Conversely, another carol, which is
concerned
with the events at
the cross, has, for its refrain, a complaint of Mary:
To see the maydyn wepe her sonnes passion,
It entrid my hart full depe with gret compassions.
the cross, has, for its refrain, a complaint of Mary:
To see the maydyn wepe her sonnes passion,
It entrid my hart full depe with gret compassions.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v02
'
•Well, what was her dryng? '
The chill water of (the) well spring. '
"Well, what was her bower? '
"The rede rose and the lilly flour. '
On the same folio is a quaint poem, which has retained the
invitation to the dance :
Ich am of Irlaunde,
Am of the holy londe
Of Irlande;
Good sir, pray I 30,
For of Saynte Charite,
Come ant daunce wyt me in Irlaunde.
The call to the dance is also preserved in several fifteenth and
sixteenth century May poems.
A poem in which the song of a swaying mass is clearly to be
heard' is the familiar repetitionary lyric:
Adam lay ibowndyn,
bowndyn in a bond,
Fowre thowsand wynter
thowt he not to long;
And al was for an appil,
an appil that he tok,
As clerkes fyndyn wretyn
in here book.
Ne hadde the appil take ben,
the appil taken ben,
Ne hadde neuer our lady
a ben Hevene quene.
Blyssid be the tyme
that appil take was!
Therfore we mown syngyn
Deo gracias
1 MS Rawlinson, D. 913, f. 1. 2 MS Sloane 2593, f. 112-Warton Olub, rv, 32.
## p. 375 (#393) ############################################
Minstrels
375
Many an ecclesiastical denunciation testifies to the prevalence
of this communal singing in medieval England; but so much more
potent are custom and cult than authority that women, dressed in
the borrowed costumes of men, continued to dance and sing
in wild chorus within the very churchyards, in unwitting homage
to the old heathen deities.
Some of the song collections are anthologies taken from the
popular songs of the minstrel, the spiritual hymns of the monk
and the polite verse of the court; others are purely the répertoire
of minstrels; and still others are limited to polite verse.
Of the latter, fortunately, there is preserved the very song-book
that was owned by king Henry VIII, containing the lyrics of love
and good comradeship that he composed when a young man; and
there are, in addition, the books which were in part compiled, and
in part composed, by the authorised musicians of the courts of
Henry VII and Henry VIII These have preserved types of
chivalric verse based upon French models, as well as songs in
honour of the royal family, and songs composed for the revels and
pageants which were a brilliant feature of the court life in the
early decades of the sixteenth century.
The collections of minstrels' songs are especially rich. The
minstrel no longer confined himself to songs of rude and humble
ancestry, but encroached both on the devotional verse of the
monk, and on the songs of the gallant. This readily explains
itself, if one is mindful to identify these minstrels with that class
of men who had more and more usurped the prerogatives of
minstrelsy, the scolares vagantes, those irresponsible college
graduates and light-hearted vagabonds, who were equally at home
in ale-house, in hall, in market-place or in cloister, and who could
sing with equal spirit a ribald and saucy love song, a convivial
glee, a Christmas carol, a hymn to the Virgin, or a doleful lay
on the instability of life or the fickleness of riches. Most of them
were men who had taken minor orders, and who, therefore, knew
missal, breviary and hymnal; their life at the university had given
them some acquaintance with books, their wayside intercourse
with the minstrel had given them his ballads and his jargon of
washed-out romantic tales and their homely contact with the
people had taught them the songs of the street and of the folk-
festival ; they were, therefore, the main intermediaries between
the learned and the vernacular letters of the day, and they tended
to reduce all to a common level. If they compelled the rude
folk-song to conform to the metres of the Latin hymns, they
## p. 376 (#394) ############################################
376 Transition English Song Collections
compensated for this by reducing to these same simple metres
the artistically fashioned stanzas of highly wrought spiritual songs,
as well as by introducing the popular refrain into lyrics of every
kind. When they sang of the joys of Mary, of the righteousness
of a saint, or of a prince renowned for his deeds, they received the
approbation of bishop or abbot ; when they satirised his cupidity,
or sang wanton songs at banquets, they called down the bishop's
indignation; but, bishop or no bishop, they never lacked an
audience.
As the ability to read became more general, and as taste was
refined by the possession of books of real poetic merit, the minstrel,
even if one who had tarried in the schools, found his audience more
and more limited to the common folk; but, even in the fifteenth
century, though his wretched copies of the old romances, with their
sing-song monotony, might be the laughing-stock of people of taste,
his Christmas carols would still gain him admission to the halls of
the nobility.
As the minstrel thus trespassed upon the provinces of religious
and polite poets, so each of these in turn invaded the fields of
others, with the result that the monk adopted the formulary of
amatory address for his love songs to the Virgin, and the gallant
introduced elements from the folk-poetry into his embroidered
lays.
Considering this confusion, for purposes of discussion it is more
satisfactory to classify the songs with reference to types than with
reference to authorship. Romances and tales have been dealt with
elsewhere: though they are to be found in the collections, and
were, probably, chanted in humdrum fashion to the accompani-
ment of a harp, they are narratives, and not at all lyrical.
The carol was brought to England from France at an early
date, and there are extant Norman carols that were sung in
England in the late twelfth century. In essentials, there is little
difference between these carols and some of those that were sung
in England three centuries later. They observe the refrain, which
is most commonly a repetition of the word 'noel'; they open
with an invocation to those present,
Seignors ore entendez a nus,
De loinz sumes venuz @ vous,
Pur quere Noell;
and their theme is the Nativity and the attendant gladness.
· Sandys, Festive Songs, 6.
## p. 377 (#395) ############################################
Carols
377
It is probable that the composition of carols was widely
cultivated in the thirteenth century, for most of the carols are in
simple Latin metres, and Latin lines are employed either as refrain,
or as an integral part of the stanzas. Such a tradition must
look back to a period when the English composer felt the need of
relying upon the support of Latin metres, and it was in the
thirteenth century, as extant religious poems demonstrate, that
English metres were thus being conformed to the models of Latin
hymns?
The metre most commonly employed is the simplest, a one-
rime tercet of iambic tetrameters, followed by a refrain, usually
Latin. Thus:
Gabriell that angell bryst,
Bryster than the sonne is lyzt,
Fro hevyn to erth he (too)k hys flygt,
Regina celi letare?
Sometimes the Latin verse rimes with the English, making a
quatrain, or a Latin line may be introduced into the tercet itself.
The quatrain with alternate rimes is also used, though less
frequently. Other popular metres are the rimed couplet, and the
ballade stanza, which, however, is confined to the longer narrative
carols. Occasional carols are composed in the highly wrought
French metres, but they seem exotic.
The Latin lines in the carols are familiar verses from the
hymns, canticles, sequences, graduales and other parts of the
service in missal or breviary, relating to the Christmas season; and
practically all can be found in the Sarum Use.
Of the refrain there are various types. Sometimes it is a
stanza or verse from a Latin hymn, as :
Ihesus autem hodie
Egressus est de virgines;
sometimes an English verse and a Latin verse combined :
Be mery all, that be present,
Omnes de Saba venient";
sometimes merely the word 'nowel' or 'noel’ in recitative; and
sometimes an invocation to be merry:
Make we mery in hall & bowr,
Thys tyme was born owr savyowr5.
* Cf. Morris, Old English Misc. , E. E. T. S. XLII, 1872.
• Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 26 a–Percy Society, LXXIII, 33.
: MS Balliol 354, f. 178 a—Anglia, xxvi, 196.
• Ibid. f. 165 6Anglia, xxvi, 176.
• Ibid. f. 220 a-Anglia, XXVI, 231.
## p. 378 (#396) ############################################
378 Transition English Song Collections
There is also a very pretty introduction of the shepherd's pipe in
certain carols that sing of the shepherds watching their flocks by
night; thus,
Tyrly tirlow, tirly tirlow;
So merrily the shepherds began to blow1
As the Christmas season was a time for festivities and merry-
making as well as for worship, it was natural that some of the
carols should deal with sacred themes, and others with secular
themes ; indeed that some carols should confuse the two types.
The services within the church gave ample warrant for such a
confusion. Moreover, as Christmas theoretically supplanted a
pagan festival, but practically compromised with it, it was natural
that elements of pre-Christian rites should be reflected in carols.
Religious carols are, for the most part, narrative in content
The Nativity is, of course, the dominant theme, but, as the festival
season lasted from the Nativity to Epiphany, or even until
Candlemas, the events of Holy Week, and the lives of the saints
whose days occur at this season, furnish many of the themes.
It may be that carols were written to divert interest from
those pagan songs, with their wild dances, which, even as late as the
fifteenth century, made Christmas a trying and dangerous period
for the church? . Certainly, the folk-song element in carols
suggests the probability that at one time they were accompanied
by dancing
But, whatever the origin of carols may have been, it is clear
that they were much influenced by those dramatic elements,
which, prior to the advent of the mystery plays, were a popular
part of the Christmas services in the church ; for the episodes
dramatised in the services are the ones that most often figure in
carols. It seems not a little strange that carols were not more
often introduced into mystery plays of the Nativity. One of the
shepherd carols, however, is like the mystery in spirit. It intro-
duces the character of Wat, and, with it, homely, half-humorous
touches such as are characteristic of the plays :
Whan Wat to Bedlem cum was,
He swet, he had gon faster than a pace;
Lull well Ihesu in thy lape,
& farewell Ioseph, with thy rownd cape 3.
1 MS Balliol 354, f. 222 a-Anglia, XXVI, 237; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 60 a
-Percy Society, LXXIII, 95.
2 Cf. Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 8987 ff. , Chron. Vilod. 1022.
3 MS Balliol 354, 1. 224 2- Anglia, XIVI, 243.
## p. 379 (#397) ############################################
Carols
379
The themes of secular carols are the feasting and sports of Yule-
tide, customs that were inseparable from the great hall of the
nobleman's residence, where the whole community was wont to
assemble for the Christmas festivities. To be sure, these carols
were sometimes sung at other seasons, for did not the Green
Knight entertain Sir Gawain with
Many athel songez,
As conndutes of Kryst-masse, and carolez newe,
With all the manerly merthe that mon may of telle 1 ?
but Christmas week in hall was the proper setting. Several carols
relate to the custom of bringing in the boar's head. The classical
example is the familiar carol,
The boar's head in hand bring I,
Caput apri differos,
but others, though less well known, possess equal interest. In one,
the minstrel relates how, in 'wilderness,' he was pursued by a
wyld bor,' 'a brymly best. ' In the encounter that followed, he
succeeded in refting both life and limb from the beast, in testimony
of which he brings the head into the hall. Then he bids the
company add bread and mustard, and be joyful. In another,
warning is given that no one need seek to enter the ball, be he
groom, page, or marshal, unless he bring some sport with him".
In still another, the minstrel speaks in the character of Sir
Christmas, and takes leave of
kyng & knyght,
& erle, baron & lady bryghts,
but not without a fond wish that he may be with them again the
following year. He hears Lent calling, and obeys the call : a
lugubrious summons indeed to the luckless wanderer who must
turn his back on this genial hospitality for eleven months to come,
and depend on the fortuitous goodwill of the ale-house.
Charming, also, are the songs of ivy and holly, which were
sung in connection with some little ceremony of the season. In all
the songs, ivy and holly appear as rivals; and, whatever the
ceremony may have been, it certainly was a survival of those
festival games in connection with the worship of the spirit of
fertility, in which lads invariably championed the cause of holly,
1 E. E. T. S. f. 484 ff.
Of. MS Balliol 354, f. 212 - Anglia, IXV, 257.
3 Bodleian MS, Eng. Lit. E. I. f. 23 a—Percy Society, LXIII, 25. .
• MS Balliol 354, f. 223 – Anglia, XXVI, 241.
• Ibid. 1. 208 6- Anglia, XXVI, 245.
## p. 380 (#398) ############################################
380
Transition English Song Collections
and lasses that of ivy? We can fancy young men entering the
hall with branches of holly? :
Here commys holly, that is so gent,
To pleasse all men is his entent, etc. ;
singing the praises of the shrub, and warning their hearers not to
speak lightly of its ; while young women enter from an opposite
direction, and go through a similar performance with the ivy.
Thereupon, both young men and young women enter upon some
kind of a dance, which resolves itself into a contest in which the
boys drive the girls from the hall:
Holy with his mery men they can daunce in hall;
Ivy & her ientyl women can not daunce at all,
But lyke a meyny of bullokes in a water fall,
Or on a whot somer's day whan they be mad all.
Nay, nay, ive, it may not be iwis;
For holy must haue the mastry, as the maner is.
Holy & his mery men sytt in cheyres of gold;
Ivy & her ientyll women sytt withowt in ffold,
With a payre of kybid helis cawght with cold.
So wold I that euery man had, that with yvy will hold.
Nay, nay, ive, it may not be iwis;
For holy must have the mastry, as the maner ise.
This débat of holly and ivy, like other songs of winter and
summer, looks back to that communal period, when dialogue was
just beginning to emerge from the tribal chorus.
Related to Christmas carols are spiritual lullabies, for the
simplest of the three forms of the lullaby is, virtually, a carol, in
which, along with other episodes of Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day, the spectacle of Mary singing 'lulley' to the Infant is de-
scribed. The refrain is all that differentiates this carol from others :
Lullay, myn lykyng, my dere sone, myn swetyng;
Lulley, dere herte, myn owyn dere derlyngó
In the second type of lullaby, Mary and the Infant talk to one
another. Mary regrets that a child, born to be King of kings, is
lying upon hay, and wonders why He was not born in a prince's
hall. The Babe assures her that lords and dukes and princes will
come to worship Him. Then Mary would fain know how she
1 Cf. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, I, 251, and chapter m; Ellis and Brand,
Popular Antiquities, 1, 68, 519 ff.
Cf. Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 53 6—Percy Society, LXXIII, 84.
8 Ibid. ff. 30 a, 53 6-Percy Society, LXXIII, 44, 84.
MS Balliol 354, f. 229 6-Anglia, XXVI, 279.
SMS Sloane 2593, f. 32 Warton Club, iv, 94.
## p. 381 (#399) ############################################
Spiritual Lullabies
381
herself can best serve Him, and He replies, by rocking Him
gently in her arms and soothing Him to sleep:
Ihesu, my son, I pray ye say,
As thou art to me dere,
How shall I serue ye to thy pay
& mak the right good chere?
All thy will
I wold ffulfill,–
Thou knoweste it well in ffay-
Both rokke ye still,
& daunce the yer till,
& synge 'by, by; lully, lulley. '
Mary, moder, I pray ye,
Take me vp on loft,
& in thyn arme
Thow lappe me warm,
& daunce me now full ofte;
& yf I wepe
& will not slepe,
Than syng 'by, by; lully, lulley1
The third type is distinguished from this by the melancholy
character of the conversation. The Mother tries in vain to assuage
the grief of her Child, and, when she fails to do so, inquires the
cause of His tears; whereupon He foretells the sufferings that
await Him.
A variant of this type introduces an allegory, in which a maiden
weeps beside the couch of a dying knight:
a
Lully, lulley, lull(y), lulley;
The fawcon hath born my make away.
He bare hym vp, he bare hym down,
He bare hym in to an orchard browne.
(Ref. )
In that orchard there was an halle,
That was hangid with purpill & pall.
(Ref. )
And in that hall there was a bede,
Hit was hangid with gold so rede.
(Ref. )
And yn that bed there lythe a knyght,
His wowndis bledyng day and nyght.
(Ref. )
By that bede side kneleth a may,
& she wepeth both nyght & day%.
(Ref. )
1 MS Balliol 354, ff. 210 b, 226 6-Anglia, XXVI, 250.
? Cf. ibid. ff. 210 a, 226 a-Anglia, XXVI, 249; MS Bodleian, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 20 a
--Percy Society, LXXIII, 19.
3 MS Balliol 354, f. 165 b-Anglia, xxvi, 175.
## p. 382 (#400) ############################################
382
Transition English Song Collections
All these poems are characterised by a lullaby refrain, and
it is the conventional introduction for the poet to describe the
scene as one that he himself witnessed 'this other night. ' The
device certainly savours of the French, but I have not yet dis-
covered a French poem of this character. Nor do there seem to
be corresponding poems in Latin or German. The metre of most
of the songs falters between the Teutonic four-stress alliterative
verse and the septenarius; the original type was, probably, English,
and later singers tried to conform it to a new metre. Moreover,
the word 'lulley,' which is the burden of the refrain, supports the
theory of English origin, and this supposition is also borne out by
the character of the secular lullaby, which has the same lugubrious
tone, with its regret that the little Child is ushered into a world of
sorrow. This is characteristically Teutonic.
Merging into the lullaby is the complaint of Mary, of which
many examples have survived. The song which blends these two
types is one of great beauty. As in other lullabies, the Virgin tries
in vain to soothe the Babe to sleep, and, distraught at His grief,
enquires its cause. Thereupon, the Child foretells the sufferings
that await Him, and each new disclosure calls forth a fresh burst
of grief from the afflicted Mother: 'Is she to see her only Son
slain, and cruel nails driven through the hands and feet that she
has wrapped? When Gabriel pronounced her “full of grace," he
told nothing of this. ' The medieval world thought long upon the
sorrows of Mary, as upon the passion of Christ, and this poem
portrays the crushing grief of the Virgin with the naïve fidelity
and tenderness characteristic of medieval workmanship.
The refrain of the poem shows that it was sung as a carol:
Now synge we with angelis
Gloria in excel(s)is.
Conversely, another carol, which is concerned with the events at
the cross, has, for its refrain, a complaint of Mary:
To see the maydyn wepe her sonnes passion,
It entrid my hart full depe with gret compassions.
Some of the complaints are monologues; others are dialogues
or trialogues. The monologue is usually addressed to Jesus or to
the cross, but, sometimes, it has no immediate relation to the
passion, and is not directed to any particular hearer. The
1 Cf. Guest, History of English Metres, 512.
: MS Balliol 354, f. 209 6, 225 6-Anglia, xxvI, 247.
3 Ibid. ff. 214 a, 230 a—Anglia, XXVI, 263.
* Ibid. 214 a-Anglia, XXVI, 262; E. E. T. S. XV, 233, xxrv, 126.
## p. 383 (#401) ############################################
Didactic Songs
383
a
dialogue is between Mary and Jesus, or Mary and the cross'.
In the trialogues, Mary, Jesus and John converse. John leads
the weeping Mother to the cross, she calls upon Jesus, and He
tenderly commits her to the care of the beloved disciple?
These complaints are based upon Latin hymns and similar
writings, upon Stabat Mater, Ante Crucem Virgo Stabat, Crux
de te Volo Conqueri, the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Meditations
of Augustine and the Tractat of Bernard, and, while the English
poems display much lyrical excellence, they contribute little to
the tradition.
A similar type of poem is the complaint which the crucified
Christ makes to sinful man. This is usually a monologues, though
sometimes a dialogue, remorseful man responding to the appeal of
Christ, and pleading for mercy.
Other poems which celebrate the Virgin include prayers-some
in the form of carols, aves, poems upon the five joys of Mary, or
upon the six branches of the heavenly rose. Some of these songs
are translations, in whole or in part, of Latin poems; others seem
to be original. They perpetuate the intense ardour of devotion,
the mysticism, the warmth and rich colour of the earlier English
songs to Mary, and they heighten the effect by a superior melody.
Apart from the types of religious songs already considered,
there are a large number of moral and reflective poems. Some
of these are hortatory, urging man to know himself", to beware
of swearing by the mass, to make amends for his sins? , or to
acknowledge his indebtedness to God8. Others are contemplative,
and reflect upon the certainty of death°, the fickleness of riches
or fortune 10, the prevalence of vice", or the worldliness of the
clergy.
In their most highly developed form these poems are allegories,
12
1 Herrig's Archiv, LXXIIX, 263; E. E. T. S. XLVI, 131, 197, CXVII, 612; Bodleian MS,
Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 34 a–Percy Society, Lxxm, 50.
; MS Sloane 2593, f. 70 -Percy Society, iv, 10; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I.
f. 270 Percy Society, LXXIII, 38.
3 E. E. T. S. OxVII, 637.
• Add. MS 5465, f. 68 a-Herrig's Archiv, CVI, 63.
3 US Balliol 354, f. 156 6-Anglia, XXVI, 170.
& Ibid. ff. 214 a, 230 a-Anglia, XXVI, 263.
7 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 306—Percy Society, LXIM, 44.
& Ibid. f. 27b-Percy Society, LXXIII, 39.
Ibid. ff. 386, 48 a—Percy Society, LXXIII, 57, 74; MS Balliol 354, f. 1776-Anglia,
.
XXVI, 191,
10 M$ Balliol 354, ff. 194 a, 206 2–Anglia, XXVI, 207.
11 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. 1. 606-Percy Society, LXXII, 96.
12 US Balliol 354, f. 156 2–Anglia, XXVI, 169.
## p. 384 (#402) ############################################
384 Transition English Song Collections
with conventional introduction and conclusion, and a prelude,
which is commonly in Latin. In some of the songs, the allegory
is highly articulated. For example, the poet pictures himself
as sallying forth on a bright summer's morning in search of sport,
with his hawk in hand, and his spaniel leaping by his side.
A hen pheasant is flushed, and the hawk gives chase; but, while
the sport is at its height, the poet suddenly finds himself en-
tangled in a briar, on every leaf of which is written the warning
revertere:
My hart fell down ynto my to,
That was before full lykyngly;
I lett my hawke & fesavnt fare,
My spanyell fell down vnto my kne-
It toke me with a sighyng fare,
This new lessun "revertere'i.
The summer's day symbolises the period of youth; the hawk, its
fierce passions; and the briar, conscience. In the majority of the
songs, the allegory is less developed than in this.
Most often the poet represents himself as wandering through
a forest on a sunny morning. As he wanders, he hears the singing
of a bird, or of a company of birds, and the burden of their song
is some moral reflection or some exhortation. The allegory is
usually neglected after the introductory stanza. Almost invariably
the song concludes with a prayer for succour in death and deliver-
ance from the fiends. The conventionalised nature setting and the
allegory of these poems are clearly French, and the metres most
often used are the ballade stanza and the rime royal.
In the forms in which we have been considering them, these
songs were ill adapted to the ordinary audience of the minstrel,
and he, accordingly, popularised them by shortening them, intro-
ducing a refrain and substituting simple metres, in which the
rhythm is strongly marked.
These moral songs shade into another group of didactic poems, ,
which embody shrewd practical wisdom, of the type dear to
Polonius. They concern themselves with such homely advice as
to hold your tongue", to try your friends, to look out for a rainy
>
1 MS Balliol 354, f. 155 b-Anglia, xxvi, 168.
• Ibid. f. 1706-Anglia, XXVI, 180; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 386–
Percy Society, LXXI), 57; Porkington MS, No. I-Warton Club, 11, 1.
8 Cf. MS Balliol 354, ff. 156 b, 157 a, 170 6-Anglia, XXVI, 170, 171, 180 et freq. ;
Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. ff. 24 a, 386, 606-Percy Society, LXXIII, 28, 57, 96
et freq.
• Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. ff. 22 a, 28 a—Percy Society, LXXIII, 23, 41.
5 Ibid. f. 23 6—Percy Society, LXXII, 28.
3
## p. 385 (#403) ############################################
Satires against Women 385
day and to beware of matrimony? These songs also employ the
prelude and refrain, and, incongruous as it may seem, often close
with a prayer. Some of them are distinguished by quaint and
picturesque humour, as is shown in the following stanzas :
Quan I haue in myn purs inow,
I may haue bothe hors & plow
& also frynds inow,
Throw the vertu of myn purs.
Quan my purs gynnyzt to slak
& ther is nowt in my pak,
They will seyn, 'Go, far wil, Jak,
Thou xalt non more drynke with v83. '
The songs warning young men to avoid matrimony belong to
the satires against women, a poetical tradition which was one
of the contributions of France to Buranic verse. In no class
of songs is the esprit gaulois more evident. That sly distrust
of woman which early insinuated itself into French romances,
and which grew bolder and harsher as the ideals of the renascence
encroached upon medievalism, in the poetry of the common people
found expression in blunt and broad satire. This tradition was
augmented, however, by a native English contribution, for the
satire which gives evidence of the greatest antiquity of all is
strongly alliterative, and observes the repetitions of early com-
munal verse :
Herfor & therfor & therfor I came,
And for to praysse this praty woman.
Ther wer III wylly, 3 wyly ther wer,-
A fox, a fryyr, and a woman.
Ther wer 3 angry, 3 angry ther wer,-
A wasp, a wesyll, & a woman.
Ther wer 3 cheteryng, ini cheteryng ther wer,--
A peye, a jaye, & a woman.
Ther wer 3 wold be betyn, 3 wold be betyn ther wer,-
A myll, a stoke fysche, and a woman 4.
Several different types of these satires are to be recognised,
but the style best designed to endear itself to the popular taste
was that used in little dramatic narratives of the Punch and Judy
school of comedy, in which the poet tells the story of a family
quarrel, wherein the good man is invariably worsted by his
muscular and shrewish helpmeet. This broad farce finds its
1 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 26 b.
• Ibid. f. 26 a–Percy Society, LXXIII, 34 eto.
: MS Sloane 2593, f. 56–Warton Club, iv, 14.
* Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 13 a-Percy Society, LXXII, 4.
E. L. II. CH. XVI.
25
## p. 386 (#404) ############################################
386 Transition English Song Collections
dramatic counterpart in those brawling scenes in the mystery
plays which pleased the rude populace, and, like the scenes
from the plays, the songs are not without clever and humorous
touches, as when the hen-pecked husband is sent flying from his
door, only to discover his doleful neighbour in a similar plight.
Does not such a song perpetuate a tradition of the Latin stage,
which the joculatores, with their rude performances, carried to
the Gallic provinces, and eventually bequeathed to the minstrels?
In another class of satires, women are praised ironically, the
refrain serving to turn the apparent praise to dispraise; thus :
For tell a woman all your cownsayle,
& she can kepe it wonderly well;
She had lever go quyk to hell
Than to her neyghbowr she wold it tell.
Cuius contrarium verum est.
To the tavern they will not goo,
Nor to the ale-howse neuer the moo,
For God wot ther hartes wold be woo
To sspende ther husbondes money soo.
Cuius contrarium verum est 2.
The third type of the satire against women is pretentious
and artificial. It consists in proposing impossible phenomena,
and then concluding that when such phenomena actually exist,
women will be faithful. These poems are drawn out to an in-
terminable length; a few specimen lines may suffice:
Whan sparowys bild chi[r]ches & stepalles hie,
& wrennes carry sakkes to the mylle,
& curlews cary clothes horsis for to drye,
& se mewes bryng butter to the market to sell,
& woddowes were wod knyffes theves to kyll,
And griffons to goslynges don obedyence,
Than put in a woman your trust & confidence.
These poems are scarcely more than translations of the many
French poems of the same kind'.
Of all popular poems, convivial songs, with their festivity and
their rollicking spirits, are the most engaging. For eight hundred
years students have been singing
Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus,
and it is to these medieval student songs that the youth of to-day
turn as to the perennial source of convivial inspiration.
1 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 346--Percy Society, Lxxm, 51.
MS Balliol 354, ff. 228 a, 250 a-Anglia, XXVI, 275.
3 Ibid. f. 250 b-Anglia, XXVI, 277.
4 Cf. Montaiglon et Rothschild, Recueil de Poésies Françaises des xve et XVIe
siècles, Paris, 1855—78.
## p. 387 (#405) ############################################
Convivial Songs
387
Some drinking songs are daring parodies of hymns, justifications
of drinking by the Sacrament, credos of wine, women and song.
All these were already venerable in the fifteenth century.
Other songs savour of the ale-house rather than of college
halls. These look back to the folk-poetry. Drinking songs were,
assuredly, one of the early types of communal verse, and the folk-
element is apparent in many fifteenth century convivial songs, as,
indeed, in the corresponding verse of the Elizabethans. Such
well known refrains as 'Hey trolly lolly' and 'Dole the ale'
are of venerable antiquity, and the songs which consist of varia-
tions of a common phrase show an indebtedness, of course, im-
mediate or remote, to communal poetry. Thus, such a song as
the following plainly took its cue from the folk-song:
Bryng vs in good ale, & bryng vs in good alo,
For owr blyssyd lady sake, bryng vs in good ale.
Bryng vs in no browne bred, fore that is mad of brane,
Nore bryng us in no whyt bred, fore ther in is no game,
But bryng us in good ale.
Bryng vs in no befo, for ther is many bonys,
But bryng vs in good ale, etc. 1
This song, however, can hardly claim so remote an ancestry as
another, in which the repetitional phrases are, in themselves, of no
significance, and are merely used as framework. This is evidence
of remote origin, as the study of comparative literature testifies,
and the little Latin courtesy with which the song introduces itself
cannot conceal its real age:
Omnes gentes plaudite,
I saw myny bryddis setyn on a tre;
He tokyn here fleygt & flowyn away,
With ego dixi, have good day.
Many qwyte federes hazt the pye,
I may noon more syngyn, my lyppis arn so drye.
•Well, what was her dryng? '
The chill water of (the) well spring. '
"Well, what was her bower? '
"The rede rose and the lilly flour. '
On the same folio is a quaint poem, which has retained the
invitation to the dance :
Ich am of Irlaunde,
Am of the holy londe
Of Irlande;
Good sir, pray I 30,
For of Saynte Charite,
Come ant daunce wyt me in Irlaunde.
The call to the dance is also preserved in several fifteenth and
sixteenth century May poems.
A poem in which the song of a swaying mass is clearly to be
heard' is the familiar repetitionary lyric:
Adam lay ibowndyn,
bowndyn in a bond,
Fowre thowsand wynter
thowt he not to long;
And al was for an appil,
an appil that he tok,
As clerkes fyndyn wretyn
in here book.
Ne hadde the appil take ben,
the appil taken ben,
Ne hadde neuer our lady
a ben Hevene quene.
Blyssid be the tyme
that appil take was!
Therfore we mown syngyn
Deo gracias
1 MS Rawlinson, D. 913, f. 1. 2 MS Sloane 2593, f. 112-Warton Olub, rv, 32.
## p. 375 (#393) ############################################
Minstrels
375
Many an ecclesiastical denunciation testifies to the prevalence
of this communal singing in medieval England; but so much more
potent are custom and cult than authority that women, dressed in
the borrowed costumes of men, continued to dance and sing
in wild chorus within the very churchyards, in unwitting homage
to the old heathen deities.
Some of the song collections are anthologies taken from the
popular songs of the minstrel, the spiritual hymns of the monk
and the polite verse of the court; others are purely the répertoire
of minstrels; and still others are limited to polite verse.
Of the latter, fortunately, there is preserved the very song-book
that was owned by king Henry VIII, containing the lyrics of love
and good comradeship that he composed when a young man; and
there are, in addition, the books which were in part compiled, and
in part composed, by the authorised musicians of the courts of
Henry VII and Henry VIII These have preserved types of
chivalric verse based upon French models, as well as songs in
honour of the royal family, and songs composed for the revels and
pageants which were a brilliant feature of the court life in the
early decades of the sixteenth century.
The collections of minstrels' songs are especially rich. The
minstrel no longer confined himself to songs of rude and humble
ancestry, but encroached both on the devotional verse of the
monk, and on the songs of the gallant. This readily explains
itself, if one is mindful to identify these minstrels with that class
of men who had more and more usurped the prerogatives of
minstrelsy, the scolares vagantes, those irresponsible college
graduates and light-hearted vagabonds, who were equally at home
in ale-house, in hall, in market-place or in cloister, and who could
sing with equal spirit a ribald and saucy love song, a convivial
glee, a Christmas carol, a hymn to the Virgin, or a doleful lay
on the instability of life or the fickleness of riches. Most of them
were men who had taken minor orders, and who, therefore, knew
missal, breviary and hymnal; their life at the university had given
them some acquaintance with books, their wayside intercourse
with the minstrel had given them his ballads and his jargon of
washed-out romantic tales and their homely contact with the
people had taught them the songs of the street and of the folk-
festival ; they were, therefore, the main intermediaries between
the learned and the vernacular letters of the day, and they tended
to reduce all to a common level. If they compelled the rude
folk-song to conform to the metres of the Latin hymns, they
## p. 376 (#394) ############################################
376 Transition English Song Collections
compensated for this by reducing to these same simple metres
the artistically fashioned stanzas of highly wrought spiritual songs,
as well as by introducing the popular refrain into lyrics of every
kind. When they sang of the joys of Mary, of the righteousness
of a saint, or of a prince renowned for his deeds, they received the
approbation of bishop or abbot ; when they satirised his cupidity,
or sang wanton songs at banquets, they called down the bishop's
indignation; but, bishop or no bishop, they never lacked an
audience.
As the ability to read became more general, and as taste was
refined by the possession of books of real poetic merit, the minstrel,
even if one who had tarried in the schools, found his audience more
and more limited to the common folk; but, even in the fifteenth
century, though his wretched copies of the old romances, with their
sing-song monotony, might be the laughing-stock of people of taste,
his Christmas carols would still gain him admission to the halls of
the nobility.
As the minstrel thus trespassed upon the provinces of religious
and polite poets, so each of these in turn invaded the fields of
others, with the result that the monk adopted the formulary of
amatory address for his love songs to the Virgin, and the gallant
introduced elements from the folk-poetry into his embroidered
lays.
Considering this confusion, for purposes of discussion it is more
satisfactory to classify the songs with reference to types than with
reference to authorship. Romances and tales have been dealt with
elsewhere: though they are to be found in the collections, and
were, probably, chanted in humdrum fashion to the accompani-
ment of a harp, they are narratives, and not at all lyrical.
The carol was brought to England from France at an early
date, and there are extant Norman carols that were sung in
England in the late twelfth century. In essentials, there is little
difference between these carols and some of those that were sung
in England three centuries later. They observe the refrain, which
is most commonly a repetition of the word 'noel'; they open
with an invocation to those present,
Seignors ore entendez a nus,
De loinz sumes venuz @ vous,
Pur quere Noell;
and their theme is the Nativity and the attendant gladness.
· Sandys, Festive Songs, 6.
## p. 377 (#395) ############################################
Carols
377
It is probable that the composition of carols was widely
cultivated in the thirteenth century, for most of the carols are in
simple Latin metres, and Latin lines are employed either as refrain,
or as an integral part of the stanzas. Such a tradition must
look back to a period when the English composer felt the need of
relying upon the support of Latin metres, and it was in the
thirteenth century, as extant religious poems demonstrate, that
English metres were thus being conformed to the models of Latin
hymns?
The metre most commonly employed is the simplest, a one-
rime tercet of iambic tetrameters, followed by a refrain, usually
Latin. Thus:
Gabriell that angell bryst,
Bryster than the sonne is lyzt,
Fro hevyn to erth he (too)k hys flygt,
Regina celi letare?
Sometimes the Latin verse rimes with the English, making a
quatrain, or a Latin line may be introduced into the tercet itself.
The quatrain with alternate rimes is also used, though less
frequently. Other popular metres are the rimed couplet, and the
ballade stanza, which, however, is confined to the longer narrative
carols. Occasional carols are composed in the highly wrought
French metres, but they seem exotic.
The Latin lines in the carols are familiar verses from the
hymns, canticles, sequences, graduales and other parts of the
service in missal or breviary, relating to the Christmas season; and
practically all can be found in the Sarum Use.
Of the refrain there are various types. Sometimes it is a
stanza or verse from a Latin hymn, as :
Ihesus autem hodie
Egressus est de virgines;
sometimes an English verse and a Latin verse combined :
Be mery all, that be present,
Omnes de Saba venient";
sometimes merely the word 'nowel' or 'noel’ in recitative; and
sometimes an invocation to be merry:
Make we mery in hall & bowr,
Thys tyme was born owr savyowr5.
* Cf. Morris, Old English Misc. , E. E. T. S. XLII, 1872.
• Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 26 a–Percy Society, LXXIII, 33.
: MS Balliol 354, f. 178 a—Anglia, xxvi, 196.
• Ibid. f. 165 6Anglia, xxvi, 176.
• Ibid. f. 220 a-Anglia, XXVI, 231.
## p. 378 (#396) ############################################
378 Transition English Song Collections
There is also a very pretty introduction of the shepherd's pipe in
certain carols that sing of the shepherds watching their flocks by
night; thus,
Tyrly tirlow, tirly tirlow;
So merrily the shepherds began to blow1
As the Christmas season was a time for festivities and merry-
making as well as for worship, it was natural that some of the
carols should deal with sacred themes, and others with secular
themes ; indeed that some carols should confuse the two types.
The services within the church gave ample warrant for such a
confusion. Moreover, as Christmas theoretically supplanted a
pagan festival, but practically compromised with it, it was natural
that elements of pre-Christian rites should be reflected in carols.
Religious carols are, for the most part, narrative in content
The Nativity is, of course, the dominant theme, but, as the festival
season lasted from the Nativity to Epiphany, or even until
Candlemas, the events of Holy Week, and the lives of the saints
whose days occur at this season, furnish many of the themes.
It may be that carols were written to divert interest from
those pagan songs, with their wild dances, which, even as late as the
fifteenth century, made Christmas a trying and dangerous period
for the church? . Certainly, the folk-song element in carols
suggests the probability that at one time they were accompanied
by dancing
But, whatever the origin of carols may have been, it is clear
that they were much influenced by those dramatic elements,
which, prior to the advent of the mystery plays, were a popular
part of the Christmas services in the church ; for the episodes
dramatised in the services are the ones that most often figure in
carols. It seems not a little strange that carols were not more
often introduced into mystery plays of the Nativity. One of the
shepherd carols, however, is like the mystery in spirit. It intro-
duces the character of Wat, and, with it, homely, half-humorous
touches such as are characteristic of the plays :
Whan Wat to Bedlem cum was,
He swet, he had gon faster than a pace;
Lull well Ihesu in thy lape,
& farewell Ioseph, with thy rownd cape 3.
1 MS Balliol 354, f. 222 a-Anglia, XXVI, 237; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 60 a
-Percy Society, LXXIII, 95.
2 Cf. Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, 8987 ff. , Chron. Vilod. 1022.
3 MS Balliol 354, 1. 224 2- Anglia, XIVI, 243.
## p. 379 (#397) ############################################
Carols
379
The themes of secular carols are the feasting and sports of Yule-
tide, customs that were inseparable from the great hall of the
nobleman's residence, where the whole community was wont to
assemble for the Christmas festivities. To be sure, these carols
were sometimes sung at other seasons, for did not the Green
Knight entertain Sir Gawain with
Many athel songez,
As conndutes of Kryst-masse, and carolez newe,
With all the manerly merthe that mon may of telle 1 ?
but Christmas week in hall was the proper setting. Several carols
relate to the custom of bringing in the boar's head. The classical
example is the familiar carol,
The boar's head in hand bring I,
Caput apri differos,
but others, though less well known, possess equal interest. In one,
the minstrel relates how, in 'wilderness,' he was pursued by a
wyld bor,' 'a brymly best. ' In the encounter that followed, he
succeeded in refting both life and limb from the beast, in testimony
of which he brings the head into the hall. Then he bids the
company add bread and mustard, and be joyful. In another,
warning is given that no one need seek to enter the ball, be he
groom, page, or marshal, unless he bring some sport with him".
In still another, the minstrel speaks in the character of Sir
Christmas, and takes leave of
kyng & knyght,
& erle, baron & lady bryghts,
but not without a fond wish that he may be with them again the
following year. He hears Lent calling, and obeys the call : a
lugubrious summons indeed to the luckless wanderer who must
turn his back on this genial hospitality for eleven months to come,
and depend on the fortuitous goodwill of the ale-house.
Charming, also, are the songs of ivy and holly, which were
sung in connection with some little ceremony of the season. In all
the songs, ivy and holly appear as rivals; and, whatever the
ceremony may have been, it certainly was a survival of those
festival games in connection with the worship of the spirit of
fertility, in which lads invariably championed the cause of holly,
1 E. E. T. S. f. 484 ff.
Of. MS Balliol 354, f. 212 - Anglia, IXV, 257.
3 Bodleian MS, Eng. Lit. E. I. f. 23 a—Percy Society, LXIII, 25. .
• MS Balliol 354, f. 223 – Anglia, XXVI, 241.
• Ibid. 1. 208 6- Anglia, XXVI, 245.
## p. 380 (#398) ############################################
380
Transition English Song Collections
and lasses that of ivy? We can fancy young men entering the
hall with branches of holly? :
Here commys holly, that is so gent,
To pleasse all men is his entent, etc. ;
singing the praises of the shrub, and warning their hearers not to
speak lightly of its ; while young women enter from an opposite
direction, and go through a similar performance with the ivy.
Thereupon, both young men and young women enter upon some
kind of a dance, which resolves itself into a contest in which the
boys drive the girls from the hall:
Holy with his mery men they can daunce in hall;
Ivy & her ientyl women can not daunce at all,
But lyke a meyny of bullokes in a water fall,
Or on a whot somer's day whan they be mad all.
Nay, nay, ive, it may not be iwis;
For holy must haue the mastry, as the maner is.
Holy & his mery men sytt in cheyres of gold;
Ivy & her ientyll women sytt withowt in ffold,
With a payre of kybid helis cawght with cold.
So wold I that euery man had, that with yvy will hold.
Nay, nay, ive, it may not be iwis;
For holy must have the mastry, as the maner ise.
This débat of holly and ivy, like other songs of winter and
summer, looks back to that communal period, when dialogue was
just beginning to emerge from the tribal chorus.
Related to Christmas carols are spiritual lullabies, for the
simplest of the three forms of the lullaby is, virtually, a carol, in
which, along with other episodes of Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day, the spectacle of Mary singing 'lulley' to the Infant is de-
scribed. The refrain is all that differentiates this carol from others :
Lullay, myn lykyng, my dere sone, myn swetyng;
Lulley, dere herte, myn owyn dere derlyngó
In the second type of lullaby, Mary and the Infant talk to one
another. Mary regrets that a child, born to be King of kings, is
lying upon hay, and wonders why He was not born in a prince's
hall. The Babe assures her that lords and dukes and princes will
come to worship Him. Then Mary would fain know how she
1 Cf. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, I, 251, and chapter m; Ellis and Brand,
Popular Antiquities, 1, 68, 519 ff.
Cf. Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 53 6—Percy Society, LXXIII, 84.
8 Ibid. ff. 30 a, 53 6-Percy Society, LXXIII, 44, 84.
MS Balliol 354, f. 229 6-Anglia, XXVI, 279.
SMS Sloane 2593, f. 32 Warton Club, iv, 94.
## p. 381 (#399) ############################################
Spiritual Lullabies
381
herself can best serve Him, and He replies, by rocking Him
gently in her arms and soothing Him to sleep:
Ihesu, my son, I pray ye say,
As thou art to me dere,
How shall I serue ye to thy pay
& mak the right good chere?
All thy will
I wold ffulfill,–
Thou knoweste it well in ffay-
Both rokke ye still,
& daunce the yer till,
& synge 'by, by; lully, lulley. '
Mary, moder, I pray ye,
Take me vp on loft,
& in thyn arme
Thow lappe me warm,
& daunce me now full ofte;
& yf I wepe
& will not slepe,
Than syng 'by, by; lully, lulley1
The third type is distinguished from this by the melancholy
character of the conversation. The Mother tries in vain to assuage
the grief of her Child, and, when she fails to do so, inquires the
cause of His tears; whereupon He foretells the sufferings that
await Him.
A variant of this type introduces an allegory, in which a maiden
weeps beside the couch of a dying knight:
a
Lully, lulley, lull(y), lulley;
The fawcon hath born my make away.
He bare hym vp, he bare hym down,
He bare hym in to an orchard browne.
(Ref. )
In that orchard there was an halle,
That was hangid with purpill & pall.
(Ref. )
And in that hall there was a bede,
Hit was hangid with gold so rede.
(Ref. )
And yn that bed there lythe a knyght,
His wowndis bledyng day and nyght.
(Ref. )
By that bede side kneleth a may,
& she wepeth both nyght & day%.
(Ref. )
1 MS Balliol 354, ff. 210 b, 226 6-Anglia, XXVI, 250.
? Cf. ibid. ff. 210 a, 226 a-Anglia, XXVI, 249; MS Bodleian, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 20 a
--Percy Society, LXXIII, 19.
3 MS Balliol 354, f. 165 b-Anglia, xxvi, 175.
## p. 382 (#400) ############################################
382
Transition English Song Collections
All these poems are characterised by a lullaby refrain, and
it is the conventional introduction for the poet to describe the
scene as one that he himself witnessed 'this other night. ' The
device certainly savours of the French, but I have not yet dis-
covered a French poem of this character. Nor do there seem to
be corresponding poems in Latin or German. The metre of most
of the songs falters between the Teutonic four-stress alliterative
verse and the septenarius; the original type was, probably, English,
and later singers tried to conform it to a new metre. Moreover,
the word 'lulley,' which is the burden of the refrain, supports the
theory of English origin, and this supposition is also borne out by
the character of the secular lullaby, which has the same lugubrious
tone, with its regret that the little Child is ushered into a world of
sorrow. This is characteristically Teutonic.
Merging into the lullaby is the complaint of Mary, of which
many examples have survived. The song which blends these two
types is one of great beauty. As in other lullabies, the Virgin tries
in vain to soothe the Babe to sleep, and, distraught at His grief,
enquires its cause. Thereupon, the Child foretells the sufferings
that await Him, and each new disclosure calls forth a fresh burst
of grief from the afflicted Mother: 'Is she to see her only Son
slain, and cruel nails driven through the hands and feet that she
has wrapped? When Gabriel pronounced her “full of grace," he
told nothing of this. ' The medieval world thought long upon the
sorrows of Mary, as upon the passion of Christ, and this poem
portrays the crushing grief of the Virgin with the naïve fidelity
and tenderness characteristic of medieval workmanship.
The refrain of the poem shows that it was sung as a carol:
Now synge we with angelis
Gloria in excel(s)is.
Conversely, another carol, which is concerned with the events at
the cross, has, for its refrain, a complaint of Mary:
To see the maydyn wepe her sonnes passion,
It entrid my hart full depe with gret compassions.
Some of the complaints are monologues; others are dialogues
or trialogues. The monologue is usually addressed to Jesus or to
the cross, but, sometimes, it has no immediate relation to the
passion, and is not directed to any particular hearer. The
1 Cf. Guest, History of English Metres, 512.
: MS Balliol 354, f. 209 6, 225 6-Anglia, xxvI, 247.
3 Ibid. ff. 214 a, 230 a—Anglia, XXVI, 263.
* Ibid. 214 a-Anglia, XXVI, 262; E. E. T. S. XV, 233, xxrv, 126.
## p. 383 (#401) ############################################
Didactic Songs
383
a
dialogue is between Mary and Jesus, or Mary and the cross'.
In the trialogues, Mary, Jesus and John converse. John leads
the weeping Mother to the cross, she calls upon Jesus, and He
tenderly commits her to the care of the beloved disciple?
These complaints are based upon Latin hymns and similar
writings, upon Stabat Mater, Ante Crucem Virgo Stabat, Crux
de te Volo Conqueri, the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Meditations
of Augustine and the Tractat of Bernard, and, while the English
poems display much lyrical excellence, they contribute little to
the tradition.
A similar type of poem is the complaint which the crucified
Christ makes to sinful man. This is usually a monologues, though
sometimes a dialogue, remorseful man responding to the appeal of
Christ, and pleading for mercy.
Other poems which celebrate the Virgin include prayers-some
in the form of carols, aves, poems upon the five joys of Mary, or
upon the six branches of the heavenly rose. Some of these songs
are translations, in whole or in part, of Latin poems; others seem
to be original. They perpetuate the intense ardour of devotion,
the mysticism, the warmth and rich colour of the earlier English
songs to Mary, and they heighten the effect by a superior melody.
Apart from the types of religious songs already considered,
there are a large number of moral and reflective poems. Some
of these are hortatory, urging man to know himself", to beware
of swearing by the mass, to make amends for his sins? , or to
acknowledge his indebtedness to God8. Others are contemplative,
and reflect upon the certainty of death°, the fickleness of riches
or fortune 10, the prevalence of vice", or the worldliness of the
clergy.
In their most highly developed form these poems are allegories,
12
1 Herrig's Archiv, LXXIIX, 263; E. E. T. S. XLVI, 131, 197, CXVII, 612; Bodleian MS,
Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 34 a–Percy Society, Lxxm, 50.
; MS Sloane 2593, f. 70 -Percy Society, iv, 10; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I.
f. 270 Percy Society, LXXIII, 38.
3 E. E. T. S. OxVII, 637.
• Add. MS 5465, f. 68 a-Herrig's Archiv, CVI, 63.
3 US Balliol 354, f. 156 6-Anglia, XXVI, 170.
& Ibid. ff. 214 a, 230 a-Anglia, XXVI, 263.
7 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 306—Percy Society, LXIM, 44.
& Ibid. f. 27b-Percy Society, LXXIII, 39.
Ibid. ff. 386, 48 a—Percy Society, LXXIII, 57, 74; MS Balliol 354, f. 1776-Anglia,
.
XXVI, 191,
10 M$ Balliol 354, ff. 194 a, 206 2–Anglia, XXVI, 207.
11 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. 1. 606-Percy Society, LXXII, 96.
12 US Balliol 354, f. 156 2–Anglia, XXVI, 169.
## p. 384 (#402) ############################################
384 Transition English Song Collections
with conventional introduction and conclusion, and a prelude,
which is commonly in Latin. In some of the songs, the allegory
is highly articulated. For example, the poet pictures himself
as sallying forth on a bright summer's morning in search of sport,
with his hawk in hand, and his spaniel leaping by his side.
A hen pheasant is flushed, and the hawk gives chase; but, while
the sport is at its height, the poet suddenly finds himself en-
tangled in a briar, on every leaf of which is written the warning
revertere:
My hart fell down ynto my to,
That was before full lykyngly;
I lett my hawke & fesavnt fare,
My spanyell fell down vnto my kne-
It toke me with a sighyng fare,
This new lessun "revertere'i.
The summer's day symbolises the period of youth; the hawk, its
fierce passions; and the briar, conscience. In the majority of the
songs, the allegory is less developed than in this.
Most often the poet represents himself as wandering through
a forest on a sunny morning. As he wanders, he hears the singing
of a bird, or of a company of birds, and the burden of their song
is some moral reflection or some exhortation. The allegory is
usually neglected after the introductory stanza. Almost invariably
the song concludes with a prayer for succour in death and deliver-
ance from the fiends. The conventionalised nature setting and the
allegory of these poems are clearly French, and the metres most
often used are the ballade stanza and the rime royal.
In the forms in which we have been considering them, these
songs were ill adapted to the ordinary audience of the minstrel,
and he, accordingly, popularised them by shortening them, intro-
ducing a refrain and substituting simple metres, in which the
rhythm is strongly marked.
These moral songs shade into another group of didactic poems, ,
which embody shrewd practical wisdom, of the type dear to
Polonius. They concern themselves with such homely advice as
to hold your tongue", to try your friends, to look out for a rainy
>
1 MS Balliol 354, f. 155 b-Anglia, xxvi, 168.
• Ibid. f. 1706-Anglia, XXVI, 180; Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 386–
Percy Society, LXXI), 57; Porkington MS, No. I-Warton Club, 11, 1.
8 Cf. MS Balliol 354, ff. 156 b, 157 a, 170 6-Anglia, XXVI, 170, 171, 180 et freq. ;
Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. ff. 24 a, 386, 606-Percy Society, LXXIII, 28, 57, 96
et freq.
• Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. ff. 22 a, 28 a—Percy Society, LXXIII, 23, 41.
5 Ibid. f. 23 6—Percy Society, LXXII, 28.
3
## p. 385 (#403) ############################################
Satires against Women 385
day and to beware of matrimony? These songs also employ the
prelude and refrain, and, incongruous as it may seem, often close
with a prayer. Some of them are distinguished by quaint and
picturesque humour, as is shown in the following stanzas :
Quan I haue in myn purs inow,
I may haue bothe hors & plow
& also frynds inow,
Throw the vertu of myn purs.
Quan my purs gynnyzt to slak
& ther is nowt in my pak,
They will seyn, 'Go, far wil, Jak,
Thou xalt non more drynke with v83. '
The songs warning young men to avoid matrimony belong to
the satires against women, a poetical tradition which was one
of the contributions of France to Buranic verse. In no class
of songs is the esprit gaulois more evident. That sly distrust
of woman which early insinuated itself into French romances,
and which grew bolder and harsher as the ideals of the renascence
encroached upon medievalism, in the poetry of the common people
found expression in blunt and broad satire. This tradition was
augmented, however, by a native English contribution, for the
satire which gives evidence of the greatest antiquity of all is
strongly alliterative, and observes the repetitions of early com-
munal verse :
Herfor & therfor & therfor I came,
And for to praysse this praty woman.
Ther wer III wylly, 3 wyly ther wer,-
A fox, a fryyr, and a woman.
Ther wer 3 angry, 3 angry ther wer,-
A wasp, a wesyll, & a woman.
Ther wer 3 cheteryng, ini cheteryng ther wer,--
A peye, a jaye, & a woman.
Ther wer 3 wold be betyn, 3 wold be betyn ther wer,-
A myll, a stoke fysche, and a woman 4.
Several different types of these satires are to be recognised,
but the style best designed to endear itself to the popular taste
was that used in little dramatic narratives of the Punch and Judy
school of comedy, in which the poet tells the story of a family
quarrel, wherein the good man is invariably worsted by his
muscular and shrewish helpmeet. This broad farce finds its
1 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 26 b.
• Ibid. f. 26 a–Percy Society, LXXIII, 34 eto.
: MS Sloane 2593, f. 56–Warton Club, iv, 14.
* Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 13 a-Percy Society, LXXII, 4.
E. L. II. CH. XVI.
25
## p. 386 (#404) ############################################
386 Transition English Song Collections
dramatic counterpart in those brawling scenes in the mystery
plays which pleased the rude populace, and, like the scenes
from the plays, the songs are not without clever and humorous
touches, as when the hen-pecked husband is sent flying from his
door, only to discover his doleful neighbour in a similar plight.
Does not such a song perpetuate a tradition of the Latin stage,
which the joculatores, with their rude performances, carried to
the Gallic provinces, and eventually bequeathed to the minstrels?
In another class of satires, women are praised ironically, the
refrain serving to turn the apparent praise to dispraise; thus :
For tell a woman all your cownsayle,
& she can kepe it wonderly well;
She had lever go quyk to hell
Than to her neyghbowr she wold it tell.
Cuius contrarium verum est.
To the tavern they will not goo,
Nor to the ale-howse neuer the moo,
For God wot ther hartes wold be woo
To sspende ther husbondes money soo.
Cuius contrarium verum est 2.
The third type of the satire against women is pretentious
and artificial. It consists in proposing impossible phenomena,
and then concluding that when such phenomena actually exist,
women will be faithful. These poems are drawn out to an in-
terminable length; a few specimen lines may suffice:
Whan sparowys bild chi[r]ches & stepalles hie,
& wrennes carry sakkes to the mylle,
& curlews cary clothes horsis for to drye,
& se mewes bryng butter to the market to sell,
& woddowes were wod knyffes theves to kyll,
And griffons to goslynges don obedyence,
Than put in a woman your trust & confidence.
These poems are scarcely more than translations of the many
French poems of the same kind'.
Of all popular poems, convivial songs, with their festivity and
their rollicking spirits, are the most engaging. For eight hundred
years students have been singing
Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus,
and it is to these medieval student songs that the youth of to-day
turn as to the perennial source of convivial inspiration.
1 Bodleian MS, Eng. Poet. E. I. f. 346--Percy Society, Lxxm, 51.
MS Balliol 354, ff. 228 a, 250 a-Anglia, XXVI, 275.
3 Ibid. f. 250 b-Anglia, XXVI, 277.
4 Cf. Montaiglon et Rothschild, Recueil de Poésies Françaises des xve et XVIe
siècles, Paris, 1855—78.
## p. 387 (#405) ############################################
Convivial Songs
387
Some drinking songs are daring parodies of hymns, justifications
of drinking by the Sacrament, credos of wine, women and song.
All these were already venerable in the fifteenth century.
Other songs savour of the ale-house rather than of college
halls. These look back to the folk-poetry. Drinking songs were,
assuredly, one of the early types of communal verse, and the folk-
element is apparent in many fifteenth century convivial songs, as,
indeed, in the corresponding verse of the Elizabethans. Such
well known refrains as 'Hey trolly lolly' and 'Dole the ale'
are of venerable antiquity, and the songs which consist of varia-
tions of a common phrase show an indebtedness, of course, im-
mediate or remote, to communal poetry. Thus, such a song as
the following plainly took its cue from the folk-song:
Bryng vs in good ale, & bryng vs in good alo,
For owr blyssyd lady sake, bryng vs in good ale.
Bryng vs in no browne bred, fore that is mad of brane,
Nore bryng us in no whyt bred, fore ther in is no game,
But bryng us in good ale.
Bryng vs in no befo, for ther is many bonys,
But bryng vs in good ale, etc. 1
This song, however, can hardly claim so remote an ancestry as
another, in which the repetitional phrases are, in themselves, of no
significance, and are merely used as framework. This is evidence
of remote origin, as the study of comparative literature testifies,
and the little Latin courtesy with which the song introduces itself
cannot conceal its real age:
Omnes gentes plaudite,
I saw myny bryddis setyn on a tre;
He tokyn here fleygt & flowyn away,
With ego dixi, have good day.
Many qwyte federes hazt the pye,
I may noon more syngyn, my lyppis arn so drye.
