Singing from the Book: an Analysis Of The Middle English and Latin Lullaby Lyrics in Harley 913
Abstract
The text of the Middle English (ME) lyric "Lollai, lollai, whi wepistou so sore," is a compelling lullaby sung by a mother soothing a crying child, while at the same time she acknowledges that weeping is appropriate as the baby's life will be full of suffering. Long considered the great-grandmother of the ME Christ child lullaby tradition, the lyric exists in Harley MS 913, a fourteenth-century Franciscan friar's portable vademecum book. Since a shorter version of the lullaby appears in Latin within the same manuscript, particular attention is given in this thesis to the relationship between the two by analyzing the codicological evidence in the manuscript as well as the punctuation, paleography, meter, word choices and antecedents of the two texts.
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- OSU Theses [15752]