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Of all the spring-blooming “cuckoo plants” (see “Sumer is Icumen In,” April 3, 2009) associated not only with the bird but with magic, sexuality, snakes, and death, the cuckoo-pint or wake-robin is the most famous. Read more »
Riding or walking, in companies of green-clad couples like the courtiers of King Arthur or the Duke de Berry, or by twos, or all alone, like the Dreamer of the Roman de la Rose or the falconer of the Belles Heures, there are many variations on the medieval set piece of the May morning???s outing to the greenwood.
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Sumer is icumen in, Summer has come in, Lhude sing cuccu! Loudly sing, Cuckoo! Growe?? sed and blowe?? med The seed grows and the meadow blooms And spring?? ??e wde nu, And the wood springs anew, Sing cuccu! Sing, Cuckoo! Awe blete?? after lomb, The ewe bleats after the lamb Lhou?? after calue cu. The cow lows after the calf. Bulluc sterte??, bucke uerte??, The bullock stirs, the stag farts, Murie sing cuccu! Merrily sing, Cuckoo! Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes ??u cuccu; Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo; Ne swik ??u nauer nu. Don’t you ever stop now, Pes: Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu. Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo. Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu! Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now! ???From the Middle English round “Sumer is Icumen in.”
The outdoor pleasures of April depicted in medieval calendars were a prelude to the amours of May, and April is the month in which the cuckoo begins to call. Cuculus canorus is a summer migrant that winters in Africa and returns to Europe in the spring. Throughout medieval and Renaissance literature, the song of the cuckoo heralds both the return of spring and of the season of love, as in the famous round “Sumer is Icumen In.” (View the musical notation for “Sumer is Icumen In.”) Read more »
The name “March” is derived from Martius, the Roman god of war, fertility, and vegetation. In ancient Rome, military campaigns traditionally began in the spring, which also coincided with the return to agricultural labor in the fields after the winter rest. Read more »
The snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) is the first spring bulb to emerge in Bonnefont Garden. Native to much of Europe, although probably naturalized in England, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, and Scandinavia, the snowdrop blooms from January to March in woods and scrub and by streams (Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips, The Bulb Book, 1981). It is widely grown in gardens on both sides of the Atlantic, and has escaped and naturalized in Canada and the northeastern United States. Read more »
February fill dike
Be it black or be it white;
But if it be white,
The better to like.???From John Ray???s A Collection of English Proverbs, 1670
Rain or snow, the month of February was associated with precipitation and uncertain weather, and abounded in weather lore. Fine weather on the medieval feast of Candlemas (February 2) signified a long winter, and rainy weather an early spring, long before the American institution of Groundhog Day. The groundhog who may or may not see his shadow had European antecedents in the German badger and the Swiss wolf. Read more »
Januar By thys fyre I warme my handys; Februar And with my spade I delfe my landys. Marche Here I sette my thynge to sprynge, Aprile And here I here [hear] the fowlis synge. Maij I am as lyght as byrde on bowe, Junij And I wede my corne well I-now [enough] Julij With my sythe [scythe] my meade [meadow] my mead I [mow]; Auguste And here I shere my corne full low. September With my flayll I erne my brede, October And here I sawe [sow] my whete so rede. November At Martynesmasse I kyll my swine; December And at Cristesmasse I drynke redde wyne. (Bridget Henisch, The Medieval Calendar Year, 1999)
Holy stond in the hall
Faire to behold:
Ivy stond without the dore???
She is ful sore acold.Holy and his mery men
They daunsen and they sing;
Ivy and her maidenes
They wepen and they wring.???Fifteenth-century carol, Reginald Thorne Davies, Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology, 1972.
A group of English carols set down in the fifteenth century preserves evidence of a ritual contest between boys bearing branches of holly and girls bearing ivy. The red-berried holly, symbolizing light, warmth, and light, was meant to prevail over the black-fruited ivy, which signified the dark and cold of winter. Thus, ivy remained outside the door while holly was carried triumphantly into the hall. Read more »
The wreath now on display high on the west wall of the Romanesque Hall above the thirteenth-century limestone doorway from Moutiers-St. Jean was designed and installed for the first time last December. The design is based on that of a wreath motif in a fragment of a fifteenth-century wall hanging in the Museum???s collection, in which four festoons of fruits, leaves, and flowers are bound together with ribbon to form a circle. Read more »
We have been working busily for the last few weeks preparing the holiday decorations that will deck the Museum from the first of December until the fifth of January. The decorations are made from natural materials, and all of the plant stuffs used were associated with the medieval celebration of Christmastide. This great feast embraced the twelve days between the Nativity and the Epiphany, which commemorated the visit of the Three Kings to the infant Jesus.
The wreaths and garlands on display are the work of many hands, and could not be fabricated by the Gardens staff without the help and enthusiasm of volunteers and other staff members who give up their lunch hours and their days off to help gather ivy, secure bay leaves and wheat ears to florist???s picks, and buff apples until they glow.