In the following pages an attempt has been made to justify the premises in part laid down already, and to show that the A and B versions may be traced back to a common source, and that this source was not only confined to England, but was itself English. MSS. OF THE POEM ‘ERTHE UPON ERTHE’. The following is a list of the manuscripts in which the poem occurs:-- MSS. of the A Version: 1. MS. Harl. 2253, fol. 57, v^o, dated c. 1307. Four lines inserted between a French poem on the Death of Simon de Montfort, and an English poem on the Execution of Simon Fraser. Printed by J. Ritson, _Ancient Songs and Ballads from the Reign of K. Henry II to the Revolution_, p. 13 (1790), by E. Flügel, _Anglia_, xxvi. 216 (1903), and by W. Heuser, _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (_Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik_, xiv. 179) (1904). (See the facsimile opposite the title-page.) 2. MS. Harl. 913, fol. 62, r^o (c. 1308-1330). Seven six-lined English stanzas alternating with seven of the same purport in Latin. Printed by T. Wright, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 216 (1841), by F. J. Furnivall, _Early Eng. Poems and Lives of Saints_, p. 150 (printed for the Philological Society, Berlin, 1862), and by W. Heuser, _ibid._, p. 180. MSS. of the B Version: 1. William Billyng’s MS. (dated 1400-1430). Five four-lined stanzas, preceded by the figure of a naked body, rudely drawn, having a mattock in its right hand, and a spade at its feet. At the end of the poem is a prone figure of a skeleton accompanied by two draped figures.[3] Printed by W. Bateman, _Billyng’s Five Wounds of Christ_, no. 3 (Manchester, 1814),[4] ‘from a finely written and illuminated parchment roll, about two and three-quarter yards in length: it is without date, but by comparing it with other poetry, it appears to have been written early in the fifteenth century; the illuminations and ornaments with which it is decorated correspond to those of missals written about the reign of Henry V; the style may therefore fix its date between the years 1400 and 1430. The author[5] gives his name and mark at the bottom of the roll.’ Reprinted from Bateman’s text by J. Montgomery, _The Christian Poet_, edit. 1 and 2, p. 45 (1827), edit. 3, p. 58 (1828). 2. MS. Thornton (Lincoln Cath. Libr.), fol. 279 (c. 1440). Five stanzas[6] without mark of strophic division. Printed by G. G. Perry, _Religious Poems in Prose and Verse_, p. 95 (E.E.T.S., No. xxvi, 1867, reprinted 1889, p. 96), and by C. Horstmann, _Yorkshire Writers (Richard Rolle of Hampole)_, i. 373 (1895).