The Rise of the New English.
207
This sang wroʓt a frere,
Jhesu Crist be is secure!
Loverd, bring him to the toure!
frere Michel Kyldare;
Schild him fram helle boure,
Whan he sal hen fare!
Levedi, flur of al honur,
cast awei is care;
Fram the schoure of pinis sure
thou sild him her and thare! Amen.[1]
SOMERSETSHIRE (?)
(About A.D. 1300.)
Wharfore ich and Annas
To-fonge Jhesus of Judas,
vor thrytty panes to paye.
We were wel faste to helle y-wronge,
Vor hym that for ʓou was y-stonge,
in rode a Godefridaye.
. . . . . .
Man, at fulloʓt, as chabbe yrad,
Thy saule ys Godes hous y-mad,
and tar ys wassche al clene.
Ac after fullouʓt thoruʓ fulthe of synne,
Sone is mad wel hory wythinne,
alday hit is y-sene.[2]
- ↑ Reliquiœ Antiquœ, II. 193. From the Southern dialect of this piece, we might readily gather, even if history did not help us, that the early English settlers in Ireland came, not from Chester, but from Bristol and from ports near Bristol. The Wexford dialect is said to be very like that of Somerset and Dorset.
- ↑ Do., p. 242. The chabbe (ich habbe) reminds us of Edgar's dialect in Lear, and of the Somersetshire ballads in Percy's Reliques. The word bad (malus) occurs in this piece, which made its first appearance in Robert of Gloucester; it is also found in the Handlyng Synne.
