Note 2 — PREFACE.
Reading edition
The Norfolk MS. is defective at the beginning, one leaf being lost, which contained a portion of the prologue; there is consequently no title to the work. It has a blank leaf at the place where the lacunæ usually occur in the manuscript copies. The hand-writing is of the reign of Elizabeth, and the text corresponds very nearly with that of Dr. Wordsworth: the orthography is not the same. This MS. is in its original binding, and has the name of its ancient possessor, Henrie Farleigh, stamped on each cover. The other manuscript copy in my possession is carefully written, but apparently of more recent date; it has the following title in German text hand prefixed:
The Life of Master Thomas Wolsey Archbishoppe of Yorke and Cardinall written by George Cavendish his Gentleman Usher.
The same chasm is marked in this MS. as in the former, two pages and a half being left blank, but the imperfect passages at the conclusion of the hunt, and at the commencement of the relation concerning the libels on Wolsey, are completed by a few words as they now stand in Dr. Wordsworth’s text. The variations between these copies are chiefly literal; the orthography is in many respects different.