MS 402

Summary

Described Thomas James 274; Bernard 273; Stanley S. 15; Nasmith 402; James, Corpus 402; Geoffrey Shepherd, Ancrene Wisse: Parts 6 and 7 (Edinburgh, 1959, repr. Exeter, 1985), p. x; J.R.R. Tolkien, ed., The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle: Ancrene Wisse Edited from MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402, with an introduction by N.R. Ker, EETS 249 (London, 1962), pp. ix–xviii, and plates on leaf facing title page (of ff. 1 and 69); Wilkins, Middle English, p. 4; Laing, p. 24; Bella Millett, Ancrene Wisse, the Katherine Group, and the Wooing Group, Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature 2 (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 49–50; Bella Millett, Ancrene Wisse: A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants from Other Manuscripts, 2 vols., EETS 325 and 326 (Oxford, 2005–2006), pp. xi–xii.

[1]

f. 1

Lauerd seið godes spuse to hire deorewerðe spus þe rihte luuieð þe þeo beoð rihte þe luuieð efter riƿle ant ʒe mine leoue sustren habbeþ moni dei icrauet on me after riwle monie cunne riƿlen beoð ah tƿa beoð bimong alle …

f. 1

Recti diligunt te in canticis sponsa ad sponsum est rectum gramaticum rectum geometricum rectum theologicum et sunt differencie totidem regularum …

f. 117^v

… greteð þe leafdi ƿið an aue for him þet sƿonc her abuten inoh meaðful ich am þe bidde se lutel explicit i þench o þi ƿritere i þine beoden sumchearre ne beo hit ne se lutel hit turneð þe to gode þet tu bidest for oþre.

Ancrene Wisse. ‘I þe feaderes & i þe sunes & i þe hali gastes nome her biginneð ancrene ƿisse’. A s. xv reader has made alterations to the text, changing some instances of e.g. ‘ƿ’ to ‘w’ and ‘e’ to ‘a’; the transcription above reflects these changes, and follows Millett in expanding the contracted ‘þ^t’ as ‘þet’. Two leaves are missing after f. 14, resulting in a lacuna in the text. Text edited from this MS by Geoffrey Shepherd (1959, repr. 1985), by J.R.R. Tolkien (1962), and by Bella Millett (2005–2006).