The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2386   Message #14877
Posted By: Bruce
16-Oct-97 - 09:41 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Fowles in the Frith (Middle English)
Subject: RE: fowles in the frith
[Some thorns expanded to 'th']

Foweles in the frith |birds/wood
The fisses in the flod |fishes/river
And I mon waxe wod |must/mad
Mulch sorw I walke with |sorrow
For beste of bon and blod.

Mid-14th century lyric from and Eton College MS.
Another interpretation is given on p. 278, by Stephen Manning, in Maxwell Luria and Richard Hoffman's 'Middle English Lyrics', Norton, N.Y., 1974.