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A Mumming at Hertford:
Trinity R.3.20 Verses

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f.21 recto
Folio 20 Verso (Page 40)Folio 21 Recto (Page 41)Folio 21 Verso (Page 42)Folio 22 Recto (Page 43)Folio 22 Verso (Page 44)Folio 23 Recto (Page 45)Folio 23 Verso (Page 46)Folio 24 Recto (Page 47)Folio 24 Verso (Page 48)

Decoration
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Folio 21 Recto (Page 41)
Compare Witnesses: •
ɲ
At cristmasse
.
in þe Castel of Herford •
ɲ
1ffor to compleyne vn to yuoure magestee •
Vponn þe mescheef of gret aduersytee •
Vponn þe trouble and þe cruweltee •
Whicħ þat þey haue endured in þeyre lyves •
By þe felnesse of þeyre fierce wyves •
Whicħ is a tourment verray importable •
A bonde of sorowe / a knott vnremuwable •
ffor whoo is bounde / or looked in maryage •
yif he beo olde / he falleþe in dotage •
And yong2 folkes of þeyre lymes3 sklendre •
Grene and lusty / and of brawne but tendre •
Phylosophres callen in suche aage •
a Chylde to wyve / a woodnesse or a raage •
ɲ
ffor þey afferme / þer is noon eorþely stryff •
May beo compared / to wedding of a wyff •
And who þat euer stondeþe in þe cas •
He witħ his Rebecke / may sing ful offt ellas •
Lyke as þeos hynes / here stonding oon by oon •
He may witħ hem vponn þe daunce goon •
Leorne þe traas /booþe at even and morowe •
Of karycantowe / in tourment and in sorowe •
Weyle þe whyle ellas þat he was borne •
ffor Obbe / þe Reeve / þat grooþe here al to forne •
he pleyneþe sore / his mariage is not meete •
ffor his wyff Beautryce Bittersweete •
Cast vponn him an hougly cheer ful rowgħe •
Whane he komeþe home / ful wery frome þe plougħe •
Witħ hungry stomake / deed and paale of cheere •
In hope to fynde redy his dynier •
/i.
demonstrando .vj. Rusticos •
ɲ
Þanne sitteþe Beautryce bolling at þe nale •
As she þat gyveþe of him no maner tale •
ffor she al day witħ his Iowsy nolle •
Hathe for þe collyk pouped in þe bolle •
Notes
  1. The EETS edition terminates with "e," but the glyph elsewhere in the manuscript is otiose so it seems likely it would be here as well. ↩
  2. The stroke over the majority of the word appears to be otiose, and there's a secondary mark over the "y" which, as the scribal notes mention, is likely to indicate a "y" rather than thorn. ↩

The work on this manuscript witness was generously sponsored by a ZKS-Lendrum Fellowship in the Scientific Study of Manuscripts and Inscriptions at the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University. The transcription of this work is owned by the editor and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The images are owned by the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge and are provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.