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A Mumming for the Mercers of London:
Trinity R.3.20 Verses

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f.86 verso
Folio 85 Recto (Page 171)Folio 85 Verso (Page 172)Folio 86 Recto (Page 173)Folio 86 Verso (Page 174)Folio 87 Recto (Page 175)

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Folio 86 Verso (Page 174)
Compare Witnesses: •
Desgysinge To Þe mayre •
So foorþe by Spaygne goyng envyroun •
Thorougħe out þe Raas and rokkes of Bretaygne •
Þe brettyssħe see / til that he did atteyne •
Thorougħe þilk sakk called of poortland •
And towardes Caleys / holding his passage •
Lefte Godwyn Sandes / by grace of goddes handes1 •
havyng his wynde / to his avauntage •
Þe weder cleer / þe stormes lefft hir raage •
Entryng þe see / of Brutes Albyoun •
Nowe called Themse / thorougħe al þis regyoun •
And in a ffeeld þat drougħe in to þe Eest •
Besyde an ylande / he saugħe a shippe vnlade •
Which hade sayled ful fer towarde þe west2 •
þe Caban3 peynted / witħ floures fressħe and glaade •
And lettres frensħe / þat feynt nyl ne faade •
Taunt haute4 bas / que homme soyt •
Touz Ioures regracyer dieux doyt •
And in a boote / on þat oþer syde •
Anoþer fissħer / drougħe his nette also •
fful of gret fissħe Neptunus5 was his guyde •
Witħ so gret plentee / he nyst what til do •
And þer were lettres enbrouded not fer froo •
fful fressħly wryten /6 þis worde grande peyne7 •
A8 cloos acording / witħ þis resoun 9 •
Neptunus is also a goddesse of þe see •
Þe noble yllande / where he saugħe þis sight •
Gaf vn to him a demonstracion •
Taugħt him al so / by þe poolys ligħt •
He was not fer / frome londones tovne •
And witħ a floode þe pursuryaunt came downe •
Lefft þe water / and at Thems stronde •
With owte aboode / in haaste / he came to lande •
Notes
  1. It appears that the scribe's natural inclination was to pluralize "hand" but struck the "-es" off the ending in order to make the line rhyme with "poortland" in line 1. BL Add. 29729 has "gods hand." ↩
  2. McCracken has capitalized "west" here, but that seems inconsistent with how "w" is rendered throughout the work. It also seems incongruous because "Eest" in line one of the verse very obviously is capitalized but he has rendered it in lower case. ↩
  3. McCracken has not capitalized the "C" here but the manuscript indicates it should be, especially when compared with "called" in verse 11.7, "Caleys" in verse 11.2, and "Cyrses" in verse 8.6 ↩
  4. McCracken has separated "e" from "haut," but the manuscript treats "haut e" as a single word for orthographic purposes. The same line in BL Add. 29729 is rendered as "haute." ↩
  5. McCracken renders this with parenthesis as it is an aside based on the initial stroke of the "N" in "Neptunus", but there is no subsequent closing parenthesis ↩
  6. The virgule here is obscured by the left hook of the initial thorn. ↩
  7. Bracketed on the left. ↩
  8. McCracken renders this as "A[nd]" but there is nothing indicating an intentional suspension on the part of the scribe. BL Add. 29729 has "A" as well. ↩

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.