Three Middle-English versions of the Rule of St. Benet and two contemporary rituals for the ordination of nuns.

NORTHERN METRICAL VERSION.

(B. = Böddeker; H. = Holthausen; K. = Kölbing; cf. Introd. § 1, F.)

I commence by giving a list of erroneous readings left uncorrected by K.: sely 1, here 116 ('123'), hafs 150 ('159,' in the note), amendes 204 ('215'), Commers in þe kingdom 250 ('262'), lighth 301 ('314'), folc 406 ('424'), þe 509 ('529'), ne 569 ('591'), honour 673 ('698'), bocksum 682 ('707'), te 883 ('918'), asaide 954 ('991'), haly 991 ('1028'), deuocion 1191 ('1235'), nunces 1209 ('1253'), chastyng 1244 ('1289'), That 1262 ('1306'), fast 1265 ('1309'), chastisyng 1356 ('1401'), omission of: id est 1360b ('1406'), celararii 1420b ('1467'), storid 1536 ('1589'), witsununday 1703 ('1764'), seruise 1896 ('1959'), wer 1997 ('2063'), hir mayne 2141 ('2210'), chaisted 2456 ('2533').

Some of these errors, and others not mentioned here, are of a more or less harmless nature. But sense and construction, and statements in grammars, essays, and dictionaries, are concerned when a text offers sely for lely, commers for comuners, lighth for lightli, ne for not, bocksum (!) for bowsum, nunces for nouices, That for what, fast for tast, storid for scorid, wer for whor, etc.

Fresh errors introduced by the collator: Thurch 34 ('35'; B. is right; the 't' is distinct enough both here, in l. 39, and other places), fulfillyd 78 ('82'), gudenes 160 ('169'; see below), Ne 570 ('592'), awm 712 ('737'; for B.'s 'awn'; both are wrong), it ho 890 ('925'; certainly 'who,' as B. prints it, although not unlike 'it ho'), fonne 1078 ('1117'; for B.'s fone; both are wrong), mihi 1098b, 1312b ('1138b, 1357b'), Subpriores 1553 ('1607'), III 1576 ('1631'; see below), & ȝapli 1674 ('1733'; it is B.'s '& apli,' not his 'apli,' that is to be corrected into 'ȝapli'), loquantur 1728b ('1790'; see below), þam 1736 ('1798'; B. is right), modo 1802b ('1865b'), Sicut (the first letter is n o t totally red; it is black with a perpendicular red stroke through it), 2154 ('2224').

Part of the inaccuracies and errors mentioned in these lists are due to inadvertency. Others—the majority — were deliberately accepted or advanced.

I may add that K. corrects B.'s þerfourn into parfourn 224 ('236'), but parfection into perfeccion 2486 ('2564').

30 ('31').

'þi, ms. þ ⁱ (= þai).' B. Of course þ ⁱ means þi, and nothing else; cf. p. 48, footnote.

55 ('56').

B. punctuates: Þe whylk yf þay dyde, wele myght wend, and adds the explanation: 'dyde, i. e. be worthy.' Similar specimens of B.'s punctuation are to be found in 267 ('280'), 373 ('390'), 422-424 ('440-442'), 452 ('471') 1159 ('1202'), 1531 ('1584') ff., 1586 ('1641') ff., etc. Some others have been corrected by H.

97 ('103').

'Als so say, der sage es.' B. I render the line: "I am desirous, also, to speak of him."

129 ('136').

B. substitutes we for he. In either case the pron. must refer to the man who wishes to be saved.

145-146 ('154-155').

B. puts the comma after noy.

159-160.

The lines may, as also H. suggests, have run something like this: For thúrth oure míghtes mór no mýn Máy we nónekyns gúde begýn. K. declares that the MS. has gudenes and that H.'s emendation thus 'sich erledigt.' But there is not even the slightest trace of another syllable after gude; and as B. saw the MS. in 1872, K. in 1896, the whole thing appears somewhat mysterious. Nor could I accept K.'s reading even as an emendation; it is not supported by the evidence of the text itself. For gudenes is not used anywhere else in the whole version, whereas gude occurs substantively

275 ('288').

'mekli . ., lies mekil.' H. See Glossary.

331 ('345').

[in] werld. B. But see Glossary.

334b.

Properly spiritum adopcionis (Rom. viii. 15); but to judge from gaste of mede, the corruption must have been already in the copy used by the author.

340 ('355').

'lies þer . . st. ȝer.' H. But see Introd. § 58, 1 (§ 59, 1).

372 ('389').

'das verbum be fehlt vor oder hinter dampned.' H. True in a sense. But see Introd. § 128.

459 ('478').

B. substitutes let for set. But see Glossary.

588 ('610').

Lat. nihil amori Christi preponere; Common Version: nan þing beforan Cristes lufe settan. B. supplies: [god].

592.

for to sake, possibly for original to forsake.

627.

praers can hardly be explained as the direct object of schriue, the pronoun vs in such a case being the indirect object: "and prayers to God we should prescribe for ourselves as penance." Such a construction of the verb is not recorded elsewhere (as far as my knowledge goes). In all probability the original had In. As in was also a worn-down form of the conj. and (2007, 2260), and the whole passage (607 ff.) is full of and's, the substitution of And for In seems easily accounted for. Thus properly: "In prayers to God we should confess (and take penance)." B. makes the same emendation.

677 ('702').

'Der text ist wahrscheinlich zum theil corrumpirt.' B. 'Die verderbniss des textes ist leicht zu beseitigen, wenn wir . . And streichen.' H. And, however, can be satisfactorily explained (whether used by the poet, or added by a scribe). In Northern languages, the corresponding och (å', etc.) is freely used after an adj. or a quality-noun to introduce the expression for that in which the quality consists, or what it concerns: han hade den vänligheten å' komma (he had the kindness to come); jag var färdig å' gråta (I was on the point of crying). And in our texts, p. 44, ll. 20-21, we actually find: þat þai . . alle timis finde hir redi and speke with þaim. This sentence might, with a different word-order, easily have turned into: redi and with þaim (for) to speke. Thus, in 677, And . . to is practically the same as "to," and from our point of view we may term it pleonastic. But that, I believe, is all.

699.

I am not certain of this bown. Cf. however 317-318.

796.

mekenes is the subject (misunderstood by B. in Engl. Stud. ii, p. 364).

801.

Even if crakes might have been tolerably understood as "talks," "tales" (?), there is not the smallest doubt but it is a corruption of clerkes. Als clerkes tels is, like who likes to loke, etc., one of those favourite phrases which, with various modifications (cf. 2459, 773, 461, 858, 836), were used in mediæval poetry both to give a stamp of authority to the exposition and to supply a convenient rhyme. The latter object is served by phrases like in feld and town, arely and late, be day and night, loud and still, which also meet us so often here and elsewhere. Cf. J. Ullmann's treatise on Richard Rolle de Hampole in Engl. Stud. vii, pp. 415 ff. (specially pp. 428-454).

867.

in ȝarning (MS.) would certainly give some sense: even before it has become a thought or deed. Yet the alteration, made also by B., is probably right.

897.

I might have mentioned that the two words þat hase in 896 were thoughtlessly repeated after fader, but immediately crossed out again.

915.

To supply the missing line is out of the question. It may have conveyed a thought like: For þi he shewed swilk bowsumnes.

924 ('959').

'wir haben ohne zweifel für þai einzuführen þam.' B. (Eng. Stud. ii, p. 360). But see Introd. §§ 37, 114.

929 ('964').

On account of the preceding þai, þer, þam, 'ist auch hier þer statt our einzusetzen.' H. But see Introd. § 138.

938, 940 ('974, 976').

'lies sofferand st. souerand.' H. But cf. Introd. §§ 55, 89, 90, and vnsouerable, Wallace, ed. Jamieson, l. 267, etc.

942.

The line has fared badly: r þi sake for is written on an erasure, r sa e fo being much blurred; to is squeezed in afterwards between for and be; traces of the old letters are left. In its present shape, it is cumbrously long. Al (þe) dáy for þí sake tó be sláyn would run smoothly.

965 ('1002').

'o bouen [vs].' B.

972 ('1008').

'Vor oþer fehlt offenbar þat oder þet.' H. But cf. Glossary.

1045 ('1084').

'nach dem beispiele, das zu ersehen ist an denjenigen.' B. Misconstruction. See Introd. § 135.

1070 ('1109').

B., misunderstanding the function of laghter, transposes at and be.

1126 ('1167').

'lies be st. bi.' H. But cf. Glossary.

1131 ('1172').

'lies þe statt des ersten al.' H.

1172 ff.

The lines give fairly good sense without an alteration: "since we may see (from Scripture), that everything we do," etc. Nevertheless it is not unlikely that the first we, as H. suggests, stands in the place of an original þai: "since they can see all that we do."

1221 ('1265').

'ergänze þai vor vse.' H. This does not improve the metre (cf. 1829). Yet it may be right. In both the lines (605 and 1221) where I wish to explain no as "none" (like a = "an"), something may be omitted.

1198b ('1242b').

What I expand as Quomodo sanctimonialles, K. explains as Quod singillatim.

1253-54.

The omitted line may as well have been the first in the pair, for being wrong for fro, like in 1259, etc.

1266 ('1310').

'fullyng zu mlat. fullare, neuengl. to full.' B. But see Glossary, and Introd. § 99.

1269 ff.

Although comyn might be, and might have been, taken for an adj. ("familiar," "communicating") and cum for a participle, I believe, like B., that If is omitted: "If a nun .. communes .. or comes." Lat. Si qua soror presumpserit; Winteney Version: Gyf hwilc swuster .. ȝedyrstlæcð. In a prior copy, a blank had probably been left for the word; cf. 2179 and the footnotes on 923, 2151, 2481.

1306 ('1351').

'lies arest (=arested) st. warest.' H. But see Glossary.

1317 ('1362').

K. corrects B.'s found, but puts a (!) after faund, thus appearing to misunderstand the word.

1403.

Or els regularly means "or else;" thus: "or else rebellious rise against her." But it is tempting to compare the line with 440: "or as a rebel rise against her." Then els would be a corruption, or possibly a weakened form, of als; cf. es (8/3) = as.

1434 ('1481').

The end of the line, where all the letters stand rather

1457 ('1506').

B. substitutes serue for saue. Uncalled for.—B. prints selu, K. says the MS. has seln. It is quite true that the last character looks like an n. However, if K. had compared it e.g. with the fourth letter in wayue 444, he would have found that the last-mentioned letter has the same claims on being rendered by an n. But the word being a rhyme-word, K. silently put u.

1468.

In M.V. what so means "whatever;" in P.V. the same words would have meant "what she." The latter signification suits the context much better and probably belonged to the original metrical text.

1476 ('1526').

'lies þe enournmentes.' H.

1490 ('1540').

'lies er st. es.' H. But see Glossaries.

1517 ('1568').

For B.'s erroneous falted H. substitutes failed. K. states that the MS. has falled and accepts H.'s emendation. Cf. however Introd. §§ 78, 99.

1576 ('1631').

B. correctly prints in like. K. declares the MS. has III like, and refers to the Lat. addatur et tercium! Cf. ll. 408, 1635.

1633 ('1691').

B. expands leuerty, which is impossible. The omission of a syllable (cf. 142/8) need not be supposed either. The meaning is, that they should not possess anything, but rather receive what is necessary to each one.

1728b ('1790').

B.'s reading, loquatur, is wrong, K.'s is impossible. But I wavered between loquantur and loquantur.

1756 ('1818').

K. thinks day was altered into þay. I admit that this would appear more natural. But the d-part of the hybrid character is written with specially black, bold strokes, as if intended to predominate.

1780 ('1843').

'ergänze be vor ianglyng.' H. See my note on 372.

1868-70.

The Lat. text mentions no other hour than terciam and decimam. Line 1780 seems as weak as in Descember 1121.

1878 ('1941').

'ergänze be vor writ.' H. I would rather insert it before the participle. Cf. Introd. § 128, end.

1890 ('1953').

'þai s ist wol zu streichen.' H. This would be a metrical disimprovement. And cf. passages mentioned in Introd. § 138.

1929.

"who are known to be pilgrims."

1968.

The line corresponds to in medio templi tui 1966b, I-middis ti tempil 35/24.

2008 ('2074').

'lies Less st. Sich, vgl. das original: in calidis uero minus.' H. Cf. Glossary.

2027 ('2093').

'lies wend.' H. Cf. Introd. § 60, 2.

2076. ('2145')

'ergänze men, man, vor hir.' H. I have substituted þai for þat. My supposition is that the original had the shorter conjunctional phrase Or tyme, followed by the pron. þai. Equivalent to or tyme, and just as common, was the fuller or tyme þat (2286), analogously to fro time (2201) and fro time þat (1719), do wilis (2/7) and to whilis þat (40/29, 33). Thus the slip was easily made.

2190 ('2262').

'lies lay st. law.' H. Cf. Introd. § 41, and Glossary.

2354 ('2430').

B. incorrectly substitutes as for at.

2346 ('2421').

'B. ändert strengh in zu strengthen, was aber gar keinen sinn giebt. Es is einfach þam vor in einzuschieben.' H. þam is very acceptable, but does not seem quite necessary: "then God shall grant strength in their deed."

2385 ('2462').

'to play giebt in diesem zusammenhange keinen rechten sinn. Ich vermute, dass to play für ursprüngliches o-way geschrieben ist.' H. But cf. the opening lines of the chapter, and the statement in

2432.

Cf. Introd. § 136.