194
Multi sunt Presbyteri.
The choice quaintness and deep simple piety of the original have always made the following poem (which may he of the end of the fourteenth century) a great favourite with me. It was first published from a MS. belonging to the Cathedral of Oehringen, in the Serapæum, (I. 107,) but very incorrectly. Edélestand du Méril printed it from a French MS.: his text is better, but still very incorrect: and in several places the author's original draught is given, in addition to his revised form. Du Méril has also added to it, as one and the same poem, the very striking Dictamen ad Sacerdotes, which is affixed to so many mediæval Breviaries, (among others the Sarum.) A very good translation of this latter has been published by Hayes. The two compositions have no further connexion than that of subject.
In translating it I have taken the liberty of which Tusser avails himself, regarding the same fowl of which this poem treats, (as well as in a multitude of other cases,)—the omission of the article:—
"Cock croweth at midnight, few times above six," &c.
