4 - Cambridge, St Catharine’s College, MS 7

Summary

Confessio Amantis, ‘Explicit iste liber’, ‘Quam cinxere’, ‘Quia unusquisque’. s.xv, second quarter

Contents

1

(fols 1ra–188vb) Confessio Amantis, Prol.1–VIII.2939

Torpor ebes sensus… (6 lines of Latin verse).

Of hem that written ous tofore < > Of loue as for þy final ende

Prologue (fol. 1ra); Book I (fol. 7va) wants one leaf, with text of I.3089–3276 (as noted, fol. 25v, lower margin, in a hand of s.xvi: ‘desunt multa’); Book II (fol. 26v) wants one leaf, with text of II.3331–3518; Book III (fol. 48ra); Book IV (fol. 64ra); Book V (fol. 82ra) wants one leaf, with text of V.1182–1363, and another leaf, with text of V.6225–6388; Book VI (fol. 127rb) wants two leaves, with text of VI.107–460; Book VII (fol. 139ra) wants one leaf, with text of VII.984–1155; Book VIII (fol. 171va) wants one leaf, with text of VIII.2940–3114*. There is much confusion in the text of Books III, IV and V, due to omissions, repetitions and probable disorder in the leaves of the exemplar. See below, Physical Description, III.

Text: collated by Macaulay (sigil Cath) and assigned to his recension Ib (ed., Works, II.cxlvi–vii).

For further information about the following Latin and French addenda that Gower caused to be added to MSS of the Confessio, see Appendix III.

2

(fol. 189ra) ‘Explicit iste liber’

Explicit iste liber qui transeat obsecro < > sub eo requiesce futurus Six-line version, with praise of earl of Derby, written as if prose (7½ lines)

Macaulay (ed.), Works, II.478.

NB. fol. 189, which contains the Latin addenda, is in fact not numbered and is placed at the beginning of the MS. We call it fol. 189 and talk about it as if it were the last leaf, which it should be.

3

(fol. 189ra) ‘Quam cinxere’

Quam cinxere freta < > stat sine meta

With rubric, ‘Epistola super huius opusculi’, written below ‘Quam cinxere’ even though a space of five lines is left above ‘Quam cinxere’ to take the rubric as in other MSS.

Macaulay (ed.), Works, II.478.

4

(fol. 189ra–rb) ‘Quia unusquisque’

Quia unusquisque < > specialiter intitulatur

Later version with condemnation of Richard II and praise of Henry, earl of Derby.