[309]. Development of English Thought, pp. 81 f.
[310]. Déor’s song, first in point of time of English lyrics, is a vox clamantis in deserto. The breezy personality of it, the individual confidence, the appeal to great names and great things to prop Master Déor’s own hope that something good will turn up,—all this is discouragement to the critic who likes to go about pasting labels on various epochs of literature. But there is Déor’s rival, Wîdsîð, the typical singer lost in the guild, or rather a dozen singers rolled into one,—communal triumph.
[311]. Causeries du Lundi, XIV. 296 f. Learned research on the ubi sunt formula is noted by Professor Bright, Modern Language Notes, 1893, Col. 187.
[312]. Classical parallels go for little here; changes rung upon the memento mori, like Horace’s quo pater Æneas, a statement, are not in line with these mediæval queries.
[313]. Chaucer, Troilus, V. 1174 ff.:—
From hazel-wode, ther Ioly Robin pleyde,
Shal come al that that thou abydest here;
Ye, farewel al the snow of ferne yere!
Boccaccio has instead an allusion to the “wind of Etna.” Chaucer’s phrase is “a reference to some popular song or saying,” in Skeat’s opinion.
[314]. Printed by Morris, Old English Miscellany, pp. 90 ff.