THE COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL CONTEXT OF OXFORD, JESUS COLLEGE, MS 29(II) AND LONDON, BRITISH LIBRARY, MS COTTON CALIGULA A.IX

Abstract

(foriegn text omitted) Oxford, Jesus College, MS zg(II) (J) and London, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula A.ix (C) are two closely related manuscripts dating from the second half of the thirteenth century, each of which contains a number of poetic works in both English and Anglo-Norman.' They now have nine texts in common - The Oil and the Nightingale, which is preserved only in these two manuscripts;2 two hagiographical works by an Anglo-Norman poet known only as 'Chardri' (the Vie des set dormant and He de Josaphaz; an AngloNorman debate-poem called the Petit Plet- also generally ascribed to Chardri;3 and six English religious lyrics. A seventh lyric in C (Will and Wit) was probably also contained in J before the page was lost.4 The only texts in C besides these are a short Anglo-Norman prose chronicle, Li Rei de Engleterre, and a copy of La3amon's Brut- one of only two in existence, the other being London, British Library, MS Cotton Otho C.xiii. The Brut s nineteenthcentury editor, Frederic Madden, believed that the section of the manuscript containing the Brut was originally separate from the rest, but Neil Ker has argued that the two parts belonged together `from the first'.6 J is also a bipartite volume, but, in this case, part ii is entirely unrelated to the much later manuscript with which it is bound.7 As well as the texts held in common with C, J contains eighteen other English religious lyrics (including the wellknown Luue-Ron of Thomas of Hales8 and the Poema morale);9 part of Guillaume le Clerc's Tobie;'o some sayings ascribed to King Alfred; a versified moral treatise, the Doctrinal Sauvage;'2 and two works of reference - a list of the shires of England and a price-setting scale for bread (the only piece in Latin).'3 These two collections have long been regarded as important witnesses to the status and function of vernacular literature in this period. Yet the value of their testimony is greatly reduced by the fact that we know virtually nothing about the actual circumstances in which they were compiled. The linguistic evidence points to a geographical origin in the West Midlands - Herefordshire for J, and Worcestershire for C. There is some circumstantial evidence to support this. Thomas of Hales, whose Luue-Ron survives in J, seems to have taken his surname not from Hales in Gloucestershire but from what was Hales in Shropshire, and is now Halesowen near Birmingham.15 He was apparently a choirboy at Hereford.6 Guillaume le Clerc's Tobie is dedicated to the prior of the canons of St Mary's, Kenilworth, which is in Warwickshire;17 and La3amon, as he tells us himself, was a priest at Areley Kings in Worcestershire. There is nothing to militate against a West Midlands origin for the two manuscripts, either in Betty Hill's study of the owners of J before it was acquired by the College, or in the more recent work by Carole Weinberg on the marginal glosses in Caligula A.ix's copy of the Brut. More difficult to assimilate is the fact that in 1400 several of the texts listed above were recorded in the library of the Premonstratensian abbey at Titchfield in Hampshire.Zo One of the Titchfield manuscripts (Q.III) apparently contained a Vita septem dormientium, a Vita sancti Iosaphat, and an Altercacio inter iuuentutem et senectutem. These three texts are certainly to be identified with the three ascribed to Chardri found in C and J.2' Hill pointed out that Q.III also contained three works labelled Passio Christi, Predicacio sancti Pauli and Vita sancti Thome martiris, just as J contains The Passion of Our Lord (item 1), The Eleven Pains of Hell seen by St Paul (item z9) and The Antiphon of St Thomas (item IG).22 There may also have been a connection between Q.III's Miracula beate Marie and Salutaciones beate Marie and the four Marian pieces contained in J. Elsewhere in the catalogue, in Q.XI, we find more entries for texts on the Passion, this time in company with a work labelled De die iudicij in anglicis exactly the same title as is borne by J's item 12. …