The Emerald Tablet of Hermes · 7 of 8
Two Middle English Versions
Editorial note on the Middle English excerpts
These are fifteenth-century English versions of material transmitted in the Secretum secretorum tradition. Roger Bacon edited the Latin work in the thirteenth century; he did not make these later English translations. The source compilation dates the first version approximately 1445 and the second approximately 1485. The latter is represented by Johannes de Caritate’s version in Takamiya MS 38, catalogued by Yale as approximately 1484.
The source’s damaged “fi Fry” is corrected to “firy” on the evidence of the Middle English Dictionary’s quotation of Manzalaoui 174:35. Three further obvious-looking defects are printed as editorial emendations: “han” becomes “[than]”, “rhyng” becomes “[thyng]”, and “he world” becomes “[the] world”. These bracketed readings are conjectural repairs of the online transcription, not claims to reproduce a checked manuscript. Other historical forms are retained.
First Middle English version (source compilation: c. 1445)
1.Trouth hath hym so, and it is no doubt,
2.that the lover is to the heigher, and the heigher to the lower aunsweren. The worcher forsoth of all myracles is the one and sool God, of and fro Whom Cometh all meruelous operacions.
3.So all thynges were created of o soole substance, and of o soole disposicion,
4.the fader wherof is the sone, and the moone moder,
5.that brought hym forth by blast or aier in the wombe, the erthe taken fro it,
6.to whom is seid the increat fader, tresour of myracles, and yever of vertues.
7.Of fire is made erthe.
7a. Depart the erthe fro the fire, for the sotiller is worthier than the more grosse, and the thynne thynge than the thik. This most be do wisely and discretly.
8.It ascendith fro the erth into the heven, and falleth fro heven to the erthe, and therof sleith the higher and the lower vertue.
9.And yf it lordship in the lower and in the heigher, and thow shalt lordship aboue and beneth, which forsoth is the light of lightes, and therfor fro the wolle fle all derknesse.
10.The higher vertue ouer-cometh all, for sothe all thynne thyng doth in dense thynges.
11a. After the disposicion of the more world rynneth this worchyng.
13.And for this prophetisyng of the trynyte of God Hermogenes it called Triplex, trebil in philosophie, as Aristotle seith.
[See Manzalaoui 1977: 65 -6.]
Second Middle English version (Johannes de Caritate; manuscript c. 1484)
1.The trwthe is so, and that it is no dowght,
2.that lower thyngis to hyer thyng, and hyer to lower be correspondent. But the Werker of myraclis is on Godde alone, fro Home descendyth euiry meruulus werk.
3.And so alle thyngis be creat of one only substauns, be an only dysposicion,
4.of home the fadyr is the sonne, and the mone the modyr,
5.qwyche bar her be the wedyr in the wombe. The erthe is priuyd fro her-to.
6.This is clepyd or seyd the fadyr of enchauntmentis, tresur of myracclys, the yessuer of vertuys.
7.Be a lytil it is made erthe.
7a. Depart that qwyche is erthly fro that qwyche is firy, for that qwyche is sotel is mor wurthy [than] that qwyche is grose, and that rar, porous, or lyght, is mor bettyr than qwiche is thyk of substauns. This is done wyseli or dyscretly.
8.It ascendyth fro the erth in-to heuyn and fallyth fro heuyn in-to erth, and ther-of it sleth the ouyr vertu and the nedyr vertu, so it hath lorchyp in the lowe thyngis and hye thingis,
9.and thu lordschyppist vppeward and downward, and with the is the lyght of lyghtys. And for that alle derkness schal fle fro the.
10.The ovyr vetu ouircomyth alle, for euiry rar [thyng] werkyth in to euiry thyk thyng.
11a. And aftyr the dysposicion of the mor world rennyth thys werking.
13.And for that Hermogines is clepyd threfold in filosophye, and of the meruellys of [the] world.
[See Manzalaoui 1977: 174-5]