Make We Merry More and Less

Jane Bliss, Douglas Gray

Description

Conceived as a companion volume to the well-received Simple Forms: Essays on Medieval English Popular Literature (2015), Make We Merry More and Less is a comprehensive anthology of popular medieval literature from the twelfth century onwards. Uniquely, the book is divided by genre, allowing readers to make connections between texts usually presented individually. 





This anthology offers a fruitful exploration of the boundary between literary and popular culture, and showcases an impressive breadth of literature, including songs, drama, and ballads. Familiar texts such as the visions of Margery Kempe and the Paston family letters are featured alongside lesser-known works, often oral. This striking diversity extends to the language: the anthology includes Scottish literature and original translations of Latin and French texts.



The illuminating introduction offers essential information that will enhance the reader’s enjoyment of the chosen texts. Each of the chapters is accompanied by a clear summary explaining the particular delights of the literature selected and the rationale behind the choices made. An invaluable resource to gain an in-depth understanding of the culture of the period, this is essential reading for any student or scholar of medieval English literature, and for anyone interested in folklore or popular material of the time.



The book was left unfinished at Gray's death; it is here edited by Jane Bliss.



The Faculty of English, University of Oxford, has generously contributed to this publication.

 

Informations

• Publié par: Open Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783747139
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

MAKE WE MERRY MORE AND LESS


Make We Merry More and Less
An Anthology of Medieval English Popular Literature
Selected and introduced by Douglas Gray Edited by Jane Bliss






https://www.openbookpublishers.com
© Douglas Gray. Jane Bliss (ed.)


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes, providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorses you or your use of the work).
Attribution should include the following information:
Douglas Gray. Edited by Jane Bliss. Make We Merry More and Less : An Anthology of Medieval English Popular Literature. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2019, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0170
In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0170#copyright
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All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0170#resources
The Faculty of English, University of Oxford, has generously contributed to this publication.
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-710-8
ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-711-5
ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-712-2
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-713-9
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-714-6
ISBN Digital (XML): 978-1-78374-715-3
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0170
Cover image: Jeanie Dean from John Francis Waller et al ., Pictures From English Literature (1870), p. 142, https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14801723273/
Cover design: Anna Gatti.
All paper used by Open Book Publishers is sourced from SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) accredited mills and the waste is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.


Contents
Acknowledgements
xv
Abbreviations
xvi
Editor’s Preface
xvii
Introduction
1
Chapter 1: Voices from the Past
15
A. Snatches and Snippets
16
i) ‘Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely’
16
ii) A secular lullaby, ‘Wake wel, Annot’
17
iii) Fragments of a Dance song: ‘Atte wrastlinge’, ‘At the ston-castinges’
17
From a Worcester Cathedral MS
17
iv) ‘Ne saltou, levedi’
17
v) ‘Ich habbe ydon al myn youth’
17
vi) ‘Dore, go thou stille’
17
vii) A lament, quoted in a lawsuit: ‘Wela! qua sal thir hornes blau’
17
viii) From the Red Book of Ossory: ‘Alas! How shold y singe’
18
ix) ‘Whenne bloweth the brom’
18
B. Scenes and Events from Chronicles and Letters
18
Chronicles
18
x) ‘there arose suche a sprynggynge and welling op of waters’ [1336]
18
xi) The Plague of 1348
18
‘And in the xxiii yere of his regne, in the este parteys’
18
‘In this same yere [1352], and in the yere afore’
19
xii) A Storm [1364] ... and a Great Frost [1435]
20
xiii) A Lynching [1427]
20
xiv) An Affray against the Lombards [c. 1458]
21
xv) Religious Unrest at Evesham [1377]
22
xvi) A Heretic Venerated [1440]
22
‘The xix yeer of kyng Harri’
22
‘The Bishop of Salisbury murdered’ [1450]
23
xvii) A Portent [1440]
23
xviii) Roger Bolingbroke, Necromancer [1440]
23
Letters; Paston Letters
24
xix) News from a Wife [1448]
24
xx) Another Dispute [c. 1451]
25
xxi) Local News [1453]
25
xxii) A Wife’s Suggestions [c. 1459]
26
xxiii) A Husband in playful mood [1465]
26
xxiv) A Son’s Requests [1471]
27
xxv) A Valentine Letter [1477]
28
C. Popular Beliefs
29
xxvi) The Shipman’s Vision [1457]
29
xxvii) Ghostly Battles [1365]
30
from Walter Map
xxviii) A Wife Rescued
31
xxix) A Fairy Lover
31
xxx) Herla and his Troop
33
Charms
34
xxxi) ‘Whatt manere of ivell thou be’
34
xxxii) For the Nightmare
35
xxxii a) A charm for staunching blood
36
xxxiii) Prognostications: ‘Giff sanct Paullis day be fair and cleir’
36
Prophecies
36
xxxiv) ‘Woe to the Red Dragon’
36
xxxiv a) ‘Then schal Cadwaladre Conan calle’
37
xxxv) Prophecia Merlini
38
xxxvi) ‘When the cocke in the north hath bilde’
38
D. Popular Religion
39
Prayers
39
xxxvii) ‘Moder of God, wich did lappe thy swete babe’
39
xxxviii) Prayer to a Guardian Angel
39
xxxix) from Richard de Caistre’s prayer
40
From The Book of Margery Kempe
41
xl) A Visionary Meditation
42
xli) A Pilgrim with a Crooked Back
43
xlii) A Visiting Priest Reads to Her
44
xliii) A Fire at Lynn
45
xliv) A Woman who was Out of her Mind
46
xlv) A Conversation with Christ
47
xlvi) Margery’s Own Tale
48
Chapter 2: Ballads
51
A. Medieval and Early Modern Ballads
55
i) Judas
55
ii) Saint Stephen and Herod
58
iii) The Battle of Otterburn
60
B. From PFMS
64
iv) Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly
64
v) A Gest of Robyn Hode
77
vi) Sir Aldingar
87
vii) Glasgerion
90
C. Some Later Ballads
93
viii) Fair Annie
93
ix) The Three Ravens
95
x) Thomas the Rhymer
96
Chapter 3: Romances
101
i) Havelok
103
ii) Sir Orfeo
108
iii) Emaré
113
iv) Octavian
118
v) Sir Gowther
120
vi) Chevelere Assigne
122
vii) The Turke and Gowin
124
viii) Sir Lambewell
125
ix) Thomas of Erceldoune
127
Chapter 4: Tales and Legends
133
A. Anecdotes and Tales in Chronicles
135
i) Siward
135
ii) Gunnhild
136
B. Moral Tales, Exempla
137
iii) The Cursed Dancers
137
iv) A Merry Poor Man
138
v) Alexander and the Pirate
139
vi) Envy in Little Girls
139
vii) A Lecherous Woman carried off to Hell
139
viii) The Weeping Puppy
140
ix) Pope Joan
141
x) An English Witch
142
C. Local Legends
143
From Gervase of Tilbury
143
xi) Peak Cavern
144
xii) Laikibrais, St Simeon’s Horn and a mysterious Dog
145
xiii) Wandlebury Ring
146
xiv) A Mysterious Drinking Horn
147
D. More ‘free-standing’ Literary Examples
148
xv) Hereward
148
xvi) The Childe of Bristowe
150
E. Religious Tales and Saints’ Legends
157
xvii) Mary of Nemmegen
157
xviii) Saint George and the Dragon
159
xix) Saint Julian
159
xx) A Saintly Fool
160
xxi) The Virgin Mary saves a Thief
161
Chapter 5: Merry Tales
163
i) The Tale of the Basyn
164
ii) The King and the Hermit
168
iii) Rauf Coilyear
174
iv) The Freiris of Berwick
178
v) Kynd Kittok
190
vi) The Wright’s Chaste Wife
191
vii) Noodle Stories:
200
The Man who had a Goose
200
Penning the Cuckoo
200
Runaway Cheese
201
A Demonic Grasshopper
201
German Merry Tales:
202
viii) Howleglass would fly
202
ix) The Parson and the Bishop’s Lady
202
Early Sixteenth-Century Jests:
204
x) Wedded Men at the Gates of Heaven
204
xi) No Welshmen in Heaven
205
Chapter 6: Animal Tales
207
A. Man and Animal; Animals in histories, Cats and adages
210
i) The Fox
211
ii) The Cat
212
iii) Animals in Adages
213
iiia) Animal Proverbs
214
B. Fables, and Stories of Reynard
215
iv) Bozon’s The Goshawk and the Owl
215
Examples from Caxton
216
v) The Rat and the Frog
216