If Man Him Beðocte (Memorare Novissima Tua)

DESCRIPTION: "If man him biðocte, Inderlike and ofte, Wu arde is te fore From bedde te flore, Wu reufel is te flitte, from flore te pitte... I þene non sinne, Sulde his herte þinne." If one thought oft of the fall from bed to floor, from floor to pit, he would not sin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1400 (various MSS.)
KEYWORDS: sin nonballad middleenglish
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1422, #4129
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2377, #6610
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, pp. 29-20, "Memorare Novissima Tua" (1 text) (IMEV #1422); cf. pp. 173-175 for variant stanzas
Siegfried Wenzel, _Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric_, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 163, "(no title)" (1 text) (IMEV #1422)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library Arundel 292, folio. 3 (IMEV #1422)
NOTES [250 words]: There are two major forms of this, the short and earlier, IMEV #1422 (1 manuscript) and the long and later, IMEV #4129, "Who-so him biþouete, inwardlich and ofte" (perhaps as many as 14 manuscripts). Both Brown and Wenzel are convinced that some of the variation between the versions is oral (Brown, p. 175: "A detailed comparison of all the texts makes it certain that the verses were not transmitted directly from scribe to scribe but must in most cases have been written down from memory. The number of surviving copies shows that the poem circulated widely." Wenzel, p. 163, "their textual variation as well as their structure of 'If... then' or 'Who... he' suggests strongly that they derive from an oral and native tradition."
I am not sure I agree, and I have no evidence that the piece was sung, but I include it on that basis.
Wenzel, p. 162, suggests that this is related to a piece in {MSGrimestone}, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, John de Grimestone's Commonplace Book, "But I me bethouhte" (IMEV #554/DIMEV #904). Possible, but no more. IMEV #3201/DIMEV #5009 and IMEV #3219/DIMEV #5043 also listed as perhaps related.
The Digital Index of Middle English Verse notes that most sources list two manuscript copies of its #2377 (IMEV #1422), but that one of the manuscripts, Erfurt, Stadtbibl., Erfurt Amplon Oct. 58 f. 139, cannot be found.
I am listing only the manuscript of the early, ten-line form; the others can be found in the DIMEV under #6610. RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSimhb

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