Royal MS 18 A X

THEOLOGICAL TREATISES and poems in English, viz.:-

1. Fragment of a treatise in two or more books, imperf at beg. and end. What survives is ch. iii-xi of one book, mainly translated from passages in Hugo de Sancto Victore De arca Noe morali (Migne, Patr. Lat. clxxvii. 620-665 passim), with colophon (f. 9) 'Here endeth this book of thys tretys foresayd and here begynnen the chapitres of the same book', and ch. i and ii (a few lines only) of the book following, taken from some other source and dealing with the relations of God and Man. The rubrics of the two lost chapters of bk. i are 'How that an vnordynat loue of passynge thynges causeth gret infirmite in mankynde so that god may not enterly be loued', and 'How by loue mankynde may resorte to our lord Ihesu and [be] maad stable in hym, and a difference betwen the loue of god and the loue of þe world'. Ch. iii beg. 'Lefte we vp oure hertes first to Ihesu þat stableþ mennes hertes'. The other book beg. 'Sythe it is so þat al maner thynges visibles and vnuisibles and vnresounables . . . aren fourmed and maked of alle the hole invisible Trinite, as is in partie schewed in the litel tretys that goth afore'; breaks off 'the thridde voys seith fie. The ferste voys [biddeth the take]'. f. 1.

2. Treatise or sermon on prayer; imperfect at beg. Beg. '. . . god, and if the brunt of the batayle be stifly fordone'; ends 'cunne desire god and the endeles merthe and the melodic of heuene. To the wheche mirthe god brynge vs alle. Amen. Amen'. f. 8.

3. 'A good question to god': a brief note (cf Arundel MS. 197, f. 10) beg. 'A sely soule askid of god oure stedefast lord clennes of soule'; ends 'but after myn dome, &c.' f. 10.

4. 'A good remedie a3ens spirituel temptacions': epistle to a lady. Beg. 'Dere sister, I haue in partie vnderstonde by thyn writyng of diuerse temptaciouns and taryinges'; ends 'and I schal preye for the. The holi gost haue the in his kepynge. Amen'. f. 10 b.

5. 'Fowre tokenis of loue': a brief note beg. 'Tokenes ther ben foure. whether thu loue god in charite'; ends with a Latin couplet 'Si sis de dignis hiis quatuor accipe signis: audi, plange, caue, fac, te deus eruet a ve'. f. I5.

6. Two paragraphs on the Trinity. Beg. 'Seynt Johan seyth in his gospel that ther ben thre persones in the trinite, pater et filius et spiritus sanctus. These thre ben distinct and partit'; ends 'to be rewardit in heuene aboue'. f. 15.

Artt. 1-6, two gatherings originally of 8 leaves (first leaf is lost), are all in the same neat hand, of the first half of 15th cent. On the fly-leaf (f. ib) is written Speculum debilium animarum', but it is not clear to which article it applies.

7. Translation, without title, of the first portion (vices and virtues) of the Somme le Roi of Frère Laurent, confessor to Philip III of France (see below, 19 C. II, art. 1). Distinct not only from the Ayenbite of Inwit (pp. 14-98 of the E. E. Text Soc. ed. represent the corresponding portion of the original), but from the MS. versions in Add. MSS. 17013, 30944, 37677, and from Caxton's Book Royal. Beg. 'Mi dere lord seynt Johan in þe book of reuelaciones þat is cleped þe apocalips seiþ þat he sawe a beest þat cam oute of þe see'; ends 'þe seuene trees þat beren þe fruyt of endeles liif. Amen'. f. 16.

8. 'Modus confitendi in Anglicis verbis': confessional formula for a woman. Beg. 'Whan þow þenkest to purge þi soule of synne by confessioun and penaunce doyng, firste rekne bytwene god and þe in thine herte'; ends 'y biseche []ow to pray for me'. f. 55 b.

9. 'Seynt Edmunde þe archebishope prechid þis confessyon to þe peple to teche hem þe bettere to kunne schryue hem and he hymself seyde it eche day to god.' Printed from this MS. by Wilfrid Wallace, Life of S. Edmund of Canterbury, 1893, p. 362. Beg. 'God, fadir almyzti, þat art oo god in þre persones and þat art only þe hope of my liif'; ends 'þat y mow come into þe liife wiþoute ende. Amen. And sey þi confiteor to þe preest whan he goþ to masse'. f. 60 b.

10. 'A disputeson betwen the body and the sowle': poem (67 x 8 lines, but stanza iv is inserted in another hand on a small piece of vellum, f. 62) based on the Latin verses noticed above, 8 B. VI, art. 7. Printed from this MS. by H. Varnhagen in Anglia, ii, 1879, p. 229 (cf. four other texts printed by W. Linow in Varnhagen's Erlanger Bezträge, Heft i, 1889). f. 61 b. Beg.:-

'As I lay in a wynter nyght A litel drouknynge befor þe day.' Ends:-

'Þe ioye þat þou to vs hast wrought Þou grante vs for þyn holy grace. Amen.'

Colophon, 'Explicit disputacio inter corpus et animam'.

11. 'A pistell of seynt Jerome ysende to a mayden cleped Demetriad, þat hadde wowede chastite to oure lord Ihesu Crist'; not the genuine ep. cxxx of S. Jerome (Migne, Patr. Lat. xxii. 1107), but the epistle of the heretic Pelagius to Demetrias (see 6 A. III, art. 7, &c.). The translation begins in cap. ix of Migne's text (XXX.

24 A, or XXXIII. 1105). Imperfect at end, but wanting only a few lines, and also by loss of a leaf after f. 68. Another copy is in Add. MS. 10053, f. 40b, and cf. 17 C. XVIII, art. 11. Beg. 'The first besynes and the first studie of a mayde'; breaks off Doughter, make þus þi besines alle þi. . .'. f. 67.

12. Tract on breaches of the Commandments. Imperf. at beg. A shorter form of it, entitled 'Lerne who brekeþ these comaundementis'. is in Add. MS. 28026, f. 187 b, appended to the Wycliffite commentary on S. Matthew. Beg. in comm. iii 'þei worschipen hym with her lippis'; ends 'omnino apud te non maneat'. f. 83.

13. 'Here ben vii. dedly synnes': a brief tract beg. 'Pryde, wraþþe and enuye ben synnes of þe fende'; ends 'a[]eins siouþe besynesse in vertues'. f. 85.

14. Theological commonplaces in Latin, beg. 'Ista quatuor secundum Augustinum promittuntur'. f. 86.

Artt. 7-14, gatherings of 8 leaves, all (except f. 62, and art. 14) in the same hand, with catchwords. Each pair of leaves is numbered at the beginning (i-xx, i-iv, i-iv, i-xii). Leaves are lost after ff. 68, 82,.

15. History of the Three Kings of Cologne; abridged translation of the Historia Trium Regum of John of Hildesheim, Prior of the Carmelite house of Marienau (cf. 8 F. XII, art. 6). Printed from this MS. by C. Horstmann, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1886. In this MS. and in Stowe MS. 951 (imperf. at beg.) the openings of ch. i-xxxii are modified as compared with the original text (see Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV, Add. MS. 36983, and the Cambridge MS. also printed by Horstmann) so as to give the initial letters MARGARETA MON- INGTOWN, MAWDE STRANLEA, doubtless the names of ladies for or by whom this recension was executed. Beg. 'Mi[]tfull god þat euermore is wondirful in hys seyntis'; ends 'hi[]e blysse of heuene. To þe which blysse he brynge vs þat in heuens aboue all kynges sittiþ and regneþ withoute eende, Crist Jhesus. A.M.E.N.' f. 87.

16. Parce mihi, domine: poem with this refrain (56 x 4 lines, rhymes abab, the refrain recurring usually at the end of the 3rd but sometimes at the end of the 2nd, 4th, or 5th stanza). Another copy is in Harley MS. 1706, f. 16, where it follows another poem (a metrical version of Hampole's Petty Job) having the same refrain. The Harley MS. has an extra stanza at the end. f. 119 b. Beg.:-

'By a forest syde walkyng as I went Desport to take in o mornynge.'

Ends:-

'I þanke þee of þi sonde, Parce michi, domine. Explicit.' 17. 'Missus est angelus Gabriel': poem on the Annunciation (19 x 4 lines). f. 123 b. Beg.:-

'God sent hys aungell Gabriell To Nazareth þe chefe cite.'

18. Poem on the evil of backbiting (18 x 4 lines). f. 125. Beg.:-

'Seynt Bernard seiþ, and so seye I, In her counseill come not my sowle.'

19. Dialogue in verse between the Virgin Mary and the Cross (41 stanzas, regularly of 13 lines, rhymes ababababcdddc, but in stanzas 2 and 41 for each couplet ab is substituted a tristich of shorter lines aab). Lines 5-8 of stanza 38 are omitted. Printed from this MS. by R. Morris, Legends of the Holy Rood, E. E. Text Soc., 1871, p. 197. f. 126 b. Beg.:-

'O litel whyle lesteneþ to me Ententyfly, so haue []e blys.'

Ends:-

'And Maries praier mylde and goode Graunte vs þe lyfe of grace. Amen.'

20. 'Deo nostro iocunda sit laudacio': poem on festivals of the church (regularly in stanzas of 13 lines, rhymes ababababbcccb, but short stanzas are irregularly interspersed). Imperfect at end. Printed ib. p. 210. Headed with a couplet, 'Joyeful preisyng to god oure lord þe sawter book bereþ record '. f. 130 b. Beg.:-

'The lord pat is a howsholder With faire festis folk he fat.'

Breaks off (ll. 332-3):-

'Þe hey[]tes of his hyze kynge Withoute any . . .'

Artt. 15-20 are all in the same hand, gatherings of 8 leaves, with catchwords, the leaves lettered apparently on the same plan as artt. 7-14, but after a-f the letters are omitted or have been cut off.

Vellum; ff. i + 134. 91/2 in. x 7 in. First half of XV cent. Gatherings, see above. Sec. fol. (now f. 1) 'Lefte we', or (f. 2) 'make þere '. Initials in red or blue (in art. 15 flourished red and blue). Belonged (f. 1) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 125; cat. of 1666, f. 12 b ; not in CMA.