Author Description

This mid fourteenth-century poem, a discussion of the 'contempt of the world' and the 'Four Last Things', was one of the most popular Middle English texts in its time, as indicated by the large number of extant copies, and illustrations of it in the windows of All Saints, North Street, in York. It was a widely influential compendium of religious instruction, originating in Yorkshire, but more widely disseminated, and thus representing this important regional culture, as well as its absorption into a nationwide religious culture. The only edition, by Richard Morris (1863), is now generally unavailable outside research libraries. The present edition revises Morris's text extensively and offers full modern annotation, including extensive discussion of the poem's sources. Morris's text, although based on an exceptionally good manuscript copy, has been fully collated with the principal early manuscripts; this information is presented in a separate textual commentary. There is an introduction presenting the poem in its context and a Glossary.