Add MS 36983

From Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1900-1905 (London: British Museum, 1907), pp. 265-69:

'CURSOR MUNDI and other English poems, with the prose legend of the Three Kings.

1. " Þe cours of þe world " (so the title in the prologue): an East Midland text of the Northumbrian poem on the Seven Ages of the World. The text is described and two samples given (prologue and ll. 9517-9752) in the four-text edition of the Early English Text Soc. (seven parts, 1874-1893). Of the four texts printed it approaches nearest to the Trinity College (Cambridge) MS., but is remarkable for the omission of two long sections of the original poem (11. 14916-17288 and 22005-end), which it replaces by corresponding passages of other poems (below, artt. 2, 3). f. 1. Prologue begins:- Men [yogh]erneþ gestis for to here And romance Rede in diuers manere." Title of the text (f. 3), " Here now of the trenite dere And makyng of þis worlde here." Text begins, Alle men ow þat lorde to drede Þat made man to haue mede." A leaf (11. 1015-1140) is lost after f. 8, and f. 143 is torn. Concludes, at the end of art. 3, with an epilogue of ten lines, which begins (f. 174 b), "Now allmyghty God in trenite One God and Persons þre." It ends, "And sende vs grace þat day to Rise To blis with þat trew Justis. AMEN." Colophon, " Explicit þe begynnyng off þe Worlde off þe trenite þe ffadir and Son and Holigost þo Makyng off þe Worlde of Adam and Eue and afftir of Noye aud So ffro Noye to Abraham and So doune þe Genelagy of our lady and þe birth off Crist and his pascion and Resurrexion and So many oþer dyuers maters and So to þe day of dome and þe comyng of antecrist and So to þe laste day of Jugement."

2. " Here begynneth þe meditacion of pe passion of Crist and of þe lamentacion of oure lady Saint Mary þat Sche made for her Son when Sche se hym torment among þe Jewis, which was compiled of Bonaventure, a gode clerk and a Cardinall of Rome, and þe meditacions of all þe houris of þe day": paraphrase in English verse (E. Midland ?) of a part of the Meditaciones Vitae Christi commonly ascribed to St. Bonaventura. Substituted, as mentioned above, for the corresponding part of Cursor Mundi. Printed (Early Engl. Text Soc., 1875) from Harl. MS. 1701 by J. M. Cowper, who attributes it to Robert Mannyng of Bourne. It is, however, uncertain whether the original Latin can be referred to so early a date, since it has been shown by Peltier (Bonaventurae Opera, xii. p. xlii.) that it is not the work of the Seraphic Doctor (nor, as Oudin and Oscinger maintained, of the Augustinian Cardinal of the same name, Bonaventura Badoaro), but of a Franciscan of San Gimignano in Tuscany or the neighbourhood, perhaps Joannes de Caulibus, to whom Wadding assigns the date 1376 without evidence. ff. 118-127. Begins, Allmyghty God in trenite Now and euer with vs be. For þy Sonis pascion Saue all þis Congregation." Ends, " Þou liste hem and lede hem in þe way of pece."

3. Part of the Prick of Conscience by Richard Rolle of Hampole, viz. nearly all of Book v., concerning Antichrist and Doomsday (11. 4085-6407, ed. Morris, Philological Soc., 1863), following, without indication of a break, on 1. 22004 of the Cursor Mundi, and followed in like manner by the ten-line epilogue noticed above. ff. 159-174 b. Begins, Some clerkis Say þat one schal come Þat Schall holde þe Empyre of Rome." Ends, Afftir þe Dome now mad schall be."

4. "Incipit carmen secundum ordinem litterarum Alphabeti": Chaucer's A B C (Works, ed. Skeat, i. p. 261), translated from the Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine of Guillaume de Deguilleville. Beg. "All Mighty and all mercyable quene." f. 175.

5. "Thus begynnyth the lyffe off thre kyngys of Coleyne the English prose abridgement of the Historia SS. Trium Regum of John of Hildesheim. The text (E. Midland) is collated and described in Horstmann's edition (Early Engl. Text Soc., 1886). Beg. " 0ff the thre worsehypfull kyngys." Colophon (f. 215 b), " Thus endythe þe lyffe of þe iii kyngys of Coleyne primo die Januare anno domini millesimo ccccxlii'." f. 179.

6. "Þe Vengaunce of Godys deþe" (so colophon; there is no title): the poem of Titus and Vespasian or the Destruction of Jerusalem, ascribed to Adam Davy or to Lydgate, in about 5154 lines, rhymed octosyllabic couplets (v. Add. MS. 36523). lt includes (ff. 249 b- 252 b) the passage containing the Life of Judas, which some MSS. omit. f. 216. Begins, "Harkneþ all þat beþ alyue, Boþ Cristen man and wyue. Y wolle [yogh]ow tell a wondyr cas How lhesu Crist hatyd was." Ends, I hope þat þay haue ywisse To her mede hevyn blysse. God graunt ous all þere to be. Amen, amen, pur charite."

7. " Ihesu mercy, lady help " (so heading and colophon): the account of Heaven, Earth and Hell which forms part iii. of St. Michael's legenda in the early English verse-legendary edited from the Oxford MS. Laud 108 by Horstmann (E. E. Text Soc., 1887). This piece is also printed from Harl. MS. 2277 by Tho. Wright, Popular Treatises on Science (Historical Society of Science, 1841), p. 132, and other copies are in Stowe MS. 949 (f. 10), Egert. MS. 1993 (f. 229) and Add. MS. 10301 (f. 175 b, a fragment), all of which are copies of the legendary (Cotton MS. Jul. D. ix. omits it), and in Add. MS. 22283 separately (f. 83). In this MS. alone it is preceded by a preface of twenty-four (or twelve) lines attributing it to Beda. f. 255. Begins, "Bothe for clerkys and for lewed men Þis Englyseh tale ys yfounde. Seint Bede oute of Laten yt nom And wrote ytt in Englysch speche." Text begins, "The ry[yogh]t pytte of hell ys A myd þe erþe wiþ in." Ends, " Þat Seint My[yogh]hell yt reseyve mote And byfore hym lede. Amen."

8. Chaucer's Balade of Truth (Works, ed. Skeat, i. 390). Without title. Three stanzas, without the Envoy, as in many other MSS. Beg. " Fle ffrom þe pres and dwell with sotheffastnesse." f. 262.

9. Balade (ascribed to Lydgate ?), eight stanzas with refrain, " None of all these I doo yow well assure Off kyndely ryght may no while endure." Beg. " A knyght that is hardy as a lyon." f. 262.

10. Learn or be Lewde, or the A B C of Aristotle, two texts of which are printed in Furnivall's edition of the Babee's Book (E. E. Text Soc., 1868), p. 9. Without title. Beg. " Be neuer to auenterous, to amerous, ne angre þe nat to moche." f. 263.

11. Eight lines without title, beginning, " Who couthe suche a womman counterffete That on all ffolkys hathe compassion." f. 263 b.

12. " Liber Ipotyse " (so colophon) : English poem in 664 lines on the dialogue of Hadrian and the Wise Child. Printed from a MS. at Brome by Miss L. Toulmin Smith (A Commonplace Book of the Fifteenth Cent., Norwich, 1886, p. 25), and from the Vernon MS. at Oxford, and Cotton MS. Cal. A. ii. (f. 79 b) by Horstmann, All-Engl. Legenden, ii. (Heilbronn, 1881), pp. 341, 511; v. also 11. Gruber in Anglia, xviii. p. 56. The three lines in which the Child is called Ypotis are wanting. For other forms of the dialogue see the often-printed Altercatio Hadriani et Fpicteti, the Dialogue of Salomon and Saturn (edited in Anglo-Saxon and other forms by Kemble, Aelfric Soc., 1848), the French L'Enfant sage à trois ans (Troyes, 1617, etc.), and the English version of the last printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and reprinted by Halliwell in 1860. f. 264. Begins, Alle þat wille of wysdom lere Herkeneþ to me and [yogh]e schulle here." Ends, God leue þat so mote we Ame Amen for charite."

13. " Incipit Alquyne ": the Speculum Guidonis de Warwick, an English moral poem (971 lines) based upon the Liber de Virtutibus et Vitiis or Epistle to Wido (here identified with Guy of Warwick), of Alcuin (ep. 237 of Dümmler's Monumenta Alcuiniana). Edited, from the Auchinleck MS., with collation of others, by Miss G. L. Morrill (E. E. Text Soc., 1898), and also printed from Royal MS. 17 B. xvii., by Horstmann, Richard Rolle, ii. p. 24. f. 268. Begins, Herkeneþ alle to my spelle And hele of soule I wolle telle." Ends, In trewe loue and charite. Amen, amen, so mow it be."

14. " Disputacio inter deum et hominem " (so colophon) : English poem (636 lines). f. 275. Begins, Owre gracious God prince of pyte, Whos mi[yogh]te, whos goodnesse neuer began." Ends, Þat to þam chosen and ordeyned ys Þat leuyn synn and han amende."

15. Verse life of St. Erasmus, without title, printed in two versions (from Harl. MS. 2382 and this MS.) by Horstmann, Alt-Engl. Legenden, i. (Heilbronn, 1878), pp. 198, 201. f. 279 b. Begins, All cristen folke [yogh]e listen and lere Of an holy buysshop and a martere." Ends, And þe secund was called Maximian." Followed (f. 280) by a prose list of the martyr's sufferings and the rubric (blackened with pencil), " Quicumque hanc antiphonam cum oracione subscripta corde contrito qualibet die dominica deuote dixerit in honore sancti Erasmi episcopi et martiris, deus ipsi prouidebit de omnibus sibi nessessariis, absque eucaristia et sacra unxcione non morietur, ab omnibus inimicis tutus erit, et decem milia dierum indulgencie pro meprocede (sc. mercede) habebit."

16. " This is the Abbey of the holy Gost that is yfounded in a place that is ycalled conscience " : the prose treatise formerly ascribed to John Alcock, Bishop of Ely 1485-1500, but really of much earlier date. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde [1500?], and edited in Horstmann's Richard Rolle, i. p. 321. Horstmann prints from the Thornton MS. at Lincoln, which is Northern. The present text resembles the other MSS., which are all Southern or Midland. f. 281. A leaf is lost after f. 282. Be-ins, " My dere bretheren and susteren y se wele," and ends, " thurgh the sekynge of his blessid modir Seynt Marye. Amen." Colophon, " Thus endithe the Abbey of the Holy Gooste, that is in conscience, in wich aren founden al goode vertues and alle wicked vices aren drevyn out."

17. "And thus begynnyth the Chartyr of þe same Abbey of the holy Goost": a separate tract, according to Horstmann by a different author. Printed from Laud MS. 210 by Horstmann, op. cit., p. 337. f. 285 b. Begins, " Here begynnyth the Abbey of the holy Goost, in pe wich aren nyne and twenti ladyes," and ends, "for loue of synfulle manes soule deyed on þe rode tre. Amen." Colophon, " Thus endiþ the abbey of the holy Goost."

18. "Hie incipit Gubernacio hominis": English poem in 484 lines (stanzas of eight or four) on the course of human life. f. 298. Begins, How þat mankynde dotli begynne lt is meruayle to telle it so." Ends, ]Pat we mow entre hevyne withinne And dwell with pat prince in fere. Amen."

19. Fragment (11. 1-35), without title, of Osbern Buckenham's Lives of Saints, for SS. Dorotheus and Theodora (Arund. MS. 327, f. 87). Edited for the Roxburghe Club (London, 1835), p. 137, and by Horstmann, Bokenham's Legenden (Heilbronn, 1883), p. 120. f. 305 b. Begins, " Whan Crystys ffeyth [yogh]ong was and newe, And not ffully rootyd stedfastely."

On f. 1 are scribbled accompts relating to sheep (15th cent.). On the flyleaves (ff. i., ii.) are notes by Dr. F. J. Furnivall (7 Oct. 1886), Dr. C. Horstmann and others, on the contents of the MS.

Paper ; ff. ii. + 305. Circ. A.D. 1442 (cf. art. 5). Book-stamp of the " Bedfordshire General Library, instituted July, 1830," afterwards the Bedford Literary Institute (sale-cat., Sotheby's, 18 June, 1904, lot 456). 11 in. x 8 in.