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coronation, which presents to us the qualities for which, while he was living, the poet found him remarkable, and thought fit to commend him."

These verses are in the Royal MS. 18 D 4, in the British Museum, and are here printed from the MS., not from Turner :

[Fol. 4.]

Eek in this lond-I dar afferme a thyng-
Ther is a prince Ful myhty of puyssaunce,
A kynges sone, vncle to the kynge
Henry the sexte which is now in fraunce,
And is lieftenant, & hath the gouernaunce
Off our breteyne; thoruh was discrecion
He hath conserued in this regioun

Duryng his tyme off ful hihe' prudence
Pes and quiete, and sustened rihte.'
3it natwithstandyng his noble prouydence
He is in deede prouyd a good knyht,
Eied as argus with reson and forsiht;
Off hihe lectrure I dar eek off hym telle,
And treuli deeme that he dothe excelle

In vndirstondyng all othir of his age,
And hath gret Ioie with clerkis to commune ;
And no man is mor expert off language.
Stable in studie alwei he doth contune,
Settyng a side alle chaunges of fortune;
And wher he louethe, 3iff I schal nat tarie,
Witheoute cause ful lothe he is to varie.

Duc off Gloucestre men this prince calle;
And natwithstandyng his staat & dignyte,
His corage neuer doth appalle

To studie in bookis off antiquite;
Therin he hathe so gret felicite

Vertuousli hym silff to ocupie,

Off vicious slouth to haue the maistrie.3

1 These e-s represent the strokes through the h-s.

2 MS. thaunges.

This is the stanza quoted by Dr Reinhold Pauli in his Bilder aus Alt-England, c. xi. p. 349:

66 'Herzog von Glocester nennen sie den Fürsten,
Der trotz des hohen Rangs und hoher Ehren
Im Herzen nährt ein dauerndes Gelüsten
Nach Allem, was die alten Bücher lehren;
So glücklich gross ist hierin sein Begehren,
Dass tugendsam er seine Zeit verbringt

Und trunkne Trägheit männiglich bezwingt."

The reader should by all means consult this chapter, which is headed "Herzog

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And with his prudence & wit his manheed
Trouthe to susteyne he fauour set a side;
And hooli chirche meyntenyng in dede,
That in this land no lollard dar abide.
As verrai support, vpholdere, & eek guyde,
Spareth non, but makethe hym silff strong
To punysshe alle tho that do the chirche wrong.

Thus is he both manly & eek wise,
Chose of god to be his owne knyhte;
And off o thynge he hath a synguler price,
That heretik dar non comen in his sihte.
In cristes feithe he stant so hol vpriht,
Off hooli chirche defence and [c]hampion
To chastise alle that do therto treson.

And to do plesance to oure lord ihesu
He studieht euere to haue intelligence.
Reedinge off bookis bringthe in vertu,-
Vices excludyng, slouthe & necligence,—
Makethe a prince to haue experience
To know hym silff in many sundry wise,
Wher he trespaseth, his errour to chastise.

After mentioning that the duke had considered the book of Boccasio, on the Fall of Princes,' he adds, and he gave me commandment, that I should, after my conning, this book translate him to do plesance.' MS. 18 D 4.-Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. vi. pp. 55—7.

P.S. When printing the 1513 edition of Wynkyn de Worde's Boke of Keruynge, I was not aware of the existence of a copy of the earlier edition in the Cambridge University Library. Seeing this copy afterwards named in Mr Hazlitt's new catalogue, I asked a friend to compare the present reprint with the first edition, and the result follows.

Humfrid von Glocester. Bruchstück eines Fürstenlebens im fünfzehnten Jahrhunderte" (Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. Sketch of the life of a prince in the fifteenth century). There is an excellent English translation of this book, published by Macmillan, and entitled "Pictures of Old England.”—W. W. Skeat.

The / is rubbed.

2 So in MS.

NOTE ON THE 1508 EDITION OF

The Boke of Keruynge,

BY THE REV. WALTER SKEAT, M.A.

The title-page of the older edition, of 1508, merely contains the words, "Here begynneth the boke of Keruynge ;" and beneath them is-as in the second edition of 1513-a picture of two ladies and two gentlemen at dinner, with an attendant bringing a dish, two servants at a side table, and a jester. The colophon tells us that it was "Enprynted by wynkyn de worde at London in Flete strete at the sygne of the sonne. The yere of our lorde M.CCCCC.VIII;" beneath which is Wynkyn de Worde's device, as in the second edition.

The two editions resemble each other very closely, running page for page throughout, and every folio in the one begins at the same place as in the other. Thus the word "moche" is divided into mo-che in both editions, the "-che" beginning Fol. A ii. 6. Neither is altogether free from misprints, but these are not very numerous nor of much importance. It may be observed that marks of contraction are hardly ever used in the older edition, the word "ye" being written "the" at length, and instead of "haged" we find "hanged." On the whole, the first edition would seem to be the more carefully printed, but the nature of the variations between them will be best understood by an exact collation of the first two folios (pp. 265-7 of the present edition), where the readings of the first edition are denoted by the letter A. The only variations are these:

P. 265. lyft that swanne] lyfte that swanne A (a misprint).
frusshe that chekyn] fruche that chekyn A.
thye all maner of small byrdes] A omits of.
fynne that cheuen] fyne that cheuen A.
transsene that ele] trassene that ele A.
Here hendeth, &c.] Here endeth, &c. A.
Butler] Butteler A.

P. 266, 1. 5. trenchoures] trenchours A.
1. 12. hanged] hanged A.

1. 15. cannelles] canelles A.

1. 18, 19. ye] the (in both places) A.

1. 20. seasous] seasons A.

1. 23. after] After A.

1. 27. good] goot A.

1. 30. ye] the A.

1. 34. modon] modon A.

1. 36. sourayne] souerayne A.

P. 267. ye] the A (several times).

1. 5. wyll] wyl A.

1. 9. rede] reed A. reboyle] reboyle not A.

1. 12. the reboyle] they reboyle A.

1. 17. lessynge] lesynge A.

1. 20. campolet] campolet A.

1. 21. tyer] tyerre A.

1. 22. ypocras] Ipocras A (and in the next line, and l. 26).

1. 24. gynger] gynger A.

1. 27. ren] hange A.

1. 29. your] youre A.

In l. 33, A hus paradico, as in the second edition.

It will be readily seen that these variations are chiefly in the spelling, and of a trivial character. The only ones of any importance are, on p. 5, lyste (which is a misprint) for lyft, and trassene for transsene (cp. Fr. transon, a truncheon, peece of, Cot.); on p. 6, goot for good is well worth notice (if any meaning can be assigned to goot), as the direction to beware of good strawberries is not obvious; on p. 7, we should note lesynge for lessynge, and hange for ren, the latter being an improvement, though ren makes sense, as basins hung by cords on a perch may, like curtains hung on a rod, be said to run on it. The word ren was probably caught up from the line above it in reprinting.

The following corrections are also worth making, and are made on the authority of the first edition :

P. 269, 1. 10, For treachour read trenchour.

1. 23. For so read se.

1. 24. For se' read se.

P. 270, 1. 1. ony] on A.'

1. 7. For it read is.

1. 15. ye so] and soo A. (No doubt owing to confusion between & and yo.) 1. 16. your] you A.

1. 29. For bo read be.

P. 271, 1. 20. For wich read with.

P. 272, 1. 3. For fumosytces read fumosytees.

1. 7. For pygous read pynyons (whence it appears that the pinion-bones, not pigeon's-bones, are meant).

1. 25. The word "reyfe" is quite plain.

P. 274, 11. 18, &c. There is some variation here; the first edition has, after the word souerayne, the following:-"laye trenchours before hym / yf he be a grete estate, lay fyue trenchours/ & he be of a lower degre, foure trenchours / & of an other degre, thre trenchours," &c. This is better; the second edition is clearly wrong about the fice trenchers. This seems another error made in reprinting, the words lower degre being wrongly repeated. P. 275, 1. 6. It may be proper to note the first edition also has broche. P. 279, 1. 8. For for ye read for they.

P. 279, 1. 27. the[y]; in A they is printed in full.

P. 280, 1. 18. For raysyus read raysyns.

P. 281, 1. 21. For slytee read slytte.

P. 283, ll. 10, 18. carpentes] carpettes A.

1. 14. shall] shake A.

1. 23. blanked] blanket A.

Nearly all the above corrections have already been made in the side-notes. Only two of them are of any importance, viz. the substitution of pynyons on p. 12, and the variation of reading on p. 14; in the latter case perhaps neither edition seems quite right, though the first edition is quite intelligible.

In our Cambridge edition (see p. 24, 1. 5) this line about the pope is carefully struck out, and the grim side-note put "lower down", with tags to show to what estate he and the cardinal and bishops ought to be degraded !

NOTE TO P. XXIV. L. 10, "OUR WOMEN," AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE
OF LANGUAGES, P. XXV-VI.

The Ladies & Men of Queen Elizabeth's Court.

"I might here (if I would, or had sufficient disposition of matter conceiued of the same) make a large discourse of such honorable ports, of such graue councellors, and noble personages, as giue their dailie attendance vpon the quéenes maiestic there. I could in like sort set foorth a singular commendation of the vertuous beautie, or beautifull vertues of such ladies and gentlewomen as wait vpon hir person, betweene whose amiable countenances and costlinesse of attire, there séemeth to be such a dailie conflict and contention, as that it is verie difficult for me to gesse, whether of the twaine shall beare awaie the preheminence. This further is not to be omitted, to the singular commendEnglish courtiers ation of both sorts and sexes of our courtiers here in the best learned England, that there are verie few of them, which haue liuers.

& the worst

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