Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 3128

DIMEV 3128

IMEV 1914

NIMEV 1914

Lithe and listen both old and young

A carol of the Nativity — seven quatrains (aaab) and burden: ‘Of a rose a louely rose / Of a rose I syng a song’

Note: For a variant see 3114

Subjects: carols, to Virgin Mary

Versification: — four-line — aaab

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. e.1 (SC 29734), f. 21

First Lines:

Lyth & lystyn both old & ȝyng
How þe rose be gane to spryng…

Last Lines:

…In euery ball to ben owr bott
So blessedly yt sprong

Editions:

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 131-2; 1977, 116-17.

Greene, Richard Leighton, ed. A Selection of English Carols. Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962: 108.

Wright, Thomas, ed. Songs and Carols from a manuscript…of the Fifteenth Century. Percy Society 23. London: Richards, 1847: 21-2.

Stevick, Robert D., ed. One Hundred Middle English Lyrics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964: 146-7.

Oliver, Raymond. Poems Without Names: The English Lyric 1200-1500. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1970: 120-1.

2.Source: Oxford, Balliol College 354, p. 4621

First Lines:

Herkyn to me both old & yonge
How a rose began to sprynge…

Last Lines:

…Now cryst saue all this cumpany
& send vs gud lyff & long
Explicit

Note: 8 stanzas

Facsimiles:

Early Manuscripts at Oxford University: Facsimile of Oxford, Balliol MS 354. (http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=balliol&manuscript=ms354).

Editions:

Dyboski, R., ed. Songs, Carols and Other Miscellaneous Poems from Balliol MS. 354, Richard Hill’s Commonplace Book. EETS e.s. 101 (1908); repr. 1984: 7-87.

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 131-2; 1977, 117.

Flügel, Ewald. “Liedersammlungen des XVI Jahrhunderts….” Anglia 26 (1903): 94-285: 232-3.

Flügel, Ewald, ed. Neuenglisches Lesebuch. 1 Bd. Halle: Niemayer, 1895: 116.

Flügel, Ewald, ed. Neuenglisches Lesebuch. 1 Bd. Halle: Niemayer, 1895: 62.

Pollard, Alfred William. Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse. A Volume of Arber’s ‘English Garner’…. Westminster and New York: Dutton, 1903: 85-6.

Rickert, Edith, ed. Ancient English Christmas Carols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1910: 9.

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