Singing Women: Lullabies and Carols in Medieval England

Middle English literature frequently depicts women participating in the performance of songs, yet within the surviving corpus of pre-Reformation song lyrics, it is difficult to find evidence of female authorship and even performance traditions. ¹ Where women's voices are heard, notably in lullabies and bawdy carols, critics predominantly treat the lyrics as imitations of oral traditions, co-opted within religious or satirical literature, a reading pattern established by Richard Leighton Greene in his influential study of the carol and which continues to dominate more recent analyses. ² Lullabies in particular appear to invite distinctions between authentic and imitative songs because the term is used to describe both songs sung to soothe children and lyrics that depict such songs. References to women who "singe lullinge[s] and oþir cradil songis" to babies can be found within medieval literature, and about twenty Middle English lyrics survive that depict a scene in which a mother lulls her baby or that contain lulling words. ³ This article argues that the written sources provide insights into a participatory lyric tradition accessible to women as well as men.

Examination of medieval lullaby texts reveals an ongoing process of sharing and rewriting in the composition of song that crossed between written and performance cultures, creating lullabies that are not simply literary imitations of oral song traditions. That women could have taken part in the process will be shown through evidence that women were involved in the performance of songs in medieval England, especially carols. Lullabies are prominent within the early carol corpus and played an identifiable role in the development of the song form that came to dominate fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century lyrics, while also maintaining a distinct identity through shared features of form and content. The centrality of female voices to these texts encourages recognition of continuity between flourishing textual and performance traditions of late medieval England, and, crucially, between male and female singers. As is so often the case within medieval literature, the evidence is fragmented and distorted by extensive loss. This article therefore draws widely upon the textual connections among lyrics and external evidence, such as documentary records and literary depictions, to investigate the compositional contexts of late medieval songs, and argues that knowledge of loss should enrich rather than diminish readings of surviving texts.

I. Beyond Authenticity and Imitation: Early Lullabies and Compositional Methods

Medieval lullabies are self-reflexive: they both are songs and are about the act of singing. This makes them especially rich sources in the exploration of the relation between written texts and performance traditions and of the space given to women's voices in Middle English lyrics. It is notable that critics assert the dichotomy of voice and text in relation to exactly the songs that create continuity between the two. Greene's section of "lullaby carols" consists largely of dialogues between Mary and the Christ Child, using burdens that include lulling words. He claims that their burdens are "in imitation of real folk-lullabies" but does not elaborate upon this claim. ⁴ Nicholas Orme states that "No real lullabies survive from medieval England, but there are lyrics that copy their form." ⁵ Likewise, discussion of the earliest medieval lullaby, Lollai, lollai, litel child, whi wepistou so sore? (the Harley lullaby), has focused upon the question of whether or not it is "genuine." ⁶ In order to avoid talking of "real" or "genuine" lullabies, I will retain the term "lullaby" for lyrics with clear internal textual signatures, either the depiction of a scene in which a singer soothes a baby or the presence of lulling words. I will refer to songs used to soothe children as cradle songs, distinguishing them solely by the performance context rather than more evaluative criteria. Examination of the lullabies does not support divisive terminology of authenticity and imitation but rather reveals the ways in which literary and musical culture, Latin and vernacular texts, and the scholarly and popular overlap in medieval lyrics.

The earliest Middle English lullaby is found in London, British Library, Harley MS 913, an early fourteenth-century Anglo-Irish miscellany most...