Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

This essay raises the question of how far John Audelay, a fifteenth-century poet claiming to be blind and deaf, had a role in the making of the Audelay MS (Bodleian MS Douce 302). The differing responsibilities of two scribes, the ordering of contents, the instructional verses, and the embedded attributions to Audelay suggest his direct involvement. All four sections of the manuscript close decisively, and a farewell poem from Audelay has been appended by the second scribe. These endings match Audelay's dominant concern with preaching penance and living a penitential life. Ending well merges with the priest-poet's avowed petition for a good spiritual end.