SionL40.2E25

PRICK OF CONSCIENCE AND OTHER TEXTS (IN ENGLISH)

A miscellany of texts in English verse, written in several hands, as follows: ff. i-ii. Flyleaves (early 19th cent). At f. i is a list of contents in the hand of Robert Watts, Librarian of Sion College 1799-1842. 1. ff. 1-12v. Begins imperfectly: 'Bot yheue of yam oft with yam to mete / for all seme yai bitter yai ar swete ...'. Ends imperfectly: 'Bot ye loue of god yat es clene / Of werldly luf yat here es sene'. Latin tags and titles are interspersed, as in art. 4. Seven hundred and sixty-four lines of verse remain. Much of the text on ff. 3-8v is parallel to and sometimes verbally identical with 'Jacob's Well', ed. A. Brandeis (Early English Text Society 115, 1900), pp. 294-300. 2. ff. 13-38v. 'Of þe Passion' of crist Als wittenes Nichodeme. Bitid ye tyme yat Tiberius ...' The Gospel of Nicodemus in verse. Printed from this copy by W. H. Hulme, 'The Middle-English Harrowing of Hell and Gospel of Nicodemus' (Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 100, 1907), pp. 23-134. f. 31 is a small fragment only (cf. Hulme ed., p. 101). 3. ff. 39-47v. 'Fadir and son and haly gaste / Alle myghty god in Trinite / Thurgh bysekyng of mary chaste ... hider I come with ye rede of ye' (ends imperfectly). A dialogue of St. Bernard and Our Lady, here without title. Edited by C. Horstman, 'Yorkshire writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole, an English father of the Church, and his followers', ii (1896), 274-9 (lines 1-413). 4. ff. 48-133v. 'Þe might of ye fader almyghty ...' The 'Prick of Conscience', a popular devotional poem concerning the state of mankind, worldly life, death, purgatory, doomsday, the torments of hell and the joys of heaven. Ends imperfectly at line 9220 of the edition by Richard Morris (1863) and wanting nine leaves before this point, with lines 748-821, 4107-220, 4430-537, 4641- 848, 5320-447, 6720-7034. For editions see: 'The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus Conscientiæ). A Northumbrian poem. Copied and edited from manuscripts in the Library of the British Museum, with an introduction, notes, and a glossarial index.' ed. Richard Morris (Berlin, 1863). 'Prik of Conscience', ed. by James H. Morey. TEAMS Middle English Text Series (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2012). 'Richard Morris's Prick of Conscience. A corrected and amplified reading text', ed.Ralph Hanna and Sarah Wood. Early English Text Society Original Series 342, 2013. 5. f. 134. A parchment leaf. Part of the office for Friday in the third week of Advent on the upper half of a leaf of a noted missal in an English hand, formerly used as a paste-down. 15th cent. Cf. 'The Sarum Missal, edited from three early manuscripts', ed. J. W. Legg (Oxford, 1916), p. 20.

14th century-15th century

LPL