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JOHN AUDELAY, SALUTATIONS: FOOTNOTES

1 Here begin salutations to the blessed virgin Mary. Take care not to pass by here without first saying ave

2 “May they always be without woe who to me say ‘ave.’” This sentence contains a pun upon sine ve “without woe” and ave/a ve “hail”/“without woe.”

3 Here begins the song of Magnificat. This poem paraphrases and expands Luke 1:46–55.

4 He hath put down the mighty from their seat. Luke 1:52.

5 Here begins a salutation to Saint Bridget, virgin, and how the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to her physically and gave her his blessing, says Audelay

6 Hail, with the works of mercy you obtained reward [for] yourself, surely

7 Hail, I shall confirm your status by bull that supersedes the pope’s

8 Thus the pope sanctified her place and hallowed it to Christ’s purpose

9 And Bridgit made herself of nuns another blessed convent

10 Lines 138–39: Hail, he granted royal dispensation to that holy place and called it Bridget Syon (i.e., Syon Abbey). / The pope confirmed that by papal bull through his special grace

11 All England is much obliged to pray for King Henry [V’s soul]

12 For they shall never show nor depict an image of a face

13 Readily they arise with great reverence scarcely out of their sleep

14 Lines 172–73: For it fares not by spiritual goods as [it] does by temporal — / [As when] men possess a part of it, each portion is less

15 But remove here the power of those who wars will awake

16 Here begins a salutation to Saint Winifred, virgin

17 Hail, the blessing of Beuno (Winifred’s uncle), thy healing was by grace

18 Pious virgin Winifred, mighty in miracles, / Cleanse us by your presence from the stain of sins, / And defend us from all the little hazards of life. / Pray for us, blessed Winifred, / Because through you grace is given to us

19 God, who commanded that by thy might the blessed virgin Winifred be brought back to life after the cutting off of her head, make us also [whole], we pray, by her interceding, [in our] present life and future assembly before thy very self through Christ our Lord. Amen

20 Whoever devoutly says this salutation every day in honor of Saint Anne, mother of Mary, will assuredly not die a wicked death

21 Rejoice, you brought forth that birth that did gladden all the world

22 Rejoice, here, so that that lady could illuminate all the world

23 Rejoice, she saved all mankind [for whom] death for sin was prepared

24 Pray for us, blessed Anne, because from the fruit of your womb grace has been given to us. Let us pray together

25 God, who wanted to make fruitful the blessed Anne, long sterile, with a glorious and salvific offspring for the human race, grant that all venerating in love the son and mother may deserve in the hour of death to rejoice in the presence of both, through thee, Jesus Christ, savior of the world, king of glory. Amen

26 Whoever has devoutly said this salutation in honor of the Savior for twenty days in a row, Pope Boniface IV has granted to those who have truly confessed all and are contrite, full remission of all sins, and this has been written at Rome in the church of Saint Peter before the altar of the savior

27 The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us. Thou hast given gladness in my heart. Psalm 4:7.

28 God, who wished to leave signed for us as a memorial of thy countenance thy likeness stamped on the sudarium at the impetus of Veronica, grant by thy passion and cross that we may now on earth be able to vener­ate, honor, and worship him (i.e., Christ) through a glass in an obscure manner, just as then we [will see] thee, coming as judge over us, when we see face to face our Lord Jesus Christ thy son. Amen. Compare 1 Corinthians 13:12: Videmus nunc per speculum in enigmate tunc autem facie ad faciem, “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face.”

JOHN AUDELAY, SALUTATIONS: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations: CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; NIMEV: The New Index of Middle English Verse, ed. Boffey and Edwards; For manuscript abbreviations (ED, A, D, G, L, V), see the Introduction.

XXVIII. DEVOTIONS TO JESUS AND MARY HIS MOTHER          [W19]

This four-part devotion consists of:

(1)    An innovative salutation in honor of Mary, the five joys, and Christ’s Incarnation;
(2)    A prayer benediction recalling Doomsday;
(3)    A prayer on the five joys;
(4)    An instructional couplet advocating daily remembrance of the five joys.

The sequence opens with Mary’s punning invitation to say “ave” and be without woe. After Scribe A copies the salutation, Scribe B copies the prayers and instructions that follow. Both prayers recall topics emphasized in the salutation, in layered form: Jesus and judgment at its nucleus; Mary and her joys in its frame. Anticipation of Doomsday and the longed-for sight of God’s face unite this devotion with the closing salutation sequence to the Holy Face.

incipits The two incipits are written in red by Scribe B on three lines. The first is a general opening and instruction to say “Ave.” The second one (which occupies its own line) conveys Mary’s words directly to the reader or spectator of her effigy. The salutation thus opens as a dialogue with Mary, who speaks first and actually requests the poem. Mary’s words, moreover, contain a pun: “May they always be without woe (sine ave) who to me say ‘Hail’” (ave = a ve, “without woe”); compare Prayer on the Joys of the Virgin, lines 11–12. I am indebted to Radd Ehrman for detecting the pun.


SALUTATION TO JESUS FOR MARY’S LOVE          [W19]

This opening salutation initially addresses Mary as Virgin Mother, and then it addresses Jesus as Redeemer. Direct access to Jesus is achieved gradually by means of worship of Mary and a contemplation of her five joys (lines 81–88). The poem itself mimics human mother-and-child form by embedding the anaphoric salutation to Jesus (“O Jhesu,” lines 91–153) inside an anaphoric salutation to Mary (“Hayle,” lines 1–90, 154–59). There are two different 2-line refrains: one for the Mary section and another for the Jesus section. Joined by meter — and by having one salutation nestled inside the other — the two parts of this poem operate as a single unit, the child enfolded in the mother. Citation of the five joys seems to cue a spiritual advance from Mary to her Son directly. Audelay’s Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love illustrates how fifteenth-century orthodox religion held that access to God was best achieved through the saints, a view challenged by Lollardy (Richmond, “Religion,” pp. 188–90; Hudson, Premature Reformation, pp. 311–13).

[Fols. 22vb–23va. IMEV, NIMEV 1068 (listing this item as joined to the next three items). Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipits in red (see above). Initials: Large H in blue with red filigree (three lines high) and medium O in red (two lines high), with face drawn in it (at line 91). Meter: Sixteen 10-line stanzas, ababbcbcDD₄, with stanza 15 lacking its tenth line (see explanatory note to line 149). Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 149–54, 244.]

5–8 The salutation begins, appropriately, upon ideas of Jesus’s miraculous conception in the womb.

18 sowke. The word puns subtly with socur in line 14 above, underscoring Mary’s nurturing support. The idea of the sinner receiving divine succor, or grace, runs through the poem. Jesus will later be called “both solans and socour” (line 107) and one who can “sokore” the petitioner’s soul (line 128).

24 styyng. For the sense “growing,” see MED stiing(e, ger., where the usual sense is “ascending,” but compare stien, v. 6(c), “increase.”

33–34 The petitioner trembles as a sinner before Christ as Judge, the role of God that emerges forcefully in lines 141–54. There is also here a sense of approaching the mother to ask her to assuage the wrath of the Father.

54 Maré Mawdlen. An example of the saved sinner, which Audelay uses several times in The Counsel of Conscience. Compare Visiting the Sick and Consoling the Needy, line 145; Seven Hours of the Cross, line 35; and the Latin prose incipit His dicit Dominus Deus that concludes The Vision of Saint Paul.

56 he me. A verb may be left out; compare line 64, “He me save.”

61 Compare Salutation to Mary, line 74.

62 medicyn of al our syne. See Citrome’s discussion of Mary as female healer, where he cites this line and Salutation to Mary, line 101 (Surgeon, pp. 100–02, at 102).

71 On the formula of falling into sin through frailty, see explanatory note to Audelay’s Epilogue to The Counsel of Conscience, line 154.

81–88 This stanza recounts the Five Joys of the Virgin, a subject repeated in the prayer-poem that follows. The subject provides the penitent’s admittance to Jesus in line 91, “fore these joys v.” For a survey discussion of Middle English lyrics to the Virgin and her joys, see Woolf, English Religious Lyric, pp. 274–308.

91 The embedded salutation to Jesus, with new refrain, begins here. The enlarged initial O is drawn in red and contains a face (denoting direct address to God; compare Pope John’s Passion of Our Lord, line 89, and Deus qui beatam Annam, line 1). The salutation to Jesus is composed in lines that are tauter than the surrounding lines in address to Mary.

91–94 The syntax must be read as if the anaphoras — “O Jhesu” — are emotive exclamations interrupting the sentence, from which they are separate. The meaning here is: “For these Five Joys, which thy mother had of thee — she who was both virgin and wife — thus was none more honored than she.”

98 The allusion to “thi tabernakil in heven toure” suggests Jesus being addressed in the womb. Such allusions continue in the next stanza.

107 On Jesus as socour, see explanatory notes to lines 18 and 128.

114 Rewere. The MED confirms that the meaning is “Merciful One” in reference to God (reuer(e, n.[a]), not “river,” as glossed by E. Whiting.

128 sokore. This word culminates an intense appeal for mercy (lines 112–20), and then intense hope for salvation (lines 121–28), suggesting, with a play on the previous pun (line 18), that Jesus through his mother will be the penitent’s own maternal nurturer. Bodily metaphors for spiritual transformation emerge in the next stanza (lines 134–38), and they culminate in the penitent’s hoped-for re-“birth,” which is termed a release from “secounde deth” (line 146).

131–34 Audelay understands the mystical tradition of inverted bodily metaphor: to cleanse his heart, he must both receive Christ within it and enter Christ’s heart. Such metaphors of enclosing and being enclosed exploit and mix physical signs of gender, sexuality, pregnancy, and wounds, here in a poem that mimics in its very form the Incarnation in Mary’s womb. For background on the tradition in Middle English, see my edition of In a Valley of This Restless Mind (Fein, Moral Love Songs, pp. 57–86) and McInerney’s article on Julian of Norwich (“In the Meydens Womb”).

146 secounde deth. See explanatory note to line 128.

149 The second refrain line, “O Jhesu, fore thi moder love, mayde Mary,” is expected after this line, but the copyist (Scribe A) omits it. In compensation for the absent line, however, the c- and d-rhymes match, and the a-rhyme of the next stanza is also the same. Thus the omission of the final line about Mary may be meant to partake in a crescendoed approach toward Jesus, just before the salutation to Mary returns at lines 154–59.

150 The professed hope is for sight of God’s Holy Face, as enacted at the climax of the salutation section of the Audelay manuscript (see Salutation to the Holy Face, and also Seven Bleedings of Christ, lines 67–72). In this line the penitent anticipates his own resurrection / rebirth, ascending from the earthly filth of sin (line 147) via Jesus and Virgin, who reemerges now as Queen of Heaven, Lady of the World, and Empress of Hell (lines 154–56).

151 Domysday. Doomsday provides a thematic frame that joins the poems on Christ in Audelay’s salutations section. Compare Salutation to the Holy Face, line 24.


PRAYER RUBRIC          [W19]

This piece recalls the climactic scene of “dredful Domyday” in Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 151, in its prayer for mercy. Its second line anticipates the exact words that close the salutations section (Salutation to the Holy Face, line 24), thus pointing to Audelay’s artistic construction of this whole section.

[Fol. 23va. Not in IMEV, NIMEV as a separate item (see 1068). Hand: Scribe B, poem in red. Meter: Two tetrameter couplets. E. Whiting mistakenly combines this item and the next two with the Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 154.]

2 Graunt mercy tofore thy Jugement. This phrase is common in Audelay’s poetry. Compare Our Lord’s Epistle on Sunday, lines 194–95, and Salutation to the Holy Face, lines 23–24 (the final English lines in the salutations section).


PRAYER ON THE JOYS OF THE VIRGIN          [W19]

This piece recalls the five joys of Mary (Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, Assumption, Coronation), which Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love has demonstrated to be an access point to direct contemplation of Jesus’ divinity in incarnate form.

[Fol. 23va. Not in IMEV, NIMEV as a separate item (see 1068). Hand: Scribe B, poem in black with red initial. Initial: Medium O in red (two lines high). Meter: One 12-line stanza, ababbabaacac₄. Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 154–55.]

1 O. E. Whiting mistakenly attaches this capital to the preceding line. Because hand and meter change and a capital is inserted, it is altogether surprising that she mistook this prayer as part of Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love. For other treatments of the five joys in MS Douce 302, see Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, lines 81–88, and (less overtly) Joys of Mary.

11–12 On deliverance from sorrow through Mary’s five joys, compare Mary’s words to the penitent at the opening of this sequence: “May they always be without woe who to me say ‘ave.’”


INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRAYER 8          [W19]

This instructional couplet is a mnemonic tag found in various forms elsewhere in MS Douce 302. Compare Instructions for Prayer 1; Prayer on Christ’s Passion, line 37; and Seven Words of Christ on the Cross, line 109.

[Fol. 23va. Not in IMEV, NIMEV as a separate item (see 1068). Hand: Scribe B, poem in red (as one cramped line). Meter: One tetrameter couplet. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 155.]

XXIX. OTHER DEVOTIONS TO MARY          [W20–W21]

Two salutations separated by E. Whiting are actually placed in sequence by the scribes. Both laud Mary in 12-line stanzas, though metrically they are quite distinct from each other. The first one, with “Haile” anaphora, has the medieval petitioner praise the Virgin as a way, ultimately, to petition her to be his “mayn-paroure” (line 118), that is, legal surety, on the Day of Judgment. The second one is a beautiful hymn of the Annunciation, in which Gabriel as proto-saluter addresses the Virgin with “Haile!”

SALUTATION TO MARY          [W20]

This Marian lyric reiterates the subject of the last salutation, but with more direct and sustained attention to the Virgin herself. Again, Audelay emphasizes Mary as virgin and mother. Employing a refrain and ornamental alliteration, the stanza form matches that of Pearl and many Vernon lyrics (Fein, “Twelve-Line Stanza Forms,” pp. 382–97, especially p. 385). Moreover, the 12-line stanza was a frequently chosen medium for poems to the Virgin. Two other copies of this salutation are extant; Audelay’s version is the oldest and longest. A 12-line Vernon lyric in eleven stanzas, with the refrain “Þow prey for vs to þi sone so fre” (Horstmann, Minor Poems of the Vernon MS, pp. 134–37), is similar in form, alliteration, and “Hail” anaphora, but not in phrasing or content. Similar phrases may, however, be found in Audelay’s Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love. On Middle English lyrics with anaphoric “haile,” see Driver, “John Audelay and the Bridgettines,” pp. 192–95, 209–10n4. Woolf, English Religious Lyric, pp. 274–308, discusses the Middle English tradition of lyrics to the Virgin (with little mention, however, of Audelay).

[Fols. 23va–24rb. IMEV, Suppl., NIMEV 1083 (compare IMEV, NIMEV 1041). Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit and explicit in red. Initial: Medium H in blue with red filigree (two lines high). Meter: Ten 12-line anaphoric stanzas with a refrain, ababababbcbC₄ (i.e., the meter of Pearl), often with ornamental alliteration. Seven-Stanza Variant: Cambridge, CUL Ff.2.38, fols. 31v–32r (Person, Cambridge Middle English Lyrics, pp. 11–13 [no. 10]); Cambridge, Magdalene College MS Pepys 1584, fols. 102v–104r. Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 155–59, 244–45.]

1 fond. This word means “created, made”; see MED founden, v.(2) 4). E. Whiting glosses it mistakenly as the preterite of the verb finden, i.e., “found.”

4 Compare the carols that associate Mary with the Tree of Jesse: Saint Anne Mother of Mary, lines 36–39, and Jesus Flower of Jesse’s Tree.

23 The “haile” anaphora usually addresses Mary, but a few lines are directed to Christ, as here.

33 norcheles. See MED norcheles, n., where the only citation is this line from MS Douce 302: “one without a nurse or protector.”

37–39 Compare Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 21.

46 silour. See MED celure, n., “canopy,” where this line is the only example of a figurative usage, “shelter.” Compare An Honest Bed, line 38.

50 a, waiful wyght! The punctuation is to make sense of the sudden shift to a singular noun after naming the guilty heretics.

78 This line refers to the sword of sorrow that pierced Mary’s heart at the Crucifixion, derived from Luke 2:35 (Simeon’s prophecy). It is a common feature of Marian piety.

80 thi Breder. I.e, Christ in his humanity. This line twists the usual formula that views the Virgin, paradoxically, as mother to her Father and spouse to her Son. Here she is Joseph’s wife and spouse, and sister in flesh to Jesus.

89–95 These lines allude to the Harrowing of Hell, the freeing of the patriarchs in hell made possible by Christ’s Incarnation in Mary’s body. The stanza plays on a metaphor of jewels and their light (embodied in Mary, engendered in her) bringing about an illumination through Christ of the dark regions of hell.

98 Compare Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 2.

101 medycyne that ale may mend. See Citrome’s discussion of Mary as female healer, where he cites this line and Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 62 (Surgeon, pp. 100–02, at p. 102).

106 Compare Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 98.

115–19 Like Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love and Salutation to the Holy Face, this poem ends with contemplation of Doomsday.

118 mayne-paroure. The MED defines main-pernour, n.: “One who offers himself as surety that another (especially a prisoner to be released on bail) will fulfill his legal obligation to appear in a court when required.” The spelling found in MS CUL Ff.2.38 is maynpurnoure (line 82; see Person, Cambridge Middle English Lyrics, p. 13).


GABRIEL’S SALUTATION TO THE VIRGIN          [W21]

Stevens, “Angelus ad virginem,” analyzes Audelay’s poem in relation to the Latin hymn. He notes how Audelay “omits the whole of Stanza 3 of the standard Latin version,” taking instead a stanza unique to Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 147 (p. 310).

Said to be composed by Gabriel, Audelay’s poem begins in dramatic suspense, the reader made privy to the Annunciation in terms that speak delicately, almost erotically, of Mary. “Quakyng” upon Gabriel’s entry, she is destined to become the gate of heaven (line 11). After Gabriel’s salutation “Haile!” stanzas 1 and 2 portray the biblical dialogue (Luke 1:34–35). In stanza 3 Mary’s womb increases for nine months, and, as soon as the Son emerges, he punishes “oure dedly foo” (line 36) in manly fashion, the Passion occurring virtually at once. Stanza 4 celebrates the central miracle — “A maydon to ber a barne!” (line 48). The final stanza conveys the sense of that joy to mankind, praying Mary to intercede for us, allowing us to be included “afftur thys owtlary” (line 60), thus realizing her maternal destiny as the gate of heaven for all mankind.

[Fol. 24rb–va. IMEV, Suppl., NIMEV 3305. Hands: Scribe A, first portion of poem in black (most of stanzas 1–3); Scribe B, remainder of poem in black (lines 36–60), and incipit and explicit in red. (The scribes rarely divide the task of redaction in this manner, but compare Day of the Lord’s Circumcision and Chastity for Mary’s Love.) Initial: Medium T in blue with red filigree (two lines high). Meter: An exquisite Annunciation hymn composed in five 12-line stanzas in an intricately modulated pattern, a₄b₃a₄b₃cc₄dde₂f_3-4e₄f₃, with occasional unevenness. The a-rhyme matches the f-rhyme in the third stanza. The meter is modeled on the Latin original, and was surely fitted to the same music (see Stevens, Music and Poetry, pp. 40–43, who sets stanzas 1, 3, and 5 to the tune). Latin Source: Angelus ad Virginem (Dearmer et al., Oxford Book of Carols, pp. 106–08 [no. 52]; compare Mone, Lateinische Hymnen, 2:55). Middle English Analogue: Brown, English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century, pp. 75–76 (no. 44). Editions: E. Whiting, pp. 159–60, 245–46; Saupe, pp. 47–48, 174–76. Both previous editors have combined lines 7–9 of each 12-line stanza (following the manuscript).]

1 In setting this line to the medieval music for Angelus ad virginem, Stevens, Music and Poetry, p. 40, elides a syllable: “Th’angel.”

4–5 Compare Mary Flower of Women, line 13.

11 Rendering the poem in its musical setting, Stevens, Music and Poetry, p. 40, shortens the phrase thee the to the (= “thee”).

21 In the manuscript this line is written alone, which E. Whiting calls a mistake, but it is an indication of the actual 12-line meter.

25 According to Stevens, Music and Poetry, p. 40, the musical meter elides a syllable: “Th’angel.”

31 outyed. See MED outyede, v.(a), “went out, departed,” though the examples provided there do not include instances of childbirth.

35 knok. Here indeed is a vigorous image of Christ’s birth. The moment is fully conflated with the Passion. Emerging from the womb in battle mode, Jesus bears the cross on his bruised shoulders and delivers the Devil a sound blow. The energy of this startling conceit is somewhat like the violently compressed religious metaphors in The Dispute between Mary and the Cross (see Fein, Moral Love Songs, pp. 87–160, especially lines 1–13, 290, 508–15).

36 Scribe B copies this line and the final two stanzas.

41 sydus sere. For the definition “womb affording safety,” see Putter, “Language and Metre,” p. 509n51. Though the context confirms that Christ is blessing Mary’s literal sides, the phrase suggests the idiom on sydes sere; see MED ser(e, adj.(2)(d), “entirely, all around, in all ways.”

60 Compare Saint Anne Mother of Mary, line 58: “That he wyl affter this outleré,” and the analogous Latin burden of a carol found in MS Balliol 354: “Mater, ora Filium / Vt post hoc exilium / Nobis donet gaudium / Beatorum omnium” (Greene, Early English Carols, p. 119 [no. 178]).


XXX. SONG OF THE MAGNIFICAT          [W22]

This poem, a biblical paraphrase, is Mary’s salutation to her Son and Lord. Its placement by Audelay after Gabriel’s salutation continues the narration of events from Luke 1. Moreover, as a salutation voiced by the Virgin herself, it completes a laudatory “conversation” on Mary in this sequence of praise-poems initiated at Mary’s own request (see incipit to Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love). Other Middle English paraphrases of the Song of the Magnificat are by James Ryman (Greene, Early English Carols, p. 162 [no. 257]) and John Lydgate (in Life of Our Lady, though sometimes copied separately; see IMEV, NIMEV 2574).

[Fols. 24va–25ra. IMEV, Suppl., NIMEV 2271 (erroneously listed as eight 13-line stanzas). Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit and explicit in red. Initial: Medium M in blue with red filigree (two lines high). Meter: Thirteen 8-line stanzas with a Latin refrain, ababbcbC₄. Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 161–64, 246.]

19 you. Compare Luke 1:48: “Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (italics added). The text changes the pronoun from me to you, which may be scribal error. I have left the reading and punctuated so that Mary utters the phrase as God’s own regard and discourse, which seems the only way to interpret the pronoun you.

37 here stat and here degré. See the explanatory note to True Living, lines 130–33.

42 sparpil. See MED sparplen , v. “scatter, disperse.”

49–56 This medieval exemplum is set anachronistically within Mary’s speech, where it illustrates the biblical line on the mighty being cast down from their thrones; see Powell, “John Audelay and John Mirk,” p. 101. On Robert of Sicily, the subject of a Middle English romance, see Hornstein, “King Robert of Sicily,” especially p. 13n2; MWME 1:171–72 [115]; and E. Whiting, p. 246. Audelay seems to know the romance, or at least its legend of Robert’s hearing the Magnificat sung and then questioning that God can put down the mighty and exalt the humble (Luke 1:52).

77 On the formula of falling into sin through frailty, see explanatory note to Audelay’s Epilogue to The Counsel of Conscience, line 154.

91 word of wordis. “forever and ever, to all eternity.” The MED provides many examples of this Middle English phrase deriving from translation of the Vulgate phrases “in saeculum,” “in saeculum saeculi,” “in saecula saeculorum”; see world, n.6(b). Audelay uses the phrase elsewhere in Our Lord’s Epistle on Sunday, lines 99, 142, and God’s Address to Sinful Men, line 259.


XXXI. SALUTATION TO SAINT BRIDGET          [W23]

A married mother of eight, Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303–73) was canonized as saint in 1391. Characterizing Audelay’s salutation to her as “simultaneously heartfelt, eccentric in form, and full of obscure historical reference,” Driver notes how it also provides “important witness” to the historical founding of the Bridgettine order in England (“John Audelay and the Bridgettines,” p. 191). This establishment of the order at Syon Abbey was by royal decree of Henry V in 1415, and its founding built political as well as spiritual capital for the Lancastrian dynasty (Warren, Spiritual Economies, pp. 118–30; Catto, “Religious Change under Henry V,” pp. 110–11; B. Morris, St. Birgitta of Sweden, p. 171). Audelay formally compliments “[o]ur gracious Kyng Herré the V” for this deed (lines 136–48). On the unusual metrics of this piece, see the explanatory note to Salutation to Saint Winifred. Audelay composed these two salutations in the same verse form.

[Fols. 25ra–26rb. IMEV, Suppl., NIMEV 1058. MWME 9:3123. Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit in red. Initial: Large H in blue with red filigree (three lines high). Audelay Signature: Line 202 (Scribe A). Meter: Twenty-three alliterative 9-line stanzas, abab_4-5c_2-3ddd_3-4c_2-3 (compare Salutation to Saint Winifred and Marcolf and Solomon). Middle English Prose Life of Bridget: “The Lyfe of Seynt Birgette” (Blunt, Myroure of Oure Ladye, pp. xlvii–lix). Editions: Cumming, pp. xxxi–xxxvii; E. Whiting, pp. 164–71, 246–47.]

10–18 Bridget’s status as “wedow, wyfe, and may” elevates her to a state similar to Mary’s triune mystical essence (mother, wife, and maiden). The reference here to Mary’s appearance before Bridget stems from The Revelations of Saint Birgitta (see, e.g., Cumming, pp. 106–07). Mary’s early appearance in Audelay’s poem offers transition from the preceding group of salutations and prayers featuring praise of the Virgin. On the curiosity of Bridget’s postmaternal virginity, see Driver, “John Audelay and the Bridgettines,” pp. 191, 195–99.

22 This line resembles Marcolf and Solomon, lines 280 and 316.

35 On “word, will, deed, and thought,” repeated in line 38, see explanatory note to Audelay’s Epilogue to The Counsel of Conscience, line 115.

57 Pope Urban. “Pope Urban V confirmed the Rule of St. Bridget’s congregation in 1370” (E. Whiting, p. 246). See also Cumming, p. xxvi.

63 playn remyssion. A theological term for complete remission of sin, though Audelay seems to use the adj. plein for Anglo-French plener. See MED plenere, adj.(b), and remissioun, n. 2. plenere ? , “full forgiveness of sin; also, remission of punishment (by an indulgence).”

74 mendist. This is the verb minden, “to mention” (MED minden, v.), not menden, “to amend, improve,” as emended by E. Whiting.

84 gemfulli. MED glosses “gemfulli” here to mean “in a caring manner.”

136 Chene. “Sheen (Richmond), in Surrey, the royal manor at which Queen Anne of Bohemia died. After her death Richard [II] destroyed the house but Henry V rebuilt it and founded there the Carthusian house of Sheen” (E. Whiting, p. 246). On the influence of Saint Bridget in England, see Cumming, pp. xxix–xxxix.
136–49 This passage on the founding of Syon Abbey in 1415 honors Henry V for his piety and military prowess on behalf of the nation and reminds Audelay’s readers to pray for the soul of the king who founded the convent within his manor of Isleworth on the Thames, opposite Sheen. On the political importance of Henry V’s foundation of Syon, see Warren, Spiritual Economies, pp. 111–33. Compare, too, lines 195–97 on Henry VI. For a possible Syon connection elsewhere in MS Douce 302, see the explanatory note for An Honest Bed.

140–43 The Vincula Indulgence (in commemoration of Saint Peter’s freedom from prison) was given on Lammas Day (August 1), a festival associated with harvest and the collection of rents. Driver notes the interesting connection between this detail and the book of Margery Kempe: “The Lammas Day pardon given by the Bridgettines to pilgrims to Syon is known to modern scholars mainly because Margery Kempe famously visited Sheen in about 1434, ‘three days before Lammas Day to purchase her pardon through the mercy of the Lord’” (“John Audelay and the Bridgettines,” p. 206).

145 ihold. This reading agrees with E. Whiting; alternatively, one might read, as does Cumming, I hold, “I maintain.”

154–71 These stanzas recount some regulations of the rule of Saint Bridget (modified from the Augustinian rule). See further Aungier, History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, pp. 249–409.

163 See MED unethes, adv.2a.

182 obey obedyans. See explanatory note to Marcolf and Solomon, line 32.

195–97 These three lines invoke a communal prayer for young King Henry VI’s safety.


XXXII. DEVOTIONS TO SAINT WINIFRED          [W24–W25]

This sequence is part of a broad series of salutations that venerate female saints (Mary, Bridget, Winifred, Anne, and Veronica) for their virginity or chastity, and the miraculous healing powers associated with their sanctity.

The sequence of devotions to Winifred consists of:

(1) A salutation to Winifred in carol form (the only carol outside the carols section of the manuscript);
(2) A second salutation, in an alliterative meter that matches Salutation to Saint Bridget;
(3) A Latin verse prayer;
(4) A Latin prose prayer.

The seventh-century Welsh Saint Winifred was, for Audelay, a local saint, her relics having been transferred from Wales to Shrewsbury (four miles north of Haughmond Abbey) in 1138. Holywell was the site of her miraculous spring and a popular destination for pilgrims. It is interesting to note that Saint Winifred’s effigy stands among those carved in the outside arches of the chapter house at Haughmond Abbey. She is there depicted with her foot upon the head of Prince Caradoc, the king’s son who attacked her for her chastity. On the presence of an extended devotion to this saint in MS Douce 302, Melissa Jones, “Swete May, Soulis Leche,” p. 3, notes that “Audelay, consistently fervid about matters of faith throughout his poetry, expresses an authentic appreciation for Winifred’s chastity and healing powers, and the double treatment of her legend indicates the intensity of his devotion.” Winifred’s status and popularity were heightened in 1415 when her feast day was made binding throughout England (Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 44; compare p. 163).

SAINT WINIFRED CAROL          [W24]

The way the scribes share the copying of this carol is different from the pattern found in the carol sequence. There Scribe A always copies the burden, and Scribe B later inserts a title. The Saint Winifred Carol does not receive a title, but Audelay does name its genre, and it does have carol form. Its length may suggest that it was not meant to be sung; Audelay refers to it as being read (line 176).

Audelay’s hagiographic carol combines all three types of the genre: vita, passio, and miraculum. It recounts how the young virgin fled from Prince Caradoc, who, catching hold of her, violently decapitated her. This murderous attempt (for it was ultimately unsuccessful) initiated a host of miracles at the crime scene when a well sprang up from dry land. Several miracles are enumerated, including how Winifred’s life was preserved: her uncle Saint Beuno reset her head on her neck so that only an attractive pearl-like necklace of white skin remained (lines 23–28); henceforth, according to tradition, her name changed from Brewafour to Winifred, “white thread.” For other treatments of Winifred in MS Douce 302, see Salutation to Saint Winifred and Chastity for Mary’s Love, line 19.

[Fol. 26rb–vb. IMEV, NIMEV 413. MWME 6:1992 [317]. Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, burden in red. Initial: Small A in red (1.5 lines high). Audelay Signature: Line 120 (Scribe A). Meter: Thirty 6-line stanzas, aaab_3-4BB₄, with 2-line tetrameter burden. The same 6-line stanza form appears frequently in Audelay’s carol sequence, though none of his carols there matches this one in length. Other English Lives of Winifred: John Mirk, Festial, “De Solempnitate Sancte Wenefrede” (Erbe, pp. 177–82); William Caxton, The Golden Legend (Ellis, 6:127–32). Editions: E. Whiting, pp. 171–75, 247–48; Greene, Early English Carols, pp. 191–93, 420–21 (no. 314).]

16 dry valay. The dryness of the valley precedes the coming of the miraculous spring. Greene cites a parallel passage in prior Robert of Shrewsbury’s Latin legend of Winifred: “Locus vero ubi sanguis illius effusus est primitus sicca vallis dicebatur” (Early English Carols, p. 421). See Robert of Shrewsbury, Admirable Life, pp. 58–59.

23–28 The name Winifred means “white thread,”’ a reference to this visible sign of her passion. The 1635 translation of Robert of Shrewsbury’s legend by recusant I. F. recounts the story thus: “And when the people had cryed with great deuotion, Amen vnto [Beuno’s] prayer, the Virgin as newly wakened from sleep, wiped her eyes & face, besmeared with sweat and dust before, as hauing tumbled on the ground, filling all present, and her Parents there amongst them, with joy and admiration; observing also, as they more fixedly beheld her, a pure white circle, no bigger then a small threed, to remayne in her faire Necke, shewing the place where it had ben cut off before, and was miraculously then to her body conioyned; which because it euer afterwards remayned conspicuously seene after the same manner, Brewa, her name before, is said to haue ben changed by the peoples great veneration, and loue towards her, into Wenefride by Wen, which doth signify white in the old British tongue” (Robert of Shrewsbury, Admirable Life, pp. 56–57).

49–60 The first miracle described by Audelay is of a child swept away in a river who wondrously escapes harm from the millwheel. This account is the first record of a local Holywell tradition associated with Winifred. A similar miracle was recorded in 1608. There a joiner’s four-year-old daughter escaped injury after dangerously falling into the river flowing from the well and being swept under the millwheel. Her mother and Thomas the miller served as witnesses, and Thomas further affirmed that “he knew five other children, that in the same manner had been violently carried under the sayd wheele and had no harme at all thereby” (De Smedt, “Documenta de S. Wenefreda,” p. 318). E. Whiting, pp. 247–48, notes that an analogous story appears in the life of Thomas à Becket.

61–66 The second miracle is somewhat sketchy. Melissa Jones, “Swete May, Soulis Leche,” p. 3, offers this understanding: “a man drops a groat down Winifred’s well and recovers it later, apparently in a different well.” As Greene, Early English Carols, p. 420, notes, some miracles recounted by Audelay are otherwise unknown and probably based “on tradition local to Shrewsbury rather than on a particular written source.”

67–96 Melissa Jones, “Swete May, Soulis Leche,” p. 3, explains the third miracle as follows: “Winifred’s well suddenly and mysteriously ceases to flow when a quantity of wine is stored in her chapel. The water begins to flow again when the wine, which turns out to be poisoned, is cast into the street, and a man taken ill by drinking it is miraculously cured.” Like the incident of the lost groat, this story survives only in Audelay’s narrative.

93 plumys. Greene, Early English Carols, and E. Whiting both gloss this word “pumps,” but that meaning seems contrary to the workings of a natural well. The meaning is “plumes,” with an image of the well waters shooting up as feathery spray. Winifred’s well is a metonym for her head; she communicates by means of its miraculous waters. Hedus bere means, therefore, “head’s gesture.” See MED bere, n.(9)(b), “bearing, gesture, manner.”

157–60 Greene, Early English Carols, p. 421, observes that “There may be a reference here to the natural gratification of Shrewsbury people at the order of 1391 for the feast of St. Winifred to be observed throughout the province of Canterbury.”

165 soulis leche. Melissa Jones, “Swete May, Soulis Leche,” p. 5, suggests that Audelay’s devotion to Winifred may be, in part, a personal appeal from the afflicted chaplain to her miraculous healing capacities

169–74 This stanza is adapted and repeated in Saint Francis, lines 67–70.

172 pray. E. Whiting’s emendation to fray is unnecessary and changes the sense (Greene, Early English Carols, p. 421). The phrase Fyndis pray occurs in Audelay’s Day of the Lord’s Circumcision, line 8. For Fyndis fray, see Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 68, and Saint Francis, line 51.

176 Redis this carol. Greene, Early English Carols, p. 420, comments: “The use of ‘Redis’ instead of ‘Singis’ in the last stanza might be taken to show recognition by Audelay that he was in this case writing a literary narrative instead of a lyric to be sung. But the word is similarly used in [Audelay’s Saint Francis], and the rhyming of the fourth line of each stanza with the burden leaves no doubt that the piece is intended as a true carol”; see also Copley, “John Audelay’s Carols and Music,” pp. 211–12. Compare Saint Francis, lines 73–78.



SALUTATION TO SAINT WINIFRED          [W25]

As a salutation to Winifred, this piece is a companion to the preceding carol. Metrically, however, it belongs with Salutation to Saint Bridget. Both employ heteromorphic alliterative meter in the long lines and a “Haile” anaphora. The alliteration is sometimes irregular, with aa/bb alliterative patterns permitted, as in much stanzaic alliterative verse (see, e.g., The Four Leaves of the Truelove [Fein, Moral Love Songs, pp. 171–73]). The stanza is a 9-line variant of that used (in thirteen lines) by Audelay in Marcolf and Solomon and Over-Hippers and Skippers. The chief differences rest in the absence of one long-line quatrain and the presence of the anaphora. The chaplain may have been familiar with a late fourteenth-century practice of composing saints’ hymns in 14-line alliterative stanzas (compare the hymns to Saints Katherine, John the Evangelist, and John the Baptist [Ruth Kennedy, ed., Three Alliterative Saints’ Hymns]; two of these hymns employ anaphora).

[Fol. 26vb–27rb. IMEV, NIMEV 1084. Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit and explicit in red. Initial: Medium H in blue with red filigree (two lines high). Meter: Seven alliterative 9-line stanzas, abab_4-5c_2-3ddd_3-4c_2-3 (compare Salutation to Saint Bridget and Marcolf and Solomon). Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 175–78, 248.]

30 chere. E. Whiting notes that this verb is a preterite with final d omitted.

33 servys. E. Whiting notes the use here of the present tense for the preterite (and provides other manuscript examples).

56 Grownder. This word recurs in a similar context in Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, line 11, and the MED cites Audelay for its earliest known usage. See grounder, n., “originator; basis, origin.”


LATIN VERSE PRAYER VIRGO PIA WYNFRYDA          [W25]

[Fol. 27rb. Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit in red. Initials: Black initial letters of each line marked in red. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 178.]

LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI BEATAM VIRGINEM TUAM WENFRYDAM          [W25]

This prayer emphasizes the saint’s miraculous restoration to bodily wholeness, which pertains to her power to heal others.

[Fol. 27rb. Hands: Scribe A, incipit (Oremus) and poem in black; Scribe B, incipit (collecte) in red. There is a blue paraph before the word Oremus. Initial: Medium D in red (two lines high), with quatrefoil drawn inside it. Each letter of the final A. M. E. N. is marked in red. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 178.]

XXXIII. DEVOTIONS TO SAINT ANNE          [W26]

This sequence consists of an English verse salutation and a Latin prose prayer. Audelay emphasizes in both parts the miracle of Saint Anne’s fruitful womb, which gave birth to Mary after a long period of barrenness. As with Saint Winifred, Audelay composed both a salutation and a carol in honor of Saint Anne, mother of Mary; see Saint Anne Mother of Mary in the next section.

SALUTATION TO SAINT ANNE          [W26]

Woolf, English Religious Lyric, p. 296, calls Audelay’s style in this gaude poem “a pleasing example of how well limpid simplicity of style can carry complexities of story or thought.” In its use of the imagery of the Tree of Jesse, it links with Audelay’s two carols that play upon that theme, Saint Anne Mother of Mary and Jesus Flower of Jesse’s Tree. The wondrous quality of Saint Anne’s unexpected fertility, leading to the birth of Mary and later the Messiah, contributes to a conceptual thread of miraculous healing that runs through the salutations. For references to other Middle English treatments of Saint Anne, see Parker, Middle English Stanzaic Versions, pp. x–xi. On the legend of Saint Anne, see Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (trans. Ryan, 2:149–58). Useful modern studies of the cult of Saint Anne include Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 181–83; Ronan, S. Anne; Ashley and Sheingorn, Interpreting Cultural Symbols; and Nixon, Mary’s Mother.

[Fol. 27rb. IMEV, NIMEV 894. Hands: Scribe A, poem in black; Scribe B, incipit in red. Initial: Medium G in blue with red filigree (two lines high). Meter: Six septenary 4-line stanzas, abab₇, with Latin anaphoras “Gaude, felix Anna” (line 1) and “Gaude” (lines 2–4). Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 178–79, 248.]

4 frelé Food. A common phrase for a noble child or baby. See MED freli, adj.1(a), and fode, n.(2) 1. (a). Many examples refer to the Christ Child.

5–8 Compare Saint Anne Mother of Mary, lines 36–38, and Jesus Flower of Jesse’s Tree, lines 3–4. The development of Mary as a branch of Jesse features in those two carols and in Salutation to Mary, line 4. On Anne’s iconographic place in this tradition, see Sheingorn, “Appropriating the Holy Kinship,” pp. 170–71, and Sautman, “Saint Anne in Folk Tradition,” p. 85. On the Tree of Jesse tradition in general, see Watson, Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse.

9–12 The consonance of the rhyme words in these lines resembles the style found in Paternoster and Three Dead Kings. According to Putter, “Language and Metre,” p. 514, Audelay’s effort here — compared to the pyrotechnics of those poems — is “mere child’s play.”

13–16 On Anne’s long period of barrenness, compare Saint Anne Mother of Mary, lines 15–18.

14 clene. Woolf, Early English Lyric, p. 296, comments: “The precise meaning of ‘clene’ is not plain: it could refer either to the legend that St. Anne miraculously conceived at the moment when she and Joachim embraced at the Golden Gate or, more probably, to the less fanciful belief, that Mary, being begotten at God’s command in the passionless quiet of old age, was born without any taint of lust. Whatever the interpretation, the verse shows the purity of the Virgin reflected in the chaste circumstances of her conception and her pre-eminence emphasized by supernatural intervention in the natural course of procreation.”


LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI BEATAM ANNAM          [W26]

[Fol. 27rb–va. Hands: Scribe A, long incipit and prayer in black; Scribe B, word collecte, in red. Initials: Medium D in red (two spaces high), with face drawn inside it. In the long incipit the black letters O (Ore), q (quia), and O (Oremus) are marked in red. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 179.]

1 Red initial D has a face drawn inside it, as elsewhere when a prayer opens with an address to God. Compare Pope John’s Passion of Our Lord, line 89, and Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love, line 91.


XXXIIII. MEDITATION ON THE HOLY FACE          [W27]

This sequence consists of:

(1) Latin prose instructions, which identify the salutation as carrying an indulgence from Rome, granted by Pope Boniface IV and designed to be said twenty days in a row;
(2) A drawing of Christ’s Face on the Veronica Shroud, a visual meditative site to accompany the verbal exercise;
(3) A salutation to the Holy Face;
(4) A closing prayer in Latin prose.

The sequence of salutations brings one to this point of climax, as if rehearsing the much-anticipated sight of God’s holy face on Doomsday itself. The overarching devotional logic possesses an aesthetic wholeness: from God incarnate in Mary’s womb (Salutation to Jesus for Mary’s Love) to God upon the sudary of Veronica. In each, God is imaged in human form and made accessible by the mediation of female sanctity. Thus God’s miraculous Incarnation is experienced as real and translatable into spiritual grace for the sinner. In a climate of Lollard challenges regarding prayer to saints, a greater turn toward Christocentric piety led orthodox believers to use figures of the body of Christ — the Veronica, for example — as a means to approach God (Richmond, “Religion,” pp. 188–90; Hudson, Premature Reformation, pp. 311–13; Pollard, Late Medieval England, pp. 218–19).
 

LATIN INSTRUCTIONS QUICUMQUE HANC SALUTACIONEM          [W27]

[Fol. 27va. Hands: Scribe B, in red. Edition: E. Whiting, p. 179.]

incipit Bonefacia papa. The incipit explains that the salutation carries an indulgence authorized by Boniface IV, pope from 608 to 615.


SALUTATION TO THE HOLY FACE          [W27]

The drawing resembles one of a series commonly found on indulgence rolls, with lyrics to go with each illustration (the Arma Christi; NIMEV 2577), as reproduced in R. Morris, Legends of the Holy Rood, pp. 170–93, especially pp. 170–71. Sometimes the lyrics migrated into manuscripts, but their primary medium was probably the pocket-size velum roll; compare London, BL MSS Addit. 22029 and Addit. 32006 (both rolls) with London, BL MS Royal 17 A.27, fol. 80r–v, and MS Addit. 11748, fols. 144v–157r (both manuscripts, the latter one lacking the illustrations). A poem often appended to the Arma Christi explains that viewing this image of the Vernicle will grant pardon (NIMEV 1370; R. Morris, pp. 194–96, lines 216–18; see also the alternate ending printed on p. 192). On the Arma Christi rolls, see Robbins, “‘Arma Christi’ Rolls”; Gray, “Middle English Illustrated Poem,” pp. 187–89; and A. Nichols, “O Vernicle.” For a provocative essay on the tradition in general, see Hirsh, Boundaries of Faith, pp. 124–49, especially pp. 129–36. Elsewhere, Audelay uses the tradition in Seven Bleedings of Christ, an indulgence prayer-poem.

[Drawing: Fol. 27va. Hand: The drawing, in black ink, with mouth colored red, was probably made by Scribe B. The red ink matches the Latin instructions copied immediately above. This drawing does not appear in E. Whiting's edition. Salutation: Fol. 27va. IMEV, NIMEV 3073. Hand: Scribe A, in black. Initial: A black D in the explicit (Dedisti) is marked in red. Meter: Four 6-line stanzas, aa₇b₃aa₇b₃, with Latin anaphora “Salve” marking the first and fourth lines. Even though the scribe has marked every three lines with paraphs, the rhymes indicate 6-line stanzas. Edition: E. Whiting, pp. 179–80, 248 (poem printed in 3-line stanzas).]

5 Veroneca. On the legend of Veronica, which stresses the healing power of the cloth and its image, see Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (trans. Ryan, 1:212). Compare too Audelay’s Seven Bleedings of Christ, lines 67–72 (another prayer indulgence). Citrome discusses the perceived healing power of Veronica’s veil, which features in The Siege of Jerusalem and many charms (Surgeon, pp. 64–65). On the popularity of the Vernicle in English medieval devotions, see Duffy, Marking the Hours, pp. 14–15, 28, 54. A bas-de-page scene of Veronica receiving the image of Christ on her veil (perhaps the earliest example in England) appears in the Carew-Poynz Hours (Fitzwilliam Museum MS 48, fol. 75; reproduced by Binski and Panayotova, Cambridge Illuminations, p. 195). I am indebted to Ann Nichols for this reference.

13 On the formula of falling into sin through frailty, see explanatory note to Audelay’s Epilogue to The Counsel of Conscience, line 154.

22 nuye grimsli. “Harm grimly.” See MED grimsli, adv., where this line is the only passage cited.


LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI NOBIS SIGNATUM VULTIS          [W27]

[Fol. 27va. Hands: Scribe A, incipit (Oremus) and prayer in black; Scribe B, incipit (collecte), in red. Initials: Medium initial D in red (two lines high), with quatrefoil drawn inside it. The black O in the incipit is marked in red. Other Manuscripts: Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 93, fol. 6v (Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, vol. 1, fig. 24). Edition: E. Whiting, p. 180.]

JOHN AUDELAY, SALUTATIONS: TEXTUAL NOTES

The following notes record readings of the manuscript at those points where other editors have made different assessments of the textual evidence, as well as at points of important physical detail.

In general, Scribe A copied texts, and Scribe B later added incipits and explicits and acted as proofreader. Wherever Scribe B played a significant, uncharacteristic role in the textual copying, the affected lines are noted. Not noted, however, are the many correcting marks made by the scribes. Wherever final readings are determinate, those readings are adopted without comment. On how the scribes divided their work on particular items, see the explanatory notes.

Modernized editions with altered spellings and wordings (Chambers and Sidgwick 1907, Davies, Haberly, Sisam and Sisam, and Sitwell) are not recorded in the textual notes. Hands that date later than those of the two scribes are also not recorded. In MS Douce 302 there are two significant early hands, both probably medieval:

(1) An inexperienced writer who copies stray phrases in the margin (fols. 16rb, 16va, 29ra, 34rb, and 35ra).

(2) A doodler, whose simple drawings and occasional crosses appear most frequently on upper recto pages, b-column, perhaps to record his reading progress (fols. 3rb, 5rb, 6rb, 7rb, 9rb [two marks], 10rb, 11rb, 13rb, 18rb [the climax of The Vision of Saint Paul], 27vb, and 28va). The involvement of this reader is evident in his drawing of a sleeved hand pointing to the word “assencion” in Salutation to Christ’s Body, line 26 (fol. 10rb), a line that marks the raising of the host in the Levation.

There are also two modern readers whose hands appear on the pages of MS Douce 302:

(1) A reader who notes the correspondence of True Living, line 78, and Chastity of Wives, line 8, by inserting in fine-line black ink the cross-reference in the margins of fols. 1rb and 30va. This may be the same hand that numbers the folios in the upper right-hand corners. It may also be the hand that “corrects” the reading Hontis in Three Dead Kings, line 11.

(2) A reader who marks texts in pencil, using left-hand marginal crosses and long vertical squiggles to highlight passages of interest. This reader was perhaps an early cataloguer. He is especially interested in political comments and in Audelay’s self-identifications in signatures and autobiographical moments. His hand pervades the book, appearing beside the texts of True Living, Marcolf and Solomon, Visiting the Sick and Consoling the Needy, Instructions for Reading 2, Audelay’s Prayer Explicit to Pope John’s Passion, Our Lord’s Epistle on Sunday, The Vision of Saint Paul, Audelay’s Epilogue to The Counsel of Conscience, Song of the Magnificat, Salutation to Saint Bridget, Saint Winifred Carol, King Henry VI, Joys of Mary, Virginity of Maids, Chastity of Wives, Dread of Death, Saint Francis, Over-Hippers and Skippers, An Honest Bed, Paternoster, Three Dead Kings, and Audelay’s Conclusion.

In addition to these extraneous hands, the book contains a few marks of early ownership. Erased notes on fol. 35rb (visible by ultraviolet light) record that a Coventry minstrel named William Wyatt once possessed the book, and that he passed it on to an Augustinian canon named John Barker in Launde, Leicestershire. These transactions likely took place in the fifteenth century. On fol. 35v, which looks like an original outside cover of the book, the name “John” appears many times amid doodles and verse jottings unrelated to the contents of MS Douce 302. A much later owner was late eighteenth-century bibliophile Richard Farmer, master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, whose handwritten sheet catalogue was bound with the book in 1803 by Francis Douce, its next owner. Douce contributed the woodcut pasted into the back inside cover of the bound book, which makes reference to Three Dead Kings (Fein, “Life and Death,” pp. 90–91; Fein, “John Audelay and His Book,” pp. 5, 24n13). Later, in 1834, Douce’s vast collection of manuscripts, charters, books, and antiquarian holdings transferred to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. A detailed history of ownership and printed descriptions of MS Douce 302 is provided in Fein, “John Audelay and His Book,” pp. 4–15.

Abbreviations: C: Cumming; CS¹: Chambers and Sidgwick 1910; CS²: Chambers and Sidgwick 1911; Di: Dickins (lexical comments); Do: Doyle; F¹: Fein 1985; F²: Fein 1994; G¹: Greene 1962; G²: Greene 1977; Ha: Halliwell; Hi: Hirsh 2005; K: Kaiser; M: McIntosh (lexical comments); Mo: R. Morris 1872; MS: Douce 302; P: Priebsch; Pu: Putter; R: Robbins 1959; S: Sandys; Sa: Saupe; Si: Silverstein 1971; SJ: Storck and Jordan; St: Stanley 2009 (lexical comments); T: Turville-Petre 1989; W: Whiting.


XXVIII. DEVOTIONS TO JESUS AND MARY HIS MOTHER          [W19]

incipits Written by Scribe B on three lines.


SALUTATION TO JESUS FOR MARY’S LOVE          [W19]

3 Hale. So MS. W: Hayle.

8 swet. So W. MS: swe.

25 Hayle. So MS (Haly, with e interlined above the a and l). W: Hayl.
synnys. So W. MS: synnyis (i interlined).

41 hert. So MS. W: hort.
myn. So W. MS: mynt.

44 ale. So MS. W: al.
moner. So W. MS: noner.

45 grace. So W. MS: gra.

81 lady. So W. MS: lad.

121 stidfast. So W. MS: sidfast.

124 these. So W. MS: þe.

128 ye. MS, W: He.

141 I. So W. MS: omitted.

143 make. So MS (e abbreviated). W: mak.


SALUTATION TO MARY          [W20]

28 vergyns. So W. MS: vergyng (er abbreviated).

50 wyght. MS: iyõt. W: wiyõt.

51 to. So W. MS: ton (n abbreviated).

68 Too. So MS. W: To.

82 us. So MS. W: ys.


GABRIEL’S SALUTATION TO THE VIRGIN          [W21]

7 schal. MS, W, Sa: schalt. Emended for rhyme.

11 thee the. MS, W: þe þe. Sa: the thee.

16 stedfast. So W, Sa. MS: sedfast.

21 This line is written alone, which W calls a mistake, but it is an indication of the actual 12-line meter.

25 this. So MS. W, Sa: thie.

33 the. So W, Sa. MS: þ.
floke. So MS (e abbreviated). W, Sa: flok.

35 holé. So W, Sa. MS: hohole.

36–60 Scribe B copies this line and the final two stanzas.

42 ded. So MS. W, Sa: did.

43 ber. So MS, W. Sa: ther.

52 leene. So MS. W, Sa: leane.


XXX. SONG OF THE MAGNIFICAT          [W22]

4 vergyn and. So MS (& interlined). W: vergyn (reads vergyng).

16 mea. So W. MS: mead.

17 makenes. So MS. W: mekenes.

23 mangefygat. So MS. W: mangnefygat.

31 the. So MS (þe). W: ye.

50 be. So MS. W: he.

57 pittis. So MS. W: putis.

69 hor. So MS. W: her.

76 is. So MS. W: His.

80 mea. So W. MS: omitted.


XXXI. SALUTATION TO SAINT BRIDGET          [W23]

incipit illi suam. So C, W. MS: illa suam.
benedictionem. So W. MS, C: benedictionem suam.

3 thi. So MS, W. C: þu.

15 tere. So W. MS, C: chere.

18 and. So MS (&), W. C: ond.

22 Hayle. So C, W. MS: Hay.

28 tresour. So W. MS, C: tesouur.

30 never. So MS, W. C: omitted.

31 faythfullé. So MS, W. C: fayþfully.

36 schuld. So MS, C. W: chuld.

38 wil. So MS, W. C: will.

43 dystré. So MS, W. C: distre.

50 he. So MS, W. C: omitted.

51 grace. So C. MS, W: crace. Emended for alliteration.

52 plase. So MS, W. C: place.

56 fere. So MS, W. C: fore.

60 Peters. So C, W. MS: Petrs.

65 becawse. So MS, W. C: be-cause.

69 schal. So MS, W. C: schall.

76 worthelé. So W, C. MS: wo...þele.

84 gemfulli. So MS, W. C: gracfulli.

88 chryven. So MS, W. C: chryve.

94 reverens. So W. MS: reuerent. C: reuerenc.

104 pardoun. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: perdon.

106 vesityn. So MS, W. C: veset yn.

108 everechon. So MS (er abbreviated), W. C: euerchon.

110 Governoure. So C. MS, W: couernoure. Emended for alliteration.

116 Treneté. So MS, W. C: trenite.
recomend. So MS, W. C: recommend.

123 Thus. So MS (us abbreviated), W. C: Þer.

127 prelat. So MS (re abbreviated), W. C: prelet.

132 werchip. So MS, C. W: worchip.

134 joi. So W, C. MS: oi.

143 pardon. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: perdon.

144 part. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: a pert.

151 pardon. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: perdon.

156 no. So MS, W. C: omitted.

158 the. So C, W. MS: he.

161 the. So W. MS, C: þer.

163 onethus. So W. MS: oneþtus (us abbreviated). C: oneþtes.

166 prevé. So MS (re abbreviated), W. C: prive.
Prynce. So W. MS, C: Priynce (ri abbreviated).

167 nyght. So MS, W. C: niõt.

172 gostelé. So MS, W. C: gotele.

173 part. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: pert.

175 part. So MS (ar abbreviated), W. C: pert.

179 lasce. So MS, C. W: lasse.

180 Bot. So C, W. MS: Bo.

192 worthé. MS, W, C: worþ.

195 Kyng. So W. MS: knyg.

196 nyght. So MS, W. C: niõt.

201 hom. So MS, W. C: hem.

205 reverens. So C, W. MS: reuers.


SAINT WINIFRED CAROL          [W24]

1 As. So W, G². MS: Aas with capital A written in blue in the margin.

19 Then. So W, G². MS: Þe.

31 han. So MS, G². W: had.

46 numerus. So MS, G². W: immens.

50 a myl-wele. So MS (wele interlined), G². W: myl.

52 might. So MS (i interlined), W. G²: meght.

93 plumys. So W, G². MS: pulmys.

124 vestementus. So MS, G². W: vestementis.

130 then. So W, G². MS: þe.

172 pray. So MS, G². W: fray.


SALUTATION TO SAINT WINIFRED          [W25]

7 mervell. So MS. W: mervelle.

10 charité. So MS. W: charete.

38 Haile. So MS (written in margin). W: omitted.

42 eswem. So W. MS: yeswem.

49 Haile, him to love. So W. MS: phrase written twice.

56 Governour. MS, W: Covernour. Emended for alliteration.


LATIN VERSE PRAYER VIRGO PIA WYNFRYDA          [W25]

5 Quia per te. Written in the left margin. The e of est is marked in red.


LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI BEATAM VIRGINEM TUAM WENFRYDAM          [W25]

vergenem. So MS (er abbreviated). W: virgenem.
interveneente. So MS. W: interveniente.
conveneente. So MS. W: conveneante.
ipsissem. So W. MS: ipisse.


SALUTATION TO SAINT ANNE          [W26]

5 bere. So W. MS: here.
blesful. So W. MS: besful.

18 Gaude. So W. MS: Gauede.


LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI BEATAM ANNAM          [W26]

incipit collecte. So W. MS: collecta.

venerantes in hora mortis. So W. MS: venerantes in hore morte in hora mortis.
salvatur. So MS (ur abbreviated). W: salvator.


LATIN INSTRUCTIONS QUICUMQUE HANC SALUTACIONEM          [W27]

2 papa. MS: word seems to have been crossed out and then restored. W: omitted.


SALUTATION TO THE HOLY FACE          [W27]

2 schynth. So W. MS: schynþt.

10 us. So MS. W: omitted.

23 grant. So MS. W: graunt.

explicit in corde. So W. MS: phrase written twice.


LATIN PROSE PRAYER DEUS QUI NOBIS SIGNATUM VULTIS          [W27]

1 instanciam So MS. W: infanciam.

2 nunc. So W. MS: nuc.