Chapter I: Front Matter

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English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books.

Early English Text Society,
Extra Series, XC.
1903.

BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN.
NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT.
PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books

WITH
TWO COLOURED FACSIMILES
FROM
Medieval Prymers.

EDITED BY
HENRY LITTLEHALES.

LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LIMITED,
DRYDEN HOUSE, 43, GERRARD STREET, SOHO, W.
1903

NOTE.

The two coloured facsimiles of this little pamphlet explain themselves. The Manual, which was the medieval priest’s handbook for the services of Baptism, Marriage, Visitation of the Sick, Burial, etc., is virtually the only one of the medieval Latin service-books which contained invariably a certain proportion of its text in English. The text of the English varies in a measure in different MSS.

Extra Series, XC.

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY.

_From the British Museum Manual, MS. 30,506_ (XV cent.).

FROM THE SERVICE FOR BAPTISM.

* * * * *

[1]N. I cristene þe in þe name of þe fader, and of þe sone, and
of þe holy gost.

* * * * *

[2]Godfaderis and godmoderis, I charge ȝow, and þe fader and þe
moder, that þis child be kept þis seuen ȝer fro wat{er}, fro
feer, fro hors [3]fot, fro hondes toth; and þat he ligge not
be þe fader an be þe moder vn-to tyme he co{n}ne sey “ligge
outter,” and þat he be confermyd of a byschop that next cometh
to contre be seuen myle behalue, and þat [he] be tauȝt his beleue,
þat is for to sey, Pat{er} n{oste}r, Aue maria, and Credo; And þat
ȝe wasche ȝo{ur} hondes er ȝe goon owt of chirche, in peyne of
fastyng xl fridayes.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] leaf 23.

[2] leaf 23, back.

[3] leaf 24.

FROM THE MARRIAGE SERVICE.

* * * * *

[1]I aske þe banes betwen I de B and A de C. ȝif any man or woman
kan sey or put any lettenge of sybrede, wherfor they may not, ne
owght not, to come togedere be lawe of holy chirche, do vs to wete.

* * * * *

[2]Lo, syres, we been her gadered togedere befor god and alle his
aungelis and his seyntis, in þe sith of holi cherche, to knette
togedere two bodies, that is to sey, þis man and þis woman, to þis
ende, þat fro{m} þis tyme forward þei moste be o flesch, and two
sowles in þe feith and in þe lawe of god, to deserue togedere euer
lastyng lyf in amendement of that þat þei haue do amys herbefore:
wherfor I amones ȝow alle, that, ȝif þer be any of ȝow þat knowe
any lawful lettyng whi þis man and þis woma{n} mai not be wedded
togedere lawfulli, þat now he sey and knowliche it.

* * * * *

Also I charge ȝow, bothe man and woman, þat ȝif ony of ȝow haue made
any contract p{r}iuyli [3]before þis tyme, or any avow mad, or ony
other cause knowe, whi þat ȝe mai not come to-gedere lawfulli, now
knowliche it.

* * * * *

N. Wiltow haue þis woman to þin wyf, and loue here, and worshipe
here, and holde hire, and kepe here in seknes and in hele, as an
hosbonde owyth to his wif, and alle oþer women to forsaken for hire,
and only to drawe to hire as longe as ȝowre bothe lyues to ged{er}e
lasten?

* * * * *

[4]N. Wiltow haue þis man to þin housbonde, to been buxum to hym,
and serue hym, and loue hym, and worschipe hym, and kepe hym in
syknes and in hele, as a wif owith to do here housbonde, and alle
oþer men forsaken for hym, and only to drawe to hym as longe as
ȝowre bothyn lyues to-gedere lasten?

* * * * *

I .N. take the N. to myn wedded wyf, to haue and to holde from þis
day forward, for beter, for wers, for richere, for porere, for
fayrere, for fowlere, in seknes and in helthe, til deth vs departe,
ȝif holy chirche it wil ordeyne: and therto I plithe þe myn trewthe.

* * * * *

I .N. take the N, to myn weddid housbonde, to haue and to holde from
þis day forward, for beter, for wers, for richer, for porere, for
fayrere, for fowlere, in seknes and in hele, to be boner and buxu{m},
[5]as a wyf owyd to hur husb[an]dd,[5] til deth vs departe, as holi
cherche it [5]wil[5] ordeyne: and therto i plith the myn trowthe.

* * * * *

[6]With þis ryng I þe wedde, and þis gold and siluer I þe ȝeue, and
with al myn bodi I the worschepe, and with al myn wordlich catel
I the honowre.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] leaf 25.

[2] leaf 25, back.

[3] leaf 26.

[4] leaf 26, back.

[5-5] In a later hand.

[6] leaf 27, back.

FROM THE OFFICE FOR THE VISITATION OF THE SICK.

_From the British Museum
Manual, MS. 32,320_ (xv cent.).

How men þat ben in hele sculde
visite sike men.

[1]Beleuyst þow in god, fader [a]My dere sone or douȝtere in god,
almythi, makere of heuene and hyt semith þat þou hyest þe
of erthe? faste in þe wey fro þis life to
* * * * * godward, þere þou schalt cee
I beleue. al þy forme-fadris, apostelis,
martiris, confessouris and
Beleuyst þow i{n} his sone, þe uirgynis, & all men and
secunde p{er}sone in trinite, [b]wo{m}men þat bene saued; and
crist ih{es}u, the whiche was fore gladnes of suche felauschip
conseyuyd be þe myght of þe holy be þou of good co{n}fort in god,
gost, and born of þe blessid þynke how þow muste after þis
mayden, owre ladi seynt marie? lyfe leye a stone in þe waỻ of
þe cite of heuene, sclely witħ
Credo. outen noise or strife, and
þ{er}fore, or þou wende out of þis
Beleuest thow that he leued here world, þou polisscħ þi stoon and
two and thritty ȝer and more, make it redi, ȝif þou wolt not
and suffred at þe last, deth on þere be lettid.
þe cros for þe loue of mankende?
¶ Þis stoon is þy soule, whiche
Credo. þou muste make stronge
þorougħ right bileue; and faire
Beleuyst þow that he wente to þ{o}u muste hit clense, þorougħ
helle & took owt adam and eue hope of goddis m{er}ci and
and the sowles þat were þerynne, p{er}fite charite, the whiche
the whych myȝth not come to coueritħ þe multitude of synnes.
blysse til cristes passiou{n}? þe noyse ..——

Credo.

Beleuyst thow þat he ros vp fro [c]How a man schulde conforte
deth on estir day, and dwellede annothere, þ{a}t he gruche nought
her til ascensiou{n} day, to preue when he is seke.
ve[2]rily his resurrecciou{n}?

Credo.

Beleuyst þow that thanne he Broþer or sisterʼ, louyst þou god þi
styed vp in-to heuene be his lorde? he or sche, ȝif þey may
myȝth, god and man, and there speke, woỻ sey ‘ȝhee,’ [d]or
is euyn in maieste w{i}t{h} his p{er}auenture, ȝif þey may not
fader? speke, þenke ‘ȝhee.’

Credo. ¶ þan þus, ȝif þou lovest god....

Beleuyst þow þat he schal come [e]Ȝiffe detħ goo faste on a man,
at the day of dome to deme þe Speke to hym thesse wordis.
gode and þe badde?
Broþer or Systere in god, ȝif þou
Credo. see or....

Beleuyst þow in þe holi gost, the [f]Now when þou hast seyde aỻ þis,
thridde p{er}sone in trinite, and or ȝif þow maist not seye aỻ for
in holy cherche, and þat þe hastynge of detħ, beginne her{e}
sacrementis of holy chirche or his mynde go from hy{m}. Broþer
aren ordeyned in remissiou{n} of or sister, art þou glad þ{a}t
ma{n}nys senne? þow schalt dye in cristyn feythe?

Credo.

Beleuyst þow in þe sacrament of R’. ȝhe.
þe auter, þat is cristes bodi
whiche was born of marie, knowlechist þou ...
wiche criste lefte her among vs [_Rest missing._]
as for þe most p{re}ciows iewel,
whan he schulde departe be
deth from his disciples?

Credo.

Beleuest þow þat alle tho þat been in good lif schul haue part of
alle [3]the[3] gode dedys, and preyeres that been doon in holy
chirche, and [þat] alle tho þat been knet to-gedere here in holy
chirche be grace, schul ben knet to-gedere in eu{er}lastyng ioye?

Credo.

Trustis thow in þe mercy of god, wiche wil not the deth of a synful
man ȝif he be sory of hys senne and schreuen, and in wyl to amende
hym?

Credo.

Trustis þow þat thow schal haue mercy ȝif þow be sori of þin senne?

Credo.

Trustis thow þat thow, and eu{er}y man and woman, schal rise vp at
þe day of dome in body and in sowle, the badde to be dampned in
endeles peyne, and þe gode to be take, bodi and sowle, in-to
euerelasty{n}g blisse?

[4]Credo.

Art þow in wil fulli to forȝeue alle maner of men and women that
þat þey haue trespased to the, so that þow art in wil to kepe no
rancowr ne malise to hym in þe herte, but to be in loue and charite
with eche man and woman?

* * * * *

I knowliche to god, and to owre lady seynt marie, and to alle þe
halwen of heuene, that I haue senned, with mowth spoken, with
feet goon, w{i}t{h} eyen seyen, with eren hered, with nose
smelled, with herte þowht, and with al myn senful body myswrowth;
therfore i preye owre ladi seynt marie and alle the halwyn of
heuene, prey for me; and the prest, þat thow beseche for me,
and me asoyle, for charite.

Ȝif the seke mai speke after that he is schriue, and hath mad his
gen{er}al confessiou{n}, asoyle the prest hym on þis wyse.

* * * * *

[5]Now, brodir or sister, ȝif þow beholde any cros, or ony ymage
mad with ma{n}nes hond, wite wel þat it is not god; therfore
thinke or seye in þin herte: I wot well that þow art not my{n}
god, but maked aft{er} hym, to make me haue more mynde on myn
god; therfore, lord fader þat art in heuene, m{er}ci i aske of
alle þe sennes that i haue trespased aȝens the wilful passiou{n}
of owre lord ih{es}u crist, the whiche he suffred for al mankende.
merciful fader, of thi goodnesse and thi grete mercy, do awey al
my{n} wikkednesse!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] leaf 50, back.

[2] leaf 51.

[3-3] In a later hand.

[4] leaf 51, back.

[5] leaf 52.

[a] leaf 13, back.

[b] leaf 14.

[c] leaf 15, back.

[d] leaf 16.

[e] leaf 18.

[f] leaf 19, back.

THE GENERAL SENTENCE.

This form of excommunication, read four times a year, has been printed from an excellent text in the Early English Text Society’s volume entitled _Instructions for Parish Priests_. The General Sentence is commonly found in the printed or later Manuals, but appears to have had no distinct place in any medieval service-book.

_Mr. Henry Littlehales, who, in 1898, gave the Chaucer Society his ~Notes on the Road from London to Canterbury~, no. 30 of the Society’s Second Series, and who also edited for the Early English Text Society “The Prymer, or Lay Folk’s Prayer-Book,” from a Cambridge University MS. ab. 1420, nos. 105, 109 in the Original Series, has kindly given the Chaucer Society 250 copies of each of the Facsimiles of two Illuminated pages in Fifteenth-Century MS. Prymers in the British Museum._

_They are issued herewith, but are not made one of the Society’s publications, because we cannot undertake to reproduce them when the present copies run out. Every Member will decide for himself whether he puts these Facsimiles into one of the Society’s Texts, or keeps them apart in his picture-album._

_All will join in thanking Mr. Littlehales for his pretty and welcome gift._

_F. J. Furnivall._

_1 August, 1903._

Full size.]

Full Size.]

Early English Text Society. Extra Series, XC.

English Fragments
from
Latin Medieval Service-Books

WITH
TWO COLOURED FACSIMILES
FROM
Medieval Prymers.

EDITED BY
HENRY LITTLEHALES.

LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LIMITED,
DRYDEN HOUSE, 43, GERRARD STREET, SOHO, W.
1903

_Price Five Shillings._

Early English Text Society.

=Committee of Management:=

=Director:= DR. FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, M.A.
=Treasurer:= HENRY B. WHEATLEY, ESQ.
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{ North & East: Prof. G. L. KITTREDGE, Harvard Coll., Cambr., Mass.
{ South & West: Prof. J. W. BRIGHT, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore.

LORD ALDENHAM, M.A.
ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A.
SIDNEY L. LEE, M.A., D.LIT.
REV. PROF. J. E. B. MAYOR, M.A.
DR. J. A. H. MURRAY, M.A.
PROF. NAPIER, M.A., PH.D.
EDWARD B. PEACOCK, ESQ.
ALFRED W. POLLARD, M.A.
REV. PROF. WALTER W. SKEAT, LITT.D.
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☞ The Society intends to complete, as soon as its funds will allow, the Reprints of its out-of-print Texts of the year 1866, and also of nos. 20, 26 and 33. Prof. Skeat has finisht _Partenay_; Dr. McKnight of Ohio _King Horn_ and _Floris and Blancheflour_; and Dr. Furnivall his _Political, Religious and Love Poems_ and _Myrc’s Duties of a Parish Priest_. Dr. Otto Glauning has undertaken _Seinte Marherete_; and Dr. Furnivall has _Hali Meidenhad_ in type. As the cost of these Reprints, if they were not needed, would have been devoted to fresh Texts, the Reprints will be sent to all Members in lieu of such Texts. Though called ‘Reprints,’ these books are new editions, generally with valuable additions, a fact not noticed by a few careless receivers of them, who have complained that they already had the volumes. As the Society’s copies of the _Facsimile of the Epinal MS._ issued as an Extra Volume in 1883 are exhausted, Mr. J. H. Hessels, M.A., of St. John’s Coll., Cambridge, has kindly undertaken an edition of the MS. for the Society. This will be substituted for the Facsimile as an 1883 book, but will be also issued to all the present Members.

[Sidenote: _Original and Extra Series Books 1903-1906._]

=July 1904.= The Original-Series Texts for 1903 were: No. 122, Part II of _The Laud MS. Troy-Book_, edited from the unique Laud MS. 595 by Dr. J. E. Wülfing; and No. 123, Part II of Robert of Brunne’s _Handlyng Synne_, and its French original, ed. by Dr. F. J. Furnivall.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1903 are to be: No. LXXXVIII, _Le Morte Arthur_, in 8-line stanzas, re-edited from the unique MS. Harl. 2252, by Prof. J. Douglas Bruce (issued), No. LXXXIX, Lydgate’s _Reason and Sensuality_, edited by Dr. Ernst Sieper, Part II, and No. XC, _English Fragments from Latin Medieval Service-Books_, edited, and given to the Society, by Mr. Henry Littlehales.

The Original-Series Texts for 1904 will be No. 124, t. Hen. V, _Twenty-six Political and other Poems_ from the Digby MS. 102, &c., edited by Dr. J. Kail, and No. 125, Part I of the _Medieval Records of a London City Church_ (St. Mary-at-Hill), A.D. 1420-1559, copied and edited by Mr. Henry Littlehales from the Church Records in the Guildhall, the cost of the setting and corrections of the text being generously borne by its Editor. This book will show the income and outlay of the church; the drink provided for its Palm-Sunday players, its officers’ excursions into Kent and Essex, its dealing with the Plague, the disposal of its goods at the Reformation, &c., &c., and will help our members to realize the church-life of its time. The third Text will be Part I of _An Alphabet of Tales_, a very interesting collection, englisht in the Northern Dialect, about 1440, from the Latin _Alphabetum Narrationum_ by Etienne de Bésançon, and edited by Mrs. M. M. Banks from the unique MS. in the King’s Library in the British Museum; the above-named three texts are now ready for issue. Those for 1905 and 1906 will probably be chosen from Part II of the _Exeter Book_—Anglo-Saxon Poems from the unique MS. in Exeter Cathedral—re-edited by Israel Gollancz, M.A.; Part II of Prof. Dr. Holthausen’s _Vices and Virtues_; Part II of _Jacob’s Well_, edited by Dr. Brandeis; the Alliterative _Siege of Jerusalem_, edited by the late Prof. Dr. E. Kölbing and Prof. Dr. Kaluza; an Introduction and Glossary to the _Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._ by H. Hartley, M.A.; Alain Chartier’s _Quadrilogue_, edited from the unique MS. Univ. Coll. Oxford MS. No. 85, by Mr. J. W. H. Atkins of Owen’s College; a Northern Verse _Chronicle of England_ to 1327 A.D., in 42,000 lines, about 1420 A.D., edited by M. L. Perrin, B.A.; Prof. Bruce’s Introduction to _The English Conquest of Ireland_, Part II; and Dr. Furnivall’s edition of the _Lichfield Gilds_, which is all printed, and waits only for the Introduction, that Prof. E. C. K. Gonner has kindly undertaken to write for the book. Canon Wordsworth of Marlborough has given the Society a copy of the Leofric Canonical Rule, Latin and Anglo-Saxon, Parker MS. 191, C. C. C. Cambridge, and Prof. Napier will edit it, with a fragment of the englisht Capitula of Bp. Theodulf. The _Coventry Leet Book_ is being copied for the Society by Miss M. Dormer Harris—helpt by a contribution from the Common Council of the City,—and will be publisht by the Society (Miss Harris editing), as its contribution to our knowledge of the provincial city life of the 15th century.

Dr. Brie of Berlin has undertaken to edit the prose _Brut_ or _Chronicle of Britain_ attributed to Sir John Mandeville, and printed by Caxton. He has already examined more than 100 English MSS. and several French ones, to get the best text, and find out its source.

The Extra-Series Texts for 1904 will be chosen from Lydgate’s _DeGuilleville’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_, Part III, edited by Miss Locock; Dr. M. Konrath’s re-edition of _William of Shoreham’s Poems_, Part II; Dr. E. A. Kock’s edition of Lovelich’s _Merlin_ from the unique MS. in Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge; the _Macro Plays_, edited from Mr. Gurney’s MS. by Dr. Furnivall and A. W. Pollard, M.A.; Prof. Erdmann’s re-edition of Lydgate’s _Siege of Thebes_ (issued also by the Chaucer Society); Miss Rickert’s re-edition of the Romance of _Emare_; Prof. I. Gollancz’s re-edition of two Alliterative Poems, _Winner and Waster_, &c., ab. 1360, lately issued for the Roxburghe Club; Dr. Norman Moore’s re-edition of _The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London_, from the unique MS. ab. 1425, which gives an account of the Founder, Rahere, and the miraculous cures wrought at the Hospital; _The Craft of Nombrynge_, with other of the earliest englisht Treatises on Arithmetic, edited by R. Steele, B.A.; and Miss Warren’s two-text edition of _The Dance of Death_ from the Ellesmere and other MSS.

These Extra-Series Texts ought to be completed by their Editors: the Second Part of the prose Romance of _Melusine_—Introduction, with ten facsimiles of the best woodblocks of the old foreign black-letter editions, Glossary, &c., by A. K. Donald, B.A. (now in India); and a new edition of the famous Early-English Dictionary (English and Latin), _Promptorium Parvulorum_, from the Winchester MS., ab. 1440 A.D.: in this, the Editor, the Rev. A. L. Mayhew, M.A., will follow and print his MS. not only in its arrangement of nouns first, and verbs second, under every letter of the Alphabet, but also in its giving of the flexions of the words. The Society’s edition will thus be the first modern one that really represents its original, a point on which Mr. Mayhew’s insistence will meet with the sympathy of all our Members.

[Sidenote: _Texts preparing: The Texts for 1906, 1907 &c._]

The Texts for the Extra Series in 1906 and 1907 will be chosen from _The Three Kings’ Sons_, Part II, the Introduction &c. by Prof. Dr. Leon Kellner; Part II of _The Chester Plays_, re-edited from the MSS., with a full collation of the formerly missing Devonshire MS., by Mr. G. England and Dr. Matthews; the Parallel-Text of the only two MSS. of the _Owl and Nightingale_, edited by Mr. G. F. H. Sykes (at press); Prof. Jespersen’s editions of John Hart’s _Orthographie_ (MS. 1551 A.D.; blackletter 1569), and _Method to teach Reading_, 1570; Deguilleville’s _Pilgrimage of the Sowle_, in English prose, edited by Prof. Dr. L. Kellner. (For the three prose versions of _The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_—two English, one French—an Editor is wanted.) Members are askt to realise the fact that the Society has now 50 years’ work on its Lists,—at its present rate of production,—and that there is from 100 to 200 more years’ work to come after that. The year 2000 will not see finisht all the Texts that the Society ought to print. The need of more Members and money is pressing. Offers of help from willing Editors have continually to be declined because the Society has no funds to print their Texts.

An urgent appeal is hereby made to Members to increase the list of Subscribers to the E. E. Text Society. It is nothing less than a scandal that the Hellenic Society should have nearly 1000 members, while the Early English Text Society has not 300!

[Sidenote: _Deguilleville._]

Before his death in 1895, Mr. G. N. Currie was preparing an edition of the 15th and 16th century Prose Versions of Guillaume de Deguilleville’s _Pilgrimage of the Life of Man_, with the French prose version by Jean Gallopes, from Lord Aldenham’s MS., he having generously promist to pay the extra cost of printing the French text, and engraving one or two of the illuminations in his MS. But Mr. Currie, when on his deathbed, charged a friend to burn _all_ his MSS. which lay in a corner of his room, and unluckily all the E. E. T. S.’s copies of the Deguilleville prose versions were with them, and were burnt with them, so that the Society will be put to the cost of fresh copies, Mr. Currie having died in debt.

Guillaume de Deguilleville, monk of the Cistercian abbey of Chaalis, in the diocese of Senlis, wrote his first verse _Pèlerinaige de l’Homme_ in 1330-1 when he was 36.[1] Twenty-five (or six) years after, in 1355, he revised his poem, and issued a second version of it,[2] a revision of which was printed ab. 1500. Of the prose representative of the first version, 1330-1, a prose Englishing, about 1430 A.D., was edited by Mr. Aldis Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1869, from MS. Ff. 5. 30 in the Cambridge University Library. Other copies of this prose English are in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Q. 2. 25; Sion College, London; and the Laud Collection in the Bodleian, no. 740.[3] A copy in the Northern dialect is MS. G. 21, in St. John’s Coll., Cambridge, and this is the MS. which will be edited for the E. E. Text Society. The Laud MS. 740 was somewhat condenst and modernised, in the 17th century, into MS. Ff. 6. 30, in the Cambridge University Library:[4] “The Pilgrime or the Pilgrimage of Man in this World,” copied by Will. Baspoole, whose copy “was verbatim written by Walter Parker, 1645, and from thence transcribed by G. G. 1649; and from thence by W. A. 1655.” This last copy may have been read by, or its story reported to, Bunyan, and may have been the groundwork of his _Pilgrim’s Progress_. It will be edited for the E. E. T. Soc., its text running under the earlier English, as in Mr. Herrtage’s edition of the _Gesta Romanorum_ for the Society. In February 1464,[5] Jean Gallopes—a clerk of Angers, afterwards chaplain to John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France—turned Deguilleville’s first verse _Pèlerinaige_ into a prose _Pèlerinage de la vie humaine_.[6] By the kindness of Lord Aldenham, as above mentiond, Gallopes’s French text will be printed opposite the early prose northern Englishing in the Society’s edition.

The Second Version of Deguilleville’s _Pèlerinaige de l’Homme_, A.D. 1355 or -6, was englisht in verse by Lydgate in 1426. Of Lydgate’s poem, the larger part is in the Cotton MS. Vitellius C. xiii (leaves 2-308). This MS. leaves out Chaucer’s englishing of Deguilleville’s _A B C_ or _Prayer to the Virgin_, of which the successive stanzas start with A, B, C, and run all thro’ the alphabet; and it has 2 main gaps, besides many small ones from the tops of leaves being burnt in the Cotton fire. All these gaps (save the A B C) have been fild up from the Stowe MS. 952 (which old John Stowe completed) and from the end of the other imperfect MS. Cotton, Tiberius A vii. Thanks to the diligence of the old Elizabethan tailor and manuscript-lover, a complete text of Lydgate’s poem can be given, though that of an inserted theological prose treatise is incomplete. The British Museum French MSS. (Harleian 4399,[7] and Additional 22,937[8] and 25,594[9]) are all of the First Version.

Besides his first _Pèlerinaige de l’homme_ in its two versions, Deguilleville wrote a second, “de l’ame separee du corps,” and a third, “de nostre seigneur Iesus.” Of the second, a prose Englishing of 1413, _The Pilgrimage of the Sowle_ (with poems by Hoccleve, already printed for the Society with that author’s _Regement of Princes_), exists in the Egerton MS. 615,[10] at Hatfield, Cambridge (Univ. Kk. 1. 7, and Caius), Oxford (Univ. Coll. and Corpus), and in Caxton’s edition of 1483. This version has ‘somewhat of addicions’ as Caxton says, and some shortenings too, as the maker of both, the first translater, tells us in the MSS. Caxton leaves out the earlier englisher’s interesting Epilog in the Egerton MS. This prose englishing of the _Sowle_ will be edited for the Society by Prof. Dr. Leon Kellner after that of the _Man_ is finisht, and will have Gallopes’s French opposite it, from Lord Aldenham’s MS., as his gift to the Society. Of the Pilgrimage of Jesus, no englishing is known.

[Sidenote: _Anglo-Saxon Psalters._]

As to the MS. Anglo-Saxon Psalters, Dr. Hy. Sweet has edited the oldest MS., the Vespasian, in his _Oldest English Texts_ for the Society, and Mr. Harsley has edited the latest, c. 1150, Eadwine’s Canterbury Psalter. The other MSS., except the Paris one, being interlinear versions,—some of the Roman-Latin redaction, and some of the Gallican,—Prof. Logeman has prepared for press, a Parallel-Text edition of the first twelve Psalms, to start the complete work. He will do his best to get the Paris Psalter—tho’ it is not an interlinear one—into this collective edition; but the additional matter, especially in the Verse-Psalms, is very difficult to manage. If the Paris text cannot be parallelised, it will form a separate volume. The Early English Psalters are all independent versions, and will follow separately in due course.

[Sidenote: _More Money wanted._]

Through the good offices of the Examiners, some of the books for the Early-English Examinations of the University of London will be chosen from the Society’s publications, the Committee having undertaken to supply such books to students at a large reduction in price. The net profits from these sales will be applied to the Society’s Reprints.

Members are reminded that _fresh Subscribers are always wanted_, and that the Committee can at any time, on short notice, send to press an additional Thousand Pounds’ worth of work.

[Sidenote: _Saints’ Lives._]

The Subscribers to the Original Series must be prepared for the issue of the whole of the Early English _Lives of Saints_, sooner or later. The Society cannot leave out any of them, even though some are dull. The Sinners would doubtless be much more interesting. But in many Saints’ Lives will be found valuable incidental details of our forefathers’ social state, and all are worthful for the history of our language. The Lives may be lookt on as the religious romances or story-books of their period.

The Standard Collection of Saints’ Lives in the Corpus and Ashmole MSS., the Harleian MS. 2277, &c. will repeat the Laud set, our No. 87, with additions, and in right order. (The foundation MS. (Laud 108) had to be printed first, to prevent quite unwieldy collations.) The Supplementary Lives from the Vernon and other MSS. will form one or two separate volumes.

Besides the Saints’ Lives, Trevisa’s englishing of _Bartholomæus de Proprietatibus Rerum_, the mediæval Cyclopædia of Science, &c., will be the Society’s next big undertaking. Dr. R. von Fleischhacker will edit it. Prof. Napier of Oxford, wishing to have the whole of our MS. Anglo-Saxon in type, and accessible to students, will edit for the Society all the unprinted and other Anglo-Saxon Homilies which are not included in Thorpe’s edition of Ælfric’s prose,[11] Dr. Morris’s of the Blickling Homilies, and Prof. Skeat’s of Ælfric’s Metrical Homilies. The late Prof. Kölbing left complete his text, for the Society, of the _Ancren Riwle_, from the best MS., with collations of the other four, and this will be edited for the Society by Dr. Thümmler. Mr. Harvey means to prepare an edition of the three MSS. of the _Earliest English Metrical Psalter_, one of which was edited by the late Mr. Stevenson for the Surtees Society.

Members of the Society will learn with pleasure that its example has been followed, not only by the Old French Text Society which has done such admirable work under its founders Profs. Paul Meyer and Gaston Paris, but also by the Early Russian Text Society, which was set on foot in 1877, and has since issued many excellent editions of old MS. Chronicles, &c.

Members will also note with pleasure the annexation of large tracts of our Early English territory by the important German contingent, the late Professors Zupitza and Kölbing, the living Hausknecht, Einenkel, Haenisch, Kaluza, Hupe, Adam, Holthausen, Schick, Herzfeld, Brandeis, Sieper, Konrath, Wülfing, &c. Scandinavia has also sent us Prof. Erdmann and Dr. E. A. Kock; Holland, Prof. H. Logeman, who is now working in Belgium; France, Prof. Paul Meyer—with Gaston Paris as adviser (alas, now dead);—Italy, Prof. Lattanzi; Austria, Dr. von Fleischhacker; while America is represented by the late Prof. Child, by Dr. Mary Noyes Colvin, Miss Rickert, Profs. Mead, McKnight, Triggs, Perrin, &c. The sympathy, the ready help, which the Society’s work has cald forth from the Continent and the United States, have been among the pleasantest experiences of the Society’s life, a real aid and cheer amid all troubles and discouragements. All our Members are grateful for it, and recognise that the bond their work has woven between them and the lovers of language and antiquity across the seas is one of the most welcome results of the Society’s efforts.

=ORIGINAL SERIES.=

1. =Early English Alliterative Poems=, ab. 1360 A.D., ed. Rev.
Dr. R. Morris. 16_s._ 1864
2. =Arthur=, ab. 1440, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A. 4_s._ „
3. =Lauder on the Dewtie of Kyngis, &c.=, 1556, ed. F. Hall,
D.C.L. 4_s._ „
4. =Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight=, ab. 1360, ed. Rev. Dr.
R. Morris. 10_s._ „
5. =Hume’s Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue=,
ab. 1617, ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4_s._ 1865
6. =Lancelot of the Laik=, ab. 1500, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. 8_s._ „
7. =Genesis & Exodus=, ab. 1250, ed. Rev. Dr. R. Morris. 8_s._ „
8. =Morte Arthure=, ab. 1440, ed. E. Brock. 7_s._ „
9. =Thynne on Speght’s ed. of Chaucer=, A.D. 1599, ed. Dr. G.
Kingsley and Dr. F. J. Furnivall. 10_s._ „
10. =Merlin=, ab. 1440, Part I., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 2_s._ 6_d._ „
11. =Lyndesay’s Monarche, &c.=, 1552, Part I., ed. J. Small, M.A.
3_s._ „
12. =Wright’s Chaste Wife=, ab. 1462, ed. F. J. Furnivall, M.A.
1_s._ „
13. =Seinte Marherete=, 1200-1330, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne;
re-edited by Dr. Otto Glauning. [_Out of print._ 1866
14. =Kyng Horn, Floris and Blancheflour, &c.=, ed. Rev. J. R.
Lumby, B.D., re-ed. Dr. G. H. McKnight. 5_s._ „
15. =Political, Religious, and Love Poems=, ed. F. J. Furnivall.
7_s._ 6_d._ „
16. =The Book of Quinte Essence=, ab. 1460-70, ed. F. J.
Furnivall. 1_s._ „
17. =Parallel Extracts from 45 MSS. of Piers the Plowman=, ed.
Rev. W. W. Skeat. 1_s._ „
18. =Hali Meidenhad=, ab. 1200, ed. Rev. O. Cockayne, re-edited
by Dr. F. J. Furnivall. [_At Press._ „
19. =Lyndesay’s Monarche, &c.=, Part II., ed. J. Small, M.A.
3_s._ 6_d._ „
20. =Hampole’s English Prose Treatises=, ed. Rev. G. G. Perry.
1_s._ [_Out of print._ „
21. =Merlin=, Part II., ed. H. B. Wheatley. 4_s._ „
22. =Partenay= or =Lusignen=, ed. Rev. W. W. Skeat. „
23. =Dan Michel’s Ayenbite of Inwyt=, 1340, ed. Rev. Dr. R.
Morris. 10_s._ 6_d._ „
24. =Hymns to the Virgin and Christ; the Parliament of Devils,
&c.=, ab. 1430, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 1867
25. =The Stacions of Rome, the Pilgrims’ Sea-voyage, with Clene
Maydenhod=, ed. F. J. Furnivall. 1_s._ „
26. =Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse=, from R. Thornton’s MS.,
ed. Rev. G. G. Perry. 2_s._ [_Out of print._ „
27. =Levins’s Manipulus Vocabulorum, a ryming Dictionary=, 1570,
ed. H. B. Wheatley. 12_s._ „
28. =William’s Vision of Piers the Plowman=, 1362 A.D.; Text A,