362 Study Questions: Middle English Lyrics
Vocabulary:
lyric, lyric moment, lullaby, alliteration
Introduction: For the most part, the
Middle English lyrics tend to survive in how many manuscripts?
What is the name
of the author of most of the Middle English lyrics (trick
question!)?
Since the lyrics are so short, I am not offering specific
reading questions here. Instead, pick any three of the
shorter lyrics and paraphrase them, line-by-line, in
your own words, and pick any single lyric to memorize.
(For what it's worth, Hemingway's favorite medieval lyric
was "Western Wind." I'm partial to "The Corpus Christi
Carol" myself.)
Passage Identifications:
A: And in that bed ther lith a knight,
/ His woundes bleeding by day and night. / By that beddes
side ther kneeleth a may, / And she weepeth both night
and day. / And by that beddes side ther standeth a stoon
/ Corpus Christi writen theron.
B: Western Wind, when will thou
blow? / The small rain down can rain. / Christ, that my
love were in my arms, / And I in my bed again.
C: I sing of a maiden / That is makeless:
/ King of alle kinges / To her sone she chees.
D: Ewe bleteth after lamb, / Loweth
after calve cow, / Bulloc sterteth, bucke verteth, / Merye
sing cuckou!