1 minute read
SILENCING THE CUCKOO
“Sumer Is Icumen In”
Q: So, Who Was Being Silenced…
Advertisement
A: Cuckoo Call = Hail Mary
The final two lines of the lyric are:
Left: the manuscript with notes clearly amended by the scribe.
Right: the original notes digitally restored.
Cuccu cuccu
“Wel singes þu cuccu ne swik þu nauer nu”
Cuckoo cuckoo
“Well sing you cuckoo don’t cease you ever now”
On the words, “Cuccu cuccu”, a scribe rubbed out three notes and changed the pitches. Of course, by removing the cuckoo call from Perspice Christicola meant removing it from Sumer, too.
[Cuckoo Call = Hail Mary]
Perspice Christicola
Latin devotional song, written in red underneath the Sumer Is Icumen lyric in black: Perspice Christicola, que dignacio, celicus agricola pro vitis vicio Filio – non parcens exposuit mortis exicio – Qui captivos semivivos a supplicio Vite donat et secum coronat in celi solio.
Observe, worshipper of Christ, what gracious condescension, the heavenly farmer who, owing to a defect in the vine, without sparing him, exposes his son to death’s destruction. To the captives half dead in the torments, he gives life and crowns them in heaven, with himself in the throne
