An innovative edition of Middle English lyric poems that takes voice as its main principle of arrangement.
What was the medieval English lyric? Moving beyond the received understanding of the genre, The Voices of Medieval English Lyric explores, through analysis, discussion, and demonstration, what the term "lyric" most meaningfully implies in a Middle English context.
A critical edition of 131 poems that illustrate the range and rich variety of lyric poetry from the mid-twelfth century to the early sixteenth century, The Voices of Medieval English Lyric presents its texts - freshly edited from the manuscripts - in thirteen sections emphasizing contrasting and complementary voices and genres. As well as a selection of religious poetry, the collection includes a high proportion of secular lyrics, many on love and sexuality, both earnest and humorous. In general, major authors who have been covered thoroughly elsewhere are excluded from the edited texts, but some, especially Chaucer, are quoted or mentioned as illuminating comparisons. Charles d'Orléans and the Scots poets Robert Henryson and William Dunbar add an extra-national dimension to a single-language collection. Textual and thematic notes are provided, as well as versions of the poems in Latin or French when these exist.
Adopting new perspectives, The Voices of Medieval English Lyric offers an up-to-date, accessible, and distinctive take on Middle English poetry.
Details
440 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780773558816
December 2019
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
“This edition of a selection of medieval English lyrics is informative and admirably wide-ranging. I finished reading this book with a sense that I’d been given a comprehensive overview of the field by a trustworthy guide.” Julia Boffey, Queen Mary University of London
Anne L. Klinck is professor emerita at the University of New Brunswick and the author of The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study and Woman's Songs in Ancient Greece.
Acknowledgments / xiii
Abbreviations / xv
Introduction: Approaching Middle English Lyric / 3
Presentation of the Texts / 54
The Earliest Texts: Song and Meditation / 56
1. THE SAINT GODRIC LYRICS / 60
Crist and sainte Marie s?a on scamel me iledde; Sainte Marie virgine; Sainte Nicholaes, Godes druð / 61
2. Ðe ?es bold ?ebyld er þu iboren ?ere / 61
3. Merie sungen ðe muneches binnen Ely / 62
4. Mirie it is while sumer ilast / 62
5. Ate ston casting my lemman I ches / 63
6. Ar ne kuthe ich sorghe non / 63
7. Sumer is icumen in / 65
Poems on Mortality / 66
8. Man mei longe him lives wene / 72
9. Wen þe turuf is þi tuur / 74
10. Worldes blis ne last no þrowe / 74
11. Uuere beþ þey biforen us weren / 77
12. Wanne ich þenche þinges þre / 80
13. Wynter wakeneþ al my care / 80
14. Kyndeli is now mi coming / 81
15. Whon men beoþ muriest at heor mele / 81
16. Lade helpe, Jhesu merce, / Timor mortis conturbat me (Dred of deþ, sorow of syn) / 87
17. In what estate so ever I be, / Timor mortis conturbat me (As I went in a mery mornyng) / 89
18. Farewell, this world! I take my leve forevere / 91
Personal Devotion 93
THE VOICE OF MANKIND
19. Nou goth sonne under wod / 97
20. Quanne hic se on rode / 98
21. Suete Jhesu king of blysse / 98
22. Lutel wot hit any mon / 101
23. Worldes blisce have god day / 102
24. Loverd, þu clepedest me / 103
25. Steddefast crosse inmong alle oþer / 104
26. Al oþer love is lych þe mone / 104
27. Jhesu Crist my lemmon swete / 106
28. Luveli ter of loveli ey?e (Þu sikest sore) / 106
29. Gold & al þis werdis wyn / 107
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
30. Stond wel, moder, ounder rode / 108
31. Love me brouthte / 110
32. ?e þat pasen be þe wey?e / 111
33. O man unkynde / 112
34. Revert, revert, revert, revert (Have myende howe I mankyende have take) / 113
34a. Have mynd atte xxxti wynter old / 115
35. Com home agayne (Mankend I cale, wich lyith in thrale) / 116
Marian Poems and Lullabies 118
36. Of on þat is so fayr and bri?t / 123
37. On hire is al mi lif ilong / 125
38. Levedie, ic þonke þe / 126
39. Lollai lollai, litil child, whi wepistou so sore? / 127
40. Lullay lullay, litel child, / Qui wepest þu so sore? (Lullay etc. / Þu þat were so sterne & wild) / 129
41. In a tabernacle of a toure / 130
42. At a sprynge-wel under a þorn / 134
43. I syng of a myden þat is makeles / 134
44. Lullay myn lykyng, my dere sone, myn swetyng (I saw a fayr maydyn syttyn & synge) / 135
45. Of a rose, a lovely rose (Lyth & lystyn both old & ?yng) / 136
46. Upon a lady my love ys lente / 137
47. Lully, lulla, þow littell tine child (O sisters too) / 139
48. Ther is no rose of swych vertu / 140
49. Sodenly afraide (With favoure in hir face ferr passyng my reason) / 141
50. Lully lulley, lully lulley (He bare hym up, he bare hym down) / 142
Anonymous Snatches: The Rawlinson Lyrics / 144
51. Of euerykune tre / 147
52. Icham of Irlaunde / 147
53. Maiden in the mor lay / 148
54. Wer þer ouþer in þis toun / 149
55. Al nist by þe rose, rose / 150
56. Al gold, Jonet, is þin her / 150
57. ... dronken, / Dronken, dronken / 151
Popular Tradition and Humble Life / 152
58. I have a gentil cook / 155
59. I have a ?ong suster / 156
60. I have a newe gardyn / 157
61. In Aprell and in May / 158
62. Bi a forrest as I gan fare / 159
63. The fals fox came unto our croft / 162
Festive Songs 166
64. Adam lay ibowndyn / 171
65. Deo gracias, Anglia (Owre kynge went forth to Normandy) / 172
66. Hey, hey, hey, hey! / Þe borrys hede is armyd gay (The boris hede in hond I bryng) / 173
67. Bryng us in good ale, & bryng us in good ale (Bryng us in no browne bred, fore þat is mad of brane) / 175
68. Farewele Advent, Cristemas is cum (With paciens thou hast us fedde) / 176
69. Make we mery, bothe more & lasse (Lett no man cum into this hall) / 179
70. Now have gud day, now have gud day! (Here have I dwellyd with more & lasse) / 180
71. Caput apri refero (The boris hed in hondis I brynge) / 181
Humour and Satire / 183
72. Swarte smekyd smeþes smateryd wyth smoke / 186
73. Syng we alle, and sey we thus (Quan I have in myn purs inow) / 187
74. How, hey, it is non les (?yng men, I warne ?ou everychon) / 188
75. Lord, how shall I me complayne / 189
76. Care away, away, away (All þat I may swynk or swet) / 192
77. Whane thes thynges foloyng be done to owr intent (When nettuls in wynter bryng forth roses red) / 193
78. Of all creatures women be best (In every place ye may well se) / 195
79. Hogyn cam to bowers dore / 197
Refined Love: The Man Speaks / 199
80. Foweles in þe frith / 207
81. Bryd one brere, brid, brid one brere / 207
LOVE LYRICS OF HARLEY 2253 (Poems 82-90)
82. Ichot a burde in a bour ase beryl so bryht / 208
83. Bytuene Mersh & Averil / 210
84. Wiþ longyng y am lad / 211
85. Mosti ryden by Rybbesdale / 213
86. A wayle whyt ase whalles bon / 216
87. Lenten ys come wiþ love to toune / 218
88. Blow, northerne wynd (Ichot a burde in boure bryht) / 219
89. When þe nyhtegale singes þe wodes waxen grene / 222
90. Lutel wot hit any mon / 223
91. Me þingkit þou art so lovely / 225
92. My lefe ys faren in a lond / 225
93. Alone walkyng / 225
94. Now wolde y fayne sum merthis mak / 227
95. Go, hert hurt with adversite / 228
96. I must go walke þe woed so wyld / 229
97. O mestres, whye / 230
98. Westron wynde, when wyll thow blow / 231
Desire and Seduction: The Woman Speaks / 232
*99. Alas, hou shold y synge? (How shold y wiþ þat olde man) / 238
100. “Kyrie, so kyrie” (As I went on ?ol day in owr prosessyon) / 238
101. Rybbe ne rele ne spynne yc ne may (Al þis day ic han sou?t) / 240
102. Alas, ales þe wyle (Ladd y þe daunce a myssomur day) / 242
103. Were it undo þat is ydo (Y lovede a child of þis cuntre) / 244
104. Wolde God that hyt were so (The man that I loved altherbest) / 245
105. I have forsworne hit whil I life (The last tyme I the wel woke) / 246
106. A, dere God, qwat I am fayn (Þis enþer day I mete a clerke) / 247
107. Whatso men seyn / 248
108. Yit wulde I nat the causer faryd amysse / 250
109. So well ys me begone (Off servyng men I wyll begyne) / 251
110. Hey noyney, / I wyll love our Ser John & I love eny (O Lord, so swett Ser John dothe kys) / 252
The Love Debate / 254
111. Nou sprinkes þe sprai (Als I me rode þis endre dai) / 259
112. As I stod on a day, meself under a tre / 260
113. In a fryht as y con fare fremede / 261
114. “My deþ y love, my lyf ich hate, for a levedy shene” / 263
115. Throughe a forest as I can ryde 265
116. “Come over the woodes fair & grene” / 268
* Poem 99 is probably not a carol.
An Authored Collection: Charles d’Orléans / 272
117. Ofte in my thought full besily have y sought / 277
118. I have the obit of my lady dere / 278
119. In the Forest of Noyous Hevynes / 280
120. My gostly fadir, I me confesse / 281
121. The smylyng mouth and laughyng eyen gray / 282
122. Honure, joy, helthe, and plesaunce / 282
123. Go forth, myn hert, wyth my lady / 283
124. So fayre, so freshe, so goodely on to se / 284
125. My hertly love is in your governans / 285
126. Bewere, my trewe, innocent hert / 285
Scottish Poetry: Henryson and Dunbar / 286
Robert Henryson
127. Robene sat on gud grene hill / 292
William Dunbar
128. Done is a battell on þe dragon blak / 296
129. Hale, sterne superne, hale, in eterne / 298
130. I þat in heill wes and gladnes / 301
131. In secreit place þis hyndir nycht / 306
Textual and Explanatory Notes / 309
Facsimile Editions and Digitized Manuscripts / 371
Index of Manuscripts Cited / 376
Works Cited / 383
Index / 409
NB Carols are listed with the first line(s) of the burden treated as the title, and the first
line(s) of stanza one given in parentheses.
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