Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 2870

DIMEV 2870

IMEV 1728

NIMEV 1728

Jesu Lord Thy blessed life

One couplet as conclusion to Wycliffite trans. of St. Bonaventure, Speculum Vite Christi

Note: Many other copies occur at end of Love’s prose Mirror, e.g. Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Library Addit. 6578, f. 124; Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Library Addit. 6686 [olim Ashburnham 140], p. 233. In Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Library Ii.4.9 it follows the Northern Passion.

Subjects: devotional verse

Versification: — two-line — aa

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Brasenose College 9, f. 150v

Transcription:

Jhesu lorde thy blessid lyf
helpe & conforte oure wrecchid lyf

Note: End flyleaf; at end of Speculum Vitae.

Attributed Title: Explicit Speculum vite cristi complete (f. 150v)

Editions:

Coxe, Henry Octavius. Catalogus codicum mss. qui in collegiis aulisque oxoniensibus…. Oxon: e Typographeo academico, 1852: 2.

2.Source: Oxford, University College 123, f. 74

Transcription:

Ihesu lorde þi blesside life
helpe and counforte oure wrechede life

Note: Not fol. 74v as in IMEV.

Attributed Title: Speculum Vite Cristi (f. 1); Explicit Speculum Vite cristi complete (follows couplet; f. 74)

Editions:

Coxe, Henry Octavius. Catalogus codicum mss. qui in collegiis aulisque oxoniensibus…. Oxon: e Typographeo academico, 1852: 37.

Robbins, Rossell Hope. “Popular Prayers in Middle English Verse.” Modern Philology 36 (1939): 337-50: 348.

3.Source: London, British Library Addit. 19901, f. 86v

Transcription:

Jhesu lord þi blessed life
helpe & confort our wrechede life

Note: Written as prose.

4.Source: London, British Library Harley 4011, f. 2vb

First Lines:

heyle holiest body of oure lorde Ihesu Criste
þat art now sothfast conteyned here in…

Last Lines:

…departyng þat y may come with þe to life euerlastyng
Ihesu lord by uertewe & grace of þi life blessid without endyng

Note: Extract, written as prose.

Attributed Title: A devovte orysoun to þe holy sacrament (f. 2vb, above first line, by scribe)

Print Witnesses:

1.Source: STC 3259. Bonaventura, trans Nicholas Love, [Speculum Vitae Christi], Caxton, 1484

Editions:

Blades, William. The Biography and Typography of William Caxton, England’s first printer. London: Trübner, 1877; repr. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1971: 2.195-6.

priven: verb To deprive (sb.) of (sth.), deny (sb. sth.); ppl. prived, bereaved, bereft of, deprived of; without; (b) ~ of (from), to deprive (sb. of sth.), deny (sth. to sb.), exclude (sb. from sth.); prived of (from), deprived of (sth.), bereft of; lacking, without; ben of god priving, be a robber of goods; (c) to depose (sb.), dismiss; ~ of (from), deprive (sb.) of (power, kingdom, etc.), remove or dismiss (sb.) from (office or position); (d) to take (sth.) away; prevent (sth.), deny, oppose; weaken (the body); -- also without obj. MED