Provided by the author(s) and University College Dublin Library in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Both the edge and the centre: the politics of understanding music in middle English poetry - an interdisciplinary study Authors(s) Nangle, Sarah J. Publication date 2016 Publisher University College Dublin. School of English, Drama and Film Link to online version http://dissertations.umi.com/ucd:10112 Item record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/8589 Downloaded 2021-10-01T23:32:36Z The UCD community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters! (@ucd_oa) © Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Both the Edge and the Centre: The Politics of Understanding Music in Middle English Poetry - An Interdisciplinary Study Sarah Nangle 06485197 This thesis is submitted to University College Dublin in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. School of English, Drama and Film College of Arts and Celtic Studies Head of School: Professor Danielle Clarke Principal Supervisors: Dr. Niamh Pattwell, Dr. Frank Lawrence May 2016 Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Statement of Original Authorship List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Medieval Poet’s Experience of Music 12 I. Musica and the Medieval Imagination 13 II. The Medieval City 21 III. Education, Court Culture, Diplomacy and Intellectual Negotiation 23 IV. Music and the Church 33 V. The Politics of Understanding 37 Chapter Two: Musica Theorica in Chaucer’s Dream Poetry 41 I. Dream Poetry and Freedom of Invention 41 II. Music and Consolation in the Book of the Duchess 43 III. “Of Science and of Lyght”: Musical Realism in House of Fame 55 IV. Music and Politics in Parliament of Fowls 62 V. Conclusion 69 Chapter Three: Teaching, Preaching, and Performing 72 I. The Manuscript and the Priory 75 II. “Manie & sille”: Siren Song and the ME Physiologus 81 III. Animal, Irrational, Child: The Choristers’ Lament 89 IV. Piety, Pedagogy, and Performance: 94 Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale, Nun’s Priest’s Tale, and Second Nun’s Tale V. Conclusion 108 Chapter Four: Musical Nobility and the Minstrel King 111 I. Music and Governance 111 II. “Be seaxes ord”: Old “English” Music in King Horn 117 III. “Tamquam alter Orfeus”: Sir Orfeo 139 IV. Music, Status, and Rationality in Chaucer’s Manciple’s Tale 154 V. Conclusion 169 Conclusion 172 Bibliography 182 Appendix 209 Plates 213 ii Abstract This dissertation offers an interdisciplinary examination of the uses of music in Middle English poetry through analysis of numerous allusions to music in texts from the late-thirteenth to early-fifteenth century, with particular focus on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The position of music as a cornerstone of philosophic thought, perceived as a reflection of the divine harmony of the universe and as sounding number made it central to medieval life. However, music’s abstract connotations also permitted it to inhabit the margins of the medieval universe – the boundaries between human and animal, rational and irrational, nature and artifice, sense and the ineffable. Music was thus both at the edge and the centre of the medieval imagination. The role of music in discourses concerning creativity, religion, and society in Middle English poetry will be considered in relation to the spiritual, social, and artistic implications of “knowing” or making rational judgment – what I term “the politics of understanding”. I divide consideration of the politics of understanding music in dream visions, complaints, bestiaries, religious texts, and romances into three sections: philosophical, spiritual, and political. This division allows me to examine a broad range of texts, beginning with consideration of the literary and philosophical tradition inherited from French influences and Antiquity, then turning to spiritual devotion, moving away from aesthetic to ascetic concerns, and finally considering the secular and more immediate and practical implications. The philosophical implications of understanding music in Chaucer’s dream poems, the Book of the Duchess, House of Fame, and Parliament of Fowls are first considered. I then examine the spiritual dimensions of understanding music in London, British Library, MS Arundel 292 and in Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale. I conclude with an exploration of the representation of kingly harpers in the romances King Horn and Sir Orfeo, and in Chaucer’s Manciple’s Tale. iii Acknowledgments Overseeing a project of this duration, that seeks interdisciplinary dialogue, requires considerable diplomacy and even-handedness. I could not have asked for better supervisors than Dr. Niamh Pattwell and Dr. Frank Lawrence, who patiently helped me to navigate the path between their own two fields and tirelessly read drafts, responded to my every query, and encouraged this venture. Many members of UCD School of English – administrative and academic staff, as well as the students that I have had the good fortune to teach – have helped to contribute to this project. I am indebted especially to Professor Mary Clayton, who has been most generous with her time and expertise, Pat O’Brien, who scrupulously read an early draft of my work on Chaucer’s Prioress and Second Nun, and Dr. Huiyi Bao for lively discussions on astronomy and the medieval sensorium. I would like to express gratitude to scholars in other universities who have supported my work through discussion and sharing their own expertise, particularly, Dr. Brendan O’Connell at Trinity College Dublin. Without funding, the scope of this project would not have been possible. The generosity of the ESSE, IFUT, and COST Action has facilitated my work with manuscripts and with other manuscript scholars in the British Library and in Antwerp. I am grateful beyond words for the kindness and moral, emotional, and intellectual support of my friends throughout the years of this thesis. There are too many to name, but of special mention are Daithi Kelleghan, Caroline Minogue, Sarah Monaghan, Mark T. Cox, Ciarán Delaney, and Sam Chow. Dr. Jenny Daly deserves my highest esteem and thanks for patiently reading my work, unwearyingly listening to my ramblings, and enabling my frequent coffee drinking. She is the best academic wingman anyone could ask for. Finally, to my family – my brothers Joe, Mark and Luke, my aunt Siobhán, my grandmother Joan, and especially my parents Peter and Veronica Nangle – I owe my immense gratitude. Without their constant support and encouragement, this journey would not have been possible. iv Statement of Original Authorship: I hereby certify that the submitted work is my own work, was completed while registered as a candidate for the degree stated on the Title Page, and I have not obtained a degree elsewhere on the basis of the research presented in this submitted work. v Abbreviations Arundel 292 London, British Library, Arundel MS 292 BD The Book of the Duchess CA Confessio Amantis ChauR The Chaucer Review ChL The Choristers’ Lament CT The Canterbury Tales DIMEV Digital Index of Middle English Verse (http://www.dimev.net/index.html) De ins. mus. De institutione musica EETS Early English Text Society (OS: Original Series; ES: Extra Series; SS: Supplementary Series) FL The Floure and the Leafe, Gg 4.27.2 Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg. 4.27 part 2 Harley 2253 London, British Library, Harley MS 2253 HC Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild HF The House of Fame KH King Horn Laud 108 Oxford, Bodleian, MS Laud Misc.108 LGW The Legend of Good Women MancT The Manciple’s Tale ME Middle English MED Middle English Dictionary (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/) MS Manuscript NMGS Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey (http://www.medieval-graffiti.co.uk/) NPT The Nun’s Priest’s Tale PF Parliament of Fowls PrT The Prioress’s Tale RH The Romance of Horn RR Roman de la Rose SirO Sir Orfeo SNT The Second Nun’s Tale SuM The Summa Musice TEAMS The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages vi Both The Edge and The Centre Introduction – A hypersphere, very simply described, is a universe whose outermost edge is also its centre. If we imagine the light at the edge of the universe coming towards us, we must understand that that light is the oldest light in the universe, originating with the Big Bang. But if the edge of the universe is the oldest, it is also the centre of the sphere that we now imagine the universe to be. The edge is also the centre, and what we see there is the remote past. (Jean-Marie Kauth “The Shaping of Dante’s Cosmos” 19) The title of this project was inspired partially by Jean-Marie Kauth’s consideration of the shape of Dante’s cosmos. Kauth’s analysis of Dante’s cosmos as a hypersphere, where the edge is also the centre, recognizes the same supremacy of understanding of the universe as ordered by number as is embodied in the centrality of music in medieval poetry, philosophy, religious practice, and everyday life. Music, with its divinely ordered connotations, was at the centre of the medieval imagination. However, as music could be non-linguistic, nonhuman, abstract, and irrational, it also had the capability to transcend the “edges”, boundaries, or margins, of traditional fixed structures within the medieval imagination. Music’s resistance to single interpretation, its ineffable nature, placed it as much at the edge as the centre. “The Politics of Understanding Music in Middle English Poetry” is an interdisciplinary examination of music in medieval narrative poetry. This research combines literary criticism and musicology to bring to light the centrality of music in medieval life through textual analysis of allusions to music in texts from the late-thirteenth to early-fifteenth century, with particular focus on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.