Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 6798

DIMEV 6798

IMEV 4230

NIMEV 4230

Worship women wine and unwieldy age

Four things that make a man fall from Reason, perhaps by Lydgate — one stanza rhyme royal

Note: For closely related texts see 5558 and 5559; same as stanza 2 of 4006; this poem does not occur in London, British Library Addit. 16165 or in London, British Library Addit. 34360 [olim Phillipps 9053], pace MacCracken (1934)

XMacCracken, Henry Noble. John Lydgate: The Minor Poems, Vol. II: Secular Poems. EETS o.s. 192 (1934); repr. 1961

, xvii.

Author(s): John Lydgate (?)

Subjects: women, against; advice, moral; old age; wine

Versification: — seven-line — ababbcc

Bibliographic Ghosts: ; London, British Library Addit. 16165 ; London, British Library Addit. 34360 [olim Phillipps 9053]

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 59 (SC 6943), f. 72

2.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Fairfax 16 (SC 3896), f. 195

Transcription:

Wurship wommen wyne vnweldy age
Maken men to foune for lakke of ther resoun
Elde causeth dulnesse and dotage
Worship causeth chaunge of condicioun
Excesse of wyne blyndeth discrecioun
And bookes alle that Poetes wroot and radde
Seyn women moste maken men to madde

Attributed Title: Quatuor infatuant honor etas femina vinum (f. 195)

Editions:

MacCracken, Henry Noble, ed. John Lydgate: The Minor Poems, Vol. II: Secular Poems. EETS o.s. 192 (1934); repr. 1961: 709.

3.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College R.3.19 (599), f. 205v

First Lines:

Wyne women worshyp vnweldy age
Make men to foune for lak of theyre resons…

Facsimiles:

Fletcher, Bradford Y. “Introduction.” Manuscript Trinity R.3.19. A Facsimile. Norman, OK: Pilgrim, 1987.

Editions:

Skeat, Walter William. The Chaucer Canon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1900: 24.

4.Source: London, British Library Harley 116, f. 125

Transcription:

Worship women wyne and vnweldy age
Make men foune for lak of thir resons
Elde causith dulnesse and dotage
Worship causeth chaunge of condicions
Excesse of wyne blyndeth discrecions
And bokes that poetys wrote and radde
Seyn that women most make men madde

Attributed Title: Four thyngys that make a man to falle (f. 125)

Editions:

Förster, Max. “Kleine Mitteilungen zur mittelenglische Lehrdichtung, VI.” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 104 (1900): 293-309: 301 (MS cited incorrectly as BL Harley 4733).

5.Source: London, British Library Harley 2251, f. 150v

First Lines:

Worship wymmen wyne and vnweldy age
Make men fonde for lak in theyr Reason…

Last Lines:

…And bookes that poetis wrote and Radde
Say women most make men to be madde

Attributed Author: Note wele this / ffoure thynges ther ben that make / a man to falle from Reasoun / Quatuor infatuam honor / Etas femina & vinum / Ye wilbe shent Dane Iohn / Lydegate for your triew seyeng (f. 150v, margin)

Editions:

Brusendorff, Aage. The Chaucer Tradition. Copenhagen, 1925; repr. Oxford: Clarendon, 1967: 465.

6.Source: London, British Library Harley 7578, f. 20r2

Transcription:

Worshipe women wine unwisely age
Maketh men to fonne for lake of theire reson
Elde causeth dulnesse and dotage
Worshipe causeth chaunge of conditiouns
Excesse of wine blyndeth discrecion
And bookes alle that poeetes wrote & radde
Seyne wimmen most maken men to maade

Attributed Title: Quatuor infatuant honor etas femma vinum (f. 20)

7.Source: Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ 19.3.1, f. 175

First Lines:

Worship wemen wyne & vnweldy age
makithe men to fon for lak in þar resons…

Last Lines:

…And bookes that poyettes wrot and radd
saythe women makithe men foll oftte to be made

Facsimiles:

Hardman, Phillipa. The Heege Manuscript: A Facsimile of National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1. Leeds Texts and Monographs, n.s. 16. Leeds: School of English, 2000.

8.Source: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M775, f. 320

Editions:

Bühler, Curt F., ed. The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers. EETS o.s. 211 (1941); repr. 1991: 368.

9.Source: Copenhagen, Royal Library, Copenhagen Thott 110 4o (29264), f. 164

Attributed Title: Quattuor infatuant hominem; honor Etas Femina et vinum

10.Source: Rome, English College AVCAU MS 1405, f. 75