year 1430, and in size is a 12mo. The writing is small, with the rubrics in red; initial letters, but none illuminated..

It is a curious circumstance that the Bodleian and the Cambridge copies all agree in having the "Hours of the Cross" (see below, p. 37. 45. &c.) translated into rhyme: but on the contrary both the MSS. in my possession give a prose version, the same in each.48

There are therefore known altogether eight copies extant in manuscript of the Prymer in English: and I think that I may venture to assert, after a careful comparison and examination, that the reader has here offered to him an edition from the earliest copy of them all. We will now return to the description of it.

Upon the reverse of the last leaf of it is the following memorandum: most probably of the person for whom it was executed, the writing being of the period. "Iste liber constat Domino Willmo Ho.. Millitt. In

48 Another remarkable instance of agreement in my two MSS. is the use in both of the very uncommon word "corinnice." See below, p. 22. "Herie thei his name in a corinnice:" and the note. As I there state another translation of the Latin is given in all the Bodleian copies, and in that of the Cambridge University. To these may now be added the MS. in the library of Emanuel College, which reads, "Preise thei his name in crowde and tabour :" and again, in the succeeding psalm, "Preise ye him in tabour and crowde." But my 12mo. MS. has," Herie thei his name in a

corunnise;" and again, "Herie ye him in a tympan and corunnise." All who are at all conversant with English manuscripts of this date will understand what I mean by saying, that there would have been great difficulty in deciding whether (in the 12mo.) the word is corunnise, or corinnuse, if it had occurred but once: but this is set at rest in the second place, where the transcriber happened to make an error, and has inserted u between the r and n, writing it over the line. In the other manuscript the word is plain, corinnice.

Bocklande." Beneath this is drawn in rude outline the Lamb and Flag, under which is written "Ecce agnus dei q. t. p. m. (Qui tollit peccatum mundi.) It is to be regretted that the most important part of this entry, the latter half of the owner's sirname, has been erased. And this not wilfully, but accidentally, owing to a fold in the vellum. It was of four or five letters only; something like Howys may still be traced. Another memorandum occurs on the first of the two blank leaves at the beginning. "This booke I founde amoungest my fatheres. and was his 1592. And this wrytten by mee the 20th day of January 1595. 38th Eliz. Reg.-Pe. Fanwood."

An imperfection, the only one in the volume, occurs on fol. xliv. The lower part of the leaf has been torn off; so that about five lines of both pages of it are missing. As it happens, on each side, there is the whole of a short prayer: on the one, Omnipotens sempiterne Deus; on the other, Ecclesiæ tuæ.

In the text below (pp. 107. 109) the reader will find these two collects supplied, one from the Douce MS. 246, in the Bodleian, the other from a copy of a printed Prymer of 1538. None of the other six manuscripts which I had examined whilst preparing the Prymer for the press, contained the collect, "Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui facis:" but the small 12mo. manuscript just spoken of, which I have so lately obtained, fortunately has this particular prayer, though in some other respects the Litanies of my two copies differ. I am glad therefore to be enabled in this place to give so early a translation of a collect which we still use daily, in our Morning and Evening Prayer. The reader will see that it is quite different from the version of the Prymer of 1538.

"Oratio. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus. Almyghti god, euerlastynge, that aloone doost many wondres, schewe the spirit of heelful grace vpon bisschopes thi seruauntis, and vpon alle the congregacion betake to hem and 3eete in the dewe of thi blessynge that thei plese euermore to the in trouthe. Bi crist oure lord. So be it.”

Not only therefore has the reader now before him an edition of the earliest known Prymer in English, but there is an interval of more than a hundred and thirty years between it and any other reprinted in modern times. I allude to the Goodly Prymer of 1535, which is the first of the three published in one volume by the late Dr. Burton. There is no one who would not speak in terms of gratitude and affection when referring to the labours of that excellent man: but I trust I may be pardoned if I observe, that the preface to that work 50 does not do justice to his acknowledged industry and ability. I do not believe that any one can understand what the object of it is, or obtain from it any clear information about the prymers which it precedes.

Nor is this to be wondered at, when the learned editor himself had formed this notion of a prymer, that "it was not confined to any one definite set of prayers, but contained different selections, according to the choice of the compiler; though the Creed, Pater Noster, and Ave Maria, held always a prominent place in the prymers. "51 Now, all the prymers that I have seen,

49 Infunde. nedictionis infunde." 50 Three Prymers put forth in the reign of Henry viij. viz. i. A goodly prymer, 1535. ii. The

"Rorem tuæ be

manual of prayers or the prymer in English, 1539. iii. King Henry's prymer, 1545. Oxford, 1834.

51 Pref. p. 1. Nor must I pass by an account given of "the

which in any way rested upon authority, do contain a definite set of prayers: they have the hours, the dirge, the seven and the fifteen psalms, the litany, commendations, and other

prayers.

These may not always be in the same order, though they usually are, and some may contain more occasional prayers and offices than others; but still, they have all a plain and certain character: before we open a Prymer" of the first half of the 16th century, we may know what its contents generally are: and the Creed, Pater Noster, and Ave, can no more be said to be prominent than any of the portions mentioned just above. Two of the so-called prymers edited by Dr. Burton were compiled by private men; and not only were not of authority, but one was strictly suppressed: the author of the second does not, except as an improper title, call it a prymer, but a Manual of prayers. Still both of these continue so far the true character of the books which they were intended to supersede, that the greater part of them is occupied with the Offices for the hours, the dirge, seven psalms, &c. The third prymer of his selection is the famous one put forth by king Henry the eighth in 1545.52

prymer by an author who pretends to give the result of original inquiry, and is still sometimes referred to on these matters; Shepherd on the Common Prayer, a self-sufficient writer. He " has not been able to ascertain when the prymer was first published," but "suspects it had been in circulation two or perhaps nearly three years before 1529." This being,

as he also tells us, some six years
"before the Papal supremacy was
transferred to the king" "In
1535 appeared an edition of the
King's Prymer, in quarto, edited
by Dr. Marshall"—but it is
ridiculous to extract further from
such a heap of absurdities: they
may all be found in the Intro-
duction to his book, p. ii—v.
52 The Editor in his observa-

Again, Dr. Burton seems to suppose, that the Prymers" were chiefly put forth by the reforming party, although he acknowledges that some "were composed by zealous adherents of the Church of