ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

London, British Library Royal Appendix 58

Recollections of love’s joys — four quatrains

Verses to a mistress — six quatrains

A lover’s plaint — four quatrains (abab) plus 2-line burden: ‘Colle to me the rysshys grene Colle to me’ (repeated)

To his mistress, a round — eight lines

Expressing yearning for his mistress — one quatrain

‘My hart she hath and euer shall’ — six cross-rhymed quatrains

‘Why soo vnkende’ — six couplets with three-line burden: ‘Why soo vnkende alas / Why soo vnkende to me / Soo to be kende to me’

An erotic carol — five quatrains and ten-line burden: ‘Kytt hathe lost hur key hur key / Goode Kytt hath lost hure key / She ys soo sory for the cause / She wottes nott what to say / She ys soo sory fore the cause / She wott not what to say to say / Goode Kytt good Kytt / She ys soo sory for the cause / She wot not [what] to say to say / Good Kytt’

William Cornish, An enigmatic stricken deer carol — six cross-rhymed quatrains with a 3-line burden: ‘Blow þy horn hunter and blow þi horne on hye / Ther ys a do in yonder wode in faith she woll not dy / ow blow þi hore hunter and blow þi horne joly hunter’

A burden, probably of a love song

‘I loue none but you alone’ — five cross-rhymed quatrains

Love song — four 6-line stanzas

A New Year Carol — one quatrain (aabb) and burden: ‘nay mary I nay maye mary / I peter but ye must / nay mary I’

‘I loue none but you alone’ — five cross-rhymed quatrains

Expressing the words of the devoted lover — five 6-line tail-rhyme stanzas

A May song of love — three 7-line stanzas

‘Alas I dye for payne’, Christ’s complaint — one six-line tail-rhyme stanza

A New Year Carol — one quatrain (aabb) and burden: ‘nay mary I nay maye mary / I peter but ye must / nay mary I’

A lover’s plaint — four quatrains (abab) plus 2-line burden: ‘Colle to me the rysshys grene Colle to me’ (repeated)

A love song — one couplet

An unkind mistress — one cross-rhymed quatrain

William Dunbar, To the Princess Margaret on her arrival at Holyrood, A.D. 1503 — seventeen lines

A lament: ‘Sorow hath piercyd my hart so depe’ — two stanzas rhyme royal

Sorrow at parting, sometimes ascribed to John Skelton — three 8-line stanzas

Poem expressing welcome to pain — two stanzas rhyme royal

A song of penitence — three 8-line stanzas with a 4-line refrain and a 3-line burden: ‘Now marcy Ihesu I wyll amend / And neuer more displease the / yff grace thow wylt me send’

Against over-wandering friars, with music ‘quod Raff Drake’ — seven quatrains

‘Farewell the best that euer was borne’ — three stanzas rhyme royal

Dialogue between the Virgin Mary and her Child — seven l0-line stanzas (ababccdeed) including refrain, ‘To syng by by lully lulley’ plus 7-line burden (aaabccb): ‘This enders nyght / I sawe a sight / A sterre as bryght / As any day / & euer a monge / A maydyn songe / Lylley by by lully lulley’

His coy mistress — one short stanza with a ‘How frisca loly’ refrain