• Godfridus a Wise Emperoure

the serpent, can slough off the old wrapping of sin by passing through the sharp passage of penance. That the bawd is transformed into a "fayre woman" (line 22), like the serpent shedding its old skin, demonstrates her newly acquired

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 25, The Entry into Jerusalem

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

• Richard Maidstone, Concordia: Appendix 3

prohibits no art which was lawful under the old dispensation, unless perchance it be such arts as were used in the cults of the Jews and the rites of sacrifice of the old dispensation. All such arts, the products of

• Lancelot of the Laik

"la bele Jaiande," the wife of Brunor. The similarity between her name and the English word "giant" may have cause some confusion, as in the English Prose Merlin, where Galehaut is referred to as "the son of the Geaunt" (EETS

• St. Jerome and the Lion

laetus,"glad"). Faunynge means physically showing affection and delight as dogs and other animals do (OE fægnian,"rejoice"; compare the now archaic English word fain,"glad," and see OED, fawn, vb.1). 48-49 or ellys . . . his felowe. This last clause seems

• Codex Ashmole 61: Item 22, The Jealous Wife

anything for our dear Lady / Shall have his reward Item 22, THE JEALOUS WIFE: EXPLANATORY NOTES Abbreviations: MED: Middle English Diction­ary Title No title or incipit. The tale is referred to by various names by the editors of the

• The Lovers' Mass

either the Old or the New Testament. This Epistle, which compares courtship to a touristic pilgrimage, draws freely from Laurent de Premierfait's French prose translation (c. 1409) of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Book 3 (see Hammond, English Verse, p.

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 18, The Flight to Egypt

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

• Gower, Confessio Amantis: Book 8

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

• Codex Ashmole 61: Item 28, The Northern Passion

PASSION: EXPLANATORY NOTES Abbreviations: EETS: Early English Text Society; GL: Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend; MED: Middle English Dictionary; MWME: The Manual of Writings in Middle English; NIMEV: A New Index of Middle English Verse; NP: F. Foster, The Northern

• Gower, Confessio Amantis: Book 1

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

• In Praise of Peace

as a substantial buffer between old Europe and the rising Islamic tide. Calls for crusade soon followed, with negotiations between Richard II in England, Charles VI in France, and Sigismund in Hungary. Though a sizable English force under the command

• The Boke of Cupide, God of Love

/ Wel singes thu, cuccu; / Ne swik thu naver nu!" (Middle English and Latin texts, as well as translation of the Latin, available online from Bella Millett, English Department, University of Southampton, .) 98-100 A nyghtyngale . . .

• John Mirk, Sermon on the Conception of the Virgin Mary

mekenes. Heo hadde a fadur that was kallud Joachym, that was of such holynes that, when he was fyftene yere old, he departed his good in thre partyes: on to wydewes and faderles chyldren and othur that weren pore and

• William Dunbar, The Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo

harmless is his performance (t-note) choked; gutters; filth glowering ghost hideous Mahomet has; (see note) may; sign [of the Cross]; old Satan cross myself; completely body; embrace; press; (t-note) shaven; aged man (t-note) hedgehog skin; scratches gleaming coal; chin (jaws)

• John Lydgate's Prologue to the Siege of Thebes

175 180 185 190 Whan brighte Phebus passed was the Ram Myd of Aprille and into Bole cam, And Satourn old with his frosty face In Virgyne taken had his place, Malencolik and slowgh of mocioun, And was also in

• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily 1, First Sunday in Advent

MED: Middle English Dictionary; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; NIMEV: The New Index of Middle English Verse, ed. Boffey and Edwards; ON: Old Norse; Small: English Metrical Homiles, ed. Small; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly

• Sir Launfal

uses lines 421-32 in Sir Launfal and the corresponding lines in the other English versions to argue that the Middle English redactions derive, not directly from the Old French, but from another intermediate text, now lost. Marie de France's Lanval

• William Dunbar: The Complete Works

Brown and Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse K: Kinsley, William Dunbar: Poems (1957) LGW: Legend of Good Women Mc: Mackenzie, Poems of William Dunbar (1932; rev. 1960) MED: Middle English Dictionary MEL: Middle English Lyrics, ed. Luria and Hoffman

• Book of Esther

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