BARBOUR'S BRUCE, ETC.

MRJ number
191
College classmark
G.23

Paper, 8.375 x 5.625, ff. 143, 42 – 45 lines to a page.  15th cent. (1487), in an ugly current hand.

Donor, T. C. S.

Collection : a12 b12 both lost | c12 (wants 1) d12 e12 f14 g12 – 1212 o12 (wants 11, 12).

 

Contents :

          1.   Barbour’s Bruce.

Beginning imperfectly (25 leaves are gone)

                It wes gret pite for to heir   .               .               .               .         f.    26

                ffolk till be tribulit on {th}is maneir.

According to Professor Skeat about 2038 lines are wanting.

Ends f. 163b

          Quhar all wayis liff and liking is.  Amen.

Expl. liber excellentissimi et nobilissimi principis roberti de

    broyss scottorum regis illustrissimi qui quidem liber scriptus

    fuit et finitus in vigilia sancti Johannis baptiste viz. decollacio

    eiusdem per manum J. de R capellani a.d. Millesimo quadrin-

    gentesimo octogesimo septimo.

Epitaphium regis roberti broyss        .               .               .               .               163b

           Hic iacet inuictus Robertus Rex benedictus

           Qui sua gesta legit reperit quot bella peregit.

           Ad libertatem deduxit per probitatem

           Regnum Scottorum. nunc uiuit in arce polorum.

         2.    Inc. documenta matris ad filiam         .               .               .               .               164

           Ye gud wiff schawith ye best scho can

           Quhilk ar the thewis of a gud voman

Ends 167b : Thus bath ar tynt throu vikkidness.

Expl. documentum matris ad filiam per manum J. de R. capellani.

          3.   Inc. documentum notabile  .               .               .               .               .               167b

                For heill of thy body kep wele fra cald {th}i hede

   In 10 stanzas of 8 lines ending :

                This rescript both is of no potingary

                Of master anton nor of master hew

                Till all indifferent richess is dyetry.

Expl. documentum ualde utile quod J. to {y}ow….

 

The text of the whole has been edited for the E. E. T. S. by Professor Skeat.  There are but two MSS of the Bruce, this, and one at Edinburgh: both seem to have been written by J. de Ramsay, this in 1487, the other in 1489.

No. 2 is in Skeat’s ed. p. 523.

No. 3, a Dietary, by Lydgate, turned into Scottish dialect, l.c. p. 537.

Manuscript extra information

Negative Microfilm in St John's College Library.

Klaus Bitterling, 'Der Wortschatz von Barbours 'Bruce'' (Dissertation, Berlin, 1970).
I. C. Cunningham, 'Bruce and Wallace (National Library of Scotland Advocates' Manuscript 19.2.2)', Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions 4 (1974 for 1955-71), 247-52.
R. Girvan, Ratis raving and other early Scots poems on morals (Edinburgh, 1939).
M. P. McDiarmid and J. A. C. Stevenson (eds.), Barbour's Bruce, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1980-85), vol. 3, pp. 263-64.
F. W. Mühleisen, Untersuchungen über die Verwandtschaft der Überlieferungen von Barbour's Bruce (Bonn, 1912).
T. F. Mustanoja (ed.), The good wife taught her daughter (Helsinki, 1948).
J. Roberts, Guide to scripts used in English writings up to 1500 (London, 2005), pp. 238-9, no. 54, pl. 54 (fol. 163v).
P. R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (Cambridge, 1988) vol. I, p. 88, no. 307; vol. II pl. 330 (fol. 158).