Planctus

Planctus (in print, the word is the same in the singular as in the plural) gives us, through French, the English word ‘(com)plaint’. The sources of planctus have been brought together by Janthea Yearly (1981). On the face of it, there seem to be various styles and categories: formal laments for monarchs — Charlemagne, William the Conqueror (both of these are in Latin, and their prosody betrays connections with the ‘Goliards’*), Richard the Lionheart (in Occitan) or for other famous people (those mentioned are strophic, as are the Latin laments on the destruction of Aquileia or the battle of Fontenoy) — Biblical laments, such as those in Lay form by Godefroy and Abelard*, put into the mouth...