Transcriber's note: Until recently this work was attributed to John Lydgate, but now most scholars consider that the author is unknown. The first mention of Lydgate's authorship of this work was made by Stephen Hawes in 1505 as one of Lydgate's seven major works. But many scholars have doubted over the years that this poem was written by Lydgate, because the style used doesn't greatly resemble the style of Lydgate's other works, and the vocabulary is somewhat more modern than Lydgate is known to have used. Modern scholars believe that this work was written between 1478 and 1483 (about forty years after Lydgate's death). Analysis of style and vocabulary have led scholars to conclude that the author might have been a woman. For further information about this poem please see The Assembly of Gods, edited by Jane Chance, published by Medieval Institute Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1999, ISBN: 1580440223, which is also available online at [Rochester University].
The book from which this e-book was transcribed is a fascimile reprint of the third printing of this book, made by Wynkyn de Worde circa 1500. The book was printed in blackletter font known as Wynkyn de Worde's type 3, and uses many abbreviations, which I have expanded and rendered in italics. The abbreviations used in this book are:
- ,
- ,
- ,
- ,
- —Macron over the letter. The most common one, usually meaning missing "n" or "m" after the letter. But in some cases might also mean missing "e", "er" or "re" after the letter. This happens usually when p, q or r have macrons.
- —Little e over Middle-English thorn, meaning "the."
- —Little t over Middle-English thorn, meaning "that."
- —Little u over Middle-English thorn, meaning "thou."
- —Little t over w, meaning "with."
- —Middle-English yogh, representing "gh."
- —Superscripted 9 after letter, meaning missing "us." Used only at the end of the word.
- —Superscripted 2 after letter, meaning missing "e", "er" or "re." Used only at the end of the word.
- —Stretched s, looking like integral sign, meaning missing "e" or "i" before letter s.
- ,
- ,
- ,
- —Dot over the letter, meaning missing "e", "er" or "re" after the letter. Usually used with d, t, e and u. Combination q+d with dot means "quod."
- ,
- ,
- —Strike through letter, meaning missing "e", "er" or "re" after the letter. Usually used with p, v and s. Striked through p might also mean missing "ro" or "or" after p.
Occasionally there were some letters printed upside down. I have rendered them inside brackets, e.g., [x]. The poem uses two types of punctuation--a dot, meaning longer pause, and a slash, meaning shorter pause or comma. I have corrected many errors and noted them. Also this printing was missing three lines and one line had several letters missing from the middle of the line. They are marked and the correct reading is supplied from the modern edition mentioned above. There were a couple of places where the word "nota" or "note" was printed, but the actual notes weren't found in this reprint. There's a fair chance that those notes were never printed. The original page images are displayed on the left margin and each links to a larger view.