Wooing Group Explained

The Wooing Group (or Wohunge Group) is a term coined by W. Meredith Thompson to identify the common provenance of four early Middle English prayers and meditations, written in rhythmical, alliterative prose.^[1] The particular variety of Middle English in which the group is written is AB language, a written standard of the West Midlands which also characterises the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group.^[2]

The group comprises:^[3]

• English, Middle (1100-1500);: Þe Wohunge of ure Laured ('The Wooing of Our Lord'), a meditation "emphasizing the desirability of Christ as a lover and his sufferings to gain the love of humanity". (British Library, Cotton MS Titus D XVIII, ff. 127r–133r).
• English, Middle (1100-1500);: On wel swuðe God Ureisun of God Almihti ('An Exceedingly Good Orison to God Almighty'), also a meditation on the same theme. (British Library, Cotton MS Nero A XIV; Lambeth Palace Library, MS 487, incomplete).
• English, Middle (1100-1500);: On Lofsong of ure Loured ('A Song of Praise Concerning Our Lord'), "an extended prayer to Christ and the Virgin". (British Library, Cotton MS Nero A XIV).
• English, Middle (1100-1500);: On Lofsong of ure Lefdi ('A Song of Praise Concerning Our Lady'), English, Middle (1100-1500);: Þe Oreisun of Seinte Marie, "a free translation of a prayer to the Virgin in Latin verse by Marbod of Rennes ", the 'Oratio ad sanctum Mariam'. (British Library, Cotton MS Nero A XIV).

"As with the works of the Katherine Group their dissemination seems to have been relatively limited; but the fourteenth-century rhythmical prose treatise A Talkyng of the Loue of God reflects the influence of two Wooing Group works, the Ureisun of God Almihti and the Wohunge."^[4]

In the assessment of Michelle M. Sauer:

Studies

• Chewning, Susannah Mary (ed.), The Milieu and Context of the Wooing Group (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2009)
• Innes-Parker, Catherine. “Ancrene Wisse and Þe Wohunge of ure Lauerd: The Thirteenth-Century Female Reader and the Lover-Knight,” in Women, the Book, and the Godly: Selected Proceedings of the St.Hilda’s Conference, 1993, edited by Lesley Smith and Jane H. M. Taylor. Vol. 1 of 2. Cambridge: Brewer, 1995.
• Sauer, Michelle M. “‘Prei for me mi leue suster’: The Paradox of the Anchoritic ‘Community’ in Late Medieval England,” Prose Studies 26 (2003): 153–175.
• Thompson, W. Meredith, ed. Þe Wohunge of Ure Laured. Edited from British Museum MS Cotton Titus D.xviii, together with On Uriesun of Ure Lourerde; On Wel Swu´?e God Ureisun of God Almihti; On Lofsong of Ure Louerde; On Lofsong of Ure Lefdi; loe Oreisun of Seinte Marie. EETS 241. London: Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1958.

Notes and References

1. W. Meredith Thompson, PhD (1905-1993) Þe wohunge of Ure Lauerd, Edited from British Museum ms. Cotton Titus D. XVIII, together with On ureisun of Ure Louerde, On wel swuðe God ureisun of God Almihti, On lofsong of Ure Louerde, On lofsong of Ure Lefdi [and] Þe oreisun of Seinte Marie, from the manuscripts in which they occur, Early English Text Society. Original series, 241 (London: Oxford University Press, 1958).
2. Michelle M. Sauer, 'Wooing Group', in: Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature (2013)
3. Bella Millett, 'The Ancrene Wisse Group', in: A Companion to Middle English Prose, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards (Cambridge: Brewer, 2004), 1-18 (p. 5).
4. Bella Millett, 'The Ancrene Wisse Group', in: A Companion to Middle English Prose, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards (Cambridge: Brewer, 2004), 1-18 (p. 5); cf. Salvina Westra, ed. A Talkyng of the Loue of God. Edited from MS Vernon (Bodleian 3938) and Collated with MS Simeon (Brit. Mus. Add. 22283). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1950.