Middle English Lyrics: Lyric Manuscripts 1200–1400 and Chaucer’s Lyric by Emma Kate Charters Gorst A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Emma Kate Charters Gorst 2013 Middle English Lyrics: Lyric Manuscripts 1200–1400 and Chaucer’s Lyric Emma Kate Charters Gorst Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Toronto 2013 Abstract This thesis endeavours to understand late medieval lyric poetry and song from two ostensibly separate contexts: insular manuscript witnesses of English lyric from 1200 to 1400; and the narrative effects of lyric in Geoffrey Chaucer’s longer poetry, including the Canterbury Tales, the Parliament of Fowls, and the Book of the Duchess. These two contexts yield new insights about the medieval lyric. First, an overview of the manuscripts of medieval lyric from 1200 to 1400 in England suggests that about half of anonymous lyrics in this period exist in multiple witnesses and are thus in some sense connected, providing us with the insight that lyric at this time was not so much fragmentary as embedded in rich networks of meaning. The first chapter of the thesis uses network mapping software to represent some of these networks, and discusses the relationships among lyrics that appear in Maidstone, Maidstone Museum MS A.13 and related manuscripts, such as Oxford, Jesus College MS 29, and Cambridge, Emmanuel College MS 27. ii Subsequent chapters of the thesis draw out connections between lyrics and narrative events in Chaucer’s poetry, showing in a very different sense that lyric as a literary form reaches outward from the speaker to the narrative world itself, inviting narrative events to take place. Such an insight is markedly different from views of the lyric which think of it as making nothing happen. Lyric is a force for change that drives narrative, and a force for change in Chaucer’s imaginary social worlds; Chaucer’s lyric and late medieval lyrics are embedded in networks of meaning, both in the narrative poetry in which they appear, and in the manuscripts in which they are copied. iii Acknowledgments I am grateful to many people for helping me start and finish this dissertation. I am especially appreciative of my advisor Alexandra Gillespie, whose early confidence in my ideas helped me have faith in my work, and who has supported and challenged me at key moments in the thesis journey. I certainly would not have been able to do this without such an efficient and visionary advisor. I would also like to thank Will Robins and Suzanne Akbari, who read drafts of my thesis, queried my translations, met with me, and generally helped keep me intellectually honest and on the same page as others in the field of medieval literature. I also very much appreciate the questions and advice of Katie Larson and Martha Rust. Dan Wakelin deserves special thanks for generously giving his time, palaeographical expertise, and curiosity while hosting me as a visiting student; I am still grateful for those long fascinating conversations. Ardis Butterfield is also to be thanked for her support and encouragement. Her work has inspired me and I am glad that I have the opportunity to work with her in the not-so-distant future. There are many people within the English Department and Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto who have shown confidence in me over the years and to whom I feel a special gratitude; probably the most influential has been Carol Percy, who hosted me as a mentorship student long before we knew I’d attend graduate school. David Klausner got me started on medieval literature in undergrad and taught me Old English and Middle English; thank you David. I am also grateful to Paul Stevens and John Baird for reading and commenting upon proposal drafts, and to Andy Orchard for reading essay, proposal, and article drafts. I very much valued their support and encouragement to continue in graduate school, and their careful advice on how to navigate the academic world. Among fellow graduate students, I want especially to thank Erin Parker and Mike Raby, first for being part of our comprehensive exams reading group, and, second, for reading my work throughout the dissertation process, and for offering thoughtful comments and discussion whenever needed. You are wonderful listeners and I appreciate your support over the past five years. iv Without financial support my last five years would have been very different. I am extremely grateful to the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for their continued support of my work, first with a three-year fellowship, and then with a Michael Smith travel supplement for four months in 2009. SSHRC’s support also let me conceive the postdoctoral project I embark upon next, again with SSHRC’s blessing. I am also grateful for important funding from the English Department at the University of Toronto, and from the Ontario government, which granted me an Ontario Graduate Scholarship in my fourth year. The person who has suffered the most under the rubric of this dissertation is my husband Edwin. I am eternally grateful to him for his love, patience, and practical help during times of need and panic. Thank you Edwin! I am also grateful to my mother Wendy, for repeatedly telling me not to work so hard, and my mother-in-law Susan, for telling me to work harder. I am finally, grateful to my late grandmother Olga Gorst, who instilled in me a healthy respect for learning, education, and hard work. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Plates .................................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x List of Appendices ......................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ xii Thesis Introduction: What does Lyric do? ...................................................................................... 1 1 Medieval Lyric—Backgrounds .................................................................................................. 7 2 Chaucer’s Lyric—Background ................................................................................................ 16 3 Chapter Outlines ....................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 1 Citation Networks in Insular Lyric Manuscripts, 1200–1400 ...................................... 26 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 26 1 Hospitallers and Maidstone A.13 ............................................................................................. 34 2 Franciscans and Benedictines .................................................................................................. 51 3 Music ........................................................................................................................................ 60 3.1 “Worldes Blis Ne Last Ne Þhrowe” .................................................................................. 61 3.2 “Stond Wel Moder” and “Stod Ho Þere Neh” .................................................................. 64 4 Legal lyric ................................................................................................................................ 68 4.1 Rhyming Charters ............................................................................................................. 69 vi 4.2 Lyrics Copied near Legal Documents ............................................................................... 71 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 2 Lyric in Chaucer’s Fabliaux ......................................................................................... 80 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 80 1 The Miller’s Tale: Songs, Remedies, and Cures ...................................................................... 83 2 The Reeve’s Tale: Melody and Cure ....................................................................................... 96 3 The Merchant’s Tale: Letters and Song ................................................................................. 101 4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 112 Chapter 3 Song and Prayer in the Knight’s Tale, Marian Poems, and Troilus and Criseyde .................................................................................................................................