refrain counts for as much as the verses; while the emotion seems to spring from the crowd and to represent a community. Written down--no one can say when it was actually composed--not later than the middle of the thirteenth century, along with the music and a Latin hymn interlined in red ink, this song is justly regarded by critics as communal rather than artistic in its character; and while it is set to music in what Chappell calls "the earliest secular composition, in parts, known to exist in any country," yet even this elaborate music was probably "a national song and tune, selected according to the custom of the times as a basis for harmony," and was "not entirely a scholastic composition." It runs in the original:-- Sumer is icumen in. Lhude sing cuccu. Groweth sed And bloweth med And springth the wde nu. Sing cuccu. Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu; Bulluc sterteth, Bucke verteth, Murie sing cuccu. Cuccu, cuccu. Wel singes thu cuccu, Ne swik thu naver nu. BURDEN Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu.[1] [1] For facsimile of the MS., music, and valuable remarks, see Chappell, 'Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time,' Vol. i., frontispiece, and pages 21 ff. For pronunciation, see A. J. Ellis, 'Early English Pronunciation,' ii., 419 ff. The translation given by Mr. Ellis is:-- "Summer has come in; loudly sing, cuckoo! Grows seed and blossoms mead and springs the wood now. Sing, cuckoo! Ewe bleats after lamb, lows after (its) calf the cow; bullock leaps, buck verts (seeks the green); merrily sing, cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo! Well singest thou, cuckoo; cease thou not never now. _Burden_.--Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo! Sing, cuckoo, sing cuckoo, now."--_Lhude_, _wde_ (=_wude_), _awe_, _calve_, _bucke_, are dissyllabic. Mr. Ellis's translation of _verteth_ is very doubtful.