The current situation of pestilence and disorder, not to mention general apocalypticism, is distinctly reminiscent of the fourteenth century - though without all the splendour of that complex century “when the ideas of the Middle Ages could neither live nor die” - but which did inter alia see the re-emergence of a rich and lively English vernacular literature, “... all the exuberance of the age of Chaucer with none of the concomitant vulgarity” *
With this in mind one of my regular correspondents, The Shropshire Lad, has shared this recent discovery from the world of Middle English:
Sunac is icumen in
Llude sing Rishi!
DresseÞ flash
And bloweÞ cash
And shakeÞ money tre
Sing Rishi!
Leader of Þa sumer six
Locdoun haÞ a key
Boris siccens
Cumings chiccens
Merrie sing Rishi!
Rishi! Rishi!
Wel singes ye Rishi!
And set Þam folces fre
Sing Rishi ye! Sing Rishi!
Sing Rishi! Sing Rishi ye!
* To quote from Kind Hearts and Coronets
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