Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 269 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. "Although the relationship of Middle English poetry to folksong is now generally recognized, few scholars have pursued the implications of this relationship in depth. This study explores the relationship of the Middle English lyric (primarily, though not exclusively, the secular lyric) to the various forms of folksong and popular song for which we have manuscript evidence or testimony from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The author interprets the poems in their cultural and manuscript contexts, but also applies structuralist and semiotic analytical methods as tools for a more systematic interpretive approach to material not immediately accessible to the present-day reader. Those medieval lyrics which can most profitably and convincingly be related to an oral popular tradition of folksong are often the ones which modern readers find most attractive and interesting. Through a context-sensitive, cultural and historical textual hermeneutic applied to such a selection of Middle English lyrics, the book attempts to shape for the reader a sense of the nature, extent and dynamics of the popular literary culture of the medieval and early modern period."--Jacket.

Alternative title

1. Popular song and the Middle English lyric

Subject

1. To 1500
2. English poetry > Middle English, 1100-1500 > History and criticism
3. Literature and folklore > England > History > To 1500
4. Folk songs, English > England > History and criticism
5. Ballads, English > England > History and criticism
6. Popular culture > England > History > To 1500
7. Music and literature > History > To 1500
8. Ballads, English
9. English poetry > Middle English
10. Folk songs, English
11. Literature and folklore
12. Music and literature
13. Popular culture
14. Lyrik
15. Volkslied
16. Volksliederen
17. Lyriek
18. Middelengels
19. England
20. Mittelenglisch

Genre/Form

1. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. History.

Contents

1. 1. Learned and popular culture in Middle English poetry -- 2. Middle English folksong -- 3. The thirteenth century: Judas -- 4. The fifteenth century: the Sloane manuscript -- 5. After 1450: popular literature and the outlaw ballads -- 6. Matching wits: the comic ballads -- 7. Tales of enchantment -- 8. Hero and villain: the historical ballads -- 9. Popular song after 1500: Richard Hill's commonplace book -- Conclusion: Popular song and the Middle English lyrics.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-255) and indexes.