Royal MS 18 C XXVI

TRANSLATION of, and commentary on, the Psalter in English, attributed (assuming this to be the same work of which the first part is in 18 D. I, see below) to Richard Rolle of Hampole. The text is given verse by verse in Latin and English. The present volume contains Ps. lxxxix-cxvii (Vulgate numeration), ending with the first verse of Ps. cxviii, which is given in Latin only. In a Southern dialect. The relation of the several recensions of this commentary to each other and to the Latin work printed at Cologne, 1536, as D. Richardi Pampolitani in Psalterium Enarratio, is not certainly determined (see Forshall and Madden, introduction to The Bible in the earliest Engl. Versions, i, p. iv, and C. Horstmann, Richard Rolle, ii, p. xli, and the edition of the Northern form of the shorter recension by H. R. Bramley, The Psalter with a transl. and exposition by R. Rolle, 1884); but there is little doubt that some or all of them show Wycliffite influence (see, e. g., in this longer recension the views on sacraments expressed in the commentary on Ps. cxvii. 23), though on the other hand Forshall and Madden indicate passages in which statements adverse to the Friars are found in the shorter versions, but not in 18 D. I. The difference in size of pages and mode of ruling makes it doubtful whether this volume can be regarded as part of the same MS. as 18 D. I, but the scale of the commentary in the two is similar. Copies of the shorter text are in Harley MS. 1806 and Arundel MS. 158. Beg. 'Domine refugium, &c., Lord pou ad made refute to vs fro generacioun into generacioun: Here þe profete after sharp reprouynge of vicious men'.

On f. i is a note by J[ohn] R[ussell] resembling those in 18 B. XXI (see above) and 18 D. I, numbering this MS. as E. 517 and suggesting that it is a continuation of the same work as 18 D. I.

Vellum; ff. i + 167. 151/4 in. x 101/4 in. First half of XV cent. Gatherings of 8 1eaves, numbered, with catchwords. The beginning of the text is on the last three pages of a gathering (of six leaves ?) of which the earlier pages are blank and the next gathering is numbered 4. Double columns of 52, lines. Sec. fol. '[]eer bifore'. Illuminated initials with full border of good English work to Ps. lxxxix, xcvii, cix, and a small initial for Ps. cxviii; others in gold flourished with violet or blue flourished with red ink. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 274'; cat. of 1666, f. 12; not in CMA.