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A Mumming at Windsor:
British Library Additional 29729 Verses

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f.144 verso
Folio 144 RectoFolio 144 VersoFolio 145 RectoFolio 145 Verso

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Folio 144 Verso
Compare Witnesses: •
the lord which is / called on two and thre •
his eyen of mercy / caste on cloudovee •
shadde his grace / of gostly influence •
towards that kyng / hauinge his aduertence1 •
that he shuld passe / from paganymes lawe •
by prescyence / which that ys deuyne •
his hert all holly / and him sellfe with drawe •
ffrom his ydoles / And all hys rytes fyne •
whan heuenly grace / did vpon hym shyne •
by mean only / and by deuoute prayer •
of saint cloote / most goodly and entier •
hir hertely loue / hir meditacyons •
hir wac[c]hinge2 hir fastinge / and hir parfyt lyffe •
hir stedfast hope / hir holy orisounes •
hir conuersacyoun / most contemplatyffe •
stynt in ffraunce of maumetrye þe stryffe •
causing þe lawe / most souerein of vertue •
to spred abrode / of our lord Ihesu3 •
hir meryte caused / and hur parfyt entent •
that crystes feytħ / aboute ther did spred •
whan that an aungell / was from heuen sent •
vnto an hermyte of parfyt lyffe in dede •
presented it / who so can take hede •
a sheld of azure / moste soueraygne by deuise •
and in the felde of gould thre floure delyse •
At Ioye en vale with oute more obstacle •
ffell all this cas / wher thaungell doun alyghte •
a place notable / chosin by myracle •
whicħ thorougħe / all ffraunce shadde his bemes lyghte •
god of his grace / cast on that place asyte •
ffor to that realme / it passynge auauntage •
In thilke vale / was sett that ermytage •
all this came in / who so list to sene •
I dare afferme it / with oute any dred •
by parfytnesse / of the holy quene •
saynte clot / floure of womanhed •
what euer she spake / accordant was the deed •
Notes
  1. The scribe had some difficulty here and the fifth and eighth glyphs have been written over, but the word can be determined ↩
  2. There is a slight mark between the c and h indicating the addition of a glyph here. It lacks, however, any sort of arrow indicator. ↩
  3. in most instances the bar over a "u" or "n" indicates a suspension, but here the word "ihesu" is spelled out in full and the only likely suspended letter, an "s" at the end," would break the rhyme with "vertue" above. Trinity R.3.20, the other extant witness, also spells out "Ihesu" here, so this suspension mark could be support for the idea that both manuscripts are copied from a lost exemplar rather than one copied from the other. ↩

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.