Comprehensive survey of the Middle English lyric, one of the most
important forms of medieval literature. Winner of a CHOICE
Outstanding Academic Title Award The Middle English lyric occupies
a place of considerable importance in the history of English
literature. Here, for the first time in English, are found many
features of formal and thematic importance: they include rhyme
scheme, stanzaic form, the carol genre, love poetry in the manner
of the troubadour poets, and devotional poems focusing on the love,
suffering and compassion of Christ and theVirgin Mary. The essays
in this volume aim to provide both background information on and
new assessments of the lyric. By treating Middle English lyrics
chapter by chapter according to their kinds - poems dealing with
love, with religious devotion, with moral, political and popular
themes, and those associated with preaching - it provides the
awareness of their characteristic cultural contexts and literary
modalities necessary for an informed critical reading. Full account
is taken of the scholarship upon which our knowledge of these
lyrics rests, especially the outstanding contributions of the last
few decades and such recent insights as those of gender criticism.
Also included are detailed discussions of the valuable information
afforded by the widely varying manuscript contexts in which Middle
English lyrics survive and of the diverse issues involved in
editing these texts. Separate chapters are devotedto the carol,
which came to prominence in the fifteenth century, and to Middle
Scots lyrics which, at the end of the Middle English lyric
tradition, present some sophisticated productions of an entirely
new order. Contributors: Julia Boffey, Thomas G. Duncan, John
Scattergood, Vincent Gillespie, Christiania Whitehead, Douglas
Gray, Karl Reichl, Thorlac Turville-Petre, Alan J. Fletcher,
Bernard O'Donoghue, Sarah Stanbury and Alasdair A. MacDonald.
THOMAS G. DUNCAN is Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of English,
University of St Andrews
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