Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 1688

DIMEV 1688

IMEV 1030

NIMEV 1030

Hail be thou Mary mild queen of heaven

An Orison of the Five Joys — fourteen monorhyming quatrains plus 1 x 8, abababab at end

Note: Stanzas 1, 8, and 11 = stanzas 2, 3, and 4 of 1685.

Subjects: Virgin Mary, joys of

Versification: — four-line — aaaa

Bibliographic Ghosts:

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. a.1 (SC 3938) [Vernon MS], f. 115va-115vb

First Lines:

Heil beo þou Marie
Mylde qwen of heuene
Blessed is þi Nome
And good hit is to nemene…

Last Lines:

…Schild me from synne and schome
Þat I falle no mare
And send me hosul and schrift
Ar I heþene fare. A.M.E.N.

Note: Fourteen monorhyming quatrains; written in half-lines.

Facsimiles:

Doyle, I. A., ed. The Vernon Manuscript. A Facsimile of Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Eng. poet.a.1, with an introduction by A. I. Doyle. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1987.

Scase, Wendy, and Nick Kennedy, eds. A facsimile edition of the Vernon manuscript: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. A. 1. Oxford: The Bodleian Library, 2011.

Editions:

Horstmann, Carl, ed. The Minor Poems of the Vernon Manuscript, Part 1. EETS o.s. 98 (1892; repr. 1973): 30-2.

Patterson, Frank A. The Middle English Penitential Lyric. Columbia University Studies in English. New York: Columbia Press, 1911: 149-51.

2.Source: Cambridge UK, St John’s College S.30 (256), pp. 268-269

First Lines:

Heyl be þu marie milde quen of heuene
Blessed be þi name & god it is to neuene…

Last Lines:

…In non of þe sinnes seuene
þorw no fedes wille
Nou brig my saule to heuene
þerin a place to fille

Note: With rubric heading for each stanza, ‘Aue maria gracia plena dominus tecum’; last stanza, abababab, is written two lines verse per line of MS.

Editions:

Brown, Carleton Fairchild, ed. Religious Lyrics of the XIV Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924. 2nd ed., rev.: G. V. Smithers, Oxford, 1952: 29-31.

Saupe, Karen, ed. Middle English Marian Lyrics. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1998: 142-4; 256-7.

3.Source: London, British Library Royal 17 A.XXVII, ff. 81-82

First Lines:

Heyl be þow mari modur queen of heuen
i blessed be þi name & gode hit is to neuen…

Last Lines:

…þu bringe me out of sine & lete me falle no mar
& ȝyue me grace in erþe sinne to rewe sare

Note: Variant text. Ends “Amen.”

4.Source: London, Lambeth Palace Library 559, ff. 15v2-19

First Lines:

Heyl be thow mary blisful quene of heuene
and blessid be thi name for good hit is to nempne…

Last Lines:

…and bringe me to hevin
ther in a place to fille
that i may thorow thi grace
with the wonyn
and be to se thi sone in face
iustice & kyng so fre
of lyfe ȝiff me a space
that i amendid be
and in heuene a place amen

Attributed Title: This orisone here / swynge schal be sayde vn to / oure ladi saynt marie deuou / teli and with kneling (f. 15v, rubric)