iv. Trinity College, Cambridge, B. 14. 52 (T), on vellum, 135 × 105 mm.; written early in the thirteenth century. Its contents are described in James, M. R., The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1900, i. 459. A leaf is lost after f. 8, and a new hand begins with f 9; the PM appears to be a distinct MS. (Anglia, iv. 408). The initials of each line are capitals and written apart from their words. A later hand has glossed aihte 42, goodes; ore 53, favour, grace; lean 64, deserving; manke 70, Manca, Mancus.

Other MSS. are v. Digby A 4, Bodleian D, of the beginning of the thirteenth century; described in Macray, W. D., Catalogue of the Digby MSS., Oxford, 1883. The PM is written in half lines and stanzas; it is in a hand found nowhere else in the MS., which was probably copied at Christ Church, Canterbury (James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover, Cambridge, 1903; Förster, M., Archiv cxv. 167). Its dialect is Kentish. vi. Jesus College, Oxford, E 29 (J): see [p. 285]. vii. McClean MS. 123 (M), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 122 leaves on vellum, 262 × 167 mm.: about 1300: the Nuneaton Book, described by Miss Anna C. Paues, who discovered this copy of the poem, in Anglia xxx. 217-26, and in A Descriptive Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Manuscripts by M. R. James, Cambridge, 1912. Like Egerton 613 it has the Bestiary of William the Norman and the Gospel of Nicodemus in French. The dialect of PM is South-Eastern, bordering on Kent. It begins with two lines from Sinners Beware (OEM p. 72), and has four other lines not found in any other copy: on the other hand, it wants seventy lines found in T; it diverges from the other MSS. in the order of the lines, and in other respects gives the impression of having been written down from memory.

[Facsimile:] Of vi. Skeat, W. W., Twelve Facsimiles, Oxford, 1892; plate vi gives ll. 1-34.

[Editions:] Of L: OEH i. 159-75 with modern version. Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, 57-61. Of E: Furnivall, F. J., Early English Poems. Philological Society, 1862, 22-34, with readings of e and OEH i. 288-95, 175-83. Of e: Zupitza-Schipper, Alt- und Mittelenglisches Übungsbuch, Wien, 1907, 80-91, completed from E. Of T: OEH ii. 220-32 and Specimens 195-221. Of J: OEM 58-71 and Specimens 194-220. Of D: Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 6-32, part in Hickes i. 222. Of M: Paues, A. C., Anglia xxx. 227-37 (I read l. 29, hire; 63 þon; 65 nammore; 71 ouersicþ; 84 þurȝsicþ; 105 diaþe; 147 þar pine; 152 ysicþ; 191 ofspreng; 223 hi neure; 236 Mot; 268 wulle; 314 hī = him; 333 ḅyseo = yseo).

A critical edition based on all the MSS. then known was issued by H. Lewin, Halle, 1881. He adopted Zupitza’s filiation of the MSS. as expressed in the following table:

L
X E
Y W
e
U J
T
Z
D

Miss Paues thinks that M is descended from V co-equal with U, thus displacing the latter from its position of original: to me it seems to belong to the Z group, and to be most nearly related to D.

The MSS. thus fall into two groups, which are here adequately represented by the printed texts, for D is inferior and J much altered, indeed often rewritten. U, the original, was probably written about 1180 A.D.

[Literature:] Einenkel, E., Anglia iv. Anz. 88-93; Jordan, R., ES xlii. 38-42 (dialect of L); Krüger, A., Sprache und Dialekt der ME. Homilien in der Handschrift B. 14. 52. Trinity College, Cambridge, Erlangen, 1885; Paues, A. C., Anglia xxx. 217-37; Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 5-38; iii. 32, 33; iv. 406-10.

[Analogues:] Reimpredigt, ed. H. Suchier, Halle, 1879; Le Sermon de Guischart de Beauliu, ed. A. Gabrielson, Upsala, 1909; Guischart de Beauliu’s debt to religious learning and literature in England, by A. Gabrielson, Archiv cxxviii. 309-28.