43 - New York, NY, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library, MS M.126

Summary

Confessio Amantis, with ‘Explicit iste liber’, ‘Quam cinxere’, ‘Quia unusquisque’, an index (unusually) and many miniatures.

s.xv, third quarter.

Contents

1

(fols 1ra–204rb) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 1–VIII.3114*end.

Torpor hebes sensus scola parua labor, etc. (6 lines of Latin verse) Of hem that wryten us before < > Oure Ioye may been endelees | AMEN

Prologue (fols 1ra–7vb) with right side of first leaf torn away with loss of text from col. b, ends of lines from line 46* to line 65*; Book I (fols 7vb–28vb); Book II (fols 28vb–50va); Book III (fols 50va–67va); Book IV (fols 67va–89ra) lacking one leaf, with loss of IV.842–990; Book V (fols 89rb–135va); Book VI (fols 135va–149va); Book VII (fols 149vb–185va); Book VIII (fols 185vb–204rb).

Text: Ib. Not known to Macaulay, except for nine miniatures that Mr A. H. Frere, the then owner, allowed him to see (Macaulay [ed.], Works, II.clxvi–ii). See PROVENANCE, below. Close textual affiliations with Bodleian MSS Fairfax 3 and Bodley 902 are noted by Martha Driver, ‘More Light on Ricardus Franciscus: Looking Again at Morgan M.126’, South Atlantic Review, 34 (2015), 20–35.

For further information about the following Latin and French addenda that Gower caused to be added to MSS of the Confessio, see Appendix III.

2

(fol. 204rb) ‘Explicit iste liber’

Explicit iste liber < > sub eo requiesce futurus (in red)

Later six-line version with dedication to the earl of Derby (though this is generally a MS of the early version).

Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.478.

3

(fol. 204rb) ‘Quam cinxere’

Quam cinxere freta < > stat sine meta (in red)

With initial rubric ‘Epistola huius operis siue opusculi’

Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.479.

4

(fols 204rb–va) ‘Quia vnusquisque’ (in red)

Quia vnusquisque < > specialiter intitulatur | Deo gracias

Long concluding rubric to the Confessio, listing Gower’s three main

works, with praise of Richard.

Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.460.

Fols 205–06 ruled but blank.

5

Fols 207r–212rb An alphabetical index by the original scribe, with headings to help the user find a particular story or piece of advice, e.g. ‘A kyng that putte .iij.