This boke is compyled by Dan Iohn Lydgate monke of Burye, at the excitacion [and] styrynge of the noble and victorious prynce, Kynge Henry the fyfthe, i[n] the honoure glorie [and] reuerence of the byrthe of our moste blessed Lady, mayde, wyfe, [and] mother of our lorde Iesu Christe, chapitred as foloweth by this table

¶ Howe our Lady after the byrthe of saynt Iohan Baptiste tourned to Nazareth. Capitulo. xxiii. (Book 23)

ANd whan this blessed gracious dyte Was sayd to god / deuoutly of Marie I fynde after playnly / howe that she Styll in the house / bode of Zacharie Thre monthes / the Gospell may notlye And after that / I rede in certayne To Nazareth / that she went agayne.

¶ And there aboue / in contemplacio•• In her prayers / alway day by daye With many an holy meditacion To queme her lorde / in what she can or maye From whome her thought / went neuer awaye Her full mnyde / ne her remenbraunce

For but in hym / she hath no plesaunce.

¶ In all this worlde / of no maner thynge For all her ioye / was on hym to thynke What euer she dyd / prayeng or worchynge Nothinge / but he might in her herte synke For fynally / whether she wake or wynke Amyd her herte / he was alway present So fixe on hym was sette her hole entent.

¶ And day by day / this holy lyfe she lad This party emayde thorowe hygh deuocion So seruent loue / vnto god she had There may be made no deuision For she sequestred her opynion From all the worlde / & let it playnly gone So hole to god / she gaue her herte alone.

¶ For euer in loue / she brent more and more Towarde god / in his hygh seruice? Was all her luste / with herte sette so sore All erthely thynge / she fully doth despyse And day by day / her wombe gan to ryse Through the fulfilling of the holy ghoste Therin by loke / whome she loued moste.

¶ This mene while Ioseph ay soiourned In Galilee / god wote full innocent Of all this thynge / and why he not retourned Was for that he was so diligent In Carpentry•• / with all his full entent

Sondry werkes of meruaylous empryse By carpentrye / to forge and deuise.

¶ For in this crafte inpassyng excellence He had in soth / & hygh discression And was had / moste in reuerence Of all the werkmen / of that regyon And for he had in connyng / suche renowne Lyke a mayster / there is nomore to saye The werkmen all his bidding dyd obaye.

¶ And when he had all werke acheued He is repayred to Nazareth agayne But lorde howe he was in his herte ameued When that Marie / he hath with childe yseyne That sore astoned / he nat what he may sayne So at his herte / it sat so inwardly Tyll at the laste / he abrayed sodaynly.

¶ And sayd alas / howe it is fall of newe In myne absence / or what thyng may this be Sithen this mayde / so faithfull & so trewe Is with chylde / & god wote not with me That somtyme had auowed chastite And to my kepyng / eke deliuered was What shall I saye / of this sodeyne cas.

¶ What shall I answere / my selfe to excuse Unto the bysshop / yf he me appose For eyther muste I playnly her accuse Or my gylte / with this gylte enuose

This thynge is opene / I may it nat enclose O blessed god / so do me nowe this grace Out of my brest / this wofull ghoste to trace.

¶ For certes lorde / & it were thy wyll I had leuer vtterly to dye Than thorowe my worde / this mayde for to spyll As I more nede / yf I her bewraye And on my selfe / yf I the charge laye For to afferme she hath conceyuyd by me I more accuse her vowe of chastyte.

¶ And so my selfe / appeche of vntreuth Sithen I in soth dyd / her neuer knowe O blessed lorde / haue on this mater reuth•• For vtterly / my wyt is brought so lowe To see corne growe / where no sede is sowe And reason also platly can I none Howe a mayde with chylde sholde gone.

¶ And floure forthe / in her virginite I neuer sawe / ne neuer yet dyd rede And this I doute / my reason can nat se Howe that Marie / hath kept her maydenhed•• In myne absence / & this I double drede My witte is brought / & wote not where to tourne For double cause / that I haue nowe to mourne.

¶ That one is this••that my fantasye May neuer accorde / that she dyd offence And reason playnly / agayn warde doth deny••

And vpon kynde / grounded his sentence To preue sothely / without resistence That neuer woman / in natures sight Without a man / a chylde conceyue myght.

¶ And with that worde / he brest out for to wepe Lyke as he wolde / all in teres browne And for the constreynt / of his syghes depe Stode on the poynt / for to haue fallen downe His sodayne wo / made hym almoste sowne So for distresse this Ioseph / far in age Of inwarde thought / cought was in a rage.