_Sidenotes_ were added by the editor to give translations or summaries. In this e-text, they are collected into full sentences, and generally appear immediately _before_ their original location. In _The Pearl_, sidenotes are grouped at the beginning of each twelve-line stanza. Sidenotes in the form [Fol. 10b] are shown in the same way as general sidenotes. They always come directly above the relevant line or its sidenotes, if any. _Orphaned Quotation Marks_ are listed separately in each Errata section. In some cases it may be possible to guess where the missing quotation mark belongs, but it seemed safer to leave the text as printed. No quotation marks disappeared between the 1864 and 1869 editions.] Early English Alliterative Poems in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century Edited From The Unique Manuscript British Museum MS. Cotton Nero A. x by Richard Morris _Published for_ THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY _by the_ OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS London New York Toronto First Published 1864 Second Edition 1869 Reprinted (1869 Version) 1965 Original Series, No. 1 Originally Printed by Stephen Austin, Hertford and now Reprinted Lithographically in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford by Vivian Ridler, Printer to the University CONTENTS [List added by transcriber. Items in brackets do not have headers in the body text, but were treated as subsections for grouping footnotes.] Preface [Introduction to _The Pearl_] [Introduction to _Cleanness_] [Introduction to _Patience_] [General Introduction] Remarks Upon the Dialect and Grammar Grammatical Details I. Nouns II. Adjectives III. Pronouns IV. Verbs V. Adverbs VI. Prepositions VII. Conjunctions Description of the Manuscript Contractions Used in the Glossary The Pearl Cleanness Patience Notes [distributed among the three poems] Glossarial Index PREFACE. The following poems are taken from a well known manuscript in the Cottonian collection, marked Nero A. x, which also contains, in the same handwriting and dialect, a metrical romance,[1] wherein the adventures of Sir Gawayne with the “Knight in Green,” are most ably and interestingly described. Unfortunately nothing can be affirmed with any certainty concerning the authorship of these most valuable and interesting compositions. The editor of “Syr Gawayn and the Green Knight” considers that Huchowne, a supposed[2] Scotch _maker_ of the fourteenth century, has the best claims to be recognised as the author, inasmuch as he is specially referred to by Wyntown as the writer of the _Gret gest of Arthure_ and the _Awntyre of Gawayne_.