The alliterative Morte Arthure: The owl and the nightingale, and five other Middle English poems in a modernized version

569 Pages·1973·1.22 MB·English

by  John Gardner

The Alliterative Morte Arthure : The Owl
and the Nightingale, and Five Other Middle
title:
English Poems in a Modernized Version,
With Comments On the Poems and Notes
author: Gardner, John
publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0809306484
print isbn13: 9780809306480
ebook isbn13: 9780585182346
language: English
English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500-
subject
-Modernized versions, Arthurian romances.
publication date: 1973
lcc: PR1203.G3 1973eb
ddc: 821/.1/08
English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500-
subject:
-Modernized versions, Arthurian romances.
Page iii
The Alliterative Morte Arthure
The Owl and the Nightingale
and Five other Middle English Poems
in a Modernized Version with Comments on the Poems
and Notes
By John Gardner
FEFFER & SIMONS, INC.
London and Amsterdam
Page iv
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Morte Arthure.
The alliterative Morte Arthure.
(Arcturus books, AB116)
CONTENTS: The alliterative Morte Arthure.Winner
and waster.The parliament of the three ages. [Etc.]
1. English poetryMiddle English (Modernized)
I. Gardner, John Champlin, 1933-ed. II. Title.
[PR1203.G3 1973] 821´.1´08 73-7728
ISBN 0-8093-0486-4
ISBN 0-8093-0648-4 (pbk.)
Copyright © 1971 by Southern Illinois University Press
All rights reserved
Arcturus Books Edition September 1973
This edition printed by offset lithography
in the United States of America
98 97 96 95 9 8 7 6
Page v
To Ken Morrow
Page vi
ERRATUM
Page 86, line 3266: For On the wheel was a chair of chalk-white hues;
read On the wheel was a chair of chalk-white silver
ADDENDUM
Page 86, insert between lines 3266 and 3267: And checkered with
carbuncles of changing hues;
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
The Alliterative Morte Arthure 3
Winner and Waster 117
The Parliament of the Three Ages 133
Summer Sunday 155
The Debate of Body and Soul 161
The Thrush and the Nightingale 177
The Owl and the Nightingale 185
Comments on the Poems 235
The Alliterative Morte Arthure 239
Winner and Waster 256
The Parliament of the Three Ages 262
Page viii
Summer Sunday 263
The Debate of Body and Soul 264
The Thrush and the Nightingale 266
The Owl and the Nightingale 267
Notes 275
Page ix
Preface
This selection of Middle English poems is not meant to be
representative of Middle English poetry in general. I have chosen
poems (in most cases) which have real literary value and are so hard
to read in the original that they are not as well known as they deserve
to be. Another control on my selection is my object of presenting the
poems as poetry. I do include one patently inferior poem, The Thrush
and the Nightingale, because it throws light on The Owl and the
Nightingale.
The poems brought together here do reflect a variety of medieval
English ways of thinking and feeling. The neglected masterpiece
Morte Arthure is the only "heroic romance" in Middle Englishin other
words, it is a poem in (roughly) the same genre as the French Song of
Roland. Winner and Waster and The Parliament of the Three Ages are
fine examples of that favorite medieval mode, the elegant, stylized
debate. The lyric Summer Sunday, with its intricate repetitions of
words and phrases, its close rhyming, its handsome use of traditional
images, is a gem among medieval lyrics. The darker strain of
medieval thought, hellfire terror, is represented here by The Debate of
Body and Soul. And the lighter side of life in the Middle Ages comes
alive in The Owl and the Nightingale.
Since I have modernized these poems in verse, it should go without
saying that I have occasionally sacrificed literalness to preserve
aesthetic qualities. For instance, in Summer Sunday, a tightly
alliterated poem, I translate the phrase I warp on my wedes as "I
caught up my clothes," not "I put on my clothes," which would be
accurate but prosaic. I translate to wode wold I wende as "I would go
to the groves in haste" not "I planned to go to the woods," a more
accurate rendering but one which loses both alliteration and the
excitement of the poet's opening. I frequently modernize kene, here
and in other alliterative poems, as ''keen," not "bold," which would be
more correct. Cer-