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A Hitherto Unprinted Version of the Passio Sanctæ Margaritæ With Some Observations on Vernacular Derivatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Elizabeth A. Francis
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Extract

Professor Gerould's interesting paper on the Passio S. Margaritæ suggested to me that it might be of advantage to render accessible another Latin version of the same Passio which has existed up till the present time in manuscript form only. This version came under my notice in the course of an examination of the Latin sources of the Legend of St. Margaret, made in connection with a study of the interdependence of the Anglo-Norman versions. It is clearly the source of two XIIIth century French poems, and appears also to have been drawn upon by compilers who took the bulk of their material from other versions. It was used by the Norman chronicler Wace, by the anonymous author of a third XIIIth century French poem (Brit. Mus. MS. Addit. 38664), by the author of the “Scotch version” and by the author of the prose account in Mirk's Festial.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 1927 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1927

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References

1 G. H. Gerould, “A New Text of the Passio S. Margarita, with some Account of its Latin and English Relations,” PMLA, XXXIX, No. 3, Sept., 1924.

2 Thesis: “The Anglo-Norman versions of the Life of Saint Margaret.” University of London Library.

3 C. Horstmann, Barbours Legendensammlung, 1881.

4 Early English Text Society, Ext. Ser., 96.

5 Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Latinorum antiquiorum saeculo XVI qui asservantur in Bib. Nat. Parisiensi, Vol. II, Brussels, 1889-93.

6 Tr. by L. Surius, Vitæ Sanctorum, Coloniae Agrippinae, III. 1617.

7 See Professor Gerould's article.

8 Krahl, Untersuchungen über Vier Versionen der mittelengl. Margaretenlegende, 1889. Pierce Butler, Legenda Aurea—Légende dorée—Golden Legend.

9 MS. copies give as variations “Teotinus,” “Tectimus,” “Theotimus,” “Theodumus,” “Theodimus.”

10 MS. copies give “Theophilus.”

11 “Contimus (MS. Theodimus) autem erat in carcere et nutrix eius ministrantes ei panem et aquam et orationem eius scribebant: et omnia quae eveniebant cum timore dei notabant.”

12 Published in Florilegium II, Bibl. Casin.

13 It is open to question whether the story of Solomon and the devils was a feature of the “Mombritius” version in all MSS. An XIth c. Anglo-Saxon “Passio” and several mediaeval poems based on this Latin version do not contain the story.

14 See Ward, Catal, of Romances in Brit. Mus., II.

1 MSS. KK. 2. and 11753 mundum.

2 MSS. 5362, 5565 and CXLIX add after “emulus,” “diabolus.”

3 MSS. Bodl. 285 and CXLIX interemptus.

4 MS. KK.2. mortem.

5 MS. 5565 omits “scilicet.”

6 MSS. 1207, 8995, and others give “Margaritae”; in the Caligula MS. “i” has been altered to “e” throughout the text, apparently by the original scribe. MSS. Bodl. 285 and CXLIX read “Margarete.” The form “Margareta” seems to have been preferred by English copyists to “Margarita.”

7 MS. KK.2. adoptavit.

8 MS. KK.2. Que profecto in aere orbata.

9 MS. 5362, illis; MS. CXLIX, illis in partibus.

10 MSS. Caligula and CXLIX, siciebat; MSS. 5362 and Bodl. 285, sitiebat.

11 MS. 5362, imfestus; CXLIX, infestus.

12 MSS. 5362, 5565, 1207 and CXLIX “virginitatis”; MS. Bodl. 285, “virtutibus.”

13 MSS. 8995, 5362, Bodl. 285 and CXLLX, exteram.

14 MS. 1207, ad scisci; MS. 5362, asisci.

16 MSS. 5362 and CXLIX add after “capitur,” “cuiusceli.”

16 MS. 1207 omits atque.

17 MS. Bodl. 285, erue nunc.

18 MS. CXLIX, agis.

19 MS. 1207, dedit.

20 MSS. Caligula and Bodl. 285, His; MS. CXLIX, Hic.

21 MSS. 1207 and 5565, additur; MS. 5362, aggreditur; MS. CXLIX adoritur.

22 MS. 8995, mortuus; MS. 5362, mortus.

23 MSS. 8995, KK.2, and CXLIX, “diaboli films.”

24 MSS. 5362, 5565, 1207 and CXLIX, “senis.”

25 This is the reading of MSS. 1207, 5362, 5565 and CXLIX. MS. Caligula reads “inimicis.” MS. Bodl. 285 has “iniquus.”

26 MSS. Bodl. 285 and CXLIX, vivamen. Caligula and other MSS. might read either vivamen or vivamus.

27 MS. 5362, “ut ipse invisibilis inimicus.”

28 MS. KK.2. terrorem.

29 MSS. 5565, 5362, 1207 and CXLIX, “inedicibilibus.”

30 MS. Bodl. 285 reads “tanta in te viget virtus.”

31 MS. Bodl. 285 “si potui.”

32 MSS. 5565, 5362, and CXLIX, Attamen.

33 MSS. 8995 and CXLIX, illorum.

34 MSS. 5362, 1207 and CXLIX, fiant.

35 MSS. 5565 and 5362, “iudex.”

36 MS. 5362, pueris.

37 MS. KK. 2. paulisper.

38 MSS. KK.2., CXLIX, 8995 and 5362 add after concedi, “flexisque genibus has supplices mittit ad deum (dominum) precens” instead of “ad dominum has preces fundens.”

39 MS. 1207, mea.

40 MSS. 1207 and 5565, invocantis.

41 MSS. 1207 and 5362, “ergo.”

42 MSS. 5362, 5565 and CXLIX, perlustrans.

43 MSS. KK.2., CXLIX, 1207, 5362 and 5565, exempto.

44 See Paul Meyer's account of the St. Margaret poem in the Sloane MS—an Anglo-Norman text copied by a Continental scribe—Romania XL, 541.