CAROLS
Paper, 5.75 x 4.25, a single quire of 14 leaves, enclosed in a vellum wrapper folding completely round it: 21 lines etc. to a page. 15th cent.: damaged; ff. 13, 14 are fragmentary. The hand difficult.
Donor, T. Baker.
Contents:
An interesting collection of Carols and Songs.
1. 3 lines, faint, in smaller hand, beginning . . . f. 1
{th}e borys hed haue we in broght.
2. Then a carol:
Of X and M and o{th}er too
Of J and E I sing all so.
3. f. 2a. Nowell. Jhesu restyd in a may . . . 2
xl wekes and a day.
4. Mary myld for loue of {th}e.
5. a dere god qwat I am fayn.
6. a, a, salue caterina. Lystyn lordygnys qwatte I xall sey . 3
7. I may syng and sey I wys gra mercy my owne purse . . 3b
8. Lullay, etc. As I me lay {th}is endyrd nyth . . . 4
9. Qwan crist was borne in bedlem . . . . 4b
{th}er rose a sterre os bryth.
10. Lullay, etc. A chyld ys borne wys . . . . 6b
{th}t all {th}is word xall blys.
Hys joy xall neuer myse for Ihesu ys hys name.
Westminster Abbey MSS., Robinson and James, p. 76.
11. Pray we to {y}ow (?) lady dere for here holy grace . . 7
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12. Now ys ye xii day com fadyr & son togydyr wone {th}e holy gost wt hym is nowme God send us all a gud new {y}er. |
} |
in fere . . 7b |
13. fadyr my wyll yt is.
Nolo mortem peccatoris.
14. War yt war yt war yt wele. wemen be as trew as stele . . 9b
Stel is gud I sey no oder, etc.
15. Ay ay be {th}e day y wyll mak mery qwyll y may . . 9b
Ending: for Jak rekles is my name.
16. Now. Ihesus rector anime. ne cadamus sustine . . 10
God yt all yis word has wroght.
17. A newyr a newyr ye chyld was borne . . . 11
(Continuing with a Lullay.)
18. Nowell, etc. I pray {y}ow lysten qwat I {y}ow (tell) . 12
Ouer alle gates that I haff gon
Amonge ye grovys so fayer and grene
So fayer a brownch yan know I non
As Ivy ys and that I mene.
ff. 13, 14 are fragments. On 13a is the beginning of a song:
19. Women ben good ffor lo...
that sit above.
In evyn yr sitte a lady...
On 14a a smaller fragment: qwan {y}e haue was...
my pasche...
A full description, images, and a bibliography are available on the Cambridge University Digital Library as part of the Scriptorium project.
Access to the digitised manuscript is available from the viewer below:
Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.
M. R. James and G. C. Macaulay, English Language Review 8 (1913), 68-87.
R. L. Greene (ed.), The Early English Carols (Oxford, 1977), p. 342.
R. L. Greene (ed.), A Selection of English Carols (Oxford, 1962), p. 182.
D. Wakelin, 'The carol in writing: three anthologies from fifteenth-century Norfolk', Journal of the Early Book Society 9 (2006), 25-49.
D. Wakelin and C. Burlinson, 'Evidence for the construction of quires in a fifteenth-century English manuscript', The Library, 7th series, 9:2 (Dec. 2008), 383-396.
Carol no. 5, 'A dere god, qwat I am fayn', edited in J. F. Kettigan (ed.), Motives of Woe: Shakespeare and Female Complaint (Oxford, 1991), pp. 89-90.
For carol no. 10 see R. L. Greene, 'The Traditional Survival of Two Middle English Carols', English Literary History 7 (1940), 223-38.