Miserere Mei: Penitential psalms and lyrics in English literature, 1300-1650

Medieval and Renaissance paraphrases of the penitential psalms and lyrics based on them reveal a movement from didactism to "self-expression": in the Middle Ages, the poet sublimates his own voice to that of the biblical psalmist and in the Renaissance, the poet speaks through the psalmist, seeking to find his own voice in the psalmist.;Poets too adapt these voices to their own ends. The medieval paraphrases of Richard Maidstone and Thomas Brampton are primarily didactic, making exegesis available to lay readers and accommodating them as speakers of the psalms in order to allow them to model their behavior on that of the psalmist.;The Reformation instigated reading the Bible as personal history, and poets paraphrase in terms of their own experiences and interests. Sir Thomas Wyatt' s paraphrase is both didactic and self-expressive as a faithful paraphrase of the psalms, as an expression of Reformation theology and possibly as a spiritual autobiography. Other English paraphrases, such as the Sidney-Pembroke psalter, emphasize self-expression through verse technique; others, such as the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter, emphasize utility in Christian worship.;John Donne's Holy Sonnets, though not a paraphrase, adapts the rhetorical patterns of the penitential psalms in examining the Reformation theme of submitting to God's will while maintaining one's own. George Herbert's penitential lyrics in his collection The Temple explore sudden shifts in stance, tone, and argument found in the penitential psalms, and emphasize Christ's Passion as the means for man's redemption.;Exegetes, including Augustine, Cassiodorus, Peter Lombard, Richard Rolle, Nicolous of Lyra, Luther and Calvin, argued that the psalms accommodated various "voices" as their speakers, putting them to to various uses: medieval exegesis encourages the reader to see himself as well as David as the speaker of the psalm, and Reformation exegesis addresses issues of grace and election.;Adhering to the psalms and diverging from them defines each poet's stance toward the psalms. This study examines the poetic "self" in using and adapting biblical material.