Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 3801

DIMEV 3801

IMEV 2361.5

NIMEV 2361.5

Now the book taketh on hand

‘Of the londe of Wales’, a verse description of Wales in Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s Polychronicon (Book I, Chap. 38) — 460 lines in doggerel couplets

Note: See also 2748.

Author(s): John Trevisa; Ranulf Higden

Title(s): Polychronicon; ‘Of the londe of Wales’

Subjects: Wales, description of

Versification: — two-line — aa

Bibliographic Ghosts: Glasgow, Glasgow University Library Hunterian 83 (T.3.21): this is Brut chronicle; Manchester, Chetham’s Library 11379 [Mun. A.6.90]: missing folios between 48 and 49, chapters 34-43; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M875 [olim Helmingham Hall]: Only Trevisa’s De Proprietatibus here, not Polychronicon.

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Cambridge UK, St John’s College H.1 (204), ff. 60vb-63va

First Lines:

NOw þe book takeþ in honde
Wales to fore Engelonde…

Last Lines:

…Oþir in schroysbury strete
þere þat mayde resteþ swete

Editions:

Babington, Churchill, and Joseph Rawson Lumby, eds. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis. 9 vols. Rolls Series 41 (1865-66; repr. Kraus, 1964): 1.395-431 (odd pages).

Berdan, John M. Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547. New York: Macmillan, 1920: 169-70 (extracts).

2.Source: London, British Library Addit. 24194, ff. 63ra-65va

First Lines:

NOw þe book takeþ on honde
Wales tofore Engelonde
So I take my tales
And wende forth in to Wales…

Last Lines:

…Oþer in Shrouysbury strete
þere þat mayde resteþ swete

Note: Written as verse.

3.Source: London, British Library Cotton Tiberius D.VIII ;

4.Source: London, British Library Harley 1900, ff. 74v-77

First Lines:

Now þe book takiþ an hond
Wales tofore Englond
So I take my tales
& wende into Wales…

Last Lines:

Oþer in Schrosbury strete
þere þat mayde restiþ swete

Note: Penultimate line bottom f. 76v; written as prose.

5.Source: London, British Library Stowe 65, ff. 27ra-28rb

First Lines:

Now þe bucke takeþ an hond
Wales to fore engelond…

Last Lines:

…Oþere in schrouesbery strete
þere þat mayde resteþ swete

Note: Written as prose. Folio number reflects the most recent foliatio.

6.Source: Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Library 21, ff. 37-39v

First Lines:

Now þe book takeþ on honde
Wales tofore Engelonde…

Last Lines:

…Oþer in shrouysbury strete
þere þat mayde resteþ swete

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

8.Source: San Marino, CA, Henry Huntington Library HM 28561 [olim Burghley], ff. 71vb-73va

First Lines:

NOw þe book takiþ an hond
Wales to fore Englond
So I take my tales
And wende in to Wales…

Last Lines:

… þer in Shrosbury strete
þere þat maide restiþ swete

Note: Written as prose.

Attributed Title: De Wallia (f. 71vb)

Print Witnesses:

1.Source: STC 13440a. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Discripcion of Britayne & also [of] Irlonde, Caxton, 1480 , ff. 19v-22v

First Lines:

Now this book taketh on honde
Wales after englond
So take I my tales
And wende in to Wales…

Last Lines:

…Eyther in shrowsbury strete
There that mayde rested swete

Note: CUL Shelfmark Inc.3.J.1.1 [9634]; caps. xvi-xx.

Editions:

Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. Typographical Antiquities. Revised Joseph Ames and William Herbert. 4 vols. London: Bulmer, 1810, 1812, 1816, 1818: 1.146-8 (lines 83-114, 125-50, 183-8).

2.Source: STC 13438. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Polychronicon, Caxton, [1482]

Editions:

Wright, Thomas, ed. The Latin Poems Commonly Attributed to Walter Mapes. Camden Society o.s. 16 (1841): 345-55.

3.Source: STC 13439. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Polychronicon, de Worde, 1495

4.Source: STC 13440b. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Discripcion of Britayne & also [of] Irlonde, de Worde, 1498

5.Source: STC 13440. Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa), Polychronicon, P. Treveris for J. Reynes, 1527