by John Skelton (1460 - 1529)
Romanza. Jane Scroop: Her lament for Philip Sparrow
Language: English
Placebo! Who is there, who? Dilexi! Dame Margery? Fa, re, mi, mi, Wherefore and why, why? For the soul of Philip Sparrow, That was, late, slain at Carrow, Among the Nuns Black. For that sweet soul's sake, And for all sparrows' souls Set in our bead-rolls. When I remember again How my Philip was slain, Never half the pain Was between you twain, Pyramus and Thisbe, As then befell to me: I wept and I wailed, The tears down hailed, But nothing it availed To call Philip again, Whom Gib, our cat, hath slain. Vengeance I ask and cry, By way of exclamation, On all the whole nation Of cattés wild and tame: God send them sorrow and shame! That cat specially That slew so cruelly My little pretty sparrow That I brought up at Carrow! O cat of churlish kind, The fiend was in thy mind So traitorously my bird to kill That never owed thee evil will! It had a velvet cap, And would sit upon my lap, And seek after small wormes, And sometime whitebread-crumbes; And many times and oft, Between my breastes soft It would lie and rest; It was proper and prest! Sometime he would gasp When he saw a wasp; A fly, or a gnat, He would fly at that; And prettily he would pant When he saw an ant! Lord how he would pry After a butterfly! Lord, how he would hop After the grasshop! And when I said, 'Phip, Phip!' Then he would leap and skip, And take me by the lip. Alas! it will me slo That Philip is gone me fro! For Philip Sparrow's soul, Set in our bead-roll, Let us now whisper A Pater noster. Lauda, anima mea, Dominum! To weep with me, look that ye come, All manner of birdés in your kind; See none be left behind. To mourning look that ye fall With dolorous songs funeral, Some to sing, and some to say, Some to weep, and some to pray, Every bird in his lay. The goldfinch, the wagtail; The jangling jay to rail, The fleckéd pie to chatter Of this dolorous matter; And Robin Redbreast, He shall be the priest The requiem mass to sing, Softly warbling, With help of the reed sparrow, And the chattering swallow, This hearse for to hallow; The lark with his long toe; The spinke, and the martinet also; The fieldfare, the snite The crow and the kite; The raven called Rolfe, His plain song to sol-fa; The partridge, the quail; The plover with us to wail; The lusty chanting nightingale; The popinjay to tell her tale, That toteth oft in a glass, Shall read the Gospel at mass; The mavis with her whistle Shall read there the Epistle. Our chanters shall be the cuckoo, The culver, the stockdoo, With 'peewit' the lapwing, The Versicles shall sing. The swan of Maeander, The goose and the gander, The duck and the drake, Shall watch at this wake; The owl that is so foul, Must help us to howl; The heron so gaunt, And the cormorant, With the pheasant, And the gaggling gant, The dainty curlew, With the turtle most true. The peacock so proud, Because his voice is loud, And hath a glorious tail, He shall sing the Grail. The bird of Araby That potentially May never die, A phoenix it is This hearse that must bless With aromatic gums That cost great sums, The way of thurification To make a fumigation, Sweet of reflare, And redolent of air, This corse for to 'cense With great reverence, As patriarch or pope In a black cope. Whiles he 'censeth the hearse, He shall sing the verse, Libera me, Domine! In do, la, sol, re, Softly Be-mol For my sparrow's soul. And now the dark cloudy night Chaseth away Phoebus bright, Taking his course toward the west, God send my sparrow's soul good rest! Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine! I pray God, Philip to heaven may fly! Domine,exaudi orationem meam! To Heaven he shall, from Heaven he came! Dominus vobiscum! Of all good prayers God send him some! Oremus, Deus, cui proprium est misereri et parcere, On Philip's soul have pity! For he was a pretty cock, And came of a gentle stock, And wrapt in a maiden's smock, And cherished full daintily, Till cruel fate made him to die; Alas, for doleful destiny! Farewell, Philip adieu! Our Lord, thy soul rescue! Farewell, without restore, Farewell for evermore!
Glossary and Notes
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Carrow -- Carrow Abbey, near Norwich, where Jane was being educated
culver -- dove
gant -- gannet
Nuns Black -- Benedictine Nuns
prest -- neat
reflare -- perfume
slo -- slay
snite -- snipe
spinke -- chaffinch
stockdoo -- pigeon
toteth -- peeps
Authorship:
- by John Skelton (1460 - 1529) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Romanza. Jane Scroop: Her lament for Philip Sparrow", 1935, published 1935, first performed 1936 [contralto (or mezzo-soprano) and baritone soli, chorus, and orchestra], from Five Tudor Portraits: A Choral Suite in Five Movements, no. 4. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-04-10
Line count: 161
Word count: 745