Kildare Poems

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
The Kildare Poems are found in a manuscript that was produced around 1330.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a> It is a small parchment book, measuring only 14 cm × 9.5 cm (5.5 in × 3.7 in), and may have been produced as "a travelling preacher’s 'pocket-book'"<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> The authors or compilers were probably <a href="/facts/Franciscan/gwohhd4C">Franciscan</a> friars. Scholars have debated whether the poems' likely place of origin is <a href="/facts/Kildare/08CpfYyg">Kildare</a> in eastern Ireland or <a href="/facts/Waterford/S2b3G4Ah">Waterford</a> in the south.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> The case for Kildare is based mostly on the reference to the authorship of "Michael of Kildare", and a reference to one "Piers of Birmingham", who is known to have lived in Kildare and who was buried in the Franciscan church in Kildare. The case for Waterford is based, among other things, on a reference to "yung men of Waterford" in one (now lost) part of the manuscript, as well as on certain dialectal features.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a> It has also been surmised that a core of the work was produced in Kildare and then copied and expanded with further material in Waterford.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a>
The manuscript was in the possession of George Wyse (<a href="/facts/Mayor_of_Waterford/1IYvctQA">Mayor of Waterford</a> in 1571) during the 16th century. In 1608, the manuscript was noted by the antiquarian <a href="/facts/James_Ware_(historian)/pVvqpJrX">Sir James Ware</a>, who described it as "a smale olde booke in parchment called the booke of Rose or of Waterford". Ware made several excerpts from the book, including the "Yung men of Waterford" poem that is no longer found in Harley 913 today. Ware's manuscript copy has been preserved as Ms. Landsdowne 418 in the British Library.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> Later, the original book came into the possession of <a href="/facts/Robert_Harley,_1st_Earl_of_Oxford_and_Earl_Mortimer/kQWkfIho">Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer</a>, whose library was acquired by the <a href="/facts/British_Museum/mq5LadWV">British Museum</a> in 1754.
A first modern printed edition of the text was published by <a href="/facts/Thomas_Wright_(antiquarian)/rYMBFsuc">Thomas Wright</a> in Reliquiae Antiquae I in 1841. A standard philological edition of the text is that by Wilhelm Heuser (1904);<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a> a more recent edition was offered by Angela Lucas in 1995.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a>

<h2 id="contents">Contents</h2>
The religious and satirical contents of the Kildare poems are thought to display ideas characteristic of <a href="/facts/Franciscan/gwohhd4C">Franciscan</a> concerns, including a concern for the poor and a dislike of older, established monastic orders.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a> The Kildare poems comprise the following items:

<ul><li>The Land of Cokaygne: a satirical piece about a corrupt community of monks, who lead a life of fantastic luxury and dissipation in the mythical land of <a href="/facts/Cockaigne/aN2gGmY9">Cockaigne</a>. This satire may be directed against the <a href="/facts/Cistercian/dQPQRWTg">Cistercian</a> abbey at <a href="/facts/Inislounaght_Abbey/Ytl46Slr">Inislounaght</a>, near Waterford.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a></li>
<li>Five hateful things: a short, seven-line poem expressing a <a href="/facts/Gnomic_poetry/Hgdkh71p">gnomic saying</a> about human vices</li>
<li>Satire ("Hail, Seint Michel"): a satirical piece about human vices, in twenty short stanzas, each in the form of an incantation to a different saint</li>
<li>Song of Michael of Kildare: a religious poem, considered the most ambitious literary work among this group of poems,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18">18</a> and the only one that names its author ("Frere Michel Kyldare", who also describes himself as a "frere menour", i.e. a <a href="/facts/Minorite/gwohhd4C">minorite</a>).</li>
<li>Sarmun ("sermon"), <a href="/facts/Fifteen_Signs_before_Judgment/96pNKqSl">Fifteen Signs before Judgment</a>, Fall and Passion, Ten Commandments: four religious verse sermons, in rhymed <a href="/facts/Quatrains/DymmGBhr">quatrains</a></li>
<li>Christ on the Cross: a religious poem in irregular rhymed long lines</li>
<li>Lollai, Lollai, litil child: a religious poem in the form of a <a href="/facts/Lullaby/PL5fapy6">lullaby</a> song directed to a child</li>
<li>Song of the Times: a satirical poem criticizing political and social disorder, containing a moral animal <a href="/facts/Fable/VjXy4Ygg">fable</a>.</li>
<li>Seven Sins: a religious poem in six-line stanzas</li>
<li>Piers of Bermingham: an obituary of an English knight, Sir Piers of Birmingham (of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_U%C3%AD_Failghe/TSeqWGbo">Tethmoy</a>, the region around <a href="/facts/Edenderry/ICczbGM7">Edenderry</a>)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19">19</a>), who is praised for his military exploits against the Irish and whose death is dated to 13 April 1308.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20">20</a></li>
<li>Elde, a poem about the problems of old age</li>
<li>Repentance of Love, a brief poem of three quatrains expressing a lover's complaint</li>
<li>Nego, a moral poem about denial, symbolized by the Latin word negō ('I deny/reject/refuse')</li>
<li>Erth a moral poem about earth, in two parallel versions in English and Latin</li></ul>
<h2 id="linguistic-features">Linguistic features</h2>
The Kildare Poems show many linguistic features common to the Middle English dialects of the west and south-west of England, from which most English-speaking settlers in medieval Ireland had come, but they also display a number of unique features that point towards an independent development of English dialects in Ireland, either because of levelling between different source dialects of English, or because of the influence of <a href="/facts/Irish_language/Kw97s2l4">Irish</a>. Among the conspicuous features are:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21">21</a>

<ul><li>Occasional replacement of th (þ) with t (e.g. growit for growiþ). This may reflect <a href="/facts/Fortition/QJyYo59U">fortition</a> of /θ/ to a <a href="/facts/Dental_stop/eGuruaoj">dental stop</a>, as found in some later forms of Irish English.</li>
<li>Voicing of initial /f/ to /v/ (as in southern Middle English: uadir for father, uoxe for fox), while older /v/ is rendered as <w> (representing [w] or [β], wysage for visage)</li>
<li>Loss of nasals before <a href="/facts/Coronal_stop/VdEU4LgE">coronal stops</a>: fowden for founden, powde for pound</li>
<li><a href="/facts/H-dropping/lRwyaQzG">h-dropping</a> in words like is for his, abbiþ for habbiþ</li>
<li>raising of short /e/ to /i/ in unstressed final syllables</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Metathesis_(linguistics)/qPNPuQW1">metathesis</a> in words like fryst < first, gradener < gardener, possibly related to similar phenomena in Irish</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Epenthesis/DEJE6nKS">epenthesis</a> of <e> in consonant clusters in some words like Auerill < April, uerisse < freshe, also possibly related to similar phenomena in Irish and in later forms of Irish English</li></ul>
<h2 id="text-sample">Text sample</h2>
The following is a passage from the Land of Cokaygne, describing the conduct of monks and nuns:

<table><tbody><tr><th>Middle English text<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22">22</a></th><th>Modern English translation</th></tr><tr><td>An-other abbei is ther-bi,For-soth a gret fair nunnerie,Vp a riuer of swet milke,Whar is plente gret of silk.Whan the somer is dai is hote,The yung nunnes takith a boteAnd doth ham forth in that riuer,Both with oris and with stere.Whan hi beth fur fram the abbei,Hi makith ham nakid forto plai,And lepith dune in-to the brimmeAnd doth ham sleilich forto swimme.The yung monketh that hi seeth,Hi doth ham vp and forth hi fleethAnd commith to the nunnes anon,And euch monke him taketh onAnd snellich berith forth har preiTo the mochil grei abbei,And techith the nunnes an oreisunWith iambleue vp and dun.The monke that wol be stalun godeAnd kan set a-right is hode,He schal hab, with-oute danger,Twelve wiues euche yere,</td><td>There is another abbey nearby,a great nunnery in fact,up a river of sweet milk,where there is great plenty of silk.When the summer's day is hot,the young nuns take a boat,and go forth on that riverrowing with oars and steering.When they are far from the abbey,they undress to play,and jump into the waterand swim secretly.The young monks who see themget ready and start outand come to the nuns immediately,and each monk takes one for himselfand carries his prey away quicklyto the great grey abbey,and teaches the nuns a prayerwith their legs up and down in the airThe monk that can be a good stallionand knows where to put his hoodhe can easily havetwelve wives each year.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

<a href="/facts/Wikisource/TrMdylNf">Wikisource</a> has original text related to this article:
The Land of Cokaygne

<ul><li>Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT): <a href="http://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300000-001/">Online text</a> of the Kildare Poems, based on the edition of Lucas (1995). Cork: University College.</li>
<li>Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse: <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=toc;idno=AJT2514.0001.001">Online text</a> of the Kildare Poems, based on the edition of Heuser (1904). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.</li>
<li>Wessex Parallel Web Texts: <a href="http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/cockaygn/cocms.htm">The Land of Cockaigne</a>, with modern English translation and image of the manuscript</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Wight, C. "Details of an item from the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts". www.bl.uk. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=18695" target="_blank">https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=18695</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Hickey, Raymond (2007). Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 54–66. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Heuser, Wilhelm (1904). Die Kildare-Gedichte: die ältesten mittelenglischen Denkmäler in anglo-irischer Überlieferung. Bonn: Hanstein. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Lucas, Angela (1995). Anglo-Irish Poems of the Middle Ages. Dublin: Columba. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Dolan, Terence. "Kildare poems". The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html" target="_blank">http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Lucas, Angela. "British Library Manuscript Harley 913". Medieval Ireland: an Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/" target="_blank">http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Benskin, Michael (1989). "The style and authorship of the Kildare Poems". In Mackenzie, J. L.; Todd, R. (eds.). In Other Words: Transcultural Studies in Philology, Translation and Lexicology. Dordrecht: Foris. pp. 57–75. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">McIntosh, Angus; Samuels, Michael (1968). "Prolegomena to a study of medieval Anglo-Irish". Medium Ævum. 37 (1): 1–11. doi:10.2307/43627392. JSTOR 43627392. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Hickey, Raymond (2007). Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 54–66. <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Dolan, Terence. "Kildare poems". The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html" target="_blank">http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Lucas, Angela. "British Library Manuscript Harley 913". Medieval Ireland: an Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/" target="_blank">http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Lucas, Angela. "British Library Manuscript Harley 913". Medieval Ireland: an Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/" target="_blank">http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/british-library-manuscript-harley-tf/</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Heuser 1904, p. 11. <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Heuser, Wilhelm (1904). Die Kildare-Gedichte: die ältesten mittelenglischen Denkmäler in anglo-irischer Überlieferung. Bonn: Hanstein. <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">Lucas, Angela (1995). Anglo-Irish Poems of the Middle Ages. Dublin: Columba. <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">Dolan, Terence. "Kildare poems". The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html" target="_blank">http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">Dolan, Terence. "Kildare poems". The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Retrieved 2 July 2010. <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html" target="_blank">http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O245-KildarePoems.html</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:18">Heuser, Wilhelm (1904). Die Kildare-Gedichte: die ältesten mittelenglischen Denkmäler in anglo-irischer Überlieferung. Bonn: Hanstein. <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:19">"Treachery at de Bermingham's banquet, brought to you by the Oracleireland.com group of sites". Archived from the original on 11 June 2011.
 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110611035423/http://oracleireland.com/Ireland/chronology/berminghan.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110611035423/http://oracleireland.com/Ireland/chronology/berminghan.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:20">Fitzmaurice, E.B.; Little; A.G. (1920). Materials for the History of the Franciscan Province of Ireland, AD 1230–1450. Manchester: University Press. pp. 88–89. <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:21">Hickey, Raymond (2007). Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 54–66. <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:22">Lucas, Angela (1995). Anglo-Irish Poems of the Middle Ages. Dublin: Columba. <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Kildare Poems open-in-new

Kildare Poems