shorter sonnet sequences that served as introductions
to longer sequences, or even to prose works.
“CORPUS CHRISTI CAROL” ANONYMOUS
(before 1504) The “Corpus Christi Carol” was found
in a MANUSCRIPT that dates to 1504, but it was likely
composed earlier. The short narrative describes a bed
hung with gold raiment situated within a hall draped in
purple. A knight is lying on the bed, bleeding from
numerous wounds. A maiden kneels next to him, weep-
ing. Beside her is a stone marker on which the words
Corpus Christi (“body of Christ”) are inscribed.
A CAROL denotes a poem intended for singing and
dancing, though critics continue to debate whether the
carol is liturgical or secular in origin. The BURDEN,
which is repeated after each STANZA, was danced by a
group, while the verses were sung and danced by a
leader. In the unique case of the “Corpus Christi Carol,”
the burden begins the poem. Because of its two-line
stanza, this carol has also been associated with the folk
song and ballad traditions.
Scholars have noted the artfulness of this carol’s form,
discussing the REFRAIN, rhythm, ALLITERATION, ANAPHORA,
CAESURA, and alternating adverbial phrases. Later ver-
sions lose the rhythm of the dance song while retaining
some of its imagery. Interpretation of this poem—
described by critics variously as “strange,” “haunting,”
and “most mysterious and moving”—varies widely.
Readings that associate this carol with Christ’s Passion
cast Christ as the poem’s knight and Mary as the maid in
a static “snapshot” in which the reader fi nds no Resur-
rection. The poem becomes a verbal pieta, communicat-
ing visions of mourning.
Liturgical readings of the carol suggest that it leads
the reader to the Eucharist. Such readings align the
inscribed stone with inscribed altarpieces, while not-
ing that the colors red and purple have been associated
with altar decorations and vestments. At least one
reader has associated the poem with both Christmas
and Good Friday by considering the relationship of the
burden, here read as Mary’s lullaby, to the rest of the
poem. Either Mary sings the lullaby at the Nativity,
foreshadowing Christ’s death, or she sings it at Christ’s
death while remembering his birth.
Many readers refer to the Arthurian allusions in this
carol and suggest that it invokes the Fisher King and
the Holy Grail myth. Such readings occasionally place
Mary as the “may” and often see Christ as either the
“mak” or the knight. The stone inscribed Corpus Christi
could refer either to the wounded knight or to the rem-
edy for the wounded knight, as in the Fisher King tra-
dition. The carol has also yielded numerous secular
readings. One surprising and popular reading presents
the speaker and weeping maid as Catherine of Aragon,
who mourns with a lover’s lament (“lullay”) for her
“mak” HENRY VIII. He has been borne away by the fal-
con, a heraldic badge for Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second
wife. In this reading, Christ’s wounds continually bleed
from Henry’s heresy, and the “purple and pall” refer
not to liturgical vestments but to a regal and wealthy
secular hall.
Despite the interpretive cacophony surrounding this
carol, most readings do agree that the poem contains
both Celtic and Christian elements. Also, most readers
praise the postponement of realization and the poem’s
deliberate steps into the setting before it reveals the
fi nal discovery of the stone to illumine the earlier part
of the poem, of which the burden reminds one at all
times.
FURTHER READING
Greene, Richard Leighton. “The Meaning of the Corpus
Christi Carol.” Medium Aevum 29, no. 1 (1960): 10–21.
Karolyn KinaneCOTTON VITELLIUS A.XV (NOWELL
CODEX, BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT) (ca.
800–1000) The EPIC poem BEOWULF survives in a
single manuscript housed in the British Library. Like
many others, it originally belonged to Sir Robert Cot-
ton, a 17th-century collector.
Cotton catalogued his manuscripts using a unique
system: Each bookshelf in his library had the bust of a
different Roman emperor atop it. The letters of the
alphabet denoted which row, and the number indi-
cated the book. Thus the Beowulf manuscript was on
the Vitellius shelf, on the fi rst (A) row, and was the
15th book in. Cotton bound the original manuscript
together with an unrelated one. A 1731 fi re in Cotton’s
library severely damaged the manuscript, which was
scorched along the edges. Luckily, a Danish scholar128 “CORPUS CHRISTI CAROL”