## The Thrush and the Nightingale

### Publication Statement:

This file is part of the facsimile-edition of the Auchinleck Manuscript was co-edited by Professor David Burnley and Dr Alison Wiggins. The HTML versions of the resource are freely available at http://www.nls.uk/auchinleck/

### Notes:

This manuscript file was originally supplied as thrush.html and the header file was located in heads/thrush_head.html both of which were converted to TEI XML by Dr James Cummings of the Oxford Text Archive. The notes below were taken from the header file and each HTML paragraph placed in a separate note.

Scribe 1

6-line stanzas, rhyming aabccb. 74 lines not including speaker labels. First line defective. Ends imperfect through the loss of five succeeding leaves.

One other manuscript:
Bodleian Library MS 1687 (Digby 86). S. W. Midlands. c.1275. Digby 86 also has in common with Auchinleck: The Harrowing of Hell, The Sayings of St Bernard and How Our Lady's Sauter was First Found.

Edition:
H. Varnhagen, 'Zu Mittelenglischen Gedichten', Anglia, 4 (1881): 180-210. ('XIII: Zu dem 'Streitgedichte Zwischen und Nachtigall'': 207-210).

Other editions:
F. Holthausen, 'Die Mittelenglische Streit Zwischen Drossel und Nachtigall', Anglia, 43 (1919): 52-59. (Critical edition).
D. Laing, A Penni Worth of Witte, Abbotsford Club (Edinburgh, 1857): 45-48.

Index 3222.

### Source:

The Auchinleck Manuscript (NLS Adv MS 19.2.1) is one of the National Library of Scotland’s greatest treasures. Produced in London in the 1330s, it provides a unique insight into the English language and literature that Chaucer and his generation grew up with and were influenced by. It acquired its name from its first known owner, Lord Auchinleck, who discovered the manuscript in 1740 and donated it to the precursor of the National Library in 1744.

### The Thrush and the Nightingale

L .... .... wiþ loue .... ....
Wiþ blosme & wiþ briddes roun; [f.279va] [Image]
Þe notes of þe hasel springeþ,
Þe dewes derken in þe dale,
Þe notes of þe niȝtingale;[5]
Þis foules miri singeþ.
¶ Ich herd a striif bitvixen to,
Þat on of wele, þat oþer of wo,
Bitven hem to yfere;
Þat on herieþ wimen þat ben hende,[10]
Þat oþer he wald fawe schende;
Þis strif ȝe mow yhere.
¶ Þe niȝtingale haþ ynome
To speke for wimen atte frome,
Of schame he wald hem were;[15]
Þe þrustel cok he spekeþ ay,
He seyt bi niȝtes & bi day
Þat þai ben fendes fere;
¶ For þai bitraien eueri man
Þat mest bileueþ hem on.[20]
Þei þai be milde of chere
Þai ben fals & fikel to fond
& wircheþ wo in eueri lond;
It were better þat hye nere.
Þe Niȝtingale
‘Schame it is to blame leuedi,[25]
For þai ben hende of curtaisi;
Y rede þat þou lete.
Nas neuer breche non so strong,
No wiþ riȝt, no wiþ wrong
Þat wimen no miȝt bete;[30]
¶ Ysauȝten hem þat ben wroþe
& makeþ leue þat is loþe -
Wiþ game men schuld hem grete.
Þis warld were nouȝt ȝif wimen nere, [f.279vb] [Image]
Ymaked þai ben to mannes fere;[35]
Nis noþing half so swete.’
{[The Thrush]}
‘I may wimen heri nouȝt
For þai ben fals & fikel of þouȝt,
So me is don to vnderstond,
& take witnes of mani & fele[40]
Þat riche were of worldes wele
& fre to senden hem sond.
¶ Þei þai ben fair & briȝt in hewe,
Þai ben fals fikel vntrewe
& worcheþ wo in ich lond.[45]
King Alisaunder meneþ him of hem;
In þe world nis non so crafti men
No non so riche of lond.’
Þe Niȝtingale
‘Þrustelkok þou art wode
Or þou canst to litel gode[50]
Wimen for to schende.
It is þe best drurie
& mest þai cun of curteisie,
Nis noþing also hende.
¶ Her loue is swetter, ywis,[55]
Þan þe braunche of licoris;
Lofsum þai ben & hende.
Wele swetter is her breþ
Þan ani milke oþer meþ,
& louelich in armes to wende.’[60]
Þe Þrostel cok
‘Niȝtingale þou hast wrong,
As ich finde in mi song,
For ich hold wiþ þe riȝt.
Y take witnisse of Wawain
Þat Crist ȝaf miȝt & main[65]
& trewest was of kniȝt.
¶ So wide so he hadde riden & gon
Fals fond he neuer non,
Bi day no bi niȝt. [ niȝt is added superscript at the line-end.]
Foule, for þi fals mouþe,[70]
Þine sawes schal be wide couþe,
Aliȝt whare þou aliȝt.’
Þe Niȝtingale
‘Ichaue leue to aliȝt here
In orchard & in erbere ...