a poem to find

[Erthona]

Actually I have read this "poem" or something similar, however that was at least 35 years ago. The only other thing I can remember is that I was also reading Chaucer at the time. As I have not found a need to read Chaucer in whole since that time I have no way of knowing if it is from Chaucer or if they are just linked together in my mind by time. I doubt there was a semester that went by I was not taking at least two literature classes at the same time and so it could have possibly been from a different class, but such a story fits Chaucer more than it does a Victorian piece. As Edward VII only was King for about 10 years, or even if one wishes to extend to WWI, the period does not seem the time for such a story to occur. Considering its crudity and subject matter, it would suggest to me it was probably possibly during but more likely prior to the Elizabethan period, as it simply does not appear as a English Renaissance piece (although there are all kinds of qualifiers to that statement). The indigenous English people of the middle period were still closer to their Germanic roots than were the Norman French courts. The word parson sprang up in 1200 CE, which was of course not long after the Norman invasion and conquest. Regardless this would mean the more Germanic village priest, i.e., parson, would have been a common site well before Chaucer in the mid 1300's. It was also true that these men often had little training, could not actually read Latin, were functionally illiterate, and preformed the rites by rote, which is how they learned them. While often seen as well meaning, kind hearted and courageous, the parsons were also at times described as bumbling fools; so a good object on which to play a joke. Probably a verbal joke long before it was written down. This seemed to be the humor of the English lower class at least through Shakespeare's day, as he often wrote many things for the penny seats, which were jokes that would appeal to this type of humor.

So yeah, somewhere between Chaucer and Shakespeare...or not

dale