Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 265

DIMEV 265

IMEV 142

NIMEV 142

Alas alas that I was born

The Sinner’s Lament, a tag in the Fasciculus morum, Version B

Note: Includes former 141.5; for another version in Fasciculus morum, see 264; cf. 2027, 6216.

Subjects: sinner, lament of; sermons, verse in

Versification: — two-line — aa

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 187 (SC 2090), f. 181ra

Transcription:

Alas alas þat y was born
Boþe body & sowle y em for lorn

Note: Written as prose.

2.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 410 (SC 2305), f. 60v

Transcription:

Alas Alas þat I was born
Both lyf & sowle I am for lorn

Note: Written as prose.

3.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud misc. 213 (SC 1045), f. 109v

4.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud misc. 568 (SC 1117), f. 75ra

Transcription:

Alas alas þat y was born
boþe lyfe and sale I am for lorne

5.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud misc. 111 (SC 1550), f. 171

6.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson C.670 (SC 12514), f. 104v

Transcription:

Alas alas þat I was born
Boþe lyf & sowle y am for lorn

Editions:

Wenzel, Siegfried. Verses in Sermons: ‘Fasciculus morum’ and Its Middle English Poems. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1978: 187.

7.Source: Cambridge UK, Gonville & Caius College 71/38, f. 67

Transcription:

Allas allas þat I was borne
both lyue & soule I am for lorne

8.Source: Cambridge UK, Gonville & Caius College 364/619, f. 100va

Transcription:

Alas alas þat I was born
bothe lyf and soule I am for lorne

9.Source: Cambridge UK, St John’s College F.22 (159), f. 136

Transcription:

Alas alas þat I was born
bot lyf and saul I ame forlorne

Note: Written as prose.

10.Source: Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral Library Lit. D.14, f. 141v

Transcription:

Allas allas þat i was borne
both life & soule i am for lorne

Note: Written as prose with a ‘Nota’ in the margin.

11.Source: Durham, Durham University Library Cosin V.iv.2, f. 56v

Transcription:

Alas alas þat I was born
both lyue & saule I am for lorne

12.Source: Eton, Eton College 34, Part II, f. 58v

Transcription:

Alas Alas þat I was born
Bothe lyfe & sowle I am forlorn

Note: Written as prose; f. 161v of continuous foliation.

13.Source: London, Lambeth Palace Library 78, f. 219vb

Transcription:

Alas alas that I was born
bothe lyf ant saule I am for lorn

Note: Copied from Fasciculus. Written as prose.

14.Source: Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library 44 (A.2.13), f. 205ra

15.Source: Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library 234, f. 163

Transcription:

Alas alas þat euer I was born
ffor body and soule I am for lorn

Note: Not in the Fasciculus morum, but occurring in a treatise on the Ten Commandments, in portion on the Fifth Commandment, telling story of a sinner who cried this out to his confessor.

Editions:

Owst, Gerald Robert. Preaching in Medieval England. Cambridge: UP, 1926; rev. ed. New York, 1961: 273.

16.Source: Spalding, Lincolnshire, Spalding Gentlemen’s Society M.J.B.14 [olim Maurice Johnson No. LIV], f. 110v

Transcription:

Ala[ ] allace that I was borne
lyfe and soule I am forlorne

Note: Written as prose.

17.Source: Worcester, Worcester Cathedral Library F.19, f. 206vb

Transcription:

Alas alas þat y was boryn
Both lyf & saule I am for loryn

Note: Written as verse.

18.Source: Worcester, Worcester Cathedral Library Q.3, f. 115

Transcription:

Allas allas þat I was borne
boþe lyf & saul I haue lorne

Note: Written as prose.

19.Source: Rome, Vatican Ottoboni 626, f. 68v