Caleno custure me

"Caleno custure me" (also spelled "Calin o custure me") is the title of a song mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry V (IV,4). The context is on a Hundred years war battlefield, where an English soldier cannot understand his French captive and intending to answer in similar gibberish pronounces the title of the song.

:"French Soldier":Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme de bonne qualite.:"PISTOL":Qualtitie calmie custure me! Art thou a gentleman?:what is thy name? discuss.:"French Soldier":O Seigneur Dieu!

The song as preserved has English lyrics, with this single line of mock-Latin as its Chorus. The origin of the line is not Latin, however, but has been claimed to be from the Irish "Cailín ó Chois tSiúre mé", "I am a girl from the Suir-side", despite the fact that this is an incorrect sentence in Irish (it should be "Cailín ó chois na Siúire mé"), the chorus of an Irish song, attested in 1595 in William Ballet's "Lute book". Alternatively, the line might be "Cailín óg a stiúir mé..." "A young girl who led me [presumably astray] ".

ee also

* Macaronic