3. MS. Selden supra 53, fol. 159, vo (c. 1450). Six stanzas (strophic division indicated in the first two), written in a different hand on the back of a spare leaf at the end of the MS.; stanza 5 of the usual B version omitted. Quoted by H. G. Fiedler, Modern Language Review (April 1908), III. iii. 221. Not printed before.
4. MS. Egerton 1995, fol. 55, ro (William Gregory’s Commonplace Book, dated c. 1430-1450, cf. J. Gairdner, Collections of a London Citizen. Camden. Soc. 1876 n.s. xvii). Seven stanzas without strophic division. Not printed before.
5. MS. Harl. 1671, fol. 1*, ro (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas written in the left-hand column on the fly-leaf at the beginning of the MS., which consists of a ‘large Theological Treatise, imperfect at both ends, which seemeth to have been entituled “The Weye to Paradys”’.[7] The upper portion of the leaf contains a poem in praise of St. Herasmius. Not printed before.
6. MS. Brighton, fol. 90, vo (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas. Printed by Fiedler, M. L. R. III. iii. 219, from the last leaf of a MS. formerly seen by him in possession of an antiquary at Brighton, and containing a Latin treatise on the seven Sacraments.
7. Stratford-on-Avon Inscription (after 1450). Seven stanzas, formerly on the west wall of the nave in the Chapel of the Trinity at Stratford-on-Avon, cf. R. B. Wheler, Hist. and Antiq. of Stratford-on-Avon, p. 98: ‘against the west wall of the nave, upon the south side of the arch was painted the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, whilst kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict in Canterbury Cathedral; below this was represented the figure of an angel (probably St. Michael) supporting a long scroll, upon which were written the following rude verses: Erth oute of erthe,’ &c. ‘Beneath were two men, holding another scroll over a body wrapt in a winding sheet, and covered with some emblems of mortality with these lines: Whosoo hym be thowghte,’ &c. (v. Note on p. 36). These paintings were probably added in the reign of Henry VII, when the Chapel was restored by Sir Hugh Clopton (died 1496), who built New Place opposite the Chapel in 1483. They were discovered in 1804 beneath a coating of whitewash, and were copied and engraved, but have since been more than once re-coated with whitewash, and all trace of the poem has now disappeared. Facsimiles, etched and coloured by hand, exist in Thomas Fisher’s Series of Ancient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary Paintings in fresco, discovered on the walls of the Chapel of the Trinity, belonging to the Gild of the Holy Cross, at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, from drawings made at the time of their discovery (1807). Printed by R. B. Wheler, ibid. (1806), by Longfellow, Outre-Mer (Père-La-Chaise, note on p. 67), 1851, and by W. P. Reeves, Mod. Lang. Notes, IX. iv. 203 (April 1894).
8. MS. Rawlinson C. 307, fol. 2, ro (after 1458). Eight stanzas, of which three are peculiar to this MS., and are of a more distinctly Northern dialect than the remainder. The poem is the only English text in a MS. containing Latin prose and verse. Two Latin poems in the same hand as Erthe upon Erthe refer to the death of Gilbert Pynchbeck at York in 1458, which would fix the date c. 1460, or later. The three independent stanzas were printed by Fiedler, ibid. p. 221.
9. [8]MS. Harl. 4486, fol. 146, ro (fifteenth century). Eight stanzas added on the last leaf but one of a copy of Le Livre de Sydrac, immediately after the colophon. The last two leaves and the cover of the MS. contain various scribblings in fifteenth-century hands, chiefly of Latin aphorisms and rimes. Folio 147, vo, contains the signature of Tho. Baker, who may possibly have transcribed the English poem. Not printed before.
10. MS. Lambeth 853, fol. 35 (c. 1430-1450). Twelve stanzas. Printed by F. J. Furnivall, Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, p. 88 (E.E.T.S. 1867, No. xxiv, reprinted 1895).
11. MS. Laud Misc. 23, fol. 111, vo (before 1450). Twelve stanzas, varying very slightly from MS. Lambeth. Not printed before.
12. MS. Cotton Titus A xxvi, fol. 153, ro (fifteenth century). Six four-lined stanzas, apparently the beginning of a transcript of MS. Lambeth. Not printed before.