Middle English Alliterative Poetry Research Articles

Theory, Fact, and Grammar: Two Approaches to Old English MeterThe English Alliterative Tradition. Thomas CableThe Metrical Grammar of Beowulf. Calvin B. Kendall

Two important books on Old English meter in a single year demonstrate the continuing vigor of that venerable field. Their neatly dovetailed strengths and weaknesses both highlight the variety of approaches to metrical analysis and partly explain the vigor. Kendall's The Metrical Grammar of Beowulf is an important and thought-provoking book that offers many useful, original insights and new information about the poem's construction. Its theoretical underpinnings, however, often prove unsatisfying and unconvincing-inadequate to the promise of the rich collection of data presented. Cable's The English Alliterative Tradition is also an important book, but its strength lies in its provocative theory rather than its data. It offers admirably clearheaded discussions of theoretical issues, both in English meter generally and in the various historical periods. Cable's arresting claims about the metrical systems of Old English, Middle English alliterative poetry, and Middle English iambic poetry will stimulate both further testing against the poetry and further theoretical discussion. Especially noteworthy are the discussions of processes for testing a metrical theory (pp. 94-98), the treatment of exceptions within a theory (pp. 99-102), and abduction and theorybuilding (pp. 103-12). These strengths are partially offset, however, by an insufficiently detailed exposition of the theory, internal difficulties, and a general overreliance on theory at the expense of data. In spite of the mirror-image relationship of strengths and weaknesses in these two books, the specifics are so different that they require separate discussion.

The English Alliterative Tradition

The meter of Middle English alliterative poetry, Thomas Cable contends, holds the key to a reinterpretation of both Old English meter and iambic pentameter, which in turn provides a new understanding of Middle English meter itself.

Adverbial Distribution in Middle English Alliterative Verse

For several years, in print and at conferences, Thomas Cable and Hoyt Duggan have debated the theoretical structure of Middle English alliterative verse. I Before this recent spate of interest, the poetry of the Alliterative Revival had long been considered too unregulated to allow strict theoretical rules. In particular, metrists had despaired of discovering a coherent template for the gabble of weaker syllables between strong stresses.2 No firm pattern can be found because we do not know with any certainty the status of final -e, and the status of final -e cannot be determined without a formal pattern for regulating unstressed syllables. The new discussion, however, has demonstrated a

Final "-e" and the Rhythmic Structure of the B-Verse in Middle English Alliterative Poetry

Previous articleNext article No AccessFinal "-e" and the Rhythmic Structure of the B-Verse in Middle English Alliterative PoetryHoyt N. DugganHoyt N. Duggan Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 86, Number 2Nov., 1988 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/391689 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1988 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Rafael J. Pascual Oral Tradition and the History of English Alliterative Verse, Studia Neophilologica 89, no.22 (Sep 2017): 250–260.https://doi.org/10.1080/00393274.2017.1369360Eric Weiskott Systematicity, a missing term in historical metrics, Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 25, no.44 (Nov 2016): 328–342.https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947016660229Eric Weiskott Grass-Bed: A Poetic Compound in the Alliterative Tradition, Anglia 134, no.44 (Jan 2016).https://doi.org/10.1515/ang-2016-0069Eric Weiskott Piers Plowman and the Durable Alliterative Tradition, The Yearbook of Langland Studies 30 (Jan 2016): 123–173.https://doi.org/10.1484/J.YLS.5.111397Colin J. Grant Interview with Robert D. Fulk, Journal of English Linguistics 42, no.44 (Sep 2014): 359–379.https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424214549562 Jae-Duk Bae A Comparative Study of the Metre in Gawain and Cleanness, The New Korean Journal of English Lnaguage & Literature 52, no.33 (Aug 2010): 239–258.https://doi.org/10.25151/nkje.2010.52.3.012Donka Minkova The Forms of Verse, (Nov 2007): 176–195.https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996355.ch12Donka Minkova Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English, 13 (Sep 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486968David Wallace The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, 34 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521444200 Karl T. Hagen Adverbial Distribution in Middle English Alliterative Verse, Modern Philology 90, no.22 (Oct 2015): 159–171.https://doi.org/10.1086/392054

The Ghoulish and the Ghastly A Moral Aesthetic in Middle English Alliterative Verse∗

The Ghoulish and the Ghastly A Moral Aesthetic in Middle English Alliterative Verse∗

Middle English Alliterative Poetry and Its Literary Background: Seven Essays

Middle English Alliterative Poetry and Its Literary Background: Seven Essays

R,W,V, Elliott: The Gawain Country: Essays on the Topography of Middle English Alliterative Poetry, The University of Leeds, 1984, 165pp

R,W,V, Elliott: The Gawain Country: Essays on the Topography of Middle English Alliterative Poetry, The University of Leeds, 1984, 165pp

The Shape of the B-Verse in Middle English Alliterative Poetry

We have been studying Middle English alliterative verse for over a century, but so far we lack an authoritative description of the rhythmic constraints that governed the poets who wrote alliterative verse. Though some scholars have tried to show the survival of Sievers's five types, few editors have dared, in the absence of a comprehensive and authoritative account of the meter, to emend or choose between the variants in the manuscripts on metrical grounds.' Two factors largely account for this state of affairs: the apparent variety of the verse form itself and the failure of students of the meter to distinguish the practices of poets from those of the scribes. The variety of rhythmic patterns occurring in the surviving manuscripts is formidable. Unlike foot-counted measures, Middle English alliterative meter appears to permit literally hundreds of combinations of stressed and un-

Alliterative Patterning as a Basis for Emendation in Middle English Alliterative Poetry

Alliterative Patterning as a Basis for Emendation in Middle English Alliterative Poetry Hoyt N. Duggan University of Virginia Edito I have taken only the first five instances, and in each instance the superi­ ority of Thornton's reading is evident. At line 262, Offord notes that Ware's reading "can be made to give a feeble sense, but is obviously corrupt" (p.52n.).At line 266 one can compare line 195: "And sayd, 'Sir, bemy soule...'" forcorroborationof Thornton.The loss of men is obvious in line 302. In line 327, Neptolemus is the son of Achilles, and the defectivealliterationin the b verse of Ware reflectsthe loss of thefollowing a verse, which reads in Thornton: "Palamedes, a prise knyghte, and preued in armes." Only the variationbetween thro/y and tnstyly in line 326 involves choosing between the readings primarily on the basis of allit­ erative patterning.The five instances presented here are very much like the remaining 38 instances in that the superiority of the regular reading in T is obvious.26 In that circumstance, 93.2 percent ofthe lines attested by Ware are accounted for as regular. There are forty-one irregular lines in T, but of those only twelve are correctable to aa!ax from W. Three lines, 461, 604, and 626, are not recorded in W and may be Thornton's addition, though there is no compelling reason to think so.Of the lines correctable by reference to W, at least three require some comment: 25 Karl Schumacher, Studien uber den Stabreim in der mittelenglischen Allitera­ tionsdichtung, Bonner Studien zur englischen Philologie,vol. 11 (Bonn: Peter Hanstein, 1914),p. 173,takes the caesura to fall after nede and thus concludes that the a verse is too long. Caesura follows knyghte, and emendation is not required. 26 The remaining 38 instances ofirregular alliteration in Wbut correctable by reference to T appear in lines 349,350,355,360,377,380,383,384,386,395,409,412,424,427,429, 459,464,472,481,483,485,499,502,520,524,535,536,539,545,548,557,603,625, 646,651,653,659,and 661. The 12 lines in T corrected by Ware 319,481,497,499,534, 546,548,558,569,577,588,and 608. 88 ALLITERATIVE PATTERNING 497 T Bot Arthur oure athell kyng, and Wawayne his knyghte (W reads Ewan both here and in the following lines). Offord rejects Gollancz's emendation of T to W's Ewan on the grounds that "there are fairly numerous examples in the poem ofaa/xx alliteration" and speculates that W's Ewan is a scribal correction (pp. 62-63n.497ff.). The speculation is distinctly odd, since the clear evidence ofthe variants is that W is far less careful of alliterative patterning than T by a ratio of almost two to one in such errors. Thus there is little reason to expect him to change his text for the sake ofthe alliteration which he so readily violates elsewhere. And, of course, by assuming that the Thornton manuscript's alliterative patterns were identical to those of the poem, Offord had prejudged the issue without analysis of the relevant available evidence. Neither Gawain nor Ywain in any version ofArthurianlegend does what the poet here says that he does, that is, throw Excalibur in the lake. Instead, as Offord notes, "this rather bald account ofArthur's passing does not suggest that he [the poet] had any source in front of him. It is not intended to be more than a summary, and was probably drawn from memory" (p. 62). The reasonable conclusion is surely that the balance of probability lies with the reading that is regular in alliteration, for there are no grounds at all on which one might take T to be correct. 499 T Than Arthure Sir Wawayne athes by his trouthe W Than Sir Ewan hym hentes by his trowth Both manuscripts are irregular. The a verse in W lacks a stressed stave, and there is no reason to doubt that T's Arthure is correct. Ewan here as in line 497 provides regular alliteration, and the original probably read: "Than Arthure Sir [E]wayne athes by his trouthe." 608 T And graythen...

Middle English Alliterative Poetry and Its Literary Background: Seven Essays. David Lawton

<i>Middle English Alliterative Poetry and Its Literary Background: Seven Essays</i>. David Lawton

A Reexamination of the Middle English Alliterative Long Line

The more specifically one looks into the vast canon of Middle English alliterative poetry, the more J. P. Oakden's work will be appreciated. Though one may question individual readings or statistics, or even the empirical accuracy of some of his judgments, any user of his work will be staggered by the range of formal and stylistic details which he covered and, on the whole, covered exceedingly well. His two-volume work remains, some fifty years after its publication, the single most comprehensive technical guide to the Middle English alliterative tradition.2 Not surprisingly, an updating of Oakden's work is one of the critical needs of Middle English studies. Efforts in this direction have been made, most notably by Marie Borroff, who devotes a book to the analysis of the technical features of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but also by a number of other shorter and more specific studies as well.3 A more recent entrant to the field is Robert Sapora, Jr., who purports to offer an embracing explanatory statement of the formal features of the poetry which can lead, by means of hypothetical analysis, to statements which point with insight to real and significant though non-material qualities of things.4 Most writers who have addressed metrical issues have recognized, assessed, and frequently incorporated the work of earlier scholars. But in many matters of metrics and rhythm, and even alliteration, there is no clear consensus. To the veteran prober of these puzzles, this state of affairs comes as no surprise. Debate is bound to continue over any number of issues because, ultimately, decisions on how to read a particular line will rest on individual judgment and on the principles one adopts. This is especially so in ambiguous cases where a line may support more than one defensible reading. Indeed, that there may be a larger percentage of these lines than has been advertised is itself an indication of the reexamination which has yet to be done. Nonetheless, certain givens persist, and although not necessarily subscribed to by each writer on metrics or alliteration or necessarily wrong in each instance, a few of these traditional postulates descriptive of the poetry might profitably be reviewed, and a number of obstinate questions raised.

The Unity of Middle English Alliterative Poetry

The basic unity of Middle English verse corpus has often been asserted. In 1970s, Geoffrey Shepherd conceded enormous variety of poems in style and outlook, but argued that they stand in a continuum whose terms are moral insight and historical truth'';1 Thorlac Turville-Petre claimed that we are here dealing with a 'school' of poets, though one that embraces a huge variety of styles and subjects;2 Derek Pearsall, while warning against over-emphasis on . . . an agreed that the existence of an 'school', comprising a central 'classical' corpus of poems closely related in formal and stylistic character and with a definitely West Midland and North-Western regional bias, can hardly be denied;3 and Arlyn Diamond postulated a new or redefined genre, alliterative romance.4 Several different approaches coincide here: Shepherd's is thematic, Diamond's generic, and that of Pearsall and Turville-Petre metrical and dialectal, or regional. The very number of approaches raises problems: these seem heterogeneous, not always harmonious, ways of reaching agreement on a fundamental unity. What kind of unity is meant, and what is force of quotation marks placed around word school? (Pearsall's classical corpus, after all, comprises thirteen unrhymed aalax poems spread over a century;5 even in distinctive case of translations from

Middle English unrhymed alliterative poetry and thesouth English legendary

Middle English unrhymed alliterative poetry and the<i>south English legendary</i>

Gaytryge's Sermon, "Dictamen," and Middle English Alliterative Verse

Previous articleNext article No AccessGaytryge's Sermon, "Dictamen," and Middle English Alliterative VerseDavid A. LawtonDavid A. Lawton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 76, Number 4May, 1979 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/390874 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1979 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Alison I. Beach, Isabelle Cochelin The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West, 17 (Jan 2020).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107323742James G. Clark, Kate E. Bush Monastic Preaching, c. 1350–1545, (Jan 2020): 1125–1139.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107323742.061Alastair Minnis, Ian Johnson The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, 2 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070J. J. Murphy The arts of poetry and prose, (May 2005): 42–67.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070.004Ronald G. Witt The arts of letter-writing, (May 2005): 68–83.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070.005Siegfried Wenzel The arts of preaching, (May 2005): 84–96.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070.006David Wallace The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, 34 (Mar 2008).https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521444200Christopher Cannon Monastic productions, (Jan 1999): 316–348.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521444200.016Ralph Hanna Alliterative poetry, (Jan 1999): 488–512.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521444200.023 Richard H. Osberg Alliterative Technique in the Lyrics of MS Harley 2253, Modern Philology 82, no.22 (Oct 2015): 125–155.https://doi.org/10.1086/391361Martin Irvine, David Thomson, Alastair Minnis, Ian Johnson Grammatica and literary theory, (): 13–41.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070.003

Strophic Patterns in Middle English Alliterative Poetry

Previous articleNext article No AccessStrophic Patterns in Middle English Alliterative PoetryHoyt N. DugganHoyt N. Duggan Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 74, Number 3Feb., 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/390723 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:D. A. Lawton The middle english alliterative Alexander A and C: Form and style in translation from Latin Prose, Studia Neophilologica 53, no.22 (Jul 2008): 259–268.https://doi.org/10.1080/00393278108587810

Concerning Huchown

The Cambridge History of English Literature is the latest augmenter of the confusion that surrounds the mysterious mediæval poet, Huchown of the Awle Ryale. If this volume did not bid fair to become a work of authority for some years to come, there would be perhaps no need of a study concerning Huchown. Unfortunately, however, misstatements are already being made, based upon its authority, and there is therefore a real need of giving the whole matter a thorough overhauling. It is difficult to realize upon what slight grounds the confident assumptions have been made, which credit Huchown with writing so vast an amount of Middle English alliterative verse.