Scribe 3

Short couplets. Three- or four- stress lines. 861 lines. Begins imperfect (lacking about 384 lines). Comparison with the texts in CUL MS Gg.4.27.2 and BL Cotton Vitellius D.iii suggests many lines are missing in the body of the poem. The beginning of the story is lost in all the English MSS.

Composed c.1250 in the S. E. Midlands.

Three other manuscripts:
CUL MS Gg.4.27.2. c.1300. S. W. Midland. 824 lines.
BL Egerton MS 2862 (olim Trentham-Sutherland). Late 14th century. Suffolk. 1083 lines. Egerton also has in common with Auchinleck: King Richard, Sir Beues of Hamtoun, Sir Degare and Floris and Blauncheflour.
BL Cotton Vitellius MS D.3. Before 1300. Fragment (451 lines, many imperfect).

Edition:
F. C. de Vries, Floris and Blauncheflur (Gröningen: Druk, 1966).

Other editions and studies:
M. M. Pelan, Floire et Blancheflor: Seconde Version, Édition du MS 1447 du Fonds Français avec Notes, Variantes et Glossaire (Paris: Éditions Ophrys, 1975).
M. M. Pelan, Floire et Blancheflor: Édition Critique avec Commentaire, Textes d'Étude 7 (Paris: Université de Strasbourg, 1937).
A. B. Taylor, Floris and Blancheflour: A Middle-English Romance (Oxford: Clarendon, 1927). (Auchinleck text with additions from Cotton and Cambridge).
D. Laing, A Penni Worth of Witte, Abbotsford Club (Edinburgh, 1857): 15-44.

Manual I, 145; 299. Index *45. Suppl. 2288.8.