Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 2899

DIMEV 2899

IMEV 1747

NIMEV 1747

Jesu sweet is the love of Thee / nothing so sweet may be

An expansion of the hymn, ‘Iesu dulcis memoria’ — fifty monorhyming quatrains

Note: See also 5077 in which this piece has been combined with 5075

Title(s): Iesu dulcis memoria

Subjects: hymns, to Christ; Christ, hymns to

Versification: — four-line — aaaa

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: London, British Library Harley 2253, ff. 77vb-78va

First Lines:

Iesu suete is þe loue of þe
noþing so suete may be…

Last Lines:

…bote ioie & blisse ant lykyng
suete iesu þare to vs bryng

Attributed Title: Dulcis ihesu memoria (f. 77v)

Facsimiles:

Ker, Neil Ripley. “Introduction.” Facsimile of British Museum MS. Harley 2253. EETS o.s. 255 (1965).

Editions:

Wright, Thomas. Specimens of Lyric Poetry composed in England in the Reign of Edward the First. Percy Society 4. London: Richard, 1842: 68-76.

Böddeker, Karl. Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl. 2253. Berlin: Weidmann, 1878: 198-205.

Horstmann, Carl, ed. Yorkshire Writers. 2 vols. London, Sonnenschein; New York: Macmillan, 1895-96: 2.11-24.

Fein, Susanna Greer, ed. The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, Volume 2. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2009: Booklet 5, no. 58.

2.Source: Glasgow, Glasgow University Library Hunterian 512 (V.8.15), ff. 33-34

First Lines:

IHesu swete is þe loue of þee
Noon oþir þing so swete may be…

Last Lines:

…Þanne haue I þi wille al wrouȝt
Þat hauest me ful dere bouȝt

Note: Stanzas 1-11 only, monorhyming

Editions:

Brown, Carleton Fairchild, ed. Religious Lyrics of the XIV Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924. 2nd ed., rev.: G. V. Smithers, Oxford, 1952: 111-12.

3.Source: Chicago, IL, Newberry Library 31 [formerly Ry8; D26986], f. 135-136v

First Lines:

Ihesu swete his þe loue of þe
Non oþur þyng so swete may be
Al þat I may wyt henn se
To halwn aswetnes lord to þe
No song nys murwor
No no yoth in herte blysfulore…

Last Lines:

…Hou long schal here be
þere I pe þe tasy wyt henn se

Note: In this MS, 80 lines in couplets, aa (Brown and Robbins (1943)

XCarleton Fairchild Brown, and Rossell Hope Robbins. The Index of Middle English Verse. New York: Printed for the Index Society by Columbia University Press, 1943

says 100 but perhaps in another MS); may be incomplete here since no ‘amen’ at end, followed by pastedown so last leaf of MS. Note last line very difficult to read and may be subject to correction from an edition.

Editions:

Robbins, Rossell Hope. “Two Fourteenth-Century Mystical Poems.” Modern Language Review 35 (1940): 320-9: 325-7.

priven: verb To deprive (sb.) of (sth.), deny (sb. sth.); ppl. prived, bereaved, bereft of, deprived of; without; (b) ~ of (from), to deprive (sb. of sth.), deny (sth. to sb.), exclude (sb. from sth.); prived of (from), deprived of (sth.), bereft of; lacking, without; ben of god priving, be a robber of goods; (c) to depose (sb.), dismiss; ~ of (from), deprive (sb.) of (power, kingdom, etc.), remove or dismiss (sb.) from (office or position); (d) to take (sth.) away; prevent (sth.), deny, oppose; weaken (the body); -- also without obj. MED