A Marian Lyric

We're very privileged to present on the blog a rare medieval poetic find. The person who sent it to us has also provided a note on the text: 

'I was cleaning out my attic the other day when I found something tucked into the pages of an old recipe book. It was dusty and faded, but with a little trouble I was able to read it. It appears to be a manuscript of a Marian lyric, though rather than being dedicated to the usual Mary, its subject seems (rather anachronistically I admit) to be the wonderful Mary Berry. Clearly she has dominated the world of baking for even longer than I had imagined.'

Swete levedy, makeles moder

Of delis endeles and heuynly foder,

The worldes wele thy child is

And besought I nevere more chere than this:

Make we alle murie

Whan bake us the faerie

Hir cakes that be as berie

Swete, and we shall singe ‘hail Marie!’

An I wist nat how beste to cok

Evere I lokked to hir gret bok

Auctoress thou art of mine desiren ywis

And besought I nevere more chere than this:

Make we alle murie

Whan bake us the faerie

Hir cakes that be as berie

Swete, and we shall singe ‘hail Marie!’

Anon. (c. 14^th Century)


The discovery was made by Robert Leadbetter, whose hobbies include baking, exploring attics and pretending to have lived about seven hundred years.