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The Findern Anthology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Rossell Hope Robbins
Rossell Hope Robbins*
Affiliation:
Katsbaan Onderheugel, Saugerties, N.Y.
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Extract

Major manuscript anthologies of Middle English secular lyrics are rare; apart from the very early Harley MS. 2253 and the Charles d'Orleans translations, there are not more than three large collections: the early-sixteenth-century Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C. 813 (S. C. 12653), the Newton holograph, and the present manuscript, Ff. 1. 6 of the Cambridge University Library, which contains many well-known longer secular poems as well as a large group of short lyric poems.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , June 1954 , pp. 610 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1954

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References

1 Frederick Morgan Padelford [and Allen R. Benham] ed., Anglia, xxxi (1908), 309-397.

2 Rossell Hope Robbins ed., PMLA, lxv (1950), 249-281.

3 Parts of the MS. have been printed or discussed by the following: Edmund Arber, Dunbar Anthology (London, 1901), p. 118; Carleton Brown, Register of Middle English Religious and Didactic Verse (Oxford, 1916), i, 178-179; Religious Lyrics of the XV Century (Oxford, 1939), pp. 56, 259, 261, 262, 268; Helen L. Cohen, The Ballade (New York, 1915), p. 287; Albert Stanburrough Cook, A Literary Middle English Reader (Boston, 1915), pp. 416; J. Copley, Seven English Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century, Univ. of Leeds Texts and Monographs, vi (1940); Frederick J. Furnivall, Political, Religious, and Love Poems, EETS, 15 (London, 1866), pp. 48-51; Odd Texts of Chaucer's Minor Poems (London: Chaucer Soc., 1868-80), pp. xi, 139; A Parallel-Text Edition of Chaucer's Minor Poems (London: Chaucer Soc., 1871-79), pp. 41, 51, 413, 448; Richard Leighton Greene, The Early English Carols (Oxford, 1935), pp. 301, 316, 340; J. O. Halliwell, Nugae Poeticae (1844), pp. 64, 68; The Thornton Romances (London: Camden Soc. xxx, 1844), pp. 177-256; E. P. Hammond, English Verse between Chaucer and Surrey (Durham, 1927), pp. 344; Karl Luick, Sir Degrevant, Wiener Beiträge zur englischen Philologie, Bd. 47 (Wien, 1917); G. C. Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower (Oxford, 1899), ii, clxvi; Henry Noble MacCracken, Archiv, cxxvii (1911), 323; Archiv, cxxxi (1913), 43; The Minor Poems of John Lydgate, EETS 192 (London, 1934), pp. 381-382, 723; PMLA, xxvi (1911), 180; Arthur K. Moore, The Secular Lyric in Middle English (Lexington, 1951), pp. 120, 151, 178; Neilson, The Court of Love, p. 158; George B. Pace, “The Text of Chaucer's Purse,” Papers of the Bibl. Soc. Univ. of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1948), i, 103-121; Henry A. Person, “Cambridge Middle English Lyrics,” (diss.) Univ. of Washington, Abstracts, vii (1941-42), 217-218; J. Ritson, Ancient Songs, ed. W. C. Hazlitt (London, 1877), i, 111, 129; Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIV and XV Centuries (Oxford, 1952), pp. xlvi, 81, 155-158; Karl Rosskopf, Editio princeps des Me Cassamus (Erlangen, 1911); Walter W. Skeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces (Oxford, 1897); Francis Lee Utley, The Crooked Rib (Columbus, 1944), Nos. 12, 49, 75, 270, 286, 325; Thomas Wright, Political Poems and Songs (London: Rolls Series, 1861), ii, 238-248; and J. O. Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae (London, 1841), i, 23, 25, 26, 169, 202.

4 A Catalogue of the MSS. preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge (1857), ii, 286-290, lists only 25 items, with many inaccuracies.

5 See Laura Hibbard Loomis, “The Auchinleck Manuscript and a Possible London Bookshop of 1330-1340,” PMLA, lvii (1942), 595-627.

6 Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York: Index Soc. 1943), No. 2662, C Text, Item 9, olim Gurney 121 is now Lyell MS. 31 in the Bodleian Library.

7 MSS. Balliol Coll. Oxford 354, f. 171v; Camb. Univ. Lib. Ee. 2. 15, f. 38r; Harley 7333, f. 126r; Penrose 10, f. 3r.

8 See Index, No. 3670.

9 XVI in 13 MSS.; xlvi in 7 MSS.

10 xlvii in 6 MSS.; lv in 3 MSS.; lviii in 5 MSS.

11 Hammond, English Verse, p. 54, aptly notes the volume of these authors: Hoccleve, 13,000 lines; Chaucer, 34,000 lines; Lydgate, 140,000 lines. For popularity of Langland see Margaret Deansley, “Vernacular Books in the 14th and 15th Centuries,” MLR, xv (1920), 350, n. 5.

12 E.g., Ifor Evans in Manchester Guardian Weekly, lxvi, xxii (29 May 1952), 110.

13 Most of the items are of the second half of the 15th century, but some (e.g., xxxvi, xxxix, xl, xli) are early 16th century.

14 There is a small blank space after “xx” (the end of the line) in which the writer might have intended to place extra figures (e.g., “iv”). Such would reconcile 1446.

15 Added notes on ff. 59v and 70v both are confirmed about 1550 by Mr. H. L. Pink of the University Library and Mr. A. I. Doyle of Durham Univ. Library. Bradshaw dated the whole MS. 1441-42.

16 Cat. of the MSS., ibid.

17 The complete watermarks are on the following folios:

  1. (1)

    (1) Bull: Sig. A, 4 (body)+7 (two feet, obscured by binding), [2+] 8, [3+] 9; Sig. B, [21+] 28, [13+] 32; Sig. C, 38, 39. This Bull is very similar to that in Fig. 42 (1443-50) in Edward Heawood, “Sources of Early English Paper Supply,” Library (London), 4th Ser., x (1930), 288. C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes (Paris, 1907), i, 196, notes: “Un filig., qui forme un intermédiare entre le bœuf et le bouc, est representé par les figures 2812 à 2822. On peut y reconnaître deux styles … l'autre, 2819 à 2822, qui se rapproche de la chèvre, n'a qu'une courte durée et paraît originaire du Poitou.” Briquet 2820 (Nantes, 1449) is closest to this mark, but the Heawood No. 42 is a better drawing.

  2. (2)

    (2) Demi-Bull: Sig. bb, 22 (head)+27 (legs). Most like Briquet 2780 (Poitiers, 1476) or Briquet 2776 (Poitiers, 1436).

  3. (3)

    (3) Bull (?): Sig. H, 101 [+114], 104+111, 105+110, 107+108. Very involved watermark of Bull or Goat, 45 mm. overall. Does not correspond to any figure in Briquet.

  4. (4)

    (4) Bull's Head with Star (horns 25 mm. apart at tips; star 13 mm. diameter): Sig. K, 123 (lower head) + 126 (horns and star); Sig. L, 132+135 (head), 133 (head) + 134; Sig. M, 137 (horns) [+142]. Heawood comments, p. 288: “Used in many different regions and not easily located.” Briquet 15039-117 show resemblances, and 15046 (Grenoble, 1418), and 15097 (Augsbourg, 1470) are closest. Briquet iv, 750, notes: “Il semble que la plus grande partie du papier ainsi marqué soit originaire du midi de la France, ou de Piédmont.” A similar head appears in the Paston Letters: Original Letters, ed. John Fenn (London, 1787) ii, App. Pl. viii (No. 2) (Hen. VI); and Pl. x (No. 1) (Ed. IV).

  5. (5)

    (5) Cap with Fleur-de-lys (23 mm. at center of cap, 35 mm. at base): Sig. D, 46 (cap)+59 (base), 51 (base) [+54], 56 (cap); Sig. E, 62 (base) [+79], 68 (base) [+77], 69 (base), 72+73; Sig. K, 120 (cap) + 129 (base), 122 (cap) + 127; Sig. O, 170 (base) +175, 173 (cap). In this form, closely resembling a crown. Not in Briquet. Briquet 2825 (Geneva, 1448) is similar, as in Heawood, Fig. 20 (Paston Letters, 1444). Briquet, i, 199, notes the wide distribution: “Quoi qu'il en soit, cette marque (dont l'aire de distribution, assez étendue … ) semble de provenance piémontaise.”

  6. (6)

    (6) Crown (22 mm.) with Lance Heads (27 mm.): Sig. F, 81+88 (crown). Very close to Briquet 4639 (Düsseldorf, 1438). Briquet, ii, 283: “Le battoir qui a employé cette marque devait être important, à en juger par la quantité de papier ainsi filigrane qui s'est répandu sur la Suisse, la France, les Pays-Bas, l'Allemagne et jusqu'en Hongrie et en Russie.” Resembles Fenn, Original Letters, iv, Pl. xxvi (No. 2).

  7. (7)

    (7) Crown (22 mm.) with Lance Heads (20 mm.): Sig. F, 83 (crown) +86; Sig. G, 89 (lance) [+cancellation], 91 (lance)+98, 93 (lance)+96. Closely resembles Heawood, Fig. 27 (6 examples, largely third quarter xv cent., p. 291), and Briquet 4641 (Bâle, 1444).

  8. (8)

    (8) Crown with Lance Heads (25 mm.): Sig. N, 146+149 (lance), 147 (lance)+148; Sig. n, 150 (lance) + 157, 152 (lance) +155. General similarity to foregoing marks (6) and (7), but nothing comparable in Briquet, because the heads are wide (25 mm.) and joined together at stem.

  9. (9)

    (9) Hand with Fleuron: Sig. N, 143 (hand) + 164 (fleuron). Similar to Briquet 10708 (Rhodes, 1478).

  10. (10)

    (10) ? Bull's Head: Sig. O, 167, 177. Mark not determined.

  11. (11)

    (11) ? Device with Base: Sig. nn, 161 + 162. Not identifiable.

18 Ends incomplete. he struck through before hors.

19 ffyrste remend of your rekenyng vijs iid nexte after that a forder quarter of befe ijs half a kalf xd another hynder quarter ijs a forder quarter of befe half a shepe and a pese of befe ijs & iiijd Item ij peces of rostyng beeffe viijd Smu xvd.

20 H. E. Currey, “Two Derbyshire Wills of the XVI Century,” Derbyshire Archaeol. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Jour., xxvii (1905), 82-84. In B. M. MS. Cotton Galba E. ix, poems of Minot, an early 16th-century hand has added on f. 3r, flyleaf, an inventory similar to the Findern: “thys makes menccion of all the napere war(e) / It(em) i payr of fyn shettes of ii” iiijd the elles / It(em) v payr of Ryonesse shettes / It(em) iij payr of bed shettes for my master / It(em) xi payr of cord shettes for the mener / I(tem) viij pelow beres of Reynesse makeng / It(em) iij playn pelow beres.“

21 Reginald H. C. Fitzherbert, “Will of Elizabeth Fitzherbert,” DAJ, xx (1898), 32-39.

22 A granddaughter of John de Findern, Senior, married Sir Nicholas Fitzherbert, 10th Lord of Norbury: J. Charles Cox, Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire (London, 1879), iv 314.

23 Cox, iv, 314.

24 Hugh de Finderne: W. H. Hart, “A Calendar of the Fines for the County of Derby,” DAJ, vii (1885), 205; Isaac Herbert Jeayes, Descriptive Catalogue of Derbyshire Charters (London, 1906), Nos. 1276, 2571, 2757. There is also a Godwin de Finderne, ca. 1100, and a Ricardo de Finderne in the late 12th century (Jeayes, No. 2381).

25 Walter de Findern: Jeayes, No. 1954.

26 John de Findern: W. A. Carrington, “Illustrations of ancient place-names in Bakewell and the vicinity,” DAJ, xy (1893), 49.

27 Nicholas Findern: Cox, iv, 314; Jeayes, Nos. 88, 89, 240, 1163, 1169, 1277, 2584, 2586.

28 William de Fynderne: John Pym Yeatman, Sir Geo. R. Sitwell, and Cecil J. S. Foljambe, Feudal History of the County of Derby (London, [1886]-1907), iii, 135, 266; Jeayes, Nos. 887, 1259.

29 Cox, iv, 314, gives a very brief description of the leading members. B. M. Addit. MS. 6688, ff. 348-436, is listed as “Abstract of deeds relative to Mickleover, Littleover, and Findern, etc.,” by J. Charles Cox, “The Wolley Manuscripts,” DAJ, xxxv (1913), 179. In the mass of legal documents, generally only a name and sometimes a date are recorded. On occasion, some human interest appears, as with the early Nicholas who observed the flight of a meteor on 18 Sept. 1253, an occurrence which was described in the Register of Burton Abbey.

30 Jeayes, No. 1983; Cox, iii, 485; iv, 312. Cox, iv, 22, disputes date 1413.

31 Cox, iv, 314.

32 Jeayes, Nos. 1181, 1280, 1983, 1984, 2081, 2538, 2539; Yeatman, ii, 432; Cox, iii, 485; iv, 317.

33 Cox, iv, 22, 314.

34 Cox, iv, 314. Sir Henry de Bothe died in 1446.

35 Jeayes, No. 1280.

36 Cox, iii, 485.

37 See also Yeatman, i, 506, 507; iv, 110; Cox, iii, 485.

38 Jeayes, No. 2600.

39 Cox, iii, 486.

40 In B. M. Addit. MS. 6674.

41 Jeayes, Nos. 524, 2600.

42 J[oseph] T[illey], The Old Halls, Manors, and Families of Derbyshire (London, 1902), iv, 72.

43 Henry Lawrance, “A Derbyshire Visitation Manuscript, 1687,” DAJ, xxxii (1910), 39. Lawrance, “Arms of the Gentlemen of Derbyshire in 1569,” DAJ, xxxvi (1914), 51, however, gives Finderne de Finderne arms in 1569.

44 Cox, iv, 29; iv, 309; Lawrance, DAJ, xxxii (1910), 39, n. 5.

45 Described by Francis Jourdain, “The Heraldic Stained Glass in Ashbourne Church, Derbyshire,” DAJ, iii (1881), 91 (with colored plate), and by Lawrance, DAJ, xxxvi (1914), 51, quoting Harley MS. 6592: “Argent a chevron between three crosses patty fitchy sable. Crest: an ox-yoke or, depending therefrom a chain of the same ending in a hook gules.” The crest alone is described in Tilley, iv, 3.

46 Jourdain, DAJ, iii (1881), 90-94.

47 J. Charles Cox, “Royal Visitors to Derbyshire,” DAJ, xl (1918), 165.

48 Cox, iv, 314.

49 Cox, iv, 314.

50 Thomas de Findern died in 1558, but Findern de Findern arms are listed in 1569: Lawrance, DAJ, xxxii (1910), 39; DAJ, xxxvi (1914), 51.

51 Cox, iv, 310.

52 Lawrance, DAJ, xxxii (1910), 39, n. 5.

53 Cox, iv, 309.

54 Cox, iv, 309.

55 Cox, iv, 312. Harley MS. 1093 quarters with Willington arms: Lawrance, DAJ, xxxvi (1914), 51.

56 Frederick Davis, “The Etymology of some Derbyshire Place-Names,” DAJ, ii (1880), 48; Hen. Barber, “Etymologies of Derbyshire Place Names,” DAJ, xix (1897), 65.

57 Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford, 1947), p. 171.

58 Tilley, iv, 72.

59 Cox, iv, 316.

60 The chapel is described by L. Jewitt, Reliquary, Vol. iii.

61 Cox, iv, 312.

62 [Anon.], “Notes on an Ancient Censer,” DAJ, ii (1880), 72.

63 “Report of the Hon. Sec. 1883,” DAJ, vi (1884), xxv.

64 Cox, iv, 22, n.

65 William Fraser, “Field Names in the Parish of Findern, Derbyshire,” DAJ, lxv (1944-45), 76.

66 Jeayes, No. 1280.

67 Cox, iv, 312, 316; Jeayes, No. 2587.

68 Tilley, iv, 72; William Baxter, “Old English Village Life,” DAJ, xxvi (1904), 161.

69 Fraser, DAJ, lxv (1944-45), 81.

70 Tilley, iv, 72.

71 Sir John Harpur, when he married Jane, the Findern heiress, about 1560, built a new gabled Manor House at Swarkestone: J. Charles Cox, “Proceedings of the Derbyshire Committee for Compounding,” DAJ, xiii (1891), 135; Lawrance, DAJ, xxxii (1910), 48, n. 2.

72 Cox, iii, 433.

73 Cox, iv, 29; Jeayes, No. 2600.

74 Tilley, iv, 71.

75 Cox, iv, 32.

76 Cox, iii, 485.

77 Cox, iii, 467.

78 Jeayes, Nos. 2571, 2587, 2600.

79 Jeayes, Nos. 2538, 2539.

80 Tilley, iv, 72.

81 Cox, iv, 309.

82 Isabella, daughter of John de Findern, Senior, to Sir Henry de Bothe, of Arleston and Barrow-upon-Trent: Cox, iv, 314.

83 George Bailey, “Reminiscences of Old Allestree,” DAJ, vii (1885), 169.

84 Charles Kerry, “Mackworth: its Castle and its Owners,” DAJ, xi (1889), 2.

85 Cox, iii, 485.

86 Yeatman, ii, 432.

87 There is a word of 6 letters after Crucken: it looks something like “poting” or “potuit.” The handwriting is almost illegible at this point. These 3 lines, of course, could be taken as a salutation to Frances by Richard Wynkyn.

88 After “Elisabet frauncys” appears a word, “kůkesdo” (sic); and the beginning of a fourth line of the verse is struck through: “here d.” If these lines are interpreted as a prayer for these women by a scribe, we have to explain how he knew the names of people not living in the household. “Elizabet koton” is written in a scroll.

89 Jeayes, No. 491.

90 Tilley, iv, 33.

91 Cox, iv, 303. See also Victoria History of the County of Derby, ed. William Page (London, 1905), i, 334.

92 Cox, iv, 305.

93 Cox, iv, 305.

94 Jourdain, DAJ, iii (1881), 91. Lathbury arms also in Tilley, iv, 158.

95 Cox, iii, 476.

96 Cox, iv, 436.

97 Jeayes, No. 1176; with Lathbury, Nos. 1983, 1984; Francis and Lathbury, No. 2411.

98 His great-great-granddaughter Joyce (†1523) married Thomas Shirley, son of John Shirley.

99 Jeayes, No. 524.

100 W. H. Hart, “A Calendar of the Fines for the County of Derby,” DAJ, xiv (1892), 10.

101 Jeayes, No. 1181.

102 Jeayes, No. 1280.

103 Yeatman, i, 506.

104 Tilley, iv, 101.

105 Cox, iv, 436.

106 Cox, iv, 18.

107 S. O. Addy, “A List of the Vills and Freeholders of Derbyshire, 1633,” DAJ, vi (1884), 67.

108 Addy, DAJ, vi (1884), 51.

109 W. H. Hart, “A List of the ‘Alehouses, Innes, and Tavernes,‘ in Derbyshire in the Year 1577,” DAJ, i (1879), 77.

110 Cf. Martin Michael Crow, “John of Angoulême and his Chaucer Manuscript,” Speculum, xvii (1942), 89, n. 5: “all these circumstances lead to interesting speculations as to whether William de la Pole or his wife did not lend Charles of Orleans or his brother John a manuscript of the Canterbury Tales for the scribe Duxworth to copy, or more probably to use in correcting the copy already made… .” Items xxiii and xxxix, short lyrics, express a woman's point of view. Yet the name is not necessarily indicative of the writer: in the Bannatyne MS., “At the foot of folio 84b has been written Barbare foulesius, perhaps by her father or brother; for the only Barbara Foulis I can trace is the clever little sister who died shortly after her second birthday.” W. Tod Ritchie, The Bannatyne MS. STS 3rd Ser., v, xx.

111 See Bodleian Quart. Record, Vol. i, No. 2, for scribe's incipits and explicits.

112 Ps. 69.2.

113 Ps. 18.15.

114 f. 1r: “Be yt knowne vnto all men that I Thomas / Wylkenson of plumlay Baker haue made a / Bergen of barle wyt Robart lawton of laut / to the nomber of xx busshell to be delyueryd / att hainys chapell thay sayde Thomas / Wylkenson to deleuer ynto the sayde Robart/ for euery bushell xjs iiij of layfull money/of england.” There are two other faded short notes on a vellum flyleaf pasted to the board and on f. 2r (very faded).

115 Moore, p. 151, assumes A. Godwhen is “a poet.”

116 Skeat, Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. lvii-lix.

117 The name Clanvowe appears in a prose tract in Univ. Coll. Oxford MS. 97.

118 A linguistic study of the MS. would involve over 9,000 lines of text. The vast difficulties of work on these texts, written as they are by two distinct groups of scribes, is intensified by the late date, and by the geographical location of Findern. It is the meeting point of five dialect areas (Northwest-Midland, North-central West-Midland, South-central West-Midland, Central East Midland, and Southeast-Midland): Samuel Moore, Sanford Brown Meech, and Harold Whitehall, Middle English Dialect Characteristics, Essays and Studies in English, xiii (Ann Arbor, 1935). The following words are indicative of Derbyshire: swoorte (sort), chercher (charger), bathe (both), whofull (woeful), haith (hath), and þavte (thought). See Poems l and lii.

119 The stanzas in Hoccleve are written in faulty order: st. 1-19, 30-39, 50-59, 20-28. The scribe may have been copying from a large MS., with ten stanzas to a page. He starts copying from a verso (st. 1-9, allowing for a rubricized head), turns to the following recto (st. 10-19), then forgets the versos (20-29, 40-49, 60-68), and copies only from rectos (30-39, 50-59); turning back, he notices he has omitted the first verso (20-28), which he then adds. He completely overlooks the last two versos.

120 MacCracken, Archiv, cxxvii (1911), 325, emends to “As ofte as [s]p[r]inges Niob[e] for sorow.” He comments (p. 323): “The latter text [Camb.] is very likely a later copy from the original of T [Oxf.]. In doubtful lines, such as (64), where the reckless T-scribe rushes in and makes nonsense, the F-scribe discreetly omits words he does not understand.” Another example of a scribe failing to read his copy occurs in Harley MS. 372, f. 70r (Lydgate's orison on the Five Joys): vv. 39-41. “I shall eche day with—visage / knelyng before the byn / The Ioyes remembryng—sure I wake or slepe.” One of the three other texts (Bodl. 798) is printed in EETS, e.s. cvii. 282-284.

121 Cf. John M. Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry (New York, 1920), p. 149: “poetic forms are marked by short lines and simple rime-schemes.” Late MSS. contain many examples: e.g., Harley 2252 (e.g., Robbins, Secular Lyrics, No. 137); Trinity Coll. Camb. 599 (ibid., No. 173), etc.