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When this is said, kneel thou down
And with devoti-own [devotion]
Of all good thou thank God then
And pray also for all men
Of each state and each degree,
So will the law of charity;
For without tarrying
On this wise be thou saying.
Lord, honoured might thou be
With all my heart I worship thee;
I thank thee, Lord, as well I owe,
Of more good than I can know,
Since the time I was conceived,
That I have of thee received:
My life, my limbs thou hast me lent [given],
My right wit thou hast me sent,
Thou hast kept me of thy grace
from many perils in many place;
all my health and all my living
wholly have I of thy giving.
Thou bought me clear with thy blood,
And died for me upon the rod [rood, cross]:
I have done against thy will
Sins many, great and ill [evil];
Thou art ready, of thy goodness,
For to grant me forgiveness.
Of this goodness and many more
I thank thee, Lord, and pray also,
That all my guilt thou me forgive,
And be my help when I shall live;
And give me grace to eschew
To do that thing that should me rue,
And give me will aye well to work;
And think on the state of the kirk [church],
The pope, the bishops, priests and clerks,
That they be kept in all good works;
The king, the queen, the lords of the land.
That they be well maintainand [maintained]
Their states in all goodness
And rule the folk in righteousness;
Our sibmen [kinsmen], our wellands [??]
Our friends, tenants and servands [servants],
Old men, children and all women,
Merchants, men of craft and tillmen [farmers, land workers],
Rich men and poor, great and small,
I pray thee, Lord, for them all,
That they may be kept specially
In good life and life holy;
For them that are in this life
In sclaunder [slander], miscomfort, or in strife,
Sick, imprisoned, or on the sea,
Poor, exiled, deserit [disinherited as in deprived of their possessions] if they be,
To them all send succour,
For thy worship and thine honour.
All that are in good life today
and cleanly live, thee to pay,
keep them Lord from all folly,
And from all sins for thy mercy;
And give them grace to last and lend [abide]
in thy service to their end.
In this world, that turns many ways,
Make good to us in all our days;
The weathers great and unstable,
Lord make good and seasonable;
The fruits on earth make plenteous,
As thou sees best, ordain for us,
Such grace to us thou send,
That in our last day at our end,
When this world and we shall sever,
Bring us to that joy that lasts forever. Amen.
After the Sanctus, the prayer begins the Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I in the modern rite) and the congregation are directed to pray while he says his own prayers silently.
It follows a clear pattern:
Thanksgiving for mercies received
Prayer for forgiveness for past sins and grace to choose the right path in future
Prayer for all estates of man
Prayer for good things in this life, and for everlasting life
It is a little different to the prayers the priest offers; he first prays for acceptance of the offerings on behalf of the whole church, then he prays for the church and all its members, then finally he asks for the helps of the Saints. This, of course, is all said in silence by the priest.
But the LayFolks Mass Book prayer is a little different; it omits the Saints but instead lists a large number of people who the devout person should pray for, and in doing so, shows us a microcosm of medieval society, its people, risks and frailties.
The month of September from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a lavishly illustrated Book of Hours.
I don’t know about you, but what I take from this section of the poem is the need to pray more widely for all in our society.
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This is an excerpt from The Lay Folks Mass Book, a verse poem from the 14th/15th century, originally written in Middle English.
Each Sunday I post a short excerpt, transcribed into modern English for ease of reading, and harmonised from the 4 surviving versions which are in different dialects and with some variations in text.
Notes on the transcription: like German, the letter “e” on the end of words is often pronounced. In general, modern English has dropped all these so in transcribing it I have generally followed modern English which means that in most cases the rhyme and meter work. But occasionally, I have put letters in square brackets where required for the verse, or sometimes separated the endings with a hyphen to indicate that they should be pronounced as a separate syllable.
Most of the words have a modern English equivalent which is very similar, but where that doesn’t happen I have put the meaning in [ ].
One important word: the term for Mass in middle English is Messe, with the “e” pronounced, as in German. I have generally written it as Mess for the sake of the rhyming.
The text used is the one published by Thomas Frederick Simmons in 1879 and reprinted in 1968.