Techniques of Aural Poetry in the Middle English Lyric. Brenda S

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1972 Techniques of Aural Poetry in the Middle English Lyric. Brenda S. Stockwell Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Stockwell, Brenda S., "Techniques of Aural Poetry in the Middle English Lyric." (1972). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2360. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2360 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company I I 73- 13,684 STOCKWELL, Brenda S., 1940- TECHNIQUES OF AURAL POETRY IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRIC. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan THTS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED TECHNIQUES OF AURAL POETRY IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRIC A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Brenda S. Stockwell B .A ., Millsaps College, 1962 M .A ., Louisiana State University, 1964 December, 1972 PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have i nd i st i net p rin t. F i 1med as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company A CKNOW LEDGMENT I express my deepest gratitude to Professor Thomas A. Kirby, whose guidance and encouragement enabled me to carry this project to completion. I must also acknowledge the valuable assistance of M rs. Martha Irby and Mrs. Frances Coleman of the Mitchell Memorial Library, Mississippi State University. Finally, to M rs. Ann Chenney, who typed the final draft, my sincerest thanks. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................... iv I. SOME PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRIC ........................................................................................... 1 II. EVIDENCE OF ORAL PRESENTATION IN MIDDLE ENGLISH POETRY......................................................................................... 23 II I. THE USES OF R E P E T IT IO N ....................................................................... 48 IV. THEME, STYLE, AND FORM IN THE EARLY AURAL LYRIC ................................................................................................ 83 V. EVIDENCE OF THE TRANSITION TO WRITTEN LITERATURE IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY LYRICS .......................... 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................. 180 APPENDIX.. •.................................................................................................. 187 V IT A ......................................................................................... 188 ABSTRACT Over the past decade, medievalists have expressed dissatisfaction with contemporary criticism of Middle English lyrics, a dissatisfaction stemming from the failure of modern scholarship to keep ever in mind the features of medieval lyric which distinguish it from modern lyric. Although acknowledging the public and didactic nature of most medieval literature, schoTrs have not given adequate attention to the characteristics of religious and .’ac- Ln: ly.-ic re suiting from its having been designed for a listening audi cr . The variety of extant medieval literature precludes characterizing the age as p re -lite ra te , but accounts of public readings and entertainment in the form of recitation and reading aloud support the idea of the age as one of transition between the period of oral composition and that of visual presentation made possible by printing. The aural features of medieval verse narrative already noted by scholars -- direct address; appeals for attention; references to hearing, telling and singing; opening and closing prayers; episodic, linear progression of narration; frequent use of formulaic expressions -- indicate that medieval poets were conscious of the demands of oral presentation. The appearance of these elements also in the lyrics places them within this same tradition. The salient feature of aural poetry is repetition in sound and imagery. Middle English poets often employ rhyme and alliteration not only for aesthetic V purposes but also as an aid to memory and as formulae reinforcing theme. Doublets function to fill out a line, expand an idea, complete a rhyme; and they were additionally employed them atically. Houndes and hauekes and fau and gris, for example, suggesting the shortlived pleasures of wealth in this world, occur regularly in the treatm ent of the ubi sunt motif; and phrases such as moder and meide and flesh and blood appear exclusively in religious lyrics on the Virgin and the Crucifixion, respectively. Although the needs of the listening audience restricted the poet to familiar imagery, he was free to develop an extended image or to catalog a series of images, occasionally venturing a striking figure based on the audience's familiarity with the con ventional. Puns, a device immediately apprehended by the ear, are characteris tic of these lyrics. Middle English lyric exhibits a limited number of themes and forms. The religious lyrics, for example, reveal only three significant themes: the implications of the Nativity and Crucifixion; glorification of the supplica tion to Christ and the Virgin; and the contemplation of mortality and the vanity of earthly pursuits. Jxi treating theme, the poet assumes one o jl three roles as speaker. He either describes a scene or presents it dramatically in monologue or dialogue, most conspicuously in the Nativity and Crucifixion lyrics. Secondly, in the prayers and hymns to Christ and Mary, he speaks for or with his audience; and, finally, in the homiletic verse he addresses the audi ence as preacher. Verse forms are the popular and familiar — couplets, cross rhyme and tail rhyme stanzas utilizing a simple and colloquial style. A courtly tradition combining the complex verse forms of ballade and rhyme royal with aureate diction emerges with the rise of the vernacular after 1350, heralding the transition to written presentation. Characteristic of fifteenth-century lyrics are references to reading and writing, the con vention of the courtly love letter, a concern with language and literary style, and the development of devices demanding visual apprehension, such as anagrams and acrostics. Aural poetry survived in didactic devotional poetry and in song-lyric, but visual poetry predominated after the sixteenth century as a result of the opportunities presented by the printed page for greater freedom and complexity through the union of visual and aural perceptions. CHAPTER I SOME PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRIC The past few years have seen among medieval scholars a growing dissatisfaction with the treatment of Middle English lyrics. In separate articles appearing in 1966, Robert D. Stevick and Edmund Reiss complained that modern literary criticism has ignored the lyrics.* Stevick attributed this neglect to "the attractions of Chaucer,

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