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LXI. Chaucer's Wreched Engendring
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Some ten years ago I pointed out (MLN, XL, 282–284) that the poem, “An Holy Medytacion,” first printed by Dr. MacCracken, was based directly on a thirteenth-century Latin poem, “De Humana Miseria Tractatus.” The English poem opens with a lively description of Spring which irresistibly recalls the beginning of the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. No doubt Dr. MacCracken was impressed by the apparent reminiscences of Chaucer in this section of the poem, and it was very natural that these should have influenced him in assigning the “Holy Medytacion” to Lydgate. This Spring description, however, instead of being reminiscent of Chaucer, follows closely the phrases of its Latin original. Accordingly, the most plausible reason for assigning the poem to the monk of Bury at once disappears.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1935
References
1 Minor Poems of Lydgate, ed. H. N. MacCracken, EETS, i, 43–48.
2 Ed. from MS. E. 2. 33 in the Library of Trinity Coll. Dublin by M. Esposito, Eng. Hist. Review, xxxii, 402–405.
3 Minor Poems of Lydgate, i, vii, note 4.
4 Troy Book:—entencioun: offencioun i, 747/8; suspecioun: discrecioun i, 3079/80; discrecioun: suspecioun i, 3531/2; discrecioun: oppressioun ii, 1147/8; subieccioun: eleccioun iii, 2333/4; illusiouns: conclusiouns iii, 4947/8; disposicioun: opposicioun iii, 5585/6; entencioun: dissencioun iv, 293/4; mencioun: entencioun iv, 1713/4; illusioun: confusioun iv, 6939/40; devisioun: thavisioun v, 3075/6; direccioun: inspeccioun v, 3535/6; inspeccioun: subiecioun Envoy 51/3. [13 cases]
Temple of Glas:—eleccioun: subieccion 342/4; offencioun: entencion 429/30; eleccioun: subieccioun 569/70; offencioun: entencioun 884/6; subieccioun: eleccioun 1075/6. [5 cases]
St. Albon and St. Amphabel:—confusion: collusion i, 828/30; affection: correction ii, 1991/3; punysshon: remyssyon iii, 871/3; confusyon: illusion: abusyon iii, 1368/70/1; occasyon: inuasion iii, 1374/6; possession: profession: succession iii, 1494/6/7. [6 cases]
Minor Poems, Vol. i:—subieccyoun: proteccyoun Benedic An. Mea 149/51; inspeccion: coreccion Exhort. to Priests 52/3; affeccioun: direccioun, perfeccion: parfeccion, affeccion: correccion Virtues of Mass 10/12, 426/8, 661/3; contricioun: remyssioun SS. Kath. Marg. & Mary Magd. 13/15; affeccioun: correccioun To S. Thomas 117/9; addycyoun: contrycyoun Leg. of S. Gyle 250/2; illusyouns: collusyons Leg. of S. Marg. 389/90; affecioun: resurrectioun S. Austin at Compt. 373/5; affeccyoun: perfeccyoun Fifteen Ooes 204/5; assensioun: mencion, assumpcion: presumpcion Ave Maria 49/51, 57/9; compleccioun: perfeccioun, confusioun: illusioun Testament 724/5, 795/7; mencyon: Inuencyon: pension: Ascencion Kalendare 121/3/4/5. [16 cases]
Minor Poems, Vol. ii:—correccion: inspeccion, cession: possessioun Isopes Fab. 46/7, 744/6; entencion: discencyoun Ball. to Hen. VI 138/40. [3 cases]
S. Edmund and S. Fremund:—impressiouns: successiouns i, 390/2; pocessioun: successioun iii, 865/6. [2 cases]
Fall of Princes:—possessioun: successioun i, 1742/3; conclusion: confusioun i, 2867/8, v, 1184/6; possessiouns: transgressiouns ii, 3544/6; abusioun: conclusioun ii, 4579/81; successioun: possessioun ii, 2571/3, v, 3002/3; viii, 2615/6; affeccioun: refeccioun: ii, 1548/50: mencioun: discencioun iii, 1605/7; viii, 331/3; subieccioun: proteccioun iii, 3546/7; condiciouns: disposiciouns iii, 4244/6; subieccioun: affeccioun iv, 1474/5; entencioun: mencioun iv, 3969/71; mocioun: deuocioun v, 268/70; intrusioun: collusioun v, 2740/2; disposicioun: condicioun vi, 599/600; regiouns: legiouns vi, 1814/6, 3648/50; confecciouns: refecciouns vii, 902/4. [21 cases]
Siege of Thebes:—remyssyoun: condicioun iii, 3471/2. [1 case]
5 Cf. Catal. of Romances in Brit. Mus., iii, 647.
6 I have not succeeded in finding this word in mediæval vocabularies, but in Baxter and Johnson's Mediæval Word List (Oxford, 1934) I note “gammula, (n. pl.) letters, writing, 13th c.” The context would indicate that gamenum means parchment or other writing material.
7 Ink; see Baxter and Johnson's Mediæval Word List, “*incaustum 12th c., a 1408, incastum 1456, incoustra c. 1220 for encaustum, ink.”
* Migne:fœtus.
† Migne:efferautur.
8 An echo of this saying may perhaps be recognized in a folk-rime which still survives. More than fifty years ago in the state of Ohio I heard a jingle which began: “If all the sky were parchment/and all the sea were ink” …—And a well-known nursery-rime known to all folk-dancers runs: If all the world were paper, / and all the sea were ink, / and all the trees were bread and cheese, / what would we have to drink?
9 Cf. Wright's ed., Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, ii (1872), 31, 35, 66.
10 Migne, Patr. Lat., ccxvii, 701 ff.
* On v. 44 Esposito adds this note: “I have searched in vain for this tradition in a number of ancient and medieval medical writers.” But cf. De Contemptu Mundi, cap. v.
† MS. pū.
* Text of this and the following selections collated with the MS.
11 The running titles of the poem in the Trinity MS. are: “An holy seying” (p. 111), “An holy and devoute Meditacön” (pp. 112/113), “A devoute Meditacön ffor mans Salvacön” (pp. 114/5), “A devoute Meditacön” (p. 116). The title was no doubt supplied by Shirley: note other similar titles in the Ashmole MS.: “A devoute Invocacioun to oure Ladye” (fol. 64), “A pytous lamentacioun of oure ladye” (fol. 66). “A devoute exortacioun,” etc. (fol. 68vo), “Devoute & vertuos wordes” (fol. 73).
12 Devel. and Chron. of Chaucer's Works, p. 182, note.
13 Archiv. f. d. Stud. d. neueren Sprache, lxxxiv, 405 ff.
14 Oxford Chaucer, iii, 307 and 407/8.
15 Anglia, xxvii, 397.
16 The single occurrence of a bad rime, veer: eyr (vv. 5/6), is no doubt to be thus explained. As Professor Onions points out to me, eyr must be a scribal error for the adverb er (“previously,” “hitherto”). This correction not only removes the faulty rime but improves the sense of the passage. “Wyntour” is evidently a substantive here as in v. 15.
17 These are: mutacyoun: consolacyoun (19, 20), affeccion: correccion (41, 42), affeccyoun: dyleccyoun (143, 144).
18 Antepenultimate rimes in Chaucer: conclusioun: confusioun iv, 257/8, xxii, 23/25; conclusioun: illusioun F, 1263/4, G, 672/3; replecciouns: complecciouns B, 4113/4; complexions: reflexions HF, 21/2; professioun: possessioun D, 1925/6; discrecioun: possessioun F, 685/6; desperacioun: dampnacioun ABC, 21/23; salvacioun: dampnacioun ABC, 165/7; calcinacioun: albificacioun G, 804/5; citrinacioun: fermentacioun G, 816/7; demonstracion: ymaginacion HF, 727/8; significaciouns: tribulaciouns B, 4169/70; inclinacioun: constellacioun D, 615/6; dampnacioun: nacioun D, 1067/8; declynacion: exaltacion E, 2223/4; constellacioun: operacioun F, 129/30.
19 In a private letter under date May 24, 1925.
20 Thus cf. Chaucer, “And forth he wente, shortly for to telle” (T. and C. V. 1826), “But as a marchaunt, shortly for to telle” (Cant. T. B. 1495), et passim.—C. B.
21 The extreme frequency of Chaucer's use of this phrase will appear on referring to the Concordance under “Trust” and “Trusteth.” I cite only examples in which the phrase is used parenthetically and at the end of the line: “truste me” (B. 3422), “trusteth me” (G. 229, 601, 889), “trust me wel” (D. 1556), “trusteth me right wel” (D. 1869), “trusteth wel” (H. F. I. 66).—C. B.
22 See note 16, above.
23 For an examination of the details in the Spring piece in the Canterbury prologue see Dr. Rosemond Tuve, Seasons and Months: Studies in a Tradition of Middle English Poetry (Bryn Mawr, diss., 1933, pp. 52–58).