Lullay_My_Liking

Lullay, mine liking

Lullay, mine liking

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"Lullay, mine liking" is a Middle English lyric poem or carol of the 15th century which frames a narrative describing an encounter of the Nativity with a song sung by the Virgin Mary to the infant Christ.[1] The refrain is an early example of an English lullaby; the term "lullaby" is thought to originate with the "lu lu" or "la la" sound made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and "by" or "bye bye", another lulling sound (for example in the similarly ancient Coventry Carol).[2]

Madonna and Child in a 14th century wall painting, Oxfordshire.

There are a number of surviving medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus which take the form of a lullaby, of which this is probably the most famous example.[2] Written by an anonymous hand, the text is found uniquely in Sloane MS 2593, a collection of medieval lyrics now held in the British Library.[3]

Originally intended to be sung, no evidence of the work's musical setting survives, and since its rediscovery and the musical possibilities suggested by the text have led to diverse interpretations by numerous composers including Philip Stopford, Edgar Pettman, Peter Warlock, R. R. Terry, Gustav Holst, Ronald Corp, David Willcocks, Philip Lawson and Richard Rodney Bennett.

These are sometimes titled "I saw a fair maiden" whereas "Myn Lyking" is used in the versions by R.R. Terry and Ronald Corp (as the first of the latter's Three Medieval Carols).[4]

Text

More information Middle English original spelling, Middle English converted ...

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Mary Gertrude Segar, A mediæval anthology: being lyrics and other short poems, chiefly religious (London: Longmans, Green and co., 1915), p.66
  2. [2]
    H. Carpenter and M. Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 326.
  3. [3]
    Douglas Gray, Themes and images in the medieval English religious lyric (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1972) p.111
  4. [4]
    Three Medieval Carols by Ronald Corp, published 1975 by Stainer and Bell Archived 2011-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
  5. [5]
    Thomas Wright, Songs and carols from a manuscript in the British Museum of the fifteenth century, (London: T. Richards, 1856), pp.94-95
  6. [6]
    Edmund K. Chambers, F. Sidgwick, Early English Lyrics - Poetry Amorous, Divine, Moral and Trivial, (Manchester: Ayer Publishing, 1973) ISBN 978-0-405-08347-1 p.131
  7. [7]
    Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700, (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 66.
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