The Middle English Poem, Erthe Upon Erthe — John Shaqi
The Middle English Poem, Erthe Upon Erthe
General
The Middle English Poem, Erthe Upon Erthe
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500
3. MS. Selden supra 53, fol. 159, v^o (c. 1450). Six stanzas
(strophic division indicated in the first two), written in a
different hand on the back of a spare leaf at the end of the MS.;
stanza 5 of the usual B version omitted. Quoted by H. G. Fiedler,
_Modern Language Review_ (April 1908), III. iii. 221. Not printed
before.
4. MS. Egerton 1995, fol. 55, r^o (William Gregory’s Commonplace
Book, dated c. 1430-1450, cf. J. Gairdner, _Collections of a
London Citizen_. Camden. Soc. 1876 n.s. xvii). Seven stanzas
without strophic division. Not printed before.
5. MS. Harl. 1671, fol. 1*, r^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas
written in the left-hand column on the fly-leaf at the beginning
of the MS., which consists of a ‘large Theological Treatise,
imperfect at both ends, which seemeth to have been entituled “The
Weye to Paradys”’.[7] The upper portion of the leaf contains a
poem in praise of St. Herasmius. Not printed before.
6. MS. Brighton, fol. 90, v^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas.
Printed by Fiedler, _M. L. R._ III. iii. 219, from the last leaf
of a MS. formerly seen by him in possession of an antiquary at
Brighton, and containing a Latin treatise on the seven Sacraments.
7. Stratford-on-Avon Inscription (after 1450). Seven stanzas,
formerly on the west wall of the nave in the Chapel of the Trinity
at Stratford-on-Avon, cf. R. B. Wheler, _Hist. and Antiq. of
Stratford-on-Avon_, p. 98: ‘against the west wall of the nave,
upon the south side of the arch was painted the martyrdom of
Thomas à Becket, whilst kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict in
Canterbury Cathedral; below this was represented the figure of an
angel (probably St. Michael) supporting a long scroll, upon which
were written the following rude verses: Erth oute of erthe,’ &c.
‘Beneath were two men, holding another scroll over a body wrapt in
a winding sheet, and covered with some emblems of mortality with
these lines: Whosoo hym be thowghte,’ &c. (v. Note on p. 36).
These paintings were probably added in the reign of Henry VII,
when the Chapel was restored by Sir Hugh Clopton (died 1496), who
built New Place opposite the Chapel in 1483. They were discovered
in 1804 beneath a coating of whitewash, and were copied and
engraved, but have since been more than once re-coated with
whitewash, and all trace of the poem has now disappeared.
Facsimiles, etched and coloured by hand, exist in Thomas Fisher’s
_Series of Ancient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary
Paintings in fresco, discovered on the walls of the Chapel of the
Trinity, belonging to the Gild of the Holy Cross, at
Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, from drawings made at the time
of their discovery_ (1807). Printed by R. B. Wheler, _ibid._
(1806), by Longfellow, _Outre-Mer_ (_Père-La-Chaise_, note on
p. 67), 1851, and by W. P. Reeves, _Mod.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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