Adam

1. Adam lay i-bowndyn, bowndyn in a bond, Fowre thowsand wynter thowt he not to long;

2. And al was for an appil, an appil that he tok, As clerkes fyndyn wretyn in here book.

3. Ne hadde the appil take ben, the appil taken ben, Ne hadde never our lady a ben hevene qwen.

4. Blyssid be the tyme that appil take was! Therfore we mown syngyn Deo gracias.

[Annotations: 2.4: ‘here,’ their. The ‘book’ is, of course, the Bible. 3.4: ‘hevene’ is the old genitive = of heaven. 4.3: ‘mown’ = can or may.]