Although few concrete details exist about the fourteenth-century manuscript known as London, British Library MS Harley 2253, it contains one of the most important surviving literary collections from medieval England. In rarity, quality and abundance, its collection of secular love lyrics is unrivaled, accompanying delicate lyrics of religious devotion and contemporary political songs preserved in no other manuscript. Beyond these Middle English treasures are no less intriguing French and Latin works: four fabliaux (the largest set from medieval England), three Anglo-Saxon saints' lives, and numerous satires, comedies, debates, interludes, collected sayings, conduct literature, Bible stories, dream interpretations, and pilgrim guides. This phenomenal range owes to the Ludlow scribe, the manuscript's compiler and copyist, himself credited with authoring parts of the collection. Volume 3 presents Booklet 5's last works and Booklets 6 and 7 of the manuscript, including a handbook of practical religion and the largest English collection of Anglo-Norman fabliaux.



Susanna Fein is Professor of English and coordinator of the Arts and Sciences minor in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Kent State University. David Raybin is Professor of English at Eastern Illinois University. Jan Ziolkowski is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University, and director of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.



Acknowledgments



Introduction



MS Harley 2253: Texts and Translations



Booklet 5



71. Ludlow Scribe, Estoyres de la Bible / Ludlow Scribe, Old Testament Stories



72. Nomina librorum bibliotece / Names of the Books of the Bible



Booklet 6



73. God that al this myhtes may / God Who Wields All This Might



74. Lustneth, alle, a lutel throwe / The Sayings of Saint Bernard



75. Le jongleur d'Ely e le roi d'Angleterre / The Jongleur of Ely and the King of England



75a. Les trois dames qui troverunt un vit / The Three Ladies Who Found a Prick



76. Le dit des femmes / The Song on Women



77. Le blasme des femmes / The Blame of Women



78. Nicholas Bozon, Femmes a la pye / Nicholas Bozon, Women and Magpies



79. Un sage honme de grant valour / Urbain the Courteous



80. Talent me prent de rymer e de geste fere / Trailbaston



81. Mon in the mone stond ant strit / The Man in the Moon



82. Le chevaler e la corbaylle / The Knight and the Basket



83. De mal mariage / Against Marriage



84. La gagure, ou L'esquier e la chaunbrere / The Wager, or The Squire and the Chambermaid



85. A bok of swevenyng / A Book of Dreaming



86. Ordre de bel ayse / The Order of Fair Ease



87. Le chevaler qui fist les cons parler / The Knight Who Made Vaginas Talk



88. Of rybauds Y ryme ant red o my rolle / Satire on the Retinues of the Great



89. Mon that wol of wysdam heren / Hending



90. When man as mad a kyng of a capped man / The Prophecy of Thomas of Erceldoune



91. La destinccioun de la estature Jesu Crist Nostre Seigneur / Distinguishing Features of the Bodily Form of Jesus Christ Our Lord



92. Lutel wot hit any mon hou love hym haveth ybounde / The Way of Christ's Love



93. Lutel wot hit any mon hou derne love may stonde / The Way of Woman's Love



94. Enseignements de saint Lewis a Philip soun fitz / The Teachings of Saint Louis to His Son Philip



95. L'enqueste que le patriarche de Jerusalem fist / The Land of the Saracens



96. Les armes des roys / Heraldic Arms of Kings



97. Scriptum quod peregrini deferunt / Letter for Pilgrims on the Relics at Oviedo



98. Legenda de sancto Etfrido, presbitero de Leoministria / The Legend of Saint Etfrid, Priest of Leominster



99. Quy chescun jour de bon cuer cest oreisoun dirra / Prayer for Protection



Booklet 7



100. Quant vous levez le matyn / Occasions for Angels



101. Quy velt que Dieu sovyegne de ly / Occasions for Psalms in French



102. Gloria in excelsis Deo en fraunceis / Glory to God in the Highest in French



103. Confiteor tibi, Deus, omnia peccata mea / Prayer of Confession



104. Gloriouse Dame / Prayer on the Five Joys of Our Lady



105. Rex seculorum et Domine dominator / Prayer for Contrition



106. Um doit plus volentiers juner le vendredy / Reasons for Fasting on Friday



107. Quy est en tristour / Seven Masses To Be Said in Misfortune



108. Cely que fra ces messes chaunter / Seven Masses in Honor of God and Saint Giles



108a. Je vous requer, Jaspar, Melchior, e Baltazar / Prayer to the Three Kings



109. Mundus iste totus quoddam scaccarium est / All the World's a Chess Board



109a. Quy chescun jour denz seissaunte jours / Three Prayers That Never Fail



110. Contra inimicos si quos habes / Occasions for Psalms in Latin



111. Seint Hillere archevesque de Peyters ordina ces salmes / Occasions for Psalms Ordained by Saint Hilary of Poitiers



112. Eulotropia et celidonia / Heliotrope and Celandine



113. De interrogandi moribundis beati Anselmi / Saint Anselm's Questions to the Dying



114. Dieu, roy de magesté / Against the King's Taxes



115. Contemplacioun de la passioun Jesu Crist / Seven Hours of the Passion of Jesus Christ



116. De martirio sancti Wistani / The Martyrdom of Saint Wistan



Explanatory Notes



Textual Notes



Appendix: Full Contents of MS Harley 2253



Volume 3: Index of First Lines



Volume 3: Index of Manuscripts Cited



Volume 3: Index of Proper Names



Bibliography