Osbern Bokenam, ‘Life of St. Mary Magdalene’ — Prolocutory
(282 lines) in couplets; Prologue in eight-line stanzas; Life in rhyme
royal
Author(s): Osbern Bokenam
Title(s): ‘Life of St. Mary Magdalene’
Subjects: Mary Magdalene, saint, life of; saints’ lives
Versification: —
eight-line, seven-line —
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1.Source: London, British Library Arundel 327, ff. 91
v-115
First Lines:The yer of grace plyenly to decryue
A thowsand four hundryd fourty
& fyue…
Last Lines:…And whan her mortal fate doth hem hens sende
To þe ioye
hem bryng wych neuer shal haue ende
Attributed Author: Translated into englys be a doctor of dyuyinte clepyd Osbern
Bokenam…Wrytyn in Cambryge by hys sonn ffrer Thomas Burgh (index, f.
193)
Attributed Title: The prolucutorye in to marye mawdel lyf (rubric, f. 91v) The lyf
of marye maudeleyn (index, f. 193)
Editions: Serjeantson, Mary Sidney,
ed.
Osbern Bokenham: Legendys of Hooly Wummen.
EETS
o.s. 206 (1938); repr. 1988: 136-72.