Title: The Dilemma of the “Maker of Myrthes:” A Study of the Minstrel-Poet Narrator in the Middle English Dream Debate Poem Wynnere and Wastoure

Abstract: Wynnere and Wastoure is an important Middle English alliterative dream debate poem that has passed down in only one manuscript. Starting from inspecting two different emendations of one poetic line in the Prologue, this essay asserts that, as a minstrel-poet, or a “maker of myrthes,” the narrator of the debate poem, in composing for a courtly audience, finds himself in a dilemma where he both has to entertain as the audience expects and to teach out of his respect for his own profession, which accounts for the many subterfuges and indirection in the text.

Keywords: Wynnere and Wastoure, dream debate Poem, minstrel-poet, “maker of myrthes”

Author: Jin Liu, Professor, Foreign Studies College, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.