The complete works of John Gower, volume 4 : $b The Latin works — John Shaqi
The complete works of John Gower, volume 4 : $b The Latin worksGower, John
General
The complete works of John Gower, volume 4 : $b The Latin works
Gower, John
Poetry
Parchment, ff. 132 in quires of eight leaves (except the first, which
has six) with catchwords, measuring 11¾ x 7¾ in., 53 lines to the page
in the _Vox Clamantis_, then 52 or 51, regularly and well written with
passages erased and rewritten as in CH. On f. 6 v^o is a painting
like that in the Cotton MS. of a man in a brown hat, a blue coat with
brown lining, and with three arrows in his belt, shooting an arrow at
the globe (which has a threefold division corresponding to the three
elements of air, earth, and water), with the lines ‘Ad mundum mitto
mea iacula’ &c. There is a floreated page at the beginning of Lib. i.
(after the Prologue) and illuminated initials with decoration at the
beginning of the other books; large and small coloured capitals for
chapters and paragraphs.
I have to thank Dr. Young the Librarian of the Hunterian Museum, for
facilities given to me in using this MS. and for his kind help in
collating and describing it.
The text of G has, as might be expected, a close affinity with
that of S, but the peculiarities of S as regards revision in
certain passages, e.g. iii. 1 ff., iv. 1197 ff., are not shared
by this MS., which goes here with the other revised copies, C and
H. In one place at least G has a further touch of revision, viz.
in the heading of vi. cap. vii., where its reading is shared by
D. In a good many instances, however, G stands with S (sometimes
in company with D or L) in support of a probably true reading
which is not given by other MSS., as i. 465, 468, 979, 1454,
iv. 72, v. 789, vii. 684, 1342, or of an error, as i. 1525,
1870, iii. 1863, iv. 799. It may be noted that sometimes in G an
erasure has been made without the correction being supplied.
The following are some of the hands that may be distinguished in
this manuscript:
(1) Text of the _Vox Clamantis_. This seems to be the same as S
(1), H (2).
(2) Text of the _Cronica Tripertita_ and succeeding pieces to f.
131 r^o., passages rewritten over erasure in vi. 545 ff., 1159
ff. and in the conclusion of the _Vox Clamantis_. This is the
same as S (2), C (3), H (3).
(3) Corrections in vi. cap. xix., vii. cap. iii. and xxiv,
rewritten lines at the beginning and near the end of the _Cronica
Tripertita_, text of the poem ‘Henrici Regis’ with its heading,
f. 131. Perhaps the same as S (3).
(4) The marginal note at iii. 375: the same as S (4), C (6), H
(6).
(5) The text of ‘Vnanimes esse’ and the succeeding poems on ff.
131 v^o, 132.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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