My poore hert bicomen is hermyte
November 24, 2016 3:17 AM   Subscribe

 
I thoroughly enjoyed the little poem in the first link and the Middle English selections: many thanks Wobbuffet - I don’t recall even having heard of this poet before. It’s such flavoursome language: I love welwilleris for well-wishers; and pusshaunce (i.e. puissance?) for power; and mi bestbilovyd and praty word of yowre benygne bounté and the dowbill turnys of thi juparty, etc.!
posted by misteraitch at 4:39 AM on November 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Charles d'Orléans is pretty well-known in France. French kids get a much more thorough background of their language in their formative years than we do in the States (can't speak for other English-speaking countries though they seem similar). Middle English was only introduced in my own education – with a level of depth beyond mere curiosity and a historic nod, that is – once I was taking a grad-level comparative literature course in which we were studying the picaresque and its predecessors. I'd already studied French for 9 years by then, so read through the short book in Middle English we were assigned (sorry I don't know which one!) with delight. In class the day we were to discuss it, all the grad students looked sheepish until the prof finally broke the silence: "did anyone read it?" I answered, "yes! It's wonderful!" at which all the other students said variations on "oh my god why did you do that now we all look bad oh my god what is this weird thing" and I was like, "it's a mashup of English and French!"
O thou Fortune, that causist pepill playne
Upon thi chaunge and mutabilité,
Did Y thee so, Y blamyd wrong, certayne,
For stabill yet herto as fynde Y thee
Withouten chaunge for to prevaylen me,
But whereas first thou fond me in symplesse,
Thou holdist me in myn adversité
So that Y may biwayle thi stabilnes.
Mutabilité is still a word, simplesse as well (though not often on its own; it's generally used as "simple d'esprit" which translates to our "simple-mindedness", also the meaning meant in the poem), and adversité is also still around and used quite often.
posted by fraula at 5:01 AM on November 24, 2016 [10 favorites]


I somehow missed studying the poem "Le temps a laissé son manteau" when I was in school, but I had to learn by rote his other best-known poem, "En regardant vers le pays de France" about longing for home and for peace. It was 25 years ago, and I still remember large swathes of it. I didn't know he had written in English, though, that's delightful!
posted by snakeling at 12:55 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


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