Middle English Lyrics

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Middle English Lyrics

• Types of Middle English Lyrics
• The carol communal lyrics that deal with
  festive occasions
• The contemptus mundi contemplative analyze the
  futility of living a life contrary to God
• The plain style simple prayer or meditation on
  the crucifixion, the Virgin Mary, and Christ

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Characteristics of Middle English Lyrics

• Unselfconscious
• Simple
• Meditative
• Devotional
• Moral
• Anonymous
• Absence of individuality
• Simple emotion
• Meditative
• Power of suggestion

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I sing of a maiden

• The poem celebrates the Incarnation
• Christ and Mary are conceived as knight and
  maiden
• Dew image of Christ
• Serenity
• Complexity, but also freshness and simplicity

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Julian of Norwich

• 1343-1416/19

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Biography

• Born in 1343
• She lived as a recluse, an anchoress
• Her cell was attached to the church all of St.
  Julian at Norwich
• Could have received her education in her convent
• During her lifetime, she gained a reputation for
  sanctity and wisdom and became the object of deep
  reverence
• At the age of 71, she received a visit from
  Margery Kempe
• The first English woman to write a book

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The Book of Showings

• Affective devotion to Christs human body
• Visions explore the meaning of love
• Combination of intellectual and stylistic
  eloquence and the homeliness of imagery and
  feeling
• Christian mysticism
• Goal is intimacy with God
• i

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Images
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Margery of Kempe

• 1373-1438

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Biography

• Born 1373
• A wife and mother of fourteen
• She was an entrepreneur, a brewer, and a miller
  before she was seized by God
• Develops a strong distaste for her husbands
  sexuality
• Turning point came when God spoke to her while
  she knelt in the chapel of St. John in St
  Margarets
• At the age of forty, visited bishop and
  archbishop and departed on pilgrimage to the
  began to visit the Holy Land
• At Church of the Apostles in Rome, she
  experienced a divine communication with God

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The Book of Margery Kempe

• A spiritual autobiography
• First autobiography in the English language
• Importance of love through a direct experiential
  knowledge of Christ
• The book tells us about medieval England
• Her visions are violent
• Her object is to relate the process of her own
  salvation
• Necessity of total abnegation of self
• She was illiterate, but excellent knowledge of
  the scriptures