The first four leaves and the last two are blank except for notes of ownership, &c., so that the text of the book extends only from f. 5 to f. 39, one leaf being lost between f. 33 and f. 34.
The pages are ruled for 35 lines and are written in single column. The handwriting is of the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, and resembles what I elsewhere describe as the ‘third hand’ in MS. Fairfax 3, though I should hesitate to affirm that it is certainly the same, not having had the opportunity of setting the texts side by side. There is, however, another hand in the MS., which appears in the Latin lines on ff. 33 vo and 39 vo.
The initial letters of poems and stanzas are coloured, but there is no other ornamentation.
The book contains (1) ff. 5—10 vo, the English poem in seven-line stanzas addressed to Henry IV, beginning ‘O worthi noble kyng.’
(2) f. 10 vo, 11, the Latin piece beginning ‘Rex celi deus.’
(3) f. 11 vo—12 vo, two French balades with a set of Latin verses between them, addressed to Henry IV (f. 12 is seriously damaged). This is what I refer to as the Dedication.
(4) ff. 12 vo—33, Cinkante balades.
(5) f. 33 vo, Latin lines beginning ‘Ecce patet tensus,’ incomplete owing to the loss of the next leaf. Written in a different hand.
(6) ff. 34—39, ‘Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz,’ imperfect at the beginning owing to the loss of the preceding leaf.
(7) f. 39 vo, Latin lines beginning ‘Henrici quarti,’ written in the hand which appears on f. 33 vo.