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A Mumming at Hertford:
British Library Additional 29729 Verses

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f.137 recto
Folio 136 VersoFolio 137 RectoFolio 137 VersoFolio 138 RectoFolio 138 VersoFolio 139 RectoFolio 139 VersoFolio 140 Recto

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Folio 137 Recto
Compare Witnesses: •
Most noble prynce with support of your grace •
ther bene entred in to your royall place •
and lett1 comen in to your castell •
your pore leges which like nothinge well •
now in the begyninge of this newe yeare •
certayne swaynes full froward of ther chere •
of entent comen fallen on ther kne2 •
ffor to compleyne vnto your magestie3 •
vpon the mescheffe of great aduersyte •
vpon the trouble and the cruellte •
whych that they haue endued in there lyves •
by the felnesse of ther ferce wyves •
whych is a turmente very inportable •
A bond of sorowe / a knott vnneuiable •
ffor who is bound / or loked in maryage •
yff he be ould / he falleth in dotage •
and yonge folkes of ther lymes slender •
grene and lusty / and of braune but tender •
phylosophers callen in such age •
a chyld to wyue / a wodnesse or a rage4 •
ffor they afferme / ther is non erthly stryffe5 •
may be compared / to weddynge of a wyffe •
and who that euer standeth in the cas •
he with his rebecke / may singe full oft allas •
lyke as thos hynes / here stande nge6 on by on •
he maye with them vpon the daunce goon •
learne the tras / both at euen and morow •
of karycantowe7/ in tourment and in sorowe •
weyle the whyll ellas that he was borne •
for obbe8 the reve / that goth here all to forne •
he playneth sore / his mariage is not meke9 •
ffor hys wyff beautryce Bitterswett10 •
cast vpon him an hougly chere full rowghe •
whan he cometh home / full wery from the ploughe •
with hugely chere[stomecke]11 / dead and pale of chere •
In hope to fynde redy his dynner •
demonstrando vj rusticul •
ɲ
than sitteth Beautryce12 bollinge at the walle13 •
as she that geueth of hym no maner talle •
ffor she alldaye with hyr Iowsy nolle •
Notes
  1. Trinity R.3.20 has "late" here. ↩
  2. The letter "b" is struck through in the left hand margin of this line. This may be an indicator of a nota mark, as occurs in Trinity R.3.20 and later in this witness, or a carryover from the exemplar since the Trinity nota mark is also different from other examples in that witness. It's also possible that this is meant to indicate a switch in speaker. ↩
  3. There is what appears to be an "a" to the left of the final line in the verse. Much like the previous section that is likely meant to be a nota mark misinterpreted by the scribe although it's possible it's meant to denote a change in speaker. This seems unlikely with it being the final line, however. ↩
  4. Similarly to the previous section there is a "b," struck through, to the left of this initial line. ↩
  5. The third glyph from the end is likely "n" based on the example from Trinity R.3.20, but the glyph as written here bears no resemblance to n rendered elsewhere. ↩
  6. This has been bracketed only on the right side. ↩
  7. The scribe has bracketed on three sides the underlined word here, rather than simply underlining it. They are inconsistent in their practice, so as mentioned elsewhere I've rendered these as underlines and will note the bracketing. ↩
  8. This differs from Trinity R.3.20 and thus from MacCraken, where it is rendered as "meete." ↩
  9. Both words are bracketed on three sides here. ↩
  10. The scribe has written over what appears to be "chere" ↩
  11. The word is bracketed on the left in this case. ↩
  12. From this point on in the witness the scribe follows what is likely the practice of the exemplar and places an "n" to the left of the opening line denoting a new section. ↩

The work on this manuscript witness was generously supported by a ZKS-Lendrum Fellowship in the Scientific Study of Manuscripts and Inscriptions at the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University. The transcription of this work is owned by the editor and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The images are (c) British Library Board (British Library Additional MS 29729) and rights are reserved.