my belief that one of the main objects of that Society should be the gathering up of the remains of the Old-World Beliefs for the use of the English Grimm, whose genius and good fortune it may be to evolve from them the Mythology of England.
The following are the ten versions of the Night Spell as it appears in the MSS. to which I have referred. I omit, except in the first instance, the four introductory lines, as their repetition would occupy much space without any advantage, as they do not contain a word which tends to throw light upon the point at issue; and here let me plead, in justification of my preference for the old Mumpsimus "verray" over the new Sumpsimus "mare," not only that it occurs (varying only in orthography) in eight out of the ten MSS., but also that two or three years ago an accomplished friend with whom I had once talked over the Spell sent me the following readings of the line in which the word "verray" occurs, from the Six Texts Edition of The Canterbury Tales, published by the Chaucer Society, and that it is "verye," not " mare," in every instance:
- I. For nyghtes verye the white paternoster.
- Ellesmere MS.
- II. For the nyghtes uerye, &c.
- Hengwrt MS.
- III. For the nyghte's verye, &c.
- Cambridge MS.
- IV. and V. For the nyghtes uerye, &c.
- Corpus and Petworth MSS.
- VI. For the nyghte verye, &c.
- Lansdowne MS.
I.
I crouche ye from elves and from wightes
þ'c with ye might spel a none rightes
on fotur halves of ye house abought
and on the threswold of ye dore with oute
J'hu crist and saint Benedicte
Blisse yis house from everie wicked wight
ffor þe nighte mar þe with a pater n'r
Wher wendest þou seint petri's sustur.
