The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 71 (“In Te Domini Spe- ravi,” “On thee my trust is grounded”) MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE ( ...

peace, these enemies respond by being quick to arm themselves for war. Psalm 120 is a tightly crafted exercise in metrical preci ...

traveling throughout the Continent (1572–75). The journey left ineffable impressions on him. For instance, he witnessed the Mass ...

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT ANONYMOUS (14th century) Part of the 14th centu- ry’s ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL, Sir Gawain and the G ...

Gawain rises and (fi nally) prepares for his journey. Unlike the Green Knight, Gawain is clothed primarily in gold and dons full ...

does. The grisly butchering scene is described in detail, with particular emphasis placed on splitting the deer. The day ends wi ...

offering to keep the secret for him. Gawain faces this fi nal temptation successfully, however, and continues towards the chapel ...

arrival of the gifts at Launfal’s lodging, and the account of the disappearance of Gyfre and Blaunchard. Other episodes may have ...

through grief and chagrin at having broken his prom- ise. Arthur’s knights catch up with him and he is bound and brought to the ...

of the Bretons, as the delivery of this tale is framed with a suggestive reference to the lai’s original oral perfor- mance, acc ...

The narrator opens Sir Orfeo with an extended dis- cussion of the tale’s genre, describing the poem as a Breton lai—one of a ser ...

tion. Wood is used to make the gallows. The weed, or hemp, is used to make the noose. The wag, Raleigh states, is his son “my pr ...

FURTHER READING Edwards, Anthony S. G., ed. Skelton, the Critical Heritage. London and Boston: Routledge/Kegan Paul Press, 1981. ...

Starting with the volta in stanza 9, the poem takes a more personal turn from describing diurnal chivalric activities in a styli ...

include antithesis, CONCEITs, and the BLAZON. Many sonnets also employ the use of a persona—an assumed identity not necessarily ...

SONNET (also known as the Shakespearean or Elizabe- than sonnet) or the SPENSERIAN SONNET. The term Ital- ian, or Petrarchan, so ...

EARL OF SURREY’s other lyric poetry, was published post- humously in 1547 in TOTTEL’S MISCELLANY, thus making it impossible to d ...

which Saint Peter laments betraying Christ. Critics have noted that WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s later poem The RAPE OF LUCRECE (1593–9 ...

Pembroke College, Cambridge University, as a sizar, a student who earns his tuition by acting as a servant to wealthy students. ...

its values, particularly “WHO LIST HIS WEALTH AND EASE RETAIN,” and the epistolary SATIREs including “MINE OWN JOHN POINS.” See ...