FOREWORD.

have usually been indicated in small notes placed at the bottom of the pages.

Before us, Mr. Grabowski published an extract from this work that represents the value of the first 14 pages of our edition. And recently we learned that Mr. Max Weyl (¹) had just published the second poem; we do not know its extent. Regarding the manuscripts we used, we will be content to make a single remark regarding the composition. As one reads sometimes ma'mre discourses/poems, sometimes menwate parts/sections, the reader might perhaps be tempted to ask if Narsai composed a poem without divisions or if he himself marked parts in his work. In our opinion, it seems that the poem was divided subsequently into three parts and that, to fill a gap, one has inserted the extract from the poem of St. Ephrem between the 2nd and 3rd parts (²). We would thus have the four parts of our work. It seems likely, however, that our poem was originally divided, for the beginning of the second part is a sort of introduction that marks a restart. The third part bears no indication of division.

(¹) Max Weyl, Das 2. Josephsgedicht von Narses The 2nd Joseph-poem by Narses. Dissertation. gr. 8^o. Berlin 1901. M. Poppelauer.

(²) See pp. 606—609.