THE "ANCREN RIWLE."
The publication of this valuable semi-Saxon or Early English treatise on the duties of monastic life, recently put forth by the Camden Society, under the editorship of the Rev. James Morton, is extremely acceptable, and both the Society and the editor deserve the cordial thanks of all who are interested in the history of our language. As one much interested in the subject, and who many years since entertained the design now so ably executed by Mr. Morton, I may perhaps be allowed to offer a few remarks on the work itself, and on the manuscripts which contain it. Mr. Morton is unquestionably right in his statement that the Latin MS. in Magdalen College, Oxford, No. 67., is only an abridged translation of the original vernacular text. Twenty-three years ago I had access to the same MS. by permission of the Rev. Dr. Routh, the President of Magdalen College, and after reading and making extracts from it[[1]], I came to the same conclusion as Mr. Morton. It hardly admits, I think, of a doubt; for even without the internal evidence furnished by the Latin copy, the age of the manuscripts containing the Early English text at once set aside the supposition that Simon of Ghent (Bishop of Salisbury from 1297 to 1315) was the original author of the work. The copy in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, I have not seen, but of the three copies in the British Museum I feel confident that the one marked Cleopatra C. vi. was actually written before Bishop Simon of Ghent had emerged from the nursery. This copy is not only the oldest, but the most curious, from the corrections and alterations made in it by a somewhat later hand, the chief of which are noticed in the printed edition. The collation, however, of this MS. might have been, with advantage, made more minutely, for at present many readings are passed over. Thus, at p. 8., for unweote the second hand has congoun; at p. 62., for herigen it has preisen; at p. 90., for on cheafle, it reads o muþe, &c. The original hand has also some remarkable variations, which would cause a suspicion that this was the first draft of the author's work. Thus, at p. 12., for scandle, the first hand has schonde; at p. 62., for baldeliche it reads bradliche; at p. 88., for nout for, it has anonden, and the second hand aneust; at p. 90., for sunderliche it reads sunderlepes, &c. All these, and many other curious variations, are not noticed in the printed edition. On the fly-leaf of this MS. is written, in a hand of the time of Edward I., as follows: "Datum abbatie et conventui de Leghe per Dame M. de Clare." The lady here referred to was doubtless Maud de Clare, second wife of Richard de Clare, Earl of Hereford and Gloucester, who, at the beginning of the reign of Edward I., is known to have changed the Augustinian Canons of Leghe, in Devonshire, into an abbess and nuns of the same order; and it was probably at the same period she bestowed this volume on them. The conjecture of Mr. Morton, that Bishop Poore, who died in 1237, might have been the original author of the Ancren Riwle, is by no means improbable, and deserves farther inquiry. The error as to Simon of Ghent is due, in the first place, not to Dr. Smith, but to Richard James (Sir Robert Cotton's librarian), who wrote on the fly-leaves of all the MSS. in the Cottonian Library a note of their respective contents, and who is implicitly followed by Smith. Wanley is more blamable, and does not here evince his usual critical accuracy, but (as remarked by Mr. Morton) he could only have looked at a few pages of the work. The real fact seems to be that Simon of Ghent made the abridged Latin version of the seven books of the Riwle now preserved in Magdalen College, and this supposition may well enough be reconciled with the words of Leland, who says of him,—
"Edidit inter cætera, libros septem de Vita Solitaria, ad Virgines Tarentinas, Duriæ cultrices."—Comment., p. 316.
A second copy of the Latin version was formerly in the Cottonian collection (Vitellius E. vii.), but no fragment of it has hitherto been recovered from the mass of burnt crusts and leaves left after the fire of 1731. I am happy, however, to add, that within the last few months, the manuscript marked Vitellius F. vii., containing a French translation of the Riwle, made in the fourteenth century (very closely agreeing with the vernacular text), has been entirely restored, except that the top margins of the leaves have been burnt at each end of the volume. This damage has, unfortunately, carried away the original heading of the treatise, and the title given us by Smith is copied partly from James's note. This copy of the French version appears to be unique, and is the more interesting from its having a note at the end (now half obliterated by the fire), stating that it belonged to Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, whose motto is also added, "Plesance. M [mil]. en vn." The personage in question was Eleanor, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and wife of Thomas of Woodstock, who ended her days as a nun in the convent at Barking in 1399. Is any other instance known of the use of this motto? Before I conclude these brief remarks, I may mention a fifth copy of the Ancren Riwle, which has escaped the notice of Mr. Morton. It is buried in the enormous folio manuscript of old English poetry and prose called the Vernon MS., in the Bodleian Library, written in the reign of Richard II., and occurs at pp. 371b.—392. In the table of contents prefixed to this volume it is entitled "The Roule of Reclous;" and although the phraseology is somewhat modernised, it agrees better with the MS. Cleopatra C. vi, than with Nero A. xiv., from which Mr. Morton's edition is printed. This copy is not complete, some leaves having been cut out in the sixth book, and the scribe leaves off at p. 420. of the printed edition.
It is very much to be wished that Mr. Morton would undertake the task of editing another volume of legends, homilies, and poems, of the same age as the Ancren Riwle, still existing in various manuscripts. One of the homilies, entitled "Sawles Warde," in the Bodley MS. 34., Cott. MS. Titus D. xviii., and Old Royal MS. 17A. xxvii., is very curious, and well deserves to be printed.
F. Madden.
British Museum.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
At p. viii. of Mr. Morton's preface, for "yerze" (eye), my extracts read "yze."