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Cambridge UK, Trinity College O.9.38 (1450)

Linguistic note: McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin (1986) and Benskin, Laing, Karaiskos, and Williamson (2013) LP 5190; Grid 350 139 (Somerset).

A Poem on Gardening, ‘Liber qui vocatur Anglice Mayster Jon Gardener’ — 196 lines in couplets

On the fickleness of women — thirteen 8-line stanzas with refrain: ‘Pulle of her bellys & let her go flye’ or ‘Then plukkyd y of here bellys & let here fly’

‘Reuertere’ — fifteen 8-line stanzas

‘Who says þe sooth he shall be shent’ — eight l2-line stanzas, with refrain, ‘he schal be schent’

‘A tretyse of Parce michi domine’, Allegory of the bird with four feathers — 240 lines in 8-, l2-, up to 20-line stanzas, with this refrain

’Thank God of All’ — up to seventeen 8-line stanzas, ababbcbc, alliterative, with refrain, ‘thank God of all’

‘Hyre & see and say not all’ — one twelve-line and seven eight-line stanzas including refrain, ‘Hyre & se and sey not all’

John Lydgate, ‘Rammeshorne’ — seven 8-line stanzas including refrain, ‘As ryȝth as a rams horne’ or ‘A resoun of the Rammeshorne’

Beware of deceitful women — six stanzas rhyme royal with refrain: ‘Bewar therfor the blynde etith many a flye’

On the need to use one’s good wisely — eight lines with alternating rhyme, one rhyme being ‘good’ in various meanings

Proverbial moral advice — two couplets

An English quatrain in a Latin story of the foolish father who gave away his goods, sometimes found in Bromyard’s sermons

Advice to take what you can find or what you bring — one 6-line stanza accompanied with Latin

An apostrophe to Death — four long macaronic lines

‘Whate-euer thow say avyse the welle’ — nine 8-line stanzas

How to find Easter Day according to the new moon (C) — three couplets

A lament of the Virgin Mary over her Son — four 9-line stanzas (aaaabbbcc) with refrain ‘Who can not wepe come lerne of me’ and a 4-line burden: ‘Sodenly afraide / Half wakyng half slepyng / And gretly dismayde / A wooman sate weepyng’

Against swearing by the Mass — six quatrains (aaaa) and burden (bb): ‘Y concell yow both more and lasse / Beware of swerynge by the masse’

Proverbs in English — thirty lines in couplets

The significance of colors — three 6-line tail-rhyme stanzas

A lover’s plea and his lady’s response — two 6-line stanzas

A lover’s plea to his lady — one stanza rhyme royal

Aphoristic advice on the attraction of rarities — one cross-rhymed quatrain

The popular prayer by the Holy Name — four lines, frequently followed by two more varying lines

Fragment of verse — fragments of one couplet

A twelfth-century scrap, regarding the death of St. Kenelm to be sent to the pope

John Lydgate, ‘Rammeshorne’ — seven 8-line stanzas including refrain, ‘As ryȝth as a rams horne’ or ‘A resoun of the Rammeshorne’