Extracts in prose and verse from an old English medical manuscript, preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm / Communicated by George Stephens, through Sir Henry Ellis.

  • George Stephens
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts in prose and verse from an old English medical manuscript, preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm / Communicated by George Stephens, through Sir Henry Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Transcript of pp.417-418 Eos marine is bothen erbe & tre. hot and drie of kende hys lewys arn eu^rmore grene & neuer more falty as techy bokes of fysik and ek bokys of skole of sallerne wrot to ye countess of hernaunde and sche sente ye copy to hyr<f dowter phelyp qwen of Ingelond. It may also be mentioned that, at page 138, after a sovereign remedy for the palsy, we have these words: Et hoc p>-abatum est q** Gastell. Now the only Philippa of Hainault who ever became Queen of England was the spouse of Edward 111, and was married to that monarch in 1328. She lived till 1369, and consequently if our MS. was written during her lifetime it cannot be later than the above date. But as this outward proof is very uncertain, we must fall back upon its inward characteristics. These are, first, the paper, and second, the pictura and spelling. 1. The paper is thick, with three different watermarks: A. a bull's head. B. an anchor. C. a pair of spectacles (the old-fashioned karna.de s )• 2. The pictura is not Elizabethan, but decidedly much older. The spelling I imagine to be not later than the period pointed out by the above ex- tract, viz. 1350-1400. This I infer more particularly from the many transition forms from barbarous Anglo-Saxon to the language of Chaucer, and from the retention of the Anglo-Saxon J?. I imagine, therefore, that the LIS. was written in the reign of Edward 111, but certainly not later than that of Richard 11. For the rest I would beg to remark as follows: 1. In the first and third parts, pp.1-91 and 105 ad fin. the scribe has used the Anglo-Saxon and its child and corruption the y almost promiscuous- ly* 2. In the second part, pp.91-104, on the contrary, the Anglo-Saxon ]? is always written very distinctly for th, and is never confounded with the vowel y. 3. In the first and third parts there are no points, except here and there (very seldom) a dot. 4. In the second part the dots are numerous: often placed in the middle of the sentence.