• Gower, Confessio Amantis: Prologue

parallel to the Old French construction “pres (que) ne,” “por poi (que) ne,” etc., where ne denotes not a negative but instead “an action that has/had almost occurred” (see Kibler, Introduction to Old French, pp. 264–65). The Old French analogy

• Lay le Freine

E. Hudson, "Construction of Class, Family, and Gender in Some Middle English Popular Romances," in Britton J. Harwood and Gillian R. Overing, eds., Class and Gender in Early English Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 76-94. Hudson focuses on

• The Poems of Laurence Minot 1333-1352

English victory; the French flagship, Saint-Denis, was taken, and the Christopher recaptured along with the Edward. In all, two hundred and thirty ships fell into English hands. Shortly thereafter, Edward commemorated this victory with the minting of the first

• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily 33, Pentecost

NOTES Abbreviations: AT: Alphabet of Tales, ed. Banks; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; NIMEV: The New Index of Middle English Verse, ed. Boffey and Edwards; OF: Old French; PL: Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne; Tubach: Index Exemplorum, ed.

• William Dunbar: The Complete Works: Introduction

University Press, 1971. Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology. Ed. R. T. Davies. London: Faber and Faber, 1963. Middle English Debate Poetry: A Critical Anthology. Ed. John W. Conlee. East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1991. Middle English Dictionary. Ed. Hans Kurath,

• Codex Ashmole 61: Item 24, Sir Cleges

is very likely Rate’s error. 7 Clegys. This is not a common English name, though minor characters by that name appear in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur and the Middle English Awntyrs of Arthur. The titular hero of Chrétien de Troyes’s romance,

• Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley: Introduction

as an "excellent long ballad" (1984, p. 11), and Dobson and Taylor found it "the most dramatically exciting of all English outlaw ballads" (1976, p. 258). Some of these qualities resemble patterns found in the Robin Hood myth. Adam Bell

• The Sultan of Babylon: Introduction

of England, Italy, and Germany, as well as France, though France often provides source versions for other vernacular literatures. The English Charlemagne romances, which are generally translations or adaptations of French originals, may be divided into three groups. The first,

• The Knightly Tale Of Gologras And Gawain: Introduction

Awntyrs, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and other northern Middle English alliterative poems. Its thirteen-line stanza form, identical to that of Awntyrs, is among the most complicated in English: the first nine lines are alliterative long lines, using traditional

• Lydgate, Mumming at Windsor

com­bines instruction, entertainment, and propaganda, using French history to shore up Henry’s claims to the dual monarchy (see Wickham, Early English Stages, 3:50, who notes its educative aspect but thinks it “exists simply to pass time agreeably;” Nolan, John Lydgate,

• Book of Ruth

in English Literature, ed. Jeffrey; HS: Peter Comes­tor, Historia Scholastica, cited by book and chapter, followed by Patrologia Latina column in paren­theses; K: Kalén-Ohlander edition; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NOAB: New Oxford Annotated Bible; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; OFP: Old

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 24, The Woman Taken in Adultery and the Raising of Lazarus

Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Ragusa and Green; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; RB: Richard Beadle, ed., York Plays; REED: Records of Early English Drama; YA: Davidson and O’Connor, York Art; York Breviary: Breviarium ad

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 27, The Last Supper

Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Ragusa and Green; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; RB: Richard Beadle, ed., York Plays; REED: Records of Early English Drama; YA: Davidson and O’Connor, York Art; York Breviary: Breviarium ad

• Sir Tristrem

of every nation" of the old law and the new. Such a reading might be achieved without emendation if "thede" is taken as a genitive form. The OldEnglish "thed," from which the Middle English word derives, is a feminine

• Codex Ashmole 61: Item 37, Saint Margaret

SAINT MARGARET: EXPLANATORY NOTES Abbreviations: Br: New Haven, Beinecke Library MS 365 (the Brome MS); MED: Middle English Diction­ary; OED: The Oxford English Dictionary Title Margaret. The simplicity of this title, written in a slightly larger version of Rate’s regular

• Book of Numbers

in English Literature, ed. Jeffrey; HS: Peter Comes­tor, Historia Scholastica, cited by book and chapter, followed by Patrologia Latina column in paren­theses; K: Kalén-Ohlander edition; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NOAB: New Oxford Annotated Bible; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; OFP: Old

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 10, Abraham and Isaac

Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Ragusa and Green; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; RB: Richard Beadle, ed., York Plays; REED: Records of Early English Drama; YA: Davidson and O’Connor, York Art; York Breviary: Breviarium ad

• Codex Ashmole 61: Item 39, Sir Orfeo

to articulate the relationship between the French lais and their Middle English adaptations. See Donovan, Breton Lay; Bullock-Davies, "Form of the Breton Lay"; and Finlayson, "Form of the Middle English Lay." 16 fary. The word here suggests both "the land

• The N-Town Plays: Play 14, Trial of Mary and Joseph

Halliwell (1841); MED: Middle English Dictionary; S: N-Town Play, ed. Spector (1991); s.d.: stage direction. As many scholars have pointed out, the N-Town Trial of Mary and Joseph (from Pseudo-Matthew) is unique among the extant English and Continental religious plays.

• Croxton Play of the Sacrament: Introduction

Drama Facsimiles 5 (Leeds: University of Leeds, School of English, 1979), pp. 95–131. The current text adheres to the general conventions of the TEAMS Middle English Text Series. The Middle English letter thorn (þ) has been replaced by th and