Current Issues in Medieval England

1. Introduction

The twelfth-century Poema Morale has been frequently regarded by scholars as a text that exerted a remarkable influence on medieval English religious literature.¹ This supposed influence is twofold. On one level it involves themes (such as the transience of worldly wealth and the visions of heaven and hell) that are often developed in twelfth- and thirteenth-century poetry. On another level, it is reflected by the metre employed in Middle English religious poems and lyrics, which sometimes combine the septenary (that is, the metre of Poema Morale) with other metres. In this essay, I shall attempt to show that at least one lyric (whose modern title is Penitence for Wasted Life) can be considered to be inspired by Poema Morale beyond doubt, because its contents and prosody are modelled ←15 | 16→after the twelfth-century poem. To do so, I shall first introduce Poema Morale and its manuscript tradition; I shall then re-assess the various correspondences between the poem and other texts of the period. Finally, I shall discuss the textual and metrical analogies between Poema Morale and Penitence for Wasted Life.

Poema Morale is the title commonly given to a religious poem from the late twelfth century. Also known as A Moral Ode or The Conduct of Life, the poem is a reflection of a wise old man on his life, on the twin themes of sins and redemption, as well as on the transience of earthly things. This verse meditation is reinforced by a vivid description of the torments of hell and the joys of heaven. Poema Morale survives in nine manuscripts:²

The versions of Poema Morale recorded in these manuscripts vary in length, spanning from the nearly 400 lines in MS Trinity College 335 to the two lines ←17 | 18→in MSS Cosin V.III.2, Royal 7 C iv, and Maidstone Museum A.13 – which may be better described as quotes rather than witnesses of the text. The tradition of the two-line quotes suggests that excerpts of the poem were used as proverbs of their own. The nine versions of Poema Morale also differ in variant readings and line order. These differences presumably account for the relative scarceness of critical editions and secondary literature on the poem. Lewin (1881) attempted at a critical edition based on the six manuscripts known at the time; Marcus (1934) published a critical text based on seven versions (including the two different witnesses in MS Egerton 613). However, Hill (1977: 100–101) considers Marcus’ edition to be unsatisfactory, calling it a “personal reconstruction of a text whose place and date of origin is not proved”. The main manuscript versions have also been printed separately. Morris included the Jesus College 29 version in his Old English Miscellany (Morris 1872: 58–71) and the versions from MSS Trinity College 335 and Lambeth Palace 487 in his editions of the Trinity Homilies (Morris 1873: 220–232) and the Lambeth Homilies (Morris 1867: 158–183), respectively. Hall (1920: 30–53, 312–354) prints the Trinity and Lambeth versions and offers detailed notes on the poem. Given that it represents a full copy of the poem, and one close to the archetype – as discussed by Hill (1977: 114–115) in what is perhaps the most complete study of the poem to date – I shall use the Trinity College 335 version of the poem as a base text for my discussion.¹⁰

3. Poema Morale and the Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Religious Poetry

The fact that versions of (or quotes from) Poema Morale are preserved in nine manuscripts is an obvious measure of its popularity amongst Middle English readers. This is hardly surprising, because the poem exhibits a combination of elements that must surely have appealed to a late twelfth-century audience: exhortations to the perfect Christian life, a vivid vision of Hell, and a concluding overview of the joys of eternal life, along with a fondness for words of wisdom and proverbial sayings, all of which are frequently found in other religious poems of the same period (Hill 1977: 116–126). The popularity of Poema Morale seems also proven by a number of analogues to the poem. Previous scholarship has noted the resemblance between Poema Morale and Le romaunz de temtacioun de secle, an early twelfth-century verse sermon (attributed to an Anglo-Norman ←18 | 19→author, Guischart de Bealiau), which is preserved in four manuscripts of English provenance.¹¹ The Romaunz and Poema Morale share a remarkable number of parallels, which have been included in a study by Gabrielson (1912) and in the notes to the edition of the early Middle English poem by Hall (1920: 329–354). That some sort of textual relationship between the two works exists seems to this author to be beyond reasonable doubt; the nature of this relationship is, however, far from certain. Gabrielson (1912: 311–312) argues that certain ideas point towards a shared background from the two authors, rather than direct influence; however, he also suggests that the poet of the Romaunz may have recalled verses from Poema Morale from memory.¹² Scholars such as Lewin (1881), Patterson (1911), Brown (1932), and Marcus (1934) have identified several occurrences of verses apparently drawn from Poema Morale amongst the corpus of early Middle English poetry. In particular, these occurrences are found in the following texts:

The main problem with assuming a direct influence of Poema Morale on these works (as well as on other lyrics) is that the poet of Poema Morale makes use of a variety of stock themes.¹⁷ Therefore, it is not easy to decide whether textual similarities indicate direct influence or rather point towards a similar treatment of the same theme. For example, this is the case of Poema Morale, v. 6: “Þan ibiðenche me þar on wel sore ime adrade” (when I think about it I become very afraid), which echoes the opening line of Doomsday – “wenne hi þenche on domes-dai ful sore I me adrede” (when I think about Doomsday I become very afraid) – (cf. Brown 1932: 188 and Marcus 1934: 6). The topos of ineffability developed in Poema Morale, vv. 289–290: “Nemai non herte hit þenche ne tunge hit ne mai telle | hwu muchele pine ne hwu fele senden in helle” (no heart can think nor tongue can tell how much pain and how many torments are in hell), recurs in Latemest Day, vv. 29–30 (cf. Brown 1932: 191 and Marcus 1934: 9) and Sinners, Beware!, vv. 38–41 (cf. Marcus 1934: 9). These latter two poems deserve particular attention. Latemest Day is a poem in mono-rhyme quatrains that can be divided in two parts: the first part is based on the theme of the “Address of the Soul to the Body” – a staple of Old and early Middle English religious literature – and borrows motifs and specific lines from the Soul’s Address to the Body in MS Worcester Cathedral F.174; the second part of the poem is a description of hell that seems to have been inspired by the analogous passage in Poema Morale, vv. 220–290.¹⁸ Similarly, the poet of Sinners, Beware! may well have had at hand a variety of penitential lyrics to draw inspiration from (as shown by the passage related to the theme of the “Soul’s Address to the Body” at vv. 331–336), so that resemblances between Poema Morale and Sinners, Beware! probably ←20 | 21→result from analogous treatments of the same stock themes.¹⁹ Parallels between Poema Morale on the one hand and Doomsday²⁰ and The Passion of Our Lord²¹ on the other are not conclusive enough to prove a direct textual relationship. With regard to This World’s Bliss Will Not Last, Brown (1932: 201) has noted that “one hardly expects a direct literary source for a poem on such an oft-handled theme as the transitoriness of worldly joy, but it is interesting to note a few lines which seem to be distinct echoes of the twelfth-century Poema Morale” (cf. also Marcus 1934: 7). I find two of the parallels noted by Brown particularly convincing: This World’s Bliss, vv. 51–52, “Scal no gud ben unforiolden, | ne no qued ne wrth unbout” (No good will be uncompensated nor wickedness will be unrewarded) echoes Poema Morale, v. 59, “Ne sal þar non euel ben unboht ne god unforȝolden” (No evil will be unrewarded nor good uncompensated); even more striking is the correspondence between Poema Morale, vv. 319–320, “We wilnieð after wereldes wele þe longe ne mai ilaste | 7 legeð mast al ure swinc on þing unstedefaste” (we seek for the world’s wealth, that may not last long, and devote most of our work to transitory things), and This World’s Bliss, vv. 31–34:

Man, wi sestu þout and herte

o werldes blis þat nout ne last?

Wi þolstu þat þe softe ismerte

for þing þat is unstedefast? (Brown 1932: 79)

‘O man, why do you set your thought and heart on worldly bliss that won’t last? Why do you endure to suffer so often for a thing that is transitory?’

The treatment of the theme of the transience of worldly goods – framed by the rhyme last/unstedefast – suggests that the poet of This World’s Bliss may have had Poema Morale in a corner of his mind; by contrast, some differences in wording (“wereldes wele” / “werldes blis”; the “softe ismerte” passage) seem to exclude direct quotation but rather indicate – as in the case of the Romaunz – that these verses are the product of a poet who recalled verses of Poema Morale from memory.←21 | 22→