[Footnote I-24: Cf. M. Schwarz, Engl. Studien, viii, pp. 461 ff. But cf. ten Brink, I, p. 336; Horstmann, Neue Folge, p. xxxix.]
[Footnote I-25: Cf. C. Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, p. xxxiv, Paderborn, 1875.]
[Footnote I-26: Cf. Horstmann, Neue Folge, pp. lxxviii ff., Text, pp. 112 ff.]
[Footnote I-27: The sermons are arranged according to the calendar, so that here the book of homilies and the legendary are at length completely formed into one. In the oldest and best MS., Cott. Claud. A. II, the Assumption is number 52.]
The earliest English version, the one of the present volume, is known to exist in six manuscripts.
1. Cambr. Univ. MS. Gg. 4. 27. 2. (For description cf. introduction to King Horn, p. xxviii.) This fragmentary text (240 lines) is printed in the present volume.
2. Chetham MS. 8009, Manchester, a collection of romances and legends. (For description cf. Engl. Stud. vii, 195 ff., viii, pp. 1 ff.)
3. Cambr. Univ. MS. Dd. 1. 1., a long narrow MS. from about the middle of the 14th century and written in a large, informal, very legible hand. The content of the MS. is the Northern collection of _Evangelia dominicalia_, with which is included, in addition to the sermons with legends attached for the festivals of John and Peter and Paul, also our Southern legend poem of the Assumption, which is perhaps to be attributed to the scribe (named Staundon), who is Southern. (For a full account of this MS. cf. Horstmann, Neue Folge, p. xxvi. and pp. lxvii. ff.) This text of 544 verses has not been printed.
4. Cambr. Univ. MS. Ff. 2. 38, a paper MS. in an informal but legible hand by a Southern scribe. It contains miscellaneous religious writings, the list of which I neglected to copy. Our poem is followed by “þe lyfe of seynt Kateryn.” This text of 770 verses has not been printed.
5. Harl. MS. 2382, a paper book in 4to, in an informal hand, and containing nine miscellaneous theological poems by Lydgate, Chaucer, etc. Poem number 1 is Lydgate’s Life of the Virgin Mary, four books at the end of which stands this note, _Explicit quartus liber de sancta Maria_. The second poem is our present version of the Assumption, evidently the end of a sequel to Lydgate’s poem, for at the end stands the note, _Explicit Sextus liber Sancte Marie_, which shows that two other books were added to the original four of Lydgate, written in stanzas, to King Henry V. The other contents of this MS. seem also to be literary, and are as follows: 3. _Oracio ad Sanctam Mariam_, 4. _The Testament of Dan Johan Lydgate_, 5. _Fabula Mornalis de Sancta Maria_, Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale, 6. _Vita Sancte Cecilie_, Chaucer’s Second Nonne’s Tale, 7. _De Sancto Erasmo Martire_, 8. _Testamentum Cristi_, 9. _The Childe of Bristow_. This text of 710 verses is in part reprinted in the present volume.