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The Testament of John Lydgate:
Long Melford Verses

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Fourth Panel
Compare Witnesses: •
O[..] wrecchid lif to amende and correcte •
we vs propose with support of thy grace •
thy deth thy passioun thy1 cros shall vs directe •
which suffredist deth ihesu for oure trespace •
w [.] wrecchis vnw orthy to loke on thy face •
thy feet enbrasyng fro which we shalnot twynne2 •
wyll we have here leisere tyme and space3 •
mercy requyreng thus wole begynne •
Notes
  1. The manuscript witnesses all have a cross glyph between "thy" and "cross." Pynson's print edition omits this cross, likely because of the cost of producing the specific character, and the Clopton chapel omits it most likely because it would be seen as redundant. ↩
  2. While it appears that the damage at the end of “shalnot” is another letter after the largely missing “t,” this is actually a result of the otiose mark finishing “t” here and the mark beginning the also largely missing “t” in “twynne.” Thus, the line is “shalnot twynne” as I have rendered it here. ↩
  3. This line is absent from any of the existing manuscript witnesses. It was likely added in order for this verse to match the rhyme scheme of the other stanzas. ↩

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