Royal MS 20 A XIX

BOETHIUS, De consolatione philosophiae anonymous translation both of the prosae and metra) into French verse. A different translation from that of Renaud de Louhans in 19 A. IV. Other copies are in Add. MS. 26767 and at Paris, Bibl. Nat. anc. fonds fr. 577 (see Paulin Paris, Les MSS. François, v, p. 51). The translator, who seems to have been a prisoner in England, dedicates his work to Charles VII. He probably used Renaud's version, as he imitates him in translating the first book into eight-line stanzas and then changing to simple couplets. The brief prologue to book i (quoted by P. Paris), in which the change is explained, is here absent. The prologue (39 couplets followed by nine stanzas) shows a similar mixture of metres; and the epilogue to book v has also a more elaborate rhyme-scheme (ab nine times, then bba). Prologue beg.:-

'Cellui qui bien bat les boissons Est digne dauoir les moissons.'

Text:-

'Chancons jadiz souloie faire, Quant Iestude estoit en ses fleurs.'

Book v ends:-

'Deuant les yeulx du juge droit Qui toutes choses scet et voit.'

Epilogue ends:-

'Cellui quen vraye obeissance Tous bons cuers aime, sert et croit.'

Vellum; ff. i + 195. 91/2 in. x 63/4 in. First half of XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (last⁶), with catchwords. Sec. fol. Est haulte'. Three tolerably executed pen-drawings are prefixed to the prologue and books i and ii. Flourished initials in these three cases with gold, elsewhere blue and red or red and black. The subjects of the drawings are:-

1. A kneeling figure presenting the book to Charles VII: four courtiers behind, two wearing wreaths. f. 1.

2, 3. Philosophy at Boethius' bedside, banishing the Poetic Muses. ff. 4, 29.

On the fly-leaf (f. 195) is scribbled 'Loyalte me lye. Elyzabeth', possibly in the hand of Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII (cf. Add. MS. 17012, f. 21). The MS. afterwards belonged to John Theyer (monogram, f. 195); Theyer sale-cat. no. 150; CMA. 6649.