Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/11

 S. NO 1., JAJT. 5. '56.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

by several manuscripts (MSS. Corp. Coll., Cambr., 174.; Pub. Libr. Cambr., More, 611.; Lambeth, 491.); and also, by the prefatory heading in many other copies (although these copies are really continued to a later period), in which it is ^expressly stated, that the work comprised, in 138 chapters, the lives and acts of 132 kings, from the time of Brute to the reign of Edward III. (see MSS. Plarl. 24., 2182., 4827. ; Digby, 185. ; Add. 12,030.). None of the copies I have examined arc older, however, than the fifteenth century ; and it would be desirable to know if those re- ferred to at Cambridge are coeval with the period at which they conclude. By far the greater number of the copies of this Chronicle, now exist- ing, are continued down to the siege of Rouen, in "The year 1418 ; and end with the words, " sette in rule and good governaunce." In many copies, the work commences with the rubric (occasionally a little varied), Here may a man here how Eng- londe was furste called Albyon, ffc, (MSS. Harl. 2248., 2256., 2279., 4690., 4930., 1568. ; Rennie, 753., &c.). But in other copies is a longer exor- dium, commencing, " Here begynnethe a booke in Englysshe tung, that is called Brute of Englan.de" &c. (MSS. Harl. 24., 3730.; Royal, 18. A. ix. ; Add. 12,030. ; Digby, 185. ; Ash mole, 793., &c.) ; and in others, " Heere byginneth a boke which is called Brute, the Cronycles of Englonde " (MSS. Harl. 2182. 4827.), or " Here begynnythe a -book callyd the Croniculis of Englond" (MSS. Harl. 1337., 6251.). All these copies, however, agree in commencing the prefatory chapter (some- times marked cap. 1 .), thus : " In the noble land of Surrye," or " Som tyme in the noble londe of Surreye." In this chapter is the story of Albine, and the next, beginning " In the noble citee of grete Troye," goes on with the Trojan legend. The English version, in general, agrees tolerably _well with that of the revised French text pre- viously described ; which is certainly the original followed by the translator. Who this translator was, we are informed by some lines, first noticed by myself, at the end of one of the copies of the English Brute (MS. Harl. 2279.), in which we are told :

" This English booke that is present,

was made to a good entent, For hem that Englishe understonde,

of the Cronicles of Engelonde. This was translated by good avyse,

owt of French into Englyse, " By sire John the Maundevyle,

that hath ben Person but a whvle In Brunham. Thorp, that little tone ;

God graunt him hise benysone ! The yeer of Henry, I understoude,

the Sexte, Kyng of Engelonde, After the conquest, soth to sevne,

the xiii. yere of hise reygne. 1435." We learn from Blomfield's Norfolk, vol. iii. ed. 1769, that John Maundevile was presented to

the Rectory of Burnham Thorp, in that county, in 1427, and held it till 1441 ; a period that agrees very well with the age of most of the MSS. It must be observed, however, that this copy is not complete, but ends in 1340, and the lines above are copied in a hand of the sixteenth century from some other manuscript, which may possibly still exist in one of our public or private libraries.

In collating the copies of the English Chronicle, they will be found to agree essentially, but with -many verbal variations, as is invariably the case with works of this class, and some copies have still more important differences, the chief of which may be here pointed out. In the MSS. Harl. 753., 2256., and one at Holkham, No. 670., a long poem is inserted in the narrative of the siege of" Rouen (which was printed by me in the Archceo- logia, vol. xxii.), and the two Harleian MSS. are

Continued to the 8 Hen. VI. (1430), ending with the capture of the " wicche of Fraunce, that was called the Puchelle." The Harl. MSS. 1337. and 6251. vary still more remarkably from the usual text, and if we might suppose a first translation^ which was afterwards revised and augmented, these would seem to bear that character. After Ar- thur's death, several chapters are left out, and Conan is made to succeed to the sovereignty im- mediately after him ; the prophecies of Merlin relative lo Henry III., Edward I. and II., are also omitted (as in the original French text) ; and although the substance of the text remains the same, the language differs often very much, and

"the text itself is more abbreviated, passing in one instance abruptly from the battle of Gaskmore (1331) to the 29 Edw. III. (1355), and abridging the narrative of the siege of Rouen, with which these copies end.

In regard to Caxton'g edition of The Cronicles of Englond, in 1480, which was continued by him from the reign of Henry VI. down to the be- ginning of the reign of Edward IV. (1460), its identity with the manuscript copies has been already proved by Lewis in his Life of Caxton, who states truly " that they are the same, only the old and obsolete language is sometimes altered, to make it more intelligible ; " to which may be added, that the MSS. are often fuller than the printed text. In the MS. Add. 10,099. and MS. Lambeth, 264., the Chronicle is also continued to the reign of Edward IV. ; but these are evidently only transcripts from the printed edition, with "some alterations made by the transcribers. In the hands, however, of a member of Pembroke College, Oxford, is another copy, continued to the ame period, and containing some valuable ad- ditions subsequent to the reign of Edward III. Caxton's edition was reprinted by Machlinia, without date, and again by Gerard de Leew, at Antwerp, in 1493. After this appeared The Croniclis of Englonde, with the Frute of Timis,