(8) Rewritten passages at the beginning and near the end of the Cronica Tripertita, the same as C (12).
(9) Second copy of the last poems (on f. 164), the same hand as C (11).
E. At Ecton, near Northampton, in the possession of General Sotheby, who very kindly sent it to the Bodleian Library for my use. Contains Vox Clamantis, Carmen super multiplici Viciorum Pestilencia, Tractatus de Lucis Scrutinio, ‘O deus immense,’ ‘Cultor in ecclesia,’ ‘Vnanimes esse,’ ‘Dicunt scripture.’ Parchment, ff. 191, measuring about 9 x 6¼ in., in quires of eight with catch-words, the last quire of seven leaves only (two blank). Neatly written in a good hand of the end of the fourteenth century, in single column, 32 lines to a page. On f. 10 a brightly coloured picture of an archer drawing a bow to shoot at the world, with the lines ‘Ad mundum mitto,’ &c., as in the Cotton and Glasgow MSS., but the figure and features are different, and evidently the picture has less claim to be considered an authentic portrait than those of the two MSS. above named. The headings of pages and chapters are in red, and there are coloured initials and other decorations throughout. The whole is written in one hand, and there are no corrections or erasures such as might indicate that the book had been in the hands of the author.
The manuscript seems to have been in the possession of the Sotheby family since 1702, when it was ‘bought at Lord Burgley’s sale for £1 2s. 0d.’ No leaves are lost, but two are transposed at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth books.
The text is very fairly correct, and the MS. is closely related to C both in text and spelling (for which see i. Prol. 37 f., i. 21, 95, 447, 1706, 1776, 2017, ii. 174, 311 &c.), but not derived from it (see i. 41, 1626, 2094, iii. 1760 f., v. 785 f.). The passages which in C and the other original copies are rewritten over erasure, as iii. 1 ff., vi. 1161 ff., are usually given by E in the revised form, but the marginal notes at iii. 375 and iv. 587 are omitted. Occasionally too, where C has a correction, E gives the original reading in company with H, as iii. 840, v. 785 f., and especially in the passages vi. 1219 ff. and vii. 182 ff., where H no longer agrees with SCG in corrections, we find that E goes with H. In the final poems E shows some independence as regards marginal notes, e.g. in the last piece, where instead of ‘Nota contra mortuorum executores,’ we find the much more pointed, though doubtfully grammatical, remark, ‘Nota quod bonum est vnicuique esse executor sui ipsius.’ This is the only MS. except CHG which contains the short pieces at the end, and the omission from these of ‘Presul, ouile regis’ may be an indication that the MS. was written before 1402.
As regards the picture in this MS., the features of the archer are quite different from those represented in the Cotton MS. He has a prominent pointed nose and a light-coloured moustache and beard; the arrow, held between the fore-finger and the second and aimed upwards, covers the mouth. The dress consists of a grey fur cap with a hood under it of light crimson, covering also the upper part of the body: below this a blue surcoat with brown lining and wide sleeves thrown back so as to leave the arms bare: a red belt with buckle and pendant, and red hose. The globe is at a higher level and smaller in proportion than in the other pictures. Like them it is divided into three, the left hand upper division having a crescent moon and four stars: a red cross with a banner stands at the summit of the globe.
D. Digby 138, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Contains Vox Clamantis only, preceded by the Table of Chapter-headings. Parchment and paper, ff. 158 originally, with other leaves inserted at the beginning and end in the sixteenth century; about 10½ x 7¼ in., in quires of eight with catchwords; neat writing of the second quarter of the fifteenth century, about 37 lines to the page. No decoration except red and blue initials, numbering of chapters in red, &c. The rubricator has introduced some corrections here and there, but there are no passages rewritten over erasure. There is some transposition of leaves in the fourteenth quire, dating from before the rubricator’s numbering of chapters. The name of a sixteenth-century owner, Roger Waller, occurs on f. 158 vo. and Kenelm Digby’s device, ‘Vindica te tibi, Kenelme Digby,’ on f. 1.
The text of D is of a mixed character. Sometimes, in company with TH₂ it reproduces the original form of a passage, as i. 1029 ff., vi. cap. xviii and xix, vii. 189 f., 1409 ff., 1454 ff., 1479 ff. In other places, as iii. 1 ff., vi. 545, and elsewhere, the readings of D are those of the revised MSS. It is peculiar in the addition after vi. 522, where eight lines are introduced from the original text of the altered passage which follows at the end of the chapter. The text of D generally is much less correct than that of the older copies, and it is derived from a MS. which had lines missing here and there, as indicated by the ‘deficit versus in copia,’ which occurs sometimes in the margin. In the numbering of the chapters the Prologues of Libb. ii. and iii. are reckoned as cap. i. in each case. The corrections and notes of the rubricator are not always sound, and sometimes we find in the margin attempts to improve the author’s metre, in a seventeenth-century hand, as ‘Et qui pauca tenet’ for ‘Qui tenet et pauca’ (ii. 70), ‘Causa tamen credo’ for ‘Credo tamen causa’ (ii. 84). Some of these late alterations have been admitted (strange to say) into Mr. Coxe’s text (e.g. ii. 70).
The book is made up of parchment and paper in equal proportions, the outer and inner leaves of each quire being of parchment. Sixteen leaves of paper have been inserted at the beginning and twelve at the end of the book, easily distinguished by the water-mark and chain-lines from the paper originally used in the book itself. Most of these are blank, but some have writing, mostly in sixteenth-century hands. There are medical prescriptions and cooking recipes in English, selections of gnomic and other passages from the Vox Clamantis, among which are the lines ‘Ad mundum mitto,’ &c., which do not occur in the Digby text, four Latin lines on the merits of the papal court beginning ‘Pauperibus sua dat gratis,’ which when read backwards convey an opposite sense, the stanzas by Queen Elizabeth ‘The dowte of future force (corr. foes) Exiles my presente ioye, And wytt me warnes to shonne suche snares As threten myne annoye’ (eight four-line stanzas).
With regard to the connexion between D and L see below on the Laud MS.