Poema Morale
The Poema Morale ("Conduct of life"[1]) is an early Middle English moral poem outlining proper Christian conduct. The poem survives in seven manuscripts,[2] including the homiletic collections known as the Lambeth Homilies[3] and Trinity Homilies,[4] both dating from around 1200.
Content and form
The poem is sometimes referred to as a sermon,[5] sometimes as a homiletic narrative.[6] Following a Latin model, it employs a septenary line, according to R.D. Fulk possibly the first example of that line in English;[7] it contains 200 rhymed couplets.[5]
The narrator, a wise, old man, reflects on his life and his many failures; the homily ends with a description of the Last Judgment and the joys of heaven.[6]
Manuscripts and editions
The first modern critical study and edition (which used six manuscripts) was Hermann Lewin's 1881 Das mittelenglische Poema morale.[8] Lewin did not yet have the version from Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS McClean 123, a manuscript given to the museum in 1904; the version of the Poema Morale in it wasn't described until 1907.[9]
References
- ^ Conti, Aidan (2006). "The Gem-Bearing Serpents of the Trinity Homilies: An Analogue for Gower's Confessio Amantis". Modern Philology. 106 (1): 109–16.
- ^ Laing, Margaret (2000). "Never the twain shall meet: Early Middle English--the East-West divide". In Irma Taavitsainen (ed.). Placing Middle English in Context. Walter de Gruyter. p. 111ff. ISBN 9783110167801. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ Trips, Carola (2002). From Ov to Vo in Early Middle English. John Benjamins. p. 22. ISBN 9789027227812. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ Treharne, Elaine (June 2012). "Cambridge, Trinity College, B. 14. 52". The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ a b Harsch, Ulrich. "Poema Morale, ca. 1170". Bibliotheca Augustana. Fachhochschule Augsburg. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ a b Holtei, Rainer (ed.) (2002). "Poema Morale". A Companion to ME Literature. Heinrich-Heine-University, Duesseldorf. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
{{cite web}}:|first=has generic name (help) - ^ Fulk, Robert D. (2002). "Early Middle English Evidence for Old English Meter: Resolution in Poema morale". Journal of Germanic Linguistics. 14 (04). doi:10.1017/S147054270200017X. ISSN 1470-5427.
- ^ Lewin, Hermann (1881). Das mittelenglische Poema morale: Im kritischen Text, nach den sechs vorhandenen Handschriften zum ersten Male hrsg. von hermann Lewin. M. Niemeyer. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ Paues, Anna C. (1907). "A Newly Discovered Manuscript of the Poema Morale". Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie. 1907 (30): 217–237. doi:10.1515/angl.1907.1907.30.217. ISSN 0340-5222.
External links
- Online text from Lambeth MS 487