English Literature

Week 5

Please read:

Historical background, pp. 79-83.

Misc. medieval and later traditional ballads:

• “Reading a Folk Ballad”, pp. 84-5.
• “Lord Randal”, pp. 85-6.
• “Bonny Barbara Allan”, pp. 86-87.
• “Edward”, pp. 87-89.
• “Sir Patrick Spence”, pp. 89-90.
• “Get up and Bar the Door”, pp. 91-93.

It is worth noting that though many of these ballads may have medieval sources, most of the forms that survive are not themselves medieval, but later. Consider what this means for our understanding of the material.

One of the things I'd like you to get out of this course is a feel for what is sometimes called “close reading” — that is, looking at the text with an eye on every word, making sure you know what each word and phrase means, and thinking about its relationship to every other part of the work. The ballad is probably a good place to start cultivating this skill, since the form is fairly simple, highly regular (even repetitive), and frequently follows a number of dramatic narrative conventions. From here we can go on to othe more complicated things.

Close reading cannot entirely work when you are dealing with a translation, since it really has to do with taking the particular words and phrases into account, and these are always changed in the translation. Still, you can do a certain amount of close reading that way — at least tentatively — as long as you are willing to check it against the original text in the long run. We'll be trying that on Chaucer, who is one of the masters of English poetry. But since we have for a few weeks spent time looking at Beowulf and other things at the large-scale level, maybe we can, through the ballads, look at how this is done on a smaller scale.

Consider for discussion:

• There are dialogue poems designed to be sung going all the way back to the Greek lyric poet Bacchylides. Some of them are very fine. Still, they are arguably not ballads, because they are not as repetitive, and do not tend to use all the conventions we have come to associate with the medium.
  
• What advantages or disadvantages does the characteristic form and repetitiveness have for the poem?
  
• On the same lines, would you find it as appealing or interesting if it were told in a more straightforward way? Consider the newspaper version:
  
  

  (UP, Yorkshire): Lord Randal, the only son of the late Lord and Lady Foggyhead Randal of Bumpton-on-Logg, died yesterday in what appears to have been a case of intentional poisoning. Lady Randal reports that her son returned from hunting in the local greenwood, and professed to feel ill, asking that his bed be made up for him. Subsequent inquiries, according to Lady Randal, revealed that he had in fact had a tryst with a young lady identified only as “my true love,” with whom he shared a dinner of eels. Lord Randal apparently became suspicious when his hounds and hawk, who were given the leftovers of the meal, died shortly afterward. Lady Randal affirms that they had been in the best of health before the trip.

  When Lord Randal came home to his mother, he was apparently reluctant to reveal the name of his alleged poisoner; though he did, she reports, consign her to perdition with his dying breath.

  Authorities are seeking clues on the identity of the mysterious “true love”; Lady Randal has offered a reward for information leading to her apprehension and conviction.

  What's missing?

Some extras, if you’re interested:

To this week's assignment I would like to let you add, if you are interested, some real Middle English texts. Unlike Old English, Middle English will often yield to steady pressure. After you have looked at if for a few minutes the spelling starts to seem less peculiar, it will start to make sense. These are taken from the Oxford Book of English Verse online at Columbia University, and the hard words are glossed at the bottom of the page. You may browse them at your leisure:

• Anonymous, c. 1300 “A Hymn to the Virgin”.

This one is particularly interesting because it is macaronic — that is, written in more than one language. Latin scholars may want to give it a shot.

• Robert Mannyng of Brunne. 1269-1340, “Praise of Women”
• Hoccleve: “On the Death of Chaucer”

Please take the background quiz for Unit II.