This motet for three voices is one of quiet resignation to beg for the love and pity of the primary female icons of the Catholic church, Mary and Eve. It is a consummately non-aggressive or groveling request, and it is tendered at a moderate pace that demonstrates as much poise as it does devotion. Dunstaple, immutably English in his music and in other aspects of his life, makes this request without urgency. The music is a floating plea that sounds like rumination without any sort of time constraint. Though the composer owned land in northern France and worked for the English military commander that fought Joan of Arc in the 1420s, none of the noted Latin passions creep into the score, and likewise true to the composer's native island, the music is more in keeping with the sound of the major scale than the modal, continental style that pervaded most composition in Europe at the time. When hearing the calm, assonant melody and harmonies, many listeners may feel that the music does not suit the numerous requests in operation. It is a testimony of faith for the English composer to surrender himself to making the request at all. The period in which this work was written was one of enormous power and wealth for Dunstaple's native land. With no passionate solo passages echoing wildly through the motet, the inference of worldly passions are done away with in favor of a well-ordered meditation on the thoroughness to which the performers give themselves over to Mary and Eve without demonstrating the aggressive vitality that made Dunstaple's nation a world power. With this in mind, it is possible to feel the intensive negation of worldly passion that designates a particular variety of self-control and absolute devotion. Many listeners will find the result enchanting.

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