The Lives of Ss. Edmund and Fremund: Text

The Canon of John Lydgate Project

The Lives of Ss. Edmund and Fremund: Text

MS Harley 2278 fol. 9v

[The initial letter of each stanza is lightly decorated.]

O richest rube / rubefied with blood
In thi passion / be ful meek suffrance
Bounde to a tre / lowly whan thow stood
Of arwes sharp / suffryng ful gret penaunce
Stable as a wal of herte in thi constaunce
Directe my stile / which haue vndirtake
In thi worshepe / thi legende forto make

O amatist with peynes purpureat
Emeraud trewe / of chastite most cleene
Which nat withstandyng / thi kyngli hih estat
ffor Cristis feith / suffredist peynes keene
Wherfore of mercy / my dulnesse to susteene
Into my brest / sende a confortatiff
Of sum fair language / tenbelisshe with thi liff

Send dou[n] of grace / thi licour aureat
Which enlumynyth / these rethoriciens
To write of martirs / ther passiou[n]s laureat
And causith also / these fressh musiciens
ffals lust auoided / of epicuriens
Of glorious seyntes / the tryumphes forto synge
That suffred peyne for Crist in ther leuynge

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