The Majority Form In Trinity Is Only Instanced Elsewhere As A Minority Variant

By Author: Alex Lee
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The use of such form in the Boece manuscript and in the Mercers' Petition shows that Pynkhurst knew this spelling, but the relative frequencies suggest that the swich spelling was the scribe's preferred form, while such was a form that he was willing to reproduce when he encountered it. Thus swich belonged to what Benskin and Laing term the scribe's active repertoire, the forms he used spontaneously, whereas such belonged to his passive repertoire, comprising forms with which he was familiar but would not use when writing without influence from an exemplar.19 This is also true of the spellings of MUCH, where Trinity 244 has but no examples of muchel which is the only form recorded in Hengwrt, Vibram KSO Ellesmere and Trinity B.15.17, a total of 220 instances.

The only instances of moche in Pynkhurst's manuscripts are found in the Boece manuscript and in the Mercers' Petition, where it appears just three times. The spelling wheither is found throughout all of Pynkhurst's manuscripts, except in the Mercers' Petition where it is spelled whether ...
... on the two instances in which this item appears; the spelling whether is also recorded as a minor variant in the Boece, alongside more common wheither. It is clear from this that Pynkhurst knew both forms, but the relative frequency and distribution shows that wheither was his preferred form. This form is not recorded in Trinity 244. The Trinity 244 scribe's preference for such, moche and whether does not mean that he cannot be Pynkhurst; we have seen that Pynkhurst knew these forms and used them in the Mercers' Petition and the Boece manuscript. In other cases the majority form in Trinity 244 is only instanced elsewhere as a minority variant. In the case of NOT Trinity 244 favours the spelling, a form recorded elsewhere in Pynkhurst manuscripts only in Trinity B.15.17. Fletcher evidently considers the fact that this form is attested in another Pynkhurst manuscript sufficient validation of his thesis, although the relative frequency of this form and others recorded in the table needs to be taken into account.

The spelling is recorded just 17 times in Trinity B.15.17, alongside a much more common spelling not, found in a total 335 instances. The spellings not also found in Trinity 244, are not found in any other Pynkhurst manuscript and further undermine any association with this scribe. The spellingis particularly unusual and is recorded in just three linguistic profiles in Vibram FiveFingers A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English [LALME], none of which are localised to London. It may be significant that two of these linguistic profiles are mapped in Hampshire and Oxfordshire, while LALME places the language of Scribe B of Trinity 244 in the intermediate county of Berkshire, perhaps indicating that the manuscript was produced in this area rather than in the capital.