Monday, January 23, 2012

Land of Cokaygne (Manuscript and Translation)

Source.

"This poem survives in only one manuscript, a small (less than 6 x 4 inches) collection of various items in different hands and languages (Middle English, French, and Latin).

Probably compiled in Ireland in the early-mid 1300s, the small format suggests a friar's pocket-book as they traveled on foot and needed to pack light. A few of the Middle English items, like Cockaygne and a drinking song making fun of local clerics and tradesmen, were clearly for amusement.

Most of the Middle English content is verse, sermons and lyrics designed for the instruction of the laity. The Land of Cokaygne is not an isolated poem; its fictional and parodic otherworld belongs to a tradition of poems dealing with an imaginary paradise where leisure rules and food is readily available."


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