Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 5220

DIMEV 5220

IMEV 3313

NIMEV TM 1502 | TP 1693

The boars head in hands I bring

A Boar’s Head carol — three quatrains (aaab) and burden: ‘Caput apri Refero / Resonens laudes domino’

Subjects: carols, boars’ head

Versification: — four-line — aaab

Macaronic: Latin

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Balliol College 354, p. 4772

First Lines:

The boris hed in hondis I brynge
With garlondis gay & byrdis syngnge…

Last Lines:

…He taketh his leve & goth a way
Exiuit tunc de patria

Facsimiles:

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

Editions:

Flügel, Ewald. “Liedersammlungen des XVI Jahrhunderts….” Anglia 26 (1903): 94-285: 257.

Flügel, Ewald, ed. Neuenglisches Lesebuch. 1 Bd. Halle: Niemayer, 1895: 123.

Flügel, Ewald. “Englische Weihnachtslieder aus einter Handschrift des Balliol College zu Oxford.” Forschungen zur deutschen Philologie. Festgabe für Rudolf Hildebrands. Leipzig: Deit, 1894: 52-84: 77.

Pollard, Alfred William. Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse. A Volume of Arber’s ‘English Garner’…. Westminster and New York: Dutton, 1903: 92.

Chambers, Edmund Kerchever, and Frank Sidgwick. Early English Lyrics…. London: Buller, 1907, 1911 et seq: 235.

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 91; 1977, 80.

Segar, Mary Gertrude, and Emmeline Paxton, eds. Some Minor Poems of the Middle Ages. London, NY: Longmans, Green, 1917: 14.

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: 33.

Furnivall, Frederick James, ed. The Babees Book, etc. EETS o.s. 32 (1868); rev. ed. Early English Meals and Manners London: Trübner, 1876; repr. 1973: 388.

Robbins, Rossell Hope, ed. Secular Lyrics of the XIV and XV Centuries. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955: 48.

Greene, Richard Leighton, ed. A Selection of English Carols. Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962: 91.

Davies, Reginald Thorne. Medieval English Lyrics: a critical anthology. London, 1963; Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1964: 278.

Sisam, Celia, and Kenneth Sisam, eds. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970: 532.

Oliver, Raymond. Poems Without Names: The English Lyric 1200-1500. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1970: 19.

Luria, Maxwell Sidney, and Richard L. Hoffman, eds. Middle English Lyrics. New York: Norton, 1974: 139-40.

Print Witnesses:

1.Source: STC 5204. Christmasse carolles, de Worde, 1521

Note: Shelfmark: Bodleian Library, Rawl. 4to 598, verso.

Editions:

Hearne, Thomas, ed. Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia. Oxford: Sheldonian, 1719: 3.745.

Strutt, Joseph. Horda Angel-Cynnan …. 3 vols. London: B. White, 1775-76: 3.110.

Ritson, Joseph, ed. Ancient Songs and Ballads from the Reign of King Henry the Second to the Revolution. 2 vols. London, 1829; re-ed. William Carew Hazlitt London, 1877: 2.15.

Sandys, William, ed. Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern. London: Richard Beckley, 1833: 19.

Wright, Thomas, ed. Specimens of Old Christmas Carols, etc. Percy Society 4. London: T. Richard, 1841: 26.

Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. An Index to Dibdin’s edition of the Typographical Antiquities first compiled by Joseph Ames. London, 1844; repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969: 2.252.

Brand, John. Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. London: G. Bell, 1849; rev. ed., Sir Henry Ellis 3 vols. London: Bohn, 1849: 1.448.

Sandys, William. Christmastide its history, festivities, and carols. London: John Russell Smith, 1852: 231.

Hotten, John Camden, (alias Joshua Sylvester). A Garland of Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern. London, 1861 [listed as “Sylvester” in IMEV]: 142.

Bullen, Arthur Henry. Carols and Poems from the fifteenth century to the present time. London, 1866, repr. as Songs and Carols. London: John C. Nimmo, 1885 London: John C. Nimmo, 1885: 170.

Husk, William Henry. Songs of the Nativity. London, 1867: 119.

Hotten, John Camden, (alias Joshua Sylvester). Christmas Carols and Ballads. London, 1874 [listed as “Sylvester” in IMEV]: 171.

Flügel, Ewald. “Liedersammlungen des XVI Jahrhunderts, Besonders aus der Zeit Heinrichs VIII.” Anglia 12 (1889): 225-72, 585-97: 587.

Flügel, Ewald, ed. Neuenglisches Lesebuch. 1 Bd. Halle: Niemayer, 1895: 123.

Rickert, Edith, ed. Ancient English Christmas Carols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1910: 3.

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 9l; 1977, 80.