The metre is ababbcbc, but the poem loses little by being turned into prose.
p. [47]. All that there is. This passage suggests one in the Blickling Homilies (No. VIII. Soul’s Need, ed. Morris), which goes back to St. Augustine.
JOHN RUSSELL’S BOOK OF NURTURE
First printed by Dr. Furnivall from MS. Harl. 4011, fols. 171-89, dated about 1460. Other copies are in Sloane 1315, fols. 49-67 and 2027, fols. 1-15b, supposed to be slightly earlier in date; also, Royal 17 D xv., article 5.
Nothing is known of the author beyond what he himself says, that he was usher and marshal to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (regent during the minority of Henry VI.). He was seemingly an old man and a widower before the death of Duke Humphrey, who was murdered in 1447. This seems to be suggested by the fact that he asks the reader’s prayers for Duke Humphrey (as the King is prayed for to-day) and then for the souls of his wife and his parents. If then he was forced to retire from court by old age (as he says in another place, see p. [77], above) some time before 1447, he might have been born even before 1360, and studied his courtesy under Edward III., or at the very latest under Richard ll.
The device of wandering in the country and there meeting with some one who furnishes the subject of the poem was extensively used by Chaucer and his school, derived by them in turn from French poets of the thirteenth century.
The long lines and pompous metre which he uses I have employed occasionally, where the subject permitted that form, to show the effect. The whole production done that way would become insufferably tedious.
p. [49]. “Is thy governance good?” Practically, “Do you behave well?”
p. [50]. Smooth and square the trenchers with. At this time, still made of stale wholemeal bread; later, of wood.
p. [51]. Linen clouts. To stop up holes?