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Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse

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John Mirk
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George Shuffelton
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description

Among the surviving Middle English manuscripts produced in the fifteenth century, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61 stands out from a body of literary production otherwise dominated by professional scribes in London and other urban centers. The work of a lone scribe drawing on regional networks of literary circulation in the northern Midlands and Yorkshire, Codex Ashmole 61 belongs to a rising trend of “amateur productions” by individuals and families among the gentry and urban merchant classes in this period. Although this manuscript’s contents have been previously published in scattered and hard-to-find collections, the present edition by George Shuffelton collects these texts and extensive notes in one comprehensive volume. Gathering together a wide range of material including popular romances, saints’ lives, moral exempla, comic tales, and religious literature, Codex Ashmole 61 offers rare and valuable insights into the devotional habits, cultural values, and popular tastes of late medieval England.

time periods
16th Century
publisher
Medieval Institute Publications
publisher location
Kalamazoo, Michigan
publication year
additional information
Cover design by Linda K. Judy.
contents
  1. General Introduction
  2. Introductions to Items
    1. Introductions to Items 1-11
    2. Introductions to Items 12-20
    3. Introductions to Items 21-30
    4. Introductions to Items 31-41
  4. Ashmole 61
    1. Item 1, Saint Eustace
      1. Item 2, Right as a Ram's Horn
        1. Item 3, How the Wise Man Taught His Son
          1. Item 4, How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter
            1. Item 5, Sir Isumbras
              1. Item 6, The Ten Commandments
                1. Item 7, Stans Puer ad Mensam
                  1. Item 8, Dame Courtesy
                    1. Item 9, Latin Epigram
                      1. Item 10, The Rules for Purchasing Land
                        1. Items 11a and 11b, Latin Epigram
                          1. Item 12, An Evening Prayer
                            1. Item 13, A Morning Prayer
                              1. Item 14, The Ten Commandments (False Start)
                                1. Item 15, A Prayer to Mary
                                  1. Item 16, The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools
                                    1. Item 17, A Prayer at the Levation
                                      1. Item 18, The Knight Who Forgave His Father's Slayer
                                        1. Item 19, The Erle of Tolous
                                          1. Item 20, Lybeaus Desconus
                                            1. Item 21, Sir Corneus
                                              1. Item 22, The Jealous Wife
                                                1. Item 23, The Incestuous Daughter
                                                  1. Item 24, Sir Cleges
                                                    1. Item 25, The Feasts of All Saints and All Souls
                                                      1. Item 26, The King and His Four Daughters
                                                        1. Item 27, Ypotis
                                                          1. Item 28, The Northern Passion
                                                            1. Item 29, The Short Charter of Christ
                                                              1. Item 30, The Lament of Mary
                                                                1. Item 31, The Dietary
                                                                  1. Item 32, Maidstone's Seven Penitential Psalms
                                                                    1. Item 33, Stimulus Consciencie Minor
                                                                      1. Item 34, The Stations of Jerusalem
                                                                        1. Item 35a, The Sinner's Lament
                                                                          1. Item 35b, The Adulterous Falmouth Squire
                                                                            1. Item 36, The Legend of the Resurrection
                                                                              1. Item 37, Saint Margaret
                                                                                1. Item 38, The Wounds and the Sins
                                                                                  1. Item 39, Sir Orfeo
                                                                                    1. Item 40, Vanity
                                                                                      1. Item 41, King Edward and the Hermit
                                                                                      3. Bibliography