Mediaeval Baebes – Adam Lay Ibounden 0

Adam lay ibounden
Bounden in a bond
Foure thousand winter
Thought he not too long
And all was for an apple
An apple that he tok
As clerkes finden
Wreten in here book

Ne hadde the apple take ben
The apple taken ben
Ne hadde never our lady
A ben hevene queen
Blissed be the time
That apple take was
Therefore we moun singen
"Deo gracias!"

Adam Lay Ybounden, alternatively titled Deo Gracias, is a 15th Century macaronic English text of unknown authorship, found in the Sloane Manuscript 2593. It is believed by the British Library to have belonged to a wandering minstrel.[1] Thomas Wright's 1836 book Songs and Carols printed from a Manuscript in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum discusses the manuscript, and writes that antiquarian Joseph Ritson suggested the manuscript dates from the reign of Henry V of England. However, Wright suggests that the lyrics within may be earlier: "I think it may be rather earlier, but its greatest antiquity must be included within the fifteenth century.

Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter,
Thought he not too long.

And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took.
As clerkes finden,
Written in their book.

Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our ladie,
Abeen heav'ne queen.

Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen.
Deo gracias!