Confessio Amantis, perhaps the earliest surviving MS, seventeen leaves lost. London, s.xiv, very late.

Contents

1

(fols 1ra–169va) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 1–VIII.3172

(NB Missing leaves are not counted in the foliation) Prologue (fol. 1ra) wants one leaf after fol. 1, with loss of text of Prol. 147–320, and one leaf after fol. 5 (pace Macaulay, who refers to fol. 7, [ed.], Works, II.clii), with Prol. 1055–84end, loss continuing to I.106; Book I (fol. 6ra) wants 1–106 where Book I would have begun on missing leaf between 5 and 6; Book II (fol. 24rb); Book III (fol. 43vb) wants three leaves after fol. 46, with III.573–1112; in addition fol. 50, with text of III.1665–1848, has been tipped in to replace an original folio 50 removed; Book IV (fol. 56ra) wants one leaf after fol. 68, with IV.2351–2530 (the recently discovered Takamiya fragment: see ‘Fragments’, Appendix I), two leaves after fol. 69, with IV.2711–3078, one leaf after fol. 70, with IV.3263–3442, and two leaves after fol. 71, with IV.3626–3712end, loss continuing to V.274; Book V (fol. 74) wants 1–274, and one leaf is lost after fol. 107, with V.6821–7000; Book VI (fol. 113ra) wants one leaf after fol. 125, with loss of VI.2357–2440, loss continuing to VII.88; Book VII (fol. 127) wants 1–88, two leaves after fol. 139, with VII.2641–3004, and two leaves after fol. 153, with VII.5417–38end, loss continuing to VIII.336; Book VIII (fol. 156) wants 1–336.

The removal and substitution of fol. 50 is so far unexplained, though the ingenious suggestion has been made to us by Sebastian Sobecki (personal communication) that the leaf was removed because of the striking resemblance of the story it tells of Athemas and Demephon (III.1757–1856) to the reality of Henry of Lancaster’s imminent return from exile. However, if the resemblance was thought to be unfortunate, it is hard to know why the leaf was replaced with so little changed (the substitution of ‘maneres’ for ‘manaces’ in III.1832 is cited).