at her and then steps on her foot. The fi nal stanza
reveals the secret that a bold dalliance has had serious
consequences. In the concluding line, the persona dra-
matically cries: “Cryst fro schame me schylde [shield]
... Alas, I go with schylde [child]!”
As with many carols, “Jolly Jankyn” is set in the
yuletide season, as indicated by its fi rst line: “As I went
on Yol Day.” Furthermore, the poem may convey a
parodic refl ection of the pregnancy of the Blessed Vir-
gin. The stanzas are comprised of four lively three-beat
lines in MIDDLE ENGLISH, with an occasional four-beat
line mixed in. The fi fth line of each stanza is the same:
“Kyrieleyson,” a Greek phrase taken from the mass,
meaning “Lord have mercy on us.” The last stanza also
contains Latin liturgical phrases. “Benedicamus Dom-
ino” means “Let us bless the Lord,” and “Deo gracias”
means “Thanks be to God.”
The poem’s wit comes primarily from a pun on
“Kyrie Eleison.” Because of this, some scholars have
viewed it as a type of KYRIELLE, though it is not written
in quatrains. To the persona, “Eleison” sounds like Ali-
soun, and therefore she is cheered each time Jankyn
sings the phrase because she pretends (or is it true?)
that he is slyly calling out to her while saying mass.
Indeed, the BURDEN—“Kyrie, so Kyrie / Iankyn syngyt
mirie [sings merrily] / With aleyson”—emphasizes the
resemblance of the words. Although the word singen
meant to sing a song and also to sing a mass, it seems
to take on a sexual connotation in the burden because
Jankyn “sings” with Alisoun.
Each stanza ends with the phrase Kyrieleyson, but
the persona’s joy in the phrase dramatically turns to
sorrow in the last stanza, when she confesses that she
is pregnant. Here the repetition of the phrase is fi nally
revealed as religiously appropriate, for Alisoun and for
her handsome cleric, both of whom have sinned. The
phrase adds a surprisingly moralistic fi nish to a worldly
and witty dance song.
See also MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS AND BALLADS.
FURTHER READING
Crowther, J. D. W. “The Middle English Lyric: ‘Joly Jankyn.’ ”
Annuale Mediaevale 12 (1971): 123–125.
Deyermond, Alan. “Sexual Initiation in the Woman’s Voice
Court Lyric.” In Courtly Literature: Culture and Context:
Selected Papers from the 5th Triennial Congress of the Inter-
national Courtly Literature Society, edited by Keith Busby
and Erik Kooper, 125–58. Utrecht Publications in Gen-
eral and Comparative Literature 25. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, 1990.
Reichl, Karl. “The Middle English Carol.” In A Companion
to the Middle English Lyric, edited by Thomas G. Duncan,
150–70. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 2005.
Gregory M. SadlekJUDITH ANONYMOUS (before 1072) The Old
English Judith is a verse interpretation of an episode
from the biblical Book of Judith from what is now
called the Apocrypha, but was then a canonical book
of the Bible. The one surviving copy of the poem,
found in MS COTTON VITELLIUS A.XV, is incomplete,
beginning in mid-sentence. Modern scholars generally
believe, however, that no more than 100 lines of intro-
ductory material are missing.
The events depicted in the 349-line poem are taken
largely from chapters 12 through 16 of its biblical
source. The Jewish city of Bethulia is besieged by the
Assyrian army under the fi erce general Holofernes, so
the beautiful widow Judith resolves to save her city
and sets out for the Assyrian camp, accompanied only
by a handmaid. Captivated by her beauty, Holofernes
invites Judith to a banquet, at which he and his men
become insensibly drunk. Judith is then led to the gen-
eral’s bed, where he presumably intends to defi le her.
Finding him incapacitated with drink, Judith beheads
him with his own sword and slips out of the camp.
When she returns to Bethulia and displays the severed
head, the Jewish army rejoices and easily routes the
stunned and leaderless Assyrians.
In adapting the biblical material, the Judith poet con-
densed the plot and omitted secondary characters, such
as Holofernes’ offi cer Achior, who converts to Judaism in
the original story. The poet instead focuses primarily on
the two main characters, who are in even more extreme
opposition than in the source. Judith, described in terms
usually reserved for virgin saints (eadigan mægð,s blessed
maid, l. 35; scyppendes mægð, the Creator’s maid, l. 78),
lacks the sexual manipulativeness of the biblical heroine.
Here, her innocence and total reliance on God are con-
trasted with Holofernes’ utter debasement and hostility
toward God. Describing him in terms such as heathen232 JUDITH