Notes on Some Interrelations between the Latin and English Texts of the Ancrene Riwle

Abstract

In his notable article on the Ancrene Riwle, Macaulay made the first attempt to classify the English MSS on the basis of their readings.1He divided them into two groups: (1) BVP, which share a number of additions, and (2) CTNG, in which these additions do not occur or occur only by insertion in a different hand. The “additions” of B, as Macaulay himself notes, are so-called only with reference to the currently known text of N. But he evidently regards them as additions also with reference to the original text; for after discussing in detail inconsistencies between B and the other group of MSS in two of these passages, he adds (p. 151) :Considering this, and also the unanimity with which the whole number of passages is rejected by the other thirteenth century manuscripts, so far as their original texts are concerned, I am disposed to think that they may be regarded as interpolations generally, and that we must assume that CTNG, though much inferior in general correctness of text to B, yet represent a more original form in this respect.