A Chaucerian reader of Trevisa.

Edwards, A.S.G.

Cambridge, St John's College, MS 204 (H.1) is a particularly handsome copy of Trevisa's translation of the Polychronicon(1) produced in London in the early fifteenth century.(2) The text has been carefully annotated throughout in a small, well-formed hand also of the early fifteenth century. In general, these annotations serve to note the exemplary or historical implications of the narrative.

However, at a couple of points the annotations reveal a more specifically literary sensibility. On f. [80.sup.va], just prior to the discussion of Noah's ark (Book 11, ch. v) there is the following note in the lower margin: 'Ryth as owth3 of olde feeldes comyth newe corn so owth of olde bokes comyth new doctryne.' Although Parliament of Fowls 22--5 did come in part, at least, to achieve proverbial status,(3) both the earliness of the hand and its closeness to the original suggests that the comment was prompted by Chaucer's work. It is doubless intended to apply to the following passage in this column : 'pat tyme men wiste, as Adam hadde i-seide pat pey schulde be destroyed by fuyr oper by water, perfore bookes pat pey hadde i-made by grete trauaille and studie pei closede hem in tweie greet pileres' (II, 233).(4)

A little later, in a passage in Book 111, ch. xi, there occurs the following note: 'Take hede what fresche may of wymmen is klepyd of thys phylysophy' (f. [III.sup.rb]). While the sentiment expressed is not as clear as one might wish, its derivation is. 'Fresshe May' is almost invariably so designated in the Merchant's Tale (e.g., IV 1782, 1859, 1871, 1882, 1886, 1932, 1955, 2054, 2092, 2100, 2166, 2328). The annotator's comment may be intended to link her to a passage in this column where it is noted: 'Pictagoras seide pat chastite is verray noble array of olde modres' (III, 191).

A. S. G. EDWARDS University of Victoria, BC, Canada

NOTES

(1)For a description of this manufacript, see M.R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College Cambridge (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 235-6.

(2)See A. I. Doyle and M. B. Parkes, 'The production of copies of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the early fifteenth century', in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries: Essays presented to N. R. Ker (London, 1978), pp. 206-10, where this scribe (designated 'delta') and his activities are discussed.

(3)See B. J. and Helen W. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly before 1500 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), F 128.

(4)Trevisa is cited from the Rolls Series edition: Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, ed. by C. Babington and J. R. Lumby, 9 vols. (1865-86), by volume and page.