Kyrie, kyrie, pregne son le monache!
lo andai in un monastiero,
a non mentir ma dir el vero,
ov’ eran done secrate:
diezi n’ eran tute inpiate,
senza [dir de] la badesa,
che la tiritera spesa
faceva con un prete.
Kyrie, etc.
Or udirete bel sermona:
ciascuna in chiesa andone,
lasciando il dileto
che si posava in sul leto;
per rifare la danza
ciascuno aspetta l’ amanza
che diè retonare.
Kyrie, etc.
Quando matutin sonava
in chiesa nesuna andava,
[poi] ch’ eran acopiate
qual con prete e qual con frate:
con lui stava in oracione
e ciascuno era garzone
che le serviva bene.
Kyrie, etc.
Sendo in chiesia tute andate,
e tute erano impregnate,
qual dal prete e qual dal frate,
l’ una e l’ altra guata;
ciascuna cred’ esser velata
lo capo di benda usata;
avrino in capo brache.
Kyrie, etc.

E l’ una a l’ altra guatando
si vengon maravigliando;
credean che fore celato,
alor fu manifestato
questo eale convenente:
a la badessa incontenente
ch’ ognun godesse or dice.
Kyrie, etc.
Or ne va, balata mia,
va a quel monastiero,
che vi si gode in fede mia
e questo facto è vero;
ciascuna non li par vero,
e quale [è] la fanziulla
ciascuna si trastulla
col cul cantano kyrie.
Kyrie, etc.[1758]

One characteristic form of the nun-theme has already been referred to in the text: the dialogue between the clerk and the nun, in which one prays the other for love and is refused. A terse version in which the nun is temptress exists in Latin and evidently enjoyed a certain popularity:

Nonna. Te mihi meque tibi genus, aetas et decor aequa[n]t:
Cur non ergo sumus sic in amore pares?
Clericus. Non hac ueste places aliis nec uestis ametur:
Quae nigra sunt, fugio, candida semper amo.
N. Si sim ueste nigra, niueam tamen aspice carnem:
Quae nigra sunt, fugias, candida crura petas.
C. Nupsisti Christo, quem non offendere fas est:
Hoc uelum sponsam te notat esse Dei.
N. Deponam uelum, deponam cetera quaeque:
Ibit et ad lectum nuda puella tuum.
C. Si uelo careas, tamen altera non potes esse:
Vestibus ablatis non mea culpa minor.
N. Culpa quidem, sed culpa leuis tamen ipsa fatetur
Hoc fore peccatum, sed ueniale tamen.
C. Uxorem uiolare uiri graue crimen habetur,
Sed grauius sponsam te uiolare Dei.
N. Cum non sit rectum uicini frangere lectum
Plus reor esse reum zelotypare Deum[1759].

In the Cambridge Manuscript there is a famous dialogue, half-Latin and half-German, in which a clerk prays a nun to love him in springtime, while the birds sing in the trees, but she replies: “What care I for the nightingale? I am Christ’s maid and his betrothed.” Almost the whole of the dialogue, in spite of the nun’s irreproachable attitude, has been deleted with black ink by the monks of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, who were accustomed thus to censor matter which they considered unedifying; but modern scholars have been at infinite pains to reconstruct it[1760].

It is rare to find in popular songs the idea of the convent as a refuge for maidens crossed in love; but some pretty poems have this theme. In a sixteenth century song a girl prefers a convent, if she cannot have the man she loves best, but she wishes her lover could be with her there:

Puis que l’on ne m’at donne
A celuy que j’aymois tant,
avant la fin de l’annee
quoy que facent mes parens,
je me rendray capucine
capucine en un couvent.
Si mon amis vient les feste
a la grille regardant,
je luy feray de la teste
la reverence humblement
come pauvre capucine;
je n’oserois aultrement.
S’il se pouvait par fortune
se couler secretement
dedans ma chambre sur la brune,
je lui dirois mon tourment
que la pauvre capucine
pour luy souffre en ce couvent.
Mon dieu, s’il se pouvoit faire
que nous deux ensemblement
fussions dans ung monastere
pour y passer nostre temps,
capucin et capucine
nous vindrions tous deux content.
L’on me vera attissee
d’ung beau voille de lin blanc;
mais je seray bien coiffee
dans le cœur tout aultrement,
puis que l’on m’a capucine
mise dedans ce couvent.
N’est ce pas une grand raige
quand au gre de ses parens
il faut prendre en mariaige
ceulx qu’on n’ayme nullement?
j’ameroy mieulx capucine
estre mise en ce couvent[1761].

Somewhat similar is the song (first printed in 1640) of the fifteen year-old girl married to a husband of sixty:

M’irai-je rendre nonette
Dans quelque joly couvent,
Priant le dieu d’amourette
Qu’il me donne allegement
Ou que j’aye en mariage
Celuy là que j’aime tant?[1762]

A round, with the refrain

Ah, ah, vive l’amour!
Cela ne durera pas toujours,