Poems by Chaucer in John Harpur’s Psalter

Poems by Chaucer in John Harpur's Psalter Thorlac Turville-Petre University ofNottingham 0nt ofthe tceasmes ofNotcingh,m Univmity Libmy is the Rushall Psalter (Nottingham University Library, MS Me LMl), actually a chained Book of Hours with a liturgical Psalter. This large (380 X 260 mm) and handsomely illuminated volume from the mid-fifteenth century is ofparticular interest because it contains copies oftwo short poems by Chaucer, Truth and Gentilesse, as well as verse by Lydgate. The volume was overlooked and reported as "lost" for a considerable time, 1 but in 1969 Norman Davis rescued it from the neglect into which it had fallen, giving a briefaccount ofthe history ofthe book and tran­ scribing its text ofGentilesse, together with the other verses on the same page (fol. 20r).2 Some years later, in 197 5, A. I. Doyle and George B. 1 The Index ofMiddle English Verse of1943 does not list the Nottingham text ofeither Truth (no. 809) or Gentilesse (no. 3:348), though it accurately records "This present book" (3637). In 1965 the Supplement to the Index added the Nottingham copy ofTruth. but not Gentilesse. InRossell Hope Robbins, ed., Semlar Lyrics ofthe Fourteenth and Fifteenth Cent11ries (Oxford: 1952), the note to "This present book" (no. 94) reports that "The present owner and location ofthe MS are not known" (repeated in the reprint of1968), and the text ofthe poem is taken from J. W. Clark, Cmnbridge Antiquarian Society Proceedings 11 (1905): 76-77. As a prime example ofconfusion piled upon confusion, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English lists as a source a Church Book from Rushall, Norfolk [sic}, "present whereabouts unknown," referring to "Transcripts, from a partly modernised version, in possession ofMED." I am grateful to Douglas Moffat for sending me copies ofthese transcripts, which turn our to be an inaccurate copy by P. Laithwaite ofa tran­ script by "Dr. Willimore" [sic} ofthe prose history ofRushall, Staffordshire, in the Rus­ hall Psalter. Curiously, Laithwaite does not give a reference for his source, Frederic W. Willmore, Recordr ofR11.rha!l (Walsall: 1892). 'Norman Davis, "Chaucer's Genti!esse: A Forgotten Manuscript, with Some Proverbs," RES n.s., 20 (1969): 43-50. 301 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER Pace gave a short description ofthe manuscript and transcribed its copy ofTruth, with an analysis ofits textual relationships.1 Doyle and Pace gave an account of the contents of the volume, but this begged perhaps the most interesting question. Why were Chaucer's poems copied into a volume of Latin devotions in the first place? Fur­ thermore-and this may be thought odder still-what sort ofBook of Hours and Psalter is this that begins with the mundane advice "For helthe ofbody couere for colde pin heed. I Ete no raw mete rake goode hede therto"-that is to say, with the text of Lydgate's Dietary? It is often the case that such questions, though intriguing, can never be an­ swered satisfactorily because we have such imperfect knowledge ofthe history ofthe manuscript and the motives ofits compiler. We may not even be able to tell, for example, whether quires ofdifferent origins were bound up by a librarian some centuries later. Even ifwe know that the present contents are integral to the original conception ofthe volume, it is often useless to inquire about the stages in which different items were copied, and even less fruitful to speculate on the purposes ofscribes and owners in assembling the contents ofthe volume. A commonplace book can indeed reveal information about the range ofinterests ofthose who owned it, but we must always bear in mind that the heterogeneity ofits contents may be as much a reflection ofthe random way in which copies came to hand as ofany design on the part ofits owners. We are on much firmer ground with the Rushall Psalter. For one thing, the volume has remained in the hands ofthe same family, so we can trace its history quite clearly back through the generations to its first owner. 1 For another thing, information provided in the volume itself, backed up with the historical records, discloses a considerable amount about the motives behind its compilation. From this it is safe to conclude that...