Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1993 09:16:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Juris G. Lidaka" [Juris Lidaka Home Page]
To: dean@udel.edu
Subject: Re: Hood of Green

This text has been modified by J. M. Dean for distribution on the Web (26 June 1996)

Hood of Green

Sometimes Attributed to John Lydgate

An Antifeminist Lyric of the 15th Century

BL MS Harley 2255, ff. 153-56
line-initial caps. regularized
MS underlining retained (though spotty in MS)
MS punctuation retained where visible in LC microfilm
Cf. A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate, ed. James Orchard Halliwell, Percy Society 2 (London: Percy Society, 1840), pp 199-205.

My fayr lady so fressh of hewe

Good thryft / come to your goodly face

Of colourys / like the noble newe

As bryght as bugyl / or ellys bolace

So weel were he / that myght purchace

At good leyser / with hire to been

Hire semly cors / for to enbrace

Whan she hath on hire hood of green

Ffor yif I shuld hire al discrye

Fro the heed / to the novyl / and so forth down

I trowe there is noon suych alyve

Ffor to begynne / at hire motle crown

The whyght flekkyd / with the brown

Shoorn as a sheep / with sherys keen

There is noon so fayr / in al our town

Whan she hath on hire hood of green

The kyrspe skyn / of hyr forheed

Is drawyn vp and on trustily bownde

Of colourys d ne yelewe pale and reed

And therwithal hire cheekys been rownde

A reynbowe hew / so fayr she is fownde

Ffor whan the s ne / shyneth sheen

Allas she gevith myn herte a wownde

Whan she hath on / hire hood of green

Here smothe browys / blake and fyn

Arn soft and tendir / for to fele

As been the bruskelys of a swyn

Here jowys / been rownde as purs or bele

That though hire herte were made of stele

And I ne myght hire nevir seen

Yit must I love hire evir wele

Whan she hath on / hire hood of green

Here greet shulderys / square and brood

Here breestys vp bere hire bely so large

Ffor vpon hire / is a greet carte lood

She is no bot / she is a barge

A stouht that no man may charge

Whoos boody may not suffysed been

And evir abrood / she beryth hire tarage

Vndir hire daggyd hood of green

This fair floure / of womanheed

Hath too pappys / al so small

Bolsteryd out / of lenghth and breed

Lyche a large / campyng ball

There is no bagpipe / halff so tall

Nor no cormyse / for sothe as I ween

Whan they been ful of wynde at alle

And she haue on hire hood of green

And forth to speke / of hire entraylle

Liche a cow / hire wombe is gert

Rympled / liche a n[un]nys veylle

And smothe berdyd / liche a gete

Hire teeth been whight as ony jete

And lych a seergecloth / hire nekke is clene

And for to kepe hire / froom the heete

She weryth a daggyd hood of grene

Hire skyn / is tendyr for to towche

As of an howndfyssh / or of an hake

Whoos tewhyng hath coost many a crowche

Hire pylche / souple for to make

Wheer ovir many an hed hath ake

In skorn / whan she lyth on the splene

And yit she shal hym clene out shake

Vndir hire daggid hood of grene

Hire buttokys / ar not lowe sunke

But brood / as is a spaynych stede

Ffor febylnesse / she is nat shrunke

Men may that se / thorugh out hire wede

Hire crowpe / doth the semys shrede

Whan they so streyght lasyd been

Now good thryfft / haue he for hys mede

That best can shakyn hire hood of green

Hire lemys not smal / but liche a spere

But jumbelyd / but lyke as is an olyvaunt

The greet clocher / vp for to bere

A belfrey / for the bodyfaunt

Or ellys for to pley at the

Or for an hasard / of heightene

So weel were he / that had a graunt

To towche hire daggyd hood of grene

This is the lady that I serve

That hath so many men on honde

Ffor of hire / can no man thank deserve

That trottyth on the drye londe

But on them / she wyl haue a bonde

As weel of bayard / as of brende

And yit for sorell / she wyl stonde

Though men hire daggyd hood wolde rende

In cherysshyng / of the yemanry

She hath weykyd many a bowe

But moost / she lovith specially

Hym that can shote bothe styffe and lowe

And but the deer / be ovirthrowe

The arwe was nat fyled kene

And to the deth / she can weel blowe

Whan she hath on hire hood of grene

Hire watir lyme is maad ful weel

Bothe for the cormera[n]t and the snyte

The botoore that etith the greet eel

Is cause / yif he wyl his rochys byte

The semewe / with his fetherys whyte

Nor the caldmawe / nouthir fat nor lene

Gooth not froom hire panteer quyght

Whan she hath on hire hood of grene

Of huntyng she beryth / the greet pryse

Ffor buk or doo bothe hert and hynde

But whan she dotyth / and wyl be nyse

Maale deer / to chaase and to fynde

That can hym feede / on bark or rynde

And in hire park / pasturyd been

That weel can beere / with a tynde

Vndir hire daggyd hood of green

This so[uer]eyn lady moost enteer

On hobying / whan she lyst to fare

With hire brood serkelys hire behynde

To make the larke / for to dare

That fro hir grauys / and hir snare

Goth not awey that comyth between

The thrusthylcok nor the feldfare

Whan she hath on hire hood of green

It is deynty / of this fflowyr

That is so boold / vpon hire bra[n]che

And wyl a byde e y schowyr

Whoos truste / may noo stormys staunche

But the flood / wyl ovir launche

That no man may wade it is so kene

It wyl not palle / in hire haunche

Whan she hath on / hire hood of grene

Now what she beryth / I wyl yow telle

Al though I can not armys blase

Nor to the fulle / rynge hire belle

That is so wrymplyd as a mase

So longe a man / may loke and gase

To telle what shuld hire baggys been

Whoos fenestrall / were hard to glase

Whan she hath on / hire hood of green

Hire cotearmure / is duskyd reed

With a boordure / as blak as sabyl

A pavys or a terget / for a sperys heed

Wyde as a chirche that hath a gabyl

Ffor whoo shall justyn in that stabyl

But he be shodde / he is not sene

Litel morell / were not abyl

Whan she hath on hire hood of grene

Hire cotearmure / though it be rente

Yit turnyd she / nevir the bak

Though many a robe / hath be shente

On hire sarpelere / and on hire sak

Evir moore / she stood / for al the wrak

And for shot / she lyst not to fleen

A castyng dart / took no tak

Vndir hire daggyd hood of green

Now fareweel hert / and haue good dey

Of yow me lyst nat / moore to endight

Colowryd lyche a rotyn eey

In morwe among your pylwys whight

The blak crowe / moote yow byght

Your byl clothyd / thirke and on clene

A froward velym / vpon to wryt

Whan she hath on / hire hood of grene

Now fareweel fayr / and fressh so cleer

Ffor whoom / I may noo mone take

Thowh I se yow not / of all this yeer

I can not moorne / for your sake

Tyl e y foul / chesyth hys make

And the nytynggale / that syngeth so sheen

And that the cokkow me awake

To looke vpon your hood of green

Exp_lici_t q_uod_ lydgate