ABSTRACT
A number of middle English lyrics are probably among the best-known remains of poetry we have from this period, most of them, characteristically, in the form of stanzas still sung, either in church or in a secular sociable context. This is a useful reminder of the non-literary, social and basically oral character of a large section of verse that, in many cases, has survived by mere accident and was com posed to be performed, not to be fossilised in critical editions. Nevertheless, it is to the effort of enthusiastic collectors and scholarly editors that we owe accessible texts and indispensable commentary.1 Originally, many shorter poems were probably passed round in a form that left little chance of survival; others were scribbled in free spaces between more important texts or in the margins of larger collections.2 One of the earliest and frequently anthologised poems, ‘Sumer is icumen in’, was copied with music among songs in French and Latin in a monks’ commonplace book, MS Harley 978, written by several hands at different times.3 It is just a tantalising glimpse of what was sung and passed on, either orally or in much less carefully written form, without very good chance of survival.
