'AS DEWE IN APRYLLE': 'I SYNG OF A MAYDEN' AND THE LITURGY

I syng of a mayden that is makeles, Kyng of alle kynges to here sone the ches. He cam also stylle ther his moder was As dewe in Aprylle that fallyt on the gras. He cam also stylle to his moderes bowr As dew in Aprille that fallyt on the flour. He cam also style ther his moder lay As dew in Aprille that fallyt on the spray. Moder and maydyn was never non but che -- Wel may swych a lady Godes moder be! 'I syng of a mayden' is one of the most widely read and most frequently commented on of the shorter Middle English poems. Derek Pearsall's remarks distil much of the scholarly discussion: A brain and a subtle ear has gone into the making of this poem ... celebrating the mystery of Christ's conception. Dew falling on grass, flower and spray (traditional imagery, deriving from OT texts such as Ps. 72:6) suggests case, grace and delicacy generally (not progressive stages of insemination). The emphasis on Mary's freedom of choice, at the moment of the Annunciation, is theologically strictly proper.1 In this essay I will concentrate on one of those images of `ease, grace, and delicacy', `dewe in Aprylle', and especially on its liturgical associations. My aim in doing so is not simply to give a clearer sense of the probable source of the image but, more importantly, to sketch a context within which the considerable artistry of this poem and the richness and complexity of its religious background may be more fully appreciated. It has been previously assumed that the poem's springtime imagery is for the most part derived from secular lyrics, especially secular love poetry, with the exception of the `dewe in Aprylle' which is related to an image in the Advent liturgy, celebrated, of course, in December, not in April.2 The liturgical text in question is from the Book of Isaiah xlv.8, rendered in the Douai Bible as `Drop down dew, ve heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour.'3 In the Saturn breviary's version of the Vulgate, the verse is rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum:aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem'. Consideration of this passage does indeed enrich understanding of the dew image in 'I syng of a mayden'. In a number of medieval rites, however, `rotate caeli ...' not only occurs in the liturgy for Advent, as is still common, but in the liturgy for the Feast of the Annunciation as well.4 That the late-medieval English liturgical uses of York and Hereford, as well as the more widely known Sarum rite, used `rorate celi' for the Annunciation confirms its importance in understanding the dew image in 'I syng of a mayden', and, moreover, shows that the poem's natural imagery and religious context are much better integrated than had been realized. 'I syng of a mayden' is a very quiet and very beautiful meditation on the inward aspects of the Annunciation, on the immediate consequences of Mary's acceptance of Gabriel's message. (It may be of interest that in the manuscript this poem is immediately preceded by another that follows the biblical account of the Annunciation more literally, while the poem that comes after it, `Adam lay ibowndyn',5 reminds us of the need for the Incarnation and consequent Redemption, of the great benefit to humankind gained in the moment described in 'I syng of a mayden'.) There is a contrast in the poem between the deliberate choice of Mary to become the mother of Jesus and the inevitability implied by the natural imagery used to describe the working out of that choice. The natural images give a sense that what is happening is akin to the recurring processes of the renewal of nature, the formation of dew and the growth and blossoming of plants. On the one hand there is a 'mayden' exercising her free choice, and on the other there is a tremendous cosmic and metaphysical process with which she chooses to co-operate. Tact and delicacy, created at least in part by the natural images, predominate in this presentation of conception. …