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- Title
PROVERBIAL SERVANTHOOD IN MIDDLE ENGLISH TEXTS: SERVICE IS NO HERITAGE.
- Authors
Norja, Sara
- Abstract
This paper explores the proverb service is no heritage, focusing especially on its medieval attestations. The proverb warns servants of the perils of servanthood: service as an occupation will not provide an inheritance. After presenting the social and lexical contexts of the proverb, I move on to discuss its textual context, drawing on Middle English and later texts to discuss the proverb's thematic/discursive emphases, especially its religious undertones. I will show how the proverb's final word shifted from heritage to inheritance, and discuss how that may reflect the changes in concreteness of the two words.
- Subjects
HOUSEHOLD employees in literature; PROVERBS -- History &; criticism; INHERITANCE &; succession; REGIMENT of Princes, The (Book); TILLEY, Morris; HISTORY
- Publication
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 2017, Vol 118, Issue 1, p143
- ISSN
0028-3754
- Publication type
Article