yn wodehed, as hyt were yn cuntek
Þey come to a tounne men calles [calle.] Colbek;
Þe cherche of þe [þe H, om. O.] tounne þat þey to come,
Ys of seynt Magne þat suffred martyr|dome;
Line 9020
Of seynt Bukcestre hyt ys also, [folio 60a:2]
Seynt Magnes suster, þat þey come to.
here names of alle, þus fonde y wryte, [wrete.]
And as y wote, now shul ȝe wyte: [wete.]
Line 9024
here lodës-man þat made hem glew,
Þus ys wryte, [wrete.] he hyȝte Gerlew; [
O. inserts wrongly—
Þe ouþer twelue, here namës alle,Þus were þey wrete as y can kalle.
]
Twey maydens were yn here coueyne,
Mayden Merswynde and Wybessyne;
Line 9028
Alle þese come þedyr for þat enchesone,
Of þe prestës doghtyr of þe tounne.
Þe prest hyȝt Robert, as y kan ame;
Aȝone, hyght hys sone by name;
Line 9032
Hys doghter, þat þese men wulde haue,
Þus ys wryte, [wrete.] þat she hyȝt Aue;
Echoune consented to o wyl,
who shuld go, Aue oute to tyl:
Line 9036
Þey graunted echone out to sende
Boþe Wybessynë and Merswynde.
Þese wommen ȝede and tolled here oute
wyþ hem to karolle þe cherche aboute.
Line 9040
Beune ordeyned here karollyng;
Gerlew endyted what þey shuld syng:
Þys ys þe karolle þat þey sunge,
As telleþ þe latyn tunge,
Line 9044
"Equitabat Beuo per siluam frondosam,
Ducebat secum Merswyndam formosam,
Quid stamus, cur non imus?" [Equitabat dux Bovo per silvam frondosam, etc. See the study of this legend of the Curst Dancers by Schröder of Marburg before the Congress of German Philologists and Teachers in 1895 (since publisht). The first couplet of the song that the Cölbigk dancers sang in 1013 is traced back to a certain Dietrich (Theodoricus), who pretended that he'd been one of those dancers, and who was cured of his convulsive malady at Wilton in England, at the tomb of St. Edith. The original song, latinised above, was Low-Saxon.—Romania, xxv. 340-1.]
. . . . . [A gap in the MS.]
Line 9048
