Social life in Britain from the conquest to the reformation / compiled by G.G. Coulton.

  • Coulton, G. G. (George Gordon), 1858-1947.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social life in Britain from the conquest to the reformation / compiled by G.G. Coulton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/570 (page 1)
    LAND AND FOLK 1 MERRY ENGLAND John of Trevisa, a Cornishman (1326-1402), was the most assiduous of medieval translators into English. He was a Fellow first of Exeter College, Oxford, and then of Queen’s, from which he was expelled in 1379 with the Provost and some others. By 1387, at least, we find him as Vicar of Berkeley and chaplain to Lord de Berkeley, for whom his trans¬ lations were done. His translation of Higden’s Polychronicon was thrice printed before 1527, and his Bartholomew twice; his “Descrypcion of Englonde,” from Higden, weht through five separate editions in those early years. Ralph Higden (i299?-i363?) was a monk of St Werburgh’s, Chester. A doubtful story makes him the author of the Chester Miracle Plays. His Polychro?iicon is a world-history, with a geographical introduction, compiled with great diligence from the standard authors then accessible ; it was deservedly popular throughout the rest of the Middle Ages, since it exactly appealed to the average medieval mind. The following extracts are very much abbreviated from Higden, and I have omitted the references to authorities (Bede, Giraldus, Solinus, etc.) from whom he draws. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, vol. 11. (p. 3.) After the ilondes of ocean now Bretayne schal be descreved. By cause of Bretayne alle the travaile of this storie was bygonne. (p. 13.) As Fraunce passeth Bretayne so Bretayne passeth Irlond in faire weder and nobilte, but nought in helthe. For this ilond is beest and bringeth forth trees and fruyt and [oxen] and other bestes, and wyn groweth there in som place. The lond hath plente of foules and of bestes of dyvers manere kynde, the lond is plenteuous and the see also. The lond is noble, copious, and riche of nobil welles and of nobil c. 1