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
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. 60
vb-63
va
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. 63
ra-65
va
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.
4.Source: London, British Library Harley 1900, ff. 74
v-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. 27
ra-28
rb
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.
Print Witnesses:
1.Source: STC 13440a.
Higden, Ranulphus (trans. John Trevisa),
Discripcion of Britayne & also [of]
Irlonde, Caxton, 1480 , ff. 19
v-22
v
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