keyword: Middle English verse
Middle English verse
- A Note On A Christian Mannes Bileeve, Robert Holcot’s Convertimini, and ‘Lere You Vnkynde Man’ (NIMEV 1846 / DIMEV 3042)
Issue: Leeds Medieval Studies, 3 (2023)
The devotional text known as A Christian Mannes Bileeve relies on a variety of biblical, patristic, and homiletic resources to explain the Articles of the Faith in the Apostles’ Creed. This note shows that Robert Holcot’s Latin exemplum of birds dying in the woods stands as the source not only for the Middle English exemplum in CMB but also for the introduction, original lyric verse, and peroration surrounding the exemplum. In this way, we see that Latinate sermon materials designed to reach a listening public also inform the creative moves apparent in works of private devotion.