THE ANNUNCIATION: FOOTNOTES



1 And of fair manner (bearing). Gabriel greeted her, saying thus:

2 Lines 15-16: Let us ask that Lord, go where we go, / Whom to you, sweet maid, Gabriel did send

3 Lines 13-14: Gently the mild maiden then began to answer him

4 Do not be afraid, but be joyful, certain and sure

5 Until he went out, bidding all the flock to battle

6 Hail maiden of maidens, through the Word conceiving

7 Lines 6-8: Mary, because of that birth you are the flower among women, / Mary, haven of sure rest in storms and also in strife: / Have mind of me in worldly woes, who trust to your protection

8 Grace that was most solemn settled in you, you might not flee

9 You who are full of all pity, sea star so clear

10 Lines 17-19: Lord that was conceived in you for the salvation of less and more, / Lord that would of you, maiden, so wondrously be born, / Lord that through you wrought that [which] prophecy spoke before

11 Lines 23-24: With you he is and you with him, between you may nothing interfere: / Help me, lady, to be with him, that I may see his face

12 Lines 30-32: You reign forever with your son, where no joy may fail, / You have power in heaven and earth and in hell to relieve suffering: / So that I come not to that place (i.e., hell), good lady, guide me

13 Lines 33-35: In heaven angels worship you night and day, / On earth the religion of Christians honors you, / In hell all foully arrayed fiends dread you

14 Lines 37-40: Mary comforts all women who are both good and wise, / Mary brought help to all women in sin that they may rise, / Help all woebegone women, in your manner, / And [help] me that day when I shall see your son, my judge

15 And since, lady, your greatness cannot be told

16 Lines 45-46: Blessed be that high father that created you such a one, / Blessed be his own son, who would alight in you

17 Lines 50-52: Fruit it was that was promised to come from Jesse's root, / Jesus, the fruit that blossomed from you for all mankind's salvation, / Be always my soul's food and life and thought

18 Lines 53-55: Womb, in you was Christ's bower, harbor of all purity, / Womb, in you as paradise full of sweetness, / Womb, in you was the palace of the prince of most prowess, / For the birth of that womb, help, Mary, in [my] distress

19 Lines 59-60: Thine is every Christian man on earth both most and least, / Because I am yours, you shield me from Satan, that foul beast

20 Lines 63-64: Jesus is king of all pity who has dealt so with man (see note) C / Now Jesus, Mary mother's son, be always in my thought



THE ANNUNCIATION: NOTES


          §1

In that time, als was ful wel. Index no. 1536. MS: Bodl. 2325 (Bodley 425), fols. 67b-68a (fourteenth century; West Midlands, with some northern features; Heuser suggests that the Psalter in which this poem appears originated in the West Midlands and was copied by a Northern scribe who uses sal for shall, salt for shalt, or occasionally a for o as in knaw or hali). Edition: W. Heuser, Anglia 29 (1906), 401-02.

This poem is a close translation of Luke 1:26-38. The translator adds only a few formulaic phrases (at lines 1 and 45). The poem appears in a mid-fourteenth-century MS which contains an English verse Psalter. Between Psalms 108 and 109 we find English versions of the four sequences (sung before the Alleluia in the liturgy) from the Gospels (often included in Books of Hours); this poem is one. Marian materials are often linked with the Psalms of David in that she is seen to be the flower that his songs proclaim. The MS also contains an English translation of Ave maris stella, "Heile sterne on the se so bright" (Index no. 1082, printed in B14, pp. 58-59).

2 Gabriel. Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century commentator whose interpretations are incorporated into the CA, notes that Gabriel's name means "strength of God." Bernard of Clairvaux writes that Gabriel is the appropriate messenger because he announces the "coming of power" and comforts Mary: "Perhaps it would be better to say that he had the right to so great a name because he was to carry out so great a mission" (Homily 1, p. 7). Gabriel also appears to Zachariah with the news that Elizabeth will bear a son (Luke 1:5-25) and to the Old Testament prophet Daniel, to whom he shows visions (Daniel 8:16 and 9:21).

5 maiden. See Isaias 7:14, "a virgin shall conceive. . . ."

7 Josep of the house of Davi. St. Bernard writes: "Not only Joseph, but Mary as well, we must suppose, descended from the house of David. She would not have been engaged to a man of the house of David if she herself had not also been of this royal house" (Homily 2, p. 29). The apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary attributed to St. Matthew (and once thought to have been translated by Jerome), claims that Mary was "sprung from the royal race and family of David" (1:1, in Lost Books of the Bible [Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company, 1926]), p. 17.

11 ful of hape. The word hape is rich in meaning. For this poet, grace - the advent of conception - is an event, that which happens (MED 2.a). The word also suggests Mary's worthiness (MED 1.e: "favor, graciousness") and, more importantly, her good fortune, prosperity, and happiness (MED 1.c) as she receives this blessing.

29 in Jacob hous rike sal he. See 2 Kings (RSV 2 Samuel) 7:13-16 and Isaias 9:6-7.

32 Hou mai this be? Bernard of Clairvaux comments that Mary "does not doubt the event, but wonders how it shall occur. She is not asking whether it will happen, but how" (Homily 4, p. 48).

34 ful of miht. See note to line 2.

36 miht and heighest inshadw thee sal. According to Bernard, this mysterious explanation implies that only God and Mary are to know the means by which she will conceive (Homily 4, pp. 49-50).

37 heli. Bernard: "Why does he say simply the 'Holy' and nothing else? I think that it must have been because there was no name by which he could correctly or worthily qualify that extraordinary, that magnificent, that awesome being who was going to unite the Virgin's most chaste flesh to his own soul in the only begotten Son of the Father. Had he said the 'holy flesh' or the 'holy man' or 'the holy child', whatever he might have found to say would have seemed to him inadequate" (Homily 4, p. 50).


          §2

From heovene into eorthe. Index no. 877. MS: Jesus College Oxford 29, fols. 188b (first eleven lines) and 181a (last seven lines) (thirteenth century, Southwest Midlands). Edition: Morris, An Old English Miscellany, p. 100.

This fragment is one of the oldest extant vernacular Annunciation lyrics; Morris believes the poems in this MS were composed before 1250. The poem was apparently meant to be sung: the note Item cantus appears next to the first line, and the points in the MS seem to indicate rhythmic rather than syntactic breaks.

2 The name Gabryel has been written above that in a smaller hand.

5 wunyinde. This term is not easily glossed. "Dwelling" or "sojourning" are implied, or perhaps "living." The sense seems to point up the transience of Mary's life on earth.

12 This section of the poem begins on an earlier leaf of the MS. The sense of the poem suggests the omission of some lines paraphrasing Luke 1:35-37; now Mary is the speaker, but there is no clear physical evidence for this in the misbound MS.

13 wenche. The word, which originally meant "girl" or "young woman," connoted "servant" or "handmaid" in the Middle Ages (see OED wench, sb.1 and 3). There is no connotation of promiscuity in the usage.

15-18 Narrative poems about Mary often close in a prayer, either asking Christ to have mercy for his mother's sake, as in this case, or to Mary herself.


          §3

Gabriel, fram evene kingh. Index no. 888. MS: BL Arundel 248, fol. 154a (c. 1300; East Anglian - Dobson identifies it as Norfolk - dialect). In the MS, the Latin text appears under musical notes, in five twelve-line stanzas; the English text follows. The poem "Jesu Cristes milde moder" (§32), possibly by the same author, also appears in the MS. Editions: Frederick J. Furnivall, The Harleian MS 7334 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Chaucer Society first series 73 (Ludgate Hill: Trübner, 1885), pp. 695-96; Furnivall, Cambridge MS Dd. 4. 24. of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (London: Chaucer Society, 1902), pp. 687-88; M. Jacoby, Vier Mittelenglische Geistliche Gedichte des XIII Jahrhunderts (Berlin: G. Bernstein, 1890), p. 35; B13, no. 44; Friedrich Gennrich, Formenlehre des Mittelalterlichen Liedes (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1932), p. 179 (music with Jacoby's lyrics); J. B. Trend, Music and Letters 9 (1929), 114; Hughes and Abraham, p. 116 (with music from Cambridge University Addit. 710, which gives Latin but not English lyrics); Davies, no. 32; Sisam, Oxford, no. 39; DH, no. 15 (with music); Weber, pp. 29-31 (Brown's ed.). Wenzel compares the poem to its Latin source in Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric (pp. 35-42). Weber discusses the poem's structure (and that of its music) on pp. 32-46, noting that the movement of the poem toward a final petition "and the way the petition is formed in terms of sacred history is analogous to the Mass liturgy. Just as the Mass is the re-enactment of the crucifixion to unite the present congregation to God, so the poem which relates the event of the annunciation to the crucifixion of Christ is made by the poet into a prayer in order to apply the events to himself and his listeners for their 'god won'" (p. 40).

This piece is a free translation of the thirteenth-century Latin hymn Angelus ad Virginem (the song sung by Nicholas in Chaucer's The Miller's Tale). On the Latin source (and music) see DH, pp. 178-83.

Furnivall indicates that the initial ț is to be read as h. Following Brown, I have emended the text accordingly, replacing the with he at lines 4, 47, 53, and 60.

3 hire. MS reads thire, which Brown glosses as "this," but Dobson emends to hir on the grounds that thire, which would mean "these," is inconsistent with the dialect of the text (p. 180).

26 herde. MS: therde.

29 theumaiden. Furnivall reads thenmaiden (then=hen=hand?); if theu=theow, however, then the word means "servant-maiden" (compare OE țeowe).

35 withhuten lawe. An exception to the law of nature (according to which a virgin cannot conceive a child).

38 sithte. The word may be, as Furnivall reads, sichte.

39 MS: And crossed out at beginning of line.

49 Maiden moder makeles. Compare §13, lines 1-2.

51 thee. Corrected from be (Brown's emendation).


          §4

The angel to the vergyn said. By John Audelay. Index no. 3305. MS: Bodl. 21876 (Douce 302), fol. 24a-b (fifteenth century; West Midlands Shropshire dialect). Edition: Ella Keats Whiting, ed., The Poems of John Audelay, EETS o.s. 184 (1931; rpt. New York: Kraus, 1971), pp. 159-60.

This lyric appears in the works of John Audelay, in a group of four Marian poems. Audelay may have been a priest; he spent the last years of his life at Haghmond, an Augustinian abbey, and wrote for the monks there. The poem is a closer translation of Angelus ad virginem than §3. Though it is written in carol form, Dobson does not believe this version was meant for singing (p. 179).

At the head of the poem, the MS reads: Hec salutacio composuit Angelus Gabrielus.

2 Entreng into here boure. In the Protevangelium, Gabriel first visits Mary at a well, then reappears in her room.

3-4 Fore drede . . . He said, "Haile!" Gabriel uses a familiar greeting to avoid frightening Mary.

6 MS: s deleted after Lord.

9 gate of heven. This is a common image from the liturgy. Its source is Ezekiel 44:1-4, in which God shows Ezekiel a closed gate and explains: "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut for the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way." Medieval commentators interpret this as a prefiguring of the Immaculate Conception and virgin birth: only the Holy Spirit would have access to Mary's womb. Compare Lydgate's Life of our Lady, Book 2, line 568, and "Marye, mayde mylde and fre" (§88), lines 49-52. See the order for Sext of the Divine Office for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception; note also the Biblia Pauperum leaf for the Annunciation. Frederick Warren's introduction to the Sarum mass of the B.V.M. explains that one reason for celebrating her mass is that Saturday is "a door and entrance" to Sunday (Sarum, Part 2, p. 74).

12 No syn never I knew. The word refers to carnal sin - Mary is a virgin - and it implicitly affirms the Immaculate Conception, the absence of all human sin. The double negative form, used for emphasis, is common.

14 stedfast. Whiting's emendation of MS sedfast.

16 boost. Written in a different hand in MS. Whiting believes the second hand may reflect corrections and additions supervised by Audelay himself (p. ix).

17 serten and sere appear on a separate line in the MS.

19 pere. Whiting glosses this "pure," comparing the spelling of sere for "sure" (a fifteenth-century West Midlands form) in line 17. It could, however, be "peer," Christ dwelling as a human; compare dere for "dear" in line 36).

23 as odur do. Written in a different hand.

24 burthe. In a different hand and repeated in margin.

27 the. MS: ț.

29 holé. MS: hohole.

kene. The MED gives two definitions for kenen (v.) that seem appropriate: "to engender" (a), and "to generate (sth.), develop" (c).

30-50 These lines are written in a different hand.

34 wombe and waast. A trope for physicality - not simply incarnate but with a belly that consumes and digests earthly food. As confirmation of this physicality, after the Resurrection Jesus will eat food and permit Thomas to touch the hole in his side ("wombe and waast," so to speak).

37 For thay ther that thay nyst nott hwat, in law as we fyende. I.e., the Bible (the law) indicates that God sent Christ for the sake of sinners, those who "know not what they do" (compare Luke 23:34).

39 agaynes al monkynde. I.e., against all laws of human nature - but, ironically, for the sake of humankind. Compare §3, line 35.

45 thy. Corrected in MS from thou.


          §5

Nowel el el el . . . . Index no. 2113. MS: BL Sloane 2593, fol. 10a (mid-fifteenth century). Editions: Wright, Specimens, no. 6; Wright, Songs (Warton Club), p. 29; Sandys, p. 7; EEC, no. 242; Rickert, p. 13; Greene, Selection, no. 54.
Songs, meditations, and carols on the Joys of Mary are common in medieval literature. In England (particularly in the carol form), the number of joys is usually five (the Annuncation, the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Mary's Assumption); some continental poetry describes seven or twelve, and Lydgate often expands the number to fifteen. The number five (associated with the five senses and thus with the flesh) is frequently associated with Mary, and many songs in her honor employ a five-stanza form.

The Latin lines are the final lines of each stanza of the hymn Gaude virgo, mater Christi; for the text see §87, below. The English lines do not translate the hymn, but they treat the same material.

1 Nowel. From a French word meaning "birth." According to the OED, the first recorded use of this word in English occurs in the late fourteenth century, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Perhaps the twelve els have revelational significance.

2 gret with. This may be a pun on greeted/great: Mary was greeted (MED greten, v.2) by Gabriel, and Mary was great with child (MED greten, v.1, to become pregnant) by means of Gabriel's announcement - conception by the Word (for this sense, compare lines 5 and 6).

17 To helle he tok the ryghte way. Compare the Apostles' Creed: "he descended into hell."


          §6

Unto Marie he that love hath. By James Ryman. Index no. 3725. MS: Cambridge University Ee.1.12, fols. 26a-27b (1492). Editions: Zupitza, Archiv 89, 189-90; EEC, no. 257. The text is based on the Magnificat, found in Luke 1:46-55. Mary's song of praise to God is used as a hymn in the vespers liturgy. In the context of the biblical story, translations of the song also appear in several Corpus Christi cycles, e.g., the Wakefield "Salutation of Elizabeth." See DBT, "Magnificat."

1-2 These lines appear in large letters - Ryman's burdens are approximately double the size of the verses. The burden, addressed to the "audience," clearly encourages participation; by synge he means "sing along with me."

6 verily. MS: verify. Zupitza's emendation.

7 he. Added above the line.

20 By his swete Sonne. Luke reads: "He has shown might with his arm." Here and at line 26, Ryman makes interpretive adaptations to the scripture in order to call attention to Christ as the embodiment of strength and help. His interpretation agrees with those of Bede and Theophylact (d. 750) in the CA, who equate the Son with God's arm. Theophylact writes: "For in His arm, that is, His incarnate Son, He hath shewed strength, seeing that nature was vanquished, a virgin bringing forth, and God becoming man" (CA, Luke 1:51).

28-29 He toke nature in Ysraell / And became man to save mankynde. Luke reads "He has given help to Israel" (1:54).

31-34 Joy be to God . . . . Compare the Gloria Patri of the liturgy.


          §7

Nowel, nowel, nowel / Syng we with myrth. Index no. 3822. MS: Bodl. 29734 (Eng. Poet e.1), fols. 47b-48a (mid-fifteenth century). Editions: Wright, Songs (Percy Society), no. 61; EEC, no. 261; Rickert, pp. 20-21; Silverstein, no. 92; Greene, Selection, no. 56; Davies, no. 133.

The MS, consisting of seventy-six religious and secular songs, written on paper in several hands, may be a minstrel's collection. The heading in the MS, A song upon (now must I syng &c.), must refer to a now-lost carol tune.

The carol resembles carols and chansons d'aventure in which a betrayed maiden laments her pregnancy (see EEC nos. 452-57); as Greene notes, "The blessed state of the Virgin and her rejoicing would have the effect of a striking contrast to hearers familiar with the type of song parodied" (EEC, p. 408).

Rickert writes that although the vision poem is popular in the fifteenth century, this one is "alone in representing Mary as prophesying the event, and picturing herself as singing the lullaby" (p. 149).

31 lyghtnesse. Perhaps a play on "heaviness," as in "heavy with child," but also suggesting illumination.

33 fod. Greene glosses the word as "child." But the metaphor suggests Christ's role as source of spiritual nourishment (food) as well. (The older meaning of fode is "food"; MED fode, n.2, "child," seems to come from the idea that a child is one who is fed or nurtured.)


          §8

Edi beo thu, hevene quene. Index no. 708. MS: Corpus Christi College Oxford 59, fol. 113b, with music (late thirteenth century; Southeast Midlands; see below). Editions: R. Morris, Old English Homilies of the Twelfth Century, vol. 2, EETS o.s. 53 (1873; rpt. New York: Kraus, 1973), pp. 255-57, music, p. 261; Patterson, no. 30; B13, no. 60; Davies, no. 12; M. Bukofzer, "The Gymel, The Earliest Form of English Polyphony," Music and Letters 16 (1935), 79; DH, no. 13.

The MS comes from Llanthony, an Augustinian Priory, in Gloucestershire. Brown believes the poem was composed there. Dobson disagrees. He believes lines 41-64 are not part of the original poem: the first five stanzas, concluding in a prayer to Mary, constitute a unified religious love poem, in the first person (and Marian lyrics frequently employ a five-stanza structure). The last three stanzas are more impersonal. While stanza 6 elaborates on what has come before, 7 and 8 shift into an "explicitly doctrinal" mode and employ none of the courtly love conventions of the earlier stanzas. The prayer that ends stanza 8 simply reiterates the earlier prayer, in a new rhyme scheme. Furthermore, based on the features of dialect and orthography, Dobson believes the first five stanzas are a Southwest Midlands scribal copy of a poem composed in the Southeast Midlands. He theorizes that the scribe recorded these stanzas from memory (there are apparent errors), and he dismisses the last three stanzas as later additions.

The poet borrows numerous phrases (as well as metrical form) from Latin hymns. Yet he combines the traditions of that genre with conventions from secular French poetry: each stanza ends in a kind of refrain; the speaker declares himself Mary's knight (line 16) and her man (line 22), describes his "love bond" and worships her as the finest of women, noble in lineage.

1 beo. Dobson identifies this as a Southwest Midlands spelling of a Southeast Midlands form.

hevene quene. An epithet from the liturgy. See, for example, the Sarum Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Prymer (Maskell, 2:78). See also the "Queen of Heaven" poems in this volume.

1-2 Brown notes the similarity of these lines to a Latin antiphon found in Mone's collection: Salve mundi domina / regina caelorum / Sanctorum laetitia / vita beatorum (Mone, 2:210).

9-10 Brown notes the similarity to the beginning of a Latin hymn: "to SS. Tiberius, Modestus, and Florentia [Chevalier, No. 1620]: 'Aurora caeli praevia / a nocte lucem separat / divisa divina clare'" (p. 213).

10 Morris and Patterson add dai3 in brackets after from.

17 Spronge blostme of one rote. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him" (Isaias 11:1-2). If Mary is the flower, Jesus is the fruit.

20 heore. MS: hore. So emended by Morris and Patterson.

25 eorthe to gode sede. Compare The Myroure of oure Ladye: "Blyssed be thow moste worthy sower that haste sown a grayne of the beste whete in the best lande, wette wyth the dew of the holy goste" (p. 201).

26 On thee lighte the heovene deugh. An allusion to Gideon's fleece. The wet fleece in the desert was a sign to Gideon of God's purpose (Judges 6:36-40). Commentators regularly gloss the fleece as a sign of the Virgin Mary's immaculate conception. The Biblia Pauperum Annunciation leaf includes this image; compare also Psalm 71 (RSV 72):6.

36 draucht. This word conveys a host of applicable connotations: desire, motion, attraction, inclination, education, and draught/drink, like a love potion with Mary as the full vessel.

37 sschildghe. Morris, Patterson, and Dobson separate the word: schild 3e ("shield, yea"), Dobson declaring Brown's schild3e an impossible form.

41-42 heghe kunne, / Of David. See §1, note to line 7.

44 evening. MS: evenig. Emended by Morris.

45 derne. Commonly used in Middle English love poems to designate secrecy or private, personal love.

46 swete. Dobson emends to trewe; see note to line 49.

46-58 The lower right corner of the MS is gone; missing line-ends are supplied from earlier editions.

47 Thi love us brouchte. As corrected in margin. Text reads Thus bring us in to.

49 Seolcudliche. Text reads swetelic; margin reads Seolcudliche, with i.e., treuwe above (next to the first letters of swete from line 46). All editors except Dobson read i.e., treuwe as a gloss on Seolcudliche.

51 That al this world bicluppe ne mighte, / Thu sscholdest of thin boseme bere. Patterson cites the third lesson for Matins in the Prymer: "Hooli modir of god, that deseruedist worthili to conceyue him that al the world myghte not holde" (Maskell, 2:10).


          §9

Heyl, levedy, se-stoerre bryht. Attributed to William Herebert. Index no. 1054. MS: BL Addit. 46919, fol. 207a-b (Herebert's commonplace book; early fourteenth century, Southwest Midlands). Editions: Wright and Halliwell 2:228-29; Patterson, no. 42; B14, no. 17; Silverstein, no. 25; LH, no. 185; Reimer, pp. 120-21.

This poem recalls the Annunciation by echoing the "hail" or Ave in a prayer for Mary's protection, guidance, and intercession. It is a translation of the Latin hymn Ave maris stella, sung at the canonical hour of Nocturns, the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Feast of the Annunciation. The Latin text is as follows:
Ave maris stella,   
Dei mater alma   
Atque semper virgo,   
Felix coeli porta.   
    
Sumens illud Ave   
Gabrielis ore,   
Funda nos in pace,   
Mutans nomen Evae.   
    
Solve vincla reis,   
Profer lumen caecis,   
 Mala nostra pelle,   
Bona cuncta posce.   
    
Monstra te esse matrem,   
Sumat per te precem,   
Qui pro nobis natus   
Tulit esse tuus.   
    
Virgo singularis,   
Inter omnes mitis,   
Nos culpis solutos   
Mites fac et castos.    
 Vitam praesta puram,   
Iter para tutum,   
Ut videntes Iesum   
Semper collaetemur.   
    
Sit laus Deo patri   
Summo Christo decus   
Spiritui sancto   
Honor trinus et unus.   
    
(Daniel 1:204)   
    
For later variations on the hymn, see §10, §58, B14, no. 45, and B15, no. 19.

1 se-stoerre. As David Jeffrey notes, the image of Mary as stella maris, star of the sea, originated in a scribal error; St. Jerome (Liber Interpretationis Nominorum Hebraicorum) translated the Hebrew name Miriam (in Exodus) as "drop of the sea," but stilla (drop) became stella (DBT, "Stella Maris," p. 735). Bede, for example, perpetuates the error as he glosses Mary's name in Luke: "Maria, in Hebrew, is the star of the sea" (CA Luke 1:26-27). The epithet found its way into poetry and hymns, e.g., Ave maris stella (Daniel 1:204), the antiphon for the None hour, and the Evensong hymn "Hail, sterre of the see." Numbers 24:17, Balaam's fourth oracle, provides support for the image: "A star shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel."

Bernard elaborates on the idea:

Surely she is very fittingly likened to a star. The star sends forth its ray without harm to itself. In the same way the Virgin brought forth her son with no injury to herself. . . . She it is whose brightness both twinkles in the highest heaven and pierces the pit of hell, and is shed upon earth, warming our hearts far more than our bodies, fostering virtue and cauterizing vice. . . . O you, whoever you are, who feel that in the tidal wave of this world you are nearer to being tossed about among the squalls and gales than treading on dry land, if you do not want to founder in the tempest, do not avert your eyes from the brightness of this star. (Homily 2, p. 30)

The incipit Ave maris stella, etc. appears in the right margin.

3 vurst and late. A gloss on the Latin semper virgo. Voiced labial fricatives (v for f) are typical of the Southern dialect Herebert uses.

late. The a appears above the line.

4 Of heveneriche sely gate. A translation of the common Latin epithet Felix coeli porta. See note to §4, line 9. Joseph Connelly's note is useful here: "Mary is the gate of heaven primarily because, through her, God came on earth; but she is also the gate of heaven in relation to men since she is our mother as well; cf. John 19:26" (p. 161).

5 Ave. Luke 1:28.

In margin: Sumens illud Ave.

7 In gryht. The Latin hymn reads in pace.

8 That turnst abakward Eve's nome. I.e., Eva/Ave. The second-century commentator Irenaeus glossed Ave as a vae or ab vae (without woe) and elaborated on the pairing (see Adversus Haereses, 3.22.4 and 5.19.1), as did later writers. Just as Satan (the fallen angel) visited Eve, so Gabriel visited Mary; Mary's obedience made possible Christ's atonement for Eve's disobedience; the pain of childbirth (Eve's punishment) is balanced by the painless birth of one child who will provide "bote for bale"; the tree of Eden bore forbidden fruit, but the tree of Calvary (the cross) bore Christ and salvation. Jacobus de Voragine discusses the parallels between the Fall and the Annunciation, even citing the legend that the Fall, the Annunciation, and the Crucifixion all took place on Friday, March 6 (Golden Legend 1:208-09). See also John Donne's poem "Upon the Annunciation and Passion Falling upon One Day, 1608."

9 In margin: Salve vincla reis.

13 The Latin line Monstra te esse matrem appears in the margin.

17 Margin: Virgu singularis.

21 Margin: Vitam presta puram.

24 ever. The r is written above the line.

25 MS: To țe uader cryst and to țe holy gost, with țe and to țe marked for deletion.

25-26 Patterson notes that the Gloria Patri "was regularly appended to all hymns in the services" (p. 185).


          §10

Blessed Mary, moder virginall. Index no. 534. MS: Bodl. 21575 (Douce 1), fol. 77a-b (fifteenth century). Editions: B15, no. 44; Davies, no. 107.

Another version of Ave maris stella (see §9), this poem appears in a small parchment book of offices, prayers, and hymns for private devotion.

2 Integrate. The word means "intact," "whole," "entire," suggesting chastity, purity, honesty.

sterre of the see. See note to §9, line 1.

5 Myrroure without spot. Compare Wisdom 7:26: "For she [Wisdom] is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness." The unspotted mirror is an iconographic symbol of the Immaculate Conception.

rose of Jerico. See Ecclesiasticus 24:18 (Sirach 24:14), in which Wisdom says of herself: "I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho." Compare "Of on that is so fayr and bright" (§83), line 11, and "Hale, sterne superne" (§91), line 8.

6 Close gardyn. The hortus conclusus image comes from Canticles (RSV Song of Solomon) 4:12, and appears in the liturgy. On the allegorical significance of gardens in medieval literature, see D. W. Robertson, Jr., "The Doctrine of Charity in Mediaeval Gardens: A Topical Approach through Symbolism and Allegory," Speculum 26 (1951), 24-49.


          §11

Ave: Hayle mayden of maydyns, thorgth worde consaywyng. Index no. 1059. MS: Bodl. 21700 (Douce 126), fol. 92a-b (early fifteenth century, Northwest Midlands). Edition: Heuser, pp. 320-23.

This poem is found in a MS which also contains Bernard of Clairvaux's dialogue with Mary on the Passion.

The rhetorical technique employed here is anaphora, though it might also be described as epimone, which Richard Lanham defines as "frequent repetition of a phrase or question, in order to dwell on a point" (A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, second ed. [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991], p. 68).

The Ave Maria came into general use during the twelfth century; the prayer combines Gabriel's greeting (Luke 1:28) with Elizabeth's (Luke 1:42):
Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Compare B14, no. 131, "Heil! and holi ay be ți name," a late-fourteenth-century acrostic on this prayer.

1 thorgth worde consaywyng. Geometer, a seventh-century Greek commentator, writes: "By the word behold, he denotes rapidity and actual presence, implying that with the utterance of the word the conception is accomplished" (CA, Luke 1:30-33). The iconographic tradition symbolizes the conception with the dove (representing the Holy Spirit) speaking into Mary's ear.

8 sokour. MS: sokou; the leaf is trimmed at the edge of the word. Heuser's emendation.

15 see sterre. See note to §9, line 1.

17 lesse and more. All humankind, regardless of class.

19 profycy. See 2 Kings (2 Samuel) 7:13-16 and Isaias 9:6-7.

21 the Trinité pyghth hys owen place. Mary is often described as "chamber of the Trinity"; compare, for example, §88, line 2. The image of her womb enclosing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is common in medieval visual art (see, for example, Plate C). On the Trinity, see §66, note to line 36. It is worth noting that the singular hys is used with Trinité here, emphasizing the idea of the three in one.

22 doe. Do is commonly used in Middle English as a sign of causative aspect; thus "bring" or "cause for us."

24 to be. Added in margin.

26 ley in stalle. See Luke 2:7.

33 The beginnings of the Latin words are cut off on fol. 92b, which begins with this line.

34 honowereth. MS: honowre thet. Heuser's emendation.

36 ne maye. "May not [help]"; i.e., where I lack the capacity to help myself. Mary is often called upon as mediatrix; see poems below.

44 manyfolde. The initial letter has been obliterated.

49 swote. MS: swete, emended for rhyme.

50 Fruyt . . . byhote to come oute offe Jesses rote. See §8, note to line 17.

63 that soe with man hathe wrowghth. The phrase is difficult to gloss. It may refer to Jesus' actions toward man, or with man may mean "in human likeness"; the word wroughth, in any case, suggests a double meaning: God acts, does, or creates [himself] both with and as man.


          §12

Hayle, glorious lady and hevenly quene. By John Lydgate. Index no. 1045. MS: Trinity College Cambridge 601 (R.3.21), fol. 274a-b (1461-83, Suffolk). Also in Longleat 30, fol. 25a; and Huntington HM 142 (formerly Bement), fols. 21a-22b. Edition of Trinity MS: MacCracken, EETS e.s. 107, pp. 280-82.

The poem is prefaced with the following inscription: "His sequitur Salutacio Angelica per dictum dompnum Iohannem Lydegate translata" [Here follows the Salutation of the Angel translated by the aforementioned master John Lydgate]. It is a meditation on the joys of Mary (in this case, the Immaculate Conception, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Purification, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Assumption). The poem is found in a miscellany of English poetry, containing devotional prayers and instructions, as well as several poems by Lydgate. The Latin lines appear in red in the Cambridge MS.

2 cage. A place of security. Mary is commonly depicted as dwelling (or being) in a cloister or enclosed place.

6 Cuius honore tu nobis fave. "By which honor (i.e., the honor of the holy conception) grant us favor (or protect us)."

24 Ave Maria, gracia plena. See Luke 1:28.

32 Gracia plena, dominus tecum. See Luke 1:28.

35-36 And yet thow madyst thy purificacion, / To puryfy oure sowles. The virgin birth meant that Mary had no need of purification. Bede writes that although Mary was exempt according to the Jewish law, she willingly underwent the ritual in order "that we might be loosed from the bonds of the law" (CA, Luke 2:22-24). See Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend on the Feast of the Purification, 1:143-51.

40 Dominus tecum, benedicta tu. See Luke 1:28.

48 Benedicta tu in mulieribus. See Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42.

56 Et benedictus fructus ventris tui. See Luke 1:42.


          §13

I syng of a myden. Index no. 1367. MS: BL Sloane 2593, fol. 10b (fifteenth century). Editions: CS, no. 54; B15, no. 81; A. H. Bullen, Carols and Poems (London: J. C. Nimmo, 1886), pp. 4-5; W. W. Greg, "I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless," Modern Philology 7 (1909), 166; Rickert, p. 6; Cecil, p. 30; Auden and Pearson, p. 29; Chambers, p. 91; Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901), pp. 34-35; Segar, p. 59; John Jacob Niles, The Anglo-American Carol Study Book (New York: G. Schirmer, 1948), p. 27; Mason, p. 175; Speirs, pp. 67-68; Manning, PMLA 75 (see below), 8; Davies, no. 66; Stevick, no. 54; Silverstein, no. 79; LH, no. 181; Gray, Selection, no. 6; Burrow, p. 301; Dunn and Byrnes, p. 515; Manning, Wisdom and Number, p. 159; Reiss, p. 158; Wilhelm, no. 284.

This is one of the most famous of the Marian lyrics, set exquisitely to music in Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols.

The following essays on "I Sing of a Maiden," all excerpted in LH (pp. 325-49), offer a variety of readings of the poem: Thomas Jemielty, "'I Sing of a Maiden': God's Courting of Mary" in Concerning Poetry 2 (Bellingham: Western Washington State College, 1969), 53-71; Stephen Manning, "'I Syng of a Myden,'" PMLA 75 (1960), 8-12; D. G. Halliburton, "The Myden Makeles," Papers on Language and Literature 4 (1968), 115-20; Leo Spitzer, "Explication de Texte Applied to Three Great Middle English Poems," Archivum Linguisticum 3 (1951), 1-22 and 137-56. See also George Kane, Middle English Literature (London: Methuen, 1951), pp. 161-65; and Speirs, pp. 67-69; Davies, pp. 14-19; Weber, pp. 55-60; Douglas Gray, "Typology in Some Medieval English Religious Lyrics," Typology and English Medieval Literature, ed. Hugh T. Keenan (New York: AMS, 1992), pp. 275-88.

Greg's article discusses the relationship between this poem and §16. Manning suggests that the poet has adapted the earlier six-stanza poem to five stanzas to correspond to the five joys and the five letters in the name Maria (LH 226).

1 I syng of a myden. MS: I syng A of a myd (with line over e to indicate n).

1-4 Compare §16, lines 3-4.

2 makeles. Without a mate or husband; also and/or without an equal or peer; and, without spot - immaculate. Compare lines 17-18.

4 che ches. This might be seen as an unusual interpretation of the dynamics of the event; it is God who chooses Mary (compare §3, line 51 and §11, line 21). But several commentators, notably Bernard, discuss the importance of her willingness, which amounts to her choosing. The phrase also evokes the chivalric circumstances of a knight approaching his lady to seek her favor in, as Jemielty puts it, "what is to be a most far-reaching love affair" (LH, p. 330).

5 stylle. The word connotes gentleness, absence of commotion or violence, and silence. Jemielty interprets it as suggesting God's "reverential hesitation" (LH, p. 329).

7 dew in Aprylle. This is a common image in the liturgy, recalling Gideon's fleece. See §8, note to line 26, and compare Deuteronomy 32:2 and Isaias 45:8. Jemielty comments that the April dew marks a season of rebirth: it is the beginning of the medieval year and the beginning of the "new year of salvation in Mary's womb" (the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25, nine months before Christmas).

8 gras. Manning interprets the grass as a symbol of humility (LH, p. 334).

12 flour. Mary is often compared to a flower, a symbol of purity; compare, for example, the burden to §26. See also Canticles 2:1-2: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters."

16 spray. Compare Isaias 11:1: Mary as flower, or branch, growing from the root of Jesse. In this poem, the image completes an ascending motion from gras (line 8) to flour (line 12) to spray (line 16), a counter-motion of Mary's yearning (choosing) to the falling of the dew (God's loving motion) upon the mother's place (line 6), her bower, (line 10), and her supine body itself (line 14).

17-20 Compare §16, lines 19-20.


          §14

At a spryng wel under a thorn. Index no. 420. MS: Magdalen College Oxford 60, fol. 214a (fourteenth or fifteenth century). The MS is a collection of exempla. Editions: Coxe, p. 37; B14, no. 130; Speirs, p. 64; Mason, p. 149; Greene, Selection, no. 55; Davies, no. 114; Dronke, p. 69 (with commentary); Silverstein, no. 49; LH, no. 192.

This poem appears in a Latin exemplum, de confessione ("on confession"), in which the poem's symbols are interpreted. It is a story of a nobleman turned poor, who is ashamed to come to court to receive grace. Gray discusses the poem's kinship to medieval romance (Themes, pp. 92-93). Peter Dronke's note on the poem merits inclusion here: "It was at a fountain, beside a thornbush, that, according to some of the early Christian apocryphal writings, the angel's annunciation to Mary took place. This is the moment of the incarnation, the 'bote of bale' for all mankind. It is to a fountain, too, that girls in the romances and dance-songs of medieval Europe often come to meet, or dream about, their beloved. The poet is aware of both associations: impalpably he makes the bridge that joins the omnitemporal moment to the particular one. The annunciation took place 'a little while ago'; but still a maiden is standing at that fountain, rapt in the fullness of love. It is at once the Virgin, whose true love can absorb all human love, and any girl made beautiful by loving. The image is left unbroken, hence enigmatic: this girl opens the gate of poetic imagination behind which 'heavenly things are joined to earthly ones, divine to human'" (p. 70). See also Wenzel, Preachers, pp. 231-33.

1 spryng wel. Gray and Coxe read sprynge wel. In the Protevangelium account of the Annunciation, Gabriel greets Mary at a well. In the exemplum, the spryng wel is identified with the wound in Christ's side. Compare §82, and see also The Shewings of Julian of Norwich, ed. Georgia Ronan Crampton (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1994), p. 55.

thorn. See note to §20, line 1.

2 bote of bale. David Fowler writes that this phrase often refers to a lady's acceptance of her lover's plea - ultimately sexual union - but here we learn that though she has consented to his desire, she is yet a maid (The Bible in Middle English Literature [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984], p. 55).