ABSTRACT
The poem is preserved in five manuscripts. The two earliest are huge anthologies of English religious writings, the Vernon MS., Bodl. Eng. Poet, a.1, fol. 317a–b (denoted by V), which also includes PPl A, Joseph of Arimathie, legends and homilies; and the companion volume, the Simeon MS., BL Addit. 22283, fols. 125b–126a (A). These two were copied at the end of the fourteenth century by Worcestershire scribes who appear to have used the same exemplar of Susan; see Doyle (1974). MS. Huntington HM 114, fols. 184b–190b (P), is dated 1425–50, and also contains PPl B; it was written by the Essex scribe who copied the Lambeth Palace ms. of Siege J; see Seymour (1974), and Doyle (1982:94). Of the same date is the Ingilby MS., Pierpont Morgan M 818, fols. la–5a (I), by a south Lincolnshire scribe according to LALME. It also contains PPl A; see Doyle (1982:96). The text in BL MS. Cotton Caligula A ii (pt. I), fols. 3a–5a (C), which has lost the first 104 lines of the poem, was copied in the mid fifteenth century, and is followed by a miscellaneous collection including several romances, some Lydgate, Chevalere Assigne and the Siege J; see Guddat-Figge (1976:169–72). All the scribes are from further south than the poet who, on the evidence of the rhymes, may be located in the southern part of the north of England (e.g. southern Yorkshire); see Dobson (1971:110).
