Gaude Maria, thou rose of ryse,
Maiden and mother, both gentle and free;
Precious princess, peerless of price,
Thy bower is next the Trinity;
Thy Son as lawe asketh a fight,
In body and soul thee took him to;
Thou reigned in Heaven like as we find
In coeli palacio.

Now blessed birde, we pray thee abone,
Before thy Son for us thou fall,
And pray him as he was on the rood done,
And for us drank aysell and gall,
That we may wonne within that wall,
Wherever is well withouten woe,
And grant that grace unto us all
In perenni gaudio.

SEQUUNTUR MIRABILIA.

Ad fadendum unumquemque hominum duo capita.

Sume sulphur et argentum vivum, et pone ad lumen lampadis, et unusquisque putabit socium suum habere duo capita.

Ut homo videatur habere duo capila equina.

Accipe medullam equi, et ceram virgineam, et fac
candelam, et accende.

Ut omnia instrumenta in damo appareant serpentes.

Recipe serpentem, et toque, et sume pinguedinem
ejus, et fac candelam cum alia cera, et iliumina.

Si vis facere lumen per vim animi.

Accipe vermes qua lucent de nocte et pone in vase vitreo continente radium solis quousque fiet aqua, et tune pone illam in lampade, et lucet sicut candela, et probatum est.

Ut homines ardere appareant.

Recipe sanguinem leporis, et ceram virgineam, et fac candelam, et illumina.

Item capiatis argentum vivum, et ponatis ipsum in aliquo vitro, et etiam aquam ardentem, et aquam vitae, et projiciatis tres vel quatuor guttas in igne—­si fuerat aliqua mulier corrupta statim debet mingere et non aliter.

“Gossips mine” has been printed from another manuscript by the Percy Society.  To most readers of Fraser, however, it is likely to be new.  I select it from the humorous poems as being capable (which most of them are not) of being printed without omissions.  The necessary discretion, it will be seen, has been supplied by the author.

How gossips mine, gossips mine,
When shall we go to the wine.

I shall tell you a good sport,
How gossips gather them of a sort,
Their sick bodies to comfort,
When they meet in land or street.

But I dare not for your displeasure,
Tell of these matters half the substance;
But yet somewhat of their governance,
So far as I dare I will declare.

Good gossip mine, where have ye been;
It is so long sith I you seen. 
Where is the best wine, tell you me. 
Can ye aught tell?  Yea, full well.

I know a draught of merry go down,
The best it is in all the town. 
But yet I would not for my gown,
My husband wist.  Ye may me trist.

Call forth our gossips, bye-and-bye,
Eleanour, Joan, and Margery,
Margaret, Alice, and Cecily;
For they will come, both all and some.

And each of them will something bring,
Goose or pig, or capon’s wing,
Pasties of pigeons, or some such thing. 
For we must eat some manner meat.