Verses on a table of brass, in Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s
Polychronicon (Book 1, ch. 24) — five cross-rhymed
quatrains
Note: Ringler Jr. (1988)
XRingler Jr., William A.
Bibliography and Index of English Verse Printed 1476-1558.
London: Mansell, 1988
, TP 378.5.
Author(s): John Trevisa; Ranulf Higden
Title(s): Polychronicon
Subjects: aphorisms; death, approach of; time, use of
Versification: —
four-line, two-line —
abab, aa
Bibliographic Ghosts: Glasgow, Glasgow University Library Hunterian 83 (T.3.21): this is
Brut Chronicle, not Trevisa; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M275: neither this MS nor New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M875 [
olim Helmingham Hall]
with which it may be confused in
Robbins and Cutler (1965)
XRossell Hope Robbins, and John L. Cutler.
Supplement to the Index of Middle English Verse.
Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965
, contain
Trevisa’s trans. of
Polychronicon.
2.Source: London, British Library Addit. 24194, f. 52
vb
First Lines:Eueriche nyȝt þere a Cok
Wakiþ sum man or hit
dawe
Al his song yn a flok
May like no man by þe
lawe…
Last Lines:…Of morwe song kynde
þey haueþ at eue no
mynde
Note: In this MS, one cross-rhymed quatrain followed by eight couplets;
written as prose.
7.Source: San Marino, CA, Henry Huntington Library HM 28561 [olim Burghley], f. 60
rb
First Lines:euerche nyȝt þere a cokke
wakiþ somme man er it
dawe…
Last Lines:…þan chiteriþ þe stare of morow songe
kynde
þei haueþ at eue no mynde
Note: Written as prose; one quatrain rhyming abab, four couplets, another
quatrain rhyming abba, and a final couplet; in
Polychronicon, Book I,
cap. 24: see
Hanna (1980)
XHanna, Ralph.
“The Index of Middle English Verse and Huntington Library Collections: A
Checklist of Addenda.”
Publications of the Bibliographical Society of America
74 (1980): 235-58
, n. 10.
5.Source: STC 13440.
Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa),
Polychronicon, P. Treveris for J. Reynes,
1527