WILLIAM OF WYTINDE
Vellum, 9.375 x 6, ff. 87, 32 lines to a page. 15th cent., well written, Old leather wrapper : on it : A boke of shryft and concernyng the sacrament of penance.
Donor, T. C. S.
Probably from East Dereham. On the last page is : Ser John Birde (?) de Estderham.
Collation : 112 – 412 514 612 714 (wants 14 : 13 a fragment).
The wrapper is lined with linen, on which is written a name, and also with written parchment.
Contents:
(Of shrift and penance.)
({TH})e vertu of {th}e holi gost be helpynge to us in {th}ys wrytinge to {y}ow seche {th}ynges to schewe wher of a man schulde schryue hym.
By William of Wytinde.
On f. 80 is marked a deficit.
On f. 82a : whanne I fonde any {th}ynge of o{th}er mannes {th}at seyde betore {th}an I
coude by pryde I forsoke hyt nat to putte hyt in {th}ys boke. Of {th}e vrenche
no{th}er of {th}e ryme no man schulde blame me for I was bore in Ingelond and
norschud and ordred of a lytul town {th}at is nat nemned no{th}er burh ne cite….
of god be blessud evry man {th}at prayeth for William of Wytinde.
Ends 87a : and {g}yf me myn waryson in {y}owre swete hows evryman sey amen (ter).
This is a Middle English translation of William of Widdington's Manual des Pechés. See Modern Philology 13, 743.
Carolyn Farkas, Of Shrifte and Penance: The Middle English Prose translation of the Manuel des Pechiez (Dissertation, University of Maryland, 1969).
Klaus Bitterling, Notes and Queries New Series 26 (February 1979), 9.
Tess Singer, Prose Version of Le Manuel Des Peches, edited with an introduction and notes (Dissertation, University of New York, 1972).
H. E. Allen, 'Two middle-English translations from the Anglo-Norman', Modern Philology 13:12 (1916), 167.
G. Laird Charlton, 'Character and Growth of the Manuel des Pechiez', Traditio 4 (1946), 253-306.
E. J. Arnold, Le Manuel des Péchés : étude de littérature religieuse anglo-normande (XIIIme siècle) (Paris, 1940).