Week 5: Middle English Lyric (Courtly Love) and the Gawain poet
Supposedly they were accompanied by music. However, in manuscripts the music
annotations were not present in the Middle Ages. They used neumes (annotations
above the letters from which it is almost impossible to reconstruct music from these,
although scholars have tried)
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7th, 1964: Under President Johnson. The
resolution marked the beginning of an expanded military role for the United States in
the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Incremental repetition: verses are repeated but with slight modification, as seen in
Farewell Angelina (‘Farewell Angelina/ The sky is folding / I’ll see you in a while’)
Lyric:
fairly short poem uttered by a single speaker.
It is fairly personal.
The speaker states a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and
feeling.
Speakers of a lyric are often represented as a musing in solitude
‘lyric’ derives from Greek and originally meant ‘poem accompanied by a lyre’.
The word ‘lyric’ was first recorded in English in 1589.
Ways to describe it:
Brevity
subjectivity
use of metaphor
strong emotions
stanzas
rhyme
rhythm
(incremental)n repetitions
Medieval lyrics were in a way similar but still slightly different in that ‘the lyrics were
intended for general use and were not conceived as the expression of the unique
thoughts and experiences of particular individuals, recollected in conditions more or
less of tranquillity (Alasdair A. MacDonald)
Around 2000 lyrics have survived from Middle English period in some 450 manuscripts
- underlining the popularity of this genre
The origin of the Medieval Lyric is somewhat a mystery:
Some of the handbooks describe the tradition of the Latin hymns of the fourth
century as the source of later lyrics (Hilarius of Poitiers (d. 367/8) and Ambrose
of Milan (d. 397)
,Augustine, in his Confessiones (IX) : This was the time that the custom began, after
the manner of the Eastern Church, that hymns and psalms should be sung, so that
people would not be worn out with the tedium of lamentation. This custom, retained
from then till now, has been imitated by many, indeed, by almost all the congregations
throughout the rest of the world
Earliest English lyrics dated between 1108 and 1131 recorded in Liber Eliensis:
refers to King Canute
Much more lyrical in its poetry and in the sense that we have lyric accompanied
by musical notation: Verses of the hermit of St Godric of Finchhale (became a
hermit in Fincchale, where he died in 1170): Virgin Mary appeared to him and
talked to him:
Saubte Marie, Virgine,
Moder Jesu cristes Nazarene,
Onfo, scild, help pin Godric, (receive, shield, help your Godric)
Onfang, bring hehlic wið the in Godes ric.
Sainte Marie, Cristes bur,
Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur,
Dillie mine sinne, rixe in min mod,
Bring me to winne wið self God.
A prayer to Mother Mary.
Manuscript context:
Very diverse:
Codices
Rolls (like administrative documents, which were rolled up and put into clay
holders for storage)
documents
sometimes as marginalia or as filer texts
Very few lyrics are accompanied by musical annotations
Illumination and decoration is rare in manuscript of lyrics
Most English lyrics are anonymous
London, British Library, Harley 978
, Theme of the ‘Reverdie’ occurs in other texts, not only in lyrics (such as in Sir
Orfeo): Winter was considered a dire time
Lyrics were for celebrating the coming of spring (where dew is a symbol of
fertility)
Harley Lyrics (London, British Library, MS Harley 2253)
Major collection of lyrics in English
Miscellany including ‘Harley Lyrics’ in Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Latin
Major collection of Medieval lyrics circulating in England
Using existing tunes and implementing them on new texts
Secular Lyrics:
Come from French literatures, and there are of different types:
1. Reverdie: spring song, very popular type
2. Chanson de toile: story generally of a young girl having a love affair frowned
upon by her parents, and longing for her absent distant lover
3. Chanson de la mal mariée: the story of a woman rebellious against marriage
and complaining about the man she doesn't love
4. Aube/Alba: two lovers have spent the night together and are forced to part;
meeting and parting are expected, lover has already gained lover’s love
5. Pasturelle: Knight meets shepherdess in the field and makes love to her; the
meeting is unexpected; basic theme is the conquest of the lady
Religious Lyrics (e.g.: I syng of a myden):
Greater part of Middle English lyrics are religious, or moral lyrics
“The Middle English religious lyrics outnumber their secular counterparts by a
ratio of about five to one” (Macdonald 9)
This holds for the lyrics that were recorded in manuscripts
Many secular lyrics might not have been recorded in writing
Types:
Lyrics about (addressed to) the Virgin: She is often described as the mild
mother, the Queen of Heaven or the Angel’s bliss. She is without spot or
blemish and comes from a high family. Sometimes the imagery to describe her
is the same as that to describe a lady in a secular lyric. Sometimes religious
lyrics are blended with prayer.
• Macaronic verse contains both Latin and English lines – ‘Hymn to the Virgin:
“Though that art so far and bright, velut maris stella”
Supposedly they were accompanied by music. However, in manuscripts the music
annotations were not present in the Middle Ages. They used neumes (annotations
above the letters from which it is almost impossible to reconstruct music from these,
although scholars have tried)
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7th, 1964: Under President Johnson. The
resolution marked the beginning of an expanded military role for the United States in
the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Incremental repetition: verses are repeated but with slight modification, as seen in
Farewell Angelina (‘Farewell Angelina/ The sky is folding / I’ll see you in a while’)
Lyric:
fairly short poem uttered by a single speaker.
It is fairly personal.
The speaker states a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and
feeling.
Speakers of a lyric are often represented as a musing in solitude
‘lyric’ derives from Greek and originally meant ‘poem accompanied by a lyre’.
The word ‘lyric’ was first recorded in English in 1589.
Ways to describe it:
Brevity
subjectivity
use of metaphor
strong emotions
stanzas
rhyme
rhythm
(incremental)n repetitions
Medieval lyrics were in a way similar but still slightly different in that ‘the lyrics were
intended for general use and were not conceived as the expression of the unique
thoughts and experiences of particular individuals, recollected in conditions more or
less of tranquillity (Alasdair A. MacDonald)
Around 2000 lyrics have survived from Middle English period in some 450 manuscripts
- underlining the popularity of this genre
The origin of the Medieval Lyric is somewhat a mystery:
Some of the handbooks describe the tradition of the Latin hymns of the fourth
century as the source of later lyrics (Hilarius of Poitiers (d. 367/8) and Ambrose
of Milan (d. 397)
,Augustine, in his Confessiones (IX) : This was the time that the custom began, after
the manner of the Eastern Church, that hymns and psalms should be sung, so that
people would not be worn out with the tedium of lamentation. This custom, retained
from then till now, has been imitated by many, indeed, by almost all the congregations
throughout the rest of the world
Earliest English lyrics dated between 1108 and 1131 recorded in Liber Eliensis:
refers to King Canute
Much more lyrical in its poetry and in the sense that we have lyric accompanied
by musical notation: Verses of the hermit of St Godric of Finchhale (became a
hermit in Fincchale, where he died in 1170): Virgin Mary appeared to him and
talked to him:
Saubte Marie, Virgine,
Moder Jesu cristes Nazarene,
Onfo, scild, help pin Godric, (receive, shield, help your Godric)
Onfang, bring hehlic wið the in Godes ric.
Sainte Marie, Cristes bur,
Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur,
Dillie mine sinne, rixe in min mod,
Bring me to winne wið self God.
A prayer to Mother Mary.
Manuscript context:
Very diverse:
Codices
Rolls (like administrative documents, which were rolled up and put into clay
holders for storage)
documents
sometimes as marginalia or as filer texts
Very few lyrics are accompanied by musical annotations
Illumination and decoration is rare in manuscript of lyrics
Most English lyrics are anonymous
London, British Library, Harley 978
, Theme of the ‘Reverdie’ occurs in other texts, not only in lyrics (such as in Sir
Orfeo): Winter was considered a dire time
Lyrics were for celebrating the coming of spring (where dew is a symbol of
fertility)
Harley Lyrics (London, British Library, MS Harley 2253)
Major collection of lyrics in English
Miscellany including ‘Harley Lyrics’ in Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Latin
Major collection of Medieval lyrics circulating in England
Using existing tunes and implementing them on new texts
Secular Lyrics:
Come from French literatures, and there are of different types:
1. Reverdie: spring song, very popular type
2. Chanson de toile: story generally of a young girl having a love affair frowned
upon by her parents, and longing for her absent distant lover
3. Chanson de la mal mariée: the story of a woman rebellious against marriage
and complaining about the man she doesn't love
4. Aube/Alba: two lovers have spent the night together and are forced to part;
meeting and parting are expected, lover has already gained lover’s love
5. Pasturelle: Knight meets shepherdess in the field and makes love to her; the
meeting is unexpected; basic theme is the conquest of the lady
Religious Lyrics (e.g.: I syng of a myden):
Greater part of Middle English lyrics are religious, or moral lyrics
“The Middle English religious lyrics outnumber their secular counterparts by a
ratio of about five to one” (Macdonald 9)
This holds for the lyrics that were recorded in manuscripts
Many secular lyrics might not have been recorded in writing
Types:
Lyrics about (addressed to) the Virgin: She is often described as the mild
mother, the Queen of Heaven or the Angel’s bliss. She is without spot or
blemish and comes from a high family. Sometimes the imagery to describe her
is the same as that to describe a lady in a secular lyric. Sometimes religious
lyrics are blended with prayer.
• Macaronic verse contains both Latin and English lines – ‘Hymn to the Virgin:
“Though that art so far and bright, velut maris stella”
