1. Eccl. The English name of the service (also called vespers) usually celebrated shortly before sunset, being the sixth of the seven ‘canonical hours’ of the Western Church. After the Reformation applied to the ‘Evening Prayer’ of the Church of England, which is ‘an abridgement of the offices of Evensong and Compline as used before the Reformation’ (Hook, Ch. Dict.).
The Doleful Evensong: the ‘Fatal Vespers’ of 26 Oct. 1623, at which the greater part of a R. C. congregation lost their lives through the falling-in of a floor.
c. 1000. Canons of Ælfric, xix. Þa seofon tid-sangas … uhtsang ant þrim-sang … non-sang ant æfen-sang.
c. 1040. Rule St. Benet (Logeman), 50. Æfensanc dæghwamlice mid feower sealmorum.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 528. At þe day of date of euen-songe, On oure byfore þe sonne go doun.
1389. in Eng. Gilds, 17. Euery brother and sister … shullen … heren ye seruice of bothe Ye euensonge & messe.
1462. in Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., ix. (1872), 277. He schall helpe to ryng all in to Matens and Masse and evynsong with his felow.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer, Table for the Ordre of the Psalmes, to be sayed at Matins and Euensong.
c. 1550. Becon, Treat. Fasting, in Catechism (1844), 533. Such should not be counted to fast that did eat before evensong was done.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 217. The country Lasses dance in the Church-yard after Even-song.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 427. He [John Gee] had been at the doleful Even-song in the Black-Friers in London, 26. Oct. 1623.
1735. Pope, Donne Sat., II. 146/105.
| So Luther thought the Paternoster long, | |
| When doom’d to say his Beads and Evensong. |
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xvii. ‘I might hae gaen to even-song, and heard Daddy Docharty mumbling his mass.’
1882. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxix. 97. His matin prayer … his evensong were all out of Holy Writ.
attrib. 1641. Milton, Animadv., ii. Wks. (1847), 61/1. To diet their ignorance … with the limited draught of a matin, and evensong drench.
b. The time of evensong; the hour of sunset. arch. Also more fully † evensong-time.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 25594 (Cott.). Suete iesu … þou gaf sight o þi blod and flexs at euen-sanges time [c. 1340 (Fairf.) euensange time].
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 4800. Fram afternone to auensong.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 450. Quhen that evynsang-tym ves neir.
1465. Paston Lett., No. 504, II. 191. On the same day at evyn-song time.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C v a. Let hir fast till euensong.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxlv. b (R.). The yonge kyng entred in to Reynes, the saturday at euensongtyme.
1560–78. Bk. Discipl. Ch. Scot., The Saterday, and other vigils to be holy daies from Evensong to Evensong.
1650. Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ii. § 6 170 (J.). If a man were but of a dayes life, it is well if he lasts till even song.
1700. Dryden, Wife of Bath’s T., 44, in Fables, 481 (J.).
| For by some Haycock or some shady Thorn | |
| He bids his Beads both Even-song and Morn. |
1755. in Johnson.
1775. in Ash.
1865. Swinburne, Poems & Ballads (1866), 174, Before Dawn, 9. From evensong to daytime.
† c. Sicilian evensong: = ‘Sicilian vespers’: see VESPERS. Obs.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1589), 718. All the Frenchmen that were in the Ile of Sicilia … upon Easter day, at the first peale to Evensong … were al put to death … whereupon this proverbe doth yet remaine amongst us, The Sicilian Evensong.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. 168. Towns will close their gates upon you; and ye may some day expect a Sicilian even-song.
2. gen. (partly transf. from 1). A song sung in the evening.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 830. If euen song and morwe song accorde Lat se now who shal telle the firste tale.
1632. Milton, Penseroso, 64. Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among I woo, to hear thy even-song.
1647. Crashaw, Poems, 176. Sit thee down, and sing thy evensong in the sad tree’s shade.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, xii. 373. Flocks of birds … were singing their sweet shrill evensong.
