DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61385#0193
Chapter XV.—Chronology of the Speculum, clxxxvii
Examining the conclusions derived from the foregoing paragraphs,
the preponderance of testimony, contributed by the mass of phonetic
and inflectional characteristics, argues for the poem a Midland nativity.
Sporadic forms locate the poet in an East Midland territory, perhaps
in the neighbourhood of Floris and Blauncheflur or King Horn, a
poem also coloured with strictly Kentish characteristics. But this
original home must have been far to the South, on proof of character-
istic elements of the language. Some margin must be conceded in this
judgment, for a poet of advanced culture in his age, as was illustrated
in Chaucer, might have left the mark of the breadth of his culture
in the variety of phonological elements represented in his speech.
Still it would seem, that many Southern characteristics, and the
combined value of the Southern features, would indicate that the
environment of the poem was to some degree Southern.1 The
Western elements of the poet’s language are not essentially farther
to the West than are those of the Halt Meidenhad, Katherine,
and other lives of saints, comprising Professor Morsbach’s Katherine-
group. With due regard, then, for rimes that might, prima
facie, indicate other locality, it would seem that the phonetic
elements of the language of the Speculum combine in ascribing the
Speculum to a country intermediate in position between the East
and the West, but eastern rather than western. The poem has
the colouring of the dialect spoken near the Midland boundary,
possibly in a territory not far removed from the home of the legends
of the saints, represented by the legend of Katherine, but in the
associated neighbourhood of Sir Beues; see characteristics summarized
by Kblbing, pp. xx,, xxi.
§ 2. Chronology of the Speculum.
Absolute evidence affording even approximately an exact date for
the composition of the Speculum has not been discovered. On
ground of external test its ulterior terminus is naturally the limit of
its oldest transcript. As an individual member of the Auchinleck
collection, palaeographical considerations suggest that the Speculum
be regarded as a representative of the early decades of the 14th
century. Important testimony is contributed by Zupitza, testing the
1 In the early study of the dialect of the Speculum, in April 1894, the editor
regarded the poem as a type of Middle-Kentish (borrowing Danker’s phrase)
literature. On later consideration it seemed that the rimes i, t (O.E. y, y) :
i, i (O.E. i, i) are sufficiently numerous to be evidence of Midland environ-
ment ; this a suggestion of Zupitza in 1894, later confirmed by Kblbing, both in
personal communication with the editor.
Examining the conclusions derived from the foregoing paragraphs,
the preponderance of testimony, contributed by the mass of phonetic
and inflectional characteristics, argues for the poem a Midland nativity.
Sporadic forms locate the poet in an East Midland territory, perhaps
in the neighbourhood of Floris and Blauncheflur or King Horn, a
poem also coloured with strictly Kentish characteristics. But this
original home must have been far to the South, on proof of character-
istic elements of the language. Some margin must be conceded in this
judgment, for a poet of advanced culture in his age, as was illustrated
in Chaucer, might have left the mark of the breadth of his culture
in the variety of phonological elements represented in his speech.
Still it would seem, that many Southern characteristics, and the
combined value of the Southern features, would indicate that the
environment of the poem was to some degree Southern.1 The
Western elements of the poet’s language are not essentially farther
to the West than are those of the Halt Meidenhad, Katherine,
and other lives of saints, comprising Professor Morsbach’s Katherine-
group. With due regard, then, for rimes that might, prima
facie, indicate other locality, it would seem that the phonetic
elements of the language of the Speculum combine in ascribing the
Speculum to a country intermediate in position between the East
and the West, but eastern rather than western. The poem has
the colouring of the dialect spoken near the Midland boundary,
possibly in a territory not far removed from the home of the legends
of the saints, represented by the legend of Katherine, but in the
associated neighbourhood of Sir Beues; see characteristics summarized
by Kblbing, pp. xx,, xxi.
§ 2. Chronology of the Speculum.
Absolute evidence affording even approximately an exact date for
the composition of the Speculum has not been discovered. On
ground of external test its ulterior terminus is naturally the limit of
its oldest transcript. As an individual member of the Auchinleck
collection, palaeographical considerations suggest that the Speculum
be regarded as a representative of the early decades of the 14th
century. Important testimony is contributed by Zupitza, testing the
1 In the early study of the dialect of the Speculum, in April 1894, the editor
regarded the poem as a type of Middle-Kentish (borrowing Danker’s phrase)
literature. On later consideration it seemed that the rimes i, t (O.E. y, y) :
i, i (O.E. i, i) are sufficiently numerous to be evidence of Midland environ-
ment ; this a suggestion of Zupitza in 1894, later confirmed by Kblbing, both in
personal communication with the editor.