Medieval English lyrics

the long version

Brings together 144 examples of lyric poetry, notable in quality and representative of their times. Besides an introduction on the nature of the lyric, there are commentaries at the head of each poem, textual and explanatory footnotes, a general bibliography and a comprehensive glossary keyed to the text. The commentaries make reference to the manuscript sources, the scholarly indexes and, where available, the music, but also offer historical and critical observations as aids to interpretation and judgment. In all but a few instrances the texts are freshly edited from the manuscripts, and hence often vary significantly in their readings from the earlier standard editions, with which they have in every case been compared.