat difficult task now remains to me to
discharge, in this short space, a heavy weight of indebtedness for
much kind help received in the course of my work, an agreeable
duty, recalling, as it does, much pleasant intercourse not only with
books, but with men.

I wish to express my gratitude to the authorities and attendants
of the British Museum, the Bodleian, and the University Libraries
in Cambridge and Leiden, and to the librarians of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, and Corpus Christi and Pembroke College, Cam-
bridge, for having kindly given me access to their treasures. I also
wish to thank very cordially Dr. Furnivall and Mr. Jenkinson for
much help in my work, and especially for great personal kindness.

Dr. Furnivall, and Miss Annie F. Parker of Oxford, have been
kind enough to oblige me very much by reading the proofs of the
texts with the manuscripts.

In more than one respect I have to acknowledge my deep
indebtedness to Professor S chick : not only do I thank him for his
continued personal interest in this work, but also for his suggestive
teaching; the influence of both will be noticed everywhere throughout
the following pages.

1 November 1901.

Munich, February 1902.

1. The Title. 2. Description of the MSS. xi

INTRODUCTION.

1. THE TITLE.

THERE is but little to be said about the titles of our poems, as
there are but slight differences to be stated. MS. c has the title :
The nightyngale, supplied by a later hand ; its running title is also :
The nyghtynghale. As this running title is in the same handwriting
as the poem itself, we may conclude that it is the original title.
MS. C shows the title in a modern hand : The Nightingale by lohn
Lidgate. MS. H got its title from Stowe : it runs : A sayenge of
the nyghtyngale ; and in MS. A we find, again in the old chronicler's
hand : Here folowinge begynneth a sayenge of \e nightingalle Imagened
and cumpyled by daune lohn Lidgate, munke of Berye. 1 Therefore
the first poem may be christened : The Nightingale, the second :
A Sayenge of the Nyghtyngale.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE MSS.

A. FIRST POEM.
1. MS. Cotton Caligula A. II = c.

London, British Museum ; see Catal. Cotton MSS., p. 42. 2
Compare also Furnivall, Percy's Fol. MS., II, p. 411; Sarazin,
Octavian (Altenglische Bibliothek, III), p. ix ff. ; Kaluza, Libeaus
Desconnus (Altenglische Bibliothek, V), p. ix ; Gough, On the Middle
English Metrical Romance of Emare, Kiel, 1900, p. 1 ff. Paper
book in 4 ; date : second half of the xvth cent. Kaluza, p. ix,
says : " C. Cott. Calig. A. II, eine Papierhandschrift aus der Eegie-
rungszeit Heinrich's VI. Furnivall (Percy's Fol. MS., II, p. 411)
setzt sie in das lahr 1460; sie gehort aber wohl noch in das 2.
Viertel des 15. lahrhunderts." I do not think that this state-
ment quite hits the mark, and should prefer Dr. FurmvaH's opinion.
Our poem extends from fol. 59a-64a (formerly fol. 57a-62a);

This reads like a copy of one of John Shirley's titles.

2 There is a mistake in this catalogue : the Christian name of Hoveden is
"lohn," not "Sam." (D. N. B. xxvii, 427 a, ff.).

xii 2. Description of the MSS.

fol. 1-139 of the MS. are in one handwriting. The title, supplied
by a later hand, is : The nightyngale ; the running title on fol. 59 b,
605, 61 b, 62 b, 63 & the same, with slight variations in spelling;
fol. 60 a, 62 a, 63 a, 64 a are without running title. On fol. 61 a
the first line of that page (1. 155), with exception of the last word, is
found once more on the top of the page in a very bad handwriting.
The colophon runs : Amen . ; . Explicit. With few exceptions, we
find capitals at the beginnings of the lines, and they are illuminated
in red. The stanzas are marked by a certain sign on the margin.
In the index of the MS. we read : Another poeme intitled the
nigJitingall.

The abbreviations are quite clear and in conformity with the
common usage ; the scribe only shows some inconsistency in using n
with a curl. In Romance words 1 ending in -on, this curl is generally
meant for -oun; as in derisioiin 309, confusioiin 311, consecracioiin
405, sauacioiin 406, that is to say, when the stress is laid on the
ending. Then, the vowel is the same as in : doun 64, 80, 126, 276,
279, 290, 339, 395, soun 66, croun 312, where n with curl is always
shown. If, however, the ending is unaccented, and the vowel
therefore shortened, the scribe expresses the difference by writing :
seson 22, 28, 35, 58, re"son 24, 60, 117, 317, encheson 61, pardon
228. This system is often violated ; not only do we find lesofi 39,
lamentacion 163, passion 328, compassion 372 with curled rc, but the
scribe also applies the overline in words where he is not authorized
in the least to do it, as in don (p.p.) 148, 382, born 156, 313, thorn
312, mon 350. I have therefore expanded this abbreviation only
in the first class of cases ; in the rest I have marked it by a stroke
above the n = n.

The scribe has very few peculiarities in his spelling, and the
poem in general shows an orthography not very much differing from
the standard of Chaucer's spelling. We find a predilection for II?
not only in the Latin ending -al: mortall 77, morall 109, originall
142, celestyall 145, speciall 176, 327, etc., eternall 413; but in
other words too: sotell 136, appell 151, pepyll 152, purpull 310,
Eysell 368. Other consonants are not generally found in doubled
form, though we have always : myddes 99, 339, 340, etc. Instead
of the original spirant we find the media in : Wheder 38, 127, oder
124, 291 ; de 19 may be due to the assimilating power of the

1 Compare Schick, T. G., p. Ixi.

2 See Morsbach, Mittelenglische Grammatik, p. 40, Anm. 2.

2. Description of the MSS. xiii

preceding d, or it is a mere carelessness of the scribe. y occurs as a
consonant, representing O.E. palatal 3, in: yaf 61, 389, Ayen 130,
226, 402, Yevyng 194, yate 325; prosthetic in "yerth" 123, 384,
395. There are only a few cases where we find i (y) for e in
endings: 1 hertis 21, 62, bemys 391; banyshid 383; wyntyr 27,
aftir 92, 265, etc. ; pepyll 152. The scribe always writes : be
(= by) 22, 23, 35, 39, etc.; whech 46, 88, 91, etc.; Thenk (60),
139, 153, etc. ; besy 353. n and I are not unfrequently omitted: con-
ny[n]ge 112, begynny[n]g 121, wor[l]dly 132, 153, wor[l]de 162, etc.

2. MS. Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 203 = C.

Oxford, Library of Corpus Christi College ; see Coxe, Cat. Cod.
MSS. in Coll. Aul. Oxon. II. On vellum, small 8 ; date : second
half of the xvth century. Our poem begins on p. 1, ends on p. 21,
and is written throughout by the same scribe, though it is not
likely that the whole was finished at once. There is no title by the
hand of the scribe, nor any running title. At the end stands :
Amen. Explicit. The index at the beginning, in recent handwriting,
has : The Nightingale. By lohn Lydgate. Ded. to the Duchesse of
Buckingham i. e. Anne, daughter of Ralph Nevill first Earle of
Westmerland, wife of Humfrey Stafford, created Duke, of Buck,
1444. (See 7.) Below : ProverUum Scogan, 2 p. 22. Pro-
verbium R. Stockys? p. 23. Ext. under Chaucers Name among
his Workes, f. 335. b. b. Middle of the page : Henry Duke of
Warwick, p. 17. dyed 1446. At the bottom of the page : Liber
Collegii Corporis Christi Oxon Ex dono Gulielmi Fulman* A. M.
hujus Collegii quondam Socii. These last lines are of still later date.

There are no initials in the MS., and at the beginning of the
lines capitals are generally used. On p. 1, which is badly injured
by dirt, we find a Latin invocation of the Virgin Mary : Assit
principio sancta Maria meo. Amen. Then follows a short prose
treatise, in which the contents of the poem are given by the scribe,
as I think, not by Lydgate himself, judging from its incorrectness
(compare 8). At the beginning an initial was to be inserted,
probably by the hand of the illuminator, but was forgotten after-
wards. The introduction and the first two stanzas are, in our

1 See Schick, T. O., p. Ixv, note 3.

a See Ritson, B. P., p. 97-98 ; D. N. B. li, p. 1 ; Kittredge in Notes and
Studies in Philology and Literature 1. (Harvard University) Boston, 1892, p.
109 ff.

3 See Ritson, B. P., p. 106. 4 See D. N. B. xx, p. 326 ff.

xiv 2. Description of the MSS.

edition, taken from this MS., as they are not found in MS. c. But
from st. 3 onwards, the Caligula MS. has been preferred as basis
(see 3). 11. 299 and 300 are transposed in this MS. In 1. 335
" hen(ne)," 1. 336 the e of " whenn(e) " is cut down in binding, and
1. 399 " shede " is illegible.

Some of the most conspicuous orthographic and phonetic peculi-
arities of the scribe are the following. The voiceless s is given as
88: Assendyth iv, gesse 86, blessyd 259, or sc : sentensce 12, sensce
16, Ascendyng 26, or c : secyth 37, or s : persed 52, perse 138, con-
seyte 60 (Schleich, Fabula, p. liii). About ' noresynge ' 30, compare
ten Brink, 112; about ' sclepe ' 29, 35, 44, etc. (but < slepe '
118), 'sclowth' 57, 'scle' 161, etc., compare Yarnhagen in Anglia,
Anzeiger, vii (1884), p. 86-91. w often occurs as a second consti-
tuent in diphthongs (?), representing O.E. d or O.Fr. u : trowblos 48,
owre (= hour) 78, 86, (= our) 264, Abowte 105, fownde 108,
nowmbere 125, downe 126, etc. Compare: sclowth 57, trowth
374 ; revth 344 ; ruthe 372. Twice, w is put instead of v : Awayll
76, concewe 134. c occurs for g in: can 25, 136, 308, canne 54,
neclygence 65. J> occurs in: J>u 156, fat 394. y as a consonant,
representing O.E. palatal 3, in: yaf 61, 389, yeuynge 194, Ayene
226, 402 ; prosthetic in : yerth 348, 384, 395, yeke 402.

The scribe shows a great predilection for putting i or y for e
in endings: myddys viii, ourys xi; declaryd 17, secyth 37, boryn
156, etc. ; lityll 1, wyntyre 27, Whedyre 38, opyn 100, etc. Besides
we find: this (= thus) 28, 178, thys 169, ych (= each) 143 (vche
236), fynde (= fiend) 353, thyn (== then) 388. Less frequently
than i or y we find u in endings instead of e : murthus 74, clowdus
94, bemus 391; owuthe 116; vndurstondefi xii, ffadure xiii, remem-
bure 119, Appull 151, pepull 152. In some cases a special flourish
is used for abbreviating the ending -us, as in galantus 11, hertus
21, 62, kalendus 45, boffettus 255. hure i, ii, iv, 5, 6, 39, hur 4,
etc., but hyre 7, 10, hyr 8, 9, etc. e for i: a., in unaccented syllables :
mescheue 137, orygenall 142, rightwesnesse 204, consydrenge 234;
yef 177, yeff 196, hes (= his) 410 ; &., in accentuated syllables : leue
168, 384, leueste 172. ' perseue ' 67, conceuede ' 68, ' concewe ' 134
on one side, and 'deceyve' 136 on the other are no peculiarities
of the scribe, but the representatives of the O.Fr. double forms :
' concevons ' : stress on the ending, and ' conce"if ' : stress on the stem.

As in MS. c, the scribe fairly often has a flourish above n. A
glance at the following examples will justify my reproducing it as in

2. Description of the MSS. xv

MS. c : swan iii, doura viii, crystyn x, passyorw xi, vndurstonden
xii, man xiv, Ascencyone xviii, etc.

Moreover, we find that the scribe sometimes omits single letters :
lame[n]table v, An[d] x, 155, 349, rygh[t] 59, Eygh[t] 63, etc.,
ffe[r]thyre 85, wor[l]de 121, etc.

B. SECOND POEM.
1. MS. Harleian 2251 = H.

London, British Museum ; see Catal. MSS. Harl., II, p. 578,
581, and 582. A paper book in small fol. ; Foerster, Herrig's Archiv,
ciii, p. 149 ff., dates it 1459, from internal evidence. This MS.
was always 1 considered to be written by Shirley's hand, till Foerster
in the article mentioned above proved that this opinion was erroneous.
Our poem, in one handwriting, is found on fol. 229 a-234 b (formerly
fol. 255 a-260 b). The title, in the hand of Stowe, the historian,
runs: A sayenge of the nyghtyngale. No running title. At the
end we read : Of this Balade Dan lohn Lydgate made nomore.
At the beginning, there is an initial in red and blue ; the headings
of the lines generally begin with capitals, which are illuminated
with red. There is no index in the MS. 1. 236 is omitted.

There are dots marking the csesural pause. I think they teach
us nothing, as they are put in very arbitrarily by the scribe e. g.
1. 8 after: forsoth, 1. 9 : song, 1. 31 : hem, 1. 36 : herde, 1. 87 : doo,
1. 97 : dide, 1. 218 : me, so I do not reproduce them or take them
into consideration when dealing with the metre.

Of the peculiarities of Shirley (see above and 3), mentioned
by Furnivall, Odd Texts, p. 78, and Schick, T. G., p. xxiii, we
find here but: uw for ew : -huwed 2, nuwe 15, suwen 163. Other
peculiarities of the scribe are : * (y) for e in endings : fowlis 4,
stems 38, grassis 39, briddis 55, 59, 64, handis 114; meanyth 56,
82, takith 65, 83, Betokenyth 66, Shakith 74, qwakyth 74 ; callid
25, 333, blessyd 127, 143, 249, 364, pressid 154, offendid 213;
gardyn 53, 340, etc.; also: hym (= hem) 117, 282, etc. ie for e
(Schleich, Fabula, p. xxxv) occurs in: bien 17, 29, 106, 362,
cliere 36, 252, 284, 362, chiere 46, fieble 186; triewe 69 (17, 56,
80). w as a vowel (Schleich, Fabula, p. xlv) : twnes 36, 58, etc. ;
as the second element of a diphthong in : Emerawdes 34. Very

1 e. g. Cat. ffarl. MSS. II, p. 578 ; Morley, English Writers, v, p. 148 note ;
Skeat, Chaucer, I, p. 57; D. N. B. Iii, p. 134 a; Steele, Sccrecs, p. xi; Schleich,
Fabula, p. I.

NIGHTINGALE. b

xvi 2. Description of the MSS.

often consonants appear in doubled form: bridde 20, 51, 71,
langwisshyng 29, 1 Cherissh 30, 1 Castell 32, allone 48, 160, etc.

2. Additioiml MS. 29729 = A.

London, British Museum; see Gatal. Addit. MSS. On paper,
small fol., in the handwriting of Stowe; date 1558 (see Catal.
Index). Our poem extends from fol. 161 a-166a. The title runs :
Here folowinge begyjineth a sayenge of j?e nightingalle Imagened and
cumpyled by daune lolm Lidgate, munke of Berye. There are no
running title, no colophon, no initials; capitals are also rare and
without system. On the title-page of the MS. we read : Daune
Lidigate morike of Burye, Ms Woorkes, supplied below, by a later
hand: written by Stowe.

According to fol. 179 a of the MS. (compare also Schick, T. G.,
p. xix), the MS. is a copy by Stowe from Shirley, therefore we are
not surprised to find some cases where the peculiarities of the
original spelling are preserved (see Schick, T. G., p. xxiii) : uw for
ew: -huwed 2, truwe 30, 69, huwe 121. e- for y- in the p.p. in:
eblent 130, emeynt 137, elefft 220. There are many examples
which still show Shirley's predilection for ff (see p. xii 2 ), though
it is possible that these may be due to the same predilection of
Stowe's, as we find an exceedingly large number of cases where other
consonants too (see below) are doubled without any apparent reason :
/in: sauffe 10, yff 50, 77, 207, theffe 102, lifft 103, cheffe 246,
251, etc., off 252, 312, soffte 264, lyffe 342, contemplative 343.

Other peculiarities are : i or y in endings for e : grasys 39,
thevys 174; pressin 152, pressyd 154, forsakyne 170, spokyn 202,
bonchyd 206, -percyd 210, blessyd 249, clepyd 257, makid 298;
gardin (gardyn) 53, 340, etc. Notice : pardy 24, maundy 248.
a for e before r: evar 159, 178, nevar 172, 179. w as a vowel,
occurs in: nwe 123, (but newe 15), endwre 181, wnkynd 182;
emerawdes 34. Not without interest for the date of the MS. is the
changing of d and th in the words : moder 162, mother 257, fader
259, fathers 274, and also the forms of the pronouns (see 5).
Of the doubled consonants, II occurs in the largest number of
examples : dalle 9, nightingalle 11, allone 48, -sellfe 72, etc., chaun-
dellabre 320, mortall 352, crystall 362, etc. tt in: grett 67, 88,
etc., fett 114, 283, Pylatt 138, -outten 179, etc. The pron. possess,
fern, occurs as : her 13, 36, hur 15, 16, 23, hir 37, 62, 73, hyr 83,
1 See Schleich, Fdbula, p. li; ten Brink, 112 a.

3. Genealogy and Criticism of the Texts. xvii

etc. Compare: eghen 108, egghen 130, eghe 177, eyen 194.
Obvious mistakes are seen in : dedemcyon (for : redemcyon) 284,
assay[l]e 308; about 'chayne' (?) 318, compare the note to that
line.

3. GENEALOGY AND CRITICISM OF THE TEXTS.
I. The MSS. c and C.

The text of the first poem is handed down to us in fairly good
condition, as the two MSS. do not generally differ much from each
other, so that we may say with certainty that both go back to a
common original. But notwithstanding the general coincidence,
they cannot either of them have been derived directly from the
other :

1. c cannot be derived from C, because, though there is no very
remarkable difference in the date, c is certainly the elder of the two,
and, moreover, C has a very long list of its own individual faults,
where c has the better reading :

40. mervell c] merevell hit C. 42. mery] om. 71. is] om.
81. endure shall] enduryth. 90. song] schange. 95. enlumyned]
enlewmyde. 106. of] to. 115. cristen-man] kyrsten manes. 128.
fall] schall. 129. the] the rygh. 139. thi-self] they-selfe. 165.

With] With the. 166. byddeth the] by the. 173. these] this.

202. age] cm. 212. Noght] How. 236. vn-to] in-to. 277. syng-
yng] syngnified. 280. in] om. 299, 300] transposed in C. 302.
youre] cure. 314. Vnto] Vpon. 323. Ye] The. 331. peple] pepull
that. 333. hym to] to hym. 369. crym] tyme. 385. all] Allso.

2. C is independent of c, because the first two stanzas are missing
in c. The prose treatise at the beginning in C, being not by the
poet, but probably by the scribe (see 8), may be a special foreword
to C, and independent of the form in which the poem may have
circulated. Farther, though the scribe of C is not a very careful
man, C offers in some cases the preferable reading, where c is wrong,
though it is not at all likely that the careless scribe of C corrected
these errors :

130. quert C] quarte c. 150. Anone] or none. 222. Ley] Ley
that. 233. aswaged was] was aswaged. 243. redy is] ys redy the.
257. of] of pite &. 270,-Restreyne] Restreyned. 283. To] The.
314. peynes] peynes, calde. 339. avale] a-vaile. 348. in] in a.
374. all] om.

xviii 3. Genealogy and Criticism of the Texts.

We hence conclude that c and C go back, to a common original
MS. X, which is lost, but probably through the medium of a MS.
Z. As arguments, we can bring forward that, roughly speaking,
both versions exhibit the same wording, and that some peculiarities
in spelling e. g. i (y) for e in endings are found in both MSS. in
the same places. Considering that c has mostly the better reading,
we may even be allowed to suppose that C is not a direct copy from
MS. Z, but from an intermediate MS. Y which has also been lost.

X

II. The MSS. H and A.

The case here is very much the same as in the foregoing
paragraph. The nearly complete parallelism of the text, which on
the whole is well preserved, forces us to assume a common original ;
the more, when we consider that certain more or less delicate traces
of the peculiarities in the original spelling are preserved in both
MSS. But here also the two MSS. are independent of each other.

1. H cannot be derived from A, because it is just a hundred
years older than the other. Besides, A shows a certain number of
individual readings, which are not found in H.

2. westward H] estwarde A. 6. taughtfe]] taught tho. 20. sle]
sleth. 23. theyr] hur. 30. affectiouii] affectyons. 43. that] om.
58. herdest] haddest. 63. to encres] tencresse them. 65. the] om.
115. in] of. 118. an] om. 131. and] and to. 155. is] is I. 165.
diden flee] dyd wend. 230. grete] om. 273. rayle] ryall. 281.
kyndenesses] kyndnes. 282. the[e]] om. 284. a] om. 295. palme]
pallis. 299. key] kepe. 318. Tau] chayne. 329. thurgh] ouer.
354. Callyng] called. 362. thaleys] paleys.

3. Nor can A come from H : the peculiarities of Shirley's spelling
are better preserved in A than in H ; 1. 236 is omitted in H ; further
A sometimes has the better reading than H.

4. in A] om. H. 62. fyry] fayre. 103. and] at. 144. can]
om. 153. and] and the. 202. heringe of tales] tales heryng.
224. them] om. 232. heued] om. 236. om. H. 302. ascencyon]

3. Genealogy and Criticism of the Texts. xix

Kedempcioun. 313. whoo] om. 344. For] ffrom. 346. Is] It is.
351. fat] om.

It is impossible to believe that A in these cases should have, of
itself, found the true reading, considering the long list of inferiorities
above, where A always ranks secondarily to H. At last, two in
themselves insignificant faults of A seem to me very interesting.
1. 334 A writes: palegorye, whereas H has: the Allegorye ; again,
in 1. 362 A : paleys, H thaleys. I think it is evident that Stowe
would not have misread H, but he must have had a MS. before him,
where the old J> was used : now ]? is one of Shirley's predilections.

III. The MSS. taken as bases.

The foregoing discussion of the genealogy of the MSS. has
proved that, 1. in both cases we have not the original; 2. in each
case which of the MSS. is preferable : In c and H the number of
better readings outweighs the faults ; moreover, both are older than
C and A, so I took them as the bases of my texts.

The introduction and the first two stanzas of the c-version are
taken from C, not being found in c. I need not say that I profited
by C and A to correct the errors of c and H.

Every deviation from the MSS. taken as bases is indicated.
Square brackets are used to supply omissions of words, syllables, and
letters. Where it was not possible to use brackets, I marked the
altered word, or the first of a group of words, by an asterisk. In all
cases the reading of c or H is each time noted at the bottom of the
page. Abbreviations are expanded in the usual way (italics) ; about
n compare 2 ; underlined proper names in H are printed in
heavy type. Various readings of C and A, so far as they represent
variations of meaning, are given at the bottom of the page. Mere
orthographical or phonetic variations of no interest are neglected, the
peculiarities of the scribes being discussed at large in 2. About
the caesural pause, compare Description of MS. H, p. xv above.
The tags to d, f, g, r are not printed.

The entire punctuation is mine./ 1 , at the beginning of the
lines, is replaced by F. As it is often very difficult to say whether
the letter standing in the MS. is a capital or not, I have introduced
capitals regularly at the beginning of a line, and in proper names.
The indefinite article, certain adverbs, or other short words are often
joined to the word following them ; these I have separated. On
the contrary, words separated by the scribe are joined by hyphens.

xx 4. The Metre.

4. THE METRE. ,

"In many cases it is, hoivever, impossible to classify a line ..."

Schick, T. G., p. lix.

1. Structure of the Verse.

The metrical form of the poems is the Rhyme Royal (Schipper,
Englische Metrik, I, 196; Schick, T. G., p. liv), seven-line
stanzas of five-beat lines, with the sequence of rhymes a b a b b c c.
In the first poem we find st. 34 with the sequence ababbac', in
the second one st. 18 and st. 54 are six-line stanzas with the rhymes
a b a b c c; st. 20 is an eight-line stanza with a b a b b b c c.

Following Prof. Schick's system in his T. G., p. Ivii ff., we have
five varieties of verse.

Type A. " The regular type, presenting five iambics, to which,
as to the other types, at the end an extra syllable may be added.
There is usually a well-defined caesura after the second foot, but not
always"

I. Poem.

15. Commandyng the/m // to here wyth tenderne"sse

17. Whos songe and deth // declared is expresse

19. But notheles // considred the sentence

21. And fleschly lust // out of theyre hertis chace

23. In prime-tens // renoueled yere be yere

40. Gret mervell is // the enduryng of hir throte.

Of such entirely regular lines we have 133. Besides, I read as
of type A 98 lines where the -e in the caesura was surely dropped
in Lydgate's time, especially before vowels ; compare Krausser,
Complaint, p. 14, and 0. Bischoff, Englische Studien, xxv, p. 339 :

8. Vn-t6 the tyme // hyr ladyly goodnesse

9. Luste for to call // vn-to hyr high presence
41. That her to here // it is a second heuen
49. But, as god wold, // in hast y was Releued

56. Me calde ande sayde : // " A-wake & Ryse, for shame
67. For to perceyue // with all my diligence.

In the following examples the caesura presents a particular

interest :

Usual caesura after the arsis of the 1. measure : 11. 73, 297. 1
Lyric caesura after the thesis of the 3. measure : 11. 45, 46, 74,

108, 121, 129, etc. = 37 lines.

3 For the usual caesura after the arsis of the 2. measure : see the two classes
of regular lines above.

4. The Metre. xxi

Usual caesura after the arsis of the 3. measure: 11. 12, 16-, 32,
60, 84, 86, etc. = 20 lines.

Lyric caesura after the thesis of the 4. measure : 11. 53, 314, 341.

Without apparent caesura : 11. 3, 47, 48, 52, 54, 57, etc. = 20
lines.

To sum up, we have in the first Poem 133 + 98 + 82 = 313
lines of type A, or 7 6 '5 per cent, of all the lines.

II. Poem.

Entirely regular lines : 85 examples.

Regular lines with mute -e in the caesura : 79 examples.

Usual caesura after the 1. measure : 1. 72.

Lyric caesura after the thesis of the 2. measure : 11. 66, 106.

[Usual caesura after the arsis of the 2. measure : all the regular
lines.]

Lyric caesura after the thesis of the 3. measure: 11. 1, 4, 6, 13,
17, etc. = 81 lines.

Usual caesura after the arsis of the 3. measure : 11. 221, 286,
317, 351.

Without cassura: 11. 68, 115, 177, 180.

Together 85 + 79 + 92 = 256 lines of the type A or 68
per cent.

Type B. "Lines with the trochaic caesura, built like the pre-
ceding, but ivith an extra-syllable before the caesura"

I. Poem.

26. Phebiis ascendyng, // clere schynyng in hys spere
28. And lusty seson // thus newly reconciled
35. Whych in her seson // be slepfe] set no tale
39. Redly rehersyng // her leson ay be rote
65. Expelling clerly // all wilfle negligence
71. Ande in Aurora, // that is the morowe gray.
65 lines = 15 -5 per cent.

The following 3 lines present special difficulties, wherefore I give
them scanned:

[4. The Duches of Bdkyngham, 1 // and 6f hur excellence]
30. Vnt6 the nourishing // of euer^ creature 2
251. Remembryng specially // vp6n this 6ure of prime.

1 Compare Shakspere's Buckingham = Bucknam.

2 Schleich, Fabula, 1. 27 ; Krausser, Complaint, 1. 59.

xxii 4. The Metre.

II. Poem: 39 lines = 10 per cent.

Type C. " The peculiarly Lydgatian type, in ichich the thesis is
wanting in the ccesura, so that two accented syllables clash together."

I. Poem.

31. With-oute whech // braynes must be mad
34. Meueth to wach, // as the nyghtingale
85. Till that hyt drogh // forther of the day

122. Ande how grete g6d, // of his endles myght

123. Hath heven ande yerth // f6rmed with a th6ght
127. Hygh or loVe, // wheder-so-euer thow be.

21 lines = 5 per cent.
II. Poem. 44 lines = 12 per cent.

Compare the amount of this type in The Complaint of the Black
Knight, 1402-3 = 10 per cent.

Temple of Glas, 1403 = 3-5 per cent.

Hors, Goose, and Sheep, 1436-40 = 6'2 per cent.

Nightingale, I. Poem, 1446 = 5 per cent.

Nightingale, II. Poem, ? = 12 per cent.

Type D. " The acephalous or headless line, in which the first
syllable has been cut off, thus leaving a monosyllabic first measure"

I. Poem.

22. Meued of C6rage // be vertu of the seson

24. Gladyng euery hert // of veray reson

33. Excepte tho6 // that kyndely nature
131. Saue thy soule, // or elles shalt thou smerte
146. Crist, consyderyng // the gret captyuyte
254. Pounce Pylat^ // that luge was of the lawe.

11 lines = 2*5 per cent.
With epic caesura (as in type B) : 4 examples.
With usual caesura after the arsis of the 2. measure : 6 examples.
With usual caesura after the arsis of the 3. measure : 1. 24.

II. Poem. 38 lines = 10 per cent.
With epic caesura (as in type B) : 4 examples.
With usual caesura after the arsis of the 2. measure : 16 examples.
With lyric caesura after the thesis of the 3. measure : 18 examples.
Type E. " Lines with a trisyllabic first measure"
Lines of this type occur but in the I. Poem 3 = 0'5 per cent.
4. See type B.
13. Of the nyghtyngale, // and in there mynde enbrace

4. The Metre. xxiii

113. Be this nyghtingale, // that thus freshly can.

The following list will show the proportion of the types in both

poems :

I. Poem. II. Poem.

Type A 76*5 per cent. 68 per cent.

B 15-5 10

j, C 5 ,, 12 ,,

D 2-5 10

,, E 0-5

The proportion of the different kinds of caesuras is as follows :

I. Poem. II. Poem.

Usual caesura 68 per cent. 60 per cent.

Epic 17 12

Lyric 10 27

Caesura wanting 5 1 ,.

Compare Krausser, Complaint, p. 16, 17, and Degenhart, HOTS,
p. 35. Some lines exhibit the peculiarities of two types at the same
time, as in the first poem 1. 4 of B and E, 1. 113 of C and E and 1.
127 of C and D ; in the second 1. 83 also of C and D.

Inverted accent is found in the first poem in 29 lines (7 per cent.)
and in the second in 37 lines (10 per cent.); again 24 (= 83 per
cent.) of those 29 lines have it in their first measure, of the 37 lines
of the second poem 25 or 70 per cent, have it at their very beginning.
Double thesis may nearly always be read by slurring over without
injuring the flow. The one line 251 of the first poem makes an
exception, and perhaps 11. 195, 197 : Fro morow to nyght . . .

The absence of thesis I observed in 11. 38, 397 of the first poem.

Hiatus is very often found. In the c-version in 81 lines, in the
H-version in 65 lines.

Synizesis, elision, syncope, etc. also occur very often in both
poems. I only mention, as being of particular interest, 11. 137, 138
of the second poem: This is he . . . = This' he; comp. Schick,
T. G., p. lix; Krausser, Complaint, p. 15, 1. 241.

Slight traces of alliterative traditions also occur in our poems
(compare ten Brink, 334 ff.; McClumpha, The Alliteration of
Chaucer. Diss. Leipzig. 1888; Triggs, Assembly, p. xx ; Krausser,
Complaint, pp. 17, 18; Morrill, Speculum Gy de Warewyke, p.
cxlvii). However, I rather doubt that any system is to be observed ;
only poetical formulas like the following ones may have been used
by Lydgate more or less intentionally :

c : Eedly rehersyng 39, melodiouse and mery 42, slombre-bed of

xxiv 4. The Metre.

slouth & sleep 57, my myrthes ande my melodye 74 (104), to hyrt
then hele 154, vice ande vertu 214, bareyne . . . and bare 245, salf
thy sore 319, woo or wele 320, soth to say 341, bemys bright
391, etc.

H : Rowes Rede 3, downe nor daale 9, notes mi we 15, ful fay re
and fressh 46, Bathed in bloode 136, rekeii or remembre 189, shoone
so sheene 194, poynaunt as poysouii 201, Beten and bonched 206,
sores for to sounde 268, trouble and tribulaciouii 347, calle and crye
356, etc.

2. The Rhyme,
a. Quality of the Rhymes.

Most of the rhymes we find are pure, so that they would agree
with Chaucer's system. Therefore I have taken this as the standard,
and confine myself to pointing out only the differences. In both
poems we find some peculiarities such as occur in Lydgate's works
(Schick, T. G., p. Ix).

p- and o-rhymes (ten Brink, 31 ; Bowen in Englische Studien,
xx, p. 341) :

Inc: don 148 (p.p. O.E. $ed6n), Anqne 150 (O.E. onan).

In H: also, 366 (O.E. ealswa), herto 368 (O.E. her-to).

Doubtful is the rhyme : stoole 141 (KE. stole), stoole 143 (KE.
stool). The first stoole is Lat. stola (OTO\T)); O.E. stole is, I sup-
pose, not absolutely impossible (compare coc : coquum, scol : scola,
etc.), but modern English stole = sto u l. Kluge in Paul's Grundriss,
i. 931, has stole, Sweet, Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, stole.
The second stoole is surely O.E. stol.

- and e-rhymes :

In c: natiuite 160, sl 161 (inf., O.E. slean); Trinite 289, thre
291 (O.E. ]>reb), Se? 292 (O.E. s&).

In H: free 328 (O.E. freo), See 329 (O.E. sie).

In c, the rhyme here 111, 344 (inf., O.E. heran) were 112 (opt.
pt., O.E. wsere) and were 346 (pt. pi., O.E. w&ron) is probably
pure, as the Anglian form of were is were, weron. In Chaucer it
rhymes but in a few cases with e, generally with $ (ten Brink, 25).

A good many clieap rhymes are found. Suffixes rhyming with
each other, e. g. in c : -ence 2-4-5, 65-67-68, -ure 30-32-33 ; in
H: -aunce 16-18-19, -acioun, -oun 198-200-201, -acle 317-319-
320. Further e. g. in c: conceyue 134, deceyue 136; precede 155,
succede 157 ; born 156, for-born 159 ; displese 230, plese 231 ; in H:

4. The Metre. xxv

dismembre 72, membre 74, Remembre 75 ; observe 107, conserve
109; heede 83, flesshlyhede 84. About the rhymes, in c hele 317
(subst.), hele 319 (verb), and in H stoole 141, stoole 143 compare
ten Brink, 330. Once, in c, we have the same word rhyming with
itself : age 11. 298 and 299. Double forms occur of the verb to die : l
The infinitive deye rhymes H 178 with w&y 176 (dat. sg.) as well
as c 107 the preterit singular deyede with signifiede 109 and notified
110. The same verb occurs in the rhyme e. g. c. 11. 75, 91, 166. eye
(pi.) c. 1. 100 rhymes with melodie 102 and sodenlye 103.

b. Number of rhyming syllables.

There can be no doubt that we have monosyllabic or strong
rhymes in c: 29-31, 36-38, 43-45, etc.; in H: 20-21, 30-32-33,
55-56, etc., and dissyllabic or weak rhymes in c: 2-4-5, 6-7, 8-10,
etc.; in H : 15-17, 16-18-19, 22-24, etc. Note the weak rhymes
in c: seson 22, reson 24, and seson 58, reson 60, encheson 61. 2 To
the far greater number of lines we can rigorously apply Chaucer's
standard for preserving the final -e, representing the different vowels
of the old full endings. We shall find but a comparatively limited
number of cases which will not agree with it.

There is first a very considerable number of -i, -ze-rhymes (ten
Brink, 327; Gattinger, p/74 ff.). In the Temple of Glas about
1403 no example of that kind of rhyme is found; in the Black
Knight (1402-3) there are 3, in Horse, Goose, and Sheep (1436-40)
none. (Compare Deutsche Litter atur-Zeitung, 1901, 33, p. 2074 ff.).
Inc.- ocy 90, dye 91 (inf.).

eye 100 (pi.), melodie 102, sodenlye 103.
crye 163 (O.Fr. cri), richly 165, dye 166 (inf.).
perfytly 282, multiplie 284 (inf.), viciously 285.
In H : sky 2 (O.K sky), melodyfe] 4, Armonye 5.

melody [e] 13, occy 14.
Other examples are as follows :
In c: presence 9, -tens 11 (O.Fr. temps), sentensce 12.
sense 16 (O.Fr. sens), eloquence 18, sentence 19.
a-yeyn 226, payne 228, restreyne 229 (inf.).
lawe 254 (dat. sg.), to-drawe 256 (p.p.), sawe 257 (3. sg. pt;).
a-wayte 302 (O.Fr. await), bayte 304 (O.K beita).
ys 331, mysse 333 (inf.), blisse 334 (dat. sg.).

1 Schick, T. G., p. Ixi.

a Compare Skeat, Chaucer, vii. xiv. : geson 9, seson 11, treson 12. Ibid.
vii. vii. : reson 142, seson 144.

xxvi 5. The Language.

delite 352 (O.Fr. delit), quite 354 (inf.), appetite 355 (O.Fr.

appetit).
Doubtful: tendernesse 15, expresse 17.

diuine 184 (O.Fr. divin), declyne 186 (inf.), matutyne 187.

none 380 (dat. sg.), don 382 (p.p.), sone 383 (O.E. sona).
In H : messangier 44 (O.Fr. messager), chiere 46 (O.Fr. chiere),
here 47.

apparaile 272 (O.Fr. appareil), rayle 273 (inf.).

telle 295 (inf.), Danyell 297.

nature 373 (O.Fr. nature), pure 375 (O.Fr. pur).
Doubtful: forsoke 160 (pi.), tooke 161 (sg.).

5. THE LANGUAGE. 1

A. DECLENSION.

1. Substantives. Strong Masculines and Neuters.

Nom. and A cc. without ending, but in H wey[e] 350 (inorganic,
see Schick, T. G. t p. Ixv ; Krausser, Complaint, p. 21 ; Speculum
Gy de Warewyke, ed. by G. Morrill, p. clxix ; Pilgr., 11. 74. 4606).
it-stem : sone 277.

Genitives in es : in c : lordes 328, lyues 408. Dissyllable in es :
someres 36.

In H: sones 24, briddes 51, 76, briddis 55, 59, 64.

Datives in e: in c: slepfe] 35. 2nd yere (?) 23.

In H : the following doubtful examples : daale 9, wey 176,
morwe 344 (or morow). ja-stem : hewe 121.

In all other examples without ending.
Plural in es :

In c: 1. masc.: bemes 93, bemys 391, othes 171, lordes 323;
theves 0) 366, 375. But angels 125.

2. neutr.: braynes 31, cloudes 94, thinges 124, 173, folkes 356;
yeres (?) 247. Besides we find : childre 311 (elision) and two
examples of the old plural without ending : thing 260 and folk 279.

In H: 1. masc.: fowlis 4, theves 174, thornes 191, stones 330.
i-stem : witte's 184. Dissyllables in es : loVers 17, 63 ; besides :
showres 338 (rh. paramours 340).

2. neutr.: grassis 39, folkes 266, sores 268. in es : folkes 204.
in en : children 328.

1 On the principles followed in this paragraph, compare Schick, T. G. t
p. Ixiv and Ixv, note 2.

5. The Language. xxvii

One example of the old plural : folk 89.
Strong Feminities.

Nom. Neither of the poems has any example with sounded e,
there are but disputable cases :

In c : goodnesse 8 (ten Brink, 207, 2), queene 62.

In H: qwene 35, synne 70, sorwe 181 (or s6row).

Genitives: loue's c. 14 and mankynde H. 323.

Dat. and Ace. The ending is preserved :

In c : worlde 48. In some cases it is doubtful whether the e was
pronounced or not : lustynesse 10, tale 35, shame 56, swetnesse 89,
ryght-wisnesse 204, wrechednesse 206, synne 212, snare 244, sake
266, youth 272, reuth 372, trewth 374, 1 mynde 378, tyde 389.
But there are many examples where the e was evidently mute : loue
20, tyde 102, synne 118, helle 126, 144, byrth 169, sothfastnes 184,
world 210, 278, soule 244, 315, 334, wonde 319, rode 364.

In H: love 29, 68, sake 110, blisse 243, synne 279 ; but downe
9, myght 31, love 35, 96, 109, hede 98, 368, worlde 349. Doubtful
cases are love 43, honde 64, synne 70, reklesnes 90, kyndenesse 91,
sake 97, mone 157, mekenesse 225, clennesse 227, wounde 270,
boote 323, sorwe 346 (or sorow).

Plural in es.

In c: handes 255, soules 303, 396, tydes 341 ; myrthes (?) 74.

In H: Eowes 3, woundis 113, 287, synnes 183, 223, tales 202,
handis 240, gyftes 245, kyndenesses 281; handis 114, 208. The
old form of the Dat. PI. is preserved in H 310 Whilom.

Weak Nouns.
1. Masculines.

Nom. wele c. 153 and bowe H 24 are doubtful; the e was
certainly mute in : nek c. 255.

Genit. in es: Crabbes H 1.

Dat. and Ace. No conclusive example of sounded e, all the
examples being dubious : in c: tyme 80, 197, 242, smert 223, wele
320 ; but tyme 382.

In H: mone (?) 48, tene (?) 193.

Plural. In c occurs but sterres 283 and feres (?) 249 ; in H :
stems 38, dropes 150; but dropes 121.

1 Compare Skeat, Chaucer: V. Tr. 1385-6, and I. Book of the Duchesse, 97-8.

xxviii 5. The Language.

2. Feminities.

Nom. Again no conclusive example of sounded e. In c nyghtyn-
gale 337, 393 are doubtful ; but herte 47 and sunne 390.

In H : iiyghtyngale (1) 355. lady as vocative occurs 20, 24, 30.

Gen. in es : hertis c. 62.

Dat. and Ace. In c: in e: the single herte 138; the others
disputable : nyghtingale 34, throte 40, hert 128, 397 (enumeration),
smert 223, hele 317, side 387. Certainly e have hert 52, 270, 295,
syde 236.

In H: nyghtyngale 11, side 26, 114, 164, hert 95, smert 96,
pride 233, almesse 241, all dubious ; in e, with certainty, erth 215.

Plural in es : hertis c. 21 and sides H 273, 305.

3. Neuters.
Plural: eye (?) c. 100. len H 194.

Root-stems.

In Hvre find the two old plural forms : feete 114, 210, 283 and
men 209, 299. Besides there occur :

Gen. : in c: fad res 183, but mannes 261.

In H: mannes 97, 110, 169, 193, 197, 230, 357, 365; faders 274.

Plural: in H: bookes 331 ; fiendes 317.

Gen. : in H: feendis 286, 294.

!N"ote: crysten-man / Soule c. 115/0.

Romance Nouns}-

Singular : We have the French -e preserved : in c : peple 285,
tierce 342 ; in H : spouse 360. Only in c occur (10) cases where
the -e was certainly mute : grace 154, voice 178, vice 215, luge 254,
prime 268, croun 312, peyne 315, tierce 337, syxte 365, 378.

Polysyllables, with the accent thrown back, have -e : in c :
pr^nses 1, C6rage 22, nature 46, 75, richesse 164, etc. (11. 180, 182,
213, 219, 257, 263, 265, 329, 354); also: melodye 104. in H:
nature 6, sentence 56, foly 60, maner 70, custom 107, siifrraimce
144, f/naunce 147, malice 288 ; also : melody 13.

Plural: in es : in c: notes 66, 69, 83, 87, 338, peynes 314, 373,
prynces 323, ages 351, scornes 368. in H : notes 15, 354, twncs
36, floures 40, 118, peynes 210, clerkis 295.

Polysyllables have -es, when the accent is thrown back : in c :

1 In order to avoid a rather too big number of doubtful examples, I enumer-
ate here only the unquestionable cases.

5. The Language. xxix

galantus 11, 267, boffettes 255, cites 291, tormented 367, but: dis-
ciples 189. in H: a.cciisours 139, vertues 142, but: Emerawdes 34.

II. Adjectives.

ja- (and i-} stems: in c: grene (?) 63 (obi.) in H: 1. sg.:
triewe 69 (obi.); newe (1) 123 (ace.), swoote (?) 325 (ace.); deere (?)
360 (voc.); grene 359 (obi.) rhyming with: clene 361 (voc.).
2. pi.: grene (?) 34, kene (?) 191; nuwe 15 rhyming with:
vntriewe 17.

The other adjectives have lost their inflexion in the singular.
There are but two examples to be mentioned : in c : bare (?) 245
(ace. ; see ten Brink, 231 ; rhyming with : snare (?) 244 (obi.) ;
comp. Skeat, Chaucer, II, Tr. I. 662). in H: grete(?) 242 (ace.).

Plural: Inc: derk[e] 95; glade (?) 69, kynde (?) 377.

In H: white (?) 40, vnkynde (?) 106, 218, smale(?) 354.

In all the other cases e.

The iveakform of the adjective occurs :

1. After the definite article.

In c: Ded[e] 292 ; but : myghty 3, gostly 16, lusty 58, gret 146,
234, holy 403.

In H: same 11, sharp[e] 61, grete 67, 91(2), high[e] 309, Kede
329, Right[e] 350; white (?) 153 (pi.); but: bawmy 39, grete 67,
renomed 148, holy 221, clowdy 322.

2. After a demonstrative pronoun.

In c: this same 73; but : this same 223, This (That) hygh 148,
383, that (This) gret 208, 298.
No examples in H.

3. After a possessive pronoun.

In c: hyr ladyly 8, hyr high 9, his endles 122, thy (your)
wor[l]dly 132, 153, Their filthi 288, theire besy 353.

In H : oure grete 99, his faire 114, myn owne 206, My fayre
360; but: his holy 124, His blessyd 127, 249, 256, His hevenly
130, his holy 240, thyn old 342.

4. Before proper names.

In c: fresh[e] May 25; but: All-myghty Ihesu 334, synfle
Dathan 348.

In H: seynt lohn 124, 164, 258, worthy Moyses 327, worthy
David 331.

xxx 5. The Language.

5. Before a vocative.

In c: welthy 152, synfull 190, 316, lusty 267, wrecched 316,
myghty 323.

In H: vnkynde creature 182, but: vnkynd 103, synful 337.

Romance Adjectives.

These generally keep their forms.

In c: strong: humble 2, 181; stable 281 rhyming with: in-
nvmerable 283 ; veray 24, curious 76, etc. weak : noble 6, propre
55, tendre 247 ; amerouse 12, troblus 48, etc.

In H : strong : noble 318; purpure 121, perfite 238, etc. weak:
humble 145 ; purpure 253, mortal 352, etc. The only exception is :
his cliere H. 321 (ten Brink, 242).

Plural : In c : fals[e] 375 ; clere (?) 53 ; in all other cases we
have the unchanged French forms : Desyrous 12, sure 326, etc.

In H: false 17 ; cliere (?) 36, 362, serpentyne (?) 315 ; the other
forms are unchanged : fieble 186 ; vicious 266, etc. Weak forms in
the plural do not occur.

III. Numerals. Cardinals.

Inc.- one (follows: of) 167 (obi.); to 375, Bothe 114, 335, 349 ;
thre 291 ; six 124 ; seuen 205 ; viii 209.

In H: oone 19 (obi. sg.), none 71, 125, etc. (ace. sg) ; two 81,
tweyne(?) 174, 240 (comp. Schleich, Fabula, p. xlviii), bothfe] 81, 1
both 153, 344; fyve 334 (before a noun), fyve (?) 184, 287, 330
(after a n.), fyve 118 (after a n.), 335 (before a n.), fyve 113, 115
(in the caesura) ; seven 223 ; Fourty 231.

Ordinals: In c: first 121, 199 (follows: oure); 161 (adv.;
in the cassura); third 278, 299 (both followed by: age). />*#":
first 120, 367 (adv.).

IV. Pronouns.

The same as in Chaucer. Therefore we mention only the following
forms :

In c: hem 354 (C. theym), theym 15, 263, 305; theyr : in all
cases ; al : invariable in all cases ; vch 143, 236.

In H: theym 20, them 26 (224 and 236 are taken from A), hym
(= hem) 117, 282, hem : in all other cases (A has "them" through-
out but 1. 7 after : drought) ; theyr : in all cases ; all : invariable, but
alle(?) 183 (pi.; rhyming with: apalle 185); eche 187; thilk[e] 97;
g. pi.: alre(??) 92.

1 See also note to this line.

5. The Language. xxxi

V. Adverbs.

In e : in c : With-oute 31, 361 ; hye (?) 72, 307, 324 ; expresse (?)
17; more(?) 209, a-twynne (?) 214. Surely: longe 81, sore 331,
333; when 92, 144, sone 148, 189, more 238, a-fore 242, 253.
In H: Withouten 21, 27, 179, allone 160, betwene 174; blyve (?)
186, behynde(?) 220 ; surely : wrong 57.

In es: in c: nedes 29, 157, (in, to) myddes 97, 99, 339, 340,
359, elles 131, 322 ; but : nedes 181, elles 206. in H : Towardes 2,
oones 213.

Besides numerous adverbs on -ly.

VI. Composition.

In c : prime-tens 23, day[e]-rowes 54, slombre-bed 57 ; kyndely
33. In H: hert[e]-bloode 112; kyndenesse 91, inekenesse 232;
triew[e]ly 56.

In the other examples we have : in c: prime-tens 11 ; godely 51,
swetnesse 89, endles 122, 133, etc.; in H : sperhed 158 ; gretely 3 ;
falsehede 28, mekenesse 225, etc.

B. CONJUGATION.

Infinitives. In both poems the number of examples with un-
doubtedly sounded e is very small. We find in c: endure 81, hele
223, thenke 232, suffre 261, 264, 266 (but : suffre 399), perceyve
271 ; in H: wexen 120, 136, susteyne 131, suwen 163, make 279,
save 306, reherse 335, taken 337, Eeleve 378.

Much larger is the number of forms with mute e, e. g. : in c :
tabide 84, deseuer 167, dye 168, remord 190, thenke 192, folow 195,
lye 222, etc. (26 examples); in H : herken 13, take 16, marke 26,
wounde 26, se 49, pay 99, seen 127, etc. (29 examples). The drop-
ping of n is proved by the rhyme in : dye c. 91 (rhyming with : ocy
c. 90), sle c. 161 (rhyming with : natiuite c. 160), mysse c. 333
(rhyming with: ys c. 331); flee H 165 and tee H 166 (rhyming
with: me H 163), se H 207, 237, 311, 367 (rhyming with French
words ending in -ite and tre H. 208, 309).

We find, 15 times in c, 14 times in H, infinitives rhyming with
each other ; these, as well as about 35 doubtful cases in c, 31 in H,
may still have been pronounced in Lydgate's time with e, e. g. : in c :
dresse 1, enbrace 13, apere 25, dye 75, expresse 88, here 111, etc. ; in H:
knowe 22, abyde 23, espye 28, avaunce 63, crye 105, vnclose 113, etc.

Indicative Present, l.sg.: inc: gesse(?) 86. In H: Eeherse(?)
281; trowe(?) 15, calle(?) 363 (indecisive); certainly: cast 52.

NIGHTINGALE. G

XXX11

5. The Language.

2. sg. : in c: vsest 171, entrest 240 ; but : lyuest 172, standest (I)
191. In H: Takestow(?) 71.

3. sg.: in c: Meueth 34, seseth 37, telleth 114, oweth 116,
endyth 199, hateth 217, be-tokeneth 278, knokketh 325; desireth
225 rhyming with : expyreth 227 ; but : loueth 46, cometh 159, per-
seuereth 275; contracted forms (ten Brink, 186) in : set 35, a-byt
275 (rhyming with : yit 277 and hyt 278), probably in : biddeth =
bit 166, perhaps also in: rewardeth 357, 361. In H : Betokenyth
66, Syngeth 72, Streyneth 73, peyneth 73, meanyth 82, takith 83,
cryeth 106 ; doubtful : meanyth 56, takith 65, Resownyth 84 ; but :
Shakith 74, qwakyth 74, Callith 365, 366 ; contracted forms occur
in : list 345, 348.

Plural: in c: be-seche 411. In H: passen 176, dare 292;
take(?) 98,pressen(?) 152, trespas (?) 204, specific (?) 331; seen 292.

Subjunctive: in c: 2. sg.: lust 174, dye (?) 198 ; 3. sg.: Luste 9.
In H: 2. sg.: list 50, advert 77, ride (?) 117 ; 3. sg.: list 207, 237,
367, beholde 311, see 311.

Imperative: in c: couceyue (?) 134, wep (?) 175; but certainly:
Ryse 56, Enprinte 128, arme 129, Saue 131, let 138, 222, etc. (13
examples); plural: Entendeth 363; Beth 325; but: Let 268, Re-
streyne 270, Call 327, tlienk 335. In H: considre 85, remembre
225, gadre 341 ; but in all other cases e : sle 20, bryng 21, Let 26,
Cherissh 30, herkne 35, Rise 49, etc. (22 examples). Of the plural
occurs but the indecisive form : Lift 177.

Participle, Present. With the exception of : langwisshyng (?) H
29 (pi.; rhyming with: bryng 31 (inf.)), we have but invariable
forms in both poems.

Verbal noun, in -ing : in c : the norishing 30, the enduryng 40,
my conny[n]ge 112, the begynny[n]g 121 ; mornyng 70, wepyng 163,
connyng 177, etc. In H : the mean vug 13, Thyn vndrestondyng
81, hir synggyng 83, myn heryng 185, The kepyng 258; meanyng
69, Smellyng 186, lokyng 197, heringe 202, towchyng 207, mys-
fotyng 209.

Strong Preterit. "Ablaut" as in Chaucer; so we mention but
the following forms: in c: sg.: can = gan 136, 339, 395; leep 59,
Fell 126 ; pi.: can = gan 54, ran 236, came 279, sank 290. In H:
sg.: can = gan 144 ; lille 42; pi.: drough 7, can = gan 19, saugh
125, d[r]ewe 171, Sawe 178, shoone 194; forsoke 160 rhyming
with : tooke 161 (sg.).

Weak Preterit. In ed, ed : in c: sg.: walked 61, rome'd 64,

5. The Language. xxxiii

cesed 88, expired 107, caused 137, entered 161, suffred 257, 321,
Opened 349, Thirled 387, Ascended 402; but: conceyued 68,
manaced 161, swolowed 349. Doubtful are the following forms :
rehersed 50, deyede 107, signified?. 109, suffred 193, 315, 371,
resemed 205, cesed 233, ailed 367, died 371, expired 388. pi. :
offre'd 369 ; enchesoned 84, perysched 209, passed 300 ; presed (?)
236, desyred (?) 386.

In H: sg.: thrilled 128, suffred 188, 199, 205, 242, trespassed
211, offendid 213, shewed 260, hasted 261, venqwisshed 336 ; but :
priked 62, lyved 231. Doubtful is: suffred 270. There occurs
one single example of the 2. person: herdest 58. pi.: Keceyved
314.

In de, te, de, te.: in c: seide 60, sayd 73; made (?) 70, 179;
thoght91,lust!86, sent 403 ; a-lyght(?) 96; pi. indecisive : set 312.
In H: taught[e] 6; herde 36, sayde 203, Spradde 235, made
325, 328 ; list 110, past 248, sty nt 324; pi. left 171, 173.

Participle Past. Strong: in c: vnderstonden 120, eten 151,
Taken 253, 298; but: ouerflow 212, slayn 400. Doubtful are:
born 156, 313, for-born 159 rhyming with: be-forn 158, taken
188 rhyming with: for-saken 189, to-drawe 256; yeuen 397. The
sole plural form : bounde 255 is indecisive.

In H : stongen 95, founde 141, Bete'n 206 ; doubtful are :
borne 8, lorne 60, founde 271 ; Forsaken 170 and spoken 202 (pi.);
plural besides in : founde 218, but undecisive.

Weak: in ed : in c: declared 17, considred 19, renoueled 23,
entred 45, blessed 50, formed 123, etc. (27 cases). In H: -huwed 2,
sugred 5, callid 25, gouerned 57, Booted 69, Steyned 135, Blessyd
143, made = maked 298, etc. (17 cases).

In ed (t): in c: Meued 22, herd 101, brent 133, past 239, 247,
keept 248, etc. (10). Doubtful are the participles rhyming with each
other as : exiled 27, reconciled 28, etc., or with preterits as : notified
110, etc. In H: Spreynt 121, I-left 220 (compare: I-blent 130,
Imeynt 137), Meynt 347. Ehyming are: to-Rent 127, spent 129,
I-blent 130; depeynt 134, Imeynt 137, atteynt 138.

Polysyllables and contracted forms : in c : raueshed 52, enlu-
myned 95, pvniched 237, fynysched 274, banyshid 383 ; sprad 93,
bent 255, put 263, hurt 318, fed 409. In H: fulfilled 197; Fret
34, sent 224, sprad 298.

About: infecte c. 1. 143 see note to this line.

xxxiv 6. The Authorship.

6. THE AUTHOESHIP.

The first of our poems is cited by Tanner as 'Philomela' among
Lydgate's works. In his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1749),
p. 491, 1. 11 f. a., we read :

A saying of the nightingale signifying Christ : Ad Annam duciss.
Buckingh. Pr. pr. prosa. "It is seyd that the nightingale" Pr. I.
" Go lityll . . . prynces dresse." MS. Cotton. Caligula A II. MS.
C. C. C. Oxon. 203.

Besides him, only Eitson mentions the title of our poems in his
Bibliographia Poetica (1802), but, unfortunately, he has rather lost
ground since the publication of Dr. Schick's T. G. (see p. cxlviii ff.). 1
In his long list of Lydgate's writings Eitson quotes as No. 213 :

A saying of the nightingale touching Christ: "In lune whan
Titan was in Crabbes hede " (Caligula A. II. $ the Harley MS. 2251}.

And indeed, we immediately meet with his incorrectness ; for the
title and the first line of the poem he cites agree only with H (or A ;
but this he apparently was not aware of). As to c, he seems to have
known the MS. and the poem as one of Lydgate's works, but after-
wards, when compiling his Bibliographia, the similar subject led him
astray, and he forgot that neither the title nor the beginning of the
poem was the same as in H (and A).

If we had no other argument than this statement of Eitson's to
bring forward in favour of Lydgate's authorship, we could hardly
venture to support our opinion. But Tanner's judgment is much
more reliable, and, besides his authority, the internal evidence is, as
we shall see, so striking, that we cannot but attribute this first poem
to Lydgate. As the poem has not yet been printed, we need not
wonder that the common sources like Bale and Pits do not mention it.

The second poem is acknowledged as one of the monk's works by
Stowe : both MSS. got their titles from the hand of this chronicler,
and at the end of A we find : Of this Balade Dan lohn Lydgate
made nomore. This testimony of Stowe is the more valuable, as it
goes back, according to his own words (see 2), to Shirley. Then
[1802] again we may refer to Eitson, and, at last, to Warton-Hazlitt,
iii, 53, note 1 :

"Lydgate in his Philomela, mentions the death of Henry Lord
Warwick, who died in 1446. MS. Harl. ibid. (2251). 120. fol. 255."

Though this statement about Lord Warwick is disputed, as we

1 But compare also : Brotanek, Die Englischen Maskenspiele. [ Wiener Bei-
irage zur Englischen Philologie xv.] Wien, 1902, p. 9.

6. The Authorship. xxxv

shall see (compare 7), the notice nevertheless gives evidence that
Warton and Hazlitt considered the H-version to be one of Lydgate's
works.

Examining and comparing the style of the poems, which offers
the strongest support in favour of Lydgate's supposed authorship, I
venture to remark that it is superfluous to cite examples from H, as
all said about c may also, mutatis mutandis, be applied to H.

Firstly, as we have seen, the metre in c is the same as in H. We
have o- and o-rhymes, e- and ^-rhymes (not, however, -ere and -ire-
rhymes, as in the T. G., p. Ixi) ; the disregard of the final e in the
rhymes has made progress ; we find, e. g., a considerable number of i-
and ie- rhymes. Other licences of Lydgate as to the structure of the
verse exhibit themselves throughout the poem (see 4 ; especially
type C.), so that we are fully authorized in claiming the evidence of
the metre in support of Lydgate's authorship. The language, in the
main, shows the same character as, for instance, the language of the
Temple of Glas, Complaint of the Black Knight, and Horse, Goose
and Sheep ; compare the outlines of grammar in the editions of Dr.
Schick, Dr. Krausser, and Dr. Degenhart.

Again, the style is entirely Lydgatian. As we have no convinc-
ing external evidence, we may be allowed to draw the special attention
of the reader to the peculiarities of Lydgate, found in the first poem.
When we compare Dr. Schick's remarks about the monk's style
(T. G. y p. Ixxxiv and cxxxiv ff. ; see also Gattinger, p. 70 ff.), we
must say, that so far as the different subject does not exclude com-
parison all these characteristics are to be observed in our poem.
The very beginning of the poem gives us an argument :

" Go, lityll quay ere, . . . ." these introductory lines are entirely
in accordance with his usage. Not only are the ideas, the expres-
sions used in that stanza nearly all found in his envoys, so e. g. :
M. P. 45, 48, 149 ; Kk. L, f. 196 a; T. G., 11. 1393 1 -1403, but even
the characteristic " lityll " is not wanting, which he never forgets, be
it a poem of 35 or 35,000 lines (Falls, 219 b 1). Though his
favourite request "to correct" his poem 2 has not found a place in
this very first stanza, he afterwards cannot conceal his self-depreciatory
manner; compare 11. 18, 88/9, 112, 177, 181, 182.

Further, the astronomical allusions, 11. 25, 26, 45, 92, the frame-
work of a vision, st. 7-15, the sleepy poet, 1. 44, the season-motive,
st. 4, the reference to his real or supposed source, 11. 108, 114, 238,

1 See note to this line. 2 See note to 1. 1400 of the Temple of Glas.

xxxvi 7. The Date.

344, the use of Latin and foreign words, 11. 308, 388 (see Koppel,
Laurent's de Premier/ait und lolin Lydgate's Bearbeitungen von
Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium. Miinchen, 1885, p. 40),
all these points are quite as common in Lydgate's works as are the
numerous anacolutha which occur in this short poem ; compare st. 4,
8, 9, 10, 13, 16, 20, 27, 34, and 11. 412, 413.

A pretty large number of Lydgatian stock phrases could be
gathered from our poem ; but on this point I had better refer the
reader to Gattinger, pp. 72, 73 and Schleich, Fabula, p. 64 ff.

In respect to the theological matters, for instance, Pride the chief
sin, etc., see Triggs, Assembly, Literary Studies, 10, 11, and the notes
to our two poems.

All these points, I think, give evidence that the style of our poem
is entirely in accordance with the common features of Lydgate's
works. Besides, I shall give in the notes quotations from other
poems of our poet, which will show that the whole atmosphere of the
poem, the whole range of ideas, the vocabulary, 1 the motives and
allegories are essentially the same as in the other works of the monk.

7. THE DATE.

The first stanza of the c-version contains the dedication to a
Duchess of Buckingham, which allows us to fix the date of the first
poem pretty exactly.

Go, lityll quayere, And swyft thy prynses dresse,
Offringe thyselfe wyth humble reuerence
Yn-to the ryght hyghe and myghty pryncesse,
The Duches of Bokyngham, and of hur excellence
Besechinge hyre, that, of hure pacyence,
Sche wold the take, of hure noble grace,
Amonge hyre bokys for the Asygne A place.

As the compiler of the index of MS. C rightly points out, this
Duchess is Anne, daughter of Kalph Nevill, first Earl of Westmor-
land. Her mother was the Earl's second wife, 2 loan Beaufort,
daughter of lohn of Gaunt and his second wife, Katherine Eoet,
sister-in-law (?) to Chaucer. 3 She married Humphrey Stafford, who
was created Duke of Buckingham 14 September, 1444 (D. N. B.

1 e. g. adolescens c 1. 267.

2 He m. secondly, before 3 Feb. 1397, Joan (formerly Joan Beaufort, spinster),
widow of Sir Robert Ferrers, the legitimated dau. of John (Plantagenet, called
"of Gaunt"), Duke of Lancaster, by Catharine, da. of Sir Payne Roet. Gr. E. C.
Complete Peerage, viii. 111.

3 See Skeat, CJiaucer II, p. Ixix, and I, p. li, 43.

7. The Date. xxxvii

liii, p. 45 1). 1 This date fixes the terminus a quo to the last months
of the year 1444.

We are fortunate enough to find another allusion in our poem
which allows us to determine the date more closely : st. 48, 11. 330-
333 we find :

A myghty prince, lusty, yonge, & fiers,
Amonge the peple sore lamented ys :
The due of Warwyk ; entryng the oure of tierce
Deth toke hym to whom mony sore shall mysse.
The Duke of Warwick who is mentioned in these lines, is Henry
Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick (from April 5, 1444), and is said
(without evidence) to have been King of Wight, Jersey and Guern-
sey 2 from 1445. The date of his death is disputed. It is given
as June 11, 1445, by D. N. B., iv, p. 28 b and the Nouvelle
Biographic Generate, p. 556 ; but neither of these, nor both com-
bined, can stand against the best authority, Mr. G. E. Cokayne,
who in his Complete Peerage, viii. 59 (1898), adopts the date
given by Baker in his Northamptonshire ii. 219, 11 June (1446),
24 Hen. VI. This is confirmed by the grant of Letters of Adminis-
tration to him on 17 June 1447 at Lambeth. He was the son of
Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, d. at Rouen, 4 Oct. 1439,
regent of France during the absence of the Duke of Bedford (D. N.
B. iv, p. 29 a-31 a), 3 and brother-in-law to Eichard Nevill, who
married Anne, Henry's sister and heiress, 4 in whose right he was
created afterwards Earl of Warwick, and who is well-known as the

1 In the Nouvelle Biographic Gtnerale, vii, p. 707, however, we find the
notice : En 1445, ce comte [Buckingham] passa a Ja maison de Stafford, dans la
personne d'Edmond, comte de Stafford, qui fut fait Due de Buckingham 1'annee
suivante.

2 "He is asserted (Mon. Aug. ii. 63 ; Leland's Itinerary] to have been, also,
crowned King of the Isle of Wight, by Henry [VI], but for this (Coke, kth
Inst., p. 287 ; Stubbs's Const. Hist. iii. 433) there is no evidence " (Nat. Biogr.,
in an article written by J. H. Round) .... He died without male issue at his
birthplace, Hanley Castle, 11 June, 1446. G. E. C. viii. 59.

3 See also Schick, T. G. , 'p. xciii.

4 One of the sisters. Earl Richard left 4 daughters, coheirs on the death of
Duke Henry's girl Anne, b. at Cardiff in Wales, Feb. 1442-3, d. an infant, at
Ewelme, Oxon. 8 Jan. 1448-9, and was bur. at Reading Abbey. " Those four
coheirs, all of whom left issue, were (1) Margaret, m. John (Talbot), Earl of
Shrewsbury, which Lady was mentioned in the entail of the Earldom of
Warwick, cr. in 1450 ; (2) Eleanor, m. firstly Thomas (de Ros), Lord Ros, who
d. 18 Aug. 1431, secondly Edmund (Beaufort), Duke of Somerset, slain 22 May
1455, and thirdly, Walter Rodesley ; (3) Elizabeth, in. George (Nevill), Lord
Latimer, who d. 30 Dec. 1469 ; (4) Anne, only da. by the second wife [Isabel,
Baroness Burghersh, a grand-daughter of Edw. III.], who m. Richard (Nevill),
Earl of Warwick, so cr. in 1449." G. E. C. viii. 60. Duke Henry was 'scarce
ten years of age ' when he married in 1434. His father's first wife was seven
years old when he wedded her.

xxxviii 8. The Sources.

"King -maker." This Richard was the 'nephew of the above-
mentioned Anne, Duchess of Buckingham, to whom Lydgate
dedicated the poem.

These facts confirm to a certain extent the authorship of Lydgate.
As we find in Schick, T. Gf., p. xciii, the poet was, during his so-
journ in France, in the service of Lord Richard of Warwick, the
father of Henry, mentioned in st. 48. Therefore we are not astonished
to find this allusion in a poem of Lydgate's, the more so as the
Duchess of Buckingham herself, to whom the poem is dedicated, was,
as we have seen, the aunt of Henry's brother-in-law.

We must therefore fix the date of the c-version in the second half
of the year 1446, considering that the poet says, "lamented ys," and
that it is most probable that Lydgate's dedication to the Duchess
Anne, she being related to the deceased Duke of Warwick, was in
some way connected with this sad event.

As to the date of the other version it is no easy matter when we
attempt to fix it. There are no allusions to historical events to be
found in the poem. Only, the note by Stowe, at the end of H : Of
this Balade Dan lohn Lydgate made nomore, 1 might possibly induce
us to date it before c, but a glance at the metre makes us immediately
withdraw this conjecture, as the numerous examples of type D, for
instance, would rather prove a later date. The language cannot help
us, nor any other internal evidence, so that the best we can do, is to
omit the fixing of any date at present ; perhaps, later on, we may be
more fortunate, and light upon some clue.

8. THE SOURCES.

As we have already stated in a preceding paragraph, both poems
have a common source, which is also referred to by the poet himself
in MS. c, 1. 108 :

106. This brid, of whom y haue to you rehersed,

Whych in her song expired thus ande deyede,
108. In latyn fonde y in a boke well versed,

There are two " Latin Books " known under the title " Philo-
mela." The one, of a fairly large size, is a work of John of

1 As this statement was no doubt copied by Stow from his Shirley original,
we may fairly compare it with the like entry in the Lydgate and Burgh's
decree of Secrees (?1446, Schick), after the poet's decease, and conclude that
the cause of the break-off in the Nightingale poem was Lydgate's death. This
is borne out by the character of the metre, as the many examples of type D tend
to prove a late date. F.

8. The Sources. xxxix

Hoveden (Howden, Yorkshire), but has nothing in common with our
poems here but the title (compare D. N. B. xxvii, 427 a if. and
Hahn, Arnold, Quellenuntersuchungen zu Richard Rollers Englischen
Schriften. Halle, 1900, p. 3 and note). The other, the source of
Lydgate's poems, is a shorter Latin poem, also called " Philomela,"
printed among Bonaventura's works, e. g. in the edition of Ad Claras
Aquas (Quaracchi) 1882-1898, torn, viii, p. 669-674. This poem,
the authorship of which is uncertain, was of great popularity during
the Middle- Ages. At that time it was generally ascribed to Bona-
ventura, 1 but the editors of the edition above-mentioned reject his
authorship, 2 whereas the probability of John Peckham 3 being the
author is more likely. There are more than thirty Latin MSS. 4
extant, and many imitations and translations. 5 The poems here
printed represent the English imitations; compare Warton-Hazlitt,
i, p. 172 note; D. N. B. xxvii, p. 427; Schick, T. G., p. xcvi and
Addenda.

The two poems do not bear a like amount of resemblance to
their model. MS. c follows much more closely than H (see later)
the Latin poem, as a short analysis of the two will show.

Before we sketch the contents of the poems, we have a few
remarks to make on the opening words in MS. C. In most of the
MSS. of the Latin version we find prefixed to the poem a short
admonitory treatise in prose, the genuineness of which is rejected by
the editors of Bonaventura's works. Similarly, there is, in MS. C

1 Lydgate, of course, was acquainted, at least in his way, with the works of
Bonaventura ; he cites him, e. g. Court of Sapience, e 6 a (? englisht his Life
of our Lady}.

2 See S. Bonaventura opera omnia. Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) 1898. 2.
torn, viii, p. 669, note 3, and Prolegomena c. Ill, a. 1, 7.

3 See D. N. B. xliv, p. 190 ff. (Philomela, p. 196 a} and Hook, W. F.,
Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London, 1865. 4. See also the article
"Hoveden" in D. N. B. xxvii, p. 427, and Horstmann, Yorkshire Writers, ii,
p. xxxix.

4 Most of the MSS. are enumerated in the Prolegomena of the Quaracchi-
edition, torn. viii. I only add the following : Pembroke College, Cambridge,
B. 3. 19, Harl. 3766, Cotton Cleopatra A XII, Laud 402, Rawlinson C. 397
(Rawlinson C. 348 is but one leaf, missing in Rawlinson C. 397), Digby 28,
University Library, Cambridge, Ee VI, 6.

5 Philomena S. Bon. castellane traducta et dilatata carmine et prosa per
cantus ipsius Philomense. by Mathaeus a Nativitate. Salmanticae, 1471.
Filomena de S. Bonaventura, sive tractatulus hoc titulo, Hispanice versus, by
Ludovicus Granatensis. Adiciones al Memorial de la vida Christiana. Salman-
ticae, 1577. S. Bonaventurae Philomena, editio carmine Italico, by Jacobus de
Porta. Venetiis, 1586. Die Nachtigall des hi. Bonaventura, by E. Votter.
Miinchen, 1612. Melch. v. Diepenbrock, Geistlicher Blumenstrauss. Sulzbach,
1862 (pp. 302-333, with the Latin text). The anonymous translation : Des
hi. Bonaventura Philomele oder Nachtigallenlied. Lingen, 1883 and that by
Leberecht Drewes were not accessible to me.

xl 8. The Sources.

only, a kind of prose introduction, not intended to suggest to the
reader the necessary elevation of mind, but simply to give a concise
epitome of the principal contents. These lines in C, however,
reproduce the ideas of the poem so incorrectly that we cannot
consider them as originally written by the poet, but must presume
them to be the work of a scribe :

Matutina Beginning of the World, Fall of Adam, Nativity of
Man, "patris sapiencia."

Hora I. Noah.

[Hora III. =] " crucifige " Abraham.

Hora VI. \ Eesurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus-Christi-

Hora IX. ) Day.

Compared with the real structure of the c- version below, this
short analysis exhibits too serious discrepancies to allow us to
attribute this introduction to Lydgate.

We now return to the comparison of the two poems :

Structure of the Latin Poem.
St. 1-4 : Introduction,

5-10 : The story of the nightingale,

11-13 : General interpretation of the story and

1416 : of the single hours.
Then follow the special meditations of the different hours :

17-24 : Matutina,

25-34: Prima,

35-47 : Tertia,

48-77 : Sexta,

78-90 : Nona.

Structure of the c-version.
St. 1-6 : Dedication and introduction,
7-15 : The story of the nightingale,

16 : The source,

1 7 : General interpretation.

Then the meditations of the single hours follow :
18-28: Aurora,
29-39 : Prime,
40-48 : Tierce,
49-54 : Sexte,
55-59 : Nones.

8. The Sources. xli

This shows clearly that the structure of the c-version is wholly
borrowed from the Latin source. Lydgate only omitted the short
interpretation of the hours, st. 14-16 of the Latin poem, to which
we do not find corresponding lines in the c-version. But we must
state that, though the story of the nightingale and the general
interpretation are the same in both, the English poet treats different
subjects in the meditations for the single hours. In the Latin
source we have the following themes :

14. Mane vel diluculum hominis est status,
In quo mirabiliter Adam est creatus.

Hora prima, quando est Christus incarnatus,
Tertiam die spatium sui incolatus.

15. Sextain, cum a perfidis voluit ligari,
Trahi, caedi, conspui, dire crucian,
Crucifigi denique, clavis terebrari
Caputque sanctissimum spinis coronari.

16. Nonam die, cum moritur, quando consummatus
Cursus est certamims, quando superatus

Est omnino zabulus et hinc conturbatus.
Vespera, cum Christus est sepulturae datus.

In the c-version we always find two subjects for each hour, one
from the Old and the other from the New Testament, i. e. from the
passion of our Lord :

Aurora : Creation of the world, fall of Lucifer, fall of Adam

Jesus taken Prisoner,
Prime : Noe Christ before Pilate,
Tierce : Abraham, Sodom Christ led to Calvary,
Sexte : Dathan and Abiron Christ on the cross,
Nones : Adam banished Christ dies.

This comparison proves that, though Lydgate adopted the general
idea and the structure of the poem from Peckham, he was by no
means a slavish imitator, but on the contrary followed his own bent.

Again we find another trace of Lydgate's originality. To the
parallelism of the quotations from the Old and New Testament, he
adds the comparison of the ages of man with the different hours of
the daily divine service. At each hour he subsequently addresses
people of another, higher age ; compare

st. 23: "Aurora" 1. 156:

Be-thenke thy-self, hough porely j?u was born

xlii 8. The Sources.

st. 35/6: "Prime"!. 239:

thow, that hast thus past the oure of morow
1. 247 : Ande of thy tendre age art past the yeres,

st. 43/6 : " Tierce" 11. 299, 300 :

And namely ye that are in the third age
Of your lyfe ande passed morow & prime,
11. 316, 317 : Thenk on this oure, thou wrecched synfull man,
That in this age hast reson, strenght, and hele,

st. 52: "Sexto" 1L 358, 359:

And, in speciall, ye of perfyt age,

This oure of sixt, in myddes of your lyfe,

st. 59: "Nones"!. 412:

That, fro this worlde when so we shall deseuer.

I think we cannot carry the comparison further, as most of the
ideas found in c are commonplaces, which do not rise above the
average education of a priest in those times. Therefore, even when
we find the same ideas in both poems, it is no proof that Lydgate
borrowed them from Peckham.

The " Monk of Bury " had, of course, an extensive knowledge of
Holy Scripture. 1 We give here a list of all lines to which parallel
passages are to be found in the Bible, which I consider as Lydgate's
second principal source. The references are from the Vulgate.

[114 : see note to this line].

11. 121-124: Gen. i.

11. 125-126: Is. xiv. 12-16.

[129, 130 : see note to these lines].

1. 133 : Mat. xxv. 41.

I. 136 : Gen. iii. 1-6.

II. 139, 143 : Eom. v. 12.

11. 150, 383 : Gen. iii. 23, 24.

[11. 164-168 : see note to these lines].

1. 185 : Jo. i. 29.

1. 188 : Mat. xxvi. 48-50 = Mar. xiv. 44-46 = Lu. xxii. 47,

48, 54 = Jo. xviii. 5, 12.
1. 189 : Mat. xxvi. 56 = Mar. xiv. 50-52.
1. 203 : Gen. vii. 10.

I. 205 : Gen. vii. 13.

II. 206-208 : Gen. vii. 21.

1 See Koppel, 1. c., p. 48 f., Gattinger, p. 37/8, and again Koeppel in Englische
Studien 24 (1898), p. 281 f.

8. The Sources. xliii

1. 220 : 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

I. 224 : Lu. xv. 7, 10.

II. 225-226 : Ezecli. xxxiii. 11; (Sap. i. 13) ; 2 Pet. iii. 9.
11. 235, 279-280 : Gen. x.

11. 236 : Gen. xi. 1-9, xiii. 13, xviii. 20, 21.
1. 244 : 2 Tim. ii. 26.

I. 252 : Mat. xxvi. 59-60 = Mar. xiv. 55-59.

II. 253-254: Mat. xxvii. 2, 11 = Mar. xv. 1 = Lu. xxiii. 1 =

Jo. xviii. 12, 28, 29.
11. 257-259 : Mat. xxvi. 67 (xxvii. 30) = Mar. xiv. 65 (xv. 19).

I. 260 : 2 Mace. vii. 28 = Hebr. xi. 3.

II. 262-263 : Mat. xxvi. 53.
11. 271-272 : Prov. v. 6.

11. 281-282 : Gen. xv. 6.
11. 283-284 : Geii. xv. 5.
11. 291 : Gen. xix. 24, 25.

I. 296 : Gen. i. 27.

II. 302-303 : 1 Pet. v. 8.

11. 307-308 : Mat. xxvii. 23 = Mar. xv. 13, 14 = Lu. xxiii.

21 = Jo. xix. 6, 15.

. 310 : Mat. xxvii. 28 == Mar. xv. 17 = Jo. xix. 2, 5.
. 311 : Jo. xix. 4, 5.

. 312 : Mat. xxvii. 29 = Mar. xv. 17 = Jo. xix. 2, 5.
. 313 : Jo. xix. 17.
. 314 : Mat. xxvii. 33 = Mar. xv. 22 = Lu. xxiii. 33 = Jo.

xix. 17.
11. 348-350 : Num. xvi. (1, 2) 31-33.

I. 365 : Mat. xxvii. 31 (45) == Lu. xxiii. 33 (44) = Jo. xix. 18,

but Mar. xv. 24, 25 (see 11. 379, 380).

II. 366, 375 : Mat. xxvii. 38 == Mar. xv. 27 = Lu. xxiii. 33 =

Jo. xix. 18.

11. 367-368 : Mat. xxvii. 48 (34) = Mar. xv. 36 (23) = Lu.
xxiii. 36 == Jo. xix. 29, 30.

I. 384: Gen. iii. 17-19.

II. 385, 387 : Jo. xix. 34.

I. 386 : Jo. xix. 31.

II. 388-389 : Mat. xxvii. 46, 50 = Jo. xix. 30 (Mar. xv. 34, 37,

Lu. xxiii. 46).

11. 390-392 : Mat. xxvii. 45 = Mar. xv. 33 = Lu. xxiii. 44, 45.
1. 399 : Mat. xxvi. 28 = Mar. xiv. 24 = Lu. xxii. 20.

xliv | 8. The Sources.

11. 401-402 : Mat. xxviii. 1-10 = Mar. xvi. 1-8, 19 = Lu. xxiv.
1-12, 51 = Jo. xx. 1-10 = Act. i. 9, 10.

I. 403 : Act. ii. 1-4.

II. 404-406 : Mat. xxvi. 26 = Mar. xiv. 22 = Lu. xxii. 19.

This detailed list of references will, I hope, justify my opinion
as to Lydgate's being influenced by the Bible.

The two sources which I have just investigated with regard to
the first poem, have also exercised their influence on the H-version,
though here the imitation of Peckham's work is by no means a close
one. We may sketch the structure of the second poem as follows :

st. 1-5 : Introduction : Secular interpretation of the song of the

nightingale,
st. 6-7 : The vision, in which the poet is addressed by an angel

from heaven,

st. 8-15 : Beginning of the heavenly messenger's tale, he intro-
ducing the nightingale meditating on Christ's passion,
st. 16-22 : Her song, in which are contained :
st. 23-33 : The words which Christ speaks,
st. 34-54 : The nightingale's song goes on, but is not finished.

Were the poem complete, we should expect to find the end of
the nightingale's song, the end of the angel's speech, and the
conclusion of the vision. It seems that the poet found the task too
tiresome, or he had some other reasons ; at all events, he did not
finish his work no doubt he died. We see, however, that here the
structure of the Latin original is totally abandoned, the different
hours are not even mentioned ; only the general idea of a religious
interpretation of the nightingale's song is retained.

As to the other principal source, the Bible, the following list
will show to what extent the poet has put his theological knowledge
into this poem :

11. 95, 158, 212 : Jo. xix. 34.

I. 101 : see c, 1. 365.

II. 111-112: see c, 1. 399.

11. 122-123 : Mat. xxvii. 59 = Mar. xv. 46.

11. 124, 162, 164, 257, 258 : Jo. xix. 25-27.

11. 128, 191 : see c, 1. 312.

11. 134, 135, 141, 142 : Is. Ixiii. 1.

11. 137, 196, 201, 265 : see c, 1. 368.

1. 138: see c, 1. 254.

8. The Sources. xiv

I. 139: see c, 1. 252.

II. 148-156, 167-168, 304 : Is. Ixiii. 2-3.

I. 157 : Mat. xxvii. 50 = Mar. xv. 37 = Lu. xxiii. 46.

II. 160, 165, 170, 173: see c, 1. 189.

I. 174 : see c, 1. 366.

II. 179, 211, 213 : 2 Cor. v. 21 = 1 Pet. ii. 22.

1. 206 : Mat. xxvi. 67, xxvii. 30 = Mar. xiv. 65, xv. 19 = Lu.

xxii. 63, 64 = Jo. xviii. 22, xix. 3.
1. 226 : Lu. ix. 58 (ii. 7).
1. 231 : Mat. iv. 2 = Mar. i. 13 == Lu. iv. 1, 2.

I. 232 : Jo. xix. 30.

II. 246-248 : see c, 1. 404.

1. 249 : Mat. xxvi. 27, 28 = Mar. xiv. 23, 24 = Lu. xxii. 20.

I. 252 : Jo. xix. 34.

II. 253-254 : Jo. xix. 23, 24 (Mat. xxvii. 35, Mar. xv. 24, Lu.

xxiii. 34).
11. 255-256 : Mat. xxvii. 57-61 = Mar. xv. 42-47 = Lu. xxiii.

50-56 = Jo. xix. 38-42.
1. 259 : Lu. xxiii. 46.

I. 264: Jo. xviii. 19, 22, 23.

II. 276-280: Jo. iii. 16, 17.

11. 289-290: see c, 11. 313, 314.
11. 297-298: Dan. iv. 7-9, 17-19.
11. 300-301 : Gen. xxxii. 10.
1. 302 : Gen. xxviii. 12.

I. 303 : Job xl. 20.

II. 307-308 : 1 Eeg. xvi. 23.
st. 45 : Num. xxi. 8-9.

11. 318-319 : Ezech. ix. 4-6.
1. 320: Ex. xxxvii. 17.

I. 325 : Ex. xv. 23-25.

II. 327-329 : Ex. xiv. 16, 21, 22.
11. 330-333 : 1 Reg. xvii. 40, 49, 4.
11. 353-354 : Cant. iv. 8, etc.

1. 358 : Cant. v. 1.
1. 374 : Jo. i. 14.
1. 375 : Lu. i. 28.
1. 377 : Is. xi. 1, 10.

This list, even somewhat longer than the first, likewise shows
Lydgate's knowledge of the Scriptures.

xlvi 9. Concluding Remarks.

I first intended to collect all the lines which show the influence
of other works, and give them here, but I preferred putting this
material into the notes, in order to avoid repetition, as many of
these quotations at the same time serve to illustrate Lydgate's
language and style. I draw the attention of the reader to the notes
to c, 1. 90 and H, 1. 5.

9. CO^ T CLUDI]N"G REMARKS.

I insert this last paragraph for the sole reason of giving a short
summary of the researches. 1

Lydgate's Nightingale exists in two versions : one dates from the
second half of the year 1446, the other is of uncertain date 2 and
unfinished. Two MSS. of each version are preserved, and the texts
are, on the whole, carefully handed down. Metre, language, and
style are in accordance with Lydgate's general usage. As principal
sources of the two poems, we find John Peckham's Latin poem
" Philomela " and the Bible.

1 Compare Schick, T. G., p. xcv and xcvi. 2 See p. xxxviii, note 1.

I.

[PROSE. INTRODUCTION. Not by Lydgate :
see p. xl.]

[MS. C.C.C.O. 203, p. 1] Assit principio sancta Maria
meo. Amen.

1 it is seyd that the nyghtyngale of hure nature Thenight-

hathe A knowleche of hure deth. And, lyke as

the swan syngeth Afore his deth, so sche, in the day before her

of hure deth, Assendyth in-to the top of the tre and flies to a

r tree-top,

v syrcgeth In hora matutina A lame[n]table note ; and
so aftyre, by mene degrees Aualynge lowere, hora
pnma, hora tercia, hora sexta, et hora nona, tyll sche
com dourc in-to the myddys of the tre. And there, in
hora nona, sche dyeth. This ys moralysyd vn-to

x Cryste An[d] in-to euery crystyn sowle, that schuld
remembre the ourys of Cristys passyouw. And allso These songs

are meant to

by ' hora matutina ys vndurstonden the begyimynge be * com-

J J meraoration

of the world, and the gret fall of owre ffadure Adam, of Christ's

' passion.

and the natyuite of euery man, And ' patris sapiencia '

declared ; and in like wyse ' hora pnma, Crucifige,

x hora sexto, And hora nona' declared wyth the Ages

of the worlde in tyme of Noe and of Abraham, And

so forthe brefly touched the Kesurecfo'ouw, the Ascen-

cyone, pentecost, And Corpus Cristi day et cetera.

1 For the wanting capital, see description of 0. vii. pn'ma]
a above the line, tercia] see note to this line. viii. of] follows o.
ix. moralysyd] ysy illegible. xiii. Adam] a above the line.
xiv. patris] the first half illegible. xvii. Abraham] a above the
line.

NIGHTINGALE. B

I. The Proem and Dedication.

Go, little
poem,

present thy-
self to the

Duchess of
Buckingham,
and ask her
for a place
[P- 2]

among her
books,

till she reads
thee to her
courtiers,

[PEOEM. THE DEDICATION.]

[59 stanzas of sevens, ababbcc.]

(i)

Go, lityll quayere, And swyft thy prynses dresse, 1

Offringe thy s elf e wyth humble reuerence
Vn-to the ryght hyghe and myghty pryncesse,

The Duches of Bokyngham, and of hur excellence
Besechinge hyre, that, of hure pacyence 5

Sche wold the take, of hure nohle grace
Amonge hyre bokys for the Asygne A place, 7

to show them
how to in-
terpret the
nightingale's
song

truly, i. e. in
a spiritual
sense.

(2)

8

Vn-to the tyme hyr ladyly goodnesse

Luste for to call vn-to hyr high presence
Suche of hyre peple, that are in lustynesse

Fresschly encoragyt, as galantws in pn'me-tens,
Desyrous for to here the amerouse sentensce 12

Of the nyghtyngale, and in there myiide enbrace,
Who fauoure moste schall fynd in loues g?*ace, 14

[MS. Cott. Calig. A ii, leaf 59.]

(3)

Commandyng theym to here wyth tendernesse

Of this your nightyngale the gostly sense,
Whos songe and deth declared is expresse
In englysh here, right bare of eloquence,
But notheles considred * the sentence :
All loue vnlawfle, y hope, hit will deface
And fleschly lust out of theyre hertis chace,

15

1 9

21

The fresh
season of
May banishes
the cold of
winter.

Meued of Corage be vertu of the seson, 22

In prz'me-tens renoueled yere be yere,
Gladyng euery hert of veray reson,

When fresh[e] May in kalendes gan apere,
Phebus ascendyng, clere schynyng in hys spere, 26
By whom the colde of wyntyr is exiled
And lusty seson thus newly reconciled. 28

1 lityll And] illegible by dirt. 2 Offringe tliyselfe] illegible
by dirt. 4 Bokyngham] a above the line. 19 the] de c. 21
out] above the line c. 24 veray] a preceding verray blotted out c.

I. In May the Nightingale lids me rise.

(5)
To speke of sleep, hit nedes most be had

Vnto the norishing of euery creature,
With-oute whech braynes must be mad,
Outragesly wakyng oute of mesure,
Excepte thoo that kyndely nature
Meueth to wach, as the nyghtingale,
"VVhych in her seson be slep[e] set no tale.

(6)

For sche, of kynde, all the someres nyght
!N"e seseth not with mony a lusty note,
Wheder hit be dry or wete, derk or lyght,
Eedly rehersyng her leson ay be rote
Gret mervell is the enduryng of hir throte
That her to here it is a second heuen,
So melodiouse ande rnery is her steuen.

29 All creatures
want sleep
during the
night :

33 the night-
ingale alone
can spend
this time

35 watching.

36 She sings all
night.

40
42

Near the end
of April, 1
was lying
sleepless,

troubled
with heavy
thoughts.

[THE POEM.]

(7)
And, on a nyght in Aprile, as y lay 43

Wery of sleep & of my bed ail-so,
Whene that the kalendes entred were of May
(Whech of hir nature neither loueth of thoo),
My herte with mony a thoght was ouer-go 47

Ande with this troblus worlde sore agreued,
But, as god wold, in hast y was Releued. 49

(8)
Thys blessed brid, of whom y you rehersed, 50 [ieaf59,bk.j

As fer as that y godely myght hir here,
So thorghly my hert raueshed had and persed
Ryght wi