Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse by John Addington Symonds

Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse Reviews

• 
  Adam McPhee

  The Goliards are such a fascinating group, but there's so little known about them and, let's be honest, their poetry isn't great. Some of the drinking and wandering songs were okay but if you've read one poem about fair maidens in springtime, you've read them all. And it doesn't help that Symonds keeps mentioning that there's fun stuff elsewhere, but it's too vulgar for him to translate.
  
  If anyone has a good book recommendation on the Goliards, I'm all ears.
• 
  Robert

  An intriguing exploration of the nearly-forgotten poetic output of a group of wandering students in the 12th and 13th centuries. They travelled between various monastic schools in Italy, Germany, and France in an attempt to learn what they could... but not sure what it would amount to. They were poor, educated, and frustrated. Sound familiar? The translator, Symonds, makes an earnest and mostly winning argument that these poems represent the first documentation of the nascent Humanist impulses that would find full flower in the coming Renaissance. He also argues, outside of my expertise to evaluate, that the forms and cadences of the poetry anticipate and may have influenced later developments in European poetry.
  
  All of this context is fascinating... the poetry is consistently less so. At time frustratingly so, because one wishes that Symonds would have curated a little more aggressively. But on occasion there are some lovely sentiments and turns of phrase, and when one pauses for a moment to think that these poems that are primarily about chasing wine and women and song were scribbled down by some anonymous 18 year old nearly 800 years ago... well, it has the capacity to make you reassess your own existence. And that is a sign of great poetry.
• 
  Sandra

  Though I didn't care much for the poetry of the Wandering Students, this book was still an enjoyable read. John Addington Symonds is a sympathetic editor, and his background information, motivation for translating the poems and notes on the translations were all a joy to read. The poems themselves were.. well.. nothing too special. Some poems definitely suffered from an overkill of Roman references. The poems weren't sentimental and rarely stood out, but there were a few I really liked, amongst others a debate between water and wine, a quite humoristic display of what the Medieval thoughts were on both drinks. But, my favourite stanzas are from poem No. 26, The Wooing, where an awesome lady tells off an annoying Wandering Student:
  
  "Why d'you coax me, suitor blind?
  What you seek you will not find;
  I'm too young for love to bind;
  Such vain trifles fex my mind.
  
  "Is't your will with me to toy?
  I'll not mate with man or boy:
  Like the Phoenix, to enjoy
  Single life shall be my joy."
  
  Overall a quick, nice read, provided you're interested in the Middle Ages.
• 
  Tara Thomas

  translation of medieval songs sung by the wandering students.