MS. Rawl. B. 214

The work, in six books, rephrases the Ephemeris belli Troiani by Dictys Cretensis, but with much additional material, often signalled by a large T in the margin.

WIC 4645. 28 lines are lacking, which would occupy about a page: either a singleton or a bifolium is missing at the centre of the gathering. The absence of a name after secundum probably shows that Wylde simply hoped to discover the author.

The last poem ends with the death of Henry V.

Ends in the reign of Henry VI.

This note, added later by Wylde, appears to support descent through the female line and thus Henry VI’s claims on the French throne (see No. 5).

WIC 16527, 15621. Ed. Wright, Political Poems 1. 219–24; unique to MS. Rawlinson B. 214.

WIC 7224.

WIC 12957, 4491, 16721. Ed. Wright, Political Poems 2. 118–23; unique to MS. Rawlinson B. 214. The third poem spells out in acrostich ‘Rex Anglie Henricus Quintus, Caterina Regina Anglie’.

Continues with No. 13.

Ed. C. A. Cole, Memorials of Henry V (RS 11; London, 1858), pp. 77–165. For corrections and additions to Cole, see J. S. Roskell and F. Taylor, ‘The Authorship and Purpose of the Gesta Henrici Quinti’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 53 (1970–71) 428–64 and 54 (1971–72) 223–40; see also Kingsford, English Historical Literature, pp. 45–50. The Liber metricus describes the first quinquennium of Henry V’s reign: the MS. Rawlinson B. 214 text, like that of Cotton Julius E. iv, is amply supplied with’ chronogrammatic’ glosses (see Cole, pp. xlviii–xlix). There are two versions of the Liber metricus (extant in 9 MSS.), a longer and a shorter; MS. Rawlinson B. 214, described by Roskell and Taylor as ‘confused’, shares some features with the shorter version represented by Cotton MS. Vespasian D. xiii (e.g. the hymn in No. 13 (b), and the description ‘extractum breue de Cronica Thome Elmham prioris lenton’). The Liber metricus is based on the Gesta Henrici Quinti, ed. Roskell and Taylor (Oxford, 1975), which the editors have shown is not Elmham’s work, as earlier scholars had supposed. Elmham began as a monk of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury (of which he wrote a history, published in the Rolls Series, 1858), but in 1414 entered the Cluniae order and became Prior of Lenton; he died c. 1428. On his Cronica, see on No. 3. The Liber metricus proper, fols. 137–148, is by a hand unlike Wylde’s other writing: it is in a paper booklet, written in two columns, with a watermark different from those in other parts of the manuscript. Wylde evidently inserted this paper booklet and completed it with the collect and hymn to the Virgin (No. 13 below). Interestingly, the Liber metricus (complete with No. 13) is in a separate paper booklet in Cotton Vespasian D. xiii.

Not in Walther. Ed. Cole (see No. 12). Signed in acrostich ‘THOMAS ELMHAM MONACHUS’. In all texts of the Liber metricus the collect (a) is integral and follows directly on the colophon; despite Wylde’s curious procedure (see on No. 12), one cannot separate the prayer from the text of the Liber. The hymn (b), however, is found only in MS. Rawlinson B. 214 and Cotton Vespasian D. xiii. For another acrostich signature by Elmham, see the prologue to the Cronica (see on No. 3), printed by T. Heame, (pseudo-Elmham) Vita et gesta Henrici Quinti (Oxford, 1727).

Anglia primarie Dos fertur adesse Marie Not in Walther. One is tempted to assign this to Elmham, as it forms a pair with No. 13.

WIC 2388.

Fol. 152v blank.

WIC 6561 (the reference in the Appendix is an error and should read 6569). Ample space (about two lines) has been left for interlinear glosses, which Wylde has supplied up to fol. 156r (and only two thereafter): the latest dates given are for the coronation of Edward IV (28 June 1461) and the rising of Robin of Redesdale (see DNB) in 1469: ‘Robin of ridesdale interfecit dominum herbert’. There is another copy, without glosses, in Oxford, St John’s College, MS. 195, in blank leaves left after Rolle’s commentary on the Psalms. On chronograms, see Cole (cited in No. 12), pp. xlviii–xlix.

Fol. 158v blank.

WIC 91.

WIC 8745. Ed. Wright, Political Poems 2. 150–51; unique to MS. Rawlinson B. 214. Wright did not know the context of the poems: according to the Scotichronicon, ed. W. Goodall, 2 (Edinburgh, 1759), p. 490, in 1430 the king of Flanders (i.e. Philip, duke of Burgundy) sent to James I of Scotland a cannon with an inscription worded almost exactly as No. 18 (a). The long poem in MS. Rawlinson B. 214, therefore, is a reply to the implied threat and insult: relations between England and Burgundy worsened considerably after 1430.

WIC 11891. Wylde has glossed the word monachi by canonici in red throughout.

WIC 10988.

WIC 18302.

WIC 19338. The word papa has been ineffectively erased in several stanzas.

WIC 3834.

Ends abruptly at foot of fol. 181v (see Rigg, pp. 325–26).

WIC 6074. A later hand (s. xvi?) has noted at the beginning ‘The declaration against Norfolke answered vnto with moer zeale then Truthe’.

WIC 5239. At the beginning the later hand (as in No. 24) has written: ‘Responsio pro norfolciensibus iure damnatis in a matter of trvthe ex maxima parte’.

WIC 16086.

WIC 10994, 2121. Ed. Wright, Political Poems 1. 97–122, from MS. Rawlinson B. 214 and Digby 166 (which lacks the prologue but is otherwise complete). The author gives his name as Walter de Burgo (Peterborough), monk of Revesby in Lincolnshire; he was a friend of John Marton, treasurer of John of Gaunt. In Digby 166 the poem is called ‘bellum nasoreum gestum et sic digestum a.d. 1366, habens versus quingentos sexaginta per W. Burgensem’; the preceding poem, ‘Vix nodosum valeo’ (WIC 20763), is described as ‘epilogium fratris Waited de Burgo super Alanum in opere suo de planctu nature contra prelatum sodomitam’. Walter also wrote a Mariale (Theotecon), to which he refers in the present poem, and also an exegesis of the Metamorphoses (see on No. 30, which was once attributed to him). Wylde has written rhetorical notes in red throughout the poem.

Blank, except for the later addition of the couplet on Virgil, ‘Pastor arator eques’ (WIC 13779).

Blank

For a description of the pictures (fols. 197v–202v), see F. Saxl and H. Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, vol. 3.1: Manuscripts in English Libraries (London, 1953), pp. 395–98; pictures (d) and (f) are reproduced in Part 2, pis. VI–VII, figs. 19–20. Pictures (e) and (f) are reproduced by Saxl and R. Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean (London, 1948), pi. 35. 1–2; picture (f) is also in J. Seznec, Survival of the Pagan Gods, trans. B. Sessions (New York, 1953), fig. 70, p. 181. The pictures are drawn on small parchment sheets, to which have been attached (fols. 197–199) parchment slips to contain notes: (d)–(h) are given references to the appropriate passage in the ‘Dites ditatus’ (No. 1 above). Saxl and Wittkower concluded that the pictures were intended as illustrations of Walsingham’s treatise (which they call a ’ translation of the History of Troy’). The fact that the whole group of diagrams and pictures begins with the Four Elements and ends with Aesculapius, however, indicates that the pictures form a prologue to the following exposition of the Metamorphoses (No. 30): this follows the practice of Petrus Berchorius and Thomas Walsingham who prefixed their commentaries on the Metamorphoses with an account of the pagan gods. The references to the ‘Dites ditatus’ simply demonstrate the care with which Wylde planned and utilized his manuscript. There are some notes to the diagrams (s. xvi).

The Quarto Catalogue ascribes the treatise to Walter of Peterborough (see on No. 27), citing T. Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (London, 1748), p. 352. Tanner mentions first the poems in Digby 166 (see on No. 27) and then quotes the Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense for 1366; in the edition by J. A. Giles (London, 1845), p. 173 – Tanner used J. Sparke’s edition (London, 1723) – the passage reads: ‘inv(enta) est primo grossa historia totius sacrae paginae in fabulis Ovidii Metamorphosis, a fratre Waltero de Burgo, quondam monacho de Revesby’. The treatise in MS. Rawlinson B. 214, however, gives no hint at all of a Biblical interpretation, and the ascription must be rejected.

A later hand (s. xvi) in MS. Rawlinson B. 214 has marginally made the obvious identifications (Gigantomachia = ‘turris babillon’, Lycaon = ‘Cain’, Deucalion = ‘Noe’), but there is no reason to connect these with Walter of Peterborough; in any case, the remaining marginalia (which extend only for a few pages) are simply chapter headings. Wylde’s interest in Thomas Walsingham (Nos. 1, 28, and the musical treatise in Wylde’s MS. Lansdowne 763) might suggest a connection with the Archana deorum, but the analysis of each book into its component fables does not match Walsingham’s, no use is made of the other mythographers (of whom Walsingham showed a good knowledge in the Archana deorum), and, above all, one would have expected Wylde to ascribe the treatise to Walsingham if he had had any reason to suspect his authorship.