Dimensions
128 x 198 x 15mm
Thomas G. Duncan's first volume, Medieval English Lyrics, 1200-1400, wrote The Times Literary Supplement, 'may well prove to be ground-breaking, by helping to promote the medieval English lyric linguistically... to a more formidable presence in the great European medieval tradition of short poems.' This further volume is the first general anthology devoted specifically to the period 1400-1530. The courtly game of love continues in poems by sophisticated disciples of Chaucer. Religious lyrics and carols present Mary singing to the infant Jesus and a naive shepherd-boy rushing to Bethlehem for the Nativity. Yet we also find accounts of lecherous priests, minstrels mocking their audiences and women vividly listing their lovers' inadequacies. In editing these lyrics anew from their original manuscripts, Duncan seeks to offer authentic, accessible texts by restoring metre and rhyme, regularising unfamiliar spellings, and giving line-by-line glosses as well as a full commentary on each poem.
