Transcription Policy The manuscript is predominantly in secretary hand, represented in this transcription by unadorned Roman; occasional instances of rounded italic hand (for headings, foreign words, names, etc.) have been transcribed with an italic font. All margins, indentations, blanks, line breaks, page breaks, catchwords, and capitals have been preserved. Due to computer font limitations and a desire for clarity, most line-filling ornamentation has not been reproduced, save for the frequent scribal use of a virgule (/) for final punctuation. Deletions are marked in the text with a bullet (•) for each character deleted; all deletions, insertions, and omissions ('eyeskip') are flagged in the text with a red dot hyperlink, and are explained in the 'Textual Notes' section-as are the more important variant readings, collated from the Variorum scholarship. As many of the discrepancies appearing in this manuscript are almost certainly errors, it will often be useful to compare these notes with the text. The speed at which this scribe was probably working has led to a few recurring problems for the transcriber. Many words ending '-ge' (and particularly '-inge') feature only the most rudimentary stub of an 'e', and it has been difficult to decide in which cases to include and in which to exclude this letter-the distinctions have had to be somewhat arbitrary. Likewise, words ending '-ance' and 'ence' often drop the final 'e', which appears to be understood; the invisible terminal 'e' has consistently been left out of this transcription. This manuscript was paginated on alternate, odd pages, perhaps by the scribe(s). This pagination has been retained as an integral part of the text, despite some errors (pages 155(and 156) and 187(and 188) occur twice). Some damage to the manuscript, particularly on the first and last pages of the text, has obscured letters or, in some cases, whole words. The missing characters have been supplied from the Ellesmere manuscript reading (the basis of the Variorum text), and are given in square brackets [ ]. Brevigraphs, contractions, and abbreviations have been silently expanded and all superscripts lowered, in order to make this version of the text as readable as possible to the modern eye. A full table of expansions is provided below. Table of Expansions Symbol/Contraction Expansion Brevigraphs terminal -es abbreviation es s abbreviation (ß) ser, sur p abbreviation per, pre, par, pro xx- Christ- (as in xxendome, xxian, etc.) Superscripts wch which wt, wth with yt that ye the yei thei ym, yem them yen then yer, yeir ther, their yis this a a m um, m n n r r, ar, er, or, ur, re, ri, our rs rs, ors u u w w mr(s) master(s) matie(s), mate(s) maiestie(s) mrss mistress terminal mt -ment q{ qua State(s): Statute(s) Sr Sir St St Abbreviations Vidzt Videlicet & Tildes lo(s): lord(s) Io:, stan: (common names) Iohannes, stanihurst supralineal tilde inserted n, m, i supralineal tilde reduplicated letter group (ti, en, em, etc.) supralineal tilde supplied letters in common or familiar words (Chr'eninge for Christening, Ch'res for Chartres, C'maltye for Comenaltye and Com'ialty for Comenialty, co'en for comen, Cr'endome for Cristendome, embould'inge for embouldeninge, h'itacion for habitacion, inh'ited for inhabited, Inh'ittants for Inhabittants, l'res for lettres, mag'rate(s) for magistrate(s), p'nt for present, pre'nted for presented, q'th for quoth, rememb' for remember, spe'ially for specially, ten'tes for tenantes, Will'm for William) nb: Superscript 'a' has not been lowered in the case of Celtic patronymics, such as 'Pheagh ma Hugh', as this formatting preserves pronounciation. St has been lowered but not expanded in the case of Sir Anthony St Leger, as this reflects the common spelling of his name.