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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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6. A PRAYER IN OLD AGE.
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6. A PRAYER IN OLD AGE.

[_]

[MS. Bodley Hatton 73, leaf 116 to 116 back].

1

All the trespas of my tender youthe,
Wyth grevous gyltes rekenyd of yonge age,
Wyth the gode lord make hem not couthe
Iesu, till tyme that thy wrath aswage.
Myn ignoraunce with insolent outrage,
Lyke my deserteys, lord, doo not recorde
Tyll pees be leyde, and pitee for ostage,
That ryght and mercy may graciousli acord.

2

The myspende tyme of all my mydle yeris,
When lust with fors was fresh yn that sesoun,
My froward fals foren desires,
Wyth many olde diuerse transgressioun,

21

Fer fro vertu, contrarye to resoun,—
O lord, late pite thy rygore qveme
Or that Iugement do execucioun;
Blyssid Iesu! do mercy or thou deme.

3

Duryng that age I coude not aduertyse,
Of necligens in my memoriall,
By providens to see this straunge gyse,
Alle wordely fresshnesse by processe shall appalle;
And how fortune amonge hir chaunges alle
When folk lest wenyth, her servauntis cast doun;
Then is no mene, but to clepe and calle
To mercy and grace and Cristes passioun.

4

Forsake me not, lord, in my dayes olde,
Whenne febylnesse hath crokyd bak and chyne,
Currage and blode appalle, and wexe colde;
My blyndnesse, lord, with grace do illumyne,
And lat the lyght of mercy ouer me shyne,
Or that the rolle be rad of myn outrages:
Thy blode, thy passioun, graunt me for a signe,
Mercifull Iesu, to patyse my passages.
Amen.