To end with a positive note, it should be mentioned that Cornelius's metrical analysis of the Middle English
Physiologus points the way to potentially promising future research (2017, 96).
The image of the viper's brood being delivered by devouring their mother from the inside out derives from the Latin
Physiologus and allegorises the ingratitude of sons towards their progenitors (see Figure 5).
Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum Department of Manuscripts, 18031910), 2: 452; Hanneke Wirtjes, ed., The Middle English
Physiologus, Early English Text Society 291 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ix-xv; and Bruce Holsinger, "Langland's Musical Reader: Liturgy, Law, and the Constraints of Performance," Studies in the Age of Chaucer 21 (1999): 135-141.
Il
Physiologus, composto tra il II e il IV secolo, e le altomedievali Etymologiae di Isidoro da Siviglia avevano poi reso, agli occhi dell'uomo medievale, i racconti degli antichi carichi di veridicita, tanto da far sbiadire ogni distinzione tra fantasia e realta.
Dal
Physiologus latino sino a L'Acerba di Cecco d'Ascoli, nel basso Medioevo gli esempi in cui si accenna alla condizione vedovile dell'uccello sono innumerevoli e percorrono le varie produzioni letterarie attraverso i secoli.
During the Dark Ages, the available knowledge of animals was contained in works such as the "
Physiologus" and the "bestiaries." The "
Physiologus" was a collection of simple allegorized tales of animals and plants, and it was one of the most popular and widely read books of the Dark Ages (Curley, 1979).
This hybrid viper (the
Physiologus refers to it as a "woman") bears no resemblance to a natural viper.