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 Rh ), for (I ), for (I ), and for (I ) survive in C alone. Dullness on the part of the copyists may have wrought irreparable damage. The fine verse (C at I ), which depicts the angels Hárút and Márút gazing wrathfully "from the lattice (of Heaven)" upon a world sunk in sin,in AB loses all its imaginative quality and becomes a dry statement of fact:

Since it is clear from the preceding analysis that C gives the text of the Mathnawí in an older form than AB, I could not hesitate to make it the basis of my edition in respect of that portion of the poem which it covers, namely, the First Book. Lacunae in C have been supplied from A. The points of divergence between C and my text will be noted when I come to speak of the general principles which have guided me in preparing the present edition.

Amongst the MSS. used for Book II (ABDL), there is none that stands out eminently from the rest. D, on which my text is based, has few readings peculiar to itself. Old as it is, it cannot be ranked with C; indeed I consider that in some respects it is inferior to A, and where A has preserved readings which are to be preferred for reasons similar to those stated above, I have as a rule adopted them, even against the authority of the other MSS. If the accidental lacuna in D (vv. ) is left out of account, D omits 41, A 30, and B 9 of the verses included in the text. D omits 36 verses which occur in A, and A 25 which occur in D, while B omits 8 which occur in AD. The text includes one verse which is found in DL only, and five which are found in BL only. These latter have little claim to authenticity, and I should now be inclined to eject them (see p. 15 infra).

Of the verses, approximately 7800 in number, which compose the text of Books I and II in the two groups of ancient MSS.