Proverbial verses showing the influence of Cato’s ‘Distiches’
— in rhyme royal stanzas.
Note: Immediately preceded by Lydgate’s
Horse Sheep & Goose (
1075) in this MS only, and followed by
5534; St 6= st. 23 of
5788; st. 7 = st. 1 of
5410 and =
5411.
Subjects: proverbs; abuses of the age; mutability
Versification: —
seven-line —
ababbcc
1.Source: STC 17018.
Lydgate, John,
The Horse the Ghoos & the Sheep, [Caxton, 1477-78] , sigs. b.7-b.8
First Lines:Hit is ful hard to knowe ony estate
Double visage loketh out of
euery hood…
Last Lines:…Though I goo loose I am teyde with a lyne
Is hit fortune or
Infortune thus I fyne
Note: CUL shelfmark, Inc. 5. J. 1. 1. (3488); follows Lydgate’s
Horse, Goose and Sheep.
Facsimiles: Jenkinson, Francis.
“Introduction.”
Lytell Treatyse of the Horse, the Sheep, and the Ghoos, Westminster: de
Worde, 1495.
Cambridge: University Press, 1906; facsimile of John Lydgate (STC
17020).