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
C. COTTON. TIB. A. iv, British Museum. Contains, ff. 2-152 v^o, _Vox
Clamantis_, ff. 153-167 r^o, ‘Explicit libellus’ &c. and _Cronica
Tripertita_, f. 167, ‘Rex celi deus,’ ‘H. aquile pullus,’ ‘O recolende
bone,’ ff. 168-172, _Carmen super multiplici Viciorum Pestilencia_, ff.
172 v^o-174, _Tractatus de Lucis Scrutinio_, ff. 174 v^o, 175, ‘Quia
vnusquisque,’ ‘Eneidos Bucolis,’ ‘Orate pro anima,’ ‘O deus immense,’
ff. 176, 177, ‘Henrici regis,’ ‘Vnanimes esse,’ ‘Presul, ouile regis,’
‘Cultor in ecclesia,’ ‘Dicunt scripture.’ Ends on 177 r^o. Parchment,
ff. 178, that is, 176 leaves of original text, preceded by two blanks,
on the second of which is Sir Robert Cotton’s Table of Contents, ending
‘Liber vt videtur ipsius autoris,’ the first leaf of the text being now
numbered f. 2. In quires of eight with catchwords, signed _a_, _b_,
_c_, &c. from f. 10 (where the text of the _Vox Clamantis_ begins) the
first quire, containing the chapter-headings &c., written in a hand
different from that of the main part of the text. Leaves measure about
10 x 6½ in. Written in single column, 38 lines to the page in the _Vox
Clamantis_, 40 or more in the _Cronica Tripertita_. The MS. has been
carefully corrected, and revised passages appear written over erasure
as in SGH. Capitals coloured and gilded at the beginning of the books,
coloured blue and red at the beginning of chapters and paragraphs. On
f. 9, the last of the first quire, a picture like that in the Glasgow
MS., of the author shooting at the world, as shown in the frontispiece
of this volume.
On f. 2 is written ‘Roberti Cotton liber ex dono doctissimi Patricii
Youngi generosi.’ The book suffered somewhat in the fire of 1731, but
it has been carefully and skilfully repaired, and though the writing
at the top of each page shows traces of the heat, no part of it is
illegible. The effect produced is clearly visible on the page of which
a facsimile is given.
The text of C is a very good one and unquestionably independent.
In regard to spelling it may be observed that the copyist of the
_Vox Clamantis_ frequently gives ‘u’ for ‘v’ at the beginning
of words, he writes ‘sed’ almost always for ‘set,’ and often
‘ti’ for ‘ci’ in words like ‘etiam,’ ‘ratio,’ ‘patiens’ and even
‘fatie’ (ii. 57), but also ‘eciam,’ ‘ambicio,’ ‘precium,’ &c.
The following are the hands, so far as they can be distinguished:
(1) Text of the _Vox Clamantis_, a small and somewhat irregular
but clear hand, of the fourteenth century.
(2) The eight leaves preceding this (containing the
chapter-headings), and also ff. 96, 97 and part of 140. This hand
has made corrections throughout, not revising the text, as the
author might, but setting right the mistakes of the scribe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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