Royal MS 18 A V

THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE, commonly, but doubtfully, attributed to Richard Rolle of Hampole (d. 1349); in about 8,000 lines, with rubrics mostly in Latin. The text differs very considerably from that edited by Richard Morris for the Philological Society in 1863, and though among the ten MSS. in the British Museum which he consulted he does not mention the present copy, it evidently should be associated with the six which he considers transcripts of a Northern copy adapted to more southern dialects (see his preface, p. ii). For a discussion of the authorship of the poem see Miss H. E. Allen in Radcliffe College Monographs, no. 15 (Boston, 1910), who advances reasons for believing it to be by the same author as the Mirror of Life (see 17 C. VIII). P. Andreas, Die Handschriften des Pricke of Conscience, &c., Berlin, 1888, names eighteen copies in the British Museum (to which Add. MS. 33995 must now be added), and groups the Royal MS. with Arundel MS. 140, Harley MSS. 1731, 2281, 2377, and Add. MS. 11305. Beg. 'The might of the fader of heuene'; ends 'that for mannes loue made alle thinge'.

On otherwise blank leaves at the end (ff. 127 b-129 b) is a note, many times repeated, of the apprenticeship of Thomas Elyott, son of William Elyot, of Theddingworth, co. Leic., to Christopher Elyot, goldsmith, of London. At the beginning and end are portions of leaves of a Missal, 14th cent., from an old binding. Vellum; ff. 131. 9 in. x 6 1/4 in, XV cent. Gatherings (beg. f. 2) of 8 leaves, lettered, with catchwords. Sec. fol. 'whan that he'. Perhaps belonged to the family of Elyot (see above). The signature Anton Wotton (f. 1 b) is perhaps that of Anthony Wotton, Profewor of Divinity at Gresham College in 1596-8 (d. 1626). Theyer monogram on f. 129. Theyer sale-cat. no. 304 (?); not identifiable in CMA.