a picture of John Lydgate with the initials of the website
The Testament of John Lydgate:
British Library Harley 218 Verses

HomeAbout the ArchiveAbout John LydgateWorksManuscriptsAbout this ManuscriptEditorial ApparatusContactVisualization

f.57 verso
Folio 52 VersoFolio 53 RectoFolio 53 VersoFolio 54 RectoFolio 54 VersoFolio 55 RectoFolio 55 VersoFolio 56 RectoFolio 56 VersoFolio 57 RectoFolio 57 VersoFolio 58 RectoFolio 58 VersoFolio 59 RectoFolio 59 VersoFolio 60 RectoFolio 60 VersoFolio 61 RectoFolio 61 VersoFolio 62 RectoFolio 62 VersoFolio 63 RectoFolio 63 VersoFolio 64 RectoFolio 64 VersoFolio 65 RectoFolio 65 VersoFolio 66 RectoFolio 66 VersoFolio 67 RectoFolio 67 VersoFolio 68 RectoFolio 68 VersoFolio 69 RectoFolio 69 VersoFolio 70 RectoFolio 70 VersoFolio 71 RectoFolio 71 VersoFolio 72 Recto

Decoration
Download XML
Data Dictionary
Folio 57 Verso
Compare Witnesses: •
TTestamentum in nomine .Ihesu.1 •
The yeres passed / of my tender youthe •
Of my fresshe age2 / sered the grennesse •
Lust3 appalled / thexperience is kouthe •
The onweldy4 Ioyntes / starked with rudeneese •
The cloudy sigħt / mysted with dirkenesse •
With5 out redresse / recure or amendes •
To me of detħ6 / han brought in the kalendes •
Of myspent tyme / a fole may weel compleyne •
Thing impossible / a geyn for to recure •
Dayes lost in ydel . no man may restreyne •
Them to reforme / by none aventure •
Eche mortałł man / is called to the lure •
Of detħ allas / vncerteyne the passage •
Whos7 chief marynere / is called crokd8 age. •
One of his bedeles / named febelnesse •
Cam with his potent / in stede of a mace •
Somouned me / and after cam sekenesse •
Malencolyk erthely / and pale of face •
With9 ther waraunt / there tweyne can manace •
How detħ of me / his dewe dette soughte •
And to a bed of langoure / ther me brought10 make it clear this is an otiose mark. •
Notes
  1. This is bracketed on each side, and a four-dot decorateive element is after the bracketed line on the right. ↩
  2. The EETS edition has "Age" here, which is understandable based on the upper bow of the initial "a" rising into the upper part of the line. However, the same glyph is used elsewhere and rendered in the EETS edition with a miniscule "a," so my decision is to render it as "age" unless it is obvious it is meant to be magiscule. ↩
  3. This is a great example of how the "w" came to be formed of two "u" or "v" glyphs. When the "v" glyphs here are compared with the "w" beginning "with" in this line and in the line following, the face the glyph is formed out of two "v" glyphs in tandem can be seen. While it is tempting to render this as "vv" in this manuscript as the scribe is inconsistent in how wide the spacing between the two glyphs is rendered the fact that the initial glyph of the line has both parts of the "w" touched (see, for example, the fifth line of the third stanza on this page or the fourth and fifth lines of the first stanza on folio 53) suggests we are to read this as "w" as opposed to "vv." ↩
  4. Unlike other initial "w" glyphs in the manuscript here only the first "v" of the glyph is touched. ↩
  5. The EETS edition has "death" here. ↩
  6. Unlike other initial "w" glyphs in the manuscript here only the first "v" of the glyph is touched. ↩
  7. The EETS edition has "croked" here. ↩
  8. The rubricator returns here to touching both parts of the initial "w." ↩
  9. While the "h" glyph here is barred, when compared with other barred "h's" in the manuscript (for example, "detħ" in the previous stanza) ↩

Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.