Chapter X: Part 10

_a_ 235 ff. Matthew xxv. 14 ff.; Luke xix. 12 ff.

_a_ 245. _Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf._ The merits of these two ways of life were endlessly disputed in the Middle Ages. In XI _b_ Wiclif attacks the position of the monks and of Rolle's followers; and the author of _Pearl_ (VI 61 ff.) takes up the related question of salvation by works or by grace.

_a_ 246. Psalm cxxviii. 1.

_a_ 264. Jusserand gives a brief account of the old-time physicians in _English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 177 ff. The best were somewhat haphazard in their methods, and the mountebanks brought discredit on the profession. Here are a few fourteenth-century prescriptions:

_For hym that haves the squynansy ['quinsy']_:—

Tak a fatte katte, and fla hit wele and clene, and draw oute the
guttes; and tak the grees of an urcheon ['hedgehog'], and the
fatte of a bare, and resynes, and feinygreke ['fenugreek'], and
sauge ['sage'], and gumme of wodebynde, and virgyn wax: al this
mye ['grate'] smal, and farse ['stuff'] the catte within als thu
farses a gos: rost hit hale, and geder the grees, and enoynt hym
tharwith. (_Reliquiae Antiquae_, ed. Wright and Halliwell (1841),
vol. i, p. 51.)

_Ȝyf a woud hund hat ybite a man_:—

Take tou<n>karsyn ['towncress'], and pulyole ['penny-royal'], and seþ
hit in water, and ȝef hym to drynke, and hit schal caste out þe
venym: and ȝif þou miste ['might'] haue of þe hundys here, ley
hit þerto, and hit schal hele hit. (_Medical Works of the
Fourteenth Century_, ed. G. Henslow, London 1899, p. 19.)

_A goud oynement for þe goute_:—

Take þe grece of a bor, and þe grece of a ratoun, and cattys
grece, and voxis grece, and hors grece, and þe grece of a brok
['badger']; and take feþeruoye ['feverfew'] and eysyl ['vinegar'],
and stampe h_e_m togedre; and take a litel lynnesed, and stampe
hit wel, and do hit þerto; and meng al togedre, and het hit in a
scherd, and þerwith anoynte þe goute by the fuyre. Do so ofte and
hit schal be hol. (Ibid., p. 20.)

_a_ 284. _Lammasse tyme_: August 1, when the new corn (l. 294) would be in. On this day a loaf was offered as firstfruits: whence the name, OE. _hlāf-mæsse_.

_a_ 307 ff. Owing to repeated famines, the wages of manual labour rose throughout the first half of the fourteenth century. A crisis was reached when the Black Death (1349) so reduced the number of workers that the survivors were able to demand wages on a scale which seemed unconscionable to their employers. By the Statute of Labourers (1350 and 1351) an attempt was made to force wages and prices back to the level of 1346. For a day's haymaking 1_d._ was to be the maximum wage; for reaping 2_d._ or 3_d._ Throughout the second half of the fourteenth century vain attempts were made to enforce these maxima, and the penalties did much to fan the unrest that broke out in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

_a_ 309-10. From Bk. i of the _Disticha_ of Dionysius Cato, a collection of proverbs famous throughout the Middle Ages.

_a_ 321. Saturn was a malevolent planet, as we see from his speech in Chaucer's _Knight's Tale_, 1595 ff.

_a_ 324. _Deth_: the Plague.

_b_ 1. _Cornehulle._ Cornhill was one of the liveliest quarters of fourteenth-century London, and a haunt of idlers, beggars, and doubtful characters. Its pillory and stocks were famous. Its market where, if _The London Lickpenny_ is to be credited, dealing in stolen clothes was a speciality, was privileged above all others in the city. See the documents in Riley's _Memorials of London_.

_b_ 2. _Kytte_: In the B-text, Passus xviii. 425-6, _Kytte_ is mentioned again:

_and riȝt with þat I waked
And called Kitte my wyf and Kalote my douȝter._

_b_ 4. _lollares of London_: The followers of Wiclif were called 'Lollards' by their opponents; but the word here seems to mean 'idlers' as in l. 31. _lewede heremytes_: 'lay hermits': hermits were not necessarily in holy orders, and so far from seeking complete solitude, they often lived in the cities or near the great highways, where many passers would have opportunity to recognize their merit by giving alms. See Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, pp. 93 ff.

_b_ 5. 'For I judged those men as Reason taught me.' Skeat's interpretation—that _made of_ means 'made verses about'—is forced. The sense is that the idlers and hermits thought little of the dreamer, and he was equally critical of them.

_b_ 6. _as ich cam by Conscience_: 'as I passed by Conscience', referring to a vision described in the previous Passus, in which Conscience is the principal figure.

_b_ 10 f. _In hele and in vnité_, 'in health and in my full senses', and _Romynge in remembraunce_ qualify _me_.

_b_ 14. _Mowe oþer mowen_, 'mow or stack'. For these unrelated words see the Glossary.

_b_ 16. _haywarde_: by derivation 'hedge-ward'. He watched over enclosures and prevented animals from straying among the crops. Observe that ME. nouns denoting occupation usually survive in surnames:—Baxter 'baker', Bow(y)er, Chapman, Dyer, Falconer, Fletcher 'arrow-maker', Fo(re)ster, Franklin, Hayward, Lister (= litster, 'dyer'), Palmer, Reeve(s), Spicer, Sumner, Tyler 'maker or layer of tiles', Warner 'keeper of warrens', Webb, Webster, Wright, Yeoman, &c.

_b_ 20-1. 'Or craft of any kind that is necessary to the community, to provide food for them that are bedridden.'

_b_ 24. _to long_, 'too tall': cp. B-text, Passus xv. 148 _my name is Longe Wille_. Consistency in such details in a poem full of inconsistencies makes it probable that the poet is describing himself, not an imagined dreamer.

_b_ 33. Psalm lxii. 12.

_b_ 45. 1 Corinthians vii. 20.

_b_ 46 ff. Cp. the note to XI _b_ 131 f. The dreamer appears to have made his living by saying prayers for the souls of the dead, a service which, from small beginnings in the early Middle Ages, had by this time withdrawn much of the energy of the clergy from their regular duties. See note to XI _b_ 140 f.

_b_ 49. _my Seuene Psalmes_: the Penitential Psalms, normally vi, xxxii, xxxviii, li, cii, cxxx, cxliii, in the numbering of the Authorised Version. The _Prymer_, which contained the devotions supplementary to the regular Church service, included the Placebo, Dirige, and the Seven Psalms: see the edition by Littlehales for the Early English Text Society.

_b_ 50. _for hure soules of suche as me helpen_: combines the constructions _for þe soules of suche as me helpen_, and _for hure soules þat me helpen_.

_b_ 51. _vochen saf_: supply _me_ as object, 'warrant me that I shall be welcome'.

_b_ 61. 1 Thessalonians v. 15; Leviticus xix. 18.

_b_ 63. _churches_: here and in l. 110 read the Norse form _kirkes_ for the alliteration, as in _a_ 28, 85. But the English form also belongs to the original, for it alliterates with _ch_ at _a_ 12, 50.

_b_ 64. _Dominus_, &c.: Psalm xvi. 5.

_b_ 83. _Symondes sone_: a son of Simon Magus—one guilty of simony, or one who receives preferment merely because of his wealth.

_b_ 90. Matthew iv. 4.

_b_ 103-4. _Simile est_, &c.: Matthew xiii. 44. _Mulier que_, &c.: Luke xv. 8 ff.

IX

#Dialect#: South-East Midland.

#Vocabulary#: A number of French words are taken over from the original, e.g. _plee_ 81, _ryot_ 83, _violastres_ 97, _saphire loupe_ 116, _gowrdes_ 139, _clowe gylofres_ 157, _canell_ 158, _avaled_ 195, _trayne_ (for _taynere_?) 222, _bugles_ 256, _gowtes artetykes_ 314, _distreynen_ 315.

#Inflexions#: Almost modern.

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _schadeweth_ 19, _turneth_ 23.
3 pl. _ben_ 4, _han_ 14, _wexen_ 22, _loue_ 100.
pres. p. _fle(e)ynge_ 148, 252; _recordynge_ 317.
strong pp. _ȝouen_ 90, _begonne_ 171.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _þei_ 5; _here_ 71; _hem_ 20.

#Sounds#: OE. _ā_ becomes _ǭ_: _hoot_ 11, _cold_ 31.

OE. _y_ appears as _y_ (= _i_): _byggynge_ 90, _kyȝn_ 'kine' 256; except regular _left_ (hand) 69, 71, 72, where Modern English has also adopted the South-Eastern form of OE. _lyft_.

* * * * *

21-3. The French original says that the children have white _hair_ when they are young, which becomes black as they grow up.

24-5. The belief that one of the Three Kings came from Ethiopia is based on Ps. lxviii. 31: 'Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.' In mediaeval representations one of the three is usually a negro.

27. _Emlak_: miswritten for _Euilak_, a name for India taken from _Havilah_ of Genesis ii. 11.

28. _þat is: þe more_: _Ynde_ has probably fallen out of the text after _is_.

34-5. _Ȝalow cristall draweth <to> colour lyke oylle_: the insertion of _to_ is necessary to give sense, and is supported by the French: _cristal iaunastre trehant a colour doile_. (MS. Harley 4383, f. 34 b.)

36-7. The translation is not accurate. The French has: _et appelle homme les dyamantz en ceo pais 'Hamese'_.

64 ff. It was supposed that the pearl-bearing shell-fish opened at low tide to receive the dew-drops from which the pearls grew.

74. _ȝif ȝou lyke_, 'if it please you', impersonal = French _si vous plest_.

75. _þe Lapidarye_, Latin _Lapidarium_, was a manual of precious stones, which contained a good deal of pseudo-scientific information about their natures and virtues, just as the _Bestiary_ summed up popular knowledge of animals. A Latin poem by Marbod bishop of Rennes (d. 1123) is the chief source of the mediaeval lapidaries, and, curiously enough, there is a French prose text attributed by so intimate an authority as Jean d'Outremeuse to Mandeville himself. Several Old French texts have been edited by L. Pannier, _Les Lapidaires Français du Moyen Âge_, Paris 1882. Their high repute may be judged from the inclusion of no less than seven copies in the library of Charles V of France (d. 1380); and it is surprising that no complete ME. version is known. But much of the matter was absorbed into encyclopaedic works like the _De Proprietatibus Rerum_ of Bartholomaeus, which Trevisa translated.

97. Mistranslated. The French has: _qi sont violastre, ou pluis broun qe violettes_.

100-1. _But in soth to me_: French: _Mes endroit de moy_, 'but for my part'; the English translator has rendered _en droit_ separately.

108. _þerfore_: the context requires the sense 'because', but the translator would hardly have used _þerfore_ had he realized that ll. 108-9 correspond to a subordinate clause in the French, and do not form a complete independent sentence. He was misled by the bad punctuation of some French MSS., e.g. Royal 20 B. X and (with consequent corruption) Harley 4383.

136. _Cathaye_: China. See the classic work of Colonel Yule, _Cathay and the Way Thither_, 2 vols., London 1866. The modernization of the Catalan map of 1375 in vol. i gives a good idea of Mandeville's geography.

142. _withouten wolle_: the story of the vegetable lamb is taken from the Voyage of Friar Odoric, which is accessible in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. Hakluyt's translation is reprinted, with the Eastern voyages of John de Plano Carpini (1246) and of William de Rubruquis (1253), in _The Travels of Sir John Mandeville_, ed. A. W. Pollard, London 1900. The legend probably arose from vague descriptions of the cotton plant; and Mandeville makes it still more marvellous by describing as without wool the lamb which had been invented to explain the wool's existence.

143-4. _Of þat frute I haue eten_: This assertion seems to be due to the English translator. The normal French text has simply: _et cest bien grant meruaille de ceo fruit, et si est grant oure [= oeuvre] de nature_ (MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 70 b).

147. _the Bernakes_: The barnacle goose—introduced here on a hint from Odoric—is a species of wild goose that visits the Northern coasts in winter. It was popularly supposed to grow from the shell-fish called 'barnacle', which attaches itself to floating timber by a stalk something like the neck and beak of a bird, and has feathery filaments not unlike plumage. As the breeding place of the barnacle goose was unknown, and logs with the shell-fish attached were often found on the coasts, it was supposed that the shell-fish was the fruit of a tree, which developed in the water into a bird. Giraldus Cambrensis, _Topographia Hibernica_, I. xv, reproves certain casuistical members of the Church who ate the barnacle goose on fast-days on the plea that it was not flesh; but himself vouches for the marvel. The earliest reference in English is No. 11 of the Anglo-Saxon _Riddles_, of which the best solution is 'barnacle goose'. For a full account see Max Müller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii, pp. 583-604.

157. _grete notes of Ynde_, 'coco-nuts'.

163-4. _Goth and Magoth_: see Ezekiel xxxviii and xxxix. The forms of the names are French.

170. _God of Nature_: Near the end of the _Travels_ it is explained that all the Eastern peoples are Deists, though they have not the light of Christianity: _þei beleeven in God þat formede all thing and made the world, and clepen him 'God of Nature'_.

191-2. _þat þei schull not gon out on no syde, but be the cost of hire lond_: the general sense requires the omission of _but_, which has no equivalent in the original French text: _qils ne<nt> issent fors deuers la coste de sa terre_ (MS. Sloane 1464, f. 139 b). But some MSS. like Royal 20 B. X have _fors qe deuers_, a faulty reading that must have stood in the copy used by the Cotton translator. Cp. note to l. 108.

199-200. _a four grete myle_: renders the French _iiii grantz lieus_. There is no 'great mile' among English measures.

209 ff. In the Middle Ages references to the Jews are nearly always hostile. They were hated as enemies of the Church, and prejudice was hardened by stories, like that in the text, of their vengeance to come, or of ritual murder, like Chaucer's _Prioress's Tale_. England had its supposed boy martyrs, William of Norwich (d. 1144), and Hugh of Lincoln (d. 1255) whom the Prioress invokes:

_O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also
With cursed Jewes, as it is notable,
For it is but a litel while ago,
Preye eek for us_, &c.

Religion was not the only cause of bitterness. The Jews, standing outside the Church and its laws against usury, at a time when financial needs had outgrown feudal revenues, became the money-lenders and bankers of Europe; and with a standard rate of interest fixed at over 40 per cent., debtors and creditors could hardly be friends. In England the Jews reached the height of their prosperity in the twelfth century, so that in 1188 nearly half the national contribution for a Crusade came from them. In the thirteenth century their privileges and operations were cut down, and they were finally expelled from the country in 1290 (see J. Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, 1893). The Lombards, whose consciences were not nice, took their place as financiers in fourteenth-century England.

222. _trayne_: read _taynere_, OFr. _taignere_ 'a burrow'.

237-8. The cotton plant has already given us the vegetable lamb (l. 142). This more prosaic account is taken from the _Eþistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem_: '_in Bactriacen... penitus ad abditos Seres, quod genus hominum foliis arborum decerpendo lanuginem ex silvestri vellere vestes detexunt_' (Julius Valerius, ed. B. Kübler, p. 194). From the same text come the hippopotami, the bitter waters (Kübler, p. 195), and the griffins (Kübler, p. 217). The _Letter of Alexander_ was translated into Anglo-Saxon in the tenth century.

254 ff. _talouns_ etc.: In the 1725 edition there is a reference to 'one 4 Foot long in the Cotton Library' with the inscription, _Griphi Unguis Divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer_, 'griffin's talon, sacred to St. Cuthbert of Durham'. This specimen is now in the Mediaeval Department of the British Museum, and is really the slim, curved horn of an ibex. The inscription is late (sixteenth century), but the talon was catalogued among the treasures of Durham in the fourteenth century.

260. _Prestre Iohn_: Old French _Prestre Jean_, or 'John the Priest', was reputed to be the Christian ruler of a great kingdom in the East. A rather minatory letter professing to come from him reached most of the princes of Europe, and was replied to in all seriousness by Pope Alexander III. Its claims include the lordship over the tribes of Gog and Magog whom Alexander the Great walled within the mountains. Official missions were sent to establish relations with him; but neither in the Far East nor in Northern Africa, where the best opinion in later times located his empire, could the great king ever be found. The history of the legend is set out by Yule in the article _Prester John_ in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.

261. _Yle of Pentexoire_: to Mandeville most Eastern countries are 'isles'. _Pentexoire_ in the French text of Odoric is a territory about the Yellow River (Yule, _Cathay_, vol. i, p. 146).

262 ff.: For comparison the French text of the Epilogue is given from MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 83 a, the words in < > being supplied from MS. Sloane 1464:

'Il y a plusours autres diuers pais, et moutz dautres meruailles par de la, qe ieo nay mie tout veu, si nen saueroye proprement parler. Et meismement el pais en quel iay este, y a plusours diuersetes dont ieo ne fais point el mencioun, qar trop serroit long chose a tout deuiser. Et pur ceo qe ieo vous ay deuisez dascuns pais, vous doit suffire quant a present. Qar, si ieo deuisoie tout quantqez y est par de la, vn autre qi se peneroit et trauailleroit le corps pur aler en celles marches, et pur sercher la pais, serroit empeschez par mes ditz a recompter nuls choses estranges, qar il ne purroit rien dire de nouelle, en quoy ly oyantz y puissent prendre solaces. Et lem dit toutdis qe choses nouelles pleisent. Si men taceray a tant, saunz plus recompter nuls diuersetez qi soyent par de la, a la fin qe cis qi vourra aler en celles parties y troeue assez a dire.

'Et ieo, Iohan Maundeuille dessudit, qi men party de nos pais et passay le mer lan de grace mil cccxxiide; qi moint terre et moint passage et moint pays ay puis cerchez; et qy ay este en moint bone compaignie et en molt beal fait, come bien qe ieo <ne fuisse dignes, et> ne feisse vncqes ne beal fait ne beal emprise; et qi meintenant suy venuz a repos maugre mien, pur goutes artetikes qi moy destreignont; en preignan solacz en mon cheitif repos, en recordant le temps passe, ay cestes choses compilez et mises en escript, si come il me poet souuenir, lan de grace mil ccc.lvime, a xxxiiiite an qe ieo men party de noz pais.

'Si pri a toutz les lisauntz, si lour plest, qils voillent Dieu prier pur moy, et ieo priera pur eux. Et toutz cils qi pur moy dirrount vne _Paternoster_ qe Dieu me face remissioun de mes pecches, ieo les face parteners et lour ottroie part dez toutz les bons pelrinages et dez toutz les bienfaitz qe ieo feisse vnqes, et qe ieo ferray, si Dieu plest, vncqore iusqes a ma fyn. Et pry a Dieu, de qy toute bien et toute grace descent, qil toutz les lisantz et oyantz Cristiens voille de sa grace reemplir, et lour corps et les almes sauuer, a la glorie et loenge de ly qi est trinz et vns, et saunz comencement et saunz fin, saunz qualite bons, saunz quantite grantz, en toutz lieus present et toutz choses contenant, et qy nul bien ne poet amender ne nul mal enpirer, qy en Trinite parfite vit et regne par toutz siecles et par toutz temps. Amen.'

274. _blamed_: The Old French verb _empescher_ means both 'to hinder, prevent', and 'to accuse, impeach'. But here _empeschez_ should have been translated by 'prevented', not 'blamed'.

284-306. This passage, which in one form or another appears in nearly all the MSS. in English, has no equivalent in the MSS. in French so far examined: and, as it conflicts with ll. 313 ff., which—apart from the peculiarities of the Cotton rendering—indicate that the _Travels_ were written after Mandeville's return, it must be set down as an interpolation.

The art of forging credentials was well understood in the Middle Ages, and the purpose of this addition was to silence doubters by the _imprimatur_ of the highest authority, just as the marvel of the Dancers of Colbek is confirmed by the sponsorship of Pope Leo IX (I 246-9). The different interpretation of the latest editor, Hamelius, who thinks it was intended as a sly hit at the Papacy (_Quarterly Review_ for April 1917, pp. 349 f.) seems to rest on the erroneous assumption that the passage belonged to the French text as originally written.

The anachronism by which the author is made to seek the Pope _in Rome_ gives a clue to the date of the interpolation. From the beginning of the fourteenth century until 1377 Avignon, and not Rome, was the seat of the Pope; and for another thirty years there was doubt as to the issue of the conflict between the popes, who had their head-quarters at Rome and were recognized by England, and the antipopes, who remained at Avignon and had the support of the French. The facts were notorious, so that the anachronism would hardly be possible to one who wrote much before the end of the century, even though he were a partisan of the Roman court.

From internal evidence it would seem that the interpolation first appeared in French. The style is the uniform style of translation, with the same tags—_and ȝee schull vndirstonde_ = _et sachiez_; _ȝif it lyke ȝou_ = _si vous plest_; and the same trick of double rendering, e.g. _of dyuerse secte and of beleeve_; _wyse and discreet_; _the auctour ne the persone_. More decisive is an example of the syntactical compromise explained in the note to l. 329: #be# _the whiche the Mappa Mundi was made_ #after#. With so many French MSS. of Mandeville in use in England, an interpolation in French would have more authority than one that could not be traced beyond English; and it can hardly be an insuperable objection that no such French text exists to-day, since our knowledge of the Cotton and Egerton versions themselves depends in each case on the chance survival of a single MS.

The point has a bearing on the vexed question of the relations of the English texts one to another. For brevity we may denote by D the defective text of the early prints and most MSS., which is specially distinguished by a long gap near the beginning; by C the Cotton text (ed. Halliwell, Pollard, Hamelius); by E the Egerton text (ed. Warner). Nicholson (in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_) and Warner give priority to D, and consider that C and E are independent revisions and expansions of D by writers who had recourse to the French original. Their argument seems to be this: There is precise evidence just before the gap that D derives direct from a mutilated French text (see _Enc. Brit._), and if it be granted that a single translation from the French is the base of C, D, and E, it follows that C and E are based on D.

A fuller study by Vogels (_Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über die Englische Version Mandeville's_, Crefeld 1891) brings to light a new fact: the two Bodleian MSS., E Museo 116 and Rawlinson D 99, contain an English translation (say L) made from a Latin text of the _Travels_. Vogels also shows that E is based on D, because the characteristic lacuna of D is filled in E by a passage which is borrowed from L and is not homogeneous with the rest of E. So far there is no conflict with the view of Nicholson and Warner. But, after adducing evidence in favour of the contention that C, D, and E are at base one translation, Vogels concludes that D derives from C, arguing thus: There is good evidence that C is a direct translation from the French, and if it be granted that a single translation from the French is the base of C and D, it follows that D derives from C.

In short, the one party maintains that C is an expansion of D, the other that D is an abridgement of C; and this flat opposition results from the acceptance of common ground: that C and D represent in the main one translation and not two translations.

To return to our interpolation:

(1) Vogels's first piece of evidence that C, D, and E are at base one translation is the appearance in all of this interpolation, which is absent from the MSS. in French. But a passage so remarkable might spread from one to the other of two independent English texts; or if the interpolation originated in England in a MS. of the French text since lost, it might be twice translated.

(2) Vogels assumes that the interpolation first appeared in type C. But C is the form in which it would be least likely to originate, because here the contradiction of statement is sharpest owing to the rendering at ll. 313-14: _and now I am comen hom_, which is peculiar to C (see the French).

(3) If, in order to eliminate individual peculiarities, we take two MSS. of the D type—say Harley 2386 and Royal 17 C. XXXVIII—we find that their text of the interpolation is identical with that of E. This is consistent with Vogels's finding that the body of E derives from D; and it confirms the evidence of all the defective MSS. that the interpolation in this particular form was an integral part of the D type.

(4) But between the text of the interpolation in D and that in C there are differences in matter, in sentence order, and in phrasing, which, while they do not exclude the possibility of interdependence, do not suggest such a relation. In D the passage is a naked attempt at authentication; in C it is more artfully though more shamelessly introduced by the touch of piety conventional in epilogues. And as the signs of a French original that appear in C are absent from D, it is unlikely that the text of the interpolation in C derives from D.

(5) Again, in D and E the addition follows the matter of ll. 307-20. Unfortunately, though the balance of probability is in favour of the order in C, the order intended by the interpolator is not certain enough to be made the basis of arguments. But such a difference in position is naturally explained from the stage when the interpolation stood in the margin of a MS., or on an inserted slip, so that it might be taken into the consecutive text at different points. And an examination of the possibilities will show that if the interpolation originated in French, the different placing is more simply explained on the assumption that C and D are independent translations than on the assumption that one of them derives from the other.

To sum up: the central problem for the history of the English texts is the relation of C and D. Taken by itself the evidence afforded by the text of the interpolation is against the derivation of C from D; it neither favours nor excludes the derivation of D from C; it rather favours independent translation in C and D.

For the relations of the rest of the text these deductions afford no more than a clue. Against independent translation of C and D stands the evidence adduced by Vogels for basic unity. Much of this could be accounted for by the coincidences that are inevitable in literal prose translations from a language so near to English in vocabulary and word order; and a few striking agreements might be due to the use of French MSS. having abnormal variants in common, or even to reference by a second translator to the first. The remainder must be weighed against a considerable body of evidence in the contrary sense, e.g. several places where the manuscripts of the French text have divergent readings, of which C translates one, and D another.

It is unlikely that any simple formula will be found to cover the whole web of relationships: but any way of reconciling the conclusions of the authorities should be explored; and the first step is an impartial sifting of all the evidence, with the object of discovering to what extent C and D are interdependent, and to what extent independent translations. The chief obstacle is the difficulty of bringing the necessary texts together; for an investigator who wished to clear the ground would have to face the labour of preparing a six-text _Mandeville_, in the order, French, C, D, E, L, Latin.

301. _Mappa Mundi_: OFr. and ME. _Mappemounde_, was the generic name for a chart of the world, and, by extension, for a descriptive geography of the world. It is not clear what particular _Mappa Mundi_ is referred to here, or whether such a map was attached to the manuscript copy of the _Travels_ in which this interpolation first appeared.

329. _fro whom all godenesse and grace cometh fro_: cp. 24-5 _the lond of the whiche on of the þre Kynges... was kyng offe_; 76-8 _þei... of whom all science... cometh from_; and 301-2 _be the whiche the_ Mappa Mundi _was made after_. The pleonasm is explained by the divergence of French and ME. word order. In French, as in modern literary English, the preposition is placed at the beginning of the clause, before the relative (_de qui_, _dont_, &c.). ME. writers naturally use the relative _that_, and postpone the preposition to the end of the clause: e.g. _þat all godenesse cometh fro_. The translator compromises between his French original and his native habit by placing the preposition both at the beginning and at the end.

X

#Dialect#: Northern (Scots): the MS. copy was made in 1487 more than a century after the poem was composed.

#Vocabulary#: Note _till_ 'to' 4, 77 (in rime); _syne_ 'afterwards' 35, 112; the forms _sic_ 'such' 135, _begouth_ 94, and the short verbal forms _ma_ (in rime) 'make' 14, _tane_ (in rime) 'taken' 19.

#Inflexions#:

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _has_ 76.
3 pl. _has_ 52, _mais_ 72; but _thai haf_ 16.
pres. p. _rynand_ 17, _vyndland_ 129 (in rime).
strong pp. _gane_ 84, _drawyn_ 124.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _scho_ (in rime) 80;
pl. _thai_ 1: _thair_ 28; _thame_ 3.

#Sounds#: OE. _ā_ remains: _brynstane_ (in rime) 20, _sare_ 51.

OE. _ō_ (close _ọ̄_) appears as _u_ (_ǖ_?): _gude_ 36, _fut_ 57, _tume_ 143.

Unaccented _-(e)d_ of weak pa. t. and pp. becomes _-(i)t_: _passit_ 2, &c.

#Spelling#: _i_ (_y_) following a vowel indicates length: _weill_ 10, _noyne_ 'noon' 67.

OE. _hw-_ appears as _quh-_ (indicating strong aspiration): _quhelis_ 'wheels' 17, _quhar_ 18.

_v_ and _w_ are interchanged: _vithall_ 9, _behevin_ 163, _in swndir_ 106.

* * * * *

Book XVII of _The Bruce_ begins with the capture of Berwick by the Scots in March 1318. Walter Stewart undertakes to hold the city, and is aided in preparing defences by a Flemish engineer, John Crab. Next year King Edward II determines to recapture the stronghold by an attack from both land and sea. He entrenches his forces and makes the first assault unsuccessfully early in September 1319. In this battle the Scotch garrison capture a clever engineer (see note to l. 71 below). King Robert Bruce meanwhile orders a raid into England as a diversion, and on 20 September 1319, an English army, led by the Archbishop of York, is disastrously defeated by the invaders at Mitton. Our extract gives the story of the second assault on Berwick, which was also fruitless. The fortress fell into English hands again as a result of the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333: see XIV _a_ 35-6.

* * * * *

5-6. 'They made a sow of great joists, which had a stout covering over it.' The _sow_ was essentially a roof on wheels. The occupants, under shelter of the roof, pushed up to the walls of the besieged place and tried to undermine them. For an illustration see Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, Pt. VI, chap. vi, where other military engines of the time are described.

15. _Crabbis consale_: John Crab was the engineer of the garrison. He is no doubt the same as the John Crab who in 1332 brought Flemish ships round from Berwick to attack the English vessels at Dundee. There was an important Flemish colony at Berwick from early times.

36. _Schir Valter, the gude Steward_: Walter Steward, whose surname denotes his office as Steward of Scotland, was the father of Robert II, the first king of the Stuart line.

42. _Rude-evyn_: September 13, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

49. _thame... of the toune_, 'the defenders of the town'.

51. _or than_, 'or else'.

71 ff. _The engynour_: an English engineer captured by the garrison in the previous assault and forced into their service.

80. _scho_, 'she', some engine of war not previously referred to: apparently a mechanical sling.

123 ff. The boats were filled with men and hoisted up the masts, so as to overtop the walls and allow the besiegers to shoot at the garrison from above. The same engine that proved fatal to the sow was used to break up the boats.

146. _thar wardane with him had_, 'their warden <who> had with him'; cp. note to XIII _a_ 36.

158-61. A confused construction. The writer has in mind: (1) 'Of all the men he had there remained with him only one whom he had not left to relieve', &c.; and (2) 'There were no members of his company (except one) whom he had not left', &c.

XI

#Dialect#: South Midland.

#Inflexions#: _u_ for inflexional _e_, as in _knowun_ _a_ 2, _seun_ _a_ 51, _aȝenus_ _a_ 29, _mannus_ _b_ 114 is found chiefly in West Midland.

VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _madist_ _b_ 214.
3 sg. _groundiþ_ _a_ 4.
3 pl. _seyn_ _a_ 1, _techen_ _b_ 5.
pres. p. _brennynge_ _b_ 67.
strong pp. _knowun_ _a_ 2, _ȝouen_ _b_ 264, _take_ _b_
271.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _þey_, _þei_, _a_ 3, _b_ 9;
possessive usually _þer_ in _a_ 1, 23, &c.; but _her_ _a_
52, and regularly _here_ in _b_ 25, 36, &c.;
objective _hem_ _a_ 4, _b_ 3.

#Sounds#: OE. _ā_ appears regularly as _o_, _oo_: _more_ _a_ 7, _Hooly_ _a_ 10, _toolde_ _a_ 65.

OE. _y_ appears as _y_, _i_: _synne_ _a_ 61, _stiren_ _b_ 93.

The form _þouþ_ (= _þouȝ_) _b_ 190 probably indicates sound-substitution; and in _ynowþȝ_ (= _ynouȝ_) _b_ 149 there is wavering between the two forms.

* * * * *

_a_ 12. _Wit Sunday_: the first element is OE. _hwīt_ 'white', not 'wit'.

_a_ 25 ff. Translations of the Bible were common in France at this time. No less than six fine copies survive from the library of John, Duke of Berry (d. 1416). About the middle of the fourteenth century King John of France ordered a new translation and commentary to be made at the expense of the Jews, but it was never finished, although several scholars were still engaged on it at the end of the century. The early French verse renderings, which incorporate a good deal of mediaeval legend, are described by J. Bonnard, _Les Traductions de la Bible en Vers Français au Moyen Âge_ (Paris 1884); the prose by S. Berger, _La Bible Française au Moyen Âge_ (Paris 1884). Of the surviving manuscripts mentioned in these excellent monographs several were written in England.

_a_ 28 ff. In earlier times, when most of those who could read at all were schooled in Latin, the need for English translations of the Scriptures was not so pressing, and the partial translations that were made were intended rather for the use of the clergy and their noble patrons than for the people. Bede (d. 735) completed a rendering of St. John's Gospel on his death-bed. Old English versions of the Gospels and the Psalms still survive. Abbot Aelfric (about A.D. 1000) translated the first five books of the Old Testament; and more than one Middle English version of the Psalms is known. Wiclif was perhaps unaware of the Old English precedents because French renderings became fashionable in England from the twelfth century onwards, and he would probably think of the Psalter more as a separate service book than as an integral part of the Bible. But the prologue to the Wiclifite version attributed to John Purvey quotes the example of Bede and King Alfred; and the Dialogue on Translation which, in Caxton's print, serves as preface to Trevisa's translation of Higden, emphasizes the Old English precedents. Both may be read in _Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse_, ed. A. W. Pollard, London 1903, pp. 193 ff. The attitude of the mediaeval Church towards vernacular translations of the Bible has been studied very fully by Miss M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible and other Medieval Biblical Versions_, Cambridge 1920.

_a_ 34. _þe pley of Ȝork._ The York Paternoster Play has not survived, but there are records from 1389 of a Guild of the Lord's Prayer at York, whose main object was the production of the play. It seems to have been an early example of the moral play, holding up 'the vices to scorn and the virtues to praise', and it probably consisted of several scenes, each exhibiting one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The last recorded representation was in 1572. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_, vol. ii, p. 154. The association of the friars with the production of religious plays is confirmed by other writings of the time. They were quick to realize the value of dramatic representation as a means of gaining favour with the people, and their encouragement must be reckoned an important factor in the development of the Miracle Play.

_a_ 51. _wher_, 'whether'; cp. _b_ 207. In ll. 197, 266, 274, it introduces a direct question; see note to V 118.

_b_ 20. _Gregory_, Gregory the Great. See his work _In Primum Regum Expositiones_, Bk. iii, c. 28: _praedicatores autem Sanctae Ecclesiae... prophetae ministerio utuntur_ (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. lxxix, col. 158).

_b_ 44. <_God_>. Such omissions from the Corpus MS. are supplied throughout from the copy in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. C. III. 12.

_b_ 79-80. Cp. Luke xxi. 36 and 1 Thessalonians v. 17.

_b_ 89-91. Proverbs xxviii. 9.

_b_ 126. _as Ambrose_: In 386 St. Ambrose, besieged in the Portian Church at Milan by Arian sectaries, kept his followers occupied and in good heart by introducing the Eastern practice of singing hymns and antiphons. See St. Augustine's _Confessions_ Bk. ix, c. 7.

_b_ 131-2. _placebo._ Vespers of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, _Placebo Domino in regione vivorum_ (Psalm cxiv. 9).

_dirige._ Matins of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, _Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam_ (Psalm v. 9). Hence our word _dirge_.

_comendacion_: an office in which the souls of the dead are commended to God.

_matynes of Oure Lady_: one of the services in honour of the Virgin introduced in the Middle Ages.

The whole question of these accretions to the Church services is dealt with by our English master in liturgical study, the late Mr. Edmund Bishop, in his essay introductory to the Early English Text Society's edition of the _Prymer_, since reprinted with additional notes in his _Liturgica Historica_ (Oxford 1918), pp. 211 ff.

_b_ 137 f. _deschaunt, countre note, and orgon, and smale brekynge._ The elaboration of the Church services in mediaeval times was accompanied by a corresponding enrichment of the music. To the plain chant additional parts were joined, sung in harmony either above or below the plain chant. _Descant_ usually means the addition of a part above, _organ_ and _countre-note_ (= counterpoint) the addition of parts either above or below. All these could be composed note for note with the plain chant. But _smale brekyng_ represents a further complication, whereby the single note in the plain chant was represented by two or more notes in the accompanying parts.

_b_ 140 f. The abuse is referred to in _Piers Plowman_:

_Persones and parsheprests pleynede to the bisshop
That hure parshens ben poore sitthe the pestelence tyme,
To haue licence and leue in Londone to dwelle,
And synge ther for symonye, for seluer ys swete._

_Prologue_ ll. 81-4.

and by Chaucer in his description of the Parson:

_He sette nat his benefice to hyre,
And leet his sheepe encombred in the myre,
And ran to Londoun, unto Seint Poules,
To seken hym a chaunterie for soules._

_Prologue_ ll. 507-10.

_b_ 183. _Ordynalle of Salisbury._ An 'ordinal' is a book showing the order of church services and ceremonies. In mediaeval times there was considerable divergence in the usage of different churches. But after the Conquest, and more especially in the thirteenth century, there was developed at Salisbury Cathedral an elaborate order and form of service which spread to most of the English churches of any pretensions. This was called 'Sarum' or 'Salisbury' use.

_b_ 209. _þei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille_, &c. For this construction, cp. Chaucer, _Prologue_ 502 _No wonder is a lewed man to ruste_; Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, V. iv. 108 f. _It is the lesser blot... Women to change their shapes_, &c. The same construction, where we now insert _for_, is seen in _Gawayne_ (v. 352-3) _hit were a wynne huge... a leude, þat couþe, to luf hom wel_, &c.

_b_ 221-3. 'They say that a priest may be excused from saying mass, to be the substance of which God gave Himself, provided that he hears one.'

_b_ 228 f. _newe costy portos, antifeners, graielis, and alle oþere bokis._ _Portos_, French _porte hors_, represents Latin _portiforium_, a breviary convenient for 'carrying out of doors'. The _antifener_ contained the antiphons, responses, &c., necessary for the musical service of the canonical hours. The _graiel_, or _gradual_, was so called from the gradual responses, sung at the steps of the altar, or while the deacon ascended the steps of the pulpit: but the book actually contained all the choral service of the Mass.

_b_ 230. _makynge of biblis._ Wiclif in his _Office of Curates_ (ed. Matthew, p. 145) complains of the scarcity of bibles. _But fewe curatis han þe Bible and exposiciouns of þe Gospelis, and litel studien on hem, and lesse donne after hem. But wolde God þat euery parische chirche in þis lond hadde a good Bible!_ &c.

_b_ 234. At this time books, especially illuminated books, were very dear. The Missal of Westminster Abbey, which is now shown in the Chapter-house, was written in 1382-4 at a cost of £34 14_s._ 7_d._—a great sum in those days, for the scribe, Thomas Preston, who took two years to write it, received only £4 for his labour, 20_s._ for his livery, and board at the rate of 21_s._ 8_d._ the half year. The inscription in British Museum MS. Royal 19 D. II, a magnificently illustrated Bible with commentary, shows that it was captured at Poitiers with King John of France, and bought by the Earl of Salisbury for 100 marks (about £66). Edward III gave the same sum to a nun of Amesbury for a rich book of romance. In France John, Duke of Berry, paid as much as £200 for a breviary, and the appraisement of his library in 1416 shows a surprisingly high level of values (L. Delisle, _Le Cabinet des Manuscrits_, vol. iii, pp. 171 ff.). These were luxurious books. The books from the chapel of Archbishop Bowet of York (d. 1423) sold more reasonably: £8 for a great antiphonar and £6 13_s._ 4_d._ _pro uno libro vocato 'Bibill'_, were the highest prices paid; and from his library there were some fascinating bargains: 4_s._ for a small copy of Gregory's _Cura Pastoralis_; 5_s._ _pro uno libro vocato 'Johannes Andrewe', vetere et debili_, which would probably turn out to be a dry work on the Decretals; and 3_s._ 4_d._ for a nameless codex, _vetere et caduco_, 'old and falling to pieces'. (_Historians of the Church of York_, ed. J. Raine, vol. iii, pp. 311, 315.)

But the failing activity of the monastic scriptoria, and the formation of libraries by the friars and by rich private collectors, made study difficult for students at the universities, where at this time a shilling per week—a third of the price of Bowet's most dilapidated volume—was reckoned enough to cover the expenses of a scholar living plainly. The college libraries were scantily supplied: books were lent only in exchange for a valuable pledge; or even pawned, in hard times, by the colleges themselves.

These conditions were not greatly improved until printing gave an easy means of duplication, and for a time caused the humble manuscripts in which most of the mediaeval vernacular literature was preserved to be treated as waste paper. As late as the eighteenth century Martène found the superb illuminated manuscripts left by John, Duke of Berry, to the Sainte Chapelle at Bourges serving as roosting places to their keeper's hens (_Voyage Littéraire_, Paris 1717, pt. i, p. 29).

_b_ 261-3. The reference is to Acts vi. 2, 'It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.'

_b_ 266. _wisere þan._ After these words the Corpus MS. (p. 170, col. i, l. 34 mid.), without any warning, goes on to the closing passage of an entirely unrelated 'Petition to the King and Parliament'. By way of compensation, the end of our sermon appears at the close of the Petition. Clearly the scribe (or some one of his predecessors) copied without any regard for the sense from a MS. of which the leaves had become disarranged.

_b_ 285. Cp. Acts iii. 6.

XII

#Dialect#: London (SE. Midland) with Kentish features.

#Inflexions#:

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _loveth_ _a_ 5; contracted _stant_ _a_ 74.
3 pl. _schewen_ _a_ 136, _halsen_ _a_ 148, _be_
(in rime) _a_ 92.
pres. p. _growende_ _a_ 80.
strong pp. _schape_ (in rime) _a_ 130, beside _schapen_ _a_
169.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _sche_ _a_ 32;
pl. _thei_ _a_ 148; _here_ _a_ 144; _hem_ _a_ 112.

Unaccented final _-e_ is treated as in Chaucer, having its full value in the verse when it represents an inflexion or final vowel in Old English or Old French, e.g.

_And for he scholdė slepė softė_ _a_ 93
_An apė, which at thilkė throwė_ _b_ 5

#Sounds#: _e_ appears as in Kentish for OE. _y_: _hell_ 'hill' _a_ 65, 79, 86; _keste_ 'kissed' _a_ 178; note the rimes _unschette_: _lette_ _a_ 71-2; _pet_ 'pit': _let_ _b_ 9-10; and less decisive _pet_: _knet_ (OE. _knyttan_) _b_ 29-30, 53-4; _dreie_: _beie_ _b_ 23-4.

#Spelling#: _ie_ represents close _ẹ̄_: _flietende_ _a_ 157, _hier_ _b_ 34; _diemed_ _b_ 216.

#Syntax#: The elaborate machinery of sentence connexion deserves special attention; and many turns of phrase are explained by Gower's fluency in French.

* * * * *

_a_ 1. Gower follows Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, Bk. xi. Chaucer tells the story of Ceix and Alcyone in his _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 62 ff. This is presumably the early work to which the Man of Law refers:

_I kan right now no thrifty tale seyn
But Chaucer, thogh he kan but lewedly
On metres and on rymyng craftily,
Hath seyd hem, in swich Englissh as he kan,
Of olde tyme, as knoweth many a man;
And if he have noght seyd hem, leve brother,
In o book, he hath seyd hem in another;
For he hath toold of loveris up and doun
Mo than Ovide made of mencioun
In his ~Epistelles~, that been ful olde.
What sholde I tellen hem, syn they ben tolde?
In youthe he made of Ceys and Alcione_, &c.

(Link to _Man of Law's Tale_, ll. 46 ff.)

Gower's rendering is the more poetical.

_a_ 2. _Trocinie._ Ovid's _Trachinia tellus_, so called from the city of Trachis, north-west of Thermopylae.

_a_ 23. _As he which wolde go_: otiose, or at best meaning no more than 'desiring to go'. Cp. _b_ 25 _As he which hadde_ = 'having' simply; and similarly _b_ 37, 203. It is an imitation of a contemporary French idiom _comme celui qui_.

_a_ 26. _and_: the displacement of the conjunction from its natural position at the beginning of the clause is characteristic of Gower's verse. Cp. l. 152 _Upon the morwe and up sche sterte_ = 'and in the morning she got up', and _a_ 45, 49, _b_ 121, 124, 135, 160, 182. See notes to ll. 32, 78 f.

_a_ 32. Editors put a comma after _wepende_, and no stop after _seileth_: but it is Alceoun who weeps. The displacement of _and_ is exemplified in the notes to l. 26 and ll. 78 f.

_a_ 37. 'One had not to look for grief'; a regular formula of understatement, meaning 'her grief was great'.

_a_ 53. _Hire reyny cope_, &c.: the rainbow, which was the sign or manifestation of Iris.

_a_ 59 ff.

_Prope Cimmerios longo spelunca recessu,
Mons cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni._

(_Metamorphoses_ xi. 592-3.)

Much of the poetry of Gower's description is due to Ovid.

_a_ 78 f. Editors put no stop after _may_ and a comma after _hell_. Hence _The New English Dictionary_ quotes this passage as an isolated instance of _noise_, transitive, meaning 'disturb with noise'. But _noise_ is intransitive, _hell_ is governed by _aboute round_, and the position of _bot_ is abnormal as in l. 105. Cp. notes to ll. 26, 32, and render 'But all round about the hill'.

_a_ 105. For the word order see notes to ll. 26, 32, 78 f.

_a_ 117. _The lif_, 'the man', cp. IV _a_ 43.

_a_ 118. _Ithecus_: for Icelos. According to Ovid 'Icelos' was the name by which he was known to the gods, but men called him 'Phobetor'.

_a_ 123. _Panthasas_: Ovid's _Phantasos_.

_a_ 152. See note to l. 26.

_a_ 197. The halcyon, usually identified with the kingfisher, was supposed to build a floating nest on the sea in midwinter, and to have power to calm the winds and waves at that season, bringing 'halcyon weather'.

_b_ 2. _I finde._ Matthew Paris in his _Chronica Maiora_ (ed. Luard, Rolls Series, vol. ii, pp. 413 ff.) gives a similar story, which, he says, King Richard the First often told to rebuke ingratitude. In this version, Vitalis of Venice falls into a pit dug as a trap for wild beasts. The rescued animals are a lion and a serpent; the rescuer is nameless, and the gem given to him by the serpent has not the magic virtue of returning whenever sold. Nearer to Gower is the story told in Nigel Wireker's _Speculum Stultorum_, a late twelfth-century satire in Latin verse, which, from the name of its principal character Burnellus the Ass, who is ambitious to have a longer tail, is sometimes called _Burnellus_; cp. Chaucer, _Nun's Priest's Tale_, l. 492:

_I have wel rad in Daun Burnel the Asse
Among his vers_, &c.

The poem is printed in T. Wright's _Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century_ (Rolls Series, 1872), vol. i. At the end the Ass returns disappointed to his master Bernardus (= Bardus). Bernardus, when gathering wood, hears Dryanus (= Adrian), a rich citizen of Cremona, call from a pit for help. The rescued animals are a lion, a serpent, and an ape. The gem given by the serpent in token of gratitude always returns to Bernardus, who, with more honesty than Gower's poor man shows, takes it back to the buyer. The fame of the marvellous stone reaches the king; his inquiries bring to light the whole story; and Dryanus is ordered to give half his goods to Bernardus.

Gower probably worked on a later modification of Nigel's story.

_b_ 86. _blessed_, 'crossed (himself)'.

_b_ 89. _Betwen him and his asse_, i.e. pulling together with the ass. The ass is, of course, the distinguished Burnellus.

_b_ 116. _his ape_: for _this ape_ (?).

_b_ 191. _Justinian_, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (d. 565), was best known for his codification of the Roman Law, and so is named here as the type of a lawgiver.

XIII

#Dialect#: South-Western, with some Midland forms.

#Inflexions#:

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _bloweþ_ _a_ 7, _casteþ_ _a_ 8.
3 pl. _buþ_ _a_ 10, _habbeþ_ _a_ 15.
pres. p. _slyttyng_, _frotyng_ _b_ 59.
strong pp. _yknowe_ _a_ 12, _ysode_ _a_ 30.
NOUN: Note the plural in _-(e)n_, _tren_ 'trees' _a_ 44, 51, 53;
_chyldern_ _b_ 16 is a double plural.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _hy_ _a_ 17; _here_ _a_ 61; _ham_ _a_ 23.
Note the unstressed 3 sg. and 3 pl. form _a_, e.g. at _a_
13, 27.

#Sounds#: There is no instance of _v_ for initial _f_, which is evidenced in the spelling of early South-Western writers like Robert of Gloucester (about 1300), or of _z_ for initial _s_, which is less commonly shown in spelling. _u_ for OE. _y_ occurs in _hulles_ 'hills' _a_ 18 (beside _bysynes_ _b_ 24, where Modern English has _u_ in spelling but _i_ in pronunciation; and _lift_ (OE. _lyft_) _b_ 39, where Modern English has the South-Eastern form _left_).

* * * * *

_a_ 2-3. _Mayster... Minerua... hys_: Trevisa appears to have understood 'Minerva' as the name of a god.