imOEEY I]\. iL ENGLISH LOVE LYRICS: THE DEVELOPMENT OP ITS USES FROM 1200 - 1=00 "by Brenia Pauline Townseni A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor Philosophy at the University of Southampton November 1973 Master Copy ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS ENGlISa Doctor of ?hilQ80Bhy, IMAGERY IN MEDIEVAL EKGLISE LOVE LYRICS; THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITS USES FROM 1200 - I5OO by Brenda Pauline Townsend The aima of this study are to provide an outline of the main categories of imagery in the medieval English love lyrics from 1200 - I5OO; to examine the literary backgrounds of this imagery and to use this information to help elucidate its functions in individual poems. A major aspect of this investigation is the consideration of the developments in style and in the uses of imagery across the period. The Introductory material Is concerned with the difficulties and divisions of the genre. The imagery, however, is a uniform feature throughout the period and thus forms a useful basis for study. The reasons for this homogeneity are examined and there is an attempt to account for the major differences in style between the pre-Chaucerian lyrics and the fifteenth century poems. The major critical work to date is adumbrated and it is noted that no study of the love lyrics across the period has been attempted. The imagery is divided into three main categories: seasons introductions and natural settings; imagery used in the analysis of the emotion of lovey and that used in the description of the lady. In each case, analysis of the operation of this imagery in individual poems follows the examination of its literary backgrounds. It is demonstrated that the early poets invest the traditional language of love with a sense of personal conviction. Their originality lies in their subtle manipulation of imagery for specific poetic effects. Their stylistic techniques are aimed at serving their wish to impart urgency and directness to their lyrics. The fifteenth-century poets are more concerned with superficial decoration,and this, together with their more standardised literary language,can give their lyrics a more impersonal tone. The popularity of the allegorical method of exposition can cause the later poems to seem more abstract. However, it is essentially a period of stylistic experiment^ and as a result the quality of the poetry is patchy. Nevertheless, there are notable achievements in the variations of the conventional imagery so that it still has validity. In conclusion, it is maintained that a clear view of the later medieval developments can only be obtained by seeing the fifteenth century poems in relation to the pre-Chaucerian lyrics. Furthermore, the medieval imagery of love continues to be used by the Tudor poets^ and their more polished lyrics follow in the wake of the fifteenth-century experimentation. AOCITOmMIGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge gratefully the patient and conscientious supervision of this thesis by Miss Anne Leyland. During the early stages of ay work I benefited from discussions with Ms Bella Millett, who, together with Dr. Paul Harvey of the Department of History, also helped with the transcription of unprinted poems. Professor B.F. Hupp^ of the State University of New York, who was visiting Southampton in 1970 - 1971> was also kind enough to take an interest in ny project. To Dr. K. Hall of the Department of French I am grateful for advice about medieval French literature. I wish to thank Mrs. J. Bromley for her general interest and encouragement. The unfailing support of my husband and his invaluable help in checking the typescript must also be acknowledged. The faults of this thesis are, of course, entirely qy own. Ill CONTENTS CHAPTEE TITLE PAGE I Introduction I %% Seasons Introductions and Watural Settings 47 III The Analysis of Emotions 100 IV The Description of the Lady 197 Conclusions The Continuing Validity of Medieval Imagery 307 Appendix: The Interpretation of Brook No. 9 319 Bibliography 323 iv ABBREVIATIONS For convenience, the following abbreviations have been used to refer to the editions from which quotations are taken: Brook . ThA Harley Lyrics, ed. G.L. Brook. C.B. xiii mnriiRh Lyrics "f the Thirteenth Centurf, ed. Carleton Brown. MacCracken The Minor Poems of John Lydgate, Pt. 2, ed. H.N. NacCracken. Mackenzie The Poems of Milliam Dunbar, ed. W. Mackay Mackenzie. Muir The Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, ed. Kenneth Muir. PL PatroloKiae Cursus Comrletus, Series Latina, ed. J.P. Migne. Bobbins Secular Lyrics TTV+t XVth Centuries, ed. E.H. Bobbins. gteala The English Poems of Charles of Orleans, ed. R. Steele and Mabel Day. Where possible, Charles of Orleans'poena are referred to simply by the number given them by Steele and Day. Steamier Medieval English Love Lyrics, ed. Theo Stemmler. All quotations from Chaucer's works are taken from P.N. Robinson's New Cambridge Edition, The Complete Wnrka of Geoffrey Chaucer. Quotations from classical Latin are from the appropriate edition in the Loeh Classical Library. O.C. Macaulay'o The Complete Horks of John Power: The French %orts has been used for quotations from the Cinkante Balades. Any abbreviations i' of periodical titles are in accordance with those used by the MLA. 1 CEAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1., The Lyric Genre The medieval English love lyrioa present critics with a number of problems. The patchy distribution of the poems across the period accounts for some of these difficulties, making it impossible to assemble a full picture of their origin and development. There are no extant love lyrics from before 1200,and from the whole of the thirteenth century fewer than ten remain to us in anything like complete form. The genre has a brief flowering in the first half of the fourteenth century with the dozen or so outstanding love poems from MS. Harley 22$^ but until Chaucer there is very little outside this collection.^ Not until after Chaucer's influence has been felt do we find any number of English love lyrics surviving. It is generally agreed that much lyric poetry from the early period has been lost to us and certainly there are many fragments of lyrics and references to poems no longer known to us which sugrest that this is so.^ Sometimes a reference may occur in another work, as in the case of the Pardoner's song of "Com hider, love, to me." Fragments may find their way into manuscripts containing quite different material, as with four lines beginning "Me tingkit 1?ou art so loueli" (Bobbins, no. 142), which is in a collection of theological ani moral pieces. Similarly, Biz lines are found in a manuscript otherwise devoted to a prose tract which has been entitled. The Clergy May not Hold Property.^ Even a graffito on a pillar of a now ruined church at Duxford near Cambridge has yielded a snatch of love poetry (Bobbins no. 145)• There are practical reasons for this scarcity of early material. Most scribal activity took place under the auspices of the Church and a scribe would find it difficult to justify the use of eipenaive vellum or parchment for the recording of frivolous lyrics. We certainly have evidence that the clergy disapproved of love lyrics, for one twelfth century sermon has a couplet taken from a now lost lyric as its text, to typify the kind of song which is to be strongly discouraged. ^ It is not until the fifteenth century, when nobles awA rich citizens could afford to own collections of prose and vers*,and Indeed began to turn their own hands to composition, that the love lyric is easily recorded and preserved. Further diffloulties are associated with the divisions within the genre. Inevitably, a group of poems spanning a period of three hundred years will not form an homogeneous body. These differences are of two main kinds. A natural division falls between the early poems and those written after the Influence of Chaucer has been felt and a major aspect of this study will be the analysis of developments which separate the two groups. The general influences whloh produce these ievelopmenta will be ileoueaei in a separate section. -The other distinction is usually that between courtly and popular poetiy, although I hope to show that this is more accurately a distinction between forms rather than attitudes. fiosemary Woolf has commented upon the unlikelihood of truly popular poetry surviving from the Middle Ages: In the Middle Ages lyrics composed by the common people for the common people will have had very little chance of surviving. In England at least the only popular lyrics that can be recognized beyond all doubt are the dance-songs; though of course most of these will have vanished, being ephemeral pieces, hardly worth recording when isolated from their music and social setting.5 When the attitudes and imagery of the love lyrics are examined, it beoomea clear that they are part of a sophisticated, poetic tradition rather than remnants of folk art. Bobbins divides his anthology according to the popular/courtly distinction but he makes his division on the rather arbitrary basis of the manuscript a poem is found in rather than any intrinsic qualities of the poems themselves: The first two aeotiona of this anthology, then, illustrate the poems circulated among the 'lewdJ... These texts were preserved only because the manuscript, to which they were inoidental, was preserved. On the other hand, the more formal courtly lyrics, because they were written by and for people of wealt^, were preserved for their own supposed worth. If some of the love lyrics described by Bobbins as popular are examined, however, it can be seen that the attitudes they display towards love and the imagery through which they operate are essentially the same as those of the poema he deBcribee as oourtly.