Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
November 7, 2024
This 15th century manuscript of the Chronicle of England ends with some rather surprising remarks on the flyleaf:
Tritu est perire quod facis ingrato [what you do is lost by thankless wear and tear]
Clawe a Churle by the arse and he wyll beshite thy fyste quod elisabet moncke
It sounds as though the 16th-century Elizabeth Monk was having a particularly bad day. Thanks to Meg Laing from Linguistics and English Language for spotting this note, which is not recorded in the catalogue.