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

Re: The bailey beareth the bell away

[(Anonymous)]

We are singing a song with this poem as lyrics, and i found them quite interesting. Since this poem has also been published under the name of "the bridal morning", I think it should be interpreted from that view.

The poem starts with
The maidens came when I was in my mothers bower
I think the maidens are here either her servants that prepare her for her wedding, or her bridesmaids. "When I was in my mother bower" means, I think, that she was still very young and under protection of her mother.
I had all that I would
Apparently, she was very rich. That is something that doesn't surprise me in combination with the last said. Rich daughters were often raised very secluded and protected from the world.
Than comes the chorus of the song:
The bailey beareth the bell away, the lily, the rose, the rose I lay
This part was the hardest part for me. "To bear the bell away" is to win the prize, in this case the love of the girl.
My singing teacher told me something about a bailey being a "love nest" or a place to beloved could come together and later, where one lover would come to lay flowers when the other was gone. I have read in several interpretations of the poem, that a bailey is a low-ranked farmer, or officer. I favor the last one.
As (should be) commonly known, the lily is symbol for purity and virginity and the rose for love and passion. If the bailey is indeed a place where she lays flowers, I think "the rose I lay" means she'd rather have marriage for love than a proper marriage and she shows that to her lover.
Sadly, because of her social status, her marriage will not have been with her beloved bailey, but with someone suitable for her, someone symbolised by the lily.
So in short, I think she regrets her marriage with "the lily"
the silver is white, red is the gold
Well, this connects with what I said before. White, the lily, is silver, but the red rose is gold. The rose is better than the lily; love is better than purity.
the robes they lay in fold
"robes" is a symbolised word for bed sheets. So apparently, the bed has not been slept on, after her marriage. Strange, to my thinking, but quite fitting the "pure virgin" theme.
and through the glass windows shines the sun
Glass windows were very special and only for the very rich, she still has glass windows, indicating she still is rich, and has not married the poor farmer. The glass windows separate her from the world, but she is able to see it all. I think this symbolises the noble life very nicely. Now for the deeper part, she sees the sun through the windows, but she cannot walk in it, she cannot go outside, as I think anyone would want.
She sees her mistake but now isn't able to go back.
how should I love and I so young?
How can she ever love this man; she is already in love with her bailey. As I said in the beginning, she apparently is still very young. This fits the situation, since girls tended to marry very young and to much older men in that time.

This is how I think the poem could be interpreted. It seems like a quite logical story to me, but I would love to know what others think about the poem and my interpretation.