Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum. Invadunt aulas, bycheson cum forth,' geminantes: Quod disperguntur omnes reliqui, bene scistis. 19. nudi for 'iuvenes' B; 'iuvines,' R. 21. bellant B. 24. nunc rumor est talis B. 20. fit for 'set' B. 20 25 30 35 40 45 23. i. e. sine cunctatione. 27. slee slee B. 28. sic humiliatur B. N.B.: there is an erasure before it, fresh written, ' simuliatur.' 29. 'a se' at vela vok' H. and R., 'havak et havok' B., text W. ་ 30. Smyt fast, gyf gode knokkes, nullus post hec dominetur B. vv. 31-38 wanting in B. 39. vorat mucro В. 33. architenenses R., corr. H. 40. Exoniedes R.; Diomedes B. and H. sedes B.; corrected by T. and W. (in margin). 41-42 wanting in B.; cupedine R. 43. B. has bycthesone,' corrected in same hand (later ink?) to bysthesone'; whence T. and Wood (Annals, p. 459) read by the sun.' H. reads as in text, with R., and notes the analogy of 'whoreson.' 45. male finibus B. 46. pueri B.; reliqui R. and H. 47. quatitur B.; pesbiter H.; prespiter R.; presbiter B.; presbyter T. and W. Ut malus impetitur, quod testantur modo mille. Credo, praetendunt aliquid pronostica facta: Et super hoc vigila, nam clerus abest specialis. 49. trucere R. 50. nec fotos B. 51. rediunt R. On the action of the Friars see I. 107. 53. plebs B. 54. ferienti B. 56. sunt B.; sit R. 57. Charletoun B.; Cartons R. and H. in text, corrected in note. On these persons see on I. 193: sociat B.; sociato T. 58. H. suggests defendere, and T. so reads. 60. sed for sic W. 62. sitis memores B. 63. Newyl B.; Nevil W. H. notes that Thomas Nevill was entered (with the Charltons) in the book of benefactors of the University. The context here shows that he was one of the northern family of that name. 64. iam B. 65. Patrissare, 'to take after your fathers' (so in Plautus and Terence). 66. minas R.; esse R.; minuas and ecce B. and H. 67-68 wanting in R. degeneres B.; corrected by W. 68. memores B. 69. H. notes also the name Beuchamus or Beauchamp, as mentioned with honour in records: another of the name is mentioned in Wood's Annals among those slain. 71-72 transposed in B: sis tu tamen ( nunc' T.) morigerosus B.; iuvinis R. 72. ut aeris acta R. 74. ex id cleri cunctis monstrare R. 73. primeuis veri B. Est modo mercidus et iam horridus arte taliae. Urbs bona, sublimis, et abundans rebus opimis Ut sit pax vera. Ne quis nos segreget a te. Atque quater deno, quater: hinc numero lege pleno. Expliciunt versus isti. 80 85 90 95 100 76. H. explains 'mercidus' as 'propter mercedem loquens.' It might be 'marcidus.' oridus R. taliae H. explains as 'taley,' vel 'talley' anglice, and refers to Du-Fresn. v. 'Talea.' 89-90 wanting in B. Such an elegiac distich seems an interpolation. 92. non, for nunc, B.; es inamoena T. 93. inuictus B.; tollerare both MSS. 95-96 wanting in B. 96. nevi: H. notes 'Sic,' and attempts no emendation or explanation. The lines seem to be an unmeaning interpolation. 98. ut sit B. and H.; et sit R. The MSS. have 'segregat.' 99-100 wanting in R. Expliciunt, &c. from R.; B. has 'Acta sunt hec anno Domini millesimo CCcmo quinquagesimo quarto.' TRYVYTLAM DE LAUDE UNIVERSITATIS OXONIAE. INTRODUCTION. THE authority for this poem is a MS. taken to have been written in the time of Henry VI, and first noticed by Brian Twyne and Richard James, the former of whom transcribed the whole poem, and the latter some excerpts, at some date probably about 16301. Both state that they take it from a MS. belonging to Sir R. Cotton. In 1729 Hearne printed the poem in an Appendix to his Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II, stating that he took it from a MS. of the time of Henry VI in the possession of Roger Gale, Esq. After a search kindly made by Dr. Sirker, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, the poem has been found in a volume of the Gale MSS. in the possession of that Society 2, and I have had an opportunity of collating it, and thereby making a few corrections in Hearne's printed version, which is generally very careful and accurate. The same examination sufficed to show that the Cottonian MS. used by Twyne and James, and the Gale MS. used by Hearne are identical. The existing volume exactly answers to Twyne's description as 'a narrowe longe paper booke in a hand of Henry ye 6 time,' and appears to contain all the other matter which he and James quote 3, and 1 See Twyne, xxiv. 299-304; James, 7, pp. 84 foll. They had used the MS. independently, as their extracts of other matter from it somewhat supplement each other. Wood, who cites a few lines (1-8 and 449–464) in Annals, i. 78 and 491, appears to quote from Twyne. The reference to it in their catalogue is Ò. 9. 38. The leaves of the MS. are not paged, so I can give no further reference than to say that the poem comes rather after the middle of the volume, and occupies eight pages in single column, which I have here noted as 'fol. i,' &c. 3 On this I cannot speak positively, as I had not with me a full list of their other excerpts. at the top of its third (probably originally its first) leaf has written 'Bib. Cott. Vesp. E. XII.' The text appears also to be identical, when allowance is made for the habit, shown by both these transcribers elsewhere 1, of introducing emendations without any note to say that they do so. How the MS. passed out of the Cottonian into the Gale collection is unknown; but it seems to have been little valued by either owner; as Hearne describes it as 'semilacerus et squallore obsitus 2'; and the volume, though now re-bound and excellently cared for, shows evidence, in the condition of the portions at beginning and end, of former rough usage. It is evidently a considerable storehouse of poems on various subjects3, most of them in Latin, but some in English; and its contents might well reward further search. The author's name is given in the title. He is shown throughout to be a friar, and taken from the allusion in v. 447 to have been a Franciscan. Hearne supposes his date and that of the poem to be that of the MS. containing it; but internal evidence would lead us to place it somewhat earlier. In the attack on three individuals, forming more than half the composition, there is not a word to imply that either of them was then dead; and the vehemence of the invective is such as would more naturally be shown against living and present antagonists; and the only one of them who can be identified, Uthred de Bolton, seems unlikely, from such dates as we have relating to him, to have lived on to the time of Henry VI. The title is somewhat a misnomer, as the University certainly comes in for more censure than praise, but the writer is sufficiently a diplomatist to mingle This is seen in their transcripts from the Bodl. MS. of the poems on the St. Scholastica riot. It is also here noteworthy that the lines 109-116, omitted in their proper place in the MS. and inserted at the foot of the page, with a peculiar mark to show where they ought to come in, are similarly transcribed out of order by Twyne, and referred to their proper place by a similar mark. 2 Praef. § iv. p. xvii. Hearne gives, on Tanner's authority, another form of the name as 'Trevytham,' which appears to be a form of the Cornish name 'Trevethan.' Hearne had thrown out a suggestion (for which there appears to be no evidence at all) that he was identical with Robert Finingham, who wrote in defence of the Franciscans in the time of Henry VI. Mr. Little (Hist. of Grey Friars in Oxford, p. 254) notes that the Library of Paris contains 'Ricardi Trevithelami supplicationes ad B. M. Virginem.' See note on v. 449, also p. 193, n. 6. |