Sumer is i-cumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu:
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wde nu.
Sing cuccu, cuccu.
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Llouth after calue cu,
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth:
Murie sing cuccu,
Cuccu, cuccu.
Wel singes thu, cuccu;
Ne swik thu, nauer nu.
Sing, cuccu, nu,
Sing, cuccu.
[121]: Poëme sur le Hibou et le Rossignol, qui disputent pour savoir qui a la plus belle voix.
There is a wel fair abbei,
Of white monkes and of grei.
Ther beth bowris and halles:
Al of pasteiis beth the walles,
Of fleis, of fisse, and rich met,
The likfullist that man may et.
Fluren cakes beth the schingles alle,
Of cherche, cloister, boure, and halle.
The pinnes beth fat podinges
Rich met to princes and kinges....
Though paradis be miri and bright
Cokaign is of fairir sight....
Another abbei is ther bi,
Forsoth a gret fair nunnerie....
When the someris dai is hote,
The yung nunnes takith a bote....
And doth ham forth in that river
Both with ores and with stere....
And each munk him takes on,
And snelliche berrith forth har prei
To the mochil grei abbei,
And techith the nunnes an oreisun,
With iamblene up and down.
[123]: Lettre de Pierre de Blois.
[124]: W. de Malmesbury.
[125]: Couronnement d'Édouard Ier.
[126]: Les prodigalités et les raffinements croissent à l'excès sous son petit-fils Richard II.
[127]: À la fête d'installation de George Nevill, frère de Warwick, archevêque d'York, on consomma 104 bœufs et 6 taureaux sauvages, 1000 moutons, 304 veaux, autant de porcs, 2000 cochons, 500 cerfs, chevreuils et daims, 204 chevreaux, 22802 oiseaux sauvages ou domestiques, 300 quartels de blé, 300 tonnes d'ale, 100 de vin, une pipe d'hypocras, 12 marsouins et phoques.