THE MIDDLE ENGLISH RELIGIOUS LYRIC 93 
for the First Nocturn for Good Friday. In both cases, moreover, the 
initial lines are in the original Latin, as if at one time the entire Latin 
hymn had had its place in the earliest passion-plays. So far as I have 
been able to discover, it seems by no means certain that the planctus 
was dramatized any earlier than the Testament of Christ. 
Any investigation of the resurrection-lyrics, some of which are stil! 
retained in many of the miracle-plays? which treat the events following 
the crucifixion, would naturally lead us back to the question of the 
liturgical origins of the Easter-play. With that question this paper is 
not directly concerned. There are, however, some few of these lyrics 
in the plays which may be the result of the playwrights having drawn upon 
the English independent resurrection-lyrics,? rather than the result of 
the retention and gradual development of the original resurrection-hymns 
of the liturgical drama. 
From the point of view of today those lyrics which deal with the general 
theme of the Lije of Man+ in a semi-secular, semi-religious tone are by 
far the most interesting of all the various classes with which we are 
concerned in this discussion. ‘The writers of Middle English verse never 
tire of discoursing about the briefness, the changeableness of life, the 
transitoriness and worthlessness of.all earthly things, often stopping to 
describe in detail the repulsiveness of the human body, and almost as 
t For other places in which it is employed in the Sarum Use, see Cook, The Christ of Cynewulf, p. 208. 
2 York, p. 424; Town., pp. 324, 344 ff., 355 ff., 362; Cov., pp. 348, 356 ff., 362 ff., 367 ff., 371 ff., 375 ff. 
3 The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, pp. 47; The Bann. MS, Vol. 1, pp. 93, 95- For poems of the same kind 
with refrains as in Cov., pp. 375 ff., see The Bann. MS, pp. 02 ff.; Polit., Relig. and Love Poems (EETS), 
pp. 210 ff.; Chester, Vol. II ‘‘ Notes,” pp. 204 ff. The last three examples are in reality Planctus Mariae, 
influenced in form by the resurrection-lyric. For examples of Latin lyrics of a somewhat similar type, see 
Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, Vol. 1, pp. 175 ff., 218, 242 ff. 
4 For lyrics of this general type, see Lydgate’s Minor Poems (Percy Soc., Vol. II), pp. 74 ff., 103; Spec. 
of Lyric Poetry (P. Soc., Vol. IV), pp. 23, 47, 60, 101; Religious Songs (P. Soc., Vol. XI), pp. 64 ff.; Songs 
and Carols (P. Soc., Vol. XXIII), pp. 4 ff.; Rel. Ant., Vol. 1, pp. 26, 138, 160, 234, 235, 261; The Minor 
Poems of Lydgate (P. Soc., Vol. II), pp. 24, 124, 220; Early Pop. Poetry, Vol. III, p. 40; Bann. MS, 
Vol. I, pp. 37, 55, 127 ff., 131, 137, 152 ff., 155 ff., 201, 209 ff., 308, 321, 320; Vol. II, pp. 750 ff.; Anglia, 
Vol. I, pp. 285, 291; Vol. II, p. 71; Vol. XXVI, pp. 141 ff., 158, 167, 185, 197 ff., 207; Minor Poems of V. 
MS (EETS), Vol. I, pp. 335, 343; Vol. II, pp. 512, 667, 672, 674 ff., 686, 602, 715, 726 ff., 730, 740 ff.; Polit 
Relig. and Love Poems (re-ed. EETS), pp. 255, 263; Twenty-six Polit. Poems (EETS), p. 113; Wm. of Shore- 
ham (EETS), p. 1; Religious Pieces (EETS), p. 79; Hymns to V. and C. (EETS), pp. 39, 58, 80, 83, 86; 
An Old Eng Misc., pp. 65, 69, 93, 156, 161, 170; Chaucerian and Other Pieces (ed. Skeat), pp. 201 ff., 440; 
Herrigs Archiv, Vol. CIX, p. 46; Eng. Stud., Vol. XXI, p. 201; The Poetical Works of Skelton (ed. Dyce), 
Vol. I, p. 2; The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, p. 30; The Poems of Dunbar (Scot. T. S.), Vol. II, pp. 74 ff., r10, 
226, 232, 244; Rich. Rolle of Hampole, Vol. I, pp. 73, 77, 367 ff.; The Pricke of Conscience (ed. Morris), 
PP. 39, 52- 
