Vernacular Aesthetics in the Later Middle Ages: Politics, Performativity, and Reception from Literature to Music

314 Pages·2019·5.524 MB·English

by  Katharine W. Jager

THE NEW MIDDLE AGES
Vernacular
Aesthetics in the
Later Middle Ages
Politics, Performativity,
and Reception from
Literature to Music
Edited by
Katharine W. Jager
The New Middle Ages
Series Editor
Bonnie Wheeler
English and Medieval Studies
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX, USA
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies of
medieval cultures, with particular emphasis on recuperating women’s his-
tory and on feminist and gender analyses. This peer-reviewed series
includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14239
Katharine W. Jager
Editor
Vernacular Aesthetics
in the Later
Middle Ages
Politics, Performativity, and Reception
from Literature to Music
Editor
Katharine W. Jager
The University of Houston-Downtown
Houston, TX, USA
The New Middle Ages
ISBN 978-3-030-18333-2 ISBN 978-3-030-18334-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18334-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
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C
ontents
1 Introduction: Past Vernaculars: The Aesthetic and the
Everyday 1
Katharine W. Jager
Section I The Peasants’ Rebellion as Sensory Event 21
2 The Weight of Experience: John Gower and the Peasants’
Revolt of 1381 23
Joel D. Anderson
3 “Stonde Manlyche Togedyr in Trewthe”: Lyric and
Rebellion Among Late Medieval Men 47
Katharine W. Jager
4 On Bells and Rebellion: The Auditory Imagination and
Social Reform, Medieval and Modern 87
Adin E. Lears
v
vi CONTENTS
Section II Aesthetic Reception: Music and the Multimodal
Manuscript 117
5 High or Low? Medieval English Carols as Part of
Vernacular Culture, 1380–1450 119
Lisa Colton and Louise McInnes
6 Rethinking the Passion Lyric: Verbal Devotion, Narrative
Variation, and the Poetics of Comfort in Middle English
Poetry 151
Barbara Zimbalist
7 Multimodality and Memory in the Mise en page of
Guillaume de Machaut’s Mass 177
Kate Maxwell
Section III Vernacular Practice: Alchemy, Aesthetics, Affect 199
8 Alchemical Language: Latin and the Vernacular in the
Poetry of Thomas Norton and John Gower 201
David Hadbawnik
9 Vernacular Makynge, Jack Upland, and the Aesthetics of
Antifraternalism 233
Noëlle Phillips
10 Read It and Weep: Affective and Literate Engagement in
Richard Rolle’s Meditations and The Book of Margery
Kempe 271
Jessica Barr
Author Index 299
Subject Index 305
L C
ist of ontributors
Joel D. Anderson The University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Jessica Barr University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
Lisa Colton University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
David Hadbawnik American University of Kuwait, Salmiya, Kuwait
Katharine W. Jager The University of Houston-Downtown, Houston,
TX, USA
Adin E. Lears Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Kate Maxwell University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway
Louise McInnes Independent Scholar, Huddersfield, UK
Noëlle Phillips Douglas College, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Barbara Zimbalist University of Texas-El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
vii
L f
ist of igures
Fig. 3.1 British Library Royal MS 13 E ix fol 287r 53
Fig. 3.2 British Library Royal MS 13 E ix fol 287r 64
Fig. 3.3 British Library Royal MS 13 E ix fol 287r 65
Fig. 3.4 British Library Royal MS 13 E ix fol 287r 65
Fig. 5.1 London, British Library, Egerton 3307, f. 72v showing opening
of the upper voice of the three-part drinking song O potores
exquisiti (ff. 72v–75). The initial shows a male-only social
context including food and wine. Note the inclusion of men of
different social positions, including tonsured clerics and priests
in birettas 126
Fig. 5.2 London, British Library, Egerton 3307, f. 73r, showing
opening of countertenor line for the song O potores, whose
historiated initial shows a mixed- gender social context including
food and wine. Note the similarity of the exemplum in terms of
the male wine server, and also the lack of tonsured men 127
Fig. 5.3 Prey for us Prynce of Pees, extract (transcribed from GB-Ctc
O.3.58, item 12) 142
Fig. 5.4 Oxford, Bodleian Library Arch Selden B. 26, f. 10r 144
Fig. 5.5 Alleluia. Now well [Nowel] may we mirthis make (Oxford,
Bodleian Library, Arch Selden B. 26, f.10r), opening 145
Fig. 7.1 F:Pn 1584, f.438v: the opening of the mass 182
Fig. 7.2 F:Pn 1584, f.448r (detail): the tenor and contratenor from the
Sanctus 183
Fig. 7.3 (a, b) GB:Cccc Ferrell-Vogüé f.284v and F:Pn 1585 f.282v:
scribal workings on display in the Kyrie 184
ix
x LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 7.4 F:Pn 9221, ff.167v–168r: extract from the Credo 187
Fig. 7.5 F:Pn 1585, ff.287v–288r: extract from the Credo 188
Fig. 7.6 F:Pn 1584, ff.444v–445r: extract from the Credo 189
Fig. 7.7 F:Pn 1584, f.446r: extract from the Credo 192
Fig. 7.8 (a, b) F:Pn 22546, f.129r (detail) and f.130r (detail): the
progression of the tenor and contratenor parts over the first
page turn in the Credo 193
Fig. 8.1 © The British Library Board; MS Addit. 10302, folio 19v 209
Fig. 8.2 © The British Library Board; MS Addit. 10302, folio 31v 211
Fig. 8.3 © The British Library Board; MS Addit. 10302, folio 34r 213
Fig. 8.4 © The British Library Board; Egerton MS 913, 1r 217
Fig. 8.5 © The British Library Board; Egerton MS 913, 4r 218
Fig. 8.6 © The British Library Board; Egerton MS 913, 11r 220
Fig. 8.7 © The British Library Board; Addit. MS 22139, 4r 221