Harley Lyrics

Folio 67r of the Harley MS, which includes the second part of Mosti ryden by Rybbesdale, and the start of A wayle whyt as whalles bon.

The Harley Lyrics is the usual name for a collection of lyrics in English, French, and Latin found in Harley MS 2253, a manuscript dated ca. 1340 in the British Library's Harleian Collection. The lyrics contain "both religious and secular material, in prose and verse and in a wide variety of genres."^[1]

The manuscript

Harley MS 2253 contains 141 leaves of parchment measuring 11 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches, all copied in the same Anglo-Norman hand. It can be divided into two parts based on content: the first 48 leaves contain religious poetry in a late-thirteenth century hand, while the rest of the manuscript is written in an early-fourteenth century hand and contains miscellaneous material, secular as well as religious, in prose and verse. This division is not, however, reflected in the quire division, since the division is found on folio 49, part of a quire running from folio 47 to 52; an earlier assumption that this division indicated two separate manuscripts bound together is therefore incorrect.^[2]

Modern transcriptions

G. L. Brook is considered an authority on this manuscript. He first published The Harley Lyrics: The Middle English Lyrics of MS. Harley 2253 in 1948 and released a second edition containing "minor corrections and revised bibliography" in 1956. His edition includes a detailed introduction including information on the physicality and orthography of the manuscript, context on secular, courtly love, and religious lyrics, the metre of lyrics, and a brief discussion on the lyrics as literature. His edition includes thirty-two of the original lyric verses included in Harley MS 2253.

References

External links

• Entry for Harley 2253, from British Library
• Seminar reading on Harley 2253, from Lancaster University
• The Harley Lyrics, Wessex Parallel WebTexts
• , Medieval English Dictionary