The Parsed Corpus of
Middle English Poetry (PCMEP)

PCMEP Text Information



The Grave

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About the text:
Text name: The Grave
Alternative names: Thee was bold I-built ere thou I-boren were; Fragment on Death
Content: A soul speaks to its deceased body.
Genre/subjects: death, debate, grave
Dialect of original composition: Unknown, possibly Southern
It is difficult to ascertain the dialect of the archetype of the text.
There is a similar poem called Body and Soul (also included in the PCMEP) (same Wells entry), which probably originated in the South but was copied in a South-Western dialect. It is not implausible that The Grave's history of transmission followed a similar path.
Old English long æ usually appears as e (e.g. er, todeled), and Old English short æ usually appears as e (e.g. wes, feste) in the text. At the same time, there is some variation between long / short æ and e. For example, both efre and æfre, þet and þæt can be found in the witness of the poem (as presented in the modern edition). Perhaps the occurrence of æ can be explained as a remnant of the copyist's source, which reflects an earlier (possibly more Southern) dialect.
Date of original composition: 1100-1150
"[D]ifferences in the dates of manuscripts [for The Grave and Body and Soul] are counted indicative of differences in the dates of composition. And in the present case other data are lacking [...]. [T]he language of "The Grave" is the older [in comparison to Body and Soul]" (Dudley 1914: 434). This reasoning would indicate a date of composition c. 1150, but somewhat before the composition of Body and Soul.
According to Wanley (author of the 1705 book Catalogus Librorum Septentrionalium Tam Manuscriptorum Quam Impressorum), the text was written c. 1150 (Behnsch 1853: 133).
Suggested date: 1150
PCMEP period: 1a (1150-1200)
Versification: alliteration (for some discussion, see Buchholz 1890: lxxv-lxxvi)
Index of ME Verse: 3497 (IMEV), 3497 (NIMEV)
Digital Index of ME Verse: 5543
Wells: 9.1
MEC HyperBibliography: Body & S.(1)


About the edition and manuscript base:
Edition: Buchholz, Richard. 1890. Die Fragmente der Reden der Seele an den Leichnam: In Zwei Handschriften zu Worcester und Oxford. Leipzig: Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 11.
Manuscript used for edition: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 343 (SC 2406), f.170r
Online manuscript description: The manuscript is not described in detail in LAEME. However, it is referenced under the entry for Worcester Cathedral, Chapter Library F 174, which contains Body and Soul, like this: "For other early Middle English versions on the theme of The Debate between the Body and Soul see [...] Oxford Bodleian Library, Bodley 343 (fragment)."
The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220 (item 93)
Summary catalogue of Western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, no. 2406
Manuscript dialect: West-Midlands
"Thus, this text shows essentially a South-Western character [translated from the German original]" (Buchholz 1890: lxii). For evidence for a West-Midlands manuscript dialect, see ibid. (lxi-lxii).
The two main scribes responsible for the vast majority of the manuscript show essentially West Midlands features (Kitson 1992).
The manuscript may have been written near, but not at, Worcester, and the scribes may have had some access to the Worcester Library (Irvine 1993).
Manuscript date: s. xii-ex, s. xiii-in
"s. XII2" (Ker 1957: 374)
"in a hand of s. xii/xiii" (ibid: 374, item 310, art. 85)
"c. 1150-1175" (Wells 1916: 412)
The bottom line and a half, three verses, are added in an untidy manner by a tremulous hand (Franzen 2006). These final lines are by a second, early thirteenth century hand (Dudley 1914: 429).


About the file:
File name: M1a.TheGrave
ID: TheGrave,y.z: y=token, z=line
Word count: 200
Token count: 27
Line count: 25


Other:
General notes: The Grave is thematically close to the poem Body and Soul (also included in the PCMEP) (same Wells entry). Therefore, it is possible that The Grave is either a further fragment of the poem Body and Soul or its source (Buchholz 1890) or an independent composition of the same literary tradition (Dudley 1914).
A more recent edition of the poem is Conlee (1991).
Remarks on parses: The manuscript text is written as a prose block. The line breaks in the electronic text file follow Buchholz (1890: 11).
If The Grave is directly related to Body and Soul, it is a speech of a soul to its body and should accordingly be tagged as direct speech. However, since the exact relation between The Grave and Body and Soul has not yet been established, the text is treated as independent and not tagged as direct speech.
The parses are largely unproblematic.


References

Behnsch, Ottomar. 1853. Geschichte der Englischen Sprache und Literatur: von den ältesten Zeiten bis zur Einführung der Buchdruckerkunst. Breslau: Kern.
Buchholz, Richard. 1890. Die Fragmente der Reden der Seele an den Leichnam: In Zwei Handschriften zu Worcester und Oxford. Leipzig: Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung. (available online)
Conlee, John W. 1991. Middle English Debate Poetry: A Critical Anthology. Lansing, MI: Colleagues Press.
Dudley, Louise. 1914. 'The Grave.' Modern Philology 11.3. 429-442.
Franzen, Christine. 2006. 'On the Attribution of Additions in Oxford, Bodleian MS Bodley 343 to the Tremulous Hand of Worcester.' ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews 19.1. 7-8.
Irvine, Susan. 1993. Old English Homilies from MS Bodley 343. EETS o.s. 302. Oxford: Clarendon.
Ker, Neil R. 1957. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon.
Kitson, Peter. 1992. 'Old English dialects and the Stages of Transition to Middle English.' Folia Linguistica Historica 11. 27-87.