[VII. MEMENTO MORI]
[Manuscript:] As for no. vi. There are other copies in (C) MS. Cotton Caligula A ix., B.M., of the first quarter of the thirteenth century, and (B) MS. Laud 471, Bodleian, of the end of the same century. In (A) MS. Arundel 57, B.M. there is a fourteenth-century version of nine lines. CJ form a group, B belongs to another branch.
[Editions:] Of CJ; Morris, R., OEM, pp. 156-9 under the inappropriate title, Long Life: of B; Zupitza, J., Anglia i. p. 410: of B, corrected by CJ; Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, p. 56; of C; Wright, T., Percy Society, vol. xi. p. 63. Of A; Morris, R., Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 129.
[Literature:] Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 410; Varnhagen, H., Anglia ii. 71; ii. 67.
[Phonology:] The position is the same as that of piece vi: words not in it are blench 4 (blencan vb.); falwy 6 (fealwian); luteþ 29 (lūtian); sterk 11 (stearc); steo 38 (stīgan, imitating in the inf. flēon, wrēon, Bülbring, Ablaut 88), sunne 10 (synn). MS. C does not differ materially from it: it has however drinche 8, deaþes 8, sterch 11, strench 14, tahte 23, fole 33, wormes 34, nowt 50. MS. B is South-Eastern bordering on Kent; it has rene 3 (rēn), senne 10, starc 11, sene 13, to yenes 16, Man let lust and senne stench 19, sede 23, stie 38 and st for ht in brigst 13. The text is often faulty as if written down from memory, and l. 26 is missing, but the rhymes are correct: the original was doubtless in the South-Eastern dialect.
[Accidence:] longe s. g. neut. 1 (comp. longes 21/109); heyust adv. 38; endi inf. 39 (endian), last 2 pr. s. (lǣdest) 36 are the only forms which require notice.
[Metre:] The ten-line stanza of this poem is unique in ME. literature. It is an expansion of the common eight-line stanza: its rhyme formula is abab | baab | bb, two quatrains with contrasted rhymes and a two-line close in which the sentiment of the stanza culminates. In the last stanza the effect is spoiled by the absence of a break at the end of the eighth line.
As a rule the line contains four measures, but four out of five times the ninth line of the stanza has only three, so, Món | er þu fál | lẹ of þi bénch | 9; Ac déþ | lúteþ | in his schó | 29; In déþ | schal þi lýf | endí | 39; wúrcheþ him | pýnẹ eu|er mó | 49. Further, in the original form of the verse, as preserved by MS. B, the tenth line has only two measures, þi sénnẹ | aquénch | 10; wel dó | wel þénch | 20; hím to | fordó | 30 (Zupitza’s correction of the MS. do him for do); on wóp | þi glé | 40; ne dó | þu só | 50. The rhythm is mostly trochaic, as Món may | lónge | lýues | wéne | 1, but sometimes iambic, as Nis nón | so stróng | ne stárk | ne ké|nè 11; her naú|ẹstu blís|se dáy|es þré | 35. Lines with three-syllable measures like 9 are 22, 26: with monosyllabic first foot are 19, 22, 31, 32.
[Introduction:] The comparative smoothness and finish of the verse points to a date considerably later than that of the Proverbs: perhaps about 1210 A.D. The piece seems to have been inspired by stanzas x and xxi of the earlier poem.
[1]. A man may look forward to a long life, but the trick often deceives him; an oft-quoted proverb, as at 21/108, 222/274; ‘Mani man weneþ þat he wene ne þarf, longe to liven, and him lieþ þe wrench,’ Hending MS. O, Anglia iv. 200. The second line occurs in another connection in AR, ‘moni mon abit to schriuen him uort þe nede tippe. Auh ofte him lieð þe wrench,’ 338/18. For the case of liues comp. ‘Ðær sceolan þeofas . . . lifes ne wenan,’ Christ 1608; with wrench . . . blench comp. 157/125; ‘wrenceþ he ⁊ blenceþ · worn geþenceþ · hinder-hoca,’ Exeter Book, ed. Thorpe, 315/18.