Techniques of Aural Poetry in the Middle English Lyric.

199 Pages·2017·7.69 MB·English

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LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School
1972
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Brenda S. Stockwell
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Stockwell, Brenda S., "Techniques of Aural Poetry in the Middle English Lyric." (1972). LSU Historical
Dissertations and Theses. 2360.
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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 fulfillment 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 print.
F i1med 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 Mrs. Martha Irby and
Mrs. Frances Coleman of the Mitchell Memorial Library, Mississippi State
University. Finally, to Mrs. 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
III. THE USES OF REPETITION....................................................................... 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
VITA ......................................................................................... 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 pre-literate, 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 thematically. Houndes and hauekes and
fau and gris, for example, suggesting the shortlived pleasures of wealth in
this world, occur regularly in the treatment 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 ojl 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.