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[Transcriber's Note:

This text is intended for users whose text readers cannot use the "real" (Unicode/UTF-8) version of the file. Characters that could not be fully displayed have been "unpacked" and shown in brackets:

[Gh] [gh] (yogh: very common) [&] (Tironian ampersand) êîôû (long vowels, printed with macron; "true" circumflex does not occur)

Other diacritics (rare) as shown as [~e] (e-tilde) and similar.

Mid-word italics representing expanded abbreviations are shown in {braces}. Whole-word italics are shown conventionally with _lines_. Braces are also used with ^ (caret) for mid-word superscripting (rare); superscripts that continue to the end of the word use ^ alone. Boldface is shown with #marks#.

Text in [[double brackets]] was added by the transcriber. Except for footnotes and the unpacked characters listed above, single brackets are in the original.

The pointing-finger symbol is shown as -->. The combinations m~, n~ and d~ represent letters with a decorative curl.

In the editorial material, some text formatting has been simplified or omitted to reduce visual clutter:

--Footnotes were italicized, with emphatic words in Roman (non-italic) type; this has been "toggled" to plain type with italic emphasis. --Glossary entries were shown in #boldface#, as were all references to "#A# version" and "#B# version". --In the Glossary, page-and-line references in the form "15.33" gave the line number in smaller type.

The author's father was James Murray of the Oxford English Dictionary.]

Erthe upon Erthe

EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY

Original Series, No. 141

1911 (reprinted 1964)

Price 30_s._

Early English Text Society. Original Series.

The Middle English Poem,

ERTHE UPON ERTHE,

Printed From Twenty-Four Manuscripts,

Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary,

by

HILDA M. R. MURRAY

_Published for_ THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY _by the_ OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

First Published 1911 Reprinted 1964

Original Series, No. 141

Reprinted Lithographically in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford by Vivian Ridler Printer to the University

To my Father

QUEM QUAMVIS LONGISSIMO INTERVALLO SEQUI TAMEN CONOR.

CONTENTS

PAGE INTRODUCTION: The two Versions of the Poem 'Erthe upon Erthe' ix Descriptive List of MSS. of the Poem x The A Version xiv The B Version xvi The Cambridge Text xxv Origin and Growth of the Poem xxix Later Versions of the Poem xxxv Literary Interest xxxviii Editor's Note xli

THE #A# VERSION: 1. MS. Harleian 2253 1 2. MS. Harleian 913 1

THE #B# VERSION: 1. William Billyng's MS 5 2. MS. Thornton 6 3. MS. Selden supra 53 7 4. MS. Egerton 1995 8 5. MS. Harleian 1671 9 6. MS. Brighton 10 7. The Stratford-on-Avon Inscription 11 8. MS. Rawlinson C. 307 12 9. MS. Harleian 4486 13 10. MS. Lambeth 853 14 11. MS. Laud Miscellaneous 23 16 12. MS. Cotton Titus A. xxvi 19 13. MS. Rawlinson Poetical 32 20 14. MS. Porkington 10 24 15. MS. Balliol 354 27 16. MS. Harleian 984 29 17. The Maitland MS. 30 18. John Reidpeth's MS. 31

THE CAMBRIDGE TEXT 32

NOTES AND ANALOGUES 35

APPENDIX: I. 'Erthe' Poem in Latin, French, and English (Record Office Roll, Ex^r. K. R. Proceedings, Bdle. 1, and MS. British Museum Additional 25478) 41 II. (B Version) additions: 19. MS. Trinity College Cambridge R. 3. 21 47 20. MS. Trinity College Cambridge B. 15. 39 48

GLOSSARY 50

INTRODUCTION

THE TWO VERSIONS OF THE POEM 'ERTHE UPON ERTHE'.

The Middle English poem of _Erthe upon Erthe_ is one which occurs fairly frequently in fifteenth-century MSS. and even later. It was a favourite theme for Commonplace Books, and was frequently inserted on the spare leaves at the beginning or end of a manuscript. From the many texts of the poem which have survived, and from the fact that portions of it continued to be inscribed on walls and tombstones up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, a wide popularity may be deduced. The extant versions, moreover, point to a knowledge of the poem throughout the greater part of England, as well as in the south of Scotland. The grimness of the motive, based on the words _Memento homo quod cinis es et in cinerem reverteris_, allies the text both with the earlier group of poems relating to _The Soul and the Body_, and with the more or less contemporary _Dance of Death_, but whereas the two latter groups can claim a popularity which extended over western Europe, _Erthe upon Erthe_ exists only in Middle English texts, and in one parallel Latin version.[1] It is, indeed, difficult to see how the play upon the word _earth_ on which the poem depends could have been reproduced with equal success in any language outside English, and the Latin version is distinctly inferior in this respect. There would seem, therefore, to be good reason for the assumption that _Erthe upon Erthe_ is of English origin, belonging to the same class of literature as the English versions of the _Soul and Body_ poems.

The earliest texts of the poem known to be extant are found in MSS. Harleian 2253 and 913, both dated about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The two texts vary greatly in length--MS. Harl. 2253 consists of four lines as against seven six-lined stanzas in MS. Harl. 913--and the latter text has the parallel Latin rendering mentioned above, but they coincide so far as they go, and appear to represent a thirteenth or fourteenth-century type of the poem, which may be called the A version.[2]

Another poem of the same kind, which differs considerably from the A version, but is, in all probability, closely connected with it in origin, is common in fifteenth-century MSS. I have traced eighteen texts of this version, dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, all of which represent or are based upon the same common type, though individual transcribers appear to have expanded the theme according to their own taste. Such additions may easily be distinguished, since they seldom succeed in maintaining either the grim simplicity, or the fundamental play upon the word _earth_, which characterize the genuine portions of the poem. This common fifteenth-century type may be called the B version.

Lastly, a single fifteenth-century MS. (Cambridge University Library, Ii, 4. 9) has preserved a text of the poem in which some attempt seems to have been made to combine the A with the B version. This text may be called the C version, or Cambridge text.

In the following pages an attempt has been made to justify the premises in part laid down already, and to show that the A and B versions may be traced back to a common source, and that this source was not only confined to England, but was itself English.

MSS. OF THE POEM 'ERTHE UPON ERTHE'.

The following is a list of the manuscripts in which the poem occurs:--

MSS. of the A Version:

1. MS. Harl. 2253, fol. 57, v^o, dated c. 1307. Four lines inserted between a French poem on the Death of Simon de Montfort, and an English poem on the Execution of Simon Fraser. Printed by J. Ritson, _Ancient Songs and Ballads from the Reign of K. Henry II to the Revolution_, p. 13 (1790), by E. Flügel, _Anglia_, xxvi. 216 (1903), and by W. Heuser, _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (_Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik_, xiv. 179) (1904). (See the facsimile opposite the title-page.)

2. MS. Harl. 913, fol. 62, r^o (c. 1308-1330). Seven six-lined English stanzas alternating with seven of the same purport in Latin. Printed by T. Wright, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, ii. 216 (1841), by F. J. Furnivall, _Early Eng. Poems and Lives of Saints_, p. 150 (printed for the Philological Society, Berlin, 1862), and by W. Heuser, _ibid._, p. 180.

MSS. of the B Version:

1. William Billyng's MS. (dated 1400-1430). Five four-lined stanzas, preceded by the figure of a naked body, rudely drawn, having a mattock in its right hand, and a spade at its feet. At the end of the poem is a prone figure of a skeleton accompanied by two draped figures.[3] Printed by W. Bateman, _Billyng's Five Wounds of Christ_, no. 3 (Manchester, 1814),[4] 'from a finely written and illuminated parchment roll, about two and three-quarter yards in length: it is without date, but by comparing it with other poetry, it appears to have been written early in the fifteenth century; the illuminations and ornaments with which it is decorated correspond to those of missals written about the reign of Henry V; the style may therefore fix its date between the years 1400 and 1430. The author[5] gives his name and mark at the bottom of the roll.' Reprinted from Bateman's text by J. Montgomery, _The Christian Poet_, edit. 1 and 2, p. 45 (1827), edit. 3, p. 58 (1828).

2. MS. Thornton (Lincoln Cath. Libr.), fol. 279 (c. 1440). Five stanzas[6] without mark of strophic division. Printed by G. G. Perry, _Religious Poems in Prose and Verse_, p. 95 (E.E.T.S., No. xxvi, 1867, reprinted 1889, p. 96), and by C. Horstmann, _Yorkshire Writers (Richard Rolle of Hampole)_, i. 373 (1895).

3. MS. Selden supra 53, fol. 159, v^o (c. 1450). Six stanzas (strophic division indicated in the first two), written in a different hand on the back of a spare leaf at the end of the MS.; stanza 5 of the usual B version omitted. Quoted by H. G. Fiedler, _Modern Language Review_ (April 1908), III. iii. 221. Not printed before.

4. MS. Egerton 1995, fol. 55, r^o (William Gregory's Commonplace Book, dated c. 1430-1450, cf. J. Gairdner, _Collections of a London Citizen_. Camden. Soc. 1876 n.s. xvii). Seven stanzas without strophic division. Not printed before.

5. MS. Harl. 1671, fol. 1*, r^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas written in the left-hand column on the fly-leaf at the beginning of the MS., which consists of a 'large Theological Treatise, imperfect at both ends, which seemeth to have been entituled "The Weye to Paradys"'.[7] The upper portion of the leaf contains a poem in praise of St. Herasmius. Not printed before.

6. MS. Brighton, fol. 90, v^o (fifteenth century). Seven stanzas. Printed by Fiedler, _M. L. R._ III. iii. 219, from the last leaf of a MS. formerly seen by him in possession of an antiquary at Brighton, and containing a Latin treatise on the seven Sacraments.

7. Stratford-on-Avon Inscription (after 1450). Seven stanzas, formerly on the west wall of the nave in the Chapel of the Trinity at Stratford-on-Avon, cf. R. B. Wheler, _Hist. and Antiq. of Stratford-on-Avon_, p. 98: 'against the west wall of the nave, upon the south side of the arch was painted the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, whilst kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict in Canterbury Cathedral; below this was represented the figure of an angel (probably St. Michael) supporting a long scroll, upon which were written the following rude verses: Erth oute of erthe,' &c. 'Beneath were two men, holding another scroll over a body wrapt in a winding sheet, and covered with some emblems of mortality with these lines: Whosoo hym be thowghte,' &c. (v. Note on p. 36). These paintings were probably added in the reign of Henry VII, when the Chapel was restored by Sir Hugh Clopton (died 1496), who built New Place opposite the Chapel in 1483. They were discovered in 1804 beneath a coating of whitewash, and were copied and engraved, but have since been more than once re-coated with whitewash, and all trace of the poem has now disappeared. Facsimiles, etched and coloured by hand, exist in Thomas Fisher's _Series of Ancient Allegorical, Historical, and Legendary Paintings in fresco, discovered on the walls of the Chapel of the Trinity, belonging to the Gild of the Holy Cross, at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, from drawings made at the time of their discovery_ (1807). Printed by R. B. Wheler, _ibid._ (1806), by Longfellow, _Outre-Mer_ (_Père-La-Chaise_, note on p. 67), 1851, and by W. P. Reeves, _Mod. Lang. Notes_, IX. iv. 203 (April 1894).

8. MS. Rawlinson C. 307, fol. 2, r^o (after 1458). Eight stanzas, of which three are peculiar to this MS., and are of a more distinctly Northern dialect than the remainder. The poem is the only English text in a MS. containing Latin prose and verse. Two Latin poems in the same hand as _Erthe upon Erthe_ refer to the death of Gilbert Pynchbeck at York in 1458, which would fix the date c. 1460, or later. The three independent stanzas were printed by Fiedler, _ibid._ p. 221.

9. [8]MS. Harl. 4486, fol. 146, r^o (fifteenth century). Eight stanzas added on the last leaf but one of a copy of _Le Livre de Sydrac_, immediately after the colophon. The last two leaves and the cover of the MS. contain various scribblings in fifteenth-century hands, chiefly of Latin aphorisms and rimes. Folio 147, v^o, contains the signature of Tho. Baker, who may possibly have transcribed the English poem. Not printed before.

10. MS. Lambeth 853, fol. 35 (c. 1430-1450). Twelve stanzas. Printed by F. J. Furnivall, _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ_, p. 88 (E.E.T.S. 1867, No. xxiv, reprinted 1895).

11. MS. Laud Misc. 23, fol. 111, v^o (before 1450). Twelve stanzas, varying very slightly from MS. Lambeth. Not printed before.

12. MS. Cotton Titus A xxvi, fol. 153, r^o (fifteenth century). Six four-lined stanzas, apparently the beginning of a transcript of MS. Lambeth. Not printed before.

13. MS. Rawlinson Poetic. 32, v^o (after 1450). Thirty-two stanzas, each of four short lines, corresponding to half the normal stanza; stanzas 17 to 30 are peculiar to this MS. The greater part printed by Fiedler, _ibid._ p. 222.

14. MS. Porkington 10, fol. 79, v^o (fifteenth century). Twelve six-lined stanzas, of which stanzas 7 to 11 are peculiar to this MS. Printed by Halliwell, _Early Eng. Misc. in Prose and Verse, selected from an inedited MS. of the 15th cent._, p. 39 (Warton Club, 1855), and by Fiedler, ibid. p. 225.

15. MS. Balliol 354, fol. 207, v^o (Richard Hill's Commonplace Book, dated before 1504). Sixteen stanzas, of which stanzas 6 to 14 introduce an independent digression on the Nine Worthies. Printed by Flügel, _Anglia_, xxvi. 94 (1903), and by Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Misc. Poems_, p. 90 (E.E.T.S. 1907, extra ser. ci).

16. MS. Harl. 984, fol. 72, r^o (sixteenth century). The preceding leaf of the MS. has been torn out, leaving only two lines of what may be assumed to be verse 6, and the whole of verse 7, which occur with other fragments on the last leaf but one.

17. The Maitland MS. Pepysian Library, Magd. Coll. Cambr., MS. 2553, p. 338 (c. 1555-1585). Seven stanzas in the Lowland Scots dialect, with the ascription 'quod Marsar'. Thomas Pinkerton published portions of the MS. in his _Ancient Scottish Poems never before in print . . . from the MS. Collections of Sir Richard Maitland_ (London, 1786), but omitted _Eird upon Eird_. Not printed before.

18. The Reidpeth MS. Cambridge Univ. Libr. Ll. 5. 10, fol. 43, v^o, copied 1622-1623 'a me Joanne Reidpeth'. Seven stanzas, probably transcribed from the Maitland MS., but concluding 'quod Dumbar'. Not printed before.

MS. of the C Version:

The Cambridge Text. Cambr. Univ. Libr. Ii. 4. 9, fol. 67, r^o (fifteenth century). Eighty-two lines comprising twenty-two or twenty-three stanzas. The text is followed by a coloured picture of a young knight, standing on a hill with a skeleton below. A scroll proceeding from the knight has the words: _Festina tempus et memento finis_, while one proceeding from the skeleton runs: _In omni opere memorare nouissima et in eternum non peccabis_. Printed by Heuser, _Kildare-Gedichte_, p. 213.

THE #A# VERSION.

The A version exists in two forms, one a short popular stanza of four lines (MS. Harl. 2253), apparently of the nature of a riddle, the other a longer poem of seven English and seven Latin stanzas (MS. Harl. 913), each English verse being followed by its Latin equivalent. The metrical form of the Latin verses is one often used in Latin poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a six-lined stanza, rimed _aaaabb_, with the rhythm of the well-known

_méum ést propósitúm_ | _ín tabérna móri._

The English verses are also in the form of a six-lined stanza _aaaabb_, but the first four lines have the same loose four-stress rhythm as the lines in MS. Harl. 2253, and the concluding couplet is on the principle of the septenarius. Both the English and the Latin lines rime at the caesura as well as at the end of the line, but this is less uniformly the rule in the English verses. There is close verbal connexion between the four lines in MS. Harl. 2253, and the opening lines of the longer poem, as will appear from a comparison of the two:--

_MS. Harl._ 2253.

Erþe toc of erþe erþe wyþ woh erþe oþer erþe to þe erþe droh erþe leyde erþe in erþene þroh þo heuede erþe of erþe erþe ynoh

_MS. Harl._ 913.

whan erþ haþ erþ . iwonne wiþ wow þan erþ mai of erþ . nim hir inow erþ vp erþ . falliþ fol frow erþ toward erþ . delful him drow. of erþ þou were makid . _and_ mon þou art ilich in on erþ awaked . þe pore _and_ þe riche.

The connexion between these two versions might be explained in two ways. The short version of MS. Harl. 2253 may be the beginning of a transcript of the longer poem in which the scribe broke off because his memory failed him, or because he was only acquainted with a popular version of the opening lines. On the other hand, the short version may be the older, and the more learned composer of the poem in MS. Harl. 913 may have been elaborating this and other such riddling stanzas current at the time. But any attempt to decide between these two possibilities must necessarily depend upon the conclusion formed as to the relation of the Latin stanzas in MS. Harl. 913 to their English equivalents, and this question will be more conveniently discussed in connexion with the general origin of the _Erthe upon Erthe_ poems. As regards the date of the two MSS., MS. Harl. 2253 is generally ascribed to the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the Kildare MS. (MS. Harl. 913) is dated c. 1308 by Crofton Croker, c. 1308 to 1330 by Heuser, while Paul Meyer is of opinion that it may belong to an earlier period still. The dialect of both poems is South Midland, probably of the western part of the district. MS. Harl. 2253, which is commonly associated with Leominster, has _heuede_ (4). MS. Harl. 913 has _lutil_, _schrud_, _muntid_, _heo_, _mon_, _lond_, and S. Midl. forms of verbs. We have therefore two types of the A version, standing in close verbal relation to each other, of much the same date and dialect, and representing in all probability the kind of _Erthe_ poem current at the end of the thirteenth century in the South-west Midland district.

THE #B# VERSION.

As will appear from the foregoing account of the MSS., the eighteen texts of the B version vary considerably in length, many of them introducing stanzas which do not recur elsewhere. A comparison of the number and arrangement of the stanzas in each text is given on the next page, the stanzas being numbered according to the order of their arrangement in the text to which they belong, and the corresponding stanzas in the various texts grouped under columns. MSS. Thornton, Selden, and Egerton have no mark of strophic division, but fall naturally into mono-rimed stanzas of four lines. All the remaining texts are arranged in four-lined stanzas with mono-rime,[9] with the exception of MS. Porkington, which represents an evident expansion of the original metrical scheme, an additional long line being attached to each stanza by means of a short bob-line, giving a six-lined stanza, _aaaabb_. In MS. Rawl. Poet. each long line is written as two short lines, so that the usual four-lined stanza appears in this text as two stanzas, each consisting of four half-lines. This arrangement is facilitated by the regular internal rime on the word _erthe_. The order of the fifteenth-century MSS. of the B version observed in the table corresponds to that in the foregoing list of MSS., and in the printed text, and is not always strictly chronological, it being more convenient for purposes of comparison to group the texts according to their length. It will be seen that the three late texts (MSS. Harl. 984, Maitland, and Reidpeth) revert to the normal seven-stanza type, and that this appears to have been the form of the poem known to the compiler of the Cambridge text, a comparison of which is added.

[Transcriber's Note: The printed table has been rotated 90% for this plain-text version. The numerical key (1-18, Cam) and the lettered notes (A, B...) were also added by the transcriber.]

1. Wm. Billyng's Text 2. MS. Thornton 3. MS. Selden, supra 53 4. MS. Egerton 1995 5. MS. Harl. 1671 6. MS. Brighton 7. Stratford Inscription 8. MS. Rawl. C. 307 9. MS. Harl. 4486 10. MS. Lambeth 853 11. MS. Laud Misc. 23 12. MS. Cotton Titus A. xxvi 13. MS. Rawl. Poet. 14. MS. Porkington 10 15. MS. Balliol 354 16. MS. Harl. 984[10] 17. MS. Maitland 18. MS. Reidpeth Cam The Cambridge Text

CS Common Stanzas IS Independent Stanzas