Uppsala MS 76a, no. 42 »Dame venez moy secourir«

Uppsala 76a, no. 42, ff. 42v-43 »Dame venez moy secourir« 2v (unicum)

Dame venez moy secourir,
ou je mouray soudainement /certeynement.
Aussi bien nous fault il mourir,
et ne scay quant ne comment.

Helas, madame,
trop mi donnés de paine,
vous mi faict mourir.
Mille regrez en moy si demeynent.

Helas, je m’en vois gessir
au lit de pleurs ou je desir
user/finir ma vie en desconfort,
s’il ne vous plaist prendre a merci
celui qui n’atant que a la mort.
Helas, madame, vous aves tort.

Lady, come help me,
or I shall suddenly/certainly die.
Of course we all have to die,
and I do not know when and how.

Alas, Milady,
you give me too much pain,
you cause my death.
Thousand sorrows linger in me.

Alas, I must throw myself
on the bed of tears where I desire
to end my life in despair,
if it does not please you to forgive
the one who only expects to die.
Alas, Milady, you are mistaken.

Entered by Hand B. Both voices have complete texts. The first four lines come from the monophonic song “Puisque de vous me fault partir” in the MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. f.fr. 12744, ff. 66v-67, where the 3rd stanza has the words:

Dame veuillez moy obeir
ou je mourray soudainement
Aussy bien nous fault il tous mourir
nous ne savons quant ne comment.

The tune in Paris 12744 is used in the setting’s superius in bars 1-17.

In the printed collection S'ensuivent plusieurs Belles chansons nouvelles. Et sont en nombre. iiii,xx, et dix. [Paris, c. 1512-15, ed. Jeffery 1971, pp. 39-98] this stanza appears as stanza 5 (lines 28-31) in the same poem (no. 12, ed. ibid. pp. 57-59). In the printed version of the poem this stanza is preceded by an interpolation, which does not appear in Paris 12744, “Helas, ma dame, tant me donnez de paine ..." (lines 17-27). In the Uppsala setting it makes up the remainder of the text. A pre-existent tune may be paraphrased in this section. In this way a through-composed setting of a stanza of a popular song supplemented by the long interpolation was created, something quite new in the early 16th century.

See further Comments on Hand B's last entries.