Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu! Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springth the wde nu. Sing cuccu. Awe bleteth after lamb, Llouth after calve cu, Bulluc sterteth, buck verteth, Murie sing cuccu! Cuccu, cuccu, well singeth thu cuccu, Ne swik thu navu nu; Sing cuccu, cuccu, nu sing cuccu, Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu! The workman jumps up and shouts as they go past; the priest and the friar laugh and shout; the girls, gathering together as is the maidens' way, laugh and clap their hands. The young men sing as they go and dance as they sing. Spring has come back again--sing cuckoo; the days of light and warmth--sing cuckoo; the time of feasting and of love--sing cuckoo. The proud abbot, with his following, draws rein to let them pass, and laughs to see them; he is, you see, a man first and a monk afterwards. In the gateway of his great house stands the Norman earl with his livery. He waits to let the London youth go by. The earl scorns the English youth no longer; he knows their lustihood. He can even understand their speech. He sends out largesse to the lads to be spent in the good wines of Gascony and of Spain; he joins in the singing; he waves his hand, a brotherly hand, as the floral greenery passes along; he sings with them at the top of his voice: Sing cuccu--cuccu--nu sing cuccu; Sing cuccu; sing cuccu, nu. Presently the evening falls. It is light till past eight; the days are long. At nightfall, in summer, the people go to bed. In the great houses they assemble in the hall; in winter they would listen to music and the telling of stories, even the legends of King Arthur. Walter Map[4] will collect them and arrange them, and the French romances, such as "Amis et Amils," "Aucassin et Nicolette," though these have not yet been written down. In summer they have music before they go to bed. We are in a city that has always been fond of music. The noise of crowd and pipe, tabor and cithern, is now silent in the streets. Rich men kept their own musicians. What said Bishop Grossetête? Next hys chamber, besyde hys study, Hys harper's chamber was fast ther by, Many tymes, by nightes and dayes, He hade solace of notes and layes. One asked him the resun why He hadde delyte in minstrelsy? He answered hym on thys manere Why he helde the harpe so dere: The virtu of the harpe thurh skill and right Wyll destrye the fendys myght, And to the cros by gode skeyl Ys the harpe lykened weyl.