Digital Index of Middle English Verse: No. 6020

DIMEV 6020

IMEV 3776

NIMEV 3776

To thee now Christs dear darling

Hymn to St. John the Evangelist — four quatrains (abac) including refrain, ‘Amice Christi Iohannes’, plus burden(dc): ‘Pray for vs to the prince of peace / Amice Crysty Iohannes’

Note: Cf. 3909.

Subjects: carols, to saints; John the evangelist, saint

Versification: — four-line — abac

Macaronic: Latin

Manuscript Witnesses:

1.Source: Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. e.1 (SC 29734), f. 40

First Lines:

To þe now crystys der derlyng
þat was a mayd bothe ald & ȝyng…

Last Lines:

…Go help þat we be nott for sake
amici cristi Iohannes

Editions:

Wright, Thomas, ed. Songs and Carols from a manuscript…of the Fifteenth Century. Percy Society 23. London: Richards, 1847: 60.

Greene, Richard Leighton, ed. A Selection of English Carols. Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962: 79.

2.Source: Oxford, Balliol College 354, p. 4651

First Lines:

To crystis own derlyng
The whyche was mayd both old & yong…

Last Lines:

…Pray we to hym þat he vs not for sake
Amice Christi Iohannes
Explicit

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: 172.

Flügel, Ewald. “Liedersammlungen des XVI Jahrhunderts….” Anglia 26 (1903): 94-285: 237.

Segar, Mary Gertrude, ed. A Mediaeval Anthology. London, NY: Longmans, Green, 1915: 103.

Rickert, Edith, ed. Ancient English Christmas Carols. London: Chatto & Windus, 1910: 126.

3.Source: Cambridge UK, Trinity College O.3.58 (1230), Art. 12

Editions:

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 66-7; 1977, 55.

Fuller-Maitland, John Alexander, and William Smyth Rockstro. English Carols of the Fifteenth Century. London: Leadenhall Press; New York: Scribner’s, 1891: 25.

Stevens, John, ed. Mediaeval Carols. Musica Britannica 4. London: Stainer and Bell, 1952, 2nd ed. 1958: 10.

Davies, Reginald Thorne. Medieval English Lyrics: a critical anthology. London, 1963; Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1964: 157.

4.Source: London, British Library Addit. 5665, ff. 37v-38

Attributed Title: de Johanne

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: 172.

Fehr, Bernhard. “Die Lieder der Hs. Add. 5665 (Ritson’s Folio-MS).” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 106 (1901): 262-85: 273.

Stevens, John, ed. Mediaeval Carols. Musica Britannica 4. London: Stainer and Bell, 1952, 2nd ed. 1958: 95.

5.Source: London, British Library Addit. 5665, ff. 48v-49

Note: Burden and stanzas 1, 4 only.

Attributed Title: de sancto Johanne

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: 172.

Fehr, Bernhard. “Die Lieder der Hs. Add. 5665 (Ritson’s Folio-MS).” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 106 (1901): 262-85: 273.

Stevens, John, ed. Mediaeval Carols. Musica Britannica 4. London: Stainer and Bell, 1952, 2nd ed. 1958: 105.

6.Source: London, British Library Harley 4294, f. 81v1

First Lines:

I shall you tell of crystes derlyng
That was a mayd both old and yong…

Last Lines:

…And for be others make
Prey we to cryst we be nott forsake

Note: 5 stanzas.

Editions:

Greene, Richard Leighton. The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1935; 2nd ed., rev., Oxford: Clarendon, 1977: 66-7; 1977, 56.