The Digby Poems

A New Edition of the Lyrics

Buch | Hardcover

368 Seiten

2009
University of Exeter Press (Verlag)
978-0-85989-816-4 (ISBN)

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In Helen Barr’s new edition, the 24 short lyrics of Oxford Bodleian MS Digby 102 are freshly transcribed and edited. New evidence shows that this sequence of poems was written in the early years of Henry V’s reign (c.1413–14), and most probably by a Benedictine monk eager to add his support for the Henrician new dawn.

In Helen Barr’s new edition, the 24 short lyrics of Oxford Bodleian MS Digby 102 are freshly transcribed and edited. The critical apparatus includes a full introduction, extensive annotation to each poem, and a new glossary. New evidence shows that this sequence of poems was written in the early years of Henry V’s reign (c.1413–14), and most probably by a Benedictine monk eager to add his support for the Henrician new dawn. There is strong support for war against France and for the proper conduct of parliamentary business. The poems are rigorous in their call for orthodox reform from within the Church. Throughout, the concerns of Church and State are inseparable from a fierce call for penitence, both collective and individual. The sequence contains some harrowing devotional writing; the poet makes especially agile use of demanding stanza forms to ensure that human beings are left in no doubt as to their failings. Barr’s extensive annotation brings out not just the political significance of the poems but also their place in the tradition of devotional writing.

Helen Barr is Fellow and Tutor in English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She has edited and written on the Piers Plowman tradition, is author of Socioliterary Practice in Late Medieval England (2001), and co-edited Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale (2005) with Ann M. Hutchison.

Acknowledgements

Introduction
1. The manuscript
2. Previous editions of Digby lyrics
3. Critical reception
4. Date
5. Religious sensibilities
6. Social temper
7. Poetics
8. Provenance
Appendix: Parallels between the Digby lyrics and the Macaronic sermons in MS Bodley 649

Abbreviations and select bibliography

The lyrics from MS Digby 102
1. Loue God and drede
2. Mede and muche thank
3. Treuth, reste and pes
4. Lerne say wele, say litel, or say no3t
5. Wyt and Wille
6. To lyf bodyly is perylous
7. Man, knowe thy self, and lerne to dye
8. A good makynge of iour delaye
9. With God of loue and pes 3e trete
10. A good steryng to heuenward
11. God & man ben made atte on
12. God kepe oure kyng and saue the croune
13. Dede is worchyng
14. Man be warre er the be woo
15. The descryung of mannes membres
16. A remembraunce of Lij folyes
17. Loue that God loueth
18. The declarying of religioun
19. Untitled
20. Untitled
21. A lernyng to good leynge
22. Knowe thy self and thy God
23. Of the sacrament of the altere
24. The Lessouns of the Dirige

Glossary
Index of proper names

Erscheint lt. Verlag	10.7.2009
Reihe/Serie	Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Lyrik / Gedichte
ISBN-10	0-85989-816-4 / 0859898164
ISBN-13	978-0-85989-816-4 / 9780859898164
Zustand	Neuware