Author Description

The Ancrene Wisse is perhaps the most notable monument of Middle English prose, its influence evident from the time of its composition in the early thirteenth century until at least the Reformation. As the only Early Middle English work of considerable length to survive in more than two copies, it is a unique resource for the study of textual variation according to dialect, date, milieu and stylistic preferences. This edition presents four versions - those of the early Corpus, Cleopatra and Nero manuscripts, and the late and substantially modernised version of the Vernon manuscript. To facilitate comparison, they are printed in parallel form, line by line, and supplied with extensive notes.