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. 150
v
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.
4.Source: London, British Library Harley 4011, f. 2
vb
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.