Then the seven lines, ‘Ista tripertita—vincit amor,’ followed by ‘Explicit prologus.’ After this,
‘Incipit cronica iohannis Gower de tempore Regis Ricardi secundi vsque ad secundum annum Henrici quarti.
Incipit prohemium Cronice Iohannis Gower.
Postquam in quodam libello, qui vox clamantis dicitur, quem Iohannes Gower nuper versificatum composuit super hoc quod tempore Regis Ricardi secundi anno Regni sui quarto vulgaris in anglia populus contra ipsum Regem quasi ex virga dei notabiliter insurrexit manifestius tractatum existit, iam in hoc presenti Cronica, que tripertita est, super quibusdam aliis infortuniis,’ &c.
Ends (after ‘sint tibi regna poli’), ‘Expliciunt carmina Iohannis Gower, que scripta sunt vsque nunc, quod est in anno domini Regis prenotati secundo, et quia confractus ego tam senectute quam aliis infirmitatibus vlterius scribere discrete non sufficio, Scribat qui veniet post me discrecior Alter, Amodo namque manus et mea penna silent. Hoc tamen infine verborum queso meorum, prospera quod statuat regna futura deus. Amen. Ihesus esto michi ihesus.’
This conclusion seems to be made up out of the piece beginning ‘Henrici quarti’ in the Trentham MS. (see p. 365 of this volume) combined with the prose heading of the corresponding lines as given by CHG. It may be observed here that the Trentham version of this piece is also given in MS. Cotton, Julius F. vii, f. 167, with the heading ‘Epitaphium siue dictum Iohannis Gower Armigeri et per ipsum compositum.’ It is followed by the lines ‘Electus Cristi—sponte data,’ which are the heading of the Praise of Peace.
Former Editions. The Vox Clamantis was printed for the Roxburghe Club in the year 1850, edited by H. O. Coxe, Bodley’s Librarian. In the same volume were included the Cronica Tripertita, the lines ‘Quicquid homo scribat,’ &c., the complimentary verses of the ‘philosopher,’ ‘Eneidos Bucolis,’ &c., and (in a note to the Introduction) the poem ‘O deus immense,’ &c. In T. Wright’s Political Poems, Rolls Series, 14, vol. i. the following pieces were printed: Carmen super multiplici Viciorum Pestilencia, De Lucis Scrutinio, ‘O deus immense,’ &c., Cronica Tripertita. In the Roxburghe edition of Gower’s Cinkante Balades (1818) were printed also the pieces ‘Rex celi deus,’ and ‘Ecce patet tensus,’ the lines ‘Henrici quarti,’ a variation of ‘Quicquid homo scribat,’ &c. (see p. 365 of this edition). Finally the last poems ‘Vnanimes esse,’ ‘Presul, ouile regis,’ ‘Cultor in ecclesia,’ and ‘Dicunt scripture’ were printed by Karl Meyer in his dissertation John Gower’s Beziehungen zu Chaucer &c. pp. 67, 68.
Of Coxe’s edition I wish to speak with all due respect. It has served a very useful purpose, and it was perhaps on a level with the critical requirements of the time when it was published. At the same time it cannot be regarded as satisfactory. The editor tells us that his text is that of the All Souls MS. ‘collated throughout word for word with a MS. preserved among the Digby MSS. in the Bodleian, and here and there with the Cotton MS. [Tib. A. iv.] sufficiently to show the superiority of the All Souls MS.’ The inferior and late Digby MS. was thus uncritically placed on a level with those of first authority, and even preferred to the Cotton MS. It would require a great deal of very careful collation to convince an editor that the text of the All Souls MS. is superior in correctness to that of the Cotton MS., and it is doubtful whether after all he would come to any such conclusion. As regards correctness they stand in fact very nearly on the same level: each might set the other right in a few trifling points. It is not, however, from the Cotton MS. that the Roxburghe editor takes his corrections, when he thinks that any are needed. In such cases he silently adopts readings from the Digby MS., and in a much larger number of instances he gives the text of the All Souls MS. incorrectly, from insufficient care in copying or correcting. The most serious results of the undue appreciation of the Digby MS. are seen in those passages where S is defective, as in the Prologue of the first book, and in the well-known passage i. 783 ff., where the text of D is taken as the sole authority, and accordingly errors abound, which might have been avoided by reference to C or any other good copy[73]. The editor seems not to have been acquainted with the Harleian MS., and he makes no mention even of the second copy of the Vox Clamantis which he had in his own library, MS. Laud 719.
The same uncritical spirit which we have noted in this editor’s choice of manuscripts for collation appears also in his manner of dealing with the revised passages. When he prints variations, it is only because he happens to find them in the Digby MS., and he makes only one definite statement about the differences of handwriting in his authority, which moreover is grossly incorrect. Not being acquainted with Dublin or the Hatfield MSS., he could not give the original text of such passages as Vox Clamantis, iii. 1-28 or vi. 545-80, but he might at least have indicated the lines which he found written over erasure, and in different hands from the original text, in the All Souls and Cotton MSS. Dr. Karl Meyer again, who afterwards paid some attention to the handwriting and called attention to Coxe’s misstatement on the subject, was preoccupied with the theory that the revision took place altogether after the accession of Henry IV, and failed to note the evidence afforded by the differences of handwriting for the conclusion that the revision was a gradual one, made in accordance with the development of political events.
I think it well to indicate the chief differences of text between the Roxburghe edition of the Vox Clamantis and the present. The readings in the following list are those of the Roxburghe edition. In cases where the Roxburghe editor has followed the All Souls or Digby MS. that fact is noted by the letters S or D; but the variations are for the most part mere mistakes. It should be noted also that the sense is very often obscured in the Roxburghe edition by bad punctuation, and that the medieval spelling is usually not preserved.