From the first recorded instance of the word ‘fart’ in English, to nuanced vignettes of sexual power dynamics, the numerous Middle English lyrics that have survived down the centuries, often scribbled in the margins of more ‘serious’ texts, offer a vivid snapshot of everyday medieval life. In the tenth episode of Medieval Beginings, Irina and Mary analyse several of these short, fleeting verses, probably set to music, and consider their possible origins and purpose, their delicious ambiguity, and their equivocal relationship to the sacred manuscripts in which they've been found.

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Further reading in the LRB: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v28/n10/barbara-newman/i-was-such-a-lovely-girl

Listen to 'Sumer is icumen in' sung by The Hilliard Ensemble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMCA9nYnLWo

Some of the lyrics discussed in this episode can be found online:

Sumer is icumen in:

https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medlyric/cuckou.php

I Have a Yong Suster

https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medlyric/suster.php

Maiden in the mor

https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medlyric/maideninthemoor.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_in_the_mor_lay

I have a gentil cock

https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/i-have-gentil-cook

Irina Dumitrescu is Professor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn and Mary Wellesley as a historian and author of Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and their Makers.

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