Courtly and Uncourtly Views of Women in Middle English Lyric

Between the twelfth and fifteenth century, the form of the lyric was founded in and became very popular within England. Few of the lyrics that were composed remain in existance today. This is mainly due to the fact that these lyrics were transferred orally. This meant they were never printed or published. The ones we do have paint for us a vague but sufficient picture of life as it was in these times. Particularily they …

…In all but the last type of poem, the women were portrayed as meek, quiet, and obedient. In the mysogynistic poetry, the women’s disobedience was subject of the poetry and she wasn’t looked at very kindly. And in all of these poems the woman is made to seem rather dumb and illogical. There was no room left for individuality. So although the courtly may sound nicer, the view of women remains the same.