EN392 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Courtly Love, Lanval, Early Summer
EN392
Lyrics and Medieval Romance
Lyrics
• Intense feeling rather than narrative story telling
• Shorter works
Sumer is icumen in
• Catchy and easy to repeat or join
• Captures the sense of summer – sound of birds
• Emotions of joy and pleasure
• Early summer
• The reverdie theme: the re-greening of the world
• Refrain
• Sung as a round which makes it easy for people to join in
• Good for children – sounds of nature make it childlike
• Middle English (early 13th cen. Maybe 1225, King John)
o Every word would be recognized by anyone in Old English
o Zero French vocabulary
▪ Harkening back to pre-conquest existence
▪ Distancing self from court and go about their own business
▪ Could also be lower class so less access to French
• Spring in the verb as it is in action
o Spring and Summer at once
• “prig is ofte assoiated ith se ad ou’d thik this is post-coital but its more about
parenthood
• The buck farting is a contrast against the bird noises
• Nature reflects what we as human beings feel
• Ver optiisti uderstadig of ature hih a’t last foreer
Now goth sonne under wod
• 4 lines
• Many back vowels
• No the su goes uder the ood – the sun is setting
• Folloig lie does’t hae uh to do ith the other I pit, Mar, our fair fae
o Could e a religious aspet here the ood is the ross ad takig pit o Mar’s loss
o Need to go back to line 1 to connect the following line (sun becomes son)
• “u settig ut ill rise i the orig reflets Jesus’ ruifiio ad the resurretion
• Elicit compassion and pity for Mary. Connection is with the mother, not with Jesus
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Document Summary
Intense feeling rather than narrative story telling: shorter works. Foweles in the frith: title: birds in the forest, birds in the forest and fish in the river (cid:862)a(cid:374)d i (cid:373)ust go (cid:373)ad(cid:863, could naturalize madness. Betwene mersh and averil: sad emotions about being unlucky in love, harken to my refrain others invited to take pity. Lily flower shrinking not increasing: generalized spring theme, highly localized poem petersborough near cambridge, breaks off and addresses women directly, women are going to die and lose their beauty so collect roses now. Franciscan friars effective piety movement: emotions of the crucifixion and mary, often take place as visions or tales of people overhearing mary and jesus, emotionally, it never stops. How did she survive: sentences just break off, answers given in the last lines, women as the mysterious other, celtic theme rather than religious, suggested sexual fantasy poem.
