[Footnote 20: Compare with this the text in the Appendix which begins: Whanne eorthe hath eorthe wiþ wrong igete-- and in the French version: Quant terre auera en terre large terre gayne.] [Footnote 21: See the Appendix, p. 46.] [Footnote 22: _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (Bonn, 1904).] [Footnote 23: See p. xxxiv above.] [Footnote 24: The earliest known epitaphs in English date from the fourteenth century.] [Footnote 25: There is no record of this brass at the church of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate.] [Footnote 26: Dated 1590 by Ernest R. Suffling, _Epitaphia_ (1909), p. 382.] [Footnote 27: A late instance of its use is given by Ch. Box (_Elegies and Epitaphs_, Glouc. 1892) as found by him on the tomb of a bricklayer, who died in 1837, aged 90:-- Earth walks upon Earth like glittering gold, Earth says to Earth, ‘We are but mould’; Earth builds upon Earth castles and towers, Earth says to Earth, ‘All is ours’!] [Footnote 28: Printed from Grein-Wülcker, _Bibliothek der ags. Poesie_, iii. 212.--(I know of a most noble guest in the dwellings, hidden from men, whom fierce hunger cannot torment, nor burning thirst, nor age, nor sickness [nor close-pressing death], if the servant who shall [bear him company] in his course serves him honourably: they, prospering, shall find abundance and bliss, countless joys, allotted to them at home, but (they shall find) sorrow, if the servant obeys his lord and master ill upon their journey, and will not show him reverence, the one brother to the other: that shall afflict them both, when they two depart, hastening hence, from the bosom of their common kinswoman, mother and sister.)] [Footnote 29: Grein-Wülcker, iii. 105.--(The worm whose jaws are sharper than needles, who first of all the worms in the grave forces his way to him.)] THE MIDDLE ENGLISH POEM ERTHE UPON ERTHE. I. #A# VERSION. 1. MS. HARLEIAN 2253. c. 1307. [fol. 57, v^o.] Erþe toc 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. 4 2. MS. HARLEIAN 913. c. 1308-1330. [fol. 62, r^o.] 1 [1]Whan erþ haþ erþ iwonne wiþ wow, Þan erþ mai of erþ nim hír inow. Erþ vp[2] erþ falliþ fol frow[3]; Erþ toward erþ delful hi{m} drow. 4 Of erþ þou wer{e} makid, a{nd} mon þou art ilich; In on erþ awaked þe pore a{nd} þe riche.