These lines are interesting, because they show that the thirteenth-century name for the feast at Sens was the asinaria festa, the ‘Feast of the Ass.’ They are followed by what is popularly known as the ‘Prose of the Ass,’ but is headed in the manuscript Conductas ad tabulam. A conductus is a chant sung while the officiant is conducted from one station to another in the church[1000], and the tabula is the rota of names and duties pro cantu et lectura, with the reading of which the Vespers began[1001]. The text of the Prose of the Ass, as used at Sens and elsewhere, is given in an appendix[1002]. Next come a trope and a farsed Alleluia, a long interpolation dividing ‘Alle-’ and ‘-luia,’ and then another passage which has given a wrong impression of the nature of the office:
‘Quatuor vel quinque in falso retro altare:
Haec est clara dies, clararum clara dierum,
haec est festa dies, festarum festa dierum,
nobile nobilium rutilans diadema dierum.
Duo vel tres in voce retro altare:
Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,
qua Deus est ortus virginis ex utero[1003].’
The phrase in falso does not really mean ‘out of tune.’ It means, ‘with the harmonized accompaniment known as en faux bourdon’, and is opposed to in voce, ‘in unison[1004].’ The Vespers, with many further interpolations, then continue, and after them follow Compline, Matins, Lauds[1005], Prime, Tierce, the Mass, Sext, and second Vespers. These end with three further pieces of particular interest from our point of view. The first is a Conductus ad Bacularium, the name Bacularius being doubtless that given at Sens to the dominus festi[1006]. This opens in a marked festal strain:
‘Novus annus hodie