Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 939

DIMEV 939

IMEV 576

NIMEV 576

By sapience temper thy courage / Of hasty ire…

Seven Wise Counsels — nine stanzas rhyme royal

Note: See 5788.

Title(s): Seven Wise Counsels

Subjects: precepts

Versification: — seven-line — ababbcc

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 59 (SC 6943), ff. 70v-71v

First Lines:

Bi sapience tempre þy courage
Of hasty yre daunte þy passiouns
Suffre vengeance to þy wrath aswaye
Reverence þe goode and þeire condiciouns…

Last Lines:

…With hole herte body wille and mynde
To be contente with suche as þey fynde

Attributed Title: Here nowe foloweþe þe doctryne of many gret Clerkes approved made in baladewyse and translated oute of divers langages in to englisshe (f. 70v); Doctrynes of wisdame (RT)

Editions:

Förster, Max. “Kleine Mitteilungen zur mittelenglische Lehrdichtung, VI.” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 104 (1900): 293-309: 299-301.

2.Source: Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Library Ff.1.6 [Findern MS], ff. 151-152

First Lines:

By sapience tempre thy courage
Of hasty Ire davnte thy passions
Differre vengeance tyl thy wrathe aswage
Reuerence the goode for thayre condicions…

Last Lines:

…With hole hert body wyll and mynde
To be content with suche as they fynde

Note: Headings ‘Prudencia’, ‘Iusticia’, ‘Temporancia’, ‘Discrecion’, ‘Reson’, ‘Plesance Goode Wille’, and ‘Curtesie Nature’ above stanzas.

Facsimiles:

Beadle, Richard, and Alfred E. B. Owen. The Findern Manuscript: Cambridge University Library MS. F.1.6. London: Scolar Press, 1977.

3.Source: London, British Library Arundel 168, f. 14ra-14rb

First Lines:

By sapience tempe þi corage
Of hasty ire dawnt þi passions…

Last Lines:

…With hoole hert body wille and mynde
To be content with suche as þe may fynde

Note: Names of seven virtues as headings to the seven stanzas, beginning ‘Prudencia’ and ending ‘Curtesy & Norture’.

4.Source: London, British Library Harley 116, ff. 124-125

First Lines:

By sapience tempere thy corage
Of hasty Ire dawnte thy passions…

Last Lines:

…With hole herte body wylle & mynde
To be content with suche as they fynde

5.Source: London, British Library Harley 2251, ff. 168-168v

First Lines:

BY sapience tempire thy corage
Of hasty Ire daunt thy passiouns…

Last Lines:

…With hole hert body wille and mynde
To be content with suche as ye fynde

6.Source: London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library 673 [olim Phillipps 18134; Quaritch Sale. Cat. 164], f. 7v

Note: Three stanzas.

Editions:

Kane, George. “The Middle English Verse in MS Wellcome 1493.” London Medieval Studies 2, Part. I (1951): 50-67: 60-1.

7.Source: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library 365 [olim Ipswich County Hall deposit, Hillwood; prior Brome Hall, Suffolk], f. 80v

First Lines:

…Thynges passyd Remembrans and wyll devide
Thynges present consydris and wyll gounne…

Last Lines:

…The lordes that desyreth to be honourabyll
Cheresh your folke and hat extorcion…

Note: Ends incomplete; only four stanzas on Prudencia, Iusticia, Temperancia, and first two lines of Fortitudo.

Editions:

Smith, Lucy Toulmin, ed. A Commonplace Book of the Fifteenth Century. Norwich: Kerrison, Goose, 1886: 18-20.

Smith, Lucy Toulmin, ed. “Notes on A Common-Place Book of the Fifteenth Century with a Religious Play of Abraham and Isaac.” The Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany. Walter Rye, ed. 3 vols. Norwich: Goose & Co, 1873-87: 3.115-67: 153-4.

8.Source: Rome, English College AVCAU MS 1405, f. 74v