25 - Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 693

Summary

Confessio Amantis, with Latin addenda

London, s.xv, first quarter

Contents

1

(fol. 1ra–196ra) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 1–3114*

Torpor hebes sen|sus scola parua mi|nimusque, etc. (6 lines of Latin verse).

Of hem þat writen us to fore < > Oure ioie may ben endeles. Amen.

(This last line is the single line of English text at the top of fol. 196ra)

Prologue (fol. 1ra); Book I (fol. 7va); Book II (fol. 27vb); Book III (fol. 48vb); Book IV (fol. 64vb, Latin verses; fol. 65ra, Latin gloss, English text, and initial); Book V (fol. 86va); Book VI (fol. 131ra); Book VII (fol. 145ra); Book VIII (fol. 177va, Latin verses and start of gloss; fol. 177vb, rest of gloss, English text, and initial).

The omission of I.161, where ‘Iohn Gowere’ is named in BL, MS Egerton 1991 and Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 294, may be due to uncertainty about naming the author at this point. The line is similarly omitted in three other MSS (see Macaulay [ed.], Works, II.40). Most MSS, including Bodleian, MS Fairfax 3, have a different line, referring to the speaker as ‘a Caitiff’.

Text: collated by Macaulay (sigil B2): Ic. See Macaulay (ed.), Works, II.cl.

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. 196ra) ‘Explicit iste liber’

Explicit iste liber < > sub eo requiesce futurus

Longer six-line version with added dedication to Henry IV.

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

3

(fol. 196ra) ‘Quam cinxere freta’

Quam cinxere freta < > stat sine meta

With rubric, ‘Epistola super huius, etc.’

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

4

(fol. 196ra–b) ‘Quia vnusquisque’

Quia unusquisque < > specialiter intitulatur

Earlier version, favourable to Richard II.

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

Illustration

At fol. 4va there is a small picture of the Statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, occupying eight lines following Prol. 594 and sharing the column with the Latin gloss.