Deyr brother, noo other thyng y off thee desyre Butt gyve me thyne hert fre to rewarde myn hyre: Y wrouȝt thé, I bowgȝt thé frome eternal fyre; Y pray thé aray thé tooward my hyȝt empyre, 50 Above[597] the oryent, Wheroff y am regent, Lord God omnypotent, Wyth me too reyn yn endlys welthe; Remember, man, thy sawlys helthe.
Woofully arayd, My blode, man, For thé rane, Hytt may nott be nayd; My body blow and wane, 60 Woyfully arayde.
[588] _Woffully araid_] From the Fairfax MS. (which once belonged to Ralph Thoresby, and now forms part of the Additional MSS., 5465, in the British Museum), where it occurs twice,—(fol. 76 and, less perfectly, fol. 86); collated with a copy written in a very old hand on the fly-leaves of _Boetius de Discip. Schol. cum notabili commento, Daventrie_, 1496, 4to. (in the collection of the late Mr. Heber), which has supplied several stanzas not in the Fairfax MS. It was printed from the latter, not very correctly, by Sir John Hawkins, _Hist. of Music_, ii. 89. I have followed the metrical arrangement of the MS. in the _Boetius_.
[589] _condempnyd_] So sec. copy in Fairfax MS., and MS. in the _Boetius_. First copy in F. MS. “condemp.”
[590] _Whereas neuer man was so_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “Ah _was never man soo_.”
[591] _rufull_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “rowfully.”
[592] _bobbid ... robbid_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “bowde ... rowyd.”
[593] _Onfaynyd_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “Unfraynyd.”
[594] _deynyd_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “drynyde.”
[595] _The_] MS. in the _Boetius_, “Thes.”
[596] _Woffully araide_] Here the Fairfax MS. concludes: what follows is given from the MS. in the _Boetius_.
Now synge we,[598] as we were wont, _Vexilla regis prodeunt_.
The kinges baner on felde is [s]playd, The crosses mistry can not be nayd, To whom our Sauyour was betrayd, And for our sake; Thus sayth he, I suffre for thé, My deth I take. Now synge we, &c.
Beholde my shankes, behold my knees, 10 Beholde my hed, armes, and thees, Beholde of me nothyng thou sees But sorowe and pyne; Thus was I spylt, Man, for thy gylte, And not for myne. Now synge we, &c.
Behold my body, how Jewes it donge With knots of whipcord and scourges strong; As stremes of a well the blode out sprong On euery syde; 20 The knottes were knyt, Ryght well made with wyt, They made woundes wyde. Now synge we, &c.