Evensong hath be in the saying, I trow, a fair while; I am irk of it; it is too long by one mile.
I trow Mankind will come again soon, Or else, I fear me, evensong will be done: His beades shall be triced aside, and that anon.
To occupy my body, I will not put me in dever; I will hear my evensong here or I dissever.
And he entereth into a great forest adventurous, and rideth the day long until he cometh about evensong into the thick of the forest.
He rideth amidst a forest, all armed, and cometh toward evensong to the issue of the forest and seeth a castle before him right fair and well seated, and goeth thitherward for lodging, for the sun was set.
After that it was evensong the knights drew them back to their tents, and they say all that the Knight of the Golden Arms and the Knight of the Red Arms had done better than they all at the assembly.
He rode on until it drew toward evensong at a corner of the forest.
He rode hard the day long till that it wasevensong and the sun was about to set.
He rode until that he came atevensong to a hold that was in the midst of the forest.
The structure of Evensong was similar, beginning with the Lord's Prayer and ending, as our shortened Evening Prayer now does, with the Collect for Aid against Perils.
The practical effect of the rubrics that make for abbreviation will be to give us back, on weekdays almost exactly, and with measurable precision on Sundays also, the Matins and Evensong of the First Book of Edward VI.
Machyn describes the accustomed usages in Mary's reign as follows: "The sixth of May was a goodly evensong at Yeldhall College with singing and playing as you have heard.
The clerks in 1529 were ordered to come to the Guildhall College on the Sunday before Whit-Sunday to Evensongclad in surplices, and on the following day to attend Mass, when each man offered one halfpenny.
In Matins and Evensong the clerk sang the Psalms and canticles and made responses, and from other sources we gather that he used to read either one or both of the lessons.
There is the Evensongas usual, and a Communion on the following day, followed by a dinner and "a goodly concert of children of Westminster, with viols and regals.
Stay, stay, Until the lasting day Has run But to the evensong And, having prayed together, we Will go with you along.
As we drove through the primrose-studded lanes, or past the village green, the bell was ringing from the grey tower of the Parish Church, and summoning the villagers to the daily Evensong of Holy Week.
Robert of Gloucester says of William the Conqueror-- In church he was devout enow, for him none day abide That he heard not Mass and Matins, and Evensong and each tide.
We read also of instances on fast days, when men might not eat till after evensong, of evensong being said at noon.
Probably the evensongat about three in the afternoon was not so well attended as the morning service; people who have some distance to go in all weathers from their homes to the church do not usually go twice a day.
Allusions such as the following are frequent: "And so they went home and unarmed them, and so to evensong and supper.
So Sir Percival departed from his aunt, and rode till evensong time, when he was ware of a monastery closed round with walls and deep ditches, where he knocked at the gate, and anon was let in.
The other daily services were the usual Nocturns or Matins and the rest, ending with a combined evensong of Vespers and Compline.
Good was the day and our travelling, And now there is evensong to sing.
Sing evensong as well we may For our travel upon this Sabbath day.
Evensong was begun; the dean and the canons were there in their grey amices; they were almost at Magnificat before I came thither.
And then within a little while, by evensong time, Sir Launcelot and his party better stood, for their horses went in blood past the fetlocks, there was so much people slain.
And then the king and all estates went home unto Camelot, and so went to evensong to the great minster, and so after upon that to supper, and every knight sat in his own place as they were toforehand.
Yesterday you know, I stayed from evensong to look after the little ones, and you said Dolores might do as she pleased, so she stayed at home.
By the time of evensong his party stood very well, and the king's side seemed dispirited and as if they would avoid the fierce rushes with which Sir Lancelot's knights attacked them.
At evensong on the fourth day he came to an abbey of white monks, and there was given great cheer.
When it was evensong they rested by mutual accord, and seated on two molehills near the fighting place, they had their helms taken off by their pages and their worse wounds bound up.
Between Vespers and Evensong John went up to the tower to see London under its mantle of white.
It was the time of Evensong when he reached the church, and the brothers were singing their last hymn: Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly.
And then the King and all estates[9] went home unto Camelot, and so went to evensong to the great minster, and so after upon that to supper, and every knight sat in his own place as they were toforehand.
He took his place outside the quire, and began to sing evensong with his clerks.
We have no right to complain for a moment of what some people call the monotony of Mattins and Evensong for ourselves.
I remember thinking, when I made that promise which everyone makes when they are ordained, of obeying the Prayer-Book and saying Mattins and Evensong every day, that it would be a kind of slavery to me.
