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DIMEV 6781
IMEV 4219
NIMEV 4219
Women beth both good and sheen
A song in praise of women — five quatrains with refrain, ‘Witnesse on Marie’, and burden: ‘Wymmen beth bothe goude & truwe / Wytnesse on marie’
Note: For similar pieces see 2512 and 4826.
Subjects: women, praise of; carols, of women; Virgin Mary, praise of
Versification: — four-line — aaab


Manuscript Witnesses:
1.Source: London, British Library Harley 7358, f. 8
First Lines:
Wymmen bee boþe goude & truwe wytnesse on Marie
Wymmen be boþe goud & schene…
Last Lines:
…ffro sorwe & care hy wol hemvs bryng
Wymmen ys flour of all þyng
Editions:
Wright, Thomas, ed. Songs and Carols. Warton Club 4. London: Richards, 1856: 106-7.
Chambers, Edmund Kerchever, and Frank Sidgwick. Early English Lyrics…. London: Buller, 1907, 1911 et seq: 198.
Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 263-4; 1977, 233-4.
Segar, Mary Gertrude, ed. A Mediaeval Anthology. London, NY: Longmans, Green, 1915: 108.
Greene, Richard Leighton, ed. A Selection of English Carols. Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962: 142.
2.Source: London, British Library Sloane 2593, f. 5
Note: Burden and stanzas 1, 3-5.
Editions:
Wright, Thomas, ed. Songs and Carols. Warton Club 4. London: Richards, 1856: 11-12.
Wright, Thomas, ed. Songs and Carols printed from a manuscript in the Sloane Collection. London: Pickering, 1836: No. III.
Hales, John Wesley, and Frederick James Furnivall, eds. Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances. 3 vols. London: Trübner, 1867-68: 3.545.