Medieval Verse (4) Praise Crown Restored . . . Raise Voice in Song . . .

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 

to The Index to Middle English Verse; and within 

the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                     In Truth May All Our 
                                                         Prayers Exalt the Tongue
                     Loud to Condemn the 
                                                         Wrongs by Falsehoods Shriven.
                     Praise Crown Restored 
                                                         in Faith Raise Voice in Song
                     Not Death Besought but 
                                                         Souls their Harvests Thriven.

This verse, perhaps the final jottings on these wax tablets
to be deciphered (since the succeeding tabulae in the
series are seemingly irredeemably welded together),
 is thought to celebrate the seizure of power by Edward III,
aged seventeen, in the coup d'état against Roger Mortimer,
the de facto Regent of England; so a ‘restoration’ of the 
true king would have been strong in the mind of  the writer,
possibly a mendicant preacher. This series of verses (1307
to 1330?), therefore, spans the reign of Edward II and the
early years of his heir, the boy King Edward III. 
It’s clear the tablet-scriber was alert to the unfolding drama
within the unruly House of Plantagenet and aware, too, of the
monarchical intrigues of his turbulent times, so it’s 
frustrating that his later shrewd observations are hidden
from us. The fact that the travelling-pouch of tablets lay
concealed in a secret cache for over six hundred years surely
evidences the caution the writer must have observed
in safeguarding his indiscreet clerical broadsides. 

The figuration of the growth of the Soul as a spiritual
harvest to be reaped by Righteousness may be
found in 2 Corinthians 9:10. 

For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see

Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html

The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/01/medieval-verse-2-hart-there-was.html

Verse 3 (possibly 1325-1330) records the Fall of Edward II with the defeat of Queen Isabella – the She-Wolf of France – together with her lover, Roger Mortimer:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-3-when-lief-churl.html

The Cambridgeshire Hoard

Provisional details of the 14th Century Cambridgeshire Hoard will be announced by Eisner following completion of the first phase of studies.

I realised only yesterday, following the uncovering of a childhood cache of my drawings, that I must have been – even in my early teens – fascinated by 14th Century clerical thought and practice. This pastiche of a medieval woodcut – a pilgrim – I printed at home when I was fourteen.

Medieval Verse (3) When lief a Churl

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 

to The Index to Middle English Verse; and within 

the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                    When lief a Churl   

                                                 Our Chateleine enthrones 

                    To Woe a Mort ere  

                                                 More Her Dower* guerdones   

                    For Domayne Reft  

                                                 the Wolf-Dam nere atones 

                    Til Lord of Hosts 

                                                 fain All of Heaven summons

Above: 1326,
Queen Isabella, ‘She-Wolf’ of France, consort of Edward
II, and her lover Roger Mortimer raise an insurgent
mercenary army to rule England as de facto regents.

Beneath the overt meaning of this verse it’s tempting to

read a dangerously libellous covert broadside whose

intention, if correctly interpreted, places its composition

at some point between 1325 and 1330.

Overt meaning: ‘When willingly Our Lady Regnant

raises a Ruffian to High Office/a great deal [mort] of

her Dowery, before an even greater amount, is gifted to

Sorrow/since the She-Wolf never atones for Plundering

the Realm/until the Kingdom of Heaven is obliged by evil

deeds on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.’

Covert meaning: ‘When willingly Queen Isabella raises

an Upstart [Mort-i-more] to the Throne of England/

a great deal [mort] of England’s Treasury, before an even

greater amount, is gifted to England’s Bankruptcy/

because the She-Wolf of France never atones for

plundering the English Realm/until the Kingdom

of Heaven is obliged by the Lovers’ evil deeds

on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.

Above: 1308,
Princess Isabella, twelve years old, daughter
of King Phillip IV of France, marries the new
king of England, Edward II, aged 24.

*Anglia dos Mariae. (England, Mary's dowry.)
On reflection, when probing deeper into the connotations of this verse, I believe the words are an anti-royalist Mariolatrous invocation protesting the despoiling of England by the French She-Wolf’s predations on the King’s treasury. The words possibly seek to quicken in the reader (assuming there existed a trusting confidant in the 14th Century privy to read them) an affirmation of a religiose national idolatry. The denunciatory character of the verses are all the more heretical since they point up the extreme comparison to be found in Queen Isabella’s ‘Dowry-by-Plunder' when contrasted with the metonym for England that is Our Lady’s Dowry (or Dowry of the Virgin and similar variations). This metonym had become widespread by the middle of the fourteenth century for at that time it is stated, ‘It is commonly said that the land of England is the Virgin’s dowry.’  The Virgin Mary was regarded, therefore, as England’s Protectress who, through her power of intercession, acted as the country’s defender or guardian. The iambic scansion of these lines suggest that 'dower’ was pronounced with a diphthong.



For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see

Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html
The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/01/medieval-verse-2-hart-there-was.html
The Fourth verse, which ends the series (the succeeding wax tablets are irredeemably welded together) see:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-4-praise-crown-restored.html

Medieval Verse (2): A Hart there was...

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number sealed in a carrying-pouch,
is in the personal possession of Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the 

orthographical variants, with reference to The Middle English Dictionary

and to The Index to Middle English Verse;

and within the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                       A Hart there was, 

                                                    a Hart so grievous hurt,

                       A Cry there was, 

                                                    a Cry of Hounds astart,

                       A Death there was,

                                                    a Death of Beauty caught,

                       A King there was,

                                                    a King most desolate.

This verse appears to be a hazardous essay into lese-majesty,
almost certainly written in 1312 or shortly after, for in that year
the King’s Favourite, Piers Gaveston, described as ‘the Minion of
a hateful King’ was hunted down and executed by a group of nobles
led by the Earls of Lancaster and Warwick, who had long sought by
any means to eliminate the influence – considered meddlesome and
scandalously improper – the upstart Piers exercised over Edward II.

For a transcription of the First of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html
For the Third transcribed verse, believed to be in chronological order, see:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-3-when-lief-churl.html
The Fourth verse, which ends the series (the succeeding wax tablets are irredeemably welded together) see:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-4-praise-crown-restored.html

Lord Lucan: A Case of Long Overdue Lexicological Redundancies?

So the case of the fugitive earl is closed. Now, this week in a London court, ‘Lucky’ Lord Lucan, missing since 1974, is declared officially presumed dead so his son can inherit the earldom and claim the title of 8th Earl to appear on the Roll of the Peerage. 

This follows an ‘interregnum’ of the title for more than four decades, during which the fleeing nobleman was sought by Interpol as a suspect in the bludgeoning to death of the family’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, aged twenty-nine; a crime committed in mistaken belief (it is claimed but not proven) that the unfortunate victim was his estranged wife, the countess, his intended prey with whom he was embroiled in a bitter custody battle for their children.

Following the peer’s craven flight from the scene, having brutally assaulted Lady Lucan after the confused killing of Sandra in the darkened basement of their Belgravia home, the Detective Chief Superintendent investigating the case initially believed that Lucan had ‘done the honourable thing’ and committed suicide.

And the answer to the whereabouts of the missing peer? 

The aristocrat’s wife, Lady Lucan, believes her husband killed himself ‘like the nobleman he was’. 

It is known Lucan’s gambling set – and wealthy society friends of breeding – closed ranks and covered the peer’s tracks in a deliberate campaign of obfuscation compounded by the peerage and the gentry.

Diminishment of Meaning: Altisonant Terms

Which brings me to considerations of my own as to whether the debased coinage of the realm still has currency. Namely, in the context of the Lucan Affair, do not such outworn altisonant terms as Aristocrat, Breeding, Chivalry, Gentry, Honourable, Lord, Noble, etc. demand to be devalued by informed scholars in sociolinguistics when reassessed  for lexicological compilation.

To assist their studies, may I propose a neat, simple typographical device to alert the reader to an archaism so they may skip redundancies of signification in the text . . . it is a new system of downgrading certain meanings whose diminishment is as blindingly obvious as my choice of examples cited hereinabove:

aristocrat : a member of the patrician class of a social order born to rule.

breeding : the good manners regarded as characteristic of the aristocracy and conferred by heredity.

chivalry : the composite qualities that characterise an ideal knight, namely courage, honour, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak.

gentleman : an amateur cracksman found culpable of GBH with malice aforethought. GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) is one of the post-nominal titles of a gentleman.

gentry : the establishment elite, the county set, the privileged classes.

honour : the quality of knowing and doing what is morally right.

lord : a feudal superior.

noble : possessing or demonstrating edifying personal qualities or high moral principles.

Admittedly such a system has its drawbacks. I recognise there is a danger, when cross-referencing terms in the texts (see examples shown), that progressive citations could lead to a type size so infinitesimally small that some words would vanish altogether. But hang on! Isn’t that the essence of the scheme!

PS: For more of the low-down on altisonant rats, see Sussex Exodus of Altisonant Rats. . .

http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/sussex-exodus-of-altisonant-frogs.html

Missing from this melange of newsprint is
the Morning Star, which long ago solved the problem
of compounding for all time its withering contempt 
for Nazism. You will search in vain for a Nazi;
in its Style Book it is always ‘nazi’.