Poetry Codex

Medieval

Anonymous (Middle English)

c. 13th–16th century

Most of the short poems that survive from medieval England carry no author’s name. They are songs, hymns, carols, ballads and charms, copied by clerks, friars and minstrels onto the spare leaves of larger books, and they reach us through a handful of manuscripts: the Reading Abbey volume that preserves ‘Sumer is icumen in’, the Harley miscellany (MS Harley 2253) with its love-songs and spring-songs, the song-book Sloane 2593 with its carols, and the Balliol commonplace book of Richard Hill, which holds ‘Lully, lulley’.

The poems gathered here run from about 1225 to the edge of the sixteenth century, with one later record of a far older custom. They include some of the earliest English love-songs, the plain and piercing carols of the fifteenth century, early ballads such as ‘Judas’ and ‘Robyn and Gandelyn’, the ‘Erthe upon erthe’ tradition of the memento mori, and the Yorkshire ‘Lyke-Wake Dirge’. The spelling is Middle English as the editors printed it.

Major Works (27)

  1. Morte Arthure — Alliterative romance, c. 1400
  2. Amis and Amiloun — translated by Jessie L. Weston (1914)
  3. The Avowynge of King Arther — Verse romance, c. 1400
  4. The Anturs of Arther at the Tarnewathelan — Verse romance, c. 1400
  5. Chronicle of England — Verse chronicle, c. 1300
  6. Emare — Breton lay, c. 1400
  7. The Erle of Tolous — Breton lay, c. 1400
  8. Floris and Blauncheflur — Verse romance, c. 1250
  9. The Lay of Havelok the Dane — Verse romance, c. 1295
  10. King Horn — Verse romance, c. 1225
  11. The Knight of Curtesy — Verse romance, early 16th century
  12. The Kyng of Tars — Verse romance, c. 1330
  13. Lancelot of the Laik — Verse romance (Middle Scots), c. 1490
  14. Le Bone Florence of Rome — Verse romance, late 14th century
  15. Lybeaus Disconus — Verse romance, c. 1350
  16. The Owl and the Nightingale — translated by Jessie L. Weston (1914)
  17. Sir Amadace — translated by Jessie L. Weston (1914)
  18. Sir Eglamour of Artois — Verse romance, c. 1350
  19. Sir Isumbras — Verse romance, c. 1320
  20. Sir Orpheo — Breton lay, c. 1330
  21. Sir Perceval of Galles — Verse romance, c. 1340
  22. Sir Tristrem — translated by Jessie L. Weston (1914)
  23. The Romaunce of the Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras His Sone Who Conquerede Rome — Verse romance (Charlemagne cycle), c. 1400
  24. The Squyr of Lowe Degre — Verse romance, late 15th century
  25. Le Morte Arthur — Verse romance, c. 1400
  26. Torrent of Portyngale — Verse romance, c. 1400
  27. Ywaine and Gawin — Verse romance, c. 1350

Poems (116)

  1. Mirie It Is While Sumer Ilast
  2. Sumer Is Icumen In
  3. Foweles in the Frith
  4. Judas
  5. Now Springs the Spray
  6. Lenten Is Come with Love to Toune
  7. Alysoun
  8. Blow, Northerne Wynd
  9. Wynter Wakeneth Al My Care
  10. Of On That Is So Fayr and Bright
  11. Erthe toc of erthe
  12. Icham of Irlaunde
  13. Maiden in the Mor Lay
  14. Iesu, Swete Sone Dere
  15. Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose
  16. The Blacksmiths
  17. Erthe upon Erthe
  18. Adam Lay Ybounden
  19. I Sing of a Maiden
  20. Saint Stephen and King Herod
  21. Quia Amore Langueo
  22. Robyn and Gandelyn
  23. Robin Hood and the Monk
  24. Rats Away
  25. The Corpus Christi Carol
  26. Western Wind
  27. A Lyke-Wake Dirge
  28. Alone walking
  29. Now wolde I faine some merthés make
  30. If I had wit for to endite
  31. The little pretty nightingale
  32. By a bank as I lay
  33. Who shall have my fair lady?
  34. My lady is a pretty one
  35. What meanest thou, my fortune
  36. Seinte Mari moder milde
  37. Maiden moder milde
  38. A, a, a, a, Nunc gaudet Maria
  39. There is a floure sprung of a tree
  40. Now sing we right as it is
  41. All that leve in Cristen lay
  42. Puer nobis natus est
  43. Lullay, my child, and wepe no more
  44. Tidinges, tidinges that be true
  45. Nowel sing we now all and sum
  46. Nowel, el, el, el, el
  47. Moder, white as lily flour
  48. O my harte is wo
  49. Sodenly afraid
  50. I have set my hert so hie
  51. Ah my dear, ah my dear son
  52. Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount?
  53. The lif of this world
  54. Memento homo quod sinis es
  55. Now is wele and all thing aright
  56. Be ware, squier, yeman, and page
  57. Sinful man, for Godés sake
  58. Kepé thy tunge, thy tunge, thy tunge
  59. Women, women, love of women
  60. Welcom be ye whan ye go
  61. Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale
  62. Tapster, fille another ale
  63. How, butler, how
  64. Good day, good day
  65. Make we mery bothe more and lasse
  66. Caput apri refero
  67. Holver and Heivy made a grete party
  68. The merthe of alle this londe
  69. Prenegard, prenegard
  70. As I came by a grene forest side
  71. I have been a foster long and many day
  72. I have a gentil cok
  73. I have twelfé oxen that be faire and brown
  74. Arthur
  75. Lament for King Edward I
  76. The Life of Saint Dunstan
  77. The Death of Saint Thomas Becket
  78. Saint Brandan
  79. Saint Cecilia
  80. Owain Miles: Owain’s Visit to Paradise
  81. Arthour and Merlin: The Choosing of Arthur
  82. Richard Coer de Lion: His Parentage
  83. Richard Coer de Lion: How Richard Won the Name of Coeur de Lion
  84. The Fox and the Wolf
  85. The Land of Cockaigne
  86. The Seven Sages of Rome: Tale II
  87. The Seven Sages of Rome: Tale XI
  88. The Precepts of Alfred
  89. The Debate of the Body and the Soul
  90. A Bestiary: The Lion
  91. A Bestiary: The Ant
  92. A Bestiary: The Hart
  93. A Bestiary: The Fox
  94. A Bestiary: The Spider
  95. A Bestiary: The Whale
  96. A Bestiary: The Sirens
  97. A Bestiary: The Elephant
  98. A Bestiary: The Turtle Dove
  99. A Bestiary: The Panther
  100. A Bestiary: The Dove
  101. A Good Orisoun of Our Ladie
  102. A Song on the Passion
  103. Filius Regis Mortuus Est
  104. Love-Longing
  105. The Sweetness of Jesus
  106. Prayer at the Elevation
  107. Orison to the Five Joys of Our Lady
  108. A Miracle of Our Lady
  109. Against My Will I Take My Leave
  110. Deo Gratias
  111. Mane Nobiscum, Domine
  112. Truth Is Ever Best
  113. Salve, Sancta Parens!
  114. Omnes de Saba Venient
  115. Mater, Ora Filium
  116. To-day Was Born Our Saviour

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