Adam lay ibounden

For Christmas

Words: English Traditional from the Slone Ms. 2593

Music: Not Stated

Source: E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick, eds., Early English Lyrics (London: A. H. Bullen, 1907),  Hymn #L, p. 102.

Adam lay ibounden,
    Bounden in a bond ;
Four thousand winter
    Thoght he not too long ;
And all was for an appil, 5
    An appil that he tok,
As clerkes finden
    Wreten in here book.
Ne hadde the appil take ben,
    The appil taken ben, 10
Ne hadde never our lady
    A ben hevene quene.
Blessed be the time
    That appil take was.
Therefore we moun singen 15
    ' Deo gracias. '

Notes:

8 here, their.

15 moun, may.

Versions of this carol  on this web site include:

• Adam lay i-bowndyn  (Wright, 1856)

• Adam lay ybounden (Rickert)

• Adam lay ibounden (Chambers & Sidgwick) (This Page)

Notes to Hymn #L, p. 348.

Slone 2593. Printed Wright, W.C., 32; Archiv, cix, 51 ; Wülcker, ii. 7. See Sidgwick, ii. 123.

Written in eight lines in the MS., with stops to show breaks. In 7-8 the division is marked after ‘wretyn’.

The expanded citations are:

• Thomas Wright, ed., Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century (Warton Club, 1842), p. 32, (Texts from Sloane 2593);

• Archiv für das Studium der neucren Sprachen und Litteraturen. Vol. cix. (Begründet von Ludwig Herrig, Braunschweig), p. 51 ;

• R. P. Von Wülcker, Altenglisches Lesebuch, Vol. 2 (1874, 1879), p. 7.

• Frank Sidgwick, ed., Popular Ballads of the Olden Time. Vol. 2 of 3 vols. (1904), p. 123.

  Sloane 2593.
  Sloane 2593. Paper, 5 3/4 x 4 1/2. Songs and carols, seventy-four in number, of which three are in Latin, and the rest in English. Mainly religious or moral, but some trivial and satirical. Wright considered it to be the song-book of a minstrel (cf. Eng. Poet. e. 1) ; the last folio bears the name ‘Johannes Bardel' or ‘Bradel,' written in the same hand as the rest of the MS. Wright traces one poem to 1362-9, but probably this and others were traditional when written down ; he dates the handwriting temp. Henry VI. According to Bradley-Stratmann, the MS. was written in Warwickshire at the beginning of the XV cent. Variants of some poems appear in Eng. Poet. e. i. Extracts in Ritson (1790), Wright, Carols (1836), and S.L.P., Rel. Ant., and Fehr in Archiv, cvii. 48; Edited complete by Wright for the Warton Club in 1856 ; and by B. Fehr in Archiv, cix. 33 ; who does not print poems extracted as above, but is ignorant of the Warton Club print. Source: Notes, pp. 303-304.

  Extended Citations:

  Extracts in:

  • Ritson (1790); 
    Joseph Ritson, ed., Ancient Songs, from the time of King Henry the Third to the Revolution. (London: J. Johnson, 1790), p. nnn. "Advertisement in 1829 edition says that this edition was printed in 1787, dated 1790, and published 1792."
  • [Ritson] (1829); 
    Joseph Ritson. ed., Ancient Songs and Ballads, from the reign of King Henry the Second to the Revolution. 2 Vols. (London: For Payne and Foss by Thomas Davison, 1829).
  • Hazlitt-Ritson.
    Joseph Ritson, ed., Ancient Songs and Ballads From the Reign of King Henry the Second to the Revolution. Third Edition, revised W. Carew Hazlitt. (London: Reeves and Turner, 1877).

  • Wright, Carols (1836).
    Thomas Wright, ed., Songs and Carols Printed From A Manuscript in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum Preface signed Thomas Wright. (London: William Pickering, 1836). [Text, twenty pieces only, from Sloane 2593.]

  • Wright, S.L.P.
    Thomas Wright, ed., Specimens of Lyric Poetry, composed in England in the reign of Edward the First (Percy Society, 1842). [Texts from Harl. 2253.]
  • Wright, Rel. Ant.
    Thomas Wright and James Orchard Halliwell, eds., Reliquiæ Antiquæ. Scraps from Ancient Manuscripts, illustrating chiefly Early English Literature and the English Laguage. Vol. 2 of 2 vols. (1841, 1843).

  • Fehr in Archiv, cvii. 48;
    Bernhard Fehr, "Weitere Beiträge zur englischen Lyrik des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts," in Alois Brandl and Adolf Tobler, eds., Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen. CVII Band / Volume 107. (Braunschweig: George Westermann, 1901), p. 48. With excerpts from Sloane 2593, Sloane 1212, Sloane 3501, Harley 541, Harley 367, & Harley 7578.

  Edited complete by:

  • Wright for the Warton Club in 1856 ;
    Thomas Wright, ed., Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century (Warton Club, 1842). (Texts from Sloane 2593);

  • B. Fehr in Archiv, cix. 33; who does not print poems extracted as above, but is ignorant of the Warton Club print.
    Bernhard Fehr, "Die Lieder der Hs. Sloane 2593," in Alois Brandl and Adolf Tobler, eds.,  Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen. Band CIX. (Braunschweig: George Westermann, 1902), pp. 33-72.

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