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TH CENTURY IN FOUR VERSIONS.
EDITED BY THE REV. RICHARD MORRIS, M.A., LL.D., EX-PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL OUTLINES OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE," EDITOR OF "HAMPOLE'S PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE," "ANGUTTARA-NIKÂYA," ETC. ETC.
VOL. I. CONTAINS LINES 1-4918 OF TEXT, WITH ESSAYS ON THE SOURCES OF 'CURSOR MUNDI' BY DR. HAENISCH, AND ON THE FILIATION AND TEXT OF THE MSS. BY DR. H. HUPE; AND A PREFACE AND NOTES BY THE EDITOR.
LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD. 1874, 1893.
R. CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.
TH CENTURY IN FOUR VERSIONS.
EDITED BY THE REV. RICHARD MORRIS, M.A., LL.D., EX-PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL OUTLINES OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE," EDITOR OF "HAMPOLE'S PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE," "ANGUTTARA-NIKÂYA," ETC. ETC.
VOL. II. CONTAINS LINES 4919-19266 OF THE TEXT.
LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD. 1875-6.
R. CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.
TH CENTURY IN FOUR VERSIONS.
EDITED BY THE REV. RICHARD MORRIS, M.A., LL.D., EX-PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL OUTLINES OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE," EDITOR OF "HAMPOLE'S PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE," "ANGUTTARA-NIKÂYA," ETC. ETC.
VOL. III. CONTAINS LINES 19267-29555 OF THE TEXT, WITH SIX ADDITIONS AND FOUR APPENDICES, INCLUDING "THE BOOK OF PENANCE," AND "CATO'S MORALS" (INCOMPLETE) FROM THE FAIRFAX MS. 14, and a Glossary by Dr. Max Kaluza.
LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD. 1877, -78, -92.
R. CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.
(The pages inserted are those of the printed text, in the Göttingen MS. very few of these headings actually occur in the text, the pages therefore are approximate.)
[
[On Fairfax 14, leaf 1, foot,? late 16th-cent. hand, 9 Worthyes
At back, a note about 'nycholas batson . . . . . of the Cytie of york'.
On back of slip attacht, the names Tomas Bellyngham, Robartus Bellyng|ham, Tomas of Canterbere, Robertus Crank.
¶ Begine we now to tell at sem And siþen of his bern-tem.
Heber, phalet, ragan, seruth, nachor & thare de quo abram iam incipiens
Now es god at vnder tak þe store tell of ysaac:
hir biginis hu mari and iohn went to þe temple o crist
Be-gyn we now to tel at sem. and sithen of his barnetem.
Now ys gode atte vnder-take. and þe story telle of Isaac.
¶ Iste liber restat Domino Iohanni de croft
[No fourth copy of the early part of this can be found in any MS. of the Cursor now known to us. The Edin|burgh MS. has lost its beginning.]
At the foot of this leaf is the following, written in a later hand.
In the numbering of the lines the heavy-black figures indicate that lines which occur in the text are omitted here, as shown by the neighbouring figures.
(See lines 20011 to 20820, of text,
[In the numbering of the lines the heavy-black figures indicate that lines which occur in the text have been omitted here, as shown by the neighbouring figures.]
[The Coll. of Arms MS. ends with leaf 132, back,—]
The quire or quires containing ch. lxxvj, all chapters lxxvij—lxxxx (ch. 90, the beginning of the Cato), have been cut out. The Table of Contents of this Fairfax Cursor treats the Great and Little Catos as part of that poem. See p. 7 above.)
THERE are at least four early versions of the Disticha de Moribus in our tongue.
I. An Anglo-Saxon version in Cotton MS. Julius A. II.; another copy in Trinity College Library, Cambridge; also a late copy in Cotton Vespasian D. XIV.
II. A translation in English verse accompanies a late copy of the monk Everard's French version in the Vernon MS. (Bodleian Library, just before 1400 A.D.), and Additional MS. 22283 (British Museum). Earlier and better copies of Everard may be seen in Arundel MS. 292, and Lambeth MS. 371. He has been printed by Le Roux de Lincy in Le Livre des Proverbes Français.
III. Another verse translation by Benedict Burgh of the latter part of the fifteenth century. This is repeatedly but wrongly assigned by catalogue writers to John Lydgate. Copies of this version are very common.
IV. The fragmentary version now before us, late 14th century, or early 15th. This is the only copy known to me. To judge from the six-line stanza and the arrangement of the rimes, it seems to be an imitation of Everard's French Cato, mentioned above. A comparison of the text with the Latin original (ed. F. Hauthal, Berlin, 1870) shows it to represent the follow|ing distichs in this order:—
III. 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 21.
IV. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 20, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 (39 torn), 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49.
Part of the epilogue seems to be taken from Everard's prologue.
All these English versions I copied some years ago, with the intention of editing them for the Early English Text Society; but, at Dr. Dahlmann's wish, I gave them up to him, and we were to do a joint edition of the English and foreign version of the Distichs for the Society. As, however, this edition has been, and must still be delayed, and Mr. Furnivall—mainly for Chaucer purposes—wishes the present version to appear at once, advantage has been taken of its looking, in the Fairfax MS., like part of the Cursor, to add the poem here, though it will be repeated in the Society's full edition of the Cato.
¶ Stokynbrig scripsit istum librum. Willelmo Keruour de Lancastre.
[2 blank leaves at end, partly scribbled on: on the 1st leaf is this:—
On the 2nd leaf:—
Nota de loquacitateThese 2 lines in a modern hand, the rest 15-century.]
In multiloquio non deest Peccatum.These 2 lines in a modern hand, the rest 15-century.]