Mary, Motherhood, and Theatricality in the Old Polish Listen, Dear Brothers and Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale

Abstract

This is a collection of essays on the subject of lament in the medieval period, with a particular emphasis on parental grief. The analysis of texts about pain and grief is an increasingly important area in medieval studies, offering as it does a means of exploring the ways in which cultural meanings arise from loss and processes of mourning. The international scholars who come together to produce this volume discuss subjects as diverse as lament psalms in Old and Middle English, medieval Latin laments, mourning in Anglo-Saxon literature, mourning through objects, medieval art and archaeology, Old French poetic elegy, skaldic poetry, medieval women’s writing, Old Polish drama, English massacre plays, and Middle English nativity lyrics.