William, of Nassington, -1354. Speculum vitae (Personal Name)

Use this heading for verse versions of Speculum vitae; for prose versions use the heading: Speculum vitae.

Peterson, I.J. William of Nassington, 1986: CIP title page, in subtitle (Speculum vitae)

Phone call to I.J. Peterson, 7/7/86 (William of Nassington wrote only verse versions of Speculum vitae)

Oxford dictionary of national biography WWW site, viewed July 5, 2019 (Nassington [Nassyngton], William: Speculum vitae, a 16,000 line Middle English commentary on the Lord's prayer incorporating analysis of the commandments, the creed, the divine and cardinal virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the deadly sins, the beatitudes, and the heavenly rewards; while much of the poem derives directly from the French prose Somme le roi (dated 1279), the Speculum is none the less a monument of scholastic erudition and a breathtaking synthesis of moral philosophy; the poem was approved by the masters of Cambridge University, and circulated especially well among the Cambridge and clerical intelligentsia, despite having been written ostensibly for the ordinary laity; the Speculum vitae survives in numerous manuscripts)

Oxford University Press WWW site, viewed July 5, 2019 (Speculum vitae; translation into Middle English verse of Lorens of Orleans's profoundly influential pastoral treatise, Somme le roi; the translation, in Yorkshire dialect, is a vast work, 16,000 lines in four-stress couplets; the Speculum is the only known Middle English verse translation of Somme le roi)