The Lyrics of Henry VIII/La season (Compère / Agricola, Incipit)

[ff. 47^v-48^r]

La season

Textual Commentary

“La season” appears as an incipit in H in all three voices, the first and third with large block capitals for the initial letter, and the second with a small block capital. There is little room left among the musical notation for text. “La season” is listed in the manuscript’s table of contents as the thirty-eighth work.

“La season” appears also in C1848 (396), Fl178 (ff. 26^v–27^r), FlR2794 (ff. 66^v–67^r), P1597 (ff. 21^v–22^r), P1722 (f. 73^r), P2245 (ff. 12^v–13^r), RC2856 (ff. 73^v–74^r), SG462 (f. 93^r), WLab (ff. 142^v–143^r), and elsewhere (see Fallows, Catalogue). Full texts appear in C1848, FlR2794, P1597, P1722, and P2245. Incipits and partial texts appear in RC2856, SG462, and WLab.

While unattributed in H, other witnesses ascribe treatments of the piece to Loyset Compère and, alternatively, Alexander Agricola. Its best full witness for text and music, as noted by Lerner (ed. Agricola 5.lxxxvii), is P2245, as below:

La saison en est ou james
Que je congnoisse ma follye,

Car celle qui mon cuer follye
Me sert de trop durs entremez.

Soyes a Paris, Bruges ou Mes,                                       5
Raison veult que tost je l'oublye.

La saison en est ou james
Que je congnoisse ma follye,

Combien que, sans sy et sans mes,
Elle soit du tout assouvye;                                             10

Mais puis que son couriage plye,
Je la renounce desormais.

La saison en est ou james
Que je congnoisse ma follye,

Car celle que mon cueur follye                                      15
Me sert de trop durs entremez.

“La season” is reprinted in Stevens MCH8 (34–5), Lerner (ed., Agricola 5.lxxxvii-lxxxviii), and others.