Middle English and Middle Scots Literature

The thesis compares two late 14th century animal allegories, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Parliament of Fowls on the English side and Smil Flaška of Pardubice's The New Council on the Bohemian. After an introduction dealing with the datings and possible genetic relationship between the texts, they are approached in search of parallel structural features and of commonly shared topoi.
Chapter 1 demonstrates how the two authors use the identical devices to persuade the reader to comprehend nature as an allegory, chiefly the antrophomorphisation of animals – the beasts and birds gain human attributes, human attitudes, but also human physique; on the basis of their natural and symbolical properties, animals represent human values and social classes, while systems of natural classification and hierarchy are transposed into human social organisations.
Chapter 2 looks at how the human community is allegorised in the two poems as a body politic in practical terms, how the animals are made to deliberate, debate and take part in a sophisticated social arrangement. Each of the two imaginary assemblies mimics surprisingly closely those held by the political representatives of the two realms at the time of composition; representing real-world power structures and communicative frameworks, the allegories portray the Bohemian and English polities in striking detail – from the monarch's
position through to the decision-making process as such. Close comparison then shows that the political philosophy behind the two texts, concerning the management of human polity, is fundamentally identical.
In chapter 3, with the help of late medieval philosophical and theological concepts, a transition is made from common political ideology towards features the two poems share in the areas of cosmology and eschatology. The analysis shows how the political message is in both poems complemented with and presupposed by a spiritual one, how both poems set forth universal belief systems before the reader and attempt to aid him to make the right decisions in problems which these belief systems pose.

The story is that of Walter Fitzgilbert and his sons, and the oration ‘Gilbert Hamilton’ gave at the funeral of Robert of Bruce. It is in a many ways a work of fiction, including some historical detail taken from readily available sources in the Scotichronicon, mixed with other material revised and recreated for this narrative’s purpose, such as the motif of a father and son in English and Scottish courts, the murder of the English favourite ‘Spenser’, and the fight at Kinneil Muir with ‘Odomar Vallance’ a composite character based on the historical figures of Aymer de Valance and Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Parts of the narrative are particularly attuned as propaganda to promote the Hamilton’s as inheritors of an Anglophile tradition, perhaps with origins earlier in Regent Arran’s career, or in his father’s opposition to Regent Albany.

The letters of James Spens represent the only known corpus of letters written by a common soldier from the British Isles during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Mostly sent to his wife, mother and sister, they paint a rather different picture to that usually presented of the rough and ready common soldiery of the conflict. Written in rich Scots from The Dutch Republic, Sweden and the coast of Africa, they will be of invaluable interest to both historians and historical linguists alike.

REF information: The historical and linguistic introduction is 100% by Steve Murdoch. The transcriptions are the combined work of the three editors.

This dissertation, originally published in 1995, was the first ever systematic survey which sought to establish the numbers of speakers of the Scots language. The results were tested in a much larger survey in 1996 by the General Registers Office for Scotland and the findings sustained. It was because of these surveys that Scots eventually made it onto the National Census in 2010.

Since Piers Plowman occupies a central place in the study of medieval English literature, much attention has been paid to the vexed question of the poem's authorship. This justified interest in revealing the human agent behind the family of interrelated versions of the poem, usually named A, B, and C, continues to feed a vibrant industry of speculative scholarship on the person behind the poem. This article reassesses the relevance of the 'Langland' myth for the contemporary reception of the poem, and argues that medieval audiences of the B Version associated the work with a 'Long Will' author-persona. In this context, the case of a previously unnoticed Norfolk poacher in the weeks leading up to the 1381 rising, a William Longewille, and his encroachment on the estate of the former sheriff and tax collector Richard Holdych echo the Ploughing of the Half-Acre in Piers Plowman, in particular as it is presented in the B Version of the poem. As a result, this article proposes that both the A and B Versions of the poem may have been available to (some of) the rebels of 1381, and that the B Version may have circulated in Norfolk along Cluniac and Benedictine networks before and after the unrest.

Il Middle Scots (medio scozzese, d'ora in avanti MSc) si colloca in una posizione intermedia e centrale per importanza nella storia dell'evoluzione delle lingue parlate nell'area corrispondente oggi alla Scozia. S'impone, pertanto, una trattazione complessiva della storia linguistica di queste zone dalle origini ai giorni nostri, fermo restando che un'analisi accurata e dettagliata verrà dedicata soltanto alla fase storica di maggiore interesse per gli scopi di questo studio.

[Now available through open access from Speculum: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0038713415002316]

Among those witnesses of John Gower's works that are known to have been produced during his lifetime, the Trentham manuscript (London, British Library, Additional MS 59495) stands out for its remarkable design as a seemingly planned trilingual collection. The manuscript, usually dated to the first year of Henry IV's reign, exclusively contains Gower's poetry—showcasing his virtuosity in English, French, and Latin. A number of its poems are either addressed to or invoke Henry, yet nothing is known about the history of this manuscript before the seventeenth century. As a result, scholarship on the Trentham manuscript (henceforth Trentham) tends to foreground the question whether this compilation was ever presented to Henry. I will adduce fresh evidence to establish the early provenance of Trentham and show that the manuscript remained in Southwark until the middle of the sixteenth century. Second, I will offer a new context for the composition of Trentham by reading the collection against the background of Anglo-French relations during the first months of Henry's rule. Finally, I will argue for Gower's personal involvement in and continued ownership of this manuscript.

Sebastian Sobecki (2015). Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower's Autograph Hand. Speculum, 90, pp 925-959. doi: 10.1017/S0038713415002316.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0038713415002316

The Late Middle Ages were a time of flux for Scotland's borderland region, particularly in regards to a national identity. As made evident in medieval Scottish literature, a balance had to be struck between native and imperial identities, such as English and French, depending upon the politics at any given moment and the geographic placement of texts. Identities were shaped through literary styles, socio-economic interactions, and especially language. What is most interesting about Middle Scots is its qualifications as a language: it is very comparable to Middle English and yet enough variations in linguistic influences are present that it cannot be strictly qualified as "an English." This presentation aims to challenge the idea of Middle Scots as a dialect of English; identifying it as such would limit it to an imperial English framework. Rather, Middle Scots has enough linguistic variation to qualify as an independent language.

Season of birth (SOB) has been associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in two existing studies. One further study reported an interaction between SOB and genotypes of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene. It is important that these findings are further investigated to confirm or refute the findings. In this study, we investigated the SOB association with ADHD in four independent samples collected for molecular genetic studies of ADHD and found a small but significant increase in summer births compared to a large population control dataset. We also observed a significant association with the 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in exon three with probands born in the winter season, with no significant differential transmission of this allele between summer and winter seasons. Preferential transmission of the 2-repeat allele to ADHD probands occurred in those who were born during the summer season, but did not surpass significance for association, even though the difference in transmission between the two seasons was nominally significant. However, following adjustment for multiple testing of alleles none of the SOB effects remained significant. We conclude that the DRD4 7-repeat allele is associated with ADHD but there is no association or interaction with SOB for increased risk for ADHD. Our findings suggest that we can refute a possible effect of SOB for ADHD. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

This paper examines the treatment of leprosy in The Testament of Cresseid in the light of the exegetical context which informs the poem. While Edwin D. Craun is correct in stating that ‘no one who has written on the Testament has wholly ignored Cresseid’s blasphemous words’, most previous studies have concentrated on the association between her punishment for these sinful words, leprosy, and the sin of lechery. However, I intend to concentrate on the tradition which is synthesized in the contemporary nexus of associations between leprosy, heresy, and blasphemy, suggesting that Nicholas of Lyra’s interpretation of the disease as ‘slander’ provides an interesting analogue and possible source for the exegetical import which Henryson ascribes to it.
The association between lepra and luxuria is a recurrent theme in the medieval exegetical tradition and is found in a number of patristic sources. Leprosy was generally regarded as a punishment for sin, specifically sexual sin: ‘Lepra corporis, luxuriae imago’, as Adam Scotus of Prémontré puts it at the close of the twelfth century. R. I. Moore states that the ‘statutes of leper-houses contain many allegations of their promiscuous inclinations, and of the endeavours of those in authority to restrain them ... The regular prohibitions of the admission of lepers to brothels are the clearest statement of the belief that the disease was sexually transmitted, and since syphilis was one of the diseases that went under the name of lepra this conviction was, of course, well founded in fact.’ Indeed, at least one diagnostic study has been carried out on Creseid’s condition, suggesting that the poem provides a symptomatic delineation of venereal syphilis. Yet, in spite of critical assumptions to the contrary, the association between lepra and luxuria is hardly explicit in the Testament.
However, it would seem that Creseid’s leprosy is divine punishment for her blasphemous heterodoxy. Having being abandoned by Diomeid, ‘lustie Creisseid’ (69) was reputed by some to enter ‘the court, commoun’ (77). The charge carries an implicit association with sexual laxity and the suggestion of prostitution and may account for her ‘wraikfull sentence’ (329) of leprosy. Yet we must also note that previously, ‘Cresseid, hevie in hir intent, | Into the kirk wald not hir self present’ (116-17); she continues to rail against the gods and eventually falls into ‘ane extasie’ (141). Cupid’s discourse suggests that it was Cresseid’s blasphemy, as opposed to the taint of some previous lechery, which caused her leprosy: ‘With sclander and defame injurious: | Thus hir leving unclene and lecherous’ (284-5). The implication is that the generic condition of leprosy itself rather than her supposed past renders her lecherous, and, perhaps, a heretic. This seems to be Cresseid’s own belief: ‘My blaspheming now have I bocht full deir’ (354).
A scriptural precedent for the connection between blasphemy and leprosy is the figure of King Uzziah of Judah (2 Chronicles 26: 16-20), and Miriam was smitten with leprosy for opposing the authority of Moses (Numbers 12: 5-15), which was also interpreted as blasphemy. Throughout the middle ages popular heresiology associated the Jewish people with the emblematic disease of leprosy as well as the more traditional metaphoric condition of caecitas. During the middle ages the charge that the Jews were infected with the plaga leprae was extended to include Christian heretics. As Moore points out: ‘For all imaginative purposes heretics, Jews and lepers were interchangeable … they presented the same threat: through them the Devil was at work to subvert the Christian order and bring the world to chaos.’ Indeed, the Jewish tradition of biblical commentary was invoked by Nicholas of Lyra in support of this claim. Commenting on Leviticus 13: 46 and 14: 4, Rashi specifically states that leprosy ‘comes as a punishment for slander’. This aetiology is reflected in Nicolas’s highly influential interpretation of the disease as the mendacious doctrine of heretics in matters of faith and morals, which gained wide currency in the later middle ages, and may have been known to Henryson.

Franciscus Junius (1591-1677) is rightly renowned for his work on Old English, but few people know that he was also well at home in Middle English and Middle Scots literature. Based on his Oxford notebooks and marginal annotations in books from his private library now kept in both the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the Leiden University Library, I explore for what reasons and with what tools and method Junius read the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, as published in Thomas Speght's editions of 1598 (Bodleian) and 1602 (Leiden UL).

""In an important essay, Rolf H. Bremmer Jr. situates Junius’s study of Chaucer in the context of a long and robust scholarly career, concluding that “Junius, it would
seem, was as fully at home with Chaucer as he was, for example, with the Old
English poems contained in the Caedmon Manuscript.”" Megan L. Cook, _The Poet and the Antiquaries_ (Univ. Pennsylvania Press, 2019), 187

Season of birth (SOB) has been associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in two existing studies. One further study reported an interaction between SOB and genotypes of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene. It is important that these findings are further investigated to confirm or refute the findings. In this study, we investigated the SOB association with ADHD in four independent samples collected for molecular genetic studies of ADHD and found a small but significant increase in summer ...

Description and Date of MS:

This unique manuscript, in the Old Scots tongue, contains one of the largest redactions of the 'Life of and Martyrdom of St.Matthew'. There are a number of earlier manuscripts of his life from the 11th and 12th century written in the Old English or Latin, however most are much shorter accounts. The life is a first century account written contemporaneous to the events and personages who are named and appear therein.

Brief overview of account:

The account itself  draws out the apostolic sojourn of the Apostle and First Evangelist St. Matthew, who is the first gospel writer and first evangelist to leave the Asian continent (Asia Minor). The scene is set in Æthiopia in the royal and capital city of the time. A city which was located on expedition by the author in 2011 G.C. The focus of the text is to establish events that occurred in Æthiopia at the hand of the Apostle, including the conversion of the people and nobility, the establishment of the Æthiopian (Orthodox) Church, and finally the Martyrdom of the Apostle of Æthiopia himself.

Contents of book:

The Translator makes the first known translation of the Unique 14th century Old Scots text. He also edits the text and collates it, dividing the work into books, chapters &c. Explanatory, etymological and historical notes also accompany the text and translation. The original text appears on one page with the translation on the other. The volume also contains a full microfilm copy of the entire text in its manuscript form.       

This work is of the chiefest interest to the Old Scots language and literature, Early Judaeo-Christian and Apostolic history, Æthiopian studies and Geography and Archaeology, and ancient Ægyptian History and so on.

[ 'Life & Martyrdom of S. Matthew, the Apostle of Æthiopia: Translated, Edited & Collated from a significant Unique 14th Century Old Scots Manuscript in the Cambridge University Library, with explanatory and historical notes and exposition' Translated by Rev. Dn. Gabra 'AGZI'AABHIR JR (forthcoming)]

Season of birth (SOB) has been associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in two existing studies. One further study reported an interaction between SOB and genotypes of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene. It is important that these findings are further investigated to confirm or refute the findings. In this study, we investigated the SOB association with ADHD in four independent samples collected for molecular genetic studies of ADHD and found a small but significant increase in summer births compared to a large population control dataset. We also observed a significant association with the 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in exon three with probands born in the winter season, with no significant differential transmission of this allele between summer and winter seasons. Preferential transmission of the 2-repeat allele to ADHD probands occurred in those who were born during the summer season, but did not surpass significance for association, even though the difference in transmission between the two seasons was nominally significant. However, following adjustment for multiple testing of alleles none of the SOB effects remained significant. We conclude that the DRD4 7-repeat allele is associated with ADHD but there is no association or interaction with SOB for increased risk for ADHD. Our findings suggest that we can refute a possible effect of SOB for ADHD.