Dead Lovers, Infidelity, and the Plague

In Thursday’s class, we talked a little bit about infidelity in the Middle Ages, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the plague had some influence on it. Of course, sexual infidelity is a timeless subject of writing, and there are probably any number of novels, songs and self-help books being written about it every month. But within the context of plague-ravaged Britain (I lovede a child of this cuntree was written in the middle of the 14^th century, and the plague reached Britain in 1348), it’s easy to imagine an unusually high occurrence of infidelity as part of the mass hysteria that surrounded the disease.

Another question that came to mind when rereading some of the poems with the plague in mind: in addition to the several that were obviously about death or dying, two of the poems struck me as being about dead lovers, but didn’t necessarily have to be read that way: Maiden in the more lay and My lefe is faren in a lond. The first was written in the early fourteenth century, and so predates the plague (but I do wonder whether the maiden was dead or just sort of camping out on the moors eating flowers, which sounds like a nice vacation), but the second was written in the late fifteenth century, well after the plague first arrived but still during a time that was very much feeling its influence. I'm curious about whether other people read them this way.