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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
* It has been thought sufficient to give the four following as the most interesting of the numerous versions of this popular theme. The English version, of which two texts are given (Nos. 2 and 3), is closely translated from the Latin; one is given in the long lines, the other in short, as they are arranged in the original manuscripts. The English version, No. 4, is evidently founded upon the Anglo-Norman version, and differs considerably from the Latin. The following list contains all the different versions of the Dialogue between the Body and the Soul with which I am at present acquainted, and will serve to show its great popularity in former days.
1. Anglo-Saxon.—In the Exeter Manuscript, fol. 98, r°. (of the tenth century), commencing:
Huru ðæs behofab
hæleba æghwylc
bæt he his sawle-sið
sylfa bewitige.
2. Latin.—Dialogus inter Corpus et Animam, the poem printed in the present volume. Leyser (Hist. Poet. Med. ÆV. p. 997) mentions a Disputatio inter Corpus et Animam, in Latin Leonines, preserved in a MS. at Leipzig, and attributed to Robert Grosseteste, and therefore of the thirteenth century.
3. Anglo-Norman.—The version printed above, which is certainly not more modern than the beginning of the thirteenth century. It is written in the same kind of verse as the poems of Phillippe de Thaun, in the first half of the twelfth century.
4. English—The earliest form in which I have met with this legend is represented in a fragment at Cambridge (MS. Coll. Trin. B. 14, 39.) of the beginning of the thirteenth century. All that remains is the following lines. The poem, when complete, appears to have been a mixture of alliterative verses with rhyming couplets, like the Bestiary and the Proverbs of Alfred, printed in the Reliquiae Antiquæ, i. pp. 170 and 208. The Proverbs of Alfred are found in the same MS.
Nou is mon hoi J soint,
J huvel him muit in mund;
thenne me seint aftir be prist,
bat wel con reden him to Crist.
Afteir be prist boib i-comin,
be feirliche deit him han i-no …
me prikit him on wul clohit,
J legget him by be won.
A moruen bobin sout J norit,
me nimit bat bodi J berit hit …
me grauit him put ob ston
ber in me leit be sinful bon.
benne sait be soule to the licam,
wey! bat ic ever in be com;
bu neldes friday festen to no …
ne be setterday almesses don,
ne ben sonneday gon to chu …
ne cristene werkes wrch …
neir bu never so prit …
of hude J of hewe,
bu salt in herbe wonien
J wormes to cheuen,
J of alle ben lot
bat her be we … slewe.
In the course of the thirteenth century, was composed the English poem which forms No. 2 of the versions I have printed in this Appendix. Several copies of this poem, written at different periods, and presenting some varieties, are preserved. It may be sufficient to indicate, besides the second copy printed above (No. 3), the copy in the Auchinlech MS. at Edinburgh (early in the fourteenth century) entitled Disputisoun betuen the bodi and the soule, and beginning thus,
As y lay in a winteres night
In a droupening bifor the day,
Me thought y seighe a selli sight,
A bodi opon a bere lay.
Two copies among the Digby MSS. at Oxford, one, Digby, No. 102, entitled Disputacio inter corpus et animam, and beginning thus,
As I lay in a winter nyst
In a derkyng bifore be day,
Me ðoust I se a selly sight,
A body on a bere lay.
The other, Digby, No. 86, fol. 195, v°, beginning thus,
On an thester stude I stod
An luitel striff to here,
Hif an bodi ðat was oungod,
Ther hit lai on ðe bere.
These two are perhaps of the thirteenth century: the latter agrees with our No. 4. Another copy of the fourteenth century is preserved in the Royal Library in the British Museum, 13 A. X. and begins thus,
As I lay in a wynter nyght,
A litel drouknynge befor the day,
Me thoughte I sey a rewely syght,
A body there it on bere lay.
Another copy is preserved in MS. Douce, No. 54, fol. 36, v° (now in the Bodleian Library).
5. Greek.—Probably of the thirteenth century, in a MS. in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, No. 8 (in Bernard's Catalogue). See the note at p. 95 of the present volume.
6. Provençal.—Lou contract del cars e de l'arma, begun by Peter d'Alveria, and completed by Riccardo Aquiero di Lambesco. (Galvanis, Osservaz. sulla poesia de' Trovatori, p. 296, Karajan, Frühl., p. 159.)
7. French.—De le desputison de l'ame et del cors, in a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the library of the Arsenal at Paris, No. 283, fol. 145, v°. (Monmerqué et Michel, Lai d'lgnaurés, p. 40.) There is an early French version, in a MS. of the Bodleian Library, perhaps of the fourteenth century. (MS. Selden, No. 74, Bern. 3462.) Le Debat du Corps et de l'Ame, was printed with the Danse Macabre des Femmes, sm, fol. Paris, 1486, and with Le Miroire de l'Ame, without date, but of the fifteenth century. Brunet mentions an early 8vo. without date or name of place, entitled, Le Débat du Corps et de l'Ame et la Vision de l'Ermite; and says that the poem is contained in several editions of the Danse Macabre and of the Miroirde l'Ame. A modern French philosophical poem has been formed on this legend, entitled Le Corps et l'Ame, by M. Franc, de Neufchateau, 1824.
8. German.—Two versions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, printed by v. Karajan. See p. 95 of the present volume.
9. Netherlandish.—Van der Zielen ende van den Lîchame, perhaps of the thirteenth century. Described by Mone, TJbersicht der Niederl. Volksliteratur, p. 279 ; printed by Blommaert, in his edition of Theophilus, Ghent, 1836, and in the Belgisch Museum, 1838.
10. Spanish.—A version of the fourteenth century, in a MS. of that date in the Escurial. (Karajan, p. 162.) Dialogo entre el cuerpo y el alma, a printed copy. (Catalogue des Livres de laBibl. de M. J. L. D*****, Paris, 1834, p. 74.) There is a copy of the Spanish romance of the Body and Soul in the British Museum, printed in two 4to leaves, Madrid, 1764, with the title, Curioso y nuevo Romance, para contemplar en la hora de la muerta, y considerar el gran dolor que siente el Alma quando se despide del Cuerpo, para ir ù dàr cuenta estrecña á nuestro Dios y Señor.
11. Italian.—An imitation, under the title Contentione infra lanhna et corpo, by Jacopone da Todi, printed in 1490, commencing,
Audite un an tenzione
chen fra lanima el corpo,
bataglia dura troppo,
fina lo consumare, &c.
In this poem the contention is made to take place before the death of the body. (Karajan, Frühl. p. 162.)
12. Danish.—En fortabt Sjaels Kjaeremaal over Kroppen, printed in 1510. (Nyerup and Rahbek, Bidrag til den Danske Digtekunsts Historie, i. p. 130.) There was likewise a Swedish version. (See Karajan, p. 164.)