Description
Book SynopsisAn edition and accompanying translation of this late C13th anthology of early Middle English verse. In addition to the original text and Modern English translations, the edition contains a substantial scholarly introduction, notes and a substantial bibliography.
Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29 (II), a thirteenth-century manuscript, contains the longest surviving English verse sequence from the period between the Exeter Book and the Harley Lyrics. The sequence is varied in subject, with poems of religious exhortation set beside others of secular pragmatism. Included are: The Owl and the Nightingale, Poema Morale, The Proverbs of Alfred, Thomas of Hales’s Love Rune, The Eleven Pains of Hell, the prose Shires and Hundreds of England, the lengthy Passion of Jesus Christ in English, and twenty-one additional lyrics, most of them uniquely preserved in this manuscript and presented here with accompanying translations in Modern English and scholarly introduction and apparatus.
This scholarly presentation of the text is designed for both research and classroom use, intended for teachers, scholars and students.
Table of ContentsGeneral Introduction
Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29 (II): Texts and Translations
- The Passion of Jesus Christ in English
- The Owl and the Nightingale
- Poema Morale
- The Saws of Saint Bede
- The Woman of Samaria
- Weal
- Death’s Wither-Clench
- An Orison to Our Lady
- Will and Wit
- The Annunciation
- The Five Joys of Our Lady Saint Mary
- When Holy Church Is Under Foot
- Doomsday
- Death
- Ten Abuses
- A Little Sooth Sermon
- Antiphon of Saint Thomas the Martyr in English
- On Serving Christ
- Thomas of Hales, Love Rune
- Song of the Annunciation
- Fire and Ice
- Signs of Death
- Three Sorrowful Tidings
- The Proverbs of Alfred
- An Orison to Our Lord
- A Homily on Sooth Love
- The Shires and Hundreds of England
- The Eleven Pains of Hell
Explanatory Notes
Textual Notes
Index of First Lines
Index of Proper Names
Bibliography
