Stowe MS 949

LIVES OF SAINTS, in English verse. This MS. belongs to the group of which Harley MS. 2277 and Egerton MS. 1993 are representatives, described at length in C. Horstmann's Altenglische Legenden, Paderborn, 1875, pp. iii.-xxxviii., and in his introduction to The Early South-English Legendary or Lives Of Saints, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1887. The collection here is incomplete, containing only the latter half, from St. Michael onwards, but it includes some additions to the usual list. The contents are as follows, the names being given as they occur in the text, not as in the, later page-headings and index:-

1. Seynt Michel þe archangel, with the additions treating of the Devil, Hell, Heaven, the Elements, the Soul, etc. f. 3.

2. St. Jerom. f. 15 b.

3. St. Leger. f. 17 b.

4. St. Fraunceys. f. 18 b.

5. St. Feye [Faith]. f. 25.

6. St. Denys. f. 26 b.

7. St. Luk. f. 28 b.

8. [En]dleve þousand of virgines. f. 29 b.

9. St. Symon and St. Jude. f. 32.

10. St. Quyntyn. f. 34 b.

11. Alle halewyne day. f. 36 b.

12. Alle Soulen day. f. 37 b.

13. St. Eusthas. f. 42.

14. St. Martyn. f. 46b.

15. St. Brice. f. 50.

16. St. Edmond þe confessor. f. 51.

17. St. Edmond þe holy king. f. 57.

18. St. Cecylie. f. 58.

19. St. Clement. f. 61.

20. St. Katerine. f. 67 b.

21. St. Andreu. f. 71 b.

22. St. Nicholas. f. 74.

23. St. Lucie. f. 80 b.

24. St. Thomas þe apostel. f. 83.

25. The Conception and Nativity, a narrative from the birth of the Virgin to the return from Egypt, with an addition relating how the feast of the Conception of the Virgin was ordered to be kept in England. f. 88 b.

26. St. Steuene. f. 102.

27. St. Jon þe Euangelist. f. 103 b.

28. St Thomas of Canterbury. f. 110 b.

29. St. Egewyn. f. 142 b.

30. St. Frideswyde. f. 144.

31. St. Fremund. f. 145b.

32. St. Pernel [Petronilla]. f. 154.

33. Moyses. f. 155.

Of these Lives no. 31 is not found elsewhere, and the text of no. 30 differs from that in Ashmole MS. 43. For comparative lists and remarks see Horstinann's E.E.T.S. volume, pp. ix., xv.-xvii. There are also textual variations, especially in the beginning of the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury. The work is written in lines of seven feet for the most part, occasionally of six feet, with a pause after the fourth foot in the first case, and after the third in the second. Ends, apparently incompletely, in the middle of the life of Moses. Vellum; ff. 158. Late XIVth cent. Spaces left for coloured initials at the beginning of each life, but not filled up except near the beginning of the volume. No titles, but many of the pages have the name of the saint whose life is contained in them written in a later hand. On f. 1 b is an index in the original or a contemporary hand, entitled "Calendare libri sequentis," giving the names of the saints in their Latin forms. This has been transcribed on an additional sheet of paper (f. 2), bearing the signature of Tho. Astle, with the statement that he obtained the volume from the Rev. [John] Brand in 1796. Inside the cover is the book-plate of "J[ohn] Brand, A.B., Coll. Line. Oxon." [See. to the Society of. Antiquaries, 1784-1806]. Bound in rough wooden boards, with modern leather back. Small Quarto.

Saints: Lives, in Engl. verse: late 14th cent.

Poetry: Lives of Saints: 14th cent.: Engl.