Add MS 35288

THE ROMANCE of Partonopeus de Blois, translated from the French into English verse. Nearly 12,000 lines, beginning

"Hoo so luste olde stories to rede He shalle fynde withowten drede Meruellys and wonders mony and fele Off myrthe ioye dyssese and wele." f. 2.

A leaf is lost after f. 19, containing probably about 80 lines (cf. the French text, Partonopeus de Blois, ed. Crapelet, 1834, vol. i. pi).

46-7); otherwise the MS. is complete. It ends with the marriage of Partonopeus and Melior, and does not mention the two other weddings which took place at the same time in some of the French versions (see Cat. of Romances, i. P. 699). The concluding lines are:-

"But in hye plesaunce I lete hem he And pray to god of love pat he His seruaunte departe so of his grace That they may stonde in pc same case In which faire melior and her love hath be And pus Endeth pc Romans of partonope." f. 154.

The version is, on the whole, that of which 7530 lines were edited (from three Oxford MSS.) by the Rev. W. E. Buckley for the Roxburghe Club in 1862, and of which another fragment, containing 41 additional lines, was published by R. Wülker (from Lord Robartes's MS.) in Anglia, xii. (1889), p. 607; not the shorter version which was edited for the Roxburghe Club, from a very incomplete MS., in 1873. But the present MS., besides supplying over 1400 lines at the beginning (1. 1 of Buckley's ed. is here f. 20, l. 10), over 200 at the end, and several hundreds more in various lacunæ (cf. Buckley's ed., pp. 58, 61, 100, etc., with the present MS., ff. 44-45 b, 46 b, 63-65, etc.), is much fuller in many places. Among the additioinal passages may be noted one on ff. 28 b-29, coming between ll. 629 and 630 of Buckley's ed. and containing the lines

"For y am comawndyt of my souereyne Thys story to drawe fulle and playne Because yt was ful vnkowthe and lytel knowe Fronie frenche ynne to yngelysche that beter nowe Hyt wy3th be to euery wy5thte. There fore y do alle my my3thte To saue my autor ynne sucche wyse As lie that mater luste devyse Where lie makyth ynne grete compleynte In frenche so fayre thatt yt to paynte In Engclysche tungge y saye for me My wyttys alle to dullet bee He tellyth hys talo of sentament I vnderstonde north hys entent Ne wolle ne besy me to lere There fore stray3thte to the matero I wylle go of partonope."

Paper (ff. 2-19 vellum); ff. 154. Late xvth cent., in several hands. Among otlier scribblings on ff. 153 b-154 b occur the names (? of former owners) Frauncisse Vavasour and Robarte Gascoyg[ne], and the entry "Altherton Thomas a Christo sit benedictus." Formerly Ashburnham Appendix 247 (sale-cat. 1899, lot 169). Folio.

Romances: Partonopeus de Blois, in Engl. verse: late 15th cent.

Poetry: Partonopeus de Blois: late 13th cent.

Partonopeus de Blois: Romance of, in Engl. verse: late 15th cent.