Middle English Prof. Dr.

Ingo Plag

Mystery Text 1: About Freedom

Read the text and answer the questions below:

1 A fredome is a noble thing,

Fredome mays man to haiff liking.
Fredome all solace to man giffis,
He levys at es þat frely levys.
5 A noble hart may haiff nane es
Na ellys nocht þat may him ples
naught
Gyff fredome failʒhe — for fre liking
Is ʒharnyt our all oþer thing.
Na he þat ay has levyt fre
10 May nacht knaw weill the propyrte
Þe angyr na þe wrechyt dome
Þat is cowplyt to foule thyrldome
Bot gyff he had assayit it.
mays: makes; haiff: have; liking: choice
levys: lives; es: ease
nane: no, none
na: nor; ellys: else; nocht: nothing,
gyff: if; failʒhe: fails
ʒharnyt: yearned; our: over
ay: aye, yes (interjection)
nacht: not
wrechyt: wretched; dome: doom, fate
cowplyt: coupled; thyrldome: slavery
bot gyff: unless; assayit: experienced

Questions:

1. Translate the text into (comprehensible) Modern English!

2. Transcribe the first 4 lines in the IPA.

Help: an <i> after a vowel indicates vowel length; <ff> = /v/

3. Explain the effect the Great Vowel Shift had on mid vowels, using the examples es (4, 5),
fre (9), noble (1, 5), dome (11).

4. The words angyr and propyrte (lines 10, 11) are new in Middle English. Where do they
originate? Explain briefly how they got into the English language.

5. Identify all inflectional suffixes you can find. Do they give you an indication of where
the text is from (from which dialect area)?

6. Provide 1 or 2 additional pieces of evidence to support the suggestion that the text is
from this specific dialect.

7. Identify and cite an example of word order that is different from Modern English and
explain briefly how it is different. Does this link in some way to what you know about
Old English word order?

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