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A Middle English MS in the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève, Paris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2021

William P. Cumming
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Extract

MS 3390 of the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève of Paris contains a number of Middle English religious tracts, followed by Richard Rolle of Hampole's Form of Perfect Living and Ego Dormio. Certain of the religious tracts are found in other manuscripts in English libraries, and are usually ascribed to Wycliffe. The Ste. Geneviève MS is an octavo volume of 109 vellum leaves; it is written in Midland dialect in one hand of the early fifteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1927 , pp. 862 - 864
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1927

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References

1 My attention was called to the MS through the kindness of Professor J. H. Baxter of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

2 Mention of the MS is made in Carleton Brown's Register of Middle English Religious Verse, Oxford, 1916, 1, 517: “Bibl. St. Geneviève MS 3390, Treatises by Walter Hilton. XV Cent. In the treatise Ego Dormio are introduced two long riming passages written as prose [first lines of the two passages follow].” This description, however, is inexact in ascribing these treatises to Walter Hilton. Moreover, it omits mention of Rolle's Form of Perfect Living, which precedes Ego Dormio, with the riming passage occurring in it (fol. 81a): “Whan wilt þou come to counforte me and brynge me of care.”

3 On the second paper fly-leaf, recto, an early sixteenth century hand has written “for my verie noble Lord and good patron, my Lord Saltone and Abdenethie.” On the third fly-leaf, verso, is written: “Ce livre a esté envoyé de la Biblioteque d'Aberden, en Écosse, au roy Jacque sixième [James I of England], et, apres la mort de ce prince, est tombé entre les mains de plusieurs particuliers, desquels il a esté retiré par R. A. De la Haye, chanoine regulier de la congregation de France, et envoyé à la Biblioteque Ste. Geneviève du Mont, 1' an de J. Christ 1689, 2 May.”

4 Thomas Arnold, Select English Works of John Wyclif, Oxf. 1871, III, 82–92.

5 Ibid., pp. 114–116.

6 Ibid., pp. 93–97.

7 F. D. Matthew, English Works of Wyclif Hitherto Unprinted, E. E. T. S. LXXIV, 346–355.

8 Cf. ibid., p. 349, where there is a fierce attack on those friars who fail in belief as to the Host, which they believe to be neither bread nor Christ's Body. This paragraph is absent in the Ste. Geneviève MS passage (fol. 32b).

9 Perry, Dan Jon Gaytrige's Sermon, Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, E. E. T. S. XXVI, 1–4; Simmons and Nolloth, Lay Folks' Catechism, E. E. T. S. CXVTII, 1–99 (two English texts; including Wycliffite version).

10 They agree in their differences from the Northern texts. For example, Ste. Geneviève MS (fol. 58a, l. 19) and Rawlinson MS (fol. 85a l. 12) both insert raþer after chese where the printed texts (C. Horstman, Richard Rolle of Hampole, I, 4, l. 18) have “Bot for bai chese be vile syn of þis world.” The names Margaret or Cecil, which are near the end of the Form of Perfect Living in the printed texts, are absent in Rawlinson and Ste. Geneviève. These two MSS both lack the Latin words Ego Dormio at the beginning of that treatise. For looking up these last two references I am indebted to Dr. S. Harrison Thomson of Princeton.

11 G. P. Krapp, The Rise of English Literary Prose, New York, 1915, p. 44.

12 Cf. the Lay Folks' Catechism, and the introductory lines to a copy of Richard Rolle's Psalter (T. Arnold, op. cit., p. 4):

Copyed has þis sauter ben of yvel men of Lollardry,
And afterward hit has bene sene ympyd in wiþ eresy, etc.

13 E. D. Jones, Authenticity of some English Works ascribed to Wycliffe, Anglia, Vol. XXX, 266.

14 Matthews, English Works of Wyclif, E. E. T. S. LXXIV, 346.

15 Simmons and Nolloth, Lay Folks' Catechism, E. E. T. S. CXVIII, xxv–xxviii.