Note 1 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
A second Latin version of an Erthe poem, together with the same poem in Anglo-French, and in Middle English, occurs on the back of a Roll in the Public Record Office, dating from the time of Edward II (Exr. K. R. Proceedings, Bdle. 1; old No. 845/21), and in a 19th cent. transcript of this in MS. Brit. Mus. Addit. 25478; it is given in the Appendix. Both the Latin and the French appear to be translations or paraphrases of the English, with an additional verse or two.
2. The English text in the Appendix consists of nine four-lined stanzas, and is distinct from either of the two current versions of the poem. It appears to have been suggested by the opening lines of A, and may be regarded as a single sub-type of A, not affecting the main line of argument of the Introduction. (See Appendix, p. 46.)
3. This is repeated on each page of Bateman’s text, and is, perhaps, his own design.
4. See Bateman’s Preface.
5. Probably not the author but the copier of the MS.: see Notes.
6. All the stanzas of the B version are four-lined except MS. Porkington.
7. v. Wanley’s Catalogue.
8. My attention was called to this MS. by the kindness of Prof. Priebech.
9. MS. Laud Misc. is not written throughout in metrical lines, but the divisions of the stanzas, and, in most cases, of the lines, are clearly indicated.
10. The first leaf of this text has been torn out and the verses in brackets are only conjectural.
11. MS. Laud represents, in the main, the same version as MS. Lamb., but the variant readings preclude the idea of its being a copy of Lamb., unless the scribe deliberately tried to modify his original on the lines of Harl. 4486 and Rawl. P. The changes in the text (ll. 26, 27, 47: see Notes) show that it cannot be the original of Lamb. It appears to be a transcript from the same original made about the same date, or a little earlier than the Lambeth text.
12. Cf. MS. Brighton nobley.
13. Cf. MS. Selden delful.
14. The Latin and Anglo-French texts in the Appendix are evidently renderings of the English poem which accompanies them.
15. This is clearly seen in the Latin and French versions in the Appendix where the Latin text uses terra in terra, and the French terre en terre.
16. Vernon MS. to resten on, Digby, shal rest right at.
17. Cotton MS. þe rof þe firste.
18. Cf. Frendles ys þe dede (Proverbs of Hendyng, l. 288).
19. = heres þonkes, of their own free will.
20. Compare with this the text in the Appendix which begins:
Whanne eorthe hath eorthe wiþ wrong igete—
and in the French version:
Quant terre auera en terre large terre gayne.
21. See the Appendix, p. 46.
22. Die Kildare-Gedichte (Bonn, 1904).
23. See p. xxxiv above.
24. The earliest known epitaphs in English date from the fourteenth century.
25. There is no record of this brass at the church of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate.
26. Dated 1590 by Ernest R. Suffling, Epitaphia (1909), p. 382.
27. A late instance of its use is given by Ch. Box (Elegies and Epitaphs, Glouc. 1892) as found by him on the tomb of a bricklayer, who died in 1837, aged 90:—
Earth walks upon Earth like glittering gold, Earth says to Earth, ‘We are but mould’; Earth builds upon Earth castles and towers, Earth says to Earth, ‘All is ours’!
28. Printed from Grein-Wülcker, Bibliothek der ags. Poesie, iii. 212.—(I know of a most noble guest in the dwellings, hidden from men, whom fierce hunger cannot torment, nor burning thirst, nor age, nor sickness [nor close-pressing death], if the servant who shall [bear him company] in his course serves him honourably: they, prospering, shall find abundance and bliss, countless joys, allotted to them at home, but (they shall find) sorrow, if the servant obeys his lord and master ill upon their journey, and will not show him reverence, the one brother to the other: that shall afflict them both, when they two depart, hastening hence, from the bosom of their common kinswoman, mother and sister.)
29. Grein-Wülcker, iii. 105.—(The worm whose jaws are sharper than needles, who first of all the worms in the grave forces his way to him.)