Cursor Mundi

Cursor Mundi is a Middle English religious poem written by an unknown northern English writer during the late 13th century or early 14th century. It draws on both sacred and secular sources to tell the history of the world. Cursor Mundi is the earliest known source of many English proverbs and sayings.

Quotes

• Brut þat berne bolde of hand,
  First conquerour of meri Ingland.
  • Line 7

• Selden was for ani chance
  Praised Inglis tong in France.
  • Line 245

• For-þi men sais into þis tyde,
  Is no man þat murthir may hide.
  • Line 1083

• Luken luve at the end wil kith.
  • Line 4276

• Hert sun for-gettes that ne ei seis.
  • Line 4508

• Curced in kirc than sal thai be wid candil, boke, and bell.
  • Line 17110

• Nil we, wil we, we sal mete.
  • Line 23730

Southern Version

• Efter haly kyrc state
  Þis ilk bok is es translate
  In to Inglis tong to rede
  For the loue of inglis lede,
  Inglis lede of Ingland,
  For the commun at understand.
  Frankis rimes here I redd,
  Communlik in ilk[a] sted,
  Mast es it wroght for frankis man:
  Of Ingland the nacion,
  Quat is for him na frankis can?
  Es Inglis man þar in commun;
  Þe speche þat man wit mast may spede,
  Mast þar-wit to speke war nede;
  Selden was for ani chance
  Praised Inglis tong in france;
  Giue we ilkan þare langage,
  Me think we do þam non outrage.
  To laud and Inglis man i spell
  Þat understandes pat i tell.
  • Line 231 [MS. Cotton Vespasian A iii, BL]. Laurence M. Eldredge and Anne L. Klinck (eds.) The Southern Version of 'Cursor Mundi', vol. 5 (University of Ottawa Press, 2000) pp. 14–15
    • Those things that Holy Church doth state
      In this same book I now translate.
      In English tongue 'tis all made clear
      For love of all the English here;
      English folk of Engėland,
      For the commons to understand.
      French rimes are there in this land
      To be found on every hand;
      French is wrought for Frankish man,
      What is for him that no French can?
      The natïon of England old
      The Englishmen in common hold;
      The speech that man with most may speed
      Must be the speech that men most need.
      Seldom was by any chance
      Praised the English tongue in France;
      Do we the same to their languáge
      Methinks we do them no outráge.
      To unlearned Englishman I spell,
      That understandeth what I tell.
      • Henry S. Pancoast and John Duncan Spaeth, Early English Poems (New York: Henry Holt and Co, 1910) p. 159
    • Of England the nation
      Is Englishman there in common.
      The speech that man with most may speed
      Most therewith to speak was need.
      Seldom was for any chance
      Praised English tongue in France.
      • M. T. Clanchy, England Its Rulers, 1066–1307, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998) p. 228