Fleas, Flies, and Friars: Children's Poetry from the Middle Ages
"Nicholas Orme's selections are interesting and wide-ranging and demonstrate the sense of play that he associates with childhood in the period.Fleas, Flies, and Friarshas a kind of charm that will appeal to nonacademic readers as well as students and teachers. The translations are excellent and readable. They are also remarkably joyful. Orme’s enthusiasm for the sounds of the poems is wonderful and will appeal to all readers who like nursery rhymes."—Rebecca Krug, University of Minnesota, author ofReading Families "Fleas, Flies, and Friarsis marked by Nicholas Orme's straightforward commentary, the quality of the translations, the method of their organization, and the guides to further reading and notes at the end of the manuscript. The very oddity of the texts is compelling to a modern reader, since they work against any sentimental assessment of medieval childhood. From the perspective of these texts, medieval childhood seems very much like a preparation for medieval adulthood; children were fully aware of the harshness of daily reality, of the duties and strengths required in daily life."—Lynn Staley, Colgate University, author ofLanguages of Power in the Age of Richard II