Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 2392

DIMEV 2392

IMEV 1426.6

NIMEV 1426.6

If the stone is one

Riddling couplets inscribed on a pillar, in John Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s Polychronicon (Book I, Cap. 24)

Author(s): John Trevisa; Ranulph Higden

Subjects: inscriptions; chronicles, verse in; illustrations, verses accompanying; riddles

Versification: — two-line — aa

Bibliographic Ghosts: Glasgow, Glasgow University Library Hunterian 83 (T.3.21): this is Brut Chronicle, not Trevisa; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M875 [olim Helmingham Hall]: has only Trevisa’s De Proprietatibus here, not Polychronicon.

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Cambridge UK, St John’s College H.1 (204), f. 49ra

Transcription:

ȝif þe stone is oon
telle what craft brouȝt hym vppon
ȝif meny stes telle where þey ioyne attones
þis arche & piler is I founded & y sette vppon foure lyons

Editions:

Babington, Churchill, and Joseph Rawson Lumby, eds. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis. 9 vols. Rolls Series 41 (1865-66; repr. Kraus, 1964): 1.227.

Mätzner, Edouard Adolf Ferdinand. Altenglische Sprachproben, I: Poesie. Berlin: Wiedmann, 1867: 2.364.

2.Source: London, British Library Cotton Tiberius D.VII, Part 1, f. 22

Transcription:

Ȝef þe stoon ys oon
tel what craft brouȝt hym a pon
þef meny stones
tel whar hy Iurneþ at ones

Note: Written as prose.

3.Source: London, British Library Harley 1900, f. 61v

Transcription:

ȝif þe stoon is oon
telle what crafte brouȝt hym vppon
ȝif meny stones
telle where þei ioyneþ at ones

Note: Written as prose.

4.Source: London, British Library Stowe 95

5.Source: London, British Library Addit. 24194, f. 52ra

Transcription:

ȝif þe stoon is oon
telle what craft brouȝte him vppon
ȝif meny stones
telle where þei ioyneþ attones

Note: Written as prose.

6.Source: Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Library 21, f. 26rb

Transcription:

ȝif þe stoon is oon telle what craft brouȝt hym vppon
ȝif meny stones telle where þai joyneþ attones

7.Source: Oslo and London, Schøyen Collection 194 [olim Penrose 12]

8.Source: San Marino, CA, Henry Huntington Library HM 28561 [olim Burghley], f. 59va

Transcription:

Ȝif þe stoon is oon
telle what crafte brouȝt him vppon
Ȝif meny stones
telle where þei ioyneþ at ones

Note: Written as prose; two couplets in this witness.

Print Witnesses:

1.Source: STC 13440a. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Discripcion of Britayne & also [of] Irlonde, Caxton, 1480

priven: verb To deprive (sb.) of (sth.), deny (sb. sth.); ppl. prived, bereaved, bereft of, deprived of; without; (b) ~ of (from), to deprive (sb. of sth.), deny (sth. to sb.), exclude (sb. from sth.); prived of (from), deprived of (sth.), bereft of; lacking, without; ben of god priving, be a robber of goods; (c) to depose (sb.), dismiss; ~ of (from), deprive (sb.) of (power, kingdom, etc.), remove or dismiss (sb.) from (office or position); (d) to take (sth.) away; prevent (sth.), deny, oppose; weaken (the body); -- also without obj. MED