[2] Hecuba

Hecuba is the Queen of Troy. Before the Greek invasion (lead by Agamemnon), one would have thought her to be among the happiest and most fortunate women alive. Oh to Hecuba—the the Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, with noble sons such as Hector and Paris! Yet, we do not envy her now. When the Greeks finally sac Troy, after 10 long years of fighting, she will have lost all of her sons, seen her daughters taken away as prizes, watched her husband slain before her eyes, and herself taken as a slave by Odysseus to Ithaca. She is the epitome of the ever turning Wheel of Fortune, and also the Ancient Greek maxim, “Count no man happy until he is dead.” 

[3] Flora—Roman goddess of flowers and spring. [image]

[3] Phoebus: an epithet for Apollo meaning “bright”; here associating Apollo with Helios, the sun. 

[3] Zephyr: the deity that is the West wind. It is Zephyr who initiates spring, as depicted in Botocelli’s Prima Vera (Note that Venus and Cupid are also present in new spring.) 

[3] Cytharizat: to play the cithara, a Greek harp.

[3] Philomena—though the story of the young woman Philomena [Philomela] is not a happy one, ultimately she is turned into a nightingale, a bird celebrated for its powerful and beautiful song.

[4] turned on the wheel: to be “turned on the wheel” is to be tortured by being bound onto a turning wheel, like the Greek king Ixion, who suffered this punishment eternally.

[5] Paris: Son of Priam and Hecuba, Prince of Troy, the actions of Priam brought about the Trojan War and ultimate, the destruction of Troy. Asked to judge which goddess—Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite—was the fairest, Paris chose Aphrodite, who had promised him, for his judgment, the most beautiful woman in the world. That woman was Helen, wife of Menaleos, King of Sparta, and with the help of Aphrodite, Paris, visiting the Greek city, absconded with the beautiful queen. They are here imagined as the paragon of courtly lovers. 

[10] the Queen of England—naturally one is curious as to whom this might refer, and one plausible (in terms of the date of the song) and apposite (in terms of her role in the genre of courtly love) candidate is Eleanor of Aquitaine. However, in his excellent chapter on the Carmina manuscript, Christopher de Hamel notes that upon close inspection, it appears that the manuscript has been altered, and that the word “queen” has replaced the word “king.” Musing on this, he suggests that perhaps the song was originally composed from the perspective of a young woman, in which case the object of desire would be the substantially more gallant son of Eleanor, Richard the Lionheart.* 

[13] Cucaniensis: In English Cockaigne or Cockayne is a mythical land of ease, song, drinking, and plenty. The antithesis of the hard reality of the medieval peasant, Cockayne represents a libertine society in terms of sex, drink, religious restrictions, and societal hierarchies. 

[13] Decii: M. Publius Decius Subulo (d. 115  B.C.), a Roman nobleman who was notorious for his dissolute lifestyle. 

[14] Bacchus: god of wine, revelry, intoxication, fertility, irrationality, creativity, inspiration, and the life force. 

[6] & [15] Cupid: the precocious son of Venus, winged and flitting around spreading lust. 

[18] Manda liet: The meaning of manda liet is unknown. However, there are multiple theories as to what it could be. One suggestion is that it is macaronic—a combination of Latin and Middle High German. The word manda is the imperative of the Latin verb mando, "deliver, send", and liet, "a song", is Middle High German. 

[20] hyrca, hyrca, nazaza,/ trillirivos: These words are not known; possibly just a musical jingle.

[24] Ave: “Hail!” We chose not to translate this word, so that the irreverence of this song (cf. Ave Maria) might be immediately apparent.  

[24] Helen: see “Paris” above. Cf. Christopher Marlow’s The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (c.1593), in which Faustus, having conjured Helen, states:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Illium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss...

[24] Blanziflor: (Blanchefleur/Blancheflour), a popular medieval story wherein a Christian princess abducted by Saracens falls in love with Floris a pagan prince. Blancheflour means "White Flower" and Floris means "Belongs to the Flower".

*Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World (New York, 2017), p. 368. See for additional astute observations about this manuscript by this author, visit  "Fun Facts".