DIMEV 3565
IMEV 2219
NIMEV 2219
Most worthy prince of whom the noble fame
A Defence of Holy Church, by Lydgate — twenty-one stanzas rhyme
royal
Author(s): John Lydgate
Title(s): A Defence of Holy Church
Subjects: Holy Church; political poems; advice, to princes
Versification: —
seven-line —
ababbcc
Manuscript Witnesses:
1.Source: London, British Library Harley 1245, ff. 182
vb-183
rb
First Lines:MOst worthi prince of whome the noble fame
In vertue floureth and in hih policy prudence…
Last Lines:…In Babilon with a soden fall
Whan þat the honde wrote vpon the wall
Note: In line 2, “policy” first written and then crossed through before “prudence”; “finis pri[ci]pii”" in lower margin in code, f. 183rb.
Editions:
MacCracken, Henry Noble,
ed.
John Lydgate: The Minor Poems, Vol. I: Religious Poems.
EETS
e.s. 107 (1911; repr. 1961): 30-5.
Norton-Smith, John.
John Lydgate: Poems.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1966: 30.
2.Source: London, British Library Sloane 1212, ff. 3-3
v
First Lines:Most worthy prynce off whome þe noble fame
In vertu flouryth
& in hygh prudence…
Last Lines:…The schippe gan rest out off all dawynge
Maugre þe rokys
off vengeaunce mercyles
Note: Stanzas 1-8; ends incomplete, seven stanzas rhyme royal plus two lines
of eighth stanza; in top margin of fol. 3, drawing of bull’s head with
scroll, ‘Laste ne[…]’; bottom margin f. 3v,
‘ȝoures allone with outyn otheris parte’ and ‘Mon
euere ma dite qui serra Ieoyous’.
Editions: Norton-Smith, John.
John Lydgate: Poems.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1966: 30.