[Cato]
[Parvus Cato]
L. Her bi-ginneþ luytel Caton. [The Engl. text was ed. by Goldberg, Anglia 1884, VII, p. 165 ff. It is a translation of Monk Everard's French transl., extant in MS. Arund. 292, f. 88-105, ca. 1250 (ed. by Stengel, Ausg. und Abh. d. Roman. Phil. XLVII, Marburg 1886); MS. Paris Bibl. Nat. 477 (ed. by Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Prov. Franc., 2nd ed. 1859, II, p. 439 ff.; readings given by Stengel l. c.), and MSS. Vernon and Simeon. [Other, perhaps earlier, Fr. translations are that by Elie de Wincestre in MSS. St. John's Coll. Oxford 178, 13th cent., Corp. C. C. Cbr. 405, Harl. 4388, ed. by Stengel l. c., and that of an anonymous in MS. Harl. 4657, ed. by Stengel l. c.; cf. P. Meyer, Romania VI, 20.] Everard le moine is most likely the one mentioned by Tanner: "Everardus, Scotus, in canonicatu Kirkham (Yorkshire) socius primusque abbas Monasterii de Holme Cultram in Cumbria: scripsit Vitam S. Adam|nani lib. 1, Vit. S. Cumenei Albi lib. 1, Vit. S. Waltheni lib. I; claruit A. MCXLV; Dempster" (see, however, Wright, Biogr. Brit. II, 123 ff., who rejects this identity).—Other Engl. translations are that in MS. Arund. 168, in royal stanzas, and that ed. by Caxton: Parvus Cato, Magnus Cato (a transl. by Benedict Burgh, undertaken on behalf of Will. Bourchier, son of the Earl of Essex), 1st ed. Westminster? ante 1479? (unique in Cambr. Univ. Libr.), 2nd ed. Westm.? ante 1479? (unique at Chatsworth), 3rd ed. fol. Westm.? 1481? (The same Caxton ed. an elaborate commentary on Cato's Distichs, translated by him from the Fr. in 1483, Westm. 1484?).]
Almihti god in Trinite
leeue vs wel to spede,
Send vs of his holy grace
And help vs at vr nede.
Line 4
Now hose wole, he may here
In Englisch langage
