Old Books with Grace

Grace is delighted to kick off this year’s Lent series. Every other week during Lent Grace will have a guest who has chosen a Lenten-themed poem to share. Today, though, is just a little meditative beginning with three Middle English poems, text below, translations by Grace Hamman. 

Westminster Abbey MS 27 (175 in Carleton Brown's XVth Century Lyrics)

Wise men bene but scorned,

& wedows eke foryerned,

Grete men arn bot glosid,

& smale men arn borne doun & myslosed,

Lordis wex euer blynd,

Ffrendis ben vnkynde,

Dethe is oute of mynde,

Treuth may no man fynde.

 

Wise men are only mocked,

and widows are forgotten,

Great men are flattered,

& the little ones are downtrodden and blamed,

The powerful grow ever more blind,

Friends become unkind,

Death has left the mind,

Truth itself no man can find.

 

Advocates Lib. 18.7.21 (66 in Brown's XIVth Century Lyrics)

Loue me brouthte,

& loue me wrouthte,

Man, to be thi fere.

Loue me fedde,

& loue me ledde,

& loue me lettet here.

 

Loue me slou,

& loue me drou,

& loue me leyde on bere.

Loue is my pes,

For loue I ches,

Man to by3en dere.

 

Ne dred the nouth

I haue the south,

Bothen day & nith,

to hauen the,

Wel is me,

I haue the wonnen in fith.

 

Love brought me,

Love wrought me,

Man, to be your advocate.

Love fed me,

Love led me,

And love stopped me here.

 

Love slew me,

Love drew me,

Love laid me on bier.

Love is my peace,

For love I chose

Man to buy so dear [at a high cost].

 

Dread thee nought,

For I have thee sought,

Both day and night.

In having thee

Well is me.

I have won thee in the fight.

 

Advocates MS 19. I. II, (111 in Brown's XVth Century Lyrics)

 

I Haue laborede sore and suffered deyth,

and now I Rest and draw my breyght,

but I schall come and call Ryght sone

heuene and erght and hell to dome;

and thane schall know both devyll and mane,

What I was and what I ame.

 

I have labored sore and suffered death,

and now I rest and draw my breath,

but I shall come and call very soon

heaven and earth and hell to doom [judgment];

And then shall know, both devil and man,

What I was and who I am.

Today, Grace chats with the poet Paul Pastor on another poet, the revolutionary thinker and artist William Blake. 

Paul J. Pastor is Executive Editor of Nelson Books at HarperCollins, an essayist, critic, and poet, writer of The Rose Fire on Substack, and author of several books, most recently The Locust Years: Poems, from Wiseblood Books. He lives in Oregon. 

Grace is going to take a sabbatical from Old Books with Grace for a few months as she and her family are in the middle of several big projects and changes. You can keep up with her at gracehamman.substack.com while she's taking a break from the podcast, though!

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Today Grace welcomes Elizabeth Oldfield to recast these ancient ideas of vices and virtues into contemporary language. Why should we care about these ancient and sometimes worn-thin concepts? How can they speak to our world today--even if that world does not believe the same things as the church believes?

Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. She is a speaker, coach, and consultant, and the host of The Sacred podcast. Elizabeth has a masters in Theology and the Arts and lives in an intentional Christian community in South London with her family.

Today, Grace welcomes author Lisa Colón DeLay to discuss the fascinating ancient Christians that we now call the Desert Fathers and Mothers. People like Evagrius, Amma Theodora, St. Moses the Black, St. Anthony the Great, and many others offer deep wisdom in their own time and to us today.

Lisa Colón DeLay is the author of The Wild Land Within and has an MA in spiritual formation. She writes, teaches, and creates products and resources related to spiritual formation. Since 2015, she has hosted Spark My Muse, a top-rated religion and spirituality podcast. DeLay grew up in Pittsburgh, having left her native country of Puerto Rico, and now resides near the Appalachian Trail in a small town in Pennsylvania. Discover more, including more links and more information on her new book and the desert fathers and mothers, at lisadelay.com.

Learn more about Grace's new book, Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues & Vices for a Whole & Holy Life.

This week, Grace welcomes her dear friend from graduate school, fellow medievalist Dr. Jessica D. Ward, to discuss one of their favorites: Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the great Canterbury Tales! Come for Middle English, discussions of why Chaucer deserves his reputation, and continuing discussion of the backgrounds in Grace's new book, Ask of Old Paths, as Grace and Jessica discuss their mutual interests in the Parson's Tale and penitential literature.

Dr. Jessica D. Ward is an early English literature scholar. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on medieval and early modern literature, culture, and language and has written for various academic journals and collections on these topics.  She has served as a dramaturg for professional Shakespeare productions in New York as well as in Texas, where she now lives with her husband, toddler son, and their spunky little lion dog, Oscar, the shih tzu. She enjoys delighting in Middle English and its muses and legacies on Substack in her newsletter Middle English Delights. 

Buy Grace's new book, Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues & Vices for a Whole & Holy Life.