Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 1.djvu/31

Nov. 10. 1849.]

I'd rather marry a disease
 * Than court the thing I cannot please;

She that will cherish my desires,
 * Must feed my flames with equal fires.

What pleasure is there in a kiss,
 * To him that doubts the heart's not his?

I love thee, not 'cause thou art fair,
 * Smoother than down, softer than air,

Nor for those Cupids that do lie
 * In either corner of thine eye;

Will you then know what it may be?
 * 'Tis—I love you 'cause you love me.

A knowledge of the intellectual acquirements of the middle ages must be mainly formed upon a consideration of the writings which directed them, or emanated from them. Unfortunately such materials are very imperfect, our knowledge of the existence of works often resting only upon their place in some loosely-entered catalogue—and of the catalogues themselves, the proportion still remaining must be small indeed. Under these circumstances the following documents, which are now for the first time printed, or even noticed, will be found to be of considerable interest. The first is, in modern language, a Power of Attorney, executed by the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, appointing two of the monks of his church to be his procurators for the purpose of receiving from the convent of Anglesey, in Cambridgeshire, a book which had been lent to the late Rector of Terrington. Its precise date is uncertain, but it must be of about the middle of the thirteenth century (1244—1254), as Nicholas Sandwich, the Prior of Christ Church, was the second of four priors who presided between the years 1234 and 1274.

"N. Prior Ecclesiæ Christi Cantuariensis discretis viris et religiosis Domino Priori de Anglesheya et ejusdem loci sacro conventui salutem in Domino. Cum srncera semper caritate noverit fraternitas vestra nos constituisse fratres Gauterum de Hatdfeld et Nicholaum de Grantebrigiense Ecclesisæ nostra monachos latores precencium procuratores nostros ad exigendum et recipiendum librum qui intitulatur..Johannes Crisestomus de laude Apostoli.. In quo etiam volumine continentur Hystoria vetus Britonum quæ Brutus appellatur et tractatus Roberti Episcopi Herfordiæ de compoto. Quæ quondam accommodavimus Magistro Laurentio de Sancto Nicholao tunc Rectori ecclesiæ de Tyrenton. Qui post decessum præfati Magistri L. penes vos morabatur et actenus moratur. In cujus rei testimonium has litteras patentes nostro sigillo signatas vobis transmittimus."

The contents of the book which is the subject of this special embassy are of the character usually found to have formed the staple of monastic libraries, though the particular treatises included in it are not common.

In the Reverend Joseph Hunter's valuable treatise upon English Monastic Libraries occurs a notice of an indenture executed in A.D. 1343, whereby the priory of Henton lent no less than twenty books to another monastic establishment. The deed is described, but not printed. It will be seen that the instrument we have given above is nearly a century earlier; and the minute description of the book given in this document supplies some very curious facts illustrative of the mode of putting together ancient books, which have not hitherto been remarked, for the simple reason that no opportunity for comparison like that presented by the present case has yet been noticed. Among the Cottonian MSS. (Galba E. iv.) is a perfect specimen of an ancient Library Catalogue, which, although not altogether unnoticed, deserves a more careful examination than it has yet received. It relates to the magnificent monastic foundation from which emanated the deed we have printed above, and is headed "Tituli librorum de libraria Ecclesiæ Christi Cantuariensis et contenta in eisdem libris tempore H. Prioris." It is written in that bold hand which prevails so extensively in ecclesiastical MSS., with but little variation, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the end of the fifteenth,—a hand which is not always clearly written, and which therefore, in itself, does not materially assist in the distinction of a date. Now having first assigned the credit of this noble