Item alia oracio.

Domine Jesu C[h]riste! per illam amaritudinem mortis quam sustinuisti pro me in cruce, maxime cum anima tua egressa fuit de corpore tuo; miserere anime in gressu suo. Amen.*

APPENDIX II.

[Royal MS. 17 A. XXVII. ff. 86 b-88 b.]

We redenne in the Lyf of Seynt Bernard, that the Bebelle seyd to him, he knew biij. versus in the Sauter, tho wheche versus and a man sey hem wche day, he schal never be dampnude. And Seynt Bernard askut whiche they were; and he sayde he schulde neber wyte fro hpm. And he sayde he wolde ellus sap tho hol Sauter uche day. And he answerud and sayd, he wold razwr telle him whyche they wer; and zese hit arne.

66

* In the MS. is added the following short prayer, without a rubric: but, as it was added with a different pen, it seems not properly to belong to this article. Peto, Domine Jesu, largire michi in amore tuo modum sine mensura, affectum sine modo, languorem s[i]ne ordine, ardorem sine discrecione. Amen."

I.

Illumina oculos meos ne umquam obdormiam.

Zyf list unto myn ezě sizt,

That I nou3t slepe whan I schal dye.
Lat nouzt my fo, in gostly fizt,

Seyn, I have over hym the maystrie':

But shilde me fro that foulě wizt,
That fel out of thin hevenis hye;

That he be nome me nou3[t] my my3t,
Whan I schal to thé 'mercy' cry.

II.

In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum. In to thi hondus I be take my gost;

Lord, sothfast God! thow hast me bouzt.

Thow quittist me fro the fendis host,

There I was thral in presoun brouzt.

My soule is thin, Lord, welle thow wost:
Hit is to thi liknessě wrouzt.

To that tresor the ryzt is most :
Saviour! for sake hit nou3t.

III.

Locutus sum lingua mea, notum fac michi.
I have spokyn with my tunge,-
'Lord make me myn endy[n]g to knowe,
Sodenly that I be nouzt slunge

In fire, that makith gostis glowe.
But, Lord, that warnist olde and 3unge!
Soo warně me, that am thin owe;
That I be nouzt in clottus clunge,
Til al mi syne wey be throwe.'

IV.

Et numerum dierum meorum qui est, ut.
'And sene the numbre of dayis myne,
That I may wyte what lakith me:

Of deth sende me sum certayne syn,
Er my lyf dayis dispendid be.

Teche me to plesě thé and thyne!
Lat me nouzt lackě charité ;

So that sum vertu in me may schine,
Jesus in plesaunce of thé.'

V.

Dirupisti vincula mea: tibi sacrificabo.
Thow hast to brokě, Lord, in two,
Cloos imade my hondis alle.

A sacrifizce I schal thé do,

Of preysing, and thi namě calle.
Dĕre Lord! lat hit be so;

The fendus feteris lat hem falle;
That I may loos and freli go,

Thé to preyse in heven halle.

VI.

Periit fuga a me, et non est qui.

Fro me hath flizte perischid and failid,
And ther nis none that my soule wil seke;
For they, that han me sore a saylid,
Sowzt soule and bodi eke.

But alle here fraud hath nouzt a vaylid;
Jesu! thow madist hem so meke,
Whan thow were to the deth traváylit,

To save the soulis that were seke.

VII.

Clamavi ad te, Domine Deus, tu es spes.

I cride, and sayde, Thow art my trist,
My part in the lond of hem that lyve :
Ther thow art lyf, lykyng, and list;
Ther drede of deth to deme is dryve.
Ther is non hongur, ne no thrist;
Al care lyth closid undir clive:
But al the wele that may be wyst,

Thow partist hit, Lord, man to zeive.

VIII.

Fac mecum signum in bono, ut videant.
Do with me sum token in gode,

That they mow sen, and schamid be,
That have me hatyd: for thow, Lord, stode
To helpyn and [to] counfort me.
My gostly fon, that ben so wode,
Confundě hem, for thi pyté;
And me conforte with gostly fode,
That al my lyst be layd on thé.

NOTES.

Stanza I.- "In wynter, whan the wedir was cold."—It was the fashion of the poets of that age, to begin their poems with a description, or at least a notice, of the season; and, in the present instance, the author's devotional poem is much enlivened with this introduction. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and especially his "Flower and the Leaf," open in this way; and there is a religious meditation among Hoccleve's poems (quoted on stanza LXXXIII.), which opens in a similar manner.

Ibid." Knockyng upon my brest.”—So Chaucer, treating of" Penance," says-" Than is discipline eke, in knocking of thy brest, in scourging with yerdes, in tribulation, in suffring patiently wronges that ben don to thee; and eke in patient suffring of maladies, or losing of worldly catel, or wif, or child, or other frendes." (Chaucer's Persones Tale, Canterbury Tales, ed. Oxford, 1798, 4to. 11. 386.) This act is borrowed from the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican; of whom the latter "percutiebat pectus suum, dicens, Deus! propitius esto mihi peccatori." (Luc. xviii. 13.)

Page 1.-Ne reminiscaris, &c.—This passage, from which the burden of the whole poem is borrowed, is found in ancient Breviaries as the antiphona at the end of the seven Penitential Psalms, next before the Litany. Hence it has been adopted in the English Common Prayer-Book, and stands in the Litany, between the response to the third invo