Saturday, February 5, 2011

Queens Order of Courtesy for Lyonet de Covenham

Lyonet BL Harley MS 2253 f. 131
ScrollExemplar

The exemplar is BL MS Harley 2253, fol. 131, a late 13th/early 14th C manuscript. I still find this type of secretary hand perplexing.

This manuscript contains a number of secular and religious lyrics, and I adapted the lyrics from one, the song of "Annot and John", appearing at fol. 63 of the MS. The text reads:

Þese are the wordes of Caoimhe drachenwaldish quene
Ase saphyr in seluer semly on syht,
Ase iaspe þe gentil þat lemeþ wiþ the lyht,
Ase gernet in golde ant ruby wel rhyt
Ase onycle she ys on yholden on hyht,
Ase diamaund þe dere in day when she is dyht;
Ase all þese ys þe ladie lyonet of covenham,
pearle of grace and goodenesse and þus we
Caoimhe make her a member of oure Order of
Courteisie, on augst seventh, a.s. xlv, at raglan.

Lines two through six are copied from the song.


© 2011, Sara L. Uckelman.

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