Medical treatises in verse were frequent and popular in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There are several in the British Museum. A curious specimen is preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, and it is reproduced in readable English in "Archeologia," Vol. XXX, with notes by the translator, Mr. George Stephens, and by Dr. Pettigrew. They both believe it was written in the fourteenth century. It consists of 1485 lines. Of these it will suffice to give the first four, and one specimen of its sections. It begins thus:—
In foure parties of amā
Be gynneth ye sekenesse yt yie han
In heed, in wombe, or i ye splene
Or i bleddyr, yese iiij I mene.
The following is entitled in the margin "Hed werk."
Amedicyn I hawe i Myde
For hedwerk to telle as I fynde
To taken eysyl pulyole ryale
And camamyle to sethe wt all;
And wt ye jous anoyte yi nosthryll well
A make aplaister of ye toyerdel;
And do it in a good grete clowte
And wynde yi heed yer wt abowte;
As soon as it be leyde yeron
All yi hedwerk xal away gon.
Two other specimens of these early poetical recipes from other authors may be quoted:—
ffor defhed of ye hed.
For defhed of hed & for dullerynge
I fynde wrete dyuers thynge
Take oporcyon (a portion) of boiys vryne
And mege it wt honey good & fyne
And i ye ere late it caste
Ye herynge schal amede in haste.
