76 AN AB C. SION COLLEGE MS. (SHIRLEY). (20. V.) Virgyne pat art' so noble of apparayle / (21. X.) .V. 153 156 160 .X. 161 L' Christus] ¶Xpc.1 by sone / pat in þis worlde aligħt (22. Y.) Ysaac was figure / of his deepe certayne hat so ferforpe / his fader wolde obeye bat him ne rought / no thing to be slayne Right so by sone lyst as a lambe to dye / Nowe lady ful of mercy I yowe preye Sith he is mercy / mesured so large / Be yee not' skant / for alle we sing and seye / þat yee beon frome / vengeaunce ay oure taarge / (23. Z.) ¶ Zacharye yowe clepepe / þe open welle 164 168 .Y. 169 172 176 .Z. 177 [leaf 81, back] 180 184 AN AB C. BODLEIAN MS. 638. (20. V.) Virgine that Art so noble of Apparayle Of paradise thou me wisse & counsayle (21. X.) 77 V 153 156 160 Xpē1 thi sone that in this worlde aligħt Christus] X 161 Vpon a Crois to suffre his passion) And eke suffrid that longeus his hert pight' And made his hert bloode to renne A-doun) And aH was this for my saluacioun And I to him am fals & eke vnkynde 164 And yit he wut not my dampnacyoun) This thanke I you socoure of all mankynde⚫ 168 (22. Y.) Ysaac was signe of his deth certeyn [leaf 207, back] Y 169 That so ferforth his fadir wolde obeye That him ne rought no thinge to be sleyn Right so thi sone list as lambe to dey 172 Now ladi ful of mercy I you prey Sith he his mercy mesurid so large Be not skant for al we synge & sey ye That ye ben fro vengeaunce Ay oure targe (23. Z.) Zakary you clepith the opin wel To wassh sinful soule out of his gilte 176 Z 177 180 184 78 66 Through the bad practise of sending copiers to see outlying MSS. that I ought to have lookt at myself, I lost till to-day, Dec. 3, 1877, the privilege of seeing the best MS. evidence yet produced, that the A B C is Chaucer's work. Not suspecting that this Sion College MS. was one of Shirley's, I did not examine it at first, but began copying from it the prose passage before the A B C. When I came on the two beo's for be, I said to myself, "Shirley, by Jove!" and then I recognized his hand, saw his star before his capital A, his flourishes at the foot of the page, his side-notes, head-lines, r, &c. I turnd to the first leaf left of the MS., leaf 3 of sheet .j., beginning " any yssing" a burdon. I began to seeke" (p. 4, 1. 15, ed. Bradshaw and Wright, Roxb. Club, 1869), and of course found the wonted "per Shir[ley]"; and then on leaves 4, 5, 12, 25, "nota per Shirley]," on 18, back, "Shirley /." The first per Shir[ley]" is headed by "behold," the "nota per Shirley]" on p. 12 is followd by "discord of n[ature &] grace dieux"; and other side-notes occur, as leaf 12, "nature spek[ethe];" leaf 12, back, "[nature s]pekethe to gracedieux;" leaf 13, "yit nature to gr[ace dieux];" leaf 13, back, "[D]ame Gracedieux [speke]pe agein to nature /" leaf 38,"prouerbium," (to the text "soft men fare goone/";) leaf 58, Heere pe [debate of] be Raven [& pe] Fox;' leaf 74, "Behold/"; leaf 77, "Videte; " leaf 87, “ // þe fr[ ][Fyen[]" (to "Adonay kyng of Iustice", in the text). The MS. ends on leaf 93, back, sheet .xij. leaf 7, with the 6th line of "[Ca]pm. .x." and the words "I wol gyf þee / neuer pe leesse so michil avauntage powe shalt haue of me / if pou /." (p. 203, 1. 8, Roxb. Club.) The last leaf, 8, of sheet xij. is wanting. The MS. is in Shirley's small close hand, not his free one of the Additional MS. Anelyda already autotyped for the Society in Part I. A facsimile of the front of leaf 79 of this Shirley Sion-College MS., Archives, 2, 23, will be given. The MS. is wrongly letterd at the back "Pilgrimage of the Soule." One of the Headlines inside is "pe pilgrymage humayne." The MS. now contains 93 leaves, paper, injurd a little by damp. leaf 79, The Headlines to the A B C in the MS. are: The Devoute dytee. of oure 79, bk, 80, ¶ A devoute. .Dytee. ,, 80, bk, 81, ¶ A. devoute. thing. Ladye Of oure Ladye Marye To oure. .Ladye ,, 81, bk, ¶ A devoute prayer to oure lady 80 THE HOUSE OF FAME. PEPYS 2006. THE HOUSE OF FAME. [in hand B] [Pepys 2006. Magd. Coll. Cambr. p. 91.] For it is wonder thynge by pe rode To my wytt what causeth sweuenes On the morows or on euenes Why that is a vision and why this is a reuelacion Why this a dreme why pat a sweuene Ne can hem not ne neuer thenke Or why this is more then pat cause is As yef folkes complexions Make hem drem of reflexions Or elles1 thus as oper seyne For pe grete feblenes of here breyn by absenes or by sekenes Preson stoe or grete distres 4 8 12 16 20 [1 MS. eH] 24 |