DIMEV 2525
IMEV 1498
NIMEV 1498
In June when Titan was in the Crabs head
John Lydgate, ‘A Sayenge of the Nyghtyngale’ — fifty-four
stanzas rhyme royal
Author(s): John Lydgate
Title(s): ‘A Sayenge of the Nyghtyngale’
Subjects: dream poems; Christ, sufferings of; Christ, love to sinners
Versification: —
seven-line —
ababbcc
Manuscript Witnesses:
1.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College R.3.20 (600), pp. 347-348
First Lines:In Juygne whan Tytan was in þe Crabbes hed
Towardes even
þe saphyre huwed sky…
Last Lines:…As flour eerdeyned for to releeve man
Which bare þe frut
þat sloughe our foo Sathan
Attributed Title: …and filowing nowe here nexst beginneþe a seying of þe
Nightingale ymagyned and compyled by lydegate daun Johan þe Monk of Bury
(p. 337); A devoute meditacion made by Lidegate of þe Nightyngale
(RT)
Editions: MacCracken, Henry Noble,
ed.
John Lydgate: The Minor Poems, Vol. I: Religious Poems.
EETS
e.s. 107 (1911; repr. 1961): 221-34.
2.Source: London, British Library Harley 2251, ff. 229-234
v
First Lines:IN Iune whan Titan was in Crabbes hede
Towardes Even the Saphyre
huwed sky…
Last Lines:…As flour ordeyned for to Releve man
Whiche bare the fruyt that
slough oure foo Sathan
Attributed Author: Of this Balade Dan Iohn / lydgate made nomore (f.
234v)
Editions: Glauning, Otto,
ed.
Lydgate’s Two Nightingale Poems.
EETS
e.s. 80 (1900); repr. 1987: 16-28.
3.Source: London, British Library Addit. 29729, ff. 161-166
First Lines:In Iuygne whan tyton was in þe crabes hed
towardes euen þe
saphyre huwed sky…
Last Lines:…as flour ordayned for to releue man
which bore þe frute
þat slough our foo sathan
Note: In heading, false start to writing ‘Iohn’ before
‘daune’ is crossed through.
Attributed Author: daune Iohn lidgate (f. 161)
Attributed Title: here folowinge begynneth a sayenge of þe nightingalle Imagened and
cumpyled by I daune Iohn lidgate (f. 161)