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Scs ST£S3. // £be Scottish RATIS tleyt Society RAVING AND Other Early Scots Poems on Morals \ RATIS raving AND Other Early Scots Poems on Morals edited with AN APPENDIX OF THE OTHER PIECES from CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MS. Kk, 5, No. 6 BY R. girvan, m.a. GLASGOW „L,vC,SrTV 13untfli fcr tljt Sorirtg bo WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS LTD. EDINBURGH AND LONDON 1 939 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE. When I was asked to edit Ratis Raving and other texts from MS. Kk. i. 5 the intention was that only the four longer poems should be included. It early seemed to me advantageous to print also the version of The Thewis of Gud Women preserved in the library of St John’s College, Cambridge. Later I became convinced that the whole MS. should be printed, since the prose pieces have an interest also, and especially The Cvaft of Deyng, which is probably the earliest extant piece of Scots literary prose. The Council of the Society agreed to my suggestion to print the whole, but the work on the text was already so advanced that the additional pieces had to be relegated to an appendix. This is an explanation of and apology for the unsatisfactory way in which the texts are arranged. An apology is also necessary for the undue delay in issuing the volume. After doing something on the text a number of years ago, I put it aside in favour of work which seemed more urgent, the more readily since at that time there was an abundance of more important texts ready for issue or in an advanced state of preparation. The work on which I was engaged took longer to complete than I expected, and when I resumed preparation of this volume the time I was able to devote to it was greatly reduced. 11 PREFACE. Owing to the length of time which elapsed between the printing of the different parts, some discrepancies appear in the manner of reference to certain texts, and possibly in other matters as well. These are mostly unimportant, but to one attention ought to be drawn. Early English Meals and Manners (E.E.T.S. 32, also called The Babees Book) in the introduction is quoted from the original edition of 1868, in the notes from the re-issue of 1894 (1904) ; and since in the latter the texts are not in the same order, and since some in the original edition are omitted altogether—including all those referred to in the introduction—the pagination also differs in the two issues. I am indebted to several people for help of one kind or another required in preparing this work. First of all I must here place on record the courtesy of the Librarian of Cambridge University Library, who allowed the MS. to be deposited in the University Library at Glasgow for my use, and to remain there for several months, also for consent given in more recent years to have a rotograph made of the whole MS. To Dr B. F. C. Atkinson of the same Library I am indebted for answering one or two questions on the composite MS.; to the authorities of St John’s College, Cambridge, for permission to have rotographed some folios of MS. G. 23; to the Librarians of the University Libraries of Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, and to the Librarian of the National Library, Edinburgh, for the loan of books not available in Glasgow; also to the Librarian at Liverpool for his kindness in verifying two points in the text of Palmieri. To all those I express also in this place my sincere thanks. No less do I owe and express here my thanks to the following friends : to Miss M. G. May, formerly General Adviser to Women Students in Glasgow University, who looked over for me in the first instance Pahnieri’s Libro della Vita Civile; to Dr W. Grant, who answered one or two Ill PREFACE. qu