Mum and the Sothsegger
Encyclopedia
Mum and the Sothsegger is an anonymous fifteenth century alliterative English poem, written during the "Alliterative Revival
Alliterative Revival
The Alliterative Revival is a term adopted by academics to refer to the resurgence of poetry using the alliterative verse form - the traditional versification of Old English poetry - in Middle English during the period c. 1350 - c. 1500...

." It is ostensibly an example of medieval debate poetry
Medieval debate poetry
Medieval debate poetry refers to a genre of poems popular in England and France during the late medieval period . Essentially, a debate poem depicts a dialogue between two natural opposites...

 between the principles of the oppressive figure of Mum ("Silence", as in "to keep mum") and the unruly, wild Sothsegger ("Truth-Speaker", cognate with the modern word "soothsayer").

Content

Beneath the surface of the debate form, the content is primarily that of a medieval satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

, meditating on statecraft and attacking state institutions that oppress and exploit the poor. Indeed, this attack on the rich and defence of the poor is a theme found throughout the poem, a typical line being:
"Look ye reeche not of the riche and rewe on the poure / That for faute of your fees fallen in thaire pleyntes" (ll. 19-20).


The narrator travels to individual groups to debate the true nature of "Mum" and the "Sothsegger," but instead finds only ignorance (a side-effect of "Mum's" qualities), and discovers that "Mum's" pervasive influence lies at the heart of corruption within the King's advisers, nobles, scholars (clerks), priests, archbishops, friars, mayors, and city councillors.

In its latter stages the poem also includes an extended dream vision
Dream vision
A dream vision is a literary device in which a dream is recounted for a specific purpose. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, the dream vision emerged as a poetic genre in its own right, and was particularly popular in the Middle Ages. This genre typically follows a...

 (ll. 871-1287), where the idealised Sothsegger king is presented as a beekeeper
Beekeeper
A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...

, exterminating unproductive drones who are intent on stealing the honey created by the other worker bees. This leads the narrator to then debate on medieval dream theory and the value of dreams.

The poem then ends with the narrator consulting a variety of texts and stories, including a collection of "pryvé poyse" (l. 1344) detailing political abuses, a story of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

 (from the Travels of John Mandeville
John Mandeville
"Jehan de Mandeville", translated as "Sir John Mandeville", is the name claimed by the compiler of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a book account of his supposed travels, written in Anglo-Norman French, and first circulated between 1357 and 1371.By aid of translations into many other languages...

), a "raggeman rolle" (l. 1565) supposedly composed by The Devil, and a prophecy of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...

.

Critical history

Due to some similarities with Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...

, it was suggested in the 19th century by W. W. Skeat
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat , English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College School , Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer T. C...

 that William Langland
William Langland
William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.- Life :The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin...

 wrote the piece, but this theory is no longer accepted by the academic community.

Mum and the Sothsegger also became heavily intertwined with the fifteenth century poem Richard the Redeless
Richard the Redeless
Richard the Redeless is an anonymous fifteenth century English alliterative poem that critiques Richard II's kingship and his court, seeking to offer Richard retrospective advice, following his deposition by Henry VI in 1399...

. Indeed, John Bale
John Bale
John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...

 (1495-1563), an important early antiquarian, wrongly identified the poem Skeat named Richard the Redeless
Richard the Redeless
Richard the Redeless is an anonymous fifteenth century English alliterative poem that critiques Richard II's kingship and his court, seeking to offer Richard retrospective advice, following his deposition by Henry VI in 1399...

 as "Mum, Soth-segger". This link between the two poems continued to the early 20th century, with Day and Steele declaring in their EETS edition that "the two fragments form part of one larger composition." This assertive opinion has also generally fallen out of favour within the academic community for a more nuanced and cautious belief. As James Dean argues: "The two alliterative fragments do have much in common. They both presume to advise a king, include satirical critiques, and imitate Piers Plowman, by far the most important source for both poems. They both have an intimate knowledge of law and the courts, which has led some to believe that the author or authors were law clerks. Both poems manifest a delight in word play, though this is typical of alliterative poems generally. But the differences are striking as well. Richard the Redeless focuses wholly and exclusively on Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

 and the latter part of his reign, whereas Mum ignores Richard's rule to concentrate exclusively on problems during Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

's administration... Richard the Redeless contains specific allusions to events and personalities of Richard II's reign, but this is not the case with Mum... to be a truth teller and name names may have proved too much for him. He prefers more general, satirical attacks to explicit personalities or incidents... It seems best to hold open the possibility that there may be a connection between them, but there may not be.

External links

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