'HI ÞOLE THIS DED FOR ÞINE SAKE': SUFFERING FOR ONE ANOTHER IN TWO MIDDLE ENGLISH DEVOTIONAL TEXTS.

This article considers two Middle English texts that each feature a dialogue between Christ and the Virgin Mary; these dialogues examine the purpose of and reasons for their respective suffering during the Passion. One of these texts is the well-known and oft-anthologised lyric 'Stond wel, moder, vnder rode'; the other is a prose text extant in two medieval miscellanies, the 'Doctor of the Church' meditation. The texts display some surprising shared details, despite their different genres and contexts. This article uses these points of difference and similarity to demonstrate how these two texts achieve a similar end by quite different means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]