L. Laud 719, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Contains Vox Clamantis (without Table of Chapters and with omission of Lib. i. 165-2150), Carmen super multiplici Viciorum Pestilencia, Tractatus de Lucis Scrutinio, Carmen de variis in amore passionibus, ‘Lex docet auctorum,’ ‘Quis sit vel qualis,’ ‘H. aquile pullus,’ and seven more Latin lines of obscure meaning (‘Inter saxosum montem,’ &c.), which are not found in other Gower MSS. Parchment and paper, ff. 170 (not including four original blank leaves at the beginning and several miscellaneous leaves at the end), in quires usually of fourteen leaves, but the first of twelve and the second of six, measuring about 8½ x 5¾ in., about 27 lines to the page, moderately well written with a good many contractions, in the same hand throughout with no corrections, of the second quarter of the fifteenth century. There is a roughly drawn picture of an archer aiming at the globe on f. 21, and the chapters have red initial letters. Original oak binding.
The names ‘Thomas Eymis’ and ‘William Turner’ occur as those of sixteenth-century owners. The note on the inside of the binding, ‘Henry Beauchamp lyeing in St. John strete at the iii. Cuppes,’ can hardly be taken to indicate ownership.
The most noticeable fact about the text of this MS. is one to which no attention has hitherto been called, viz. the omission of the whole history of the Peasants’ Revolt. After Lib. i. cap. i. the whole of the remainder of the first book (nearly 2,000 lines) is omitted without any note of deficiency, and we pass on to the Prologue of Lib. ii, not so named here, but standing as the second chapter of Lib. i. (the chapters not being numbered however in this MS.). After what we commonly call the second book follows the heading of the Prologue of Lib. iii, but without any indication that a new book is begun. Lib. iv. is marked by the rubricator as ‘liber iiius,’ Lib. v. as ‘liber iiiius,’ and so on to the end, making six books instead of seven; but there are traces of another numbering, apparently by the scribe who wrote the text, according to which Lib. v. was reckoned as ‘liber iiius,’ Lib. iv. as ‘liber iiiius,’ and Lib. vii. as ‘liber vus.’ It has been already observed that there is internal evidence to show that this arrangement in five (or six) books may have been the original form of the text of the Vox Clamantis. At the same time it must be noted that this form is given by no other MS. except the Lincoln book, which is certainly copied from L, and that the nature of the connexion between L and D seems to indicate that these two MSS. are ultimately derived from the same source. This connexion, established by a complete collation of the two MSS., extends apparently throughout the whole of the text of L. We have, for example, in both, i. Prol. 27, laudes, 58 Huius ergo, ii. 94 et ibi, 312 causat, 614 Ingenuitque, iii. 4 mundus, 296 ei, 407 amor (for maior), 536 Hec, 750 timidus, 758 curremus, 882 iuris, 1026 Nil, 1223 mundus, 1228 bona, 1491 egras, 1584 racio, 1655 Inde vola, 1777 ibi, 1868 timet, 1906 seruet, 2075, 2080 qui, iv. 52 vrbe, 99 tegit, and so on. The common source was not an immediate one, for words omitted by D with a blank or ‘deficit’ as iii. 641, vii. 487 are found in L, and the words ‘nescit,’ ‘deus,’ which are omitted with a blank left in L at iii. 1574 and vi. 349 are found in D. If we suppose a common source, we must assume either that the first book was found in it entire and deliberately omitted, with alteration of the numbering of the books, by the copyist of the MS. from which L is more immediately derived, or that it was not found, and that the copyist of the original of D supplied it from another source.
It should be noted that the MS. from which L is ultimately derived must have had alternative versions of some of the revised passages, for in vi. cap. xviii. and also vi. l. 1208 L gives both the revised and the unrevised form. As a rule in the matter of revision L agrees with D, but not in the corrections of vi. 1208-1226, where D has the uncorrected form and L the other. We may note especially the reading of L in vi. 1224.
The following are the Latin lines which occur on f. 170 after ‘[H.] Aquile pullus,’ &c.
‘Inter saxosum montem campumque nodosum
Periit Anglica gens fraude sua propria.
Homo dicitur, Cristus, virgo, Sathan, non iniustus fragilisque,
Est peccator homo simpliciterque notat.
Vlcio, mandatum, cetus, tutela, potestas,