THE JOYS OF MARY: FOOTNOTES



1 Nor let me ever die in any of the seven [deadly] sins

2 When Jesus Christ arose from death, who was beloved and dear to you

3 You are in stable and stall where I draw near to death



THE JOYS OF MARY: NOTES


          §71

Mary, for thine joys fyve. Index no. 2099. MSS: BL Royal 8.F.6, fol. 21a; Lincoln Cathedral 91 (Thornton), fol. 177b (mid-fifteenth century). The verses appear as a prayer tag in both MSS. They also appear with paintings of the Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the chancel wall of Broughton Church, Oxon (noted in Robbins and Cutler, Supplement). Editions: Rossell Hope Robbins, "Popular Prayers in Middle English Verse," Modern Philology 36 (1939), 348; Brown, Register, 1:362. Edition of Lincoln: Reginald M. Woolley, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Lincoln Cathedral Chapter Library (London: H. Milford, 1927), p. 54; Carl Horstmann, Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole (New York: Macmillan, 1895), p. 377.

1 joys fyve. Usually the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Assumption. But compare §77 and §74, in which the five joys are the Annunciation, the Nativity, Epiphany, the Resurrection, and the Assumption. And §73 combines both traditions to commemorate six joys.

1-2 Lincoln MS: Lady, for thy joyes fyve / Wisse me the waye of rightwys liffe. Amen.


          §72

Be glad, of al maydens flourre. Index no. 465. (Final quatrain: Index no. 1833.5.) MS: Huntington HM 127, fol. 53a-b (fifteenth century). Editions: B15, no. 34; LH, no. 187.

A song of the seven heavenly joys, not to be confused with the five earthly joys. These joys are all conditions of being: Mary is celebrated as queen of great honor, spouse of God, vessel of virtue, mediatrix, comforter, Mother of Christ, and flower of womanhood. Brown indicates that the seven heavenly joys do not appear in pre-fifteenth-century poetry. The poem is introduced in the MS as follows:

Hit is yfounde and ywrite that oure lady apered to Seint Thomas of Caunterbury and badde him and taught him to worschipe here for the sevene joyes durable and everelastinge that sche hath now in hevene as wel as he deede now for the five temperal joyes that sche hadde on erthe the which beth passed and these beth the sevene that folweth.

19 Jesu. MS: ih.


          §73

Heyle be thou, ladye so bryght. Index no. 1027. MS: Cambridge University Ii.6.43, fol. 88a-b or 90a-b (fifteenth century). Edition: B14, no. 92.

The poem is structured according to the joys of Mary; see note to §71, line 1.

1-3 These lines are indented in the MS, leaving space for an unfinished initial rubric.

4 swotyst. Most lovely, fairest, sweetest; a figurative term often used to describe Christ as well as Mary. (Compare 2 Corinthians 2:15: "For we are the fragrance of Christ for God," an allusion to the incense of triumphal procession or sacrifice.) See also MED st(e), 1.a. The poet's desire to engage all the senses in meditation is reinforced by the use of fonde, which may mean "taste," in line 7.

27 Holy Thursdaye. After the Last Supper, Jesus was betrayed and captured on Holy Thursday; see notes to §31.

32-33 thou wentyst wysse / To blys. A reference to the Assumption; see note to §77, lines 50-51.


          §74

Haile be thu, Mari maiden bright. Index no. 1029. Göttingen University Theol. 107, fol. 169a (early fourteenth century, Northern). The poem occurs only in this MS of the Cursor Mundi, in a group of prayers at the end of the MS. Editions: Richard Morris, Cursor Mundi, Part 5, EETS o.s. 68 (London, 1878; rpt. London: Richard Clay, 1966), lines 25619-83; Carl Horstmann, "Ein Beitrag zu Celestin," Anglia 1 (1878), 391; B14, no. 31; Sisam, Oxford, no. 82.

6 Mi. Morris supplies the missing initial letter.

9 levedi. MS: leved. Brown's emendation.

13 fra hevene toure. MS: fra heve. Brown's emendation.

17 broght. MS: brogh. Morris' emendation.

21 The. Initial letter missing in MS. Morris' emendation. So also at lines 26 and 41.

22 Als sun schines thoru the glas. See note to §17, lines 18-20.

30 Mir, reclis, and gold red. Jacobus de Voragine suggests that "these three gifts corresponded to Christ's royal power, divine majesty, and human mortality" (Golden Legend 1: 83).

32 The reclis fel til his goddhed. Incense, reclis, is sometimes used in the Mass to symbolize the ascendance of prayer or the spirit to God.

33 Mir to man that sal be dede. Myrrh is a balsam gum used in embalming, so the gift signifies Jesus' mortality.

35 Levedi. MS: Levid. Brown's emendation.

42 Compare John 7:36.


          §75

Heyl be thou, Marie, milde quene of hevene. Index no. 1030. MS: St. John's College Cambridge 256, pp. 269-70 (early fourteenth century). Also in Bodl. 3938 (Eng. Poet a.1, the Vernon MS), fol. 115b (c. 1385); BL Royal 17.A.27, fol. 81a (early fifteenth century); Lambeth 559, fol. 15b (fourteenth century). Edition of St. John's: B14, no. 26. Editions of Vernon: Carl Horstmann, The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, vol. 1, EETS o.s. 98 (London: Kegan Paul, 1892), pp. 30-32; Patterson, pp. 149-51.

3 mene. Vernon: make.

4 sennes sevene. The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lechery. See Chaucer's The Parson's Tale and Gower's Confessio Amantis. See also M. W. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins: An Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature (East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1952), and Siegfried Wenzel, "The Seven Deadly Sins: Some Problems of Research," Speculum 43 (1968), 1-22.

5 The Latin lines appear in red.

6 Heil. Vernon, Royal: Ladi.

7 thou haddest wan Crist the aungel sende. Vernon: thou were inne whon god his angel dude sende.

8 bodi. Inserted above line.

wende. Vernon: lende.

9 Thou bring me out of sinne and schuld me fram the fende. Vernon: Thou bringe me to that blisse that is withouten ende.

11 withouten eni drede. Vernon: therof have I no drede.

13 in bok. Omitted in Vernon and Royal.

14 that joie. Vernon: the love of him.

15 Vernon inserts an additional stanza after this line:
Sete ladi thou rewe on me and mak myn herte clene,
Bring us out of sunne that doth us traye and tene,
Wo hit us byginneth in werkes as we han sene,
Schild us from the peynes ther non may other mene.
22-23 The lines are transposed in Vernon.

23 woundes five. Jesus received five wounds on the cross: two in his hands, two in his feet, and one in his side.

24 Thou help me out of senne. Vernon: Get me hevene blisse.

27 thiself lete. Vernon: for thi son thu lete.

28-29 Royal: Thow give me grace in erthe my sines to bete / and that I may in heven sitte before thi fet.

32 and redi. Vernon: in saumple.

34 me . . . save me at the nede. Vernon: us . . . schild us from mis dede.

36 flour of alle. Vernon: Seinte Marie.

38 Thou be in stude and stalle ther I draue to ded. Vernon: Thou help me at myn ende whon I drawe to the dede.

stude and stalle. Stude is a form of stode, or stable, suggesting that Mary will be present at the final moments of the speaker's imprisonment in his mortal, bestial state. But MED also cites uses of stude to indicate a) a state of mental perplexity, and b) a place or room in which to read, write, or study. Stalle might then allude to a meditational compartment or carrel, in which case the phrase could refer to the speaker's final moments of spiritual contemplation.

41-50 These stanzas are transposed in Royal.

43 to hevene. Vernon: in to his riche.

is evere inne. Vernon: schal never blynne.

46 Marie. Vernon: Ladi. So also at line 51.

52 Now I thee biseche. Vernon: Love of alle blisse.

58 Thou helpe me. Vernon: Thou gif me miht and grace.

59 withoute ende. Vernon: ever newe.

nyght. Corrected in MS above canceled lyght.

64 And geve me grace in erthe my sinnes to reue sare. Vernon: And send me hosul and schrift ar I hethene fare.

66-70 Omitted in Vernon and Royal.


          §76

Levedy, for thare blisse. Index no. 1833. MS: Jesus College Oxford 29, fol. 181a-b (late thirteenth century). Editions: Morris, EETS o.s. 49, pp. 87-88; Patterson, no. 68; B13, no. 41.

The MS introduces the poem: Her bigynneth the vif Blyssen of ure levedi seynte Marie.

6 Sunnen. MS: smen. Brown's emendation.

12 That scop thee and alle thing. Compare the Sarum Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Evensong capitulum: "Blessid art thou virgyn marie, that hast born the lord maker of the world; thou hast getyn hym that made thee" (Maskell, 2:61); and Matins, responsory after second lesson: "Blessid art thou maide marie, that baar the lord maker of the world: thou hast engendrid him that made thee, and thou dwellist mayde with outen ende" (Maskell, 2:11).

18 gled and blithe. MS: blithe and gled, marked for transposition.

25 Munt of Olyvete. According to the account in Acts 1:6-12, after Jesus' ascension into heaven, his disciples returned from the Mount of Olives and gathered in the upper room; Mary was part of this group.