[Illustration: PARADISE From Fra Angelico's "The Last Judgment" (early fifteenth century)] LEGENDS AND SATIRES FROM MEDIÆVAL LITERATURE EDITED BY MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE WELLESLEY COLLEGE GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY MARTHA HALE SHACKFORD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 813.10 The Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A. PREFACE This volume of translations is prepared especially for the use of college sophomores who are studying English poetry of the fourteenth century, but it is hoped that other readers may be interested in these old legends. Ideally, it would be better for students to read the original texts, but every teacher knows how difficult it is to provide texts in this field. The various Middle English Readers are not frankly popular in their choice of subject matter, and the publications of learned societies are far too expensive to be available for classroom work. It does not seem, therefore, entirely an offense against scholarship to offer students a volume that will serve humbly as companion to "Piers Plowman," "The Pearl," Chaucer's poems, and various romances and lyrics which are studied in carefully edited texts. The modern translations are literal, but a certain freedom has been used in reshaping sentences and in omitting conventional phrases when they proved too monotonous in their repetitions. Quite enough _tags_ and awkward constructions have been preserved to illustrate fully the style of mediæval clerks. Acknowledgment is made for help received from Gaston Paris's "La littérature française au moyen âge," and from W. H. Schofield's "English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer." Miss Marion E. Markley has contributed two translations from Old French, and has given many helpful suggestions regarding details. M. H. S. Wellesley, Massachusetts CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii PROEM Of Man's Body 3 Of Man's Soul 4 DEBATE The Amorous Contention of Phillis and Flora 7 The Pleading of the Rose and of the Violet 24 VISION The Purgatory of Saint Patrick 33 SAINTS' LIVES The Life of Saint Brandon 53 The Life of Saint Margaret 73 PIOUS TALES A Miracle of God's Body 81 A Miracle of the Virgin 83 The Translation of Saint Thomas of Canterbury 87 ALLEGORY An Extract from "The Castle of Love" 95 BESTIARY Lion, Eagle, Whale, Siren 101 LAPIDARY Diamond, Sapphire, Amethyst, Geratite, Chelidonius, Coral, Heliotrope, Pearl, Pantheros; Symbolism of the Carbuncle; Symbolism of the Twelve Stones 111 HOMILY Concerning Miracle Plays, Games, and Minstrelsy 119 SATIRE The Song of the University of Paris 125 The Land of Cockaygne 128 The Complaint of the Husbandman 131 Sir Penny 134 LAY Sir Orfeo 141 NOTES