[2"4 8. No 1., Jan. 5. 56. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 3 
by several manuscripts (MSS. Corp. Coll., Cambr., 
174.; Pub. Libr. Cambr., More, 611.; Lambeth, 
491.); and-also, by the prefatory heading in 
many other copies (although these copies are 
really continued to a later period), in which it is 
expressly stated, that the work comprised, in 138 
chapters, the lives and acts of 132 kings, from the 
time of Brute to the reign of Edward III. (see 
MSS. Harl. 24., 2182., 4827.; Digby, 185.; Add. 
12,030.). None of the copies I have examined 
are older, however, than the fifteenth century ; 
and it would be desirable to know if those re- 
ferred to at Cambridge are coeval with the period 
at which they conclude. 
ing, are continued down to the siege of Rouen, in 
the year 1418; and end with the words, “ sette in 
rule and good governaunce.” In many copies, 
the work commences with the rubric (occasionally 
a little varied), Here may « man here how Eng- 
londe was furste called Albyon, Sc. (MSS. Harl. 
2248., 2256., 2279., 4690., 4930., 1568.; Rennie, 
753., &c.). But in other copies is a longer exor- 
dium, commencing, ‘‘ Here begynnethe a booke in 
Englysshe tung, that is called Brute of Englande,” 
. &e. (MSS. Harl. 24., 3730.; Royal, 18. A. ix.; 
Add. 12,030. ; Digby, 185.; Ashmole, 793., &c.) ; 
and in others, ‘ Heere byginneth a boke which is 
called Brute, the Cronycles of Englonde” (MSS. 
Flarl. 2182. 4827.), or “ Here begynnythe a 
book callyd the Croniculis of Englond” (MSS. 
Harl. 1337., 6251.). All these copies, however, 
agree in commencing the prefatory chapter (some- 
times marked cap. 1.), thus: ‘In the noble land 
of Surrye,” or “Som tyme in the noble londe of 
Surreye.” In this chapter is the story of Albine, 
and the next, beginning “In the noble citee of 
grete Troye,’ goes on with the Trojan legend. 
The English version, in general, agrees tolerably 
well with that of the revised French text pre- 
viously described ; which is certainly the original 
followed by the translator. Who this translator 
was, we are informed by some lines, first noticed 
by myself, at the end of one of the copies of the 
English Brute (MS. Harl. 2279.), in which we 
are told :— 
“ This English booke that is present, 
was made to a good entent, 
For hem that Englishe understonde, 
of the Cronicles of Engelonde. 
This was translated by good avyse, 
owt of French into Englyse, 
By sire John the Maundevyle, 
that hath ben Person but a whyle 
In Brunham Thorp, that little tone; 
God graunt him hise benysone! 
The yeer of Henry, I understonde, 
the Sexte, Kyng of Engelonde, 
After the conquest, soth to seyne, 
the xiii. yere of hise reygne. 1435.” 
We learn from Blomfield’s Norfolk, vol. iii. 
ed. 1769, that John Maundevile was presented to 
By far the greater | 
number of the copies of this Chronicle, now exist- | 
the Rectory of Burnham Thorp, in that county, 
in 1427, and held it till 1441; a period that agrees 
very well with the age of most of the MSS. It 
must be observed, however, that this copy is not 
complete, but ends in 1340, and the lines above 
are copied in a hand of the sixteenth century from 
some other manuscript, which may possibly still 
exist in one of our public or private libraries. 
In collating the copies of the English Chronicle, 
they will be found to agree essentially, but with 
| many verbal variations, as is invariably the case 
| with works of this class, and some copies have 
_ still more important differences, the chief of which 
may be here pointed out. In the MSS. Harl. 
753., 2256., and one at Holkham, No. 670., a long 
poem is inserted in the narrative of the siege of 
Rouen (which was printed by me in the Archeo- 
logia, vol. xxii.), and the two Harleian MSS. are 
continued to the 8 Hen. VI. (1430), ending with 
the capture of the ‘“‘wicche of Fraunce, that was 
called the Puchelle.” The Harl. MSS. 1337. and 
6251. vary still more remarkably from the usual 
text, and if we might suppose a first translation, 
which was afterwards revised and augmented, these 
would seem to bear that character. After.Ar- 
thur’s death, several chapters are left out, and 
Conan is made to succeed to the sovereignty im- 
mediately after him; the prophecies of Merlin 
relative to Henry III., Edward I. and IL, are also 
omitted (as in the original French text); and 
although the substance of the text remains the 
same, the language differs often very much, and 
the text itself is more abbreviated, passing in one 
instance abruptly from the battle of Gaskmore 
(1331) to the 29 Edw. III. (1355), and abridging 
the narrative of the siege of Rouen, with which 
these copies end. 
In regard to Caxton’s edition of The Cronicles 
of Englond, in 1480, which was continued by him 
from the reign of Henry VI. down to the be- 
ginning of the reign of Edward IV. (1460), its 
identity with the manuscript copies has been 
already proved by Lewis in his Life of Caxton, 
who states truly “that they are the same, only 
the old and obsolete language is sometimes altered, 
to make it more intelligible;” to which may be 
added, that the MSS. are often fuller than the 
printed text. In the MS. Add. 10,099. and MS. 
Lambeth, 264., the Chronicle is also continued to 
the reign of Edward IV.; but these are evidently 
only transcripts from the printed edition, with 
some alterations made by the transcribers. In 
the hands, however, of a member of Pembroke 
College, Oxford, is another copy, continued to the 
same period, and containing some valuable ad- 
ditions subsequent to the reign of Edward III. 
Caxton’s edition was reprinted by Machlinia, 
without date, and again by Gerard de Leew, at 
Antwerp, in 1493. After this appeared The 
Croniclis of Englonde, with the Frute of Timis, 
