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The Digital Index of Middle English Verse
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DIMEV 5467
IMEV 3464.5
NIMEV 3464.5
The smaller peasen the more to pot
Fairness of a woman corresponds to her flightiness, translating a Latin distich, ‘Quo minor est pisa tanto plures capitolla / Quo mage formosa mulier mage luxuriosa’ — one couplet
Subjects: women; adultery; body, parts of; comic verse; erotic verse
Versification: — two-line — aa


Manuscript Witnesses:
1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 52 (SC 21626), f. 26v
Transcription:
The smaller pesun the more to pott
The fayrer woman the more gylott
Note: Followed by a Latin distich on the same subject.
Editions:
Förster, Max. “Die Mittelenglische Sprichwörtersammlung in Douce 52.” Festschrift zum XII Deutschen Neuphilolgentage in München 1906. E. Stollreither, ed. Erlangen (1906): 40-64: 53.
2.Source: London, British Library Sloane 1210, f. 134
Note: Follows 4434.
Editions:
Wright, Thomas, and James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, eds. Reliquiae Antiquae. 2 vols. London: Smith, 1845: 2.40.
3.Source: Manchester, John Rylands Library Lat. 394, f. 16v
Transcription:
The smallere peses þe mo to potte
the feyrer woman þe more gyglotte
Note: Latin distich follows.
Editions:
Pantin, William A. “A Medieval Collection of Latin and English Proverbs…from Rylands Latin MS. 394.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 14 (1930): 81-114: 103.
Sisam, Celia, and Kenneth Sisam, eds. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970: 561.