The three poems associated with the name of George Ashby have been readily available to students of Middle English verse for the past half century in the edition prepared for the Early English Text Society by Mary Bateson. It does not appear, however, that any particular inquiry has been undertaken as to the use Ashby made of possible sources. Indeed, in the case of his first poem (A Prisoner's Reflections) such a study holds little promise of being very rewarding, as the poem is, to a considerable extent, frankly autobiographical. The Active Policy of a Prince, in turn, is a collection of moral commonplaces of a more than commonplace nature—doubtless the number of parallels to other poems of this genre would be most impressive, and perhaps equally tedious. The Latin title of the third poem (Dicta opiniones diversorum philosophorum) suggests its own origin and Miss Bateson has correctly pointed out that this poem is based upon that Latin work which, in its English form, constitutes the first dated work to be printed in England—
‘The Lay Folks' Mass Book’ and Thomas Frederick Simmons: Medievalism and the Tractarians