The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English worksGower, John
General
The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English works
Gower, John
Poetry
At the end we have ‘ffrauncois Halle A^o MV^cVI’ (i.e. 1506), ‘Garde
le ffine.’ In the initial on f. 1 a coat of arms is painted surrounded
by the Garter and its motto. The arms are those of Charles Brandon duke
of Suffolk (Brandon with quartering of Bruyn and Rokeley, see Doyle,
_Official Baronage_, iii. 443), and on the same page is painted the
Brandon crest (lion’s head erased, crowned per pale gules and arg.,
langued az.). These must have been painted in later than the date of
the MS. The binding is deeply stamped with the arms of Great Britain
and Ireland in colours, and the letters I. R., showing that the book
belonged to James I. It was presented to the Bodleian by Dr. John King,
who was Dean of Ch. Ch. 1605-1611. We must suppose that James gave it
to Dr. King.
The fineness of the vellum and the general style of the book
seems to indicate that it was written for some distinguished
person. The text is very typical of its class. In correctness
and spelling it is less good than L, oftener dropping final _e_
and having less regard for the metre.
Sn. ARCH. SELD. B. II, Bodleian Library (Bern. Cat. 3357). _Confessio
Amantis_ with ‘Explicit’ (four lines), ‘Quam cinxere’ and ‘Quia
vnusquisque.’ Paper (with some leaves of parchment), ff. 169, 14½
× 10¾ in. Quires with varying number of leaves, usually 12 or 16,
signatures and catchwords. (No written leaves lost, but blanks cut away
in quires nine and ten.) Written in double column of 44-65 lines (no
ruling), in a small hand, middle fifteenth cent. Latin in text. Red and
blue initials, but no other decoration.
The book has the name ‘Edwarde Smythe’ (sixteenth cent.) as the owner.
It came into the Bodleian among John Selden’s books.
The text is a poor one with a good many corruptions, from the
first line of the Prologue (‘To hem’ for ‘Of hem’) onwards,
many of them absurd, as ‘who thoghte’ for ‘we the while’ (v.
6752), ‘homicides’ for ‘houndes’ (vii. 5256), and some arising
from confusion between _þ_, _ȝ_, and _y_. Thus the scribe (who
usually has _th_ for _þ_ and _y_ for _ȝ_) is capable of writing
‘aþen’ or ‘athen’ for ‘aȝein,’ ‘yer of’ for ‘þer of,’ ‘yeff’
for ‘þef,’ ‘biþete’ for ‘biȝete.’ There are many mistakes in
the coloured initials, e.g. ii. 2501, iii. 2033, 2439. Some
northern forms, as ‘gude,’ iii. 1073, ‘Qwhat,’ iii. 2439. Note
agreement with B in some places, as i. 365, 1479, iii. 1222, v.
2417, 6296, and a few more.
D. CAMB. UNIV. Dd. viii. 19 (Bern. Cat. ii. 9653). _Confessio Amantis_
(imperfect). Parchment, ff. 127, quires of 8 with catchwords: double
column of 48 (sometimes 50) lines, regularly written in a hand using
very thick strokes. Latin in text (red). Spaces left for miniatures, f.
4 v^o, f. 8 v^o (the latter marked ‘hic Imago’), and perhaps also f.
1. Many spaces left for illuminated capitals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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