Middle English Manuscripts : The Pore Caitif

Middle English Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The Pore Caitif (Poor Wretch) was a popular fourteenth-century compilation of fourteen treatises intended for the religious instruction of the laity, and has variously been attributed to John Wycliffe and Richard Rolle. It survives in more than fifty manuscripts.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>(1) folios<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>1r-119v</a>, Pore Caitif. Jolliffe, A check-list of Middle English prose writings of spiritual guidance, B. This and twenty-two other manuscripts containing all fourteen parts are listed by M.T. Brady in Traditio, vol. 10 (1954), pp. 529-48. Part 1, on the Creed, begins imperfectly at folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>1r</a>, 'do but also of dedis left undo' (probably eight leaves are missing), lacks a leaf after folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(14);return false;'>1v</a>, and ends imperfectly at folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(22);return false;'>5v</a>, 'Seynt symond seide. I bileeue forȝifnesse of' (one leaf missing); part 2, on the Commandments, begins imperfectly at folio <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(23);return false;'>6r</a>, 'þerfore ech man and womman', and lacks a leaf after f. 21; part 3, on the Lord's Prayer, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(115);return false;'>52r</a>; part 4, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(144);return false;'>66v</a>; part 5, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(151);return false;'>70r</a>; part 6, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(157);return false;'>73r</a>; part 7, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(159);return false;'>74r</a> ; part 8, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(174);return false;'>81v </a> (running title 'þe hors'); part 9, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(192);return false;'>90v</a>; part 10, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(200);return false;'>94v</a>; part 11, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(208);return false;'>98v</a>; part 12, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(215);return false;'>102r</a>; part 13, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(218);return false;'>103v</a>; part 14, folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(224);return false;'>106v</a>; it lacks a leaf after folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(232);return false;'>110v</a> and all after 'þis is my filosofie. þis is my victorie'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>(2) folio<a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(251);return false;'>120r</a> (flyleaf), on recto, Directions for masses, etc., beginning imperfectly: 'of all the apostolus wt xii candelys xii almysdedys and offyr as tohu (sic) dydys before... proued of the Court of Rome'. Directions for (Wednesday), Thursday, Friday, and Saturday votive masses and for saying the eight verses of St Bernard to help deliver souls from purgatory. On verso, an early 15th-century prayer: 'Domine ihesu criste fili dei viui qui gloriosum corpus tuum... per eundem cristum dominum nostrum Amen'.</p>


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