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. This volume containing the latter portion of
the text and wordlists complements Vol. 7 in this series.
