The manuscript contains two works: the first is the Pricke of Conscience; the second is the first 659 lines of a 14th-century romantic work called the Speculum Gy of Warewyke, in which Guy asks Alcuin for advice on how to escape the enticements of the world.
Contents: (1) pp. 1-204, Imperfect copy of the Pricke of Conscience, ed. Richard Morris, The pricke of conscience (see Bibliography below). Index of Middle English verse, no. 1193/3. A variant version, as in Bodleian Library, Douce 156 (Summary Catalogue 21730), beginning with a 20-line prologue (running title 'Entre'), 'Her beginneþ þe soþ to say ... God hit vs graunte say all Amen'. The text begins 'Befor þat e[ny] þ[ing] was wrouȝt' and ends 'That for oure heele on roode con hinge'. Probably thirty-four leaves are missing between these points in gaps after pp. 12, 70, 72 (probably 17 leaves), 90, and 140 (probably 8 leaves): the missing lines are between 394 and 528, 2551 and 2626, 2704 and 3957, 4594 and 5017, and 6824 and 7392. The removal of almost the whole of book 4, on purgatory, may have been on purpose, since the two lines on p. 11 referring to book 4 have been erased (lines 356-7); the gap in passing from the last line on p. 72 (2704) to the first line on p. 73 (3957) is not very obvious.
(2) pp. 205-224, Guy of Warwick, Speculum, ending imperfectly (lines 1-659 only), ed. Georgiana Lea Morrill, Speculum Gy de Warewyke: an English poem (see Bibliography below), p. xxxi. Index of Middle English verse, no. 1101/10. The text begins 'Herknes alle to my speche' and ends 'wolde þou shone'. It accompanies the Prick of Conscience also in Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.11.89, and British Library, Arundel 140 and Harley 1731.
Script: Gothic anglicana formata; according to Prof. Angus McIntosh, British Library, Harley 1205 is in the same hand. Written space: 190 x 87 mm. 33 long lines.
Secundo folio: In her manere.
Decoration: Several 4- or 5-line initials in blue ink with red penwork infill and flourishes; the two initials on p. 1 are water-damaged.
Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 401-2. By permission of Oxford University Press.