Selden Carol Book
# Selden Carol Book

The Selden Carol Book is a medieval carol manuscript held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford (MS Selden B.26). Along with the Trinity Carol Roll, with which it shares five contemporaneous carols and texts (for example the Agincourt Carol), it is one of the main sources for 15th century English carols, and like the Trinity Roll contains the music as the well as the texts. The inclusion of Deo Gracias Anglia referencing Henry V's victory at Agincourt in 1415 gives an indication of the date of composition of the carols.

## Origin

The manuscript was part of the extensive bequest of the English jurist, polymath and antiquarian John Selden (1584—1654). Prior to his ownership, it is recorded in the collection of Bishop John Alcock (1430—1500) who was Bishop of Worcester and later Ely. B.26 contains five unrelated manuscripts which were bound together into a single volume about 1660; the musical section of the manuscript of 31 leaves known as the Selden Carol Book dates from the second quarter of the fifteenth century and contains songs and polyphony in Latin and Middle English, with some of the carols alternating between the two, a common form for carols of the period known as macaronic.

Dr Richard L Greene in The Early English Carols and Thomas Gibson Duncan in A Companion to the Middle English Lyric associate the book with the priory at Worcester, now Worcester Cathedral. Greene states that Worcester was "a house where there was much carolling" and accounts for Christmas entertainments suggest new songs and carols introduced by visitors were written down for future performance, with the prior employing a scribe to perform this task on Christmas Day. Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550 also suggests Worcester, but adds that it may have been copied there for St. Mary Newarke College, a now-lost collegiate church in Leicester.

## Description

The Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550 estimates that the work was copied by two main scribes with additional material copied by eight to ten additional hands. Timothy Glover concludes that while it was created at a monastery, the two secular drinking songs at the end of the manuscript suggests it was unlikely to have been used in a liturgical setting. In addition, the elaborate Initials and line space decoration would suggest it was not used for performance purposes.

The carols are noted in mensural notation on staves. The beginning of each song is marked by decorative initials in blue ink with red adornments. The text is handwritten in the Cursiva Anglicana script of the period, a form of writing initially used for letters and legal documents which soon became the most commonly used script for copying English literary texts of the period, for example the manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland. The 'burdens', a type of refrain performed at the beginning of the song and between verses, are the earliest example of a carol manuscript explicitly directing what it now known as a 'chorus'. The incorporation of Latin phrases from the liturgy of the Catholic Church feature in many of the burdens – as all church services were conducted in Latin, even non-speakers would have been familiar with their meaning.

## Contents

There are thirty carols and songs with music in the manuscript, plus a few marginalia fragments.

| Number | First line | Burden | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Holy Writ sayeth which no thing is soother | I pray yow all wyth o thowght / Amende me and peyre me nowght | |
| 2 | Exortum est in love and liss | Nowel syng we bothe al and som / Now Rex Pacificus ys ycome | Christmas carol |
| 3 | Man have in mind how here before | Man assay assay assay / and aske mercy quyls þat þu may | |
| 4 | Good day Sir Christmas our King / for every man | Go day go day / My lord syre cristemasse go day | Christmas carol |
| 5 | This rose is railed on a rise | Off a rose synge we / Misterium mirabile | Marian song |
| 6 | Now well may me mirths make | Letabundus exultet fidelys chorus Alleluia | Macaronic Christmas carol |
| 7 | Holy Maiden blessed Thou be / Gods son is born of Thee | Synge we to this mery cumpane / Regina celi letare | Marian song |
| 8 | As I lay upon a night | Now syng we all in fere / Alma redemptoris mater | Carol of the Annunciation |
| 9 | Worship be the birth of thee | Ave domina / Celi regina | Macaronic carol of the Nativity |
| 10 | Out of your sleep arise and wake | Nowel nowel nowel nowel nowel nowel | Christmas carol |
| 11 | A patre unigenitus | Make we ioye nowe in this fest / In quo Cristus natus est / Eya | Macaronic carol of the Nativity |
| 12 | A babe is born of high nature / The Prince of peace | Qwat tydynges bryngyst þu massager / Of cristys berthe þis ȝolys day | A New Year carol |
| 13 | Our king went forth to Normandy | Deo gracias Anglia / Redde pro victoria | The Agincourt Carol |
| 14 | As I lay upon a night | | A song of the Virgin Mary and Joseph |
| 15 | I-blessed be Christs sonde | The Merthe of alle þis londe / maketh þe gode husbonde / wiþ eringe of his plowe | Prayer for a good harvest ("God spede the plowe alle way") |
| 16 | Glad and blithe mote ye be | | A macaronic Nativity song |
| 17 | A new work is come on hand | Alleluya | Carol of the Nativity |
| 18 | The holy ghost is to thee sent | Hayl mary ful of grace / Moder in virginite | Annunciation carol |
| 19 | Hail blessed Lady which has born / God Son | | Marian hymn |
| 20 | This is the song that ye shall hear | An heuenly songe y dare wel say / Is sunge in erthe to man this day | Nativity carol |
| 21 | Lo Moses bush shining unbrent | Hayl godys sone in trinite / Te secund in diuinite / Thy moder is a may | Marian hymn |
| 22 | Fetys bel chere / Drink to thy fere | | Macaronic drinking song in Latin, English, and French |
| 23 | Thou holy daughter of Sion | Nouus sol de virgine / Reluxit nobis hodie | Carol to the Virgin Mary |
| 24 | Hail blessed Flower of virginity | Ave Maria | Carol to the Virgin Mary |
| 25 | In Bethlehem this bird of life | Nowel nowel nowel / To vs is born owr god emanuel | Christmas carol |
| 26 | A song to sing I have good right | Laus, honor, virtus, gloria / Et tibi decus Maria | Macaronic Nativity carol |
| 27 | That lord that lay in an ass stall | Iblessid be þat lord in mageste / Qui natus fuit hodie | Christmas carol |
| 28 | This world wondereth of all thing | Veni redemptor gencium / veni redemptor gencium | Carol of the Incarnation |
| 29 | Abide I hope it be the best | Abyde Y hope hit be the beste / Sith hasty man lakked neuer woo | Moral song |
| 30 | Tapster fill another ale | | Drinking catch for three voices |
| 31 | Welcome be ye when ye go | | Satirical verses about a woman "his mistress" (no music) |
| 32 | If thou flee idleness | Ouidius de remedio amoris | (no music) |
