Middle English Dictionary Entry
nocturne n.
Entry Info
| Forms | nocturne n. |
| Etymology | ML |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) Eccl. A division of the office of matins, consisting of selected Psalms (often three) and a number of readings from Scripture; a nocturn; (b) one of the groups of Psalms used in the nocturns.
Associated quotations
a
- a1400 Primer (1891) [OD col.] (StJ-C G.24)p.83 : Here bygynneth þe þridde nocturne.
- a1425 Ben.Rule(1) (Lnsd 378)17/24 : And fra þe witsunday til þe lentyn, sal it ilke niht be saide wid þe sexe last salmis of te nocturne.
- c1450(?c1425) St.Eliz.Spalb.(Dc 114)109/22 : These..are..doon..as for þe firste nocturne of matyns.
- c1450(?c1425) St.Eliz.Spalb.(Dc 114)109/28 : Sche ryseþ vp..stronge..to serue þe secounde nocturne of matyns.
- c1450(?c1425) St.Eliz.Spalb.(Dc 114)111/1 : Þe nocturns, matyns, and laudys wonderly endyd.
- a1500(?c1425) Spec.Sacer.(Add 36791)103/24 : Gloria Patri betokeneþ the same, the whiche was vsed to be songyn..xiiii [read: xxiiii] tymes in nocturnis hasteliche.
- a1500 Rule Minoresses (Bod 585)115/21 : Þe ympnis of þe fest at þe nocturne schullin be songyn wiþ his note.
b
- c1230(?a1200) Ancr.(Corp-C 402)138/21 : Hwen þu hauest longe iwaket & schuldest gan to slepen..Sei ȝet a Nocturne.
- (1443) Reg.Spofford in Cant.Yk.S.23254 : Every person that shal say a masse or a nocturne of the sauter.
- c1475(1392) *MS Wel.564 (Wel 564)48b/a : An hour lastiþ..as longe as a good redere and a deuout schulde rede twies þe seuene psalmes with þe letanye or ellis oonys ij nocturnus of þe sauter.