London British Library Manuscript Harley 913 is most notable for containing, alongside material in Latin and French, seventeen English poems that are the earliest written examples of Hiberno-English, the English language in Ireland.
The manuscript is of parchment, dates from circa 1330 and contains forty-eight items over sixty-four folios. It is very small, measuring only 140 mm by 95 mm. The bulk of the manuscript appears to have been written by a single scribe, the size of the handwriting varying according to the demands of space available.
The codicology of the manuscript reveals a structure of five "Booklets," each complete in itself. Thirteen of the English poems, distributed among other items, are contained in Booklets two and three. Their titles are almost all post-medieval in date: The Land of Cock-aygne, Five Hateful Things, Satire, Song of Michael of Kildare, Sarmun, Fifteen Signs before Judgment, Seven Sins, Fall and Passion, Ten Commandments, Christ on the Cross, Lollai, Song of the Times, and Piers of Ber-mingham. Here one finds those poems with Kildare associations, which have given the name "Kildare Poems" to the poems as a whole. Four further poems, Elde, Erthe, Nego, and Repentance of Love, are found among the items of Booklets four and five. All but three of the poems are unique to this manuscript: Elde and Erthe belong to a textual tradition outside Ireland; a (later) variation of Lollai is also found in England.
The manuscript shows signs of having been dismembered and assembled again incorrectly: Seven Sins begins on folio 48 and continues on folio 22r; Elde begins on folio 54r and continues on folio 62r. Evidence from London British Library Manuscript Lansdowne 418, a collection of Irish material made by Sir James Ware in 1608, indicates that eleven of its items came from "a small old book" called the "Book of Ross or Waterford"—known as "Harley 913"—in which only six of the items are still to be found. The other five, including a poem beginning "Yung men of Waterford," are no longer present, presumably lost when the manuscript was disarranged.
The seventeen Hiberno-English poems are unique linguistically. They are also unique among Middle English poems in exhibiting signs of Irish influence in their composition. The contents of the manuscript as a whole—powerfully homiletic, with some satirical pieces—suggest in their themes and images a strong Franciscan connection. The manuscript contains a list of Franciscan houses beginning with the provinces of Ireland. Kildare and Waterford, mentioned in the manuscript, had Franciscan houses, as had New Ross (mentioned in a notable French poem "The Entrenchment of New Ross"). Friar Michael, who claims authorship of one poem, says he is a "frere menour" (141). The subject of another poem, Piers of Berming-ham, was buried in the Franciscan Priory in Kildare town. Also present are memorials of St. Francis and the Franciscan order. The satirical material, including such poems as The Land of Cockaygne, as well as Latin pieces such as the Abbot of Gloucester’s Feast and Missa de Potatoribus (Mass of the Drinkers), while exposing mankind’s wrongdoings to laughter rather than to homiletic censure, avoids any criticism of friars.
The manuscript’s small size, taken with its contents and its well worn appearance, suggests that it was made to be a travelling preacher’s "pocket-book." Such small books were produced in large numbers to meet the needs of frairs. Studies of Franciscan manuscripts indicate that Franciscans had a special liking for small portable books.
The early history of the manuscript can only be surmised, and what is known of its later movements contains significant gaps. Internal evidence suggests that to materials from Kildare were added materials from New Ross and finally from Waterford. The materials for the manuscript could have been assembled and copied in Waterford, probably at the Franciscan house. An inscription on folio 2 shows that in the sixteenth century the manuscript was owned by George Wyse, mayor (1561) and bailiff (1566) of Waterford. Perhaps it came to the family when Sir William Wyse, who was attached to the court of Henry VIII, acquired property in Waterford at the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1608, Ware made his above-mentioned transcriptions. In 1697, it was owned by John Moore, bishop of Norwich (1691-1701), as mentioned by Bernard in his Catalogus. In 1705, it was in the possession of Thomas Tanner, bishop of St. Asaph, who allowed George Hickes to print the Land of Cockaygne in his Thesaurus. Subsequently it was owned by Robert Harley, first earl of Oxford, with whose library it came to the British Museum in 1754.
