Middle English literature

Middle English literature, English literature of the medieval period, c.1100 to c.1500. See also English literature English literature, literature written in English since c.1450 by the inhabitants of the British Isles; it was during the 15th cent. that the English language acquired much of its modern form.
..... Click the link for more information. and Anglo-Saxon literature Anglo-Saxon literature, the literary writings in Old English (see English language ), composed between c.650 and c.1100.

. Background

The Norman conquest of England in 1066 traditionally signifies the beginning of 200 years of the domination of French in English letters. French cultural dominance, moreover, was general in Europe at this time. French language and culture replaced English in polite court society and had lasting effects on English culture. But the native tradition survived, although little 13th-century, and even less 12th-century, vernacular literature is extant, since most of it was transmitted orally. Anglo-Saxon fragmented into several dialects and gradually evolved into Middle English, which, despite an admixture of French, is unquestionably English. By the mid-14th cent., Middle English had become the literary as well as the spoken language of England.

The Early Period

Several poems in early Middle English are extant. The Orrmulum Orrmulum or Ormulum (both: ôrm`y
..... Click the link for more information. (c.1200), a verse translation of parts of the Gospels, is of linguistic and prosodic rather than literary interest. Of approximately the same date, The Owl and the Nightingale Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it describes a debate between the sober owl and the merry nightingale as
..... Click the link for more information. (see separate article) is the first example in English of the débat, a popular continental form; in the poem, the owl, strictly monastic and didactic, and the nightingale, a free and amorous secular spirit, charmingly debate the virtues of their respective ways of life.

The Thirteenth Century

Middle English prose of the 13th cent. continued in the tradition of Anglo-Saxon prose—homiletic, didactic, and directed toward ordinary people rather than polite society. The "Katherine Group" (c.1200), comprising three saints' lives, is typical. The Ancren Riwle Ancren Riwle (äng`krĕn rē`
..... Click the link for more information. (c.1200) is a manual for prospective anchoresses; it was very popular, and it greatly influenced the prose of the 13th and 14th cent. The fact that there was no French prose tradition was very important to the preservation of the English prose tradition.

In the 13th cent. the romance romance [O.Fr.,=something written in the popular language, i.e., a Romance language ]. The roman of the Middle Ages was a form of chivalric and romantic literature widely diffused throughout Europe from the 11th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , an important continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England. It drew from three rich sources of character and adventure: the legends of Charlemagne, the legends of ancient Greece and Rome, and the British legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Layamon Layamon (lā`əmən, –mŏn, lī`–), fl. c.1200, first prominent Middle English poet.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Brut Brut, Brute (both: br
..... Click the link for more information. , a late 13th-century metrical romance (a translation from the French), marks the first appearance of Arthurian matter in English (see Arthurian legend Arthurian legend, the mass of legend, popular in medieval lore, concerning King Arthur of Britain and his knights.

Medieval Sources

The battle of Mt. Badon—in which, according to the Annales Cambriae (c.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Original English romances based upon indigenous material include King Horn King Horn, probably the earliest English-language romance, written c.1250 and containing about 1,500 lines. It is by an anonymous author and is based on an earlier work in French.
..... Click the link for more information. and Havelok the Dane Havelok the Dane, English 13th-century metrical romance. It concerns a prince brought up as a scullion, who, after discovering his true identity, wins the kingdoms of Denmark and England.
..... Click the link for more information. , both 13th-century works that retain elements of the Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition.

However, French romances, notably the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes or Chrestien de Troyes (both: krātyăN` də trwä), fl.
..... Click the link for more information. , were far more influential than their English counterparts. In England French romances popularized ideas of adventure and heroism quite contrary to those of Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and were representative of wholly different values and tastes. Ideals of courtly love courtly love, philosophy of love and code of lovemaking that flourished in France and England during the Middle Ages. Although its origins are obscure, it probably derived from the works of Ovid, various Middle Eastern ideas popular at the time, and the songs of the
..... Click the link for more information. , together with its elaborate manners and rituals, replaced those of the heroic code; adventure and feats of courage were pursued for the sake of the knight's lady rather than for the sake of the hero's honor or the glory of his tribal king.

Continental verse forms based on metrics and rhyme replaced the Anglo-Saxon alliterative line in Middle English poetry (with the important exception of the 14th-century alliterative revival). Many French literary forms also became popular, among them the fabliau fabliau, plural fabliaux (both: fäblēō`)
..... Click the link for more information. ; the exemplum, or moral tale; the animal fable; and the dream vision. The continental allegorical tradition, which derived from classical literature, is exemplified by the Roman de la Rose Roman de la Rose, Le (lə rōmäN` də lä rōz), French poem of 22,000 lines in eight-syllable couplets.
..... Click the link for more information. , which had a strong impact on English literature.

Medieval works of literature often center on a popular rhetorical figure, such as the ubi sunt, which remarks on the inevitability—and sadness—of change, loss, and death; and the cursor mundi, which harps on the vanity of human grandeur. A 15,000-line 13th-century English poem, the Cursor Mundi, retells human history (i.e., the medieval version—biblical plus classical story) from the point of view its title implies.

A number of 13th-century secular and religious Middle English lyrics are extant, including the exuberant Sumer Is Icumen In Sumer Is Icumen In (s m`ər ĭs ēk
..... Click the link for more information. , but like Middle English literature in general, the lyric lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to refer to any short poem that expresses a personal emotion, be it a
..... Click the link for more information. reached its fullest flower during the second half of the 14th cent. Lyrics continued popular in the 15th cent., from which time the ballad ballad, in literature, short, narrative poem usually relating a single, dramatic event. Two forms of the ballad are often distinguished—the folk ballad, dating from about the 12th cent., and the literary ballad, dating from the late 18th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. also dates.

The Fourteenth Century

The poetry of the alliterative revival (see alliteration alliteration (əlĭt'ərā`shən), the repetition of the same starting sound in several words of a sentence.
..... Click the link for more information. ), the unexplained reemergence of the Anglo-Saxon verse form in the 14th cent., includes some of the best poetry in Middle English. The Christian allegory The Pearl Pearl, The, one of four Middle English alliterative poems, all contained in a manuscript of c.1400, composed in the West Midland dialect, almost certainly by the same anonymous author, who flourished c.1370–1390.
..... Click the link for more information. (see separate article) is a poem of great intricacy and sensibility that is meaningful on several symbolic levels. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by the same anonymous author, is also of high literary sophistication, and its intelligence, vividness, and symbolic interest render it possibly the finest Arthurian poem in English. Other important alliterative poems are the moral allegory Piers Plowman, attributed to William Langland Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor orders he never became a priest.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the alliterative Morte Arthur, which, like nearly all English poetry until the mid-14th cent., was anonymous.

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer, Geoffrey (jĕf`rē chô`sər), c.
..... Click the link for more information. mark the brilliant culmination of Middle English literature. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales are stories told each other by pilgrims—who comprise a very colorful cross section of 14th-century English society—on their way to the shrine at Canterbury. The tales are cast into many different verse forms and genres and collectively explore virtually every significant medieval theme. Chaucer's wise and humane work also illuminates the full scope of medieval thought. Overshadowed by Chaucer but of some note are the works of John Gower Gower, John (gou`ər, gôr), 1330?–1408, English poet.
..... Click the link for more information. .

The Fifteenth Century

The 15th cent. is not distinguished in English letters, due in part to the social dislocation caused by the prolonged Wars of the Roses. Of the many 15th-century imitators of Chaucer the best-known are John Lydgate Lydgate, John (lĭd`gāt), c.1370–c.1450, English poet, a monk of Bury St. Edmunds.
..... Click the link for more information. and Thomas Hoccleve Hoccleve or Occleve, Thomas (hŏk`lēv, ŏk`–), c.1368–c.
..... Click the link for more information. . Other poets of the time include Stephen Hawes Hawes, Stephen, c.1475–1530, English poet. His best-known works, the two allegories Example of Virtue (1504?) and Pastime of Pleasure (1505?), use typically medieval conventions, but they differ from medieval allegory in their humanist emphasis on
..... Click the link for more information. and Alexander Barclay Barclay, Alexander (bär`klē, –klā), 1475?–1552, Scottish clergyman and poet.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Scots poets William Dunbar Dunbar, William, c.1460–c.1520, Scottish poet. After attending the Univ. of St. Andrews he was attached for some time to the Franciscans, probably as a novice. By 1491 he seems to have been connected with the court of James IV as a poet and minor diplomat.
..... Click the link for more information. , Robert Henryson Henryson, Robert, c.1425–c.1506, Scottish poet. It is thought that he was a schoolmaster at Dunfermline Abbey. His principal poem is The Testament of Cresseid, which was written as a harshly moral epilogue to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Gawin Douglas Douglas, Gawin or Gavin (gä`wĭn, găv`ĭn)
..... Click the link for more information. . The poetry of John Skelton Skelton, John, 1460–1529, English poet and humanist. Tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), he later (c.1502) became rector of Diss, Norfolk. In 1512 he began to call himself royal orator, a position that may have been conferred by Henry VIII requiring that
..... Click the link for more information. , which is mostly satiric, combines medieval and Renaissance elements.

William Caxton Caxton, William, c.1421–91, English printer, the first to print books in English. He served apprenticeship as a mercer and from 1463 to 1469 was at Bruges as governor of the Merchants Adventurers in the Low Countries, serving as a diplomat for the English king.
..... Click the link for more information. introduced printing to England in 1475 and in 1485 printed Sir Thomas Malory Malory, Sir Thomas (măl`ərē), d. 1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur.
..... Click the link for more information. 's Morte d'Arthur. This prose work, written in the twilight of chivalry chivalry (shĭv`əlrē)
..... Click the link for more information. , casts the Arthurian tales into coherent form and views them with an awareness that they represent a vanishing way of life. The miracle play miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the 15th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , a long cycle of short plays based upon biblical episodes, was popular throughout the Middle Ages in England. The morality play morality play, form of medieval drama that developed in the late 14th cent. and flourished through the 16th cent. The characters in the morality were personifications of good and evil usually involved in a struggle for a man's soul.
..... Click the link for more information. , an allegorical drama centering on the struggle for man's soul, originated in the 15th cent. The finest of the genre is Everyman Everyman, late-15th-century English morality play. It is the counterpart of the Dutch play Elckerlijk; which of these anonymous plays is the original has been the subject of controversy.

Bibliography

See J. W. Wells, Manual of the Writings in Middle English (1916–51); R. M. Wilson, Early Middle English Literature (3d ed. 1968); M. Schlauch, English Medieval Literature and Its Social Foundation (1956, repr. 1971); J. A. Burrow, Medieval Writers and Their Work (1982).

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