Mediaeval Poetry in Praise of the Blessed Virgin (Part Three)

Photograph by Lumiere Volunteer Britain, used with gracious permission

Although it was only in 1258 that King Henry III marked the emergence of English as an official language, Davies (1978:45-46) dates his collection of mediaeval lyrics from the mid-twelfth to the mid-sixteenth century; from the earliest known lyric composed after the Norman Conquest until the poetry of Wyatt, who died in 1542.
According to Davies, that very first lyric was in fact a Marian hymn, A Cry to Mary, which would fall into Woolf's category of poems praising the Virgin and imploring her mercy, written by St Godric (d 1170), a pilgrim and pedlar who became a hermit, at Finchdale near Durham.

Just as mediaeval poetry contains many words dating back to the arrival of the Saxon invaders, as indeed does modern English, so the influx of the Norman-French aristocracy following the Norman Conquest introduced Romance words into English, particularly for abstract intellectual concepts. As a result of the influence of French and of liturgical Latin, the English language became a richer source for expression of emotion in lyrical poetry, leaving largely words describing basic actions and emotions such as eating, sleeping, singing, swimming, standing, sitting, laughing, weeping and fighting to retain their Germanic strain.
In South Africa, where English and Afrikaans with its Dutch roots are two of the official languages, it is interesting to note how many links Old and Middle English share with Old Dutch, Middel-Nederlands, even modern Dutch, and indeed with Afrikaans. For this reason, some of the more conspicuous similarities in words and in a few cases in syntax will be indicated with their translations in Dutch and modern English.

There is a rather individual example of a pun on the name of St Godric in A Cry to Mary which refers to Godes Riche, God's kingdom or heaven, where Godric wants to go.

A CRY TO MARY

Sainte Marye Virgine                                    holy Virgin Mary
Moder Jesu Christes Nazarene                    mother
Onfo, schild, help thin Godric                        receive; protect; thy
Onfang, bring heyilich with thee                    receive; on high
       in Godes Riche.                                       God's Kingdom

Sainte Marye, Christes bur                           bower/chamber
Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur                   virgin of virgins; flower of motherhood
Dilie min sinne, rix in min mod                       blot out my sin; reign in my heart
Bring me to winne with the self                      to bliss with the same
       God.

For those with a knowledge of Dutch, two words in this translation are open to question, viz heyilich (4) and to winne (8), translated by Davies (1978:51) as "on high" and "to bliss" respectively, whereas it would not harm the sense of the poem if these words were translated as "holy" (Dutch; heilig) and "to be victorious" [Dutch; te winnen], in which case the translations would read: "bring him, sanctified, with thee into God's kingdom" and "bring me to be victorious over sin with the same God" respectively.

The fluid tones of St Godfric's lyric bear witness to the words of Rhys (1913:35), who wrote:

   The Latin irruption through the church door did not wholly
   drive away the old Saxon verse idiom. The Norman-French did
   not break the stubborn fibre of the old tongue. But both
   helped to supple it, and make it more pliant, more
   responsive to the lyric note.                 (1913:35)

This assertion is supported in the Godric lyric by the word flur (6) [flower] for the French fleur in the lyric which softens the Anglo-Saxon moderes (7) [motherhood's] which precedes it. The influence of the Latin delere [to destroy, do away with, strike out, erase, expunge] (Little 1968;474) may be seen in dilie min sinne (7), which Davies translates as: "blot out my sin".

The liturgical Latin heritage moreover gave rise to a number of mixed English and Latin poems called macaronic verse. A famous example, called by some A hymn to Mary follows:

A HYMN TO MARY

Of on that is so fair and bright             one
Velud maris stella                                 like the sea star
Brighter than the dayes light
Parens and puella                                  parent and girl
Ic crye to thee-thou se to me                I; look
Levedy, preye thy sone for me             Lady; pray
Tam pia                                                  so devoted
That ic mote come to thee                     may
Maria

Levedy, flowr of alle thing           10     flower of all
Rosa sine spina                                     rose without thorn
Thu bere Jesu, Hevene king                thou didst bear
Gratia divina                                         by divine grace
Of alle thu berst the pris                      you are best of all
Levedy, Quene of Parais                     queen of para(d) is (e)
Electa                                                    chosen
Maide milde, moder es                         gentle virgin is mother
Effecta                                                   (it has been) proven

All this world was forlore                      (lost)
Eva peccatrice                              20     by Eve the sinner
Till our Lord was ibore                          born
De te genitrice                                       of thee, mother
With 'Ave' it went away
Thuster night, and cometh the day       dark
Salutis                                                    of salvation
The welle springeth ut of thee              forth from
Virtutis                                                   of virtue

Wel he wot he is thy sone                      knows
Ventre quem portasti                             you carried in your womb
He will nought werne thee thy      30     not deny
        bone                                                request
Parvum quem lactasti                            the little one you fed
So hende and so god he is                     gracious; good
he haveth brought ous to blis                us
Superni                                                   of heaven
That have idut the foule put                  shut; pit
Inferni                                                     of hell

Of care, conseil thou ert best                in need; counsellor
Felix fecundata                                      fortunate and fruitful
Of all wery thou ert rest                        comfort of all the weary
Mater honorata                           40      honoured mother
Besek him with milde mod                    beseech; gracious heart
That for ous alle sad his blod                shed
In cruce                                                  on the cross
That we moten comen till him               may; to
In luce                                                     in the light

The repetition of Latin interjections gives this hymn, which may have been written partly as a cerebral exercise by clerics or by scholars with a devotion to the Blessed Virgin, a lightness of touch, while it nevertheless serves to bring the message home. It would have been no mean feat for any person not fully familiar with both languages to achieve the combination of child-like devotion and linguistic scholarship indicated by the reverberating rhyme pattern in two languages. If the macaronic poem does not represent a poet's desire to air his knowledge of epithet and other Latin constructions, the combination of English with Latin might be an attempt to elevate the poem to a higher form of praise by using a grander vocabulary. In doing so, the poet may have endeavoured to show the orthodoxy of the mediaeval religious faith, while simultaneously expressing a profound message of tenderness for the mother of God, rendering the reader vulnerable to the emotion so liberally incorporated in this poem.

There is an interesting contrast in the conclusions to the third and fourth verses; the poet first describes Jesus as a well from which all goodness comes forth, and follows it up by slating hell as a foul pit. Both well and pit are based in the earth; but whereas the well brings forth the water of life, the pit contains the remnants of death. Christ coming forth from Mary's womb brings life to the soul; the devil in hell seeks its demise.

Dr Luky Whittle