Moder, White As Lily Flour
For Christmas
Words: English Traditional combined from Sloane Ms. 2593, British Library, London, and Ms. Eng. Poet. e. 1, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Music: Not Stated
Source: E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick, eds., Early English Lyrics (London: A. H. Bullen, 1907), #LXXVII, p. 141.
Moder, white as lily flour,
Your lulling lesseth my langour.
As I up rose in a morning,
My thought was on a maide ying,
That song aslepe with her lulling 5
Her dere sone, our Saviour.
As she him toke all in her
lap,
He toke that maiden be the pap,
And toke thereof a right god nap,
And soke his fille of that licour. 10
To his moder than he gan say,
' For this milk me muste deye ;
It is my kind therewith to play,
My swete moder, my par amour.'
The maiden freely gan to
sing, 15
And in her song she made morning,
How he that is our heven king
Shuld shed his blod with grete dolour.
' Your weping, moder, greveth
me sore ;
But I wold deye, ye wern forlore. 20
Do way, moder, and wepe no more !
Your lulling lesseth my langour.'
Editor's Notes
Also found in Susan Miles, ed., Childhood In Verse And Prose (Oxford University Press, 1923), p. 26, with the following notes:
4. ying] young.
9. nap] tug.
13. kind] nature.
Notes by Chambers and Sidgwick to #LXXVII, p. 355.
Text combined from Sloane 2593, printed Wright, W.C., 48; and Eng. Poet. e. 1, printed Wright, P.S., 50.
Extended Citations
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.
Wright, W.C., 48
Thomas Wright, ed.,
Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the
Fifteenth Century (Warton Club, 1842). (Texts from Sloane 2593)
Eng. Poet. e. 1.
Eng. Poet. e. 1. Paper, 6 x 4 1/4. ‘Seventy six songs, religious and other,
including some Christmas carols and drinking songs, presumably collected for the
use of a professed minstrel’ (Madan, v. 679). Written partly in English, partly
in Latin, partly in both. In several hands ; two pieces of music (facsimiles in
E.B.M.). Variants of several poems in Sloane 2593. Dated 1460-80 by
Madan, and ‘about 1485-90’ by Nicholson in E.B.M. Belonged in 1847 to
Thomas Wright, but was then lost, and was said to have been taken away by the
bookbinder to whom it was entrusted (Chappell, 43, note). It was bought
for the Bodleian in 1887 at the sale of the library of Joseph Mayer, who was a
patron of Wright’s. Described by Madan as above, and in E.B.M., i.
xxiv. Edited complete by Wright in 1847 as No. LXXIII of the Percy Society
publications (misquoted XXIII by Flügel, Fehr, and others, owing to an error in
the Brit. Mus. Catalogue).
Editor's Note: The reference to "XXIII" (23) is to the Volume number published by the Percy Society's series Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. Wright's work was Number LXXIII (73) in their list of publications.
MS Eng. Poet. e. 1. is located in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Madan is Falconer Madan, Richard W. Hunt, et al., Summary Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. 7 volumes in 8. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1895-1953). E.B.M. refers to Sir John Stainer, ed., Early Bodleian Music. Sacred and Secular Songs together with other MS. Compositions in the Bodleian Library, Oxford : ranging from about a.d. 1185 to about a.d. 1505. Two volumes (vol. i, facsimiles, vol. ii, transcriptions) (London : Novello ; New York : Novello, Ewer, 1901). With an Introduction by E. W. B. Nicholson, and Transcriptions into Modern Musical Notation by J. F. R. Stainer and C. Stainer. A third volume was subsequently published.
The complete description by Madan, pp. 679-680:
29734. In English and Latin, on paper: written about A. D. 1460-80 by several hands : 6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in., in a box lined with red velvet 7 1/4 x 5 3/8 in., 64 leaves : stained and worn in parts, but repaired : binding, green morocco with gold ornament, done for mr. J. Mayer (19th cent.).
Seventy-six songs, religious and other, including some Christmas carols and drinking songs, presumably collected for the use of a professed minstrel : a few have the music as well as the words (foll. 40v , 41v , 50v).
This valuable MS. was edited for the Percy Society (vol. 23) in 1847, see also W. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Time (1855-7), i. 41. Most of the songs are in English or mixed English and Latin, a few in Latin alone.
In 1847 this volume was owned by Thomas Wright, who edited it : he subsequently lost it, and it was bought by the Bodleian at the Joseph Mayer sale (lot 42) on July 19, 1887, for £16.
[On this MS. see further 'Early Bodleian music' i. p. xxiv and plates 99-100 (where I have ascribed the date 'about 1485-90'), ii. pp. 182-4. E. W. B. N.]
Now MS. Eng. poet. e. 1.
Source: Falconer Madan, A summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the quarto series with references to the Oriental and other manuscripts. Vol. V: Collections received during the second half of the 19th century and miscellaneous MSS. acquired between 1695 and 1890. Nos. 24331-31000. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905), pp. 679-80.
In the Preface to Songs and Carols Now First Printed From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, Thomas Wright wrote:
The following very curious collection of old English Songs and Carols is printed verbatim from a manuscript at present in the possession of the Editor. It appears by the writing and language to have been written in the latter half of the fifteenth century, probably during the period intervening between the latter end of the reign of Henry VI [1421-1471], and the beginning of that of Henry VII [1457-1509]; a date which is confirmed by the fact that the few other copies of songs in this collection that occur elsewhere, are invariably found in manuscripts of the reign of Henry VI or of the age immediately following.
This manuscript has in all probability belonged to a professed minstrel, who sang at festivals and merry makings, and it has therefore been thought to merit publication entire, as giving a general view of the classes of poetry then popular. A rather large proportion of its contents consists of carols and religious songs, such as were sung at Christmas, and perhaps at some other of the great festivals of the church; and these are interesting illustrations of the manners and customs of the age.
Another class of productions, in which this manuscript is for its date peculiarly rich, consists of drinking songs, some of which are singular in their form and not wanting in spirit. The collection also contains a number of those satirical songs against the fair sex, which were so common in the middle ages, and which have a certain degree of importance as showing the condition of private society among our forefathers. In addition to these three classes, the manuscript contains a few short moral poems, which also are not without their peculiar interest.
Manuscript collections of songs like the present, of so early a date, are of great rarity. The only one with which I am acquainted, which may be considered of exactly the same character, is the MS. Sloane, No 2593, in the British Museum, which has generally been ascribed to the reign of Henry VI.
See: Songs and Carols Printed From A Manuscript in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum (London: William Pickering, 1836); twenty songs and carols from Sloane MS 2593, and Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century (The Warton Club, 1856); the complete Sloane MS 2593.
Wright, P.S., 50
Thomas Wright, ed.,
Songs and Carols Now First Printed
From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Percy Society, 1847), p. 50. [Texts from Eng.
Poet, e.1, then in Wright’s possession.]
Editor's Note: This was printed in Volume 23 of the Percy Societies Series Early English Poems, etc. This title was number 73 of the list of 96 publications of the Society (not Volume 73) published in the Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, Vol. 6, pp. 59-65. Also published in Volume 23 was William Sandys, ed., Festive Songs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, and J. O. Halliwell, Popular English Histories.
William Thomas Lowndes and Henry G. Bohn, eds., The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature. Volume Six of Six Volumes. (London: Bell & Daldy, 1865). The list of the Percy Society's publications is found on pp. 59-65. [pdf 74-80] No reference is made to the Volume number in which a particular title is printed.
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