Welsh Journals

Thomas reproduces these lines with certain differences (Sec. Light, I.4 Sanate for sanctam Third Light, 1.3 Hereforde for Hertforde Fifth Light, 1.3 vite for rite, I.5 Sexu privatus fit vir vid et ex oculatus). How Thomas arrived at these alterations, some of which are improvements, is not clear, for he states that he derived his information from Abingdon. According to Abingdon the inscriptions accompanied coats of arms. This does not seem a very probable combination, but the arms may have been those of donors of windows. Nothing is said of any actual representations of the scenes described in the inscriptions. It will be observed that these inscriptions correspond, so far as they go and with certain differences, to our text. The relationship may be summarized thus First Light, B. 4-12: Second Light, B. 13- 17: Third Light, B. 18, 19, two additional lines, 20 with omission of last line Fourth Light, B. I, A. 14, 4-6 Fifth Light, A. 7, 8, B. 2, 3, A. 9 Sixth Light, A. 12, four additional lines. It will be seen from this comparison that the inscriptions in the cloister windows were based upon a different tradition of the lines to that represented by our text. The cloisters at Worcester were rebuilt in 1372. There seems to be no evidence for the date at which the windows in the South Cloister were glazed, but it is to be noted that John Fordham, Prior between 1418 and 1438, presented windows in the North Cloister. It is possible then that the windows of the South Cloister were of the first half of the fifteenth century. The evidence is not clear, but it might be suppposed that the inscriptions as found in the Peniarth MS. were actually used in an adapted form for paintings in the Cathedral and that a selection of lines from this form was made for use in the cloister windows in the fifteenth century. It is, however, possible that the IN THE FIFTH LIGHT. Quod morsus dat tibi diros. Ecce viam tutus a vinc'lis pergo solutus. Cuncta potest qui te reddet paralytice rite. Serr natus fit vir vid oculatus. Sancte pater petimus fer opem Wulstane perimus. IN THE SIXTH LIGHT. Vis erit a tumba quo surgit mersus in unda. Tumba viri celebris signis viget inclita crebris. Hie claudis mutis cecis erit unda salutis. tes ales hanc Celitus emissum amis sum."