made known to the laity through the liturgical programme of prayers and readings
at Mass through the cycle of the Christian year. The liturgyis the source of poems
like Christ, and contributes to The Dream of the Rood. Modern drama was eventually
to grow out of the worship of the Church, especially from re-enactments such as
those of Passion Week.Christ is a poem in three parts also known as the Advent
Lyrics,Ascension and Doomsday. The seventh of the lyrics based on the liturgy of
Advent is Eala ioseph min (‘O my Joseph’), in which Mary asks Joseph why he rejects
her. He replies with delicacy and pathos:
‘I suddenly am
Deeply disturbed, despoiled of honour,
For I have for you heard many words,
Many great sorrows and hurtful speeches,
Much harm, and to me they speak insult,
Many hostile words. Tears I must
Shed, sad in mind. God easily may
Relieve the inner pain of my heart,
Comfort the wretched one. O young girl,
Mary the virgin!’
It is from liturgical adaptations like this that the drama developed.
Parts 2 and 3 ofChrist are signed ‘Cynewulf ’ in a runic acrostic. The approach is
gentler than that in Andreas.Ascension, for example, is addressed to an unknown
patro n.Cynewulf begins:
By the spirit of wisdom, Illustrious One,
With meditation and discerning mind,
Strive now earnestly to understand,
To comprehend, how it came to pass
When the Saviour was born in purest birth
(Who had sought a shelter in Mary’s womb,
The Flower of virgins, the Fairest of maids)
That angels came not clothed in white
When the Lord was born, a Babe in Bethlehem.
Angels were seen there who sang to the shepherds
Songs of great gladness: that the Son of God
Was born upon earth in Bethlehem.
But the Scriptures tell not in that glorious time
That they came arrayed in robes of white,
As they later did when the Mighty Lord,
The Prince of Splendour, summoned his thanes,
The well-loved band, to Bethany.
Cynewulf, an unknown cleric of the 9th century, is the only Old English poet to sign
his poems.
Names and dates are almost wholly lacking for Old English verse. The four chief
verse manuscripts are known as the Junius Book, the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book
and the Beowulfmanuscript. Each is a compilation of copied and recopied works by
differe nt authors, and each is of unknown provenance. Though composed earlier,
these manuscripts were written about the year 1000 during the Benedictine Revival,
the period of the prose writers Ælfric and Wulfstan, and of a few late poems such as
Judith and The Battle of Maldon. We turn now from the golden age of Northumbria,
the lifetime of Bede (d.735), to the age of Alfred (d.899).26 1 · OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE: TO 1100
liturgy(Gk) A religious
service; the words for the
prayers at a service.