The Assemble of Goddes

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Anonymous
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Title: The Assemble of Goddes
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: February 21, 2007 [EBook #20642]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ASSEMBLE OF GODDES ***
Produced by Jason Isbell, Taavi Kalju and the Online
Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced
from images generously made available
by The Internet
Archive/Canadian Libraries)
[Transcriber's note: Until recently this work was attributed to John
Lydgate, but now most scholars consider that the author is unknown.
The first mention of Lydgate's authorship of this work was made by
Stephen Hawes in 1505 as one of Lydgate's seven major works. But
many scholars have doubted over the years that this poem was written
by Lydgate, because the style used doesn't greatly resemble the style of
Lydgate's other works, and the vocabulary is somewhat more modern
than Lydgate is known to have used. Modern scholars believe that this
work was written between 1478 and 1483 (about forty years after
Lydgate's death). Analysis of style and vocabulary have led scholars to

conclude that the author might have been a woman. For further
information about this poem please see The Assembly of Gods, edited
by Jane Chance, published by Medieval Institute Publications,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1999, ISBN: 1580440223, which is also
available online at

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/asint.htm.
The book from which this e-book was transcribed is a fascimile reprint
of the third printing of this book, made by Wynkyn de Worde circa
1500. The book was printed in blackletter font known as Wynkyn de
Worde's type 3, and uses many abbreviations, which I have expanded
and rendered inside parenthesis, eg., {x}. The abbreviations used in this
book are:
*Macron over the letter. The most common one, usually meaning
missing "n" or "m" after the letter. But in some cases might also mean
missing "e," "er" or "re" after the letter. This happens usually when p, q
or r have macrons.
*Little e over Middle-English thorn, meaning
"the."
*Little t over Middle-English thorn, meaning "that."
*Little u
over Middle-English thorn, meaning "thou."
*Little t over w,
meaning "with."
*Middle-English yogh, representing "gh."

*Superscripted 9 after letter, meaning missing "us." Used only at the
end of the word.
*Superscripted 2 after letter, meaning missing "e,"
"er" or "re." Used only at the end of the word.
*Stretched s, looking
like integral sign, meaning missing "e" or "i" before letter s.
*Dot
over the letter, meaning missing "e," "er" or "re" after the letter.
Usually used with d, t, e and u. Combination q+d with dot means
"quod."
*Strike through letter, meaning missing "e," "er" or "re" after
the letter. Usually used with p, v and s. Striked through p might also
mean missing "ro" or "or" after p.
Occasionally there were some letters printed upside down. I have
rendered them inside brackets, e.g., [x]. The poem uses two types of
punctuation--a dot, meaning longer pause, and a slash, meaning shorter
pause or comma. I have corrected many errors and noted them on a
right margin. Also this printing was missing three lines and one line

had several letters missing from the middle of the line. I have marked
them on a right margin and the correct reading supplied from the
modern edition. There were a couple of places where the word "nota"
or "note" was printed, but the actual notes weren't found in this reprint.
There's a fair chance that those notes were never printed. The original
page images are available with html edition.]
The assemble of goddes
by
John Lydgate
Printed at Westminster
by Wynkyn de Worde about the year
1500
Cambridge
at the University Press
1906
The work here reprinted formed part of the famous volume of
black-letter tracts (formerly marked AB. 4. 58), which came to the
University Library in 1715 by the gift of King George the First with the
rest of the library of John Moore, Bishop of Ely. No other copy of this
edition is recorded to be in existence.
The types used are Caxton's type 3 (for the title) and Wynkyn de
Worde's type 3, with final m and n etc. from type 1 (in the rest of the
book). This type 3 is not known to have been used before 1499.
Mr Sayle remarks that the woodcut illustration is taken from Caxton's
second edition (ab. 1483-4) of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
FRANCIS JENKINSON
1906 March 5.
I certify that I have printed 250 copies only of this facsimile, that the
impressions have been rubbed off the plates and the negatives
destroyed.
P.