The Three Dead Kings
Encyclopedia
The Three Dead Kings, also known by its Latin
title De Tribus Regibus Mortuis or as The Three Living and the Three Dead, is a 15th-century Middle English
poem. It is found in the manuscript
MS. Douce 302, and its authorship is sometimes attributed to a Shropshire
priest
, John Audelay
. It is an extremely rare survival from a late genre of alliterative verse
, also significant as the only English poetic retelling of a well-known memento mori
current in mediaeval European church art.
In the poem, an unnamed narrator describes seeing a boar hunt
, a typical opening of the genre of the chanson d'aventure
. Three kings are following the hunt; they lose their way in mist and are separated from their retainers. Suddenly, "schokyn out of a schawe" (42) ('Starting out of a wood') three walking corpses appear, described in graphically hideous terms. The kings are terrified, but show a range of reactions to the three Dead, ranging from a desire to flee to a resolve to face them. The three corpses, in response, state that they are not demons, but the three kings' forefathers, and criticise their heirs for neglecting their memory and not saying masses for their souls: "Bot we haue made ȝoue mastyrs amys/ Þat now nyl not mynn us with a mas" (103-104). Once, the three Dead were materialistic and pleasure-loving: "Wyle I was mon apon mold merþis þai were myne" (121) ('While I was a man upon earth, pleasures were mine'), and they now suffer for it. Eventually, the Dead leave, the red daylight comes, and the kings ride home. The final message of the Dead is that the living should always be mindful of them - "Makis your merour be me" (120) - and of the transient nature of life. Afterwards the kings raise a church "with masse" (139) and have the story written on its walls.
Apart from its complex structure, the poem is distinguished for its vividly descriptive and imaginative language.
and west Staffordshire
.
The poem has an extremely unusual structure, combining a four-stress alliterative line, a tight rhyme
scheme, and regular use of assonance
. The structure of the rhymes, abababab in the first eight lines of each stanza
and cdccd in the final five, combines with the alliteration, and the use of the same final consonant on the fourth stress throughout the entire stanza, to produce an additional pararhyme
between pairs of lines:
(79-91)
(Roughly translated: 'Then speaks the last king, he looks in the hills / He looks under his hands and holds his head; / But a dreadful blow goes cold to his heart / Like the knife or the key, that chills the knuckle. / "These are three demons that walk on these hills / May our Lord, who rules all the world, show us the quickest way out! / My heart bends with fright like a reed, / Each finger of my hand grows weak with fear. / I'm forcefully afraid of our fate; / Let us quickly flee, therefore. / I can give no counsel but worry. / These devils will make us cower / For dread lest they shut each escape."')
A few other Middle English poems use a similar thirteen-line stanza, but The Three Dead Kings has the most elaborate structure: medievalist Thorlac Turville-Petre refers to it as "the most highly patterned and technically complex poem in the language".
, is a manuscript of work by John Audelay
, a chantry priest at Haughmond Abbey
, Shropshire
, who is known to have been alive in 1426, when the manuscript may have been compiled. By this point he stated that he was old, deaf, and blind
, although this complicates the question of how he could have authored the poetry in the manuscript. Some scholars have argued that Audelay's other poetry lacks the great technical skill shown in The Three Dead Kings, and that he is therefore unlikely to have written it, especially as it shows signs of a more northerly dialect. Others, however, have defended his authorship, noting that he favours both alliteration and thirteen-line stanza forms elsewhere in the manuscript.
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
title De Tribus Regibus Mortuis or as The Three Living and the Three Dead, is a 15th-century Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
poem. It is found in the manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
MS. Douce 302, and its authorship is sometimes attributed to a Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, John Audelay
John Audelay
John Audelay or Awdelay was a priest and poet from Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire; he is one of the few English poets of the period whose name is known to us. Some of the first Christmas carols recorded in English appear among his works....
. It is an extremely rare survival from a late genre of alliterative verse
Alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of many Germanic...
, also significant as the only English poetic retelling of a well-known memento mori
Memento mori
Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die". It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality...
current in mediaeval European church art.
Synopsis
The theme of the 'Three Living and the Three Dead' is a relatively common form of memento mori in mediaeval art.In the poem, an unnamed narrator describes seeing a boar hunt
Boar hunting
Boar hunting is generally the practice of hunting wild boars, but can also extend to feral pigs and peccaries. A full-sized boar is a large animal armed with sharp tusks which it uses to defend itself. Boar hunting has often been a test of bravery....
, a typical opening of the genre of the chanson d'aventure
Chanson d'aventure
The chanson d'aventure is a genre of medieval poetry originating in France, but which had a substantial influence on poetry in Middle English.-Structure:...
. Three kings are following the hunt; they lose their way in mist and are separated from their retainers. Suddenly, "schokyn out of a schawe" (42) ('Starting out of a wood') three walking corpses appear, described in graphically hideous terms. The kings are terrified, but show a range of reactions to the three Dead, ranging from a desire to flee to a resolve to face them. The three corpses, in response, state that they are not demons, but the three kings' forefathers, and criticise their heirs for neglecting their memory and not saying masses for their souls: "Bot we haue made ȝoue mastyrs amys/ Þat now nyl not mynn us with a mas" (103-104). Once, the three Dead were materialistic and pleasure-loving: "Wyle I was mon apon mold merþis þai were myne" (121) ('While I was a man upon earth, pleasures were mine'), and they now suffer for it. Eventually, the Dead leave, the red daylight comes, and the kings ride home. The final message of the Dead is that the living should always be mindful of them - "Makis your merour be me" (120) - and of the transient nature of life. Afterwards the kings raise a church "with masse" (139) and have the story written on its walls.
Apart from its complex structure, the poem is distinguished for its vividly descriptive and imaginative language.
Poetic form
Along with other poems in MS. Douce 302, The Three Dead Kings is written in a dialect of Middle English local to the area of ShropshireShropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
and west Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
.
The poem has an extremely unusual structure, combining a four-stress alliterative line, a tight rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
scheme, and regular use of assonance
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is...
. The structure of the rhymes, abababab in the first eight lines of each stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
and cdccd in the final five, combines with the alliteration, and the use of the same final consonant on the fourth stress throughout the entire stanza, to produce an additional pararhyme
Pararhyme
Pararhyme, also known as partial or imperfect rhyme is a term devised by the poet Edmund Blunden to describe a near rhyme in which the consonants in two words are the same, but the vowels are different. It is distinguished from half rhyme in that all the consonants should match rather than just the...
between pairs of lines:
- Þen speke þe henmest kyng, in þe hillis he beholdis,
- He lokis vnder his hondis and his hed heldis;
- Bot soche a carful k[ny]l to his hert coldis,
- So doþ þe knyf ore þe kye, þat þe knoc kelddus.
- Hit bene warlaws þre þat walkyn on þis woldis.
- Oure Lord wyss us þe rede-way þat al þe word weldus!
- My hert fare[s] fore freȝt as flagge when hit foldus,
- Vche fyngyr of my hond fore ferdchip hit feldus.
- Fers am I ferd of oure fare;
- Fle we ful fast þer-fore.
- Can Y no cownsel bot care.
- Þese dewyls wil do vs to dare,
- Fore drede lest þai duttyn vche a dore.
(79-91)
(Roughly translated: 'Then speaks the last king, he looks in the hills / He looks under his hands and holds his head; / But a dreadful blow goes cold to his heart / Like the knife or the key, that chills the knuckle. / "These are three demons that walk on these hills / May our Lord, who rules all the world, show us the quickest way out! / My heart bends with fright like a reed, / Each finger of my hand grows weak with fear. / I'm forcefully afraid of our fate; / Let us quickly flee, therefore. / I can give no counsel but worry. / These devils will make us cower / For dread lest they shut each escape."')
A few other Middle English poems use a similar thirteen-line stanza, but The Three Dead Kings has the most elaborate structure: medievalist Thorlac Turville-Petre refers to it as "the most highly patterned and technically complex poem in the language".
Authorship
MS. Douce 302, now held at the Bodleian LibraryBodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, is a manuscript of work by John Audelay
John Audelay
John Audelay or Awdelay was a priest and poet from Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire; he is one of the few English poets of the period whose name is known to us. Some of the first Christmas carols recorded in English appear among his works....
, a chantry priest at Haughmond Abbey
Haughmond Abbey
Haughmond Abbey at Haughmond Hill in Shropshire, otherwise known as the Abbey of Saint John the Evangelist, was founded in about 1100 AD. A statue of St John with his emblem can be found carved into the arches of the chapter house. His image also appeared on the Abbey's great seal.-History:The...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, who is known to have been alive in 1426, when the manuscript may have been compiled. By this point he stated that he was old, deaf, and blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
, although this complicates the question of how he could have authored the poetry in the manuscript. Some scholars have argued that Audelay's other poetry lacks the great technical skill shown in The Three Dead Kings, and that he is therefore unlikely to have written it, especially as it shows signs of a more northerly dialect. Others, however, have defended his authorship, noting that he favours both alliteration and thirteen-line stanza forms elsewhere in the manuscript.