THE NATIVITY: FOOTNOTES
1 Who released all from suffering who before were lost
2 Who gives [us] the accessible (straight, swift) and certain (stable, secure) way
3 Lines 7-8: The maiden wanted to bring her child to sleep without song
THE NATIVITY: NOTES
§15
Blissid be that lady bryght. Index no. 998, Goddys Sonne is borne. (The Index lists carols by first line of first verse rather than by refrain.) MS: Bodl. 29734 (Eng. Poet e.1), fols. 52b-53a (mid-fifteenth century). Editions: Wright, Songs (Percy Society), pp. 82-83; CS, no. 73; EEC, no. 44; Rickert, p. 41; Davies, no. 124 (burden and first three stanzas).
This carol uses the events of Christ's birth as occasions for praising his mother, each stanza concluding with an image of Mary. The poet's artistic sense is evident from his love of word-play and his use of a modified bob-and-wheel stanza form.
The burden and first stanza emphasize the doctrine of the virgin birth. In similar fashion the poet notes the powerful lord/humble servant paradox of Christ's incarnation in lines 20 and 29-30. It may be that stanzas 4 and 5 were added later. Stanzas 1-3 are unified in shape, and Davies prints only these. Stanzas 4-5 deviate from the unified metrical pattern of 1-3. Furthermore, Luke is the source for the first three stanzas; the fourth and fifth draw on Matthew instead.
3 Withouten peyne. This reflects a belief in Mary's sinlessness; since pain in childbirth was, according to Genesis 3:16, woman's punishment for Eve's sin, then Mary's sinless state would allow her to give birth without pain. The gradual for the Sarum mass "In honour of the glorious Virgin, on behalf of women labouring with child" begins "Behold a virgin hath conceived, and without pain hath borne to us a son, whose name was called Jesus" (Warren, Part 2, p. 162). The related notion of Mary's immaculate conception was the subject of much debate throughout church history and was widely taught by medieval Franciscans, but was not formally proclaimed as dogma by the Roman Catholic Church until 1854. On the Immaculate Conception, see Warner, ch. 16.
8 prophycy. Isaias 7:14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel."
9 With ay. An exclamation: With wonder, joy, assent, surprise, reverence, O!, Oh!
23 Two sons togyther. Greene: "This figure probably results from the combination in the writer's mind of the 'sol de stella' of the 'Laetabundus' prose and the favourite 'sun through glass' simile for Mary's conception of Jesus" (EEC, p. 353). See notes to §17, especially to lines 18-20.
26 light. See MED lighten, v.2.4.a.(a): "Of Christ: (a) to descend (into the Virgin Mary); ~ in (into, on, upon, within); (b) to be incarnate." There may also be a pun on lighten, "to shine." Some apocryphal accounts associate a bright light with the birth of Jesus: In the Protevangelium, 19:2, a cloud fills the cave until the child is born, "And immediately the cloud disappeared from the cave, and a great light appeared in the cave, so that our eyes could not bear it" (Schneemelcher, p. 434); and in Pseudo-Matthew 13, Mary gives birth in a cave "in which there was never any light, but always darkness, because it could not receive the light of day. And when the blessed Mary had entered it, it began to become all light with brightness, as if it had been the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon]; divine light so illumined the cave, that light did not fail there by day or night, as long as the blessed Mary was there" (Cowper, pp. 50-51).
30 assis stall. According to Luke (2:7 and 2:16), Mary lays the newborn Jesus in a manger.
32-38 The sheperdes . . . to man is dyte. Luke 2:8-14.
38 dyte. The verb dighten has a number of appropriate meanings here: to prepare, to arrange, to command, to predetermine, to bring about, to give, to perform, to ordain, to proclaim; also diten, to sing, declare, compose; indict.
41-49 Thre kynges . . . to hys modere Mary. Matthew 2:1-12.
§16
Nu this fules singet and maket hure blisse. Index no. 2366. MS: Trinity College Cambridge 323 (B.14.39), fol. 81b (thirteenth century). Editions: W. W. Greg, "I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless," Modern Philology 7 (see above, §13), 166-67; B13, no. 31; Stevick, no. 10. Selected criticism: Woolf, p. 143; Weber pp. 48-55 (discussing structure and imagery, and defending the poem against Spitzer's and Greg's description of it as "mediocre" and "not very remarkable").
§13 quotes lines 4-5 and 10-20 of this poem (see note to §13).
Initial rubric: Exemplum de beata virgine et gaudiis eius [Exemplum of the blessed virgin and her joys]. The MS is a collection of Dominican sermons.
1 and. MS: hand.
4 king. MS: kind (Brown's emendation).
halle. As in line 1, the scribe has a tendency toward aspiration of words beginning with vowels. See also hut for "out" in line 8.
6 of Gesses more. See §8, note to line 17.
9-11 From the Ave Maria; see notes to §11.
15 Hu. MS: thu (Brown's emendation).
15-16 He saide . . . y nout iuis. Luke 1:34. Compare §2, line 10.
16 A word is erased after ymone.
20 he. MS: the.
§17
Alleluya! Now wel may we merthis make. Index no. 2377. MS: Bodl. 3340 (Arch. Selden B.26), fol. 10a (fifteenth century, southern dialect, with music). Other MSS: Bridgewater Corporation Muniments 123 (written on the back of a parchment indenture dated 1471, though carol may be a later addition); BL Addit. 5665 (Ritson), fols. 36b-37a, with music, burden, and stanzas 1-3 (sixteenth century). Editions of Arch. Selden B.26: Stainer and Stainer, 2:109; Padelford, p. 91; Stevens, Mediaeval Carols, p. 14; Robbins, Early English Christmas Carols, no. 5. Editions of Bridgewater: EEC, no. 14; Greene, Selection, no. 7. Editions of Ritson: Fehr, Archiv 106, 273; Rickert p. 177; Stevens p. 94.
This carol is one of many adaptations of the Laetabundus sequence attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux; for the Latin text and other translations, see EEC, pp. xcviii-civ. See also §20. (On the development of the prose in medieval liturgy and on Bernard's text, see Greene, Selection, pp. 37-38.)
1 Initial A rubricated.
3 manhode. Bridgewater: mankynd.
4 Only for our synnes sake. Bridgewater: Of a mayden withoutyne make.
synnes. MS: synes. So emended by all.
5 Gaudeamus. Bridgewater MS. Selden: Alleluya. Chorus.
6 kynge of kynges. See 1 Timothy 6:15 and Apocalypse 17:14 and 19:16.
11 y seide. Bridgewater: as y sayd; Ritson: as prophesye sayde.
18-20 The light-through-glass simile is common in medieval Latin and vernacular theological writings on the Virgin birth. Compare §15, line 23; §50, line 13; and Index no. 1471 (fifteenth century), "In Bedleem in that fair cete": "As the sunne schynyth thorw the glas / So Jhesu in his modyr was." Arthur S. Napier has compiled several more examples in History of the Holy Rood-tree, EETS o.s. 103 (London: Kegan Paul, 1894), pp. 81-83.
20 withoute wem. The image of Mary as "spotless" comes from her association with the bride in Canticles 4:7: "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee." See also note to §15, line 3, and compare §16, line 16, and §2, line 10.
§18
Mary so myelde of hert and myende. By James Ryman. Index no. 2122. MS: Cambridge University Ee.1.12, fol. 76a-b (1492). Editions: Zupitza, Archiv 89, 275-76; EEC, no. 54.
1 myelde. The MED suggests several appropriate connotations for the word - merciful, forgiving, kind, gracious, benevolent, friendly, humble, and gentle - and mentions specifically its frequent association with Mary's name (milde, adj.2.c). The poem addresses Mary's mildness rather than her purity, perhaps echoing Bernard of Clairvaux's insistence that Mary's humility, her desire to do God's will, was far more significant than her virginity (Homily 1, p. 9).
7 Here and at the beginning of each successive stanza, Mary's name is written in large, bold letters.
26 heven quere. The choir of heaven could mean "among the elect," or it could refer to the chancel itself.
§19
My Fader above, beholdying thy mekenesse. Possibly by John Lydgate. Index no. 2238. MS: BL Harley 2251, fol. 78a (between 1464 and 1483). Edition: Henry Noble MacCracken, John Lydgate: The Minor Poems, p. 235. On the MS, see E. P. Hammond, "Two British Museum MSS," Anglia 28 (1905), 19, and Derek Pearsall, John Lydgate (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970), p. 74.
MacCracken attributes this poem, which is apparently an early and incomplete effort, to Lydgate with the note: "A charming ballade to the Virgin, which I admit 'atwixen hope and dred'" (p. xiii).
1 My. Initial M rubricated.
8 who. MS: whan. MacCracken's emendation.
10 Thow. MS: that. MacCracken's emendation.
18 rosis fyve. Lydgate makes a similar association between roses and Christ's five wounds in his poem "As a Mydsomer Rose," contrasting fading midsummer roses and the mortal glories they symbolize with the lasting glory of Christ, "whos five woundys prent in your hert a rose" (John Lydgate: Poems, ed. John Norton-Smith [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966], p. 24). George Ferguson mentions the ancient Roman association of the rose with victory; in Christian symbolism, the rose symbolizes martyrdom as well as heavenly joy (Signs and Symbols, pp. 37-38).
§20
Ther is no rose of swych vertu. Index no. 3536. MS: Trinity College Cambridge 1230 (O.3.58) recto, no. 13, with music. This mid-fifteenth century MS contains thirteen carols; Rickert notes that part of the MS is attributed to John Dunstable of Henry VII's chapel. Editions: J. A. Fuller-Maitland, English Carols of the Fifteenth Century, From a MS. Roll in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1891), pp. 26-27, with music; CS, no. 52; EEC, no. 173; Stevens, pp. 10-11 (rpt. in Tidings True: Carols Selected from Volume 4 of Musica Britannica [New York: Galaxy Music, n.d.], p. 9); Greene, Selection, no. 46; Sisam, Oxford, no. 169; Rickert, p. 8; Segar, p. 65; Robbins, Early English Christmas Carols, no. 23 (with music); Oliver, p. 82; Gray, Themes, pp. 88-90, with commentary; Gray, Selection, no. 12; Terry, p. 56; Stevens, There is No Rose of Such Virtue, Fayrfax Series no. 16 (London: Stainer and Bell, 1951); Manning, p. 155, with music; Oliver, pp. 82-83, with music; Bullett, p. 5, with music; E. Routley, The English Carols (London: H. Jenkins, 1958), p. 29, with music.
This end of the roll is barely readable. Where necessary, I supply readings from Gray's transcription.
The Latin lines concluding the first three stanzas are from the Laetabundus prose attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (see note to §17).
1 Ther is no rose of swych vertu. I.e., there is no other like Mary. Oliver notes "a sensuous-theological pun on 'vertu' as 'strength or fragrance' [or quality] and 'virtue' in the modern sense [of goodness]" (p. 82).
The image of Mary as the unparalleled rosa sine spina (rose without thorn) derives from Ecclesiasticus 24:18: "I [Wisdom] was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho." In Genesis 3:18, the thorn is associated with sin; thus to be without thorn is to be without sin. The fourth sequence for the Daily Mass of St. Mary (Sarum) begins "Eterni numinis mater et filia diuini luminis lucerna preuia nostrique germinis rosa primaria sine contagio" (Legg, p. 495, line 22): "Hail, holy parent, rose / On which thorn never grows" (Warren, Part 2, p. 87). See also DBT, "Rose Without a Thorn" (James P. Forrest).
Initial T and is no are no longer visible in MS.
3 Ther is no rose of. No longer visible in MS.
6-10 For in this rose . . . personys thre. On the image of Mary as chamber of the Trinity, see §11, line 21 and note, and see Plate C. For the related concept of God contained in the small space of Mary's womb, compare §8, lines 50-52.
10 That he is God. CS reads There be o (i.e., "one") God; Rickert and Fuller-Maitland follow this reading. Robbins and Gray follow Greene. The MS is no longer legible.
11 Pari forma. Fuller-Maitland reads pares forma. The MS is no longer legible.
15 Leve. The L is obliterated by a stain in the MS.
§21
Holy moder, that bere Cryst. Attributed to William Herebert. Index no. 1232. MS: BL Addit. 46919, fol. 207b (Herebert's commonplace book, early fourteenth century, Southwest Mid-lands). Editions: B14, no. 19; LH, no. 186; W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, eds., Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (New York: Humanities Press, 1958), p. 469; Reimer, pp. 122-23.
This is a paraphrasing of the Latin antiphon Alma redemptoris mater (Mother of the Redeemer), used especially from Advent through Candlemas (February 2). Herebert includes with this text a marginal note in Latin, briefly summarizing a popular legend, best known today through Chaucer's The Prioress' Tale, in which a child slain by Jews continues to sing this hymn after his death. The Latin hymn is as follows:
Alma redemptoris mater, quae pervia coeli
Porta manes et stella maris, succure cadenti
Surgere qui curat: populo tu quae genuisti
Natura mirante tuum sanctum genitorem
Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore
Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.
(Daniel 2:318)
"Alma redemptoris mater, etc" appears above the first line. Herebert's name appears in the margin.
3 gat of hevene blisse. See note to §4, line 9.
5 sterre of se. See §9, note to line 1. The eleventh-century Latin source borrows freely from the older Ave maris stella.
7 holy. Written above the line to replace oune.
§22
Syng we, syng we. Index no. 1230, Holy maydyn blyssid ţou be. MS: BL Sloane 2593, fol. 25a (c. 1450). Five stanzas also appear in Bodl. 3340 (Arch. Selden B.26), fol. 10b (c. 1450). Editions of Sloane: Wright, Songs (Warton Club), pp. 71-72; Fehr, Archiv 109 (1902), 64-65; Rickert, p. 18. Editions of Arch. Selden: Stainer and Stainer, 2:110; Stevens, Mediaeval Carols, p. 14. Editions of both: Padelford, Anglia 36, 91-92; EEC, no. 185.
This poem is a tour de force in rhyme - thirty lines in a single rhyme sound.
7-14 These two stanzas are transposed in Arch. Selden.
9 chosyn. Arch. Selden: cosyn.
19 solumnté. MS reads solă te. Fehr expands to solunte, Greene to solumte.
15-26 These stanzas are omitted in Arch. Selden. In their place is a single stanza which reads:
Lo, this curteys kynge of degré
Wole be thy sone with solempnité;
Mylde Mary, this ys thy fee;
Regina celi, letare.
21 rede. Several meanings of reden might apply here: to proclaim, to tell, or to teach; to read (we read of the three Kings); or to counsel (we counsel you to rejoice, queen of heaven).
§23
Lullay, myn lykyng. Index no. 1351. MS: BL Sloane 2593, fol. 32a-b (mid-fifteenth century). Editions: Wright, Songs (Warton Club), p. 94; CS, no. 69; Fehr, Archiv 107 (1901), 49; EEC, no. 143; Bullett, p. 7 (without burden); Greene, Selection, no. 40; Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams, and Martin Shaw, The Oxford Book of Carols (London: Oxford University Press, 1928), no. 182 (setting by Gustav Holst); Davies, no. 77; Gray, Selection, no. 13; EEC no 143; Rickert, p. 66; H. C. Beeching, ed., A Book of Christmas Verse, second ed. (London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 10; Segar, p. 66; E. Sayre, ed., A Christmas Book; 50 Carols from the 14th to the 17th Centuries (New York: C. N. Potter, 1966), p. 125.
4 The margin reads lull myn, indicating the repetition of the burden.
6 See note to §17, line 6; see also Deuteronomy 10:17 and Psalm 135:3 (RSV 136:3).
The margin reads lullay.
12 makyn chere. I.e., Grant blessing to those who participate in the carol by dancing and singing.
§24
Ler to loven as I love thee. Index no. 1847. MS: National Library of Scotland Advocates 18.7.21, fol. 126a (Grimestone's commonplace book, 1372). A shorter version appears in BL Harley 7322, fol. 135b (c. 1375). Edition of Advocates: B14, no. 75. Editions of Harley: Furnivall, EETS o.s. 15, p. 255; Sisam, Fourteenth Century, pp. 167-68; Sisam, Oxford, no. 87.
The arrangement of stanzas in the Advocates MS raises questions about whether the first stanza is, in fact, part of this poem: lines 7-30 appear at the top of the left column, followed by another poem; lines 1-6 appear at the top of the right column and are linked to the rest with a line of red dots. Wenzel defends the present order, noting that the poem is quoted in the context of a sermon in Harley 7322 (Preachers, pp. 167-68). See below for notes on the Harley version. See also Edward Wilson, A Descriptive Index of the English Lyrics in John of Grimestone's Preaching Book, Medium Aevum Monographs n.s. 2 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1973), p. 55.
1-6 In Harley, the newborn Jesus addresses Mary in these lines. At the end of the stanza, the Harley scribe inserts a Latin directive: Et Regina mater sua nichil habuit unde posset eum induere; ideo dixit sibi [And the queen his mother had nothing with which to clothe him; therefore she said to him].
3 thei. Harley: ich.
4 michil wo. Harley: much colde and wo.
5 suete. Harley: wel.
8 thu list nou. Harley: list thou.
10 thi credel is als a bere. The image foreshadows Jesus' death and contrasts the painless birth with the suffering he will endure later for the sake of humankind (see lines 20-24).
12 mai I. Harley: ich mai.
14-16 Harley reads as follows: Thou ich nabbe clout ne cloth / The on for to folde / The on to folde ne to wrappe / For ich nabbe clout ne lappe. The second line disrupts the stanzaic pattern and is probably a scribal error.
17 Therfore ley thi fet. Harley: Bote ley thou thi fet.
18 kepe. Harley: wite.
§25
Lullay, lullay, la, lullay. Index no. 352: Als I lay upon a nith. MS: National Library of Scotland Advocates 18.7.21, fols. 3b-4b (Grimestone's commonplace book, 1372). Fragments (early stanzas) of this text appear in three fifteenth-century MSS: St. John's College Cambridge 259, fol. 4a-b (stanzas 1-9, late fifteenth century); BL Harley 2330, fol. 120a (stanzas 1-5 copied onto the end of a fifteenth-century MS); and Cambridge University Addit. 5943, fol. 169a (first stanza only, fifteenth century). Editions of Advocates: B14, no. 56; EEC, no. 149; Davies, no. 38 (some stanzas). Robbins prints the text of Cambridge Addit. 5943, with music, in Early English Christmas Carols, no. 27.
This lyric combines elements of dialogue, carol, dream vision, and lament, as Jesus sings the refrain and teaches Mary the part of the song she does not know. Davies identifies the poem as one of the earliest examples of a lullaby to Jesus (p. 40). Compare §29, which is from the same MS.
9 dede. MS: de. Brown, Davies emend so. Greene gives ded.
11 In margin: iesu.
23 In margin: Maria.
55-58 The sepperdis . . . In time of thi birthe. Luke 2:8-20.
57 ther. MS: tht. So emended by Brown, Greene, and Davies.
63 In margin: Christus loquitur.
67-70 Luke 2:21.
68 In Genesis 17:10-14, Abraham receives the covenant of circumcision from God.
69 Kot sal I ben with a ston. Jesus is circumcised to fulfill Jewish law. Christian commentators observe that in this ritual Jesus sheds his first drop of blood for man-kind, thus anticipating the Crucifixion and Resurrection. On the further significance of this circumcision, see CA, commentary on Luke 2:21, in which Epiphanius notes that the circumcision proved "the reality of His flesh" against the Manichaean heretical belief that Jesus was not truly human.
71-74 Matthew 2:1-12. The Church celebrates the visit of the Magi on Epiphany, twelve days after Christmas.
75-78 Luke 2:22-40.
79-82 Luke 2:41-50.
84 suerve. MS: sterue. Brown's emendation. However, sterve could be the correct reading, as if Jesus is assuring Mary that he will not abandon her.
91-94 Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22.
95-98 I sal ben tempted . . . But I sal betre withstonde. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13. The reference to Adam comes from Genesis 3.
99-102 Disciples I sal gadere . . . to teche. Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20, 3:13-19, 6:7; Luke 5:1-11, 9:2; John 1:35-51.
105-06 That most partiye . . . Sal wiln maken me king. John 6:15.
107 In margin: Maria.
111 In margin: iesus.
119 The sarpe swerde of Simeon. Luke 2:34-35: "And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'"
123-24 Samfuly for I sal deyye . . . on the rode. Matthew 27:32-56; Mark 15:21-41; Luke 23:26-49; John 19:17-39.
127 In margin: Maria.
131 In margin: iesu.
132 liven I sal ageyne. Matthew 28 ff; Mark 16 ff; Luke 24 ff; John 20 ff.
133 in thi kinde. I.e., Mary has given him her flesh, and that flesh will be redeemed.
135-36 To my Fader . . . to hevene. Luke 24:50-53; Acts 2.
137 The Holigost I sal thee sende. John 23:21-22.
138 sondes sevene. The Douay translation from the Vulgate identifies the seven gifts as wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, godliness, and the fear of the Lord (Isaias 11:2-3).
139-42 I sal thee taken . . . have I caste. In the absence of any evidence regarding Mary's death or burial, belief in her bodily assumption into heaven developed in the fifth century. See Introduction, pp. 25-26.
149 Yolisday. The setting suggests that the speaker's "longing" is fulfilled by the birth of Jesus.
§26
Modyr, whyt os lyly flowr. Index no. 361. MS: Bodl. 29734 (Eng. Poet e.1), fol. 34a-b (fifteenth century). The first twenty lines also appear in BL Sloane 2593, fols. 16b-17a (fifteenth century). Editions of English Poet: Wright, Songs (Percy Society), pp. 50-51; EEC, no. 145. Edition of Sloane: Wright, Songs (Warton Club), pp. 48-49. Composite text: CS p. 141; Rickert p. 68.
1 lyly flowr. The lily symbolizes Mary's purity.
2 Word canceled before langour in MS.
3 up. Sloane: me.
a. Sloane: on.
5 That. Sloane: che.
6 swet. Sloane: dere.
7 held. Sloane: tok al.
8 hyr lovely. Sloane: that maydyn.
9 And therof swetly he toke a nappe. So emended by Greene. The MS, which Wright follows, reads an appe. Sloane: & tok therof a ryght god nap.
11 gen he. Sloane: than he gan.
12 For this mylke. I.e., for humankind.
13 kynd. The word has several theological implications here. It could mean station, duty, or inheritance; it also implies that it is Jesus' destiny, purpose, or intention to die for humanity's sake.
14 paramowr. Sloane: myn paramour. Rickert reads par amour, glossing the phrase "for love's sake."
15 The maydyn. Sloane: That mayde.
gen. Sloane: be gan.
17 Sloane: That here sone that is oure kynge.
18 shed. Sloane: schred.
blod. MS: b.
19 Modyr, thi wepyng. Sloane: Your wepyng moder.
20 thu haddys be. Sloane: ye wern for.
21 Do awey. Sloane: dowey.
22 Thy. Sloane: Your.
lessyth. MS: lsyth. Greene's emendation.
langowr. MS: lango. Greene's emendation.
26 for. Greene supplies the word from Wright; it is not visible in the present binding.
§27
Lullay, my fader, lullay, my brother. Index no. 4242.5. MS: Stanbrook Abbey 3, fol. 241a (early fifteenth century). Editions: N. R. Ker, "Middle English Verses and a Latin Letter in a Manuscript at Stanbrook Abbey," Medium Aevum 34 (1965), 233; EEC, no. 144.1.
Ker writes that the poem appears in five stanzas, "with a refrain after each stanza set out in the margin. They are written below Morton's note about his purchases and are separated from it by doodles and brief notes in Latin" (pp. 232-33). Greene notes that "the burden appears to have been written at a time different from that of the writing of the stanzas."
11 And. Canceled at beginning of line.
fader. MS: fadrer. Greene's emendation. So also at lines 15 and 19.
13 on. MS: in. Greene's emendation.
18 Myn owyn dyre sone, lullay. MS: Myn owyn &c.
21 myn herte perschyth in tweye. Perhaps an allusion to Simeon's prophecy in Luke 2:34-35.
§28
I passud thoru a garden grene. Attributed to John Hawghton. Index no. 378. MS: National Library of Scotland Advocates 19.3.1 (formerly Jac. V.7.27), fols. 94b-95b (c. 1430). The poem also appears in BL Sloane 2593, fol. 18b (c. 1450). Brown describes the differences between the two MSS in B15, pp. 317-18; the Advocates arrangement of stanzas is the more logical, and the Sloane version sacrifices some alliteration. Editions of Advocates: W. B. D. D. Turnbull, The Visions of Tundale, Together with Metrical Moralizations and Other Fragments of Early Poetry; Hitherto Inedited (Edinburgh: Stevenson, 1843), pp. 157-59; B15, no. 78; Stevick, no. 60. Editions of Sloane: Fehr, Archiv 109, 58; Wright, Songs (Warton Club), pp. 53-55; Rickert, p. 174.
2 a herbere made full newe. The newly-made garden might represent the world, given new life through the birth of a savior.
4 tree. The word is difficult to decipher in the MS; Brown reads treo.
5 Theryn. Brown reads thereyn.
mayden. Turnbull reads maydon.
6 sest. Brown's emendation. MS: sesest.
8 Verbum caro factum est. John 1:14. The CA contains extensive discussion of this concept, focused primarily on answering charges that Jesus was not human. St. Augustine writes: "As our word becomes the bodily voice, by its assumption of that voice, as a means of developing itself externally; so the Word of God was made flesh, by assuming flesh, as a means of manifesting Itself to the world" (De Trinitate, as quoted in CA, John 1:14). A note in MS BL Additional 37049, fol. 26b, indicates that Pope Clement I granted a pardon of three years and forty days to anyone who "devoutly hers or says Sant John Gospell, that ys to say, 'In principio erat verbum;' and then to the end whenne 'Verbum caro factum est' is sayd" (fol. 26b).
The refrain is popular in carols: see EEC nos. 23B, 35B, 38, and 39. Its presence in a secular drinking song (from Bodl. 2240, fol. 25a, printed in Robbins, Secular Lyrics, second ed. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955], no. 10) suggests its familiarity:
Verbum caro factum est
Et habitavit in nobis. dwelt among us
Fetys bel chere,
Drynk to thi fere,
Verse le bavere, pass around the drink
And synge nouwell!
18 song. Omitted in this MS; Brown supplies from Sloane.
20 Gloria in excelsis Deo. Luke 2:14. See also DBT, "Gloria," for a discussion of this element of the liturgy.
26 abovun: Turnbull reads aboun.
27 pece. Turnbull reads that.
30 betwene to best. According to Luke 2:7, Mary gives birth to Jesus and places him in a manger. Tradition adds the two beasts, generally supposed to be an ox and an ass, from Isaias 1:3, quoted in the apocryphal Pseudo-Matthew: "Mary went out of the cave and, entering a stable, put the child in the manger, and an ox and an ass adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib'" (Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, p. 94).
best. Turnbull reads bestes.
31 Sche. Turnbull reads scho.
34 three. Possibly, as Brown reads, threo.
commely. Turnbull reads comely.
crone. Turnbull reads gone.
35 spod. Perhaps sped, as Brown suggests.
speke. Turnbull reads spoke.
37 home. Turnbull reads hom.
con rone. Turnbull reads com rene.
38 We. Turnbull reads Wo.
41 we seo God becomun yn mannus flech. Turnbull reads wose God be comm in mannis flesh. The kings translate the carol's Latin refrain.
42 That bote hasse broght of all oure bale. Compare §14, line 2.
bale. Turnbull reads bele.
43 Awey oure synnus. Turnbull reads Away owre synnis.
45 Sche. Turnbull reads Scho.
45 sothly. Turnbull reads sothty.
47 Foll. Turnbull reads Full.
49 prences. Turnbull reads princes.
55 sange. Turnbull reads sung.
§29
Als I lay upon a nith / I lokede upon a stronde. Index no. 353. MS: Advocates Library 18.7.21, fols. 5b-6a (Grimestone's commonplace book, 1372). A garbled copy of lines 1-44 also survives, with music, in Bodl. 2240 (Arch. Selden B.26), fol. 18a-b. In Selden, the scribe has copied stanzas arranged horizontally as if they were arranged vertically: 1, 2, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 5, 10, 6. Editions of Advocates: B14, no. 58; LH, no. 198; Silverstein, no. 41. Editions of Selden: Padelford, pp. 102-04; Stainer and Stainer, vol. 1, plates lxvii and lxviii (facsimiles); vol. 2, pp. 130-31 (transcription, with music); Stevens, p. 112; J. Copley, Seven English Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century (Texts and Monographs VI, University of Leeds, 1940), pp. 14-15 (with music). Weber prints Brown's edition and discusses the poem's structure on pp. 61-86, commenting on the transformation of Mary's limited perspective by means of her child.
2 Selden: For soth y sawe a semely s y3 t.
3 mayden. Selden: berde so.
4 hadde in. Selden: bare on.
5 Hire loking. Possibly "To look upon her."
7 sorwe sikerli. Selden: care & sorwe.
8 mithte. Selden: may.
9 Selden: y behelde that swete wyght.
11-12 I.e., if Mary is not a virgin, then a terrible deception has been practiced on the world. Joseph responds to this fear of "misdeed" in lines 37-44. In Matthew 1:19-25 Joseph assumes the worst of Mary and "being a just man, and not wishing to expose her to reproach, was minded to put her away privately" until an angel comes to him in a dream and assures him that all is well. But it is the Protevangelium (chs. 13-14) and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (chs. 10-11) which provide material for cycle plays, such as the N-Town "Joseph's Doubt" (The N-Town Play, Cotton MS Vespasian D.8, ed. Stephen Spector, vol. 1, EETS s.s. 11 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991], pp. 123-30).
13 sergant. Selden: seruant.
14 That sadli seide his sawe. Selden: that seide al in his sawe.
seide his sawe. According to the OED, a "saw" is a speech, a story, or a wise saying. The word also might suggest a catechism, prayers, holy wisdom, or the law.
17 on hevede. Selden: al on his hede.
19 He herde wel. Selden: She herde ful wel.
23 An I dede so. Selden: And so y dyde.
25-28 In Selden, these lines follow lines 17-20 of the present text, and read as follows:
and saide she was alone
maide and moder ycore chosen
and withoute wem of man taint
a childe she hadde ybore.
29-30 Selden reads: They that y unworthy be, / she is mary myn owne wyf.
32 I love. Selden: & yit y love.
33 wiste I. Selden: y wiste.
35 thee. MS: the. The word could be read as a definite article, but see Selden: 3 ow.
36 I not. Advocates: In wot. Silverstein's emendation. Luria and Hoffman emend to I ne wot. In Selden the line reads y note in whoche wyse.
37 to. Selden: unto.
38 wolde no thing misdo. Selden: wolde not mysdoo.
39-40 I wot et wel iwisse / For I have founden et so. Selden: that y wyst ful wel ywys / for ofte y haue yfounde hit soo.
52 Emanuel. The name (from Isaias 7:12 and Matthew 1:23) means "God with us."
61-64 In the Advocates MS, these lines appear at the bottom of the next page, following a separate lullaby in a different rhyme scheme.
§30
Ecce quod natura. By James Ryman. Index no. 488. MS: Cambridge University Ee.1.12., fols. 23a-24a (late fifteenth century). Editions: Zupitza, Archiv 89 (1892), 185-86, notes in Archiv 93 (1894), 383-90; EEC, no. 66, Greene, Selection, no. 14.
The burden is from a cantio or cantilena (a sacred Latin piece; see Greene, EEC, p. cx) which appears in Arch. Selden B. 26 and in Bodl. Ashmole 1393, fol. 69 (printed with music in Stainer and Stainer, 2:63-64). In the Cambridge MS, this carol is followed by a similar one using the same burden and beginning: "Bothe younge and olde, take hede of this" (Index no. 546; EEC, no. 65).
3-4 Compare a line in the lyric which follows this one in the MS: "The cours of nature chaunged is."
3-7 These lines paraphrase the Latin burden.
7-8 See note to §8, line 26.
9-10 Numbers 17:6-11. See the Biblia Pauperum leaf for the Nativity (Plate A in this volume).
11-14 Isaias 7:14.
15-16 Isaias 11:1-2.
19-23 Matthew 1:23.
23-24 to us is borne a chielde; / A sonne is yeven to us. Isaias 9:6.
27 stone cutte of the hille. In Daniel 2:34-35, King Nabuchodonosor dreams of "a stone cut out of a mountain without hands"; after destroying a statue which represents his divided kingdom, the stone becomes a great mountain. Daniel interprets the mountain as the kingdom of God; thus the stone itself represents the Messiah, and its divine creation parallels the miracle of Jesus' birth.
31 Prince of Peas. Isaias 9:6.
35-38 Greene, following R. W. Southern, explains that though this simile is not found in any "acknowledged work" of St. Anselm, it is a common simile in the "School of Anselm" (EEC p. 365; see also R. W. Southern, "St. Anselm and His English Pupils," Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1 [1943], 10).