''The Three Dead Kings'' () is a 15th-century

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. It is found in the

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

MS. Douce 302 in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

in Oxford, and its authorship is sometimes attributed to a

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, John Audelay. It is an extremely rare survival from a late genre of

alliterative verse In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly s ...

, also significant as the only English poetic retelling of a well-known ''

memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")

'' current in mediaeval European church art.

Synopsis

The theme of is a relatively common form of ''memento mori'' in mediaeval art.Ross, L. ''Medieval Art: A Topical Dictionary'', Greenwood, 1996, p.245 The earliest manuscript evidence for the story comes from late 13th-century France. A ''Dit des trois morts et des trois vifs'' by Baudoin de Condé has been traced back to 1280. In the poem, an unnamed narrator describes seeing a

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

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"'' ("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"'' ("But we have made you masters amiss/ Who now will not commemorate us with a mass"). Once, the three Dead were materialistic and pleasure-loving, saying ''"Wyle I was mon apon mold merþis þai were myne"'' ("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, saying ''"Makis your merour be me"'' ("Make your mirror be me"), and of the transient nature of life. Afterwards the kings raise a church ''"with masse"'' 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

and west

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. The poem has an extremely unusual structure, combining a four-stress alliterative line, a tight

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

, and regular use of

assonance Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...

. The structure of the rhymes, ''ABABABAB'' in the first eight lines of each

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

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, as in lines 79-91: 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".Turville-Petre, T. ''The Alliterative Revival'', Boydell & Brewer, 1977, p.64

Authorship

MS. Douce 302, now held at the

, is a manuscript of work by John Audelay, a chantry priest at Haughmond Abbey,

, who is known to have been alive in 1426, when the manuscript may have been compiled.John Audelay
''Marginalia'', accessed 03-10-2008 By this point he stated that he was old,

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

, 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.Stanley, E. ''The Verse Forms of Jon the Blynde Awdelay'' in Cooper & Mapstone (eds.) ''The Long Fifteenth Century'', Oxford: OUP, 1997, p.114

References

External links

Modern English full translation of "The Three Dead Kings", by Giles Watson"Three Dead Kings"
from John the Blind Audelay, ''Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302)'', ed. Susanna Fein ( TEAMS edition) {{DEFAULTSORT:Three Dead Kings Middle English poems Legends Death in art