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The Digital Index of Middle English Verse
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DIMEV 3000
IMEV 1823
NIMEV 1823
King of grace and full of pity / Lord of Heaven I-blessed thou be
The Fifteen Signs before the Day of Judgment, prefaced by a short invocation of nine couplets
Note: MSS without the invocation formerly listed as 1309 (see numbers 2-3 below); cf. also 4797.
Subjects: Doomsday, signs of
Versification: — two-line — aa



Manuscript Witnesses:
1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 1416 (SC 7611), ff. 124-124v
First Lines:
Kynge of grace & full of pittie
Lord of heuyn blessed thou be…
Last Lines:
…then all that byn a lyue
shall then to duste be dryue
Note: Lines 1-36 only
2.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Addit. E.6 (SC 30314), a roll, second item
First Lines:
XV tokenes tellin y may
XV dayis be forin domis day
Also him seyez þe profecie
Aftir þe wordis of ieromie…
Last Lines:
…Wanne we habbin nede & nouþe
þou vs bringe out of þe deuelis mouþe
Note: 212 lines
3.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Digby 86 (SC 1687), ff. 120v-122v
First Lines:
Fiftene toknen ich tellen may
Of xv dayes er domesdai…
Last Lines:
…Ihesu crist ȝe þat we moten
Ar we bended of oure sunnen debote
Note: 70 lines of text are lost with the outer half of f. 121.
Attributed Title: Les xv singnes de domesdai (f. 120v)
Facsimiles:
Tschann, Judith A., and Malcolm B. Parkes. “Introduction.” Facsimile of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 86 EETS s.s. 16 (1996).
Editions:
Stengel, Edmund. Coducem Manu Scriptum Digby 86…. Halle: Orphanotrophei, 1871: 53-7.
4.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 407 (SC 10234), ff. 45-47v
First Lines:
…The xite day schal come þounder lyth
With stormys grete & strong flyth…
Last Lines:
…Whan body & soule schal parte a too
Crist vs graunt þat it be soo
Note: Begins imperfectly at top of folio, Day XI to Day XV only. Also foliated pages 87-92. Hamer (1995) lists as ‘Reference wrong’, since bad key lists as Tanner 412 (SC 10239).
Attributed Title: Explicit quinquedecim Signa (f. 47v)
5.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College B.11.24 (263), pt. II, f. 27v
First Lines:
Kynge of grace & ful of pyte
Lord of heuyn I blyssyd þou be…
Last Lines:
…And grawnt vs thatt hytt so be
Amen Amen lord ffor charite
Note: 35 couplets, including 4 couplet invocation and two incomplete couplets of one line each.
Attributed Title: Quindecim signa ante diem iudicij (f. 27v)
Editions:
Furnivall, Frederick James, ed. Hymns to the Virgin and Christ…and other religious poems. EETS o.s. 24 (1867); repr. 1973: 118-25.
6.Source: London, British Library Cotton Caligula A.II, ff. 89rb-91rb
First Lines:
Kyng of heuen blessed þu be
Lorde of grace & of pyte…
Last Lines:
…When we haue done here our ende
To þy Ryche blysse þat we mowe wende
Note: Treated as continuation of 436, with only a small paraph mark to left of first line; arabic numbers to left of first line for each of the 15 days; large centered and yellow-washed ‘Amen for charite’ after last line, f. 91rb.
Editions:
Varnhagen, Hermann. “Zu mittelenglischen gedichten: IV-X.” Anglia 3 (1880): 59-67, 275-92, 415-25, 533-51: 544-51.
7.Source: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library 365 [olim Ipswich County Hall deposit, Hillwood; prior Brome Hall, Suffolk], ff. 23-26v
First Lines:
Kyng of blysse blyssyd þu be
lord of myth and of pete…
Last Lines:
…ffader the sonne and the holy goste
kyng and lord thow arte moste
Note: Ends line 266
Editions:
Smith, Lucy Toulmin, ed. A Commonplace Book of the Fifteenth Century. Norwich: Kerrison, Goose, 1886: 71-9.