John Audelay was an early‐fifteenth‐century English poet (fl. 1417
–
?1432) whose known works appear in a single manuscript copied at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, now housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Douce 302). Audelay's religious verse includes moral instruction, carols to be sung, and salutations in honor of holy women. His book is particularly distinctive as an early author‐anthology. The poet's name appears in it 18 times, and its ordering evinces a planned arrangement. Audelay is also notable for his avowed stance as blind poet‐seer and for his range of metrical styles. The most well‐known poems in his wide‐ranging book are
Marcolf and Solomon
(which is perhaps indebted to
Piers Plowman
), the densely alliterative
Three Dead Kings
and
Paternoster
, the collection of 25 carols, and a delicate English rendering of the Latin Annunciation hymn
Angelus ad virginem
.