The Cambridge Companion To

Medieval British Manuscripts Orietta Da

Rold
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 t h e c am br i d g e co m p a n i o n t o m e di e v a l b r i t i s h
m an u s c r i p ts

The scholarship and teaching of manuscript studies has been transformed by

digitization rendering previously rarefied documents accessible for study on
a vast scale. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts orien-
tates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book produc-
tion and contemporary display of manuscripts from c. 600 to 1500. Accessible
explanations draw on key case studies to illustrate the major methodologies and
explain why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for
reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage. Chapters by leading
specialists in manuscript studies range from explaining how manuscripts were
stored, to revealing the complex networks of readers and writers which can be
understood through manuscripts, to an in-depth discussion of the Wycliffite Bible.

Orietta Da Rold is University Lecturer in the University of Cambridge and Fellow

of St John’s College. Her publications include The Dd Manuscript: A Digital
Edition of Cambridge University Library, MS Dd. 4. 24 of Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales (2013), and Paper in Medieval England: From Pulp to Fictions
(2020).
Elaine Treharne is Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities,
Professor of English, and Robert K. Packard University Fellow in
Undergraduate Education at Stanford University, and a Fellow of the Society
of Antiquaries, the Royal Historical Society, the English Association, and the
Learned Society of Wales. A qualified archivist, she has published more than
thirty books and sixty articles on early medieval literature and the History of
Text Technologies.
 THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO

MEDIEVAL BRITISH
MANUSCRIPTS

EDITED BY

ORIETTA DA ROLD
University of Cambridge

ELAINE TREHARNE
Stanford University
 University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom
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Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107102460
doi: 10.1017/9781316182659
© Cambridge University Press 2020
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2020
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
isbn 978-1-107-10246-0 Hardback
isbn 978-1-107-50014-3 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
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accurate or appropriate.
 CONTENTS

List of Illustrations page vii

List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xii
List of Abbreviations xiii

Introduction: The Matter of Manuscripts and Methodologies 1

orietta da rold and elaine treharne

part i how do we study the manuscript?

1 Describing and Cataloguing Medieval English Manuscripts: A Checklist 13

richard beadle and ralph hanna

2 Reading a Manuscript Description 39

donald scragg

3 Reading and Understanding Scripts 49

julia crick and daniel wakelin

4 Working with Images in Manuscripts 76

beatrice kitzinger

5 The Sum of the Book: Structural Codicology and Medieval

Manuscript Culture 106
ryan perry

part ii why do we study the manuscript?

6 Networks of Writers and Readers 129

elaine treharne and orietta da rold

v
 contents

7 The Written Word: Literacy across Languages 149

jane gilbert and sara harris

8 The Wycliffite Bible 179

elizabeth solopova

9 Editing Medieval Manuscripts for Modern Audiences 187

helen fulton

10 Where Were Books Made and Kept? 214

teresa webber

part iii where do we study the manuscript?

11 Charming the Snake: Accessing and Disciplining the Medieval Manuscript 237
s i â n e c h a r d a n d a n d r e w p r e s c o t t

12 The Curation and Display of Digital Medieval Manuscripts 267

suzanne paul

13 Medieval Manuscripts, the Collector, and the Trade 284

a. s. g. edwards

Guide to Further Reading 295

Index 308
General Index 310

vi
 ILLUSTRATIONS

1.1 Example of a reconstructed collation 24

3.1 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, fol. 67r 63
3.2 Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.14.30, fol. 10r 65
3.3 Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg. 4. 27, fol. 457v 70
4.1 Crucifixion, psalter with canticles and litanies, and additional
texts (the ‘Arundel Psalter’). Probably Winchester, fourth quarter
of the eleventh century (c 1073) with twelfth-century additions.
320 × 220 mm. London, British Library, Arundel MS 60, fol. 12v 82
4.2 Crucifixion, Arundel Psalter. London, British Library,
Arundel MS 60, fol. 52v 83
4.3 Calendar: month of August, Arundel Psalter. London,
British Library, Arundel MS 60, fol. 5v 90
4.4 Crucifixion and Psalm 1, Arundel Psalter. London, British Library,
Arundel MS 60, fols. 12v–13r 92
4.5 Crucifixion and Psalm 51, Arundel Psalter. London, British Library,
Arundel MS 60, fols. 52v–53 94
4.6 Crucifixion, psalter with additional texts (the ‘Tiberius Psalter’).
Winchester, third quarter of the eleventh century with twelfth-century
additions. 345 × 250 mm (binding). London, British Library,
Cotton MS Tiberius C. vi, fol. 13r 99
5.1 Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS Eng. 895 107
7.1 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 340, fol. 169v 152
7.2 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS hébreu 113, fol. 2v 157
7.3 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 328, fol. 195r 160
7.4 Rome, Vatican Library, MS Ottobonianus Latins 1474, fol. 2r 164
7.5 Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R. 17. 1, fol. 207r 167

vii
 list of illustrations

7.6 Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd. 3. 53, fol. 213v 170

7.7 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, fol. 67r 173
9.1 Stemma for ‘In Praise of Sir Hywel’ (from gutorglyn.net, poem 70) 202
9.2 Archives and Special Collections, Bangor University,
Gwyneddon MS 4, p. 238 203
9.3 Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 3049D, p. 194 204
9.4 Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 8497B, fol. 43v 205

viii
 CONTRIBUTORS

richard beadle is Emeritus Professor of Medieval English Literature

and Palaeography at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St
John’s College.
julia crick is Professor of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies at
King’s College, University of London. Her publications include The
Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, IV. Dissemi-
nation and Reception in the Later Middle Ages (1991) and Charters of
St. Albans (2007).
orietta da rold is University Lecturer in the University of Cambridge
and Fellow of St John’s College. Her publications include The Dd
Manuscript: A Digital Edition of Cambridge University Library, MS
Dd. 4. 24 of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (2013), and Paper in Medieval
England: From Pulp to Fictions (2020).
siân echard is Professor at the University of British Columbia. Her
publications include Printing the Middle Ages (2008), and she is the
General Editor, with Robert Rouse, of The Encyclopedia of Medieval
Literature in Britain (2017).
a. s. g. edwards, fsa, fea, is Honorary Visiting Professor at the
University of Kent and University College, London, and Deputy Editor
of The Book Collector.
helen fulton is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of
Bristol. She specializes in literary and political engagements between
medieval Wales, England, and Europe, and is the editor of a corpus of
medieval Welsh poetry. She has published widely in the areas of medie-
val literature, manuscript transmission, and urban culture.

ix
 list of contributors

jane gilbert is Senior Lecturer in French at University College London.

She has published on medieval French and English literature both sepa-
rately and comparatively. She is currently completing a co-authored
monograph arising from the AHRC-funded research project, Medieval
Francophone Literary Culture Outside France.
ralph hanna is Professor of Palaeography Emeritus and Emeritus
Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. He hangs out a lot in libraries.
sara harris is the author of The Linguistic Past in Twelfth-Century
Britain (2017).
beatrice kitzinger is Assistant Professor of Medieval Art in the
Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. She is the
author of The Cross, the Gospels, and the Work of Art in the
Carolingian Age (2019).
suzanne paul is the Keeper of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts at
Cambridge University Library, and is closely involved in international
digitization efforts for manuscripts.
ryan perry is Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval Literature at the
University of Kent at Canterbury. He specializes in the material contexts
of vernacular manuscript corpora, and especially Middle English reli-
gious textual culture.
andrew prescott is Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of
Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. He was formerly a curator
in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library and was one of
the collaborators in ‘Electronic Beowulf’, edited by Kevin S. Kiernan. He
was AHRC Theme Leader Fellow for the ‘Digital Transformations’
theme from 2012 to 2019.
donald scragg is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Studies Emeritus at the
University of Manchester, and the founding Director of the Manchester
Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies. He is the author of numerous books
and articles on Old English homiletic prose, The Battle of Maldon, and,
most recently, A Conspectus of Scribes in Anglo-Saxon England.
elizabeth solopova is Research Fellow at the University of Oxford,
and Lecturer at Christ Church College and Harris Manchester College.
Her publications include The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and
Interpretation (2017). She is the Principal Investigator of the ‘Towards
a New Edition of the Wycliffite Bible’ Project, funded by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (2016–19).
x
 list of contributors

elaine treharne, fsa, frhists, fea, and FLSW, is Roberta Bowman

Denning Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford
University, where she also directs the book historical/digital projects –
Stanford Text Technologies, Stanford Global Currents, and
CyberTexts. She has published widely on Old and Middle English
manuscripts and literary culture, and is currently completing The
Phenomenal Book.
daniel wakelin is Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English
Palaeography at the University of Oxford. Among his publications are
Scribal Correction and Literary Craft: English Manuscripts 1375–1510
(2014) and Designing English: Early Literature on the Page (2017).
teresa webber, fba, is Professor of Palaeography at the University of
Cambridge. Among her publications are Scribes and Scholars at
Salisbury Cathedral c. 1075–c. 1125 (1992), with A. G. Watson, The
Libraries of the Augustinian Canons, CBMLC 6 (1998), and, with
E. Leedham-Green, The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and
Ireland, Volume I: to 1640 (2006).

xi
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We should like to extend our thanks to our contributors, who have patiently
assisted in the process of getting this volume to press. Our gratitude goes to
Linda Bree and our editors at Cambridge University Press.
We should also like to offer heartfelt thanks to the librarians and manu-
script curators at Special Collections’ repositories from Cambridge, London,
Oxford, Paris, and elsewhere; their professional contribution, support, and
kindness enriches the research of all manuscript scholars in fundamental
ways. Similarly, thank you to St John’s College for supporting our formative
workshop and to the teams of digitizers and image processors in small and
big libraries alike, from Trinity College Cambridge, to the British Library,
and to Stanford University Libraries: without your collaboration, contem-
porary scholarship would be much impoverished.

xii
 ABBREVIATIONS

BL British Library
DDBL A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts
c. 700–1600 in the British Library, 2 vols. (London, 1979)
DDCL P. R. Robinson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts
c. 737–1600 in Cambridge Libraries, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1988)
DDLL P. R. Robinson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts
c. 888–1600 in London Libraries, 2 vols. (London, 2003)
DDOL A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts
c. 435–1600 in Oxford Libraries, 2 vols. (London, 1984)
f., fol. folio
ff., fols. folios
OE Old English
OI Old Irish
MS(S) Manuscript(s)
r recto
v verso

xiii
 ORIETTA DA ROLD AND
ELAINE TREHARNE

Introduction: The Matter

of Manuscripts and Methodologies

Over the last twenty years, the study of medieval manuscripts has flourished
on an unprecedented scale. Once considered to be ancillary disciplines,
codicology or palaeography were studied as part of historical, classical,
and literary fields, and taught as part of a regime of foundational training
for medievalists. Now these core components of Manuscript Studies have
been further developed as part of a field in its own right. Manuscript Studies
has become, then, a capacious field with such a multitude of research possi-
bilities, practices, trajectories, and potential that it is difficult to trace a full
survey of its scholarly reach across continents, languages, and geographical
locales.1 Different methodologies – ranging from quantitative to qualitative
approaches – different terminological systems for scripts, and distinctive
ways of displaying dates have created a notable set of issues for manuscript
specialists, particularly as we move through the digital era, when metadata is
created without focused regard for consistency and interoperability. Still,
rightly, medieval Manuscript Studies is a major area of research, scholarship,
teaching, and public outreach. In the case of the former, tens of thousands of
curious and informed citizens engage in browsing manuscripts through
social media and the internet; and one of the most successful and widely
publicized heritage events in recent years has been the ‘Anglo-Saxon
Kingdoms’ exhibition held at the British Library in the winter of 2018–19,
in which manuscripts from all over Europe were reunited, some for the first
time in centuries.
As knowledge of manuscript collections grows through improved and
more discoverable cataloguing, through increased access to library and
online materials, and through the impact of the flourishing field of Book,
Cultural and Social History, the study of the medieval manuscript itself takes
on greater import both in university curricula globally and in the conscious-
ness of a more popular appreciation of cultural heritage. In order to provide
a scholarly foundation for this interest in manuscripts, this volume, compris-
ing new specially commissioned texts, offers a sequence of thoughtful
1
 orietta da rold and elaine treharne

overviews of key areas of investigation in the field. Each chapter gives

substantial information about its topic, and can be regarded as an initial
theoretical training in or introduction to the specialized areas of investigation
that make up Manuscript Studies. Case studies anchor the descriptive and
analytical research, so that readers can see the application of approaches.
In our work with students and colleagues in Medieval Studies (as in other
disciplines), scholars have recourse to that most critical of reflections: ‘What
methodology are you thinking of using in order to answer your research
question?’ For all researchers, at every stage of our academic exploration,
there is a clear need to be explicit about the process or processes which
underpin our study, and it is essential that we identify, understand, and
discuss our approach early on in our work on manuscripts.
Working with manuscripts is an inductive experience, although it is pos-
sible, of course, to work deductively with the objects of study from a set of
assumptions or hypotheses. Inductively, we begin with the evidence in front
of us and scrutinize it for what it might reveal in the light of our specific topic.
But the matter is not as simple as it may appear. What evidence do we look
up? How do we gather the evidence? How do we make sense of what we are
looking up?
Multiple potential methodologies present themselves to manuscript scho-
lars and book historians, ranging from the specifically textual to the princi-
pally material. Methodologically, for example, it is possible to study only the
text – the words on the page – from the perspective of textual dissemination.
One might gather every witness to a literary work, like the later fourteenth-
century English text Piers Plowman, and transcribe every manuscript version
of this complex alliterative poem to see how each instantiation differs, and
what the relationships between the versions might be. There is little doubt
that the answers to these questions are generated by the type of research
questions which a student has identified. But then method has to be informed
by a clear methodology: two slightly different processes. Of course, the
methodology is what guides the principles underpinning the research. It
can include the chosen approach, which can be interdisciplinary in scope
and can be borrowed from other cognate or non-cognate disciplines. The
method is the practical application of that methodology – the tools which are
employed to carry out the study.
The contributors in this book show that there is not one set of tools which
may be considered above any other; they demonstrate that a codicological,
palaeographical, art historical, or textual understanding of the object under
discussion is a good starting point. If codicology can be defined as a branch of
scholarship which studies the manuscript book in its structural as well as in
its broader cultural and historical contexts,2 then palaeography is the
2
 richard beadle and ralph hanna

Speaking generally, a formal description offers, as an ordered sequence of

categories, a synthesis of numerous details that are initially observed synchro-
nically in the process of examining a book. In doing so, the primary object of a
description is to offer information that reconstructs the scribe’s activity in
producing it. The categories that such a description imposes are those that
centuries of manuscript scholars have identified as most basic to the production
of any volume. Published descriptions thus formalize observation, and provide,
with greater or lesser explicitness depending on how they are organized, an
account of how scribes went about making such objects. In addition, descrip-
tions conventionally offer further, post-production information. Such informa-
tion is seldom confined to strictly palaeographical or codicological data, and
extends towards providing the rudimentary facts of ‘book-history’, usually
including information about a manuscript’s provenance, and its engagement
with successive owners and readers. Ideally (though in practice this is very
seldom possible), these observations document the book’s history from its
inception in the hands of its medieval scribe to its presence in some library or
collection in the present day. Formerly thought of as an activity subordinate, or
ancillary to the supposedly higher forms of scholarly activity associated with
philology, the descriptive analysis of manuscripts as culturally significant
objects, irrespective of whatever text they might contain, is now recognized as
capable of being a sophisticated type of hermeneutic activity in its own right.
The checklist offered here reflects Anglophone tradition. It descends ulti-
mately from descriptive practices that were first conceived and developed by
Henry Bradshaw (1831–86) of the University Library, Cambridge, in the course
of his investigations into that library’s manuscript collections. Most of
Bradshaw’s manuscript descriptions remain unpublished, but towards the turn
of the nineteenth century his methods were adopted and displayed on a large
scale by his disciple Montague Rhodes James, in the great series of what he
termed ‘descriptive catalogues’ of manuscripts in Cambridge and other British
libraries.2 During the mid-twentieth century, James’s procedures were further
elaborated and systematized by N. R. Ker and others (notably R. A. B. Mynors
and A. C. de la Mare), most notably in Ker’s monumental Medieval Manuscripts
in British Libraries. The ‘sixteen points’ to be observed in describing manu-
scripts that he sets out in the introduction have since been followed by most
practitioners in English Manuscript Studies, with certain refinements suggested
by Ker’s immediate successors in the field, M. B. Parkes and A. I. Doyle.3

Headings and Preliminary Information

Most formal manuscript descriptions begin with a heading that identifies the
manuscript and its location, and gives a brief indication of its contents and
14
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 AO BRAÇO FORTE
ESTANDO PRÊSO POR ORDEM DO GOVERNADOR BRAÇO DE
PRATA

ROMANCE

Prêso entre quatro paredes

Me tem Sua Senhoria,
Por regatão de despachos,
Por fundidor de mentiras.

Dizem que eu era um velhaco,

E mentem por vida minha,
Que o velhaco era o Governo,
E eu a velhacaria.

Quem dissera, quem pensára,

Quem cuidára, e quem diria,
Que um braço de prata velha,
Pouca prata, e muita liga;

Tanto mais que o braço forte

Fosse forte, que poria
Um Cabo de calabouço,
E um soldado de golilha?

Porém eu de que me espanto,

Si nesta terra maldicta
Póde uma ovelha de prata
Mais que dez onças de alquima?
Quem me chama de ladrão
Erra o trinco á minha vida;
Fui assassino de furtos,
Mandavam-me, obedecia.

Despachavam-me a furtar,
E eu furtava, e abrangia:
Serão boas testemunhas
Inventarios e partilhas.

E eu era o ninho de guincho,

Que sustentava e mantinha
Co’o suor das minhas unhas
Mais de dez aves rapinas.

O povo era quem comprava,

O General quem vendia,
E eu triste era o corrector
De tão torpes mercancias.

Vim depois a aborrecer,

Que sempre no mundo fica
Aborrecido o traidor,
E a traição muito bemquista.

Plantar o ladrão de fóra

Quando a ladroice fica,
Será limpeza de mãos,
Mas de mãos mui pouco limpas.

Elles guardaram o seu

Dinheiro, assucar, farinhas,
E até a mim me embolsaram
Nesta hedionda enxovia.
Si foi bem feito, ou mal feito,
O sabe toda a Bahia;
Mas si á traição me fizeram,
Com elles a traição fica.

Eu sou sempre o Braço forte,

E nesta prisão me anima
Que si é casa de peccados,
Os meus foram ninharias.

Todo este mundo é prisão,

Todo penas e agonias,
Até o dinheiro está prêso
Em um sacco que o opprima.

A pipa é prisão do vinho;

E da agua fugitiva,
Sendo tão livre e ligeira,
É prisão qualquer quartinha.

Os muros de pedra e cal

São prisão de qualquer villa,
Da alma é prisão o corpo,
Do corpo é qualquer almilha.

A casca é prisão da fructa,

Da rosa é prisão a espinha,
O mar é prisão da terra,
A terra é prisão das minas.

Do ar é carcere um odre,
Do fogo é qualquer pedrinha,
E até de um céu outro céu
É uma prisão crystallina.
Na formosura e donaire
De uma muchacha divina
Está presa a liberdade,
E na paz a valentia.

Pois si todos estão presos,

Que me cansa ou me fadiga,
Vendo-me em casa de El-Rei,
Juncto a Sua Senhoria?

Chovam prisões sobre mim,

Pois foi tal minha mofina,
Que a quem dei cadêas de ouro,
De ferro m’as gratifica.
 Á D. JOÃO DE ALENCASTRE
QUE VINDO DO GOVERNO DE ANGOLA POR ESCALA A
BAHIA, E ESTANDO NELLA HOSPEDE DO GOVERNADOR
ANTONIO LUIZ GONÇALVES DA CAMARA COUTINHO, SEU
CUNHADO, EM CUJO DESAGRADO SE ACHAVA O P., SE
QUEIXOU DE QUE ESTE O NÃO HOUVESSE VISITADO,
PEDINDO-LHE QUE AO MENOS LHE FIZESSE UMA SATYRA
POR OBSEQUIO

A quem não dá aos fieis,

Perdão se lhe ha de outorgar,
E eu hoje vo-lo hei de dar,
Pedindo me perdoeis:
Dou-vos o que mais quereis,
E o que pedis por favor,
Que quando chega um senhor
A pedir por não mandar,
Mal lhe podia eu faltar
Co’ uma satyra em louvor.

Não fui beijar-vos a mão,

E dar-vos a bem chegada,
Porque nessa alta morada
Nunca tive introducção:
Até agora a indignação
Não quiz tão altivo tracto,
Mas hoje é quasi distracto,
Porque em todo o mundo inteiro
De fidalgo e de escudeiro
São brincos de cão com gato.
Os fidalgos e os senhores
Fartos de jurisdicção
Fazem tudo e tudo dão
Á amigos e servidores:
Os que jogam de maiores
Por sangue, e não por poder,
Fazem jogo de entreter,
Porque o sangue desegual
Sempre bota ao natural,
E o mando bota a perder.

Perdoae a digressão,
Porque esta preluxidade
É boa luz da verdade
E excusa satyra então:
Quando se offereça occasião,
Meu senhor, de que vos veja
(Na egreja ou na rua seja)
Hei de prender-vos os pés,
E estai certo, que essa vez
Vos não valerá a Egreja.

Estou na minha quintinha,

Que é chacara soberana,
Ora comendo a banana,
Jogando ora a laranginha:
Nem vizinho, nem vizinha
Tenho, porque sempre cança,
Quem tudo vê e nada alcança,
E na cidade são raros
Os olhos, que não são claros,
Si olhos são de vizinhança.
Mas inda que desterrado
Me tem o fado e a sorte
Por um Juiz de má morte,
De quem não tenho appellado:
É hoje, que sois chegado,
Senhor, o tempo em que appelle,
Fazei, que el-rei o desvele
Pagar o serviço meu,
Pois é bizarro, e só eu
Não vim muito pago d’elle.
A JOÃO GONÇALVES DA CAMARA COUTINHO
FILHO DO DITO GOVERNADOR ANTONIO LUIZ GONÇALVES
DA CAMARA, TOMANDO POSSE DE UMA COMPANHIA DE
INFANTES EM DIA DE S. JOÃO BAPTISTA, ASSISTINDO-LHE
DE SARGENTO SEU TIO DOM JOÃO DE ALENCASTRE

No culto que a terra dava,

Equivocava-se a vista,
Si celebrava ao Baptista,
Si a Coutinho celebrava:
Um e outro João estava
Arrojando a sua planta
Tanto applauso e festa tanta;
Mas viu-se, que ao mesmo dia
Em que o Baptista cahia,
O Coutinho se levanta.

Viu-se que um João Baptista

Na terça feira cahira,
E que o outro João subira
A imperar nesta Conquista:
Mas não se enganou a vista
Por desacerto ou desgraça,
Antes com divina traça
Se notou e se advertiu,
Que si um com graça cahiu,
Outro nos cahiu em graça.
Brava occurrencia se achou
No Martyrologio então,
O dia era de um João,
E outro João lh’o levou:
Toda a cidade assentou
Por razão e por carinho,
Ser mais acerto e alinho
Preferir entre dous grandes
Como um Silva a um Fernandes,
A um Baptista um Coutinho.

Mais concurrencias se deram

Porque pasmasse a Bahia,
Dous num dia ha cada dia,
Mas tres nunca concorreram:
Tres de um nome então vieram,
E qual mais para applaudido;
E assim confuso o sentido,
Ficou, com tão nova traça,
Restaurada a nossa Praça
E o Kalendario aturdido.

Si de um só João no dia
Se abalára a Christandade,
Por tres de tal qualidade
Quem se não abalaria?
Tudo quanto então se via,
Se via com grande abalo,
Um mar de fogo a cavallo,
A pé um Etna de flores,
E por ver tantos primores
O céu dava tanto estalo.
A ver o grande Lencastro
Quem não fez do aperto graça?
Si sahiu o Sol á Praça
Fazer Praça á tanto astro?
O bronze pois e alabastro,
Por solemnisar a gloria,
Consentiram que esta historia
Fique, por mais segurança,
Nos archivos da lembrança,
Nos volumes da memoria.
 A PEDRO ALVRES DA NEIVA
QUANDO EMBARCOU PARA PORTUGAL

ROMANCE

Adeus, amigo Pedro Alvres,

Que vos partistes d’aqui
Para geral desconsolo
D’este povo do Brazil.

Partiste-vos, e oxalá
Que então vos vira eu partir,
Que sempre um quarto tomára
A libra por dous seitis.

Puzera o quarto em salmoura

E no fumeiro o pernil,
O pé não, porque me dizem
Que vos fede o escarpim.

Guardára o quarto de sorte,

Que se vos podera unir
Na surreição dos auzentes
Quando tornasseis aqui.

Mas vós não fostes partido,

Mente quem tal cousa diz;
Antes fostes muito inteiro,
E sem se vos dar de mim.

Saudades não as levastes,

Deixaste-las isso sim,
Porque de todo este povo
Ereis o folgar e rir.
Desenfado dos rapazes,
Das moças o perrixil,
O burro da vossa casa,
E da cidade o rossim.

Lá ides por esses mares,

Que são vidraças do anil,
Semeando de asnidades
Toda a vargem zaphir.

O piloto e a companha
Apostarei que já diz
Que vai muito arrependido
De ires no seu camarim.

O homem se vê e deseja,
E desesperado emfim,
Acceita que a nau se perca,
Por vos ver fóra de si.

Deseja ver-vos luctando

Sôbre o elemento subtil,
Onde um tubarão vos parta,
Vos morda um darimdarim.

Deseja que os peixes todos

Tomem accôrdo entre si
De vos darem nos seus buchos
Sepultura portatil.

Sente que em amanhecendo

A fina força ha de ouvir
Os bons dias de uma bocca,
Cujo bafo é tão ruim.
Sente que não empregando
Nem um só maravedí
Em queijos frescos, a elles
Vos trezande o chambaril.

Mas vós heis de ir a Lisboa

Apezar de villão ruim,
E el-rei vos ha de fazer,
Com mil mercês, honras mil.

Os cavalheiros da côrte,
Trazendo-vos juncto a si,
Vos hão de dar como uns doidos
Piparotes no nariz.

E como vós sois doente

De fidalgos phrenesis,
Por ficar afidalgado
Toda a mofa heis de rustir.

O que trazeis de vestidos,

Uns assim, outros assim,
Sereis o moda dos modas,
E o modelo dos Torins.

A conta d’isto me lembro,

Quando em Marapé vos vi
Vestido de pimentão,
Com fundos de flor de liz.

Em verdade vos affirmo

Que então vos suppuz e cri
Surrada tapeçaria,
Tisnado guadamecim.
O que dizeis de mentiras,
Quando tomardes aqui,
Amizades de um visconde,
Favores de um conde vis.

Valído de um tal ministro,

Cabido de um tal juiz,
E até do mesmo Cabido
Leiguissimo mandarim.

El-rei me fez mil favores,

Mil favores, mais de mil,
Bem fez com que eu lá ficasse,
Mas não o pude servir.

Quem casou, como eu casei,

Com mulher tão senhoril,
É captivo de um ferreiro,
Não me posso dividir

De el-rei é a minha cabeça,

Porém o corpo gentil
Todo é de minha mulher,
Não tem remedio, hei de me ir.

Achou-me razão el-rei,

E na hora de partir,
Pondo-me a mão na cabeça,
Medisse: Perico, adi.

Ide-vos Perico embora,

Ide-vos para o Brazil,
Que quem vos tirou da côrte
Não vos tirará d’aqui.
E pondo em seu peito a mão,
Eu que a fineza entendi
Chorei por agradece-la
Lagrimas de mil em mil.

Botei pelo paço fóra,

Metti-me no bergantim,
Cheguei a bordo, embarquei-me,
Levámos ferro, e parti.

Os cavalleiros da côrte
Choraram tanto por mim,
Como por uma commenda
De Sanctiago ou de Aviz.

Hontem avistámos terra,

E quando na barra vi
Coqueiros e bananeiras,
Disse comigo: Brazil!
 NO BOQUEIRÃO
DE S. ANTONIO DO CARMO, DENTRO DE UMA PEÇA DE
ARTILHARIA DESCAVALGADA ESTEVE MUITOS DIAS UMA
COBRA SURUCUCÚ ASSALTANDO AOS QUE PASSAVAM COM
MORTE DE VARIAS PESSOAS, SENDO GOVERNADOR
ANTONIO LUIZ GONÇALVES DA CAMARA (É ESTE O
ASSUMPTO DA POESIA QUE SE LÊ EM SEGUIDA)

ROMANCE

Acabou-se esta cidade,

Senhor, já não é Bahia.
Já não ha temor de Deus,
Nem d’El-Rei, nem da Justiça.

Lembra-me que ha poucos annos,

Inda não ha muitos dias,
Que para qualquer funcção
De um crime a prisão se urdia.

Iam por esse sertão

Ao centro da Jacobina
Prender algum matador,
Inda que fosse á espadilha.

Mas hoje dentro na praça,

Nas barbas da infantaria,
Nas bochechas das Granachas,
Com polé e forca á vista:
Que esteja um surucucú
Com soberana ousadia
Feito Parca da cidade,
Cortando os fios ás vidas!

Com tantas mortes ás costas,

E que não haja uma rifa
De paus, que ao tal matador
Lhe sacuda o basto em cima.

É mui barbaro rigor

O d’esta cobra atrevida,
Que esteja na estrada posta
Fazendo assaltos á vista.

Onde está Gaspar Soares,

Que não vai á espora fita
No lazão lançar-lhe a garra,
E mette-la na enxovia?

Si está no matto emboscada,

No seu mocambo mettida,
Mandem-lhe um terço ligeiro
De infantes de Henrique Dias.

Si dizem que está na peça,

Dem-lhe fogo á colubrina,
Já que faz peças tão caras,
Custe-lhe esta peça a vida.

Vão quatro ou seis artilheiros

Cavalgar-lhe a artilharia,
Porque em sendo noite dá
Fogo a toda cousa viva.
Fira com balas hervadas,
A que não ha medicina,
Porque as traz sempre na bocca
Com venenosa saliva.

O caso é monstruosidade,
Porém não é maravilha,
Que haja cobras e lagartos
Entre tanta sevandija.

Só digo que é boa peça,

Porque na peça escondida,
Vella na peça de noite,
Dorme na peça de dia.
 Á BRITES
UMA PARDA DAMA, VULGARMENTE CHAMADA BETICA,
PEDINDO-LHE CEM MIL RÉIS

ROMANCE

Betica, a bom matto vens

Com teu dá cá, com teu toma,
O diabo te enganou,
Não póde ser outra cousa.

Viste-me acaso com geito

De commissario de frotas,
Que faz roupa de Francezes
Dos brocados de Lisboa?

Sou eu acaso o Masullo,

Que do que tem de outras contas
Dá sem conta em cada um anno
Cem mil cruzados á Rola?

Sou matachim por ventura,

Que vim ante-hontem da Angola,
Que dos escravos alheios
Faço mercancia propria?

Menina, eu bato moeda?

Eu sou um pobre idiota,
Que para um tostão ganhar
Estudo uma noite toda.
Cem mil réis me vens pedir?
A mim cem mil réis, demonia?
Si eu algum dia os vi junctos,
Deus m’os dê e tu m’os comas.

Si eu nascêra Genovez,
Ou fôra Viz-Rei de Goa
Vinte e quatro de Sevilha,
Ou quarent’oito de Roma:

Dera-te, minha Betica,

Pela graça com que tomas,
Mais ouro que vinte minas,
Mais seda que trinta frotas.

Mas um pobre estudantão,

Que vive á pura tramoia,
E sendo leigo se finge
Cleriguissimo corona:

Que póde, Betica, dar-te

Sinão que versos, nem prosas?
Eu não dou sinão conselhos,
Si m’os paga quem m’os toma.

Si me ha de custar tão caro

Erguer-te uma vez a roupa,
Com outra antes de barrete,
Do que comtigo de gorra.

Para que sendo tão rica

Pedes como pobretona,
Si esses teus dentes de prata
Estorvam dar-se-te esmola?