* * * *

"Hew alas p amo^r
Oy moy myst en tant dolour."

* * * * *

"Hey how ze chevaldoures woke al nyght."

It is quite evident that these lines were thus prefixed (as is still the
custom), to indicate the _air_ to which the Latin hymns were to be sung.
This is also set forth in a memorandum at the commencement, which states
that these songs, _Cantilene_, were composed by the Bishop of Ossory for
the vicars of his cathedral church, and for his priests and clerks,

"ne guttura eorum et ora deo sanctificata polluantur cantilenis
teatralibus turpibus et secularibus: et cum sint cantatores, provideant
sibi notis convenientibus, secundum quod dictamina requirunt."--_Lib.
Rub. Ossor._ fol. 70.

We may, I think, safely conclude that the lines above given were the
commencement of the _cantilene teatrales turpes_ et _seculares_, which the
good bishop wished to deprive his clergy of all excuse for singing, by
providing them with pious hymns to the same airs; thinking, I suppose, like
John Wesley in after years, it was a pity the devil should monopolise all
the good tunes. I shall merely add that the author of the Latin poetry
seems to have been Richard de Ledrede, who filled {386} the see of Ossory
from 1318 to 1360, and was rendered famous by his proceedings against Dame
Alice Kyteller for heresy and witchcraft. (See a contemporary account of
the "proceedings" published by the Camden Society in 1843; a most valuable
contribution to Irish history, and well deserving of still more editorial
labour than has been bestowed on it.) I have copied the old English and
Norman-French word for word, preserving the contractions wherever they
occurred.

I shall conclude this "note" by proposing two "Queries:" to such of your
contributors as are learned in old English and French song-lore, viz.,

1. Are the entire songs, of which the above lines form the commencements,
known or recoverable?

2. If so, is the music to which they were sung handed down?

I shall feel much obliged by answers to both or either of the above
Queries, and

"Bis dat, qui cito dat."

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny, Nov. 1. 1850.

* * * * *

MISPLACED WORDS IN SHAKSPEARE'S TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

In that immaculate volume, the first folio edition of Shakspeare, of which
Mr. Knight says: "Perhaps, all things considered, there never was a book so
correctly