Erþe toe of erþe erþe wyþ woh, Erþe oþer erþe to þe erþe droh, Erþe leyde erþe in erþene þroh, Þo heuede erþe of erþe erþe ynoh. It will be remembered that these two MSS. (Harl. 913 and 2253) are the two which preserve texts of the A version, and the opening lines of the _Song on the Times_ would appear to give further proof of a connexion between the two A texts. Further, in _MS. Lansdowne_ 762 (v. _Reliquiae Antiquae_ I. 260), under the heading _Terram terra tegat_, occur these lines:-- First to the erthe I bequethe his parte, My wretched careyn is but fowle claye, Like than to like, erthe in erthe to laye; Sith it is, according by it I wolle abide, As for the first parte of my wille, that erthe erthe hide. In this case the English words are evidently based upon the Latin phrase, but this does not disprove an English origin for the poem _Erthe upon Erthe_, since any verses of the kind must ultimately have been based on the idea that man is dust, and the idea itself must have been first presented and have become widely known through such Latin elegiac phrases as _Memento homo quod cinis es et in cinerem reverteris_, or _De terra plasmasti me_, both of which so frequently accompany _Erthe upon Erthe_, or as the above cited _Terram terra tegat_. The verse in _MS. Lansdowne_ might rather be considered as supplying further proof of the popular tendency to replace such phrases by English verses, expressing the same idea, but themselves English, not Latin in origin, and making the most of the possible word-play. Such word-plays were evidently popular between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Cf. the well-known passage in _Piers Plowman_, c. xxi. 389. So lyf shal lyf lete ther lyf hath lyf anyented, So that lyf quyte lyf, the olde lawe hit asketh. _Ergo_, soule shal soule quyte and synne to synne wende. In view of this evidence, I am inclined to think that the Latin version in MS. Harl. 913 is the translation, and the English the original, and that the oldest form of _Erthe upon Erthe_ which has been preserved is that found in the four lines in MS. Harl. 2253:-- Erþe toc of erþe erþe wyþ woh &c.