Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 5920

DIMEV 5920

IMEV 3721

NIMEV 3721

Thus cold and moist hot and dry

George Ripley(?), alchemical verses ascribed to George Ripley — in couplets

Note: Sometimes incorporated in 4210; all texts show considerable variation; ed. Ashmole (1652)

XAshmole, Elias. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. London: J. Grimond, 1652

, 393-96

Author(s): George Ripley (attrib.)

Subjects: alchemy

Versification: — two-line — aa

Bibliographic Ghosts: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1445 (SC 7630), Part VIII, I, ff. 45-46v: confused with 5095; London, British Library Sloane 3688: see 5567-6.

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 759 (SC 6954), f. 55

First Lines:

Thus cold and moist hotte and drie
byn put togeder all for so did I…

Last Lines:

…And all is don in houres thre
Wherfore it is callid Godis prenyte

Note: 8 lines.

2.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1416 (SC 7611), f. 150v

First Lines:

And yf ye will to this medcyn applie
make hem hote and drie…

Last Lines:

…cold & moiste drie & weet
Do evenly I mete

Note: 10 lines. At the end: ‘Telos’. The poem has interlineary corrections in a different hand.

Editions:

Black, William Henry. Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae…Pars X, A…Catalogue of the Manuscripts bequeathed…by Elias Ashmole. Oxford: Clarendon, 1845.

3.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1448 (SC 7627), p. 77

First Lines:

Herd hevy hote & dry
put to gedir for so did I …

Last Lines:

…Than art þou richer þan the kynge
But if he haue the same þinge

Note: 7 lines only.

Editions:

Singer, Dorothea Waley. Catalogue of Latin and Vernacular Alchemical Manuscripts. 3 vols. Brussels: Lamertin, 1928-31: 2.583.

4.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1479 (SC 7643), ff. 217-218

First Lines:

Tak hevi softe collde & drye
clense hym & callce grynde suttelly…

Last Lines:

…for I tell þe Ryght well
Thare ys te dyademe of our crafte

Note: On f. 217: ‘Here folowyth a work very schort but not so schort as yt ys true’. At the end: ‘finis laudes deo prorsum’.

5.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson B.306 (SC 11645), f. 43v

First Lines:

Take heuy soffte could & dry
Clense him & callce grind suttly…

Last Lines:

…for I tell you ryght well
There is the dyadem of our crafte

Note: Variant; 96 lines.

Attributed Title: Hear followeth a worke very short but not so shorte as it is new (f. 43v)

6.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College O.2.16 (1120), part I, f. 72

First Lines:

…yf ye wolle to þys medycyn a plye
make furst hevy hard hotte & drye…

Last Lines:

…þus may ye spend more þanne þe kynge
yf ye have connynge of suche a þynge

Note: Last six lines of prologue only, ending, ‘Explicit prologus’.

7.Source: London, British Library Sloane 1098, ff. 33-34

First Lines:

Take heavy softe colde & drye
cleanse hym & calse hym subtillye…

Last Lines:

…for I tell the Ryghte well
they are the diadeame of our crafte

8.Source: London, British Library Sloane 288, ff. 73-74

9.Source: London, British Library Sloane 1842, ff. 20v-22

First Lines:

Take heavy softe colde & drye
Clense him & to clace grinde him subtilly…

Last Lines:

…for I tell the reight well
there is the Diademe of our Crafte

Note: With headnote, “Here followeth a worke very shorte & true but obscure withall” (f. 20v); ends, “finis” (f. 22).

10.Source: London, Lincoln’s Inn Hale 90, ff. 48v-50

First Lines:

Take heauye soft cold and drye
Esense him and to Calx grind him subtilly…

Last Lines:

…Looke thou dispise them not
ffor I tell thee right well
There is the Dyadem of our Craft

Attributed Author: Ge Ripley (f. 48v)

Attributed Title: A short and very true worke of the same Authore (f. 48v)

Editions:

Mooney, Linne R. “Middle English Verse in London, Lincoln’s Inn, MS Hale 90.” Journal of the Early Book Society 2 (1999): 182-3.

11.Source: London, Wellcome Collection Library 519, f. 65v

First Lines:

Take of hard heuy soft & dry
& do togeher for so did I…

Last Lines:

…he þat takethe moore or lesse
is like to lose all as I gesse