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1460?-1529
WITH margerain1 gentle,
The flower of goodlihead,
Embroidered the mantle
Is of your maidenhead.
Plainly I cannot glose;
Ye be, as I divine,
The pretty primrose,
The goodly columbine.
Benign, courteous, and meek,
With wordes well devised;
In you, who list to seek,
Be virtues well comprised.
With margerain gentle,
The flower of goodlihead,
Embroidered the mantle
Is of your maidenhead.
BY saint Mary, my lady,
Your mammy and your daddy
Brought forth a goodly baby!
My maiden Isabel,
Reflaring rosabel,
The flagrant camamel;
The ruddy rosary,
The sovereign rosemary,
The pretty strawberry;
The columbine, the nept,1
The gilliflower well set,
The proper violet;
Ennewed2 your colour
Is like the daisy flower
After the April shower;
Star of the morrow gray,
The blossom on the spray,
The freshest flower of May;
Maidenly demure,
Of womanhood the lure;
Wherefore I make you sure,
It were an hevenly health,
It were an endless wealth,
A life for God himself,
To hear this nightingale,
Among the birds smale,
Warbling in the vale,
Dug, dug,
Iug, iug.
Good year and good luck,
With chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck!
MERRY Margaret
As midsummer flower,
Gentle as falcon
Or hawk of the tower:
With solace and gladness,
Much mirth and no madness,
All good and no badness;
So joyously,
So maidenly,
So womanly
Her demeaning
In every thing,
Far, far passing
That I can indite,
Or suffice to write
Of Merry Margaret
As midsummer flower
Gentle as falcon
Or hawk of the tower.
As patient and still
And as full of good will
As fair Isaph 4b8 ill,1
Coliander,2
Sweet pomander,3
Good Cassander;4
Steadfast of thought,
Well made, well wrought,
Far may be sought,
Ere that ye can find
So courteous, so kind
As merry Margaret,
This midsummer flower,
Gentle as falcon
Or hawk of the tower.
2 coliander: coriander seed, an aromatic.
3 pomander: a ball of perfume.
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