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
It should be noted that the MS. from which L is ultimately
derived must have had alternative versions of some of the revised
passages, for in vi. cap. xviii. and also vi. l. 1208 L gives
both the revised and the unrevised form. As a rule in the matter
of revision L agrees with D, but not in the corrections of vi.
1208-1226, where D has the uncorrected form and L the other. We
may note especially the reading of L in vi. 1224.
The following are the Latin lines which occur on f. 170 after
‘[H.] Aquile pullus,’ &c.
‘Inter saxosum montem campumque nodosum
Periit Anglica gens fraude sua propria.
Homo dicitur, Cristus, virgo, Sathan, non iniustus fragilisque,
Est peccator homo simpliciterque notat.
Vlcio, mandatum, cetus, tutela, potestas,
Pars incarnatus, presencia, vis memorandi,
Ista manus seruat infallax voce sub vna.’
The second of the parchment blanks at the beginning has a note
in the original hand of the MS. on the marriage of the devil and
the birth of his nine daughters, who were assigned to various
classes of human society, Simony to the prelates, Hypocrisy to
the religious orders, and so on. At the end of the book there are
two leaves with theological and other notes in the same hand, and
two cut for purposes of binding from leaves of an older MS. of
Latin hymns, &c. with music.
L₂. LINCOLN CATHEDRAL LIBRARY, A. 72, very obligingly placed at my
disposal in the Bodleian by the Librarian, with authority from the Dean
and Chapter. Contains the same as L, including the enigmatical lines
above quoted. Paper, ff. 184, measuring about 8 x 6 in. neatly written
in an early sixteenth-century hand, about 26 lines to the page. No
coloured initials, but space left for them and on f. 21 for a picture
corresponding to that on f. 21 of the Laud MS. Neither books nor
chapters numbered. Marked in pencil as ‘one of Dean Honywood’s, No. 53.’
Certainly copied from L, giving a precisely similar form of text
and agreeing almost always in the minutest details.
T. TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, D. 4, 6, kindly sent to the Bodleian for my
use by the Librarian, with the authority of the Provost and Fellows.
Contains _Vox Clamantis_ without Table of Chapters, followed by the
account of the author’s books, ‘Quia vnusquisque,’ &c. Parchment, ff.
144 (two blank) in seventeen quires, usually of eight leaves, but the
first and sixteenth of ten and the last of twelve; written in an early
fifteenth-century hand, 36-39 lines to the page, no passages erased or
rewritten. Coloured initials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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