The bailey beareth the bell away

[wolfinthewood]

This rather beautiful medieval fragment has intrigued and puzzled me for many years. The refrain suggests that it's a carole, a song for dancing to. It has some of the qualities of a dramatic monologue; at any rate, it evokes a voice, a situation and the rudiments of a story. It could be the start of a ballad narrative, I suppose, though it proceeds more indirectly and allusively than most ballads.

This would seem to be the story that it tells, or adumbrates. The girl is from a noble family. She has led a sheltered life in the care of her mother and she has been perfectly happy like this. She is dreamily aware of the 'bailey', the bailiff or estate steward, whose status is undoubtedly much lower than hers, though he is almost certainly a gentleman: probably one with no inheritance, or only a very modest one.

'To bear the bell away' meant to be the winner; the expression was proverbial. It derives from the fact that bells of gold or silver were sometimes given as prizes in races and other sorts of competition. Perhaps there was a real contest which the bailey won; or perhaps the bell is purely figurative.

The maidens came to her mother's bower – why? To make her ready for her wedding would be my guess. And definitely not with the winning bailey, but with some wealthy, well-born man of her parents' choosing. The poem evokes her sense of helplessness in the way that it delicately suggests her dissociation from what is happening, as her thoughts focus on apparently random (but telling) sensual details: the gold and silver (jewellery? wedding presents? vessels at a feast?), the folded robes (that have been lying in a chest waiting for her wedding day?), the sun shining through the glass window.

What is going to happen next?


The maidens came
When I was in my mother's bower;
I had all that I would.
The bailey beareth the bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.
The silver is white, red is the gold;
The robes they lay in fold.
The bailey beareth the bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.
And through the glass window shines the sun.
How should I love, and I so young?
The bailey beareth the bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.

Anonymous (fifteenth century)


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Comments

The bailey beareth the bell away

[(Anonymous)]

A small point about this song, which intrigues me too.
'Through the glass window shines the sun,
How should I love and I so young?'

The image of sunshine through glass is used in C14/15 poems about the Virgin Mary. 'As the sonne shone though glas,
So Jesu in her body was.'
Sunlight passes through the glass without altering it in any way, hence its use as an image for Mary's sinless conception of Jesus. Sunlight through a glass window appears in many paintings of the Annunciation.

I have no idea whether this is connected to the song, which I heard sung last night for the first time last night as part of a Christmas Eve concert.
I had no idea that the tune was so strange - doubtless mediaeval.

Anthea Fleming
Melbourne

The Bailey Beareth the Bell Away

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks so much for posting this poem and discussing its possible meanings. I don't know if there was ever a medieval tune for the words, but the English composer Peter Warlock composed a beautiful setting in the 1920s.

I'd agree with Anonymous who says there might be a connection with the Virgin Mary because Warlock also set a number of Christmas poems by Bruce Blunt (Bethlehem Down and The Frostbound Wood) that focus on Mary. The song under the title "The Bayley Berith the Bell Away" can be found on this Decca CD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Warlock-Orchestral-Works-Peter/dp/B00005QDYO

[chiara-piano17.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm an italian student.
I study singing in the choir of my music school. My theacher gives me the score of "The Lily and the Rose" written by Bob Chilcott ( here you find the link if you want to listen it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZpcdCRX0TQ )
I think this song is beautiful and I really like it, so I started searching for some informations about it. I tryed to translate it but I found it realy difficult because in my vocabulary there aren't some words (like "beareth") and I can't understand some typical proverbial phrases. After I found your article which is really interesting but I can't understand some things you said, because my English isn't really good...
For example, the poem talk about ancient costumes, right? But I didn't understand if the location is England or not... and the poet was british?
After that, what means exactly "bower"?
And what represent the lily and the rose? Have they a particular meaning?

I will so happy if you answer my questions. :)
I'm sorry if I disturb you... but I'm really curious!

Thank you to read my comment.
See you!


P.s. sorry for my bad english!