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This was printed complete by J[oseph] H[aslewood] in Brydges's Censura Literaria, ix. 369 (ed. 1809). Treverys used an excellent MS. though not any here described. He may have modernized the spelling to some extent. In the print the envoy follows his colophon. This fact misled Mr. Sidney Lee (see under Lydgate, Serpent, &c., in the Dict. Nat. Biog.), who ascribes the stanzas to the printer. For the text of the colophon, see p. 66.
This print, so far as I can examine, seems to derive from the Treverys print, with possible reference to earlier MSS. The title, Serpent of Division, is probably derived from the title of Treverys which is lost. The title runs: 'The Serpent of Division, set forth after the Auctours old Copy, by J. S. Anno M. D. L. IX. The iiij of May. Im∣printed at London by Owen Rogers in Smithfield by the Hospitall in little S. Bartolmews.' Collation A8-D8, in fours. Both this and the previous print are in black letter, 8vo.
'The Serpent of Devision. Wherein is conteined the true History or Mappe of Romes overthrowe, Gouerned by Auarice, Enuye, and Pride, the decaye of Empires be they neuer so sure. Whereunto is annexed the Tragedy of Gorboduc, sometime King of this Land, and of his two sonnes Ferrex and Porrex. Set foorth as the same was shewed before the Queenes most excellent Majesty, by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple. At London printed by Edward Allde for John Perrin, and are to be sold in Paules Church∣yard at the signe of the Angell, 1590.' 4to. 44 leaves. Collation, Serp. of Div. A-C in fours; Gorboduc, A-H in fours. In this last print, while no additions are made to the source, the whole treatise is rewritten, so that for purposes of collation the whole tract would need re-printing. [Gorboduc, the first English tragedy, was intended by its authors to illustrate the dangers of division. It was written by admirers of Lydgate, and this union of it with Lydgate's tract was not a mere accident of publication. The dumbshow in Gorboduc, of the fable of the bundle of sticks, was probably suggested by the similar exemplum in Lydgate's text, of the hairs in the horse-tail.]
It is certain that Rogers followed Treverys, and that Allde followed Rogers, in setting orth his copy. The former fact may be proved from my collations at the end of the tract. Allde's print I leave to a student of the Elizabethan period for analysis.
While I have on my desk photographic reproductions of all three MSS. and a careful transcript of the fourth made by myself, as well as a complete transcript of the Rogers print, I can see no advantage in printing my comparative study of the possible relations of the versions. I give in my text a faithful transcription, with modern punctuation, of the Fitzwilliam text (F), and of the Calthorpe where F fails, enclosing every alteration in brackets. I give in footnotes all the important variants of the other MSS. and of the Treverys print. I believe each MS. to be an independent transcript, with possibly a closer relation between F and H than among the others. C and P have taken the greatest liberties with the text.
The end of the text in C, which varies from the others, is probably derived from an early draft, omitted in later texts. This omission and revision was probably Lydgate's own. As I state in the Lydgate Canon, Lydgate got out his work in different forms. Death's Warning is a revamping of stanzas from the Fall of Princes, The Prayer in Old Age a similar alteration of the Verses of St. Bernard.