Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 2377

DIMEV 2377

IMEV 1422

NIMEV 1422

If man him bethought

A remembrance of Mortality — five couplets

Note: For another version see 6610; for other texts showing parallels see 5009 and 5043.

Subjects: mortality; death

Versification: — two-line — aa

Bibliographic Ghosts: Erfurt, Stadtbibl., Erfurt Amplon Oct. 58 f. 139: not present though listed as ed. Förster (1918)

XFörster, Max. “Kleinere mittelenglische texte.” Anglia 42 (1918): 145-224; 43 (1919): 191

(so listed for deletion in Louis (1992)

XLouis, Cameron. “Proverbs, Precepts, and Monitory Pieces.” A Manual of the Writings of Middle English. Albert E. Hartung Vol. 9, fascicle 22. New Haven, CT: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1993; ed. Hartung et. al

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: London, British Library Arundel 292, f. 3v4

First Lines:

If man him biðocte
inderlike & ofte…

Last Lines:

…In ƿene non sinne
Sulde his herte ƿinnen

Editions:

Förster, Max. “Kleinere mittelenglische texte.” Anglia 42 (1918): 145-224; 43 (1919): 191: 156.

Haupt, Moriz, and August Heinrich Hoffmann, eds. Altdeutsche Blätter. 2 vols. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1836, 1840: 1.396-401: 2.142.

Wright, Thomas, and James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, eds. Reliquiae Antiquae. 2 vols. London: Smith, 1845: 1.235-6.

Ellis, Alexander John, ed. On Early English Pronunciation. 4 vols. EETS e.s. 2 (1867), 7 (1869), 14 (1871), 23 (1874), repr. 1973; issued jointly by the Philological Society, the EETS, and the Chaucer Society [2nd ser. 1, 4-5, 25] London: Trübner; ed. note: with rare exceptions, entries from these volumes are identical; where variants occur, both editions are cited: 2.441-2.

Mätzner, Edouard Adolf Ferdinand. Altenglische Sprachproben, I: Poesie. Berlin: Wiedmann, 1867: 2.51.

Garrett, Robert Max. “Religious Verses from MS Arundel 292.” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 128 (1912): 367-8: 368.

Brown, Carleton Fairchild, ed. English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1932: 19-20.

Stevick, Robert D., ed. One Hundred Middle English Lyrics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964: 9.

Hargreaves, Henry. “Middle English Lyrics in an Aberdeen University Library Manuscripts.” Aberdeen University Review 43 (1969): 146-56: 151.

Oliver, Raymond. Poems Without Names: The English Lyric 1200-1500. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1970: 113-14.

Sisam, Celia, and Kenneth Sisam, eds. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970: 47.

Silverstein, Theodore, ed. Medieval English Lyrics. York Medieval Texts. London: Edw. Arnold, 1971: 21.

Luria, Maxwell Sidney, and Richard L. Hoffman, eds. Middle English Lyrics. New York: Norton, 1974: 223.

Wirtjes, Hanneke, ed. The Middle English Physiologus. EETS 299 o.s. 299 (1991): 48.