## The Sayings of St Bernard

### Publication Statement:

This file is part of the facsimile-edition of the Auchinleck Manuscript was co-edited by Professor David Burnley and Dr Alison Wiggins. The HTML versions of the resource are freely available at http://www.nls.uk/auchinleck/

### Notes:

This manuscript file was originally supplied as bernard.html and the header file was located in heads/bernard_head.html both of which were converted to TEI XML by Dr James Cummings of the Oxford Text Archive. The notes below were taken from the header file and each HTML paragraph placed in a separate note.

Scribe 1

6-line stanzas, rhyming aabccb. 42 lines. Begins imperfect.

Edition:
H. Varnhagen, 'Zu Mittelenglischen Gedichten', Anglia, 3 (1880): 275-292. ('VII: Noch Einmal zu den Sprüchen des Heiligen Bernhard': 291-292).

Another edition:
D. Laing, A Penni Worth of Witte, Abbotsford Club (Edinburgh, 1857): 119-120.

Index 2865; 3310.

### Source:

The Auchinleck Manuscript (NLS Adv MS 19.2.1) is one of the National Library of Scotland’s greatest treasures. Produced in London in the 1330s, it provides a unique insight into the English language and literature that Chaucer and his generation grew up with and were influenced by. It acquired its name from its first known owner, Lord Auchinleck, who discovered the manuscript in 1740 and donated it to the precursor of the National Library in 1744.

### The Sayings of St Bernard

¶ Where ben men biforn ous were, [f.280ra] [Image]
Þat houndes ladden & haukes bere
& hadden feld & wode,
Þe riche leuedis in her bour
Þat werd gold in her tresour[5]
¶ Wiþ her briȝt rode?
Þai eten & dronken & made hem glade,
Wiþ joie was al her liif ylade;
Men kneled hem bifore.
Þai beren hem wel swiþe heiȝe -[10]
Wiþ a tv[i]nkling of her eiȝe
Her soules were forlore.
¶ Whare is þat hoppeing & þat song
Þe trayling & þe proude gong, [ trayling: the scribe wrote trauayling, then underdotted ua.]
Þe haukes & þe houndes?[15]
Al þat wele is went oway;
Her ioie is turned to wayleway,
To manie hard stoundes.
¶ Dreiȝe her, man, ȝif þat þou wit;
A litel pine men þe bit.[20]
Wiþdrawe þine aise oft:
ȝif þe pine be vnrede,
& þou þenke of þi misdede
It schal þe þink soft
¶ ȝif þat þe fende, þe foule þing,[25]
Þurth wicked rede of fals egging
Adoun þe haþ ycast,
Vp & be gode champioun,
Stond & falle no more adoun
For a litel blast.[30]
¶ Take þe rode to þi staf
& þenk on him þat þeron ȝaf
His liif þat was so lef.
He it ȝaf for þe, þou ȝeld it him;
Oȝain þi fo þi staf þou nim[35]
& wreke þe of þat þef.
¶ Jhesu Crist ous aboue
Þou grant ous for þi moder loue
At our liues ende.
When we han riȝtes of þe prest[40]
& þe deþ be at our brest
Þe soule mot to heuen wende.
Amen