• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily 46, Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

dawes. Tubach 2560, 2894: Hermit and King, King and Her­mit. Gerould has compiled an extensive listing of the many and ancient ana­logues of this tale (“Hermit and the Saint,” pp. 529–45). The oldest variant yet discovered comes from the Sanscrit

• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily 49, Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

their least and most trivial sins, it is as if they assert a victory only over dead fleas or flies. Ancient Rome had a ruling that victory celebrations could only be held if you had killed more than seven thousand

• The N-Town Plays: Play 16, Shepherds

a night "one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven . . . even to the ancient of days." 62–70 There is clearly comic inversion as the illiterate shepherds here, as in the Chester Shepherds' Play

• Prose Merlin: Introduction

York: Collier Books, 1962. Wace. Le Roman de Rou de Wace. Ed. Anthony J. Holden. Publications de la société des ancient textes français. 3 vols. Paris: A. J. Picard, 1970. Whiting, Bartlett Jere. Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English

• The Life of St. Julian the Hospitaller: Introduction

are found in the Julian legend, and perhaps the most important significance of the parallels adduced is to suggest their ancient and widespread popularity and, as a consequence, the likelihood that the origin of the Julian legend is more likely

• The Martyrdom of St. George

the narrative in the light of comparative religion and mythology, and have seen in the chamber of horrors reflections of ancient Near Eastern fertility cults, in which the yearly death and resurrection of gods such as Attis, Thammuz, and Osiris

• The Palis of Honoure: Introduction

62. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1901-14. Henryson, Robert. The Poems of Robert Henryson. Ed. Denton Fox. Oxford: Clarendon, 1981. Herd, David. Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads etc. 2 vols. [1776] Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1973. Holland, Richard. The Buke

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 1, The Creation of the Angels and the Fall of Lucifer

produced this play. 24 s.d. Te Deum. A portion of the Te Deum is sung by the angels. Since this ancient and well-known monophonic chant as included in York service books does not require great musical ability, Rastall suggests that

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 9, The Flood

the Cornish Ordinalia, Noah predicts in advance that if the raven finds carrion it will not come back to him (Ancient Cornish Drama, 1:82–85). Thus the raven was cursed and its color changed from white to black. 237–60 Thou doufe

• The York Corpus Christi Plays: Play 32, The Remorse of Judas

Cornish Ordinalia, the man who arrives to offer sale of property, for “thek-warn-ugans [thirty] sterlyn [sterling],” is the Crozier Bearer (Ancient Cornish Drama, 1:346, line 1554), but it is a straightforward sale, not a dishonest one in which he is

• Klausner, The Castle of Perseverance

summons is announced land; known I make men act madly in a rich procession put to death’s blow Assyria, Achaia (Greece); Germany; (see note) Calvados, Cappadocia; Canaan Brabant, Burgundy; Brittany Galicia (Spain); Aegean Sea control; Macedonia; great power Friesland Thrace(?);

• Book of Genesis

to have sex with her slavegirl as a mutual one between husband and wife. Al­though NOAB notes that, “[a]ccording to ancient custom, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own” (p. 19)

• The Trials and Joys of Marriage, Introduction

traces humanity back to an original progenitor. The idea of marriage as a central feature of the mythology of these ancient societies could be used to explain the literal relation between men and women as well as to explicate a

• Lydgate, The Siege of Thebes: Prologus

(VII[B2]2792-93). The Monk's Tale is a de casibus tragedy that begins with the fall of Lucifer and Adam, moves through ancient figures like Alexander and Julius Caesar, and ends with some of Chaucer's contemporaries; its theme and tone complement the

• Richard Maidstone, Concordia: Appendix 3

show at all instructively) to suggest that some corruption may afflict this couplet. 337-40 In this list too, Maidstone prefers ancient vocabulary (fistula, tibia, timpana, lira, etc.) to medieval terms that might have had more descriptive accuracy. 345 episcopus urbis.

• The Greene Knight

1972), provides a full account of the Order's origins. The use of an Arthurian poem to lend authority to such "Ancient Ceremonials" makes clear how this chivalric material is rewritten for the interests of each generation and audience. weare. F

• St. Andrew and the Three Questions in the Scottish Legendary (c. 1400): Introduction

Andrew in its emphasis on human sexuality. Whether or not the unknown composer of the tale was aware of the ancient Acts of Andrew, he contrived a virtual reprise of some of the Acts' key motifs, while inverting and undermining

• The Northern Homily Cycle: Homily #, Title

to its description, including a good deal of repetition, suggest something of its importance for the poet. Its origins are ancient, the earliest evidence for its celebration in Jerusalem coming from the late fourth-century diary of the pilgrim Egeria. In

• Pety Job: Introduction

departed and a prayerful remembrance of one's own fate. Through vernacular translation and gloss the Middle English poet aligns the ancient words of Job to a medieval reader's desire to comprehend his or her own mortal condition, investing words already

• Part One

term. MED cites “wretchedness” as the appropriate gloss for the term in this line. See also line 178. 118–19 From ancient through medieval times many significances were attached to initial letters and to orthographical sequences in general. These correspondences can