1. THE CUCKOO SONG (WITH THE MUSIC), CIRCÀ A.D. 1240. The Harleian MS. 978, in the British Museum, was a monk's album or commonplace book. It is a small vellum MS. entirely of the xmth century, but evidently written by many hands at different times. The contents are very miscellaneous. It begins with several musical pieces, some with and some without words, Latin, French, and English; it proceeds to give an account of musical notation and tones, then suddenly commences a calendar, of which only the first two months are complete, though the others are blocked in. Then comes a letter to Alexander the Great on the preservation of health, Avicenna on the same, account of the seasons, melancholy, etc., all in Latin. On fo. 24, the language changes to French, and we have recipes for oxymel, hypocrase, etc. On fo. 32, the hand changes, but the recipes are continued. The language reverts to Latin on fo. 32b, and the hand changes again on fo. 336, col. 2, line 2. Without pursuing the catalogue further, we may notice a change of hand again on fo. 37 and fo. 38, where a beautifully written French Esop commences. We have again a different hand on fo. 66b, and so on. In the later part of the volume is a Latin poem of (twice) 968 lines on the Battle of Lewes, 14th May, 1264, (printed by Mr. T. Wright in his Political Songs, pp. 72-121), in which the cause of the Barons against Henry III., is so warmly taken,' that it must have been composed, and probably also transcribed, before they were utterly routed and ruined abnormal, and for this purpose the acute accent may be used, as (kiáa⋅ro, giáttshio), and similarly (eá, có) in some theoretical pronunciations of anglo-saxon, and this accent may be used in all cases if desired. In Icelandic I have heard the triphthong (ioou) with the unusual stress on the first, and (ie) when apparently (ié) was written, and in such cases the mark is indispensable. In Icelandic, I have also found it necessary to symbolize a very faint pronunciation of a letter, rather indicated than pronounced, rather felt by the speaker than heard by the listener, by prefixing a cut [, to such a letter, as the symbol of evanescence, so that we might write (ea) for (éa) that is (ea), or (kiaa ro, giattshio) if preferred. If it is wished to shew that a whole word or phrase is so spoken, then it should be enclosed between 1; thus, clergymen will frequently faintly indicate words preceding an accented syllable, as 'n it kee im Lt pahs) and it came to pass. These symbols must be considered as appended to the list of palaeotypic signs, suprà p. 12. L 1 Compare the opening lines- domine virtutum, discant universi, fideles lætantur. det prosperitatem! Wright prints each pair of lines in one, at Evesham, 4th Aug. 1265., This is therefore important in fixing the date of the MS., but Sir Frederick Madden assigns to the first portion of the MS. a date twenty or thirty years earlier, and believes that the writer, that is, transcriber,-by no means, necessarily, author-was a monk of the Monastery at Reading, founded by Henry I, 1125.1 shall find the same smoothness in a very similar metre in Orrmin, and hence must expect that the English versification of the present period will also run without stumbling, unless the writer is very uncultivated. 1 The following notes are written in pencil at the beginning of the volume. The whole is of the thirteenth century, except some writing on ff. 15b17. F.M." "In all probability the earlier portion of this volume was written in the Abbey of Reading, about the year 1240. Compare the Obits in the Calendar with those in the Calendar of the Cartulary of Reading, in MS. Cott. Vesp. E.V. F.M. April 1862." Mr. William Chappell has kindly favoured me with the inspection of a letter from Sir F. Madden, in which he gives the grounds for this opinion, and as the date of the MS. is of considerable importance to our investigation I add an abstract of the same, which Sir F. M. has politely revised. 1. It is certain that the first part of the MS. (say the first 30 folios) is considerably older than the second, which contains the poem on the battle of Lewes composed 1264. 2. In this first part is a portion of a calendar, containing the obits of Abbots Roger 19 Jan. [1164]; Auscherius 27 Jan. [1135]; Reginald 3 Feb. [1158]; Joseph 8 Feb. [circà 1180]; and Symon 13 Feb. [1226]. In Browne Willis's History of the Mitred Parliamentary Abbies, etc., 1718, vol 1, p. 159, all these Abbots are named, as Abbots of Reading. 3. The complete calendar, left unfinished in Harl. 978, is found [with the exception of Dec.] in the Cartulary of Reading, Cotton MS. Vesp. E.V. fo. 116 to fo. 166. The latest obit recorded in the old writing of the months after Feb., is that of Abbot Adam de Latebury, 6 April 1238, all later obits are in a clearly marked later hand. The part of the Cartulary coeval with the Calendar was written about 1240, for fo. 226 contains a charter dated 24 Henry III., 1239-40, and at fo. 336 is a marginal note written subsequently to the text, and dated 29 Hen. III., 1244-5. In Jan. and Feb. the obits are the same as in Harl. 978, [with this difference that in the Harl. MS. Abbot Roger's obit is given under 19 Jan., and in the Cotton MS. under 20 Jan.] From these facts Sir F. M. "considers it proved by internal evidence, First, that the Calendar in both MS." and consequently the preceding parts, "was written in 1240 or very little later. Secondly, that the Calendars... were undoubtedly written at Reading, by a monk of that house. Lastly," he adds, "there is a remarkable entry in the Calendar of Harl. 978 (but omitted in that of Vesp. E.V.) on St. Wulstan's day, 19th Jan., as follows:-Ora, Wulstare, pro nostro fratre Johanne de de Fornsete. I am strongly tempted to regard this John de Fornsett, (who, from his name must have been a native of Norfolk), as the Scribe of the MS., for I cannot otherwise account for the odd introduction of his name in the Calendar." The entry referred to is literally as follows, the italics indicating extended contractions:-"x1111 kalendas Wistanı episcopi obiit Rogerus abbas. Ora Wlstane pro nostro fratre Johanne de fornfete." The omission of the u after W, as in Wulstan is not uncommon, but it is noteworthy in this place, because in the English Song, which will be presently given at length, wde for wude occurs, and this à priori connects the two writers together, but of course the person who wrote that entry, which is in exactly the same handwriting as the rest, could not have been John of Fornsett. Hence I should consider this entry as making it highly probable that this monk was not the scribe, and the singular insertion may be due to his having been an intimate friend This MS. contains on fo. 106. the music and words of the CUCKOO SONG, which, Mr. W. Chappell says, "is not only one of the first English songs with or without music, but the first example of counterpart in six parts, as well as of fugue, catch, and canon; and at least a century, if not two hundred years, earlier than any composition of the kind produced out of England." This song which of the scribe. The MS. was evidently one for private use, and this note of a friend's death is anything but surprising. "You are probably right as to John de Fornsete not being the scribe," remarks Sir F. M., "still the introduction of his name is very singular, and I do not recollect any other instance of a friend being thus commemorated." The above historical external evidence of the real date of this MS., is rendered the more important because Hawkins 2, 93, and Burney 2, 405 in their Histories of Music, attribute it to the xv th century, "misled," says Sir F. M., "by an ignorant note of Dr. Gifford on the fly-leaf of the volume," and by the nature of the musical composition, which they supposed could not have been written before the time of John of Dunstable in the xv th century, an opinion refuted by Mr. W. Chappell, who quotes Walter Odlington, 1228-1240 (Scriptorum de Musica Medii Ævi novam seriem a Gerbertina alteram collegit nuncque primum edidit E. de Coussemaker, Paris, 1863, 4to., p. 245) to this effect: "Habet quidem Discantus species plures. Et si quod unus cantat omnes per ordinem recitent, vocatur Rondellus, id est, rotabilis vel circumductus." We also know that the English spelling of Cuckoo in the xv th century was Cuckow, not Cuccu, which could only have been used in the XIII th. 1 W. Chappell, F.S.A. Popular Music of the olden time, a collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, illustrative of the National Music of England, etc. The whole of the airs harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. (Printed 1855-9) p. 23. Mr. Chappell has given a facsimile of this song as the title page to his work, and says, in the explanation of that plate: 66 The composition is in what was called 'perfect time,' and therefore every long note must be treated as dotted, unless it is immediately followed by a short note (here of diamond shape) to fill the time of the dot. The music is ... on six lines, and if the lowest line were taken away, the remaining would be the five now employed in part music, where the C clef is used on the third line for a counter-tenor voice. The Round has been recently sung in public, and gave so much satisfaction, even to modern hearers, that a repetition was demanded." He adds in another place, p. 23:-"The chief merit of this song is the airy and pastoral correspondence between the words and music, and I believe its superiority to be owing to its having been a national song and tune, selected according to the custom of the time as a basis for harmony, and that it is not entirely a scholastic composition. The fact of its having a natural drone bass would tend rather to confirm this view than otherwise. The bagpipe, the true parent of the organ, was then in use as a rustic instrument throughout Europe. The rote, too, which was in somewhat better estimation, had a drone, like the modern hurdy-gurdy, from the turning of its wheel. When the canon is sung the key-note may be sustained throughout, and it will be in accordance with the rules of modern harmony. But the foot or burden, as it stands in the ancient copy, will produce a very indifferent effect on a modern ear,we ought perhaps to except the lover of Scotch reels-from its constantly making fifths and octaves with the voices, although such progressions were not forbidden by the laws of music in that age. No subject would be more natural for a pastoral song than the approach of summer, and, curiously enough, the late Mr. Bunting noted down an Irish song from tradition, the title of which he translated 'Summer is coming,' and the tune begins in the same way. That is the air to which Moore adapted the words, Rich and rare were the gems she wore." " This resemblance is perfectly fortuitous, and does not extend beyond the first three notes, the fourth note of the Irish is so great a musical curiosity, is also a valuable contribution to our knowledge of early English pronunciation. In order to make the song more readily legible, it will be here interpreted into the ordinary musical notation,1 the English words in Roman type, and below them the Latin hymn, by which it perhaps obtained its introduction into the monk's commonplace book, in Italics, (which when used for entire passages will indicate red ink,) and a literal translation of the notes into modern music. On the opposite page will be given the metrical arrangement, conjectured pronunciation, and literal translations. See pp. 426, 427. air runs into a totally different chord. The fact that the song was in six parts, has occasioned some persons to suppose that it was alluded to in the last stanza of the Turnament of totenham,' Harl. MS. 5396, fo. 310, the handwriting of which is referred to A.D. 1456. As the stanza is not printed quite correctly in Percy's Reliques, 2nd ed., ii, 15, it may be added here as transcribed from the original MS. It is scarcely right to suppose, however, that the Cuckoo Song was the only six part song known. At pat feft pay were feruyd with a ryche a ray Euery .v. and v had a cokenay mekyl myrth was bem amang Dr. Rimbault has published a modern version of this song in his Ancient Vocal Music of England, Novello, No. 13, in which he says: "the editor has followed an ancient transcript in the Pepysian Library, which omits the two bass parts forming the burden, in the Museum copy, and has added an Accompaniment upon a drone bass. The effect produced is considerably improved." Dr. Rimbault has politely informed me in a private letter to Mr. G. A. Macfarren, that he obtained his copy of this transcript from the late Prof. Walmisley of Cambridge, in 1838. Mr. Aldis Wright kindly made a search for the original in the Pepysian Library, but was unable to find a trace of it. 1 Hawkins and Burney (suprà, p. 420, note 1, near the end,) have given translations with all the parts written at length, but have not arranged the words properly. In the present interpretation the arrangement of the original is followed, and for one deviation from the former translations I am indebted to Mr. William Chappell. 2 Mr. G. A. Macfarren, the composer, in reply to my question whether he considered the English or Latin words to have been the original, says: "I am strongly of opinion that the music was composed to the English adapted to it, because it was a common words, and the Latin Hymn afterwards practice to adapt sacred words to secular tunes (as for instance, Thomas, archbishop of York in the x1 th century and Richard Vichys of Ossory in the XIV th wrote many such), but it would have been regarded as a desecration to appropriate a church theme to a secular subject. Witness also the many masses set to music, throughout which the French song of L'homme Armé is employed as a canto fermo, and Josquin de Pré's Mass on this Song in praise of Chess, in proof of this same church practice.' To this we may add that there are no Latin words to the Pes or Burden, which is an essential part of the harmony. 3 This arrangement is reprinted from the work cited below, p. 498. As respects the language, all the words are ags. except cuccu, stert, uert. The first cuccu as we shall see is onomatopoetic (imsonic, or mimetic), the second stert, and its diminutive startle, is fully at home in the German, old sturzan, new stürzen, and Scandinavian, Danish styrte, Swedish störta, and may be a development of stir, or may be related to the same root as ags. steortan to erect, steort a tail, steart a spine, see Dief. Goth. W. 2, 304, 315, 333, Wedgewood, Etym. Dict. 3, 314. As to the third uert, Dr. Stratmann suggests fert, which would be the The musical notes, with their precise value in time, and the Latin hymn, determine the number of syllables. As we find however the Latin accent occasionally violated (non parcéns, víté dónát ét secúm corónát), we cannot be surprised at a similar violation of the English, in Wel singés pu. Taking the notes as interpreted on p. 426, it would seem easy to rearrange the words so as to avoid this false accentuation, but the ligatures of the original, corresponding to the slurs in the translation, forbid this rearrangement, which, with other liberties, Hawkins and Burney have not hesitated to adopt. Hence we find that this termination -es, might be, and probably was, fully pronounced. On the other hand, the termination -ep, although fully pronounced in groweb, blower, was elided, either after a vowel or consonant, when convenient for the metre as in spring); or for the music, as in lhoup. In the latter case the metre would require the syllable -ep to be fully pronounced, compare Awe bletep after lomb Louep after calue cu, but the musician ventured not only to dock a syllable, but to put the whole heavy truncated word lhoup to a short note. This may teach us that our older and ruder poets did not hesitate to lay words on a Procrustean bed. In med, bulluc, ags. medu, bulluca, the poet took the same liberty, and elided the final -e, for the rhyme in the first case, for the metre in the second. This precisely agrees with what we determined to be the occasional practice of the XIV th century (p. 342, No. 5), and shews that the omission was absolute, not a mere slurring over or lightly touching of the sound. We must consider that the words were felt to be as really truncated as Ruh' for Ruhe appears to be in modern German speech, for we have the essential -e preserved in wde, awe, bucke, the dative -e in calue, the adverbial -e in lhude, murie, all of which have a distinct musical note assigned. In the last word, however, both vowels in -ie are given to one note, as many a time would be given to three notes only in modern, ballads. The principal fact, however, that we learn from this song, as to the pronunciation of the letters in the XIII th century, is that long (uu) which was represented generally by ou and occasionally by 0, but never by u, in the xiv th century, was now invariably represented by u. This is deduced from the word cuccu, which is manifestly an imitation of the cry of the bird,' as in French coucou, old French coucoul, Italian cuculo, German kukuk, kuckuk, Dutch koekoek (kuu kuuk), Latin cuculus, coccyx, Greek кóккuέ, Sanscrit kokila." ags. feortan, pedere, but this change of f into v, although frequent in old MSS, is not confirmed by any other usage in the present poem, and the use of a Norman word vert in a hunting phrase seems natural. The use of the word as a verb, however, requires confirmation. 1 The musical interval of the cry is a descending minor third, which the composer has not imitated, the only instance in which he has introduced such an interval in connection with the cry, being in v. 6, where in sing cuccu he first descends and then ascends a minor third, the notes being fdf. In 2" Cuckoo in English is clearly a mere imitation of the cry of that bird, even more so then the corresponding terms in Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin. these languages the imitative element has received the support of a derivative suffix; we have kokig in Sanskrit, and |