A calendar page for April The Dunois Hours, c 1440-50, British Library MS Yates Thompson 3 f. 4r
Lenten ys come with love to toune,
With blosmen & with briddes roune,
That al this blisse bryngeth;
Dayes eyes in this dales,
Notes suete of nyhtegales;
Uch foul song singeth....
—Anonymous Medieval Lyric (c1310)
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Whan that Aprille with his showres sote
The droght of Marche had perced to the rote...
And smale fowles maken melodye....
—Chaucer, General Prologue,
Canterbury Tales (late 14C)
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Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
—Thomas Nashe, Spring (c1590)
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May never was the month of love,
For May is full of flowers;
But rather April, wet by kind,
For love is full of showers.
—Robert Southwell, Love's Servile Lot (late 16C)
