Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 4786

DIMEV 4786

IMEV 3078

NIMEV 3078

Say me wight in the broom

Tell me, Wight in the Broom — one 6-line stanza, couplets

Subjects: dialogues; marriage; women, against

Versification: — six-line — aabbcc

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College B.14.39 (323), f. 28

Transcription:

Say me viit in þe brom
teche me wou i sule don
þat min hosebonde
me louien wolde
Hold þine tunke stille
& hawe al þine wille

Editions:

Brown, Carleton Fairchild, ed. English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1932: 32.

James, Montague Rhodes. Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. 4 vols. Cambridge: at the UP, 1900-1904: 1.441.

Dickins, Bruce, and Richard M. Wilson. Early Middle English Texts. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1951: 119.

Silverstein, Theodore, ed. Medieval English Lyrics. York Medieval Texts. London: Edw. Arnold, 1971: 40.

Luria, Maxwell Sidney, and Richard L. Hoffman, eds. Middle English Lyrics. New York: Norton, 1974: 63.

2.Source: London, British Library Addit. 11579, f. 29r1

Transcription:

Sey wist y þe brom
Hwat ys me for to don
Ich haue þe werreste bonde
þat ys in oni londe

Note: In the second line, it appears that the scribe originally copied ‘Wwat’, which he corrected to ‘Hwat’.

Editions:

Brown, Carleton Fairchild, ed. English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1932: 32.

Wright, Thomas. A selection of Latin stories. Percy Society 8. London: Richard, 1842: 24.

Herbert, John Alexander. Catalogue of Romances in the Department of MSS. in the British Museum. Vol. 3. London, 1910: 3.529 (couplet only).

Coulton, George Gordon. Life in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: at the UP, 1931, and New York: Macmillan, 1931: 1.149.

Oliver, Raymond. Poems Without Names: The English Lyric 1200-1500. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1970: 37.

3.Source: London, Lambeth Palace Library 78, f. 79va-79vb

Transcription:

Wyȝt in the brom
Hwat schal I don
I haue an housebonde
The worst in thys londe
ȝyf thyn housebonde ys ylle
Hwan he chyt hold de stylle

Note: Written as prose.

Attributed Title: De muliere que per pacienciam virum suum sibi fecit mansuetum (f. 79va)

Editions:

Pickering, Oliver S. “A Third Text of ‘Say me viit in þe brom.’” English Studies 63 (1982): 20-2: 21-2.

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