The Minor Poems of John Lydgate edited from all available mss. with an attempt to establish The Lydgate Canon: By Henry Noble MacCracken |
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 | The Minor Poems of John Lydgate |  |
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[Additional stanzas, probably spurious, from MS. Leyden Voss. 9, leaf 102.]
Off all thy warde thou art made officer,
That no man passe with-out licence off the;
Erly on morwe, er than the day be cleer,
Thou cast thy chenys, redy wolt thou be;
They be nat off iren nor off tree,
Thyn ars cheeff smyth on morwe at thi rysyng,
Weel the bett thou mayst thy cheyn lat flyee,
For off a bolle thou canst weel pluk out the lynyng.
That no man passe with-out licence off the;
Erly on morwe, er than the day be cleer,
Thou cast thy chenys, redy wolt thou be;
They be nat off iren nor off tree,
Thyn ars cheeff smyth on morwe at thi rysyng,
Weel the bett thou mayst thy cheyn lat flyee,
For off a bolle thou canst weel pluk out the lynyng.
And whan thou hast weel vernyssht thi pate,
To take a slap in hast thou wolt the dresse;
But wo is she that nyht shal be thi mate?
Thyn orgons so hihe be-gynne to syng thi messe,
With treble, mene & tenor discordyng, as I gesse,
That all the hogges that ben about lyggyng,
To syng with the they gyne them thedir dresse,
Which off a pott so well canst pluk tha lynyng.
To take a slap in hast thou wolt the dresse;
But wo is she that nyht shal be thi mate?
448
With treble, mene & tenor discordyng, as I gesse,
That all the hogges that ben about lyggyng,
To syng with the they gyne them thedir dresse,
Which off a pott so well canst pluk tha lynyng.
Yitt wassaille, onys, & thynne be thi thriffte,
With all thi orgonys & thi melodye,
Ful weel a couppe of good ale canst thou liffte,
And drynk it off & leve the cuppe drye,
I wold thi chenys had chenyd vp the weye,
Be-twen the cuppe, whan thou art lyfftyng,
And thi mouth, for thou art euer redye
Out off a cuppe to pluk out the lynyng.
With all thi orgonys & thi melodye,
Ful weel a couppe of good ale canst thou liffte,
And drynk it off & leve the cuppe drye,
I wold thi chenys had chenyd vp the weye,
Be-twen the cuppe, whan thou art lyfftyng,
And thi mouth, for thou art euer redye
Out off a cuppe to pluk out the lynyng.
| The Minor Poems of John Lydgate | |