1 One other example has only recently been discovered: Richard Wistreich, ‘Philippe de Monte: New Autobiographical Documents’, Early Music History, 25 (2006), pp. 257–308.

2 Frankfurt a.M., 1811, pp. 84–139.

3 H. Mendel and A. Reißmann, Musikalisches Konversationslexikon, vol. 10 (Berlin, 1878), p. 32; F. J. Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens, vol. v (2nd edn, Paris, 1884), p. 168; E. vander Straeten, La musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIX^e siècle (Brussels, 1867–88; repr. New York, 1969), vol. v, p. 261; R. Eitner, Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellenlexikon der Musiker und Musikgeschichte, vol. ix (Leipzig, 1903), p. 197; G. Pietzsch, ‘Johannes von Soest’, in H. Riemann, Musiklexikon, vol. ii (12th edn, Mainz, 1961), p. 697; id., ‘Soest, Johannes von’, in MGG, vol. xii (Kassel, 1965), cols. 824–5; H. Hüschen, ‘Susato, Johannes de’, in Karl Gustav Fellerer (ed.), Rheinische Musiker IV (Cologne, 1966), pp. 165–7; C. A. Miller, ‘Soest, Johannes von’, in New Grove II, vol. xvii (London, 1980), p. 441; H.-D. Heimann, ‘Stadtbürgerliches Selbstverständnis und Reformmentalität des Heidelberger Hofkapellmeisters und Frankfurter Stadtarztes Johann von Soest, genannt Steinwert (1448–1506)’, Westfälische Zeitschrift, 135 (1985), pp. 239–62; R. Strohm, The Rise of European Music, 1380–1500 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 241, 518; L. Finscher (ed.), Die Musik des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, 3; Laaber, 1989), pp. 43, 138–9; Klaus-Jürgen Sachs, Johannes von Soest, in MGG ² (Kassel, 2003), cols. 1119–21; Stephen Keyl, ‘Soest, Johannes von’, Grove Music Online, acc. 9 Jan. 2010.

4 R. Eitner, ‘Die Singeordnung des Pfalzgrafen Philipp vom Jahre 1483’, Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte, 14 (1882), pp. 108–9; E. Zulauf, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Landgräflich-Hessischen Hofkapelle zu Kassel (Diss. Leipzig, 1902), p. 4; F. Stein, Geschichte des Musikwesens in Heidelberg bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts (Heidelberg, 1921), pp. 8–23; W. Müller, Geschichtliche Entwicklung der Musikpflege in Soest (Diss. Marburg, 1937), published in Zeitschrift des Vereins für die Geschichte von Soest und der Börde, 56 (Emsdetten, 1938), p. 13; G. Pietzsch, Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der Musik am kurpfälzischen Hof zu Heidelberg bis 1622 (Mainz, 1963), pp. 678–82; id., Zur Pflege der Musik an den deutschen Universitäten bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (rev. edn, Hildesheim and New York: Olms Verlag, 1971), p. 102; W. Stauder, ‘Frankfurt a.M.’, MGG, vol. iv (Kassel, 1955), cols. 708–22, at 710; W. Salmen, ‘Die Entwicklungsjahre des Sängermeisters Johann von Soest’, in Heimatkalender des Kreises Soest (Soest, 1956), p. 70; id., Geschichte der Musik in Westfalen bis 1800 (Kassel, 1963), p. 124; S. Hermelink, ‘Heidelberg’, in MGG, vol. vi (Kassel, 1957 ), cols. 24–33, at 24 (with a reproduction of the frontispiece for Die Kinder von Limburg showing a portrait of Johannes von Soest; see below, n. 8); K. W. Niemöller, ‘Notizen zur Musikgeschichte Kölns um 1500’, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für rheinische Musikgeschichte, 9/10 (1957), pp. 129–37, at 129–30; K. G. Fellerer, ‘Westfalen in der Musikgeschichte’, Der Raum Westfalen, 4 (1958), p. 203; W. Brendecke and Chr. Engelbrecht, ‘Kassel’, in MGG, vol. vii (Kassel, 1958), pp. 716–31, at 717; H. Wiens, Musik und Musikpflege am herzoglichen Hof zu Kleve (Cologne, 1959), pp. 44–5, 48, 54–6; L. Hoffmann-Erbrecht, ‘Miszellen zur Frankfurter Musikgeschichte’, in U. Aarburg (ed.), Frankfurter musikhistorische Studien: Helmuth Osthoff zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag (Tutzing, 1969), pp. 51–8; S. Keyl, ‘Arnolt Schlick and Instrumental Music circa 1500’ (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1989), pp. 54–62; R. Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges (2nd edn, Oxford, 1990), p. 66; Sabine Žak, ‘Die Gründung der Hofkapelle in Heidelberg’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 50 (1993), pp. 145–63; K. J. Sachs, ‘Das Kryptogramm des Johannes von Soest: Versuch einer Deutung durch musikalische Symbolik’, in A. Beer and L. Lütteken (eds.), Festschrift Klaus Hortschansky zum 60. Geburtstag (Tutzing, 1995), pp. 9–19; K. Pietschmann, ‘Musikalische Institutionalisierung im Köln des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Das Beispiel der Hardenrath-Kapelle’, in id. (ed.), Das Erzbistum Köln in der Musikgeschichte des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Kassel, 2008), pp. 233–58, at 247–8, 251.

5 Franz Krautwurst has recently made the argument that four anonymous passages in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz mus. ms. 40021 are compositions of Johannes von Soest. See F. Krautwurst, ‘Zur Musikgeschichte Nürnbergs um 1500’, Neues musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch, 8 (1999), pp. 93–106.

6 ‘Habemus & hic cantores, apud quos crebram mentionem tui facio, eorum magister nouem & duodecim etiam uocibus canendos modulos componit, sed nihil suorum audiui quod tribus aut quatuor uocibus caneretur, quod magnopere placeret mihi, nec ego tamen animum meum iudicij loco pono, potest enim fieri, ut meliora sint, quam ego possim intelligere.’ (‘We also have singers here, of whom I make frequent mention to you, whose master composes pieces to be sung by nine and even twelve voices, but I have heard nothing of his that would be sung by three or four voices that would please me very much. Nevertheless, I do not place my intellect in the seat of judgement; it may indeed happen that they are better than I can discern.’) Rudolf Agricola, Opera omnia, ed. Alardus von Amsterdam (Cologne, 1539), vol. ii, p. 200. See also Keyl, ‘Arnolt Schlick’, p. 58.

7 ‘Ich hab derselben instrument ouch etlich gemalet und beschriben gesehen / durch mynen meister seligen Johannem de Zusato Doctor der Artzney in einem grossen bergamenen buch, das er selb componirt vn geschriben hat.’ Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511; facs. edn by Leo Schrade, Kassel, 1931), p. 20. Johannes von Soest mentions the title of the treatise in his encomium of the city of Worms: ‘musicam subalternam gratia Dei confeci’. Pietzsch, Quellen und Forschungen, p. 682. See also M. Staehelin, ‘Bemerkungen zum geistigen Umkreis und zu den Quellen des Sebastian Virdung’, in D. Altenburg (ed.), Ars musica, musica scientia: Festschrift Heinrich Hüschen zum fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag (Cologne, 1980), pp. 424–34.

8 His most substantial work was produced around 1480: the translation of the Middle Dutch verse romance, dedicated to Count Palatine Philip the Upright, Heinrich en Margriete van Limborch by Hein van Aken (Die Kinder von Limburg, Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, cod. pal. germ. 51 [olim 87], ed. Manfred Klett (Vienna, 1975)). Other compositions include: poems on confession, Dy gemein bicht (1483, Heidelberg cod. pal. germ. 323 (olim 730), ed. K. v. Bahder in Germania, Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Altertumskunde, 33 (1888), pp. 129–58); a poem on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (1485, Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, cod. germ. 2); and an encomium to the city of Worms, Wie man wol eyn statt regyren sol (1495, Einsiedeln, Benediktinerkloster, cod. 1069 (olim 687), of which passages of relevance to music history are edited in Pietzsch, Quellen und Forschungen, p. 682); an encomium to Frankfurt a.M., Zu lob vnd eer der statt Franckfortt (destroyed during the Second World War, ed. Fichard, Frankfurtisches Archiv für ältere deutsche Literatur und Geschichte, pp. 77–83 and W. K. Zülch, Johann Steinwert von Soest, der Sänger und Arzt (Frankfurt a. M., 1920), pp. 9–14); and several letters (Frankfurt, Stadtarchiv, Medizinalwesen I, fols. 80, 84, 85 and 148); H. Hoffmann von Fallersleben, ‘Johann von Soest, der Sängermeister’, in Literarhistorisches Taschenbuch (Leipzig 1846), p. 191; F. Pfaff, ‘Johann von Soest, Sänger, Dichter und Arzt’, Allgemeine Konservative Monatsschrift, 44 (1887), pp. 147 and 247; C. Reuling, ‘Johann von Soest, Stadtarzt in Frankfurt a.M., Archiv für Frankfurts Geschichte und Kunst, 3. Folge, vol. ii (1889), p. 184; Zülch, Johann Steinwert; W. Wirth, Johann von Soest, Sängermeister in Heidelberg und Bearbeiter des Romans ‘Die Kinder von Limburg’ (Diss. Heidelberg, 1928); Gesa Bonath and Horst Brunner, ‘Zu Johanns von Soest Bearbeitung des Romans ‘Die Kinder von Limburg’ (1480)’, in Wolfgang Harms and L. Peter Johnson (eds.), Deutsche Literatur des späten Mittelalters (Berlin, 1975), pp. 129–52; Helmut Birkhan, ‘Die Entstehung des Limburg-Romanes des Johann von Soest und seine Aktualität’, in Rudolf Schützeichel (ed.), Studien zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters (Bonn, 1979), pp. 666–86; H. Wenzel, Die Autobiographie des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, 2 vols. (Munich, 1980); G. Bonath, Johannes von Soest, in Verfasserlexikon, vol. iv (1983), pp. 744–55; Heinz-Dieter Heimann, Wy men wol eyn statt regyrn sol: Didaktische Literatur und berufliche Schreiben des Johann von Soest, gen. Steinwert (Soester Beiträge, 48; Soest, 1986); Jürgen Schläder, ‘Johann von Soest: Sängermeister und Komponist’, in Heinz-Dieter Heimann (ed.), Von Soest – aus Westfalen: Wege und Wirkung abgewanderter Westfalen im späten Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit (Paderborn, 1986), pp. 25–43; Hartmut Beckers, ‘Frühneuhochdeutsche Fassungen niederländischer Erzählliteratur im Umkreis des pfalzgräflichen Hofes zu Heidelberg um 1450/80’, in Elly Cockx-Indestege and Frans Hendrickx (eds.), Miscellanea Neerlandica, vol. ii (Leuven, 1987), pp. 237–49; H. Brunner, Johann von Soest, Willibald Pirckheimer – zwei Fallstudien, in W. Haug and B. Wachinger (eds.), Autorentypen (Tübingen, 1991), pp. 89–103; Martina Backes, Das literarische Leben am kurpfälzischen Hof zu Heidelberg im 15. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Gönnerforschung des Spätmittelalters (Hermaea, 68; Tübingen, 1992); Rita Schlusemann, ‘Das ir begyr wolt halten reyn: Zur Rezeption des “Limborch”-Romans bei Johann von Soest’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 47 (1997), pp. 175–96.

9 Wenzel, Autobiographie, ii, pp. 81–101 dedicated a chapter of his anthology to the text, but edited only a rather short selection from the end of the text which does not contain passages relevant to music history, and provides only the briefest of introductions.

10 Bonath, Johannes von Soest, p. 755.

11 Brunner, Johann von Soest, pp. 101–2.

12 Wenzel, Autobiographie, p. 82.

13 Ibid., p. 84.

14 For Margery's text, see Barry Windeatt's edition, The Book of Margery Kempe (Harlow, 2000) or Lynn Staley's (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1996). David Wallace offers a magnificent account of Margery's relation to Germany in ‘Margery in Dansk’, accessible online at <http://bbk.ac.uk/events/matthews/david_wallace>; Karma Lochrie's monograph remains essential reading as well: Margery Kempe and the Translations of the Flesh (Philadelphia, 1991). For Margery's journeys, see Terence Bowers, ‘Margery Kempe as Traveler’, Studies in Philology, 97 (2000), pp. 1–28 and Diane Watt, ‘Faith in the Landscape: Overseas Pilgrimages in The Book of Margery Kempe’, in Clare Lees and Gillian Overing (eds.), A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscape (University Park, Pa., 2006), pp. 170–88. For Margery's relationship with Continental piety, see Jane Chance, ‘Unhomely Margery Kempe and St. Catherine of Siena: “Comunycacyon” and “Conuersacion” as Homily’, in her monograph The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women (New York, 2007), 99–126.

15 For Thomas Hoccleve's poems – perhaps the earliest first-person narrative describing mental illness in English – see Roger Ellis's edition, ‘My Compleinte' and Other Poems (Exeter, 2001). For Hoccleve's relation to the Latin source text of German Dominican provenance which he translates in the course of the Series, see Steven Rozenski, Jr., ‘“Your Ensaumple and Your Mirour”: Hoccleve's Amplification of the Imagery and Intimacy of Henry Suso's Ars Moriendi’, Parergon, 25/2 (2008), pp. 1–16.

16 For the history of the use of these topoi to describe male friendship, see C. Stephen Jaeger, Ennobling Love: In Search of a Lost Sensibility (Philadelphia, 1999).

17 Müller, Musikpflege in Soest, pp. 3–8; Heimann, Stadtbürgerliches Selbstverständnis, p. 241, n. 5.

18 It should be mentioned in this context that the Dominicans at Soest in the fifteenth century were in possession of a thirteenth-century manuscript containing organa from Notre Dame which was then used for bookbinding. Norbert Eickermann, ‘Auf der Spur einer großen Notre-Dame-Handschrift des 13. Jahrhunderts’, in Westfalen, 52 (1974), pp. 149–52; Klaus Hortschansky and Hans Galen (eds.), Musik in Münster: Eine Ausstellung des Stadtmuseums Münster in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Musikwissenschaftlichen Seminar der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster. 22. April–31. Juli 1994 (Münster, 1994), pp. 73–4 (with illustration).

19 For a comprehensive social-historical overview, see Wolfgang Hartung, Die Spielleute im Mittelalter: Gaukler, Dichter, Musikanten (Düsseldorf and Zürich, 2003).

20 Gerhard Pietzsch, ‘Zur Musikpflege an den Höfen von Kleve und Jülich’, in Walter Gieseler (ed.), Studien zur klevischen Musik- und Liturgiegeschichte (Beiträge zur Rheinischen Musikgeschichte, 75; Cologne, 1968), pp. 11–46, at 22.

21 Wilhelmus Cuser mentions the six-voice polyphony in an account of the procession of the late sixteenth century; Wiens, Musik und Musikpflege, pp. 49–50; on Cuser see Festschrift zur 500-jährigen Jubelfeier der Rektoratsschule (Kalkar, 1934), p. 21. In a contemporary and probably more reliable description of the same event Arnold Heymerick underlines the high quality of the ducal chapel's singing and its interaction with the organists: “Huius diei missa suis cerimoniis, magnificencia, celebritate et reliqua addecenti pompositate nulli secunda ab omnibus visa est. Cuius rei, ne multa subticeam, ducalis capella non minima auctrix sua non canoritate modo, sed et iubilo modulamineque singulari omnium aures affecit. Atque relatu dignum, ymmo vero debitum puto, quod ille Johannes re vera cecus, eciam cognomento Cecus Traiectensis vocitatus, cum organista nostro, cui Johanni eciam nomen et Noster cognomen et oculi ferme semi sunt, sed arte organica certe tam famosi, ne huius etatis ulli secundum relinquere locum dicantur, sese organis immiscent et talem edere cantibus eufoniam atque melodiam excutere auditi sunt, ut humano ingenio id effici posse nemo crederet vel uspiam ante auditum.” Schriften des Arnold Heymerick, ed. F. W. Oediger (Bonn, 1939), p. 95. For musical practice in Cleves in the fifteenth century see also R. Scholten, Geschichte der Stadt Kleve (Kleve, 1879; 2nd edn 1905).

22 For the strong orientation of the courtly practice of Cleves to the Burgundian model, see H. P. Hilger, ‘Kleve und Burgund’, in G. de Werd (ed.), Land im Mittelpunkt der Mächte: Die Herzogtümer Jülich, Kleve, Berg (Exh. Cat., Kleve, 1985), pp. 209–34.

23 Gerhard Pietzsch, Archivalische Forschungen zur Geschichte der Musik an den Höfen der Grafen und Herzöge von Kleve-Jülich-Berg (Ravensberg) bis zum Erlöschen der Linie Jülich-Kleve im Jahr 1609 (Cologne, 1971), pp. 96–100. A Kapellmeister is not reported in the published account books; however, a surviving contract with a certain Mesquin on 6 April 1483 documents that there was one (reported in Wiens, Musik und Musikpflege, p. 73, n. 4). His duties primarily consisted of leading the ‘instrumenten der musijken’, and ‘onsen koer’ as well.

24 Wiens, Musik und Musikpflege, p. 42. A later benefice created in 1536 established that at the daily Mass choral music would not be accompanied by an organist, thus striking down one of the principles of an earlier performance practice. See ibid., p. 50.

25 Adriano Petit Coclico, Compendium musices (Nuremberg, 1552; repr. Kassel, 1959), sig. B1^v–2^v.

26 For a comparison with a concrete link to Johannes von Soest see Rob C. Wegman, ‘From Maker to Composer: Improvisation and Musical Authorship in the Low Countries, 1450–1500’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 49 (1996), pp. 409–79, at 422.

27 Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges, pp. 63–7. Further evidence of Strohm's discussion of the contribution of a network of Carmelites in spreading polyphonic repertory is the Copenhagen fragment Kongelige Bibliotek 17 with works by Du Fay as well as secular compositions that is labelled ‘Carmeli Coloniensis’. It seems an extremely strong possibility that it came to Cologne through similar channels. Cf. Dragan Plamenac, Communication, in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 27 (1974), pp. 162–3.

28 The travels referred to in Hothby's Epistola (through Italy, England, France, Germany and Spain) also point to the great mobility enjoyed not only by English musicians of the time. Nevertheless it would be too great a conjecture to suppose on this basis that Hothby could have been one of the two English musicians at Cleves. With regard to Hothby see most recently Benjamin Brand, ‘A Medieval Scholasticus and Renaissance Choirmaster: A Portrait. John Hothby at Lucca’, Renaissance Quarterly, 63 (forthcoming, 2010).

29 This return journey might have happened during the time of the second Feud of Soest, which had broken out in April 1462 and continued until the following year.

30 The clergy of St Donatian in Bruges went annually to Aardenburg for the Feast of the Cripples, which included singing polyphonic masses in the church of Our Lady (see Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges, p. 35). Perhaps it was in this context that Johannes von Soest established the contact. There is no surviving information about musical life at the Church of St Mary in Aardenburg in the fifteenth century, but certain grants of the sixteenth century which specify the performance of motets in the context of Salve services point to a well-developed musical tradition. Cf. L. Stockman, ‘De oprichting van de dekenij Aardenburg (ca. 1295) en het Rijke Roomsche Leven in en om de Mariakerk van Aardenburg (966–1625)’, Appeltjes van het Meetjesland, 43 (1992), pp. 5–58, at 24–6; Rob C. Wegman, ‘“Musical Understanding” in the 15th Century’, Early Music, 30 (2002), pp. 47–66 at 64, n. 5.

31 Eugeen Schreurs, ‘Music for Canons, Emperors, Dukes and Prince Bishops in the Collegiate Church of Maastricht (ca. 1450–1520): An Updated Overview and Some Samples’, Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation, 7 (2008), pp. 255–73, at 267–71.

32 Clement A. Miller, ‘Erasmus on Music’, Musical Quarterly, 52 (1966), pp. 322–49.

33 Pamela F. Starr, ‘Music and Music Patronage at the Papal Court, 1447–1464’ (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1987); Christopher Reynolds, Papal Patronage and the Music of St. Peter's, 1380–1513 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995).

34 Klaus-Jürgen Sachs, ‘Herbenus’, in MGG ², Personenteil, vol. viii (Kassel, 2002), cols. 1359–61. Santa Croce was sent two years previously to the Burgundian court. Cf. Richard J. Walsh, Charles the Bold and Italy (1467–1477): Politics and Personnel (Liverpool, 2005), pp. 73–5. To propose this as related must remain pure speculation, as a precise dating of this stage of Johannes's career is not possible. At any rate it does not seem absurd to postulate his departure from Maastricht in 1469 when one considers that his following position at St Gereon in Cologne, as mentioned previously, can only have been for a very short period and his succeeding post in Kassel necessarily had to begin in 1469.

35 I thank Dr Joachim Oepen of the archives of the Archbishopric of Cologne for this information.

36 Maria Fuhs, Hermann IV. von Hessen: Erzbischof von Köln 1480-1508 (Cologne, 1995), pp. 32–5. In the Gereonsstift see e.g. Johannes Christian Nattermann, Die Goldenen Heiligen: Geschichte des Stiftes St. Gereon zu Köln (Cologne, 1960).

37 Very little is known about musical institutions in Kassel during the fifteenth century. Even though there is documentation of a church choir in the early sixteenth century, fragments from the 1450s of the hymn A solus ortus cardine by Gilles Binchois, among others, demonstrate a well-established, cosmopolitan musical practice at the court. Clytus Gottwald, ‘Kassel. Musikhandschriften’, in MGG ², Sachteil, vol. iv (Kassel, 1996), col. 10.

38 See Gerhard Pietzsch, Fürsten und fürstliche Musiker im mittelalterlichen Köln (Beiträge zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte, 66; Cologne, 1966), pp. 136–7; Pietschmann, ‘Musikalische Institutionalisierung’, p. 251; Fuhs, Hermann IV., p. 35, n. 104.

39 Žak, ‘Gründung’, p. 155. The mention of twelve singers singing the Mass daily in the camp of the Count Palatine by Wachenheim in 1471 must be an anachronism created by Martin Beheim in the composition of his chronicle. Žak, Ibid., p. 154.

40 Ibid., pp. 156–9.

41 Larry Silver, Marketing Maximilian: The Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor (Princeton, 2008), p. 193.

42 See, e.g., Richard Sherr, ‘Clement VII and the Golden Age of the Papal Choir’, in Kenneth Gouwens and Sheryl E. Reiss (eds.), The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture (Aldershot, 2005), pp. 227–50, at 227.

* Here Fichard adds a note: Folgende Zeilen sind hier im Original von derselben Hand ausgestrichen (the following lines were struck out in the original by the same hand):

1 Literally: ‘Just after this a minstrel came to Soest; he soon heard me and my voice pleased him so much that he came to me secretly and said I should stay with him. He wanted to help me because of my voice; I was to become a gentleman; in addition he would teach me to be a minstrel.’

2 Lit. ‘At that time this was my great desire; his art I would have very gladly learned. I thought it would greatly enrich me, and so I went with him joyfully.’

3 Lit. ‘I laughed at my own master, for I thought I could diminish my song more masterfully than he.’

4 This diminutive form of the term for an inhabitant of Soest appears elsewhere, perhaps with a pun on sweetness also intended.

5 These lines are probably corrupt. A possible reading: The other one came to speak with me in prison about the conditions of the stay … I wanted an unhindered way to leave; this was my strong will, therefore they finally let me out.

6 On the ambiguity of this phrase see above, p. 130.

7 Perhaps wet with tears from all the rejections.

8 ‘For if you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it, but you will not delight in this.’ (cf. Psalm 50:18). Fichard has ‘dedisses’.