Fire and Ice, written at the top of a recto, presents the last five lines of a longer religious poem that does not survive. Preserved here is only a final prayer to the “heye Kynge” who governs Doomsday, requesting that the audience may escape that “tything” (tiding, outcome; line 4). The presence of internal rhymes, and the absence of an initial letter B in line 2, which would have been intended for colored ink (heading a quatrain), indicates a meter identical to that of Will and Wit, The Five Joys of Our Lady Saint Mary, Love Rune, and A Homily on Sooth Love (arts. 9, 11, 19, 26). For a close critical analysis of this lyric (erroneously taken as a complete poem in the manuscript), see Reiss, “Religious Commonplaces,” pp. 97–102.

[Fol. 189r. NIMEV *2284.5. DIMEV 3676. Quire: 4. Meter: 5 surviving septenary lines with internal rhymes, apparently in 4-line stanzas, rhyming aaaa7 (or (ab)(ab)(ab)(ab)7). Layout: Long lines with caesuras and medial and end punctuation. Begins imperfectly. Editions: Morris, pp. 100–01; Oliver, p. 3; Stevick, ed., One Hundred Middle English Lyrics, p. 33 (with regularized spelling). Other MSS: None. Translation: Segar, trans., A Mediæval Anthology, p. 37.]