• Wynnere and Wastoure

below, note to 130ff.), the opening seems particularly apt. 4 nyne. Cardinals in Middle English are used for ordinals fairly frequently (Tauno F. Mustanoja, A Middle English Syntax, I: Parts of Speech. Mmoires de la Socit Nophilologique de Helsinki 23

• Item 38, The Wounds and the Sins: Introduction

edition prints MS Harley 2339 in notes.] Reference Works NIMEV 4200 and 4185 (see also 3356) Greentree, Rosemary. The Middle English Lyric and Short Poem. See also Best, Bloomfield, Duffy (2005), Gougaud, Gray (1963 and 1972), Jeffrey (1975), Pfaff, Wenzel

• Amis and Amiloun

then; (see note) Old and young loved them joyful of spirit stopped Then the good man became so footsore lodging Where; market went food When they stood at greatest need fourth year Grain; become scarce increase old nor young would

• Part Five

cross (another instance of prosopopoeia) is reminiscent of the OldEnglish Dream of the Rood. 1583–85 Not traced in Bernard. See Luke 21:18. 1706 se. An unusual occurrence of the OldEnglish pronoun for “she,” seo, instead of the more

• The Gast of Gy

true purgatorial spirit, not a demonic apparition. 1940 Yhole. I.e., Yule. Of OldEnglish derivation, the word was used for Christmas as early as 900 (The OldEnglish Martyrology) and 901 (The Life of Aelfred). 1941 Epiphany. The Feast of

• Mum and the Sothsegger

Carlton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse; MED: Middle English Dictionary; MEPW: Dean, ed., Medieval English Political Writings; MS: MS British Library Additional 41666; OED2: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.; PP: Piers Plowman, ed. Schmidt; PPCr:

• Sir Degrevant

and gle, And gestus to fede. (t-note) (t-note) Where; sit together listen good [people]; them; (t-note) lived in days of old; (t-note) tell; (t-note) brave; courageous gentle [one] was called doughty; in deeds; (t-note) (t-note) (t-note) Arthur; think Guinevere as

• First Book of Kings (1 Samuel)

in English Literature, ed. Jeffrey; HS: Peter Comes­tor, Historia Scholastica, cited by book and chapter, followed by Patrologia Latina column in paren­theses; K: Kalén-Ohlander edition; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NOAB: New Oxford Annotated Bible; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; OFP: Old

• Athelston

here. Thorwgh the myght off Goddys gras, He gat upon the countas Twoo knave-chyldren dere. That on was fyfftene wyntyr old, That other thryttene, as men me told: In the world was non here pere Also whyt so lylye-flour, Red

• Sir Isumbras

note) voice (summons) secret; place (see note) High greets you thus age; afflicted choose which sighing there entrust myself walk old age limbs will become unsteady left; dejected bird; lost sight of; (see note) Dead Fled; forest as if crazy

• John Gower, The French Balades: Introduction

172–73. 3 Chaucer famously expresses his concern about the mutability of English in Troilus and Criseyde V.1793–96; see further “Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn.” For Gower, English seemed shaky, a language in need of support: as he points

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 17, The Purification of the Virgin

Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Ragusa and Green; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; RB: Richard Beadle, ed., York Plays; REED: Records of Early English Drama; YA: Davidson and O’Connor, York Art; York Breviary: Breviarium ad

• Richard Maidstone: Concordia

prohibits no art which was lawful under the old dispensation, unless perchance it be such arts as were used in the cults of the Jews and the rites of sacrifice of the old dispensation. All such arts, the products of

• Penitential Poems

MS, the abbreviated Latin words appear in red to the left of the English text. 1 Salve. The Latin words correspond to the first words of each English line. 2 emprys of helle. See note to §56, line 10. 3

• Penitential Poems

MS, the abbreviated Latin words appear in red to the left of the English text. 1 Salve. The Latin words correspond to the first words of each English line. 2 emprys of helle. See note to §56, line 10. 3

• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily 54, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

54, NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY: EXPLANATORY NOTES Abbreviations: MED: Middle English Dictionary; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; NIMEV: The New Index of Middle English Verse, ed. Boffey and Edwards; OED: Oxford English Dic­tionary; Tubach: Index Exemplorum, ed. Tubach. For manuscript abbreviations

• Penitential Poems

MS, the abbreviated Latin words appear in red to the left of the English text. 1 Salve. The Latin words correspond to the first words of each English line. 2 emprys of helle. See note to §56, line 10. 3

• King Arthur and King Cornwall

Litle Brittaine. This is the usual English designation for Brittany (French Bretagne, the Roman territory of Armorica), across the English Channel from Cornwall. The Bretons preserved many Celtic traditions associated with Arthur; an English prose romance, Arthur of Little Britain

• Penitential Poems

MS, the abbreviated Latin words appear in red to the left of the English text. 1 Salve. The Latin words correspond to the first words of each English line. 2 emprys of helle. See note to §56, line 10. 3

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 34, The Road to Calvary

Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Ragusa and Green; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; RB: Richard Beadle, ed., York Plays; REED: Records of Early English Drama; YA: Davidson and O’Connor, York Art; York Breviary: Breviarium ad