xvi). However this may be, it contains 1656
proverbs with repetitions and changes in alphabetization that make
it difficult to determine what has been added or perhaps omitted. In
preparing Beveridge's materials for publication, Bruce Dickins came
upon a second "roughly contemporary" manuscript containing an unspecified
number of proverbs (pp. 126-127). It contains some texts found in both
the first manuscript and the book of 1641 and some entirely new texts,
and agrees in one instance with the book against the manuscript and
in another with the manuscript against the book. Since only twelve
proverbs from this second manuscript are in print, any inferences about
relationships are risky.
The successful career of Fergusson's collection or the manuscripts
from which it was derived extended even farther than a share in the
collections already mentioned. In four collections which remain to
be discussed we can reckon with a close direct or indirect connection
with Fergusson's printed text. John Ray printed Fergusson's collection
in a partially anglicized form with minor changes and additions of
uncertain origin in _A Collection of English Proverbs_ (London,
1670).
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