English Literature, notes
Periodization of English Literature:
 650-1066: Old English Literature (Anglo Saxon)
 1066- end of 15th century: Middle English Literature
 1500 – 1625: Renaissance

1500-1570s: Tudor Period

1570s -1601: Elizabethan Period
An outline of Anglo-Saxon history
Anglo-Saxon England was early medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th century from the end of Roman Britain
until the Norman conquest in 1066. The Anglo-Saxons were the members of Germanic-speaking groups who migrated to the
southern half of the island of Great Britain from nearby northwestern Europe and their cultural descendants. Anglo-Saxon
history thus begins during the period of Sub-Roman Britain following the end of Roman control, and traces the establishment
of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries, their Christianisation during the 7th century, the threat of Viking
invasions and Danish settlers, the gradual unification of England under Wessex hegemony during the 9th and 10th centuries,
and ending with the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. As the Roman occupation of Britain was
coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army in reaction to the Germanic invasion of Gaul with the
Crossing of the Rhine in December 406.The Romano-British leaders were faced with an increasing security problem from
seaborne raids, particularly by Picts on the east coast of England. The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was
to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries (known as foederati), to whom they ceded territory. In about 442 the AngloSaxons mutinied, apparently because they had not been paid. The Romano-British responded by appealing to the Roman
commander of the Western empire, Aëtius, for help, even though Honorius, the Western Roman Emperor, had written to the
British civitas in or about 410 telling them to look to their own defence. There then followed several years of fighting between
the British and the Anglo-Saxons.The fighting continued until around 500, when, at the Battle of Mount Badon, the Britons
inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons.

Hengist and Horsa (respectively d. c. 488; d. 455?), brothers and legendary leaders of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers
in Britain who went there, according to the English historian and theologian Bede, to fight for the British king
Vortigern against the Picts between AD 446 and 454. The brothers are said to have been Jutes and sons of one
Wihtgils.
•British leader Vortigern invites the Jute leaders Hengest and Horsa into alliance against the Picts;
•Saxons rebel against Britons 442

•British Celts driven into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany (on northwest coast of France)

•British resistance under King Arthur (?); British victory at Mt. Badon, A.D. 500

•Early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia (Angles),Kent (Jutes),Essex, Sussex,
Wessex (Saxons)

•Pope Gregory sends the Benedictine monk St. Augustine to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons ( 597)

•Aethelbert I of Kent converted to Christianity by Augustine; first Christian king of England
• persistence of pagan customs, pagan burial of East-Anglian Raedwald at Sutton Hoo, 625 A.D.

•growth of religious, scholarly and cultural centres in monasteries:

Lindisfarne, York, Winchester, Glastonbury
• first Viking attacks 787; sack of the monastery of Lindisfarne – 793

• King Alfred the Great (849-899), king of Wessex, victories over Vikings;

• 886 Alfred captures London and is recognized as king of all England (except for Danish parts);

• Alfred promotes learning and translation; beginnings of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;

• around 1000 - Monastic revival; manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon poetry are written;

• Danish Canute (Cnut), king of England (1016-1035)

• Norman invasion;William the Conqueror wins the Battle of Hastings 1066
Wrritten sources for A-S history:

Tacitus, in full Publius Cornelius Tacitus, or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, (born AD 56—died c. 120), Roman
orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who
wrote in the Latin language. Among his works are the Germania, describing the Germanic tribes, the
Historiae (Histories), concerning the Roman Empire from AD 69 to 96, and the later Annals, dealing with
the empire in the period from AD 14 to 68. The Germania is another descriptive piece, this time of the
Roman frontier on the Rhine. Tacitus emphasizes the simple virtue as well as the primitive vices of the
Germanic tribes, in contrast to the moral laxity of contemporary Rome, and the threat that these tribes,
if they acted together, could present to Roman Gaul. Here his writing goes beyond geography to political
ethnography. The work gives an administrator’s appreciation of the German situation, and to this extent
the work serves as a historical introduction to the Germans.

Gildas, also spelled Gildus, (died 570?), British historian of the 6th century. A monk, he founded a
monastery in Brittany known after him as St. Gildas de Rhuys. His De excidio et conquestu Britanniae
(“The Overthrow and Conquest of Britain”), one of the few sources for the country’s post-Roman
history, contains the story of the British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus and the defeat of the Saxons at
Mons Badonicus. Gildas then condemned the corrupt priests and noblemen who came to power in the
years following the Saxon defeat. the De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, a work by the 6th-century
British monk Gildas that suggests a long-established Christian tradition of Romano-British derivation,
they postulate that the trade and cultural contacts along the western seaways may have served not to
introduce Christianity or to revitalize a lingering faith but to bring to an existing church a form of
monasticism that had proved to be an important influence in the development of the Gallic church.

St. Bede the Venerable, Bede also spelled Baeda or Beda, (born 672/673, traditionally Monkton in
Jarrow, Northumbria [England]—died May 25, 735, Jarrow; canonized 1899; feast day May 25), AngloSaxon theologian, historian, and chronologist. St. Bede is best known for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis
Anglorum (“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”), a source vital to the history of the conversion
to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. In 731/732 Bede completed his Historia ecclesiastica. Divided
into five books, it recorded events in Britain from the raids by Julius Caesar (55–54 BCE) to the arrival in
Kent (597 CE) of St. Augustine of Canterbury. For his sources, he claimed the authority of ancient letters,
the “traditions of our forefathers,” and his own knowledge of contemporary events. Bede’s Historia
ecclesiastica leaves gaps tantalizing to secular historians. Although overloaded with the miraculous, it is
the work of a scholar anxious to assess the accuracy of his sources and to record only what he regarded
as trustworthy evidence. It remains an indispensable source for some of the facts and much of the feel
of early Anglo-Saxon history.

Nennius, (flourished c. 800), Welsh antiquary who between 796 and about 830 compiled or revised the
Historia Brittonum, a miscellaneous collection of historical and topographical information including a
description of the inhabitants and invaders of Britain and providing the earliest-known reference to the
British king Arthur. In the preface to the Historia he describes himself as a disciple of Elvodugus (d. 809),
chief bishop in Gwynedd.The Historia Brittonum has survived in about 35 manuscripts, dating from the
early 10th to the 13th century. Besides the preface, it contains an account of the six ages of the world,
a description of the inhabitants and invaders of Britain, a section on St. Patrick, a list of 12 victories
ascribed to Arthur, some Anglian genealogies, and accounts of 28 cities and of various “marvels” in
Britain. The fullest manuscript (British Museum Manuscript Harleian 3859) also contains two later
interpolations.The controversy as to whether Nennius himself composed the Historia Brittonum or
merely adapted and edited an earlier version is still unresolved.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, chronological account of events in Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, a
compilation of seven surviving interrelated manuscript records that is the primary source for the early
history of England. The narrative was first assembled in the reign of King Alfred (871–899) from materials
that included some epitome of universal history: the Venerable Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis
Anglorum, genealogies, regnal and episcopal lists, a few northern annals, and probably some sets of
earlier West Saxon annals. The compiler also had access to a set of Frankish annals for the late 9th
century. Soon after the year 890 several manuscripts were being circulated; one was available to Asser
in 893, another, which appears to have gone no further than that year, to the late 10th-century
chronicler Aethelweard, while one version, which eventually reached the north and which is best
represented by the surviving E version, stopped in 892. Some of the manuscripts circulated at this time
were continued in various religious houses, sometimes with annals that occur in more than one
manuscript, sometimes with local material, confined to one version. The fullness and quality of the
entries vary at different periods; the Chronicle is a rather barren document for the mid-10th century
and for the reign of Canute, for example, but it is an excellent authority for the reign of Aethelred the
Unready and from the reign of Edward the Confessor until the version that was kept up longest ends
with annal 1154.The Chronicle survived to the modern period in seven manuscripts (one of these being
destroyed in the 18th century) and a fragment, which are generally known by letters of the alphabet.
The oldest, the A version, formally known as C.C.C. Cant. 173 from the fact that it is at Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, is written in one hand up to 891 and then continued in various hands,
approximately contemporary with the entries. It was at Winchester in the mid-10th century and may
have been written there. It is the only source for the account of the later campaigns of King Edward the
Elder. Little was added to this manuscript after 975, and in the 11th century it was removed to Christ
Church, Canterbury, where various interpolations and alterations were made, some by the scribe of the
F version. The manuscript G, formally known as Cotton Otho B xi (from the fact that it forms part of the
Cotton collection of manuscripts at the British Museum), which was almost completely destroyed by
fire in 1731, contained an 11th-century copy of A, before this was tampered with at Canterbury. Its text
is known from a 16th-century transcript by L. Nowell and from Abraham Wheloc’s edition (1644).

Numerous legal documents
The Runic Alphabet (Futhorc)
Old English Alphabet
Manuscripts with Old English Poetry (all written circa 1000AD.)

Beowulf Ms. (Cottonian Ms.), today in British Museum

Exeter Book, today in Exeter Cathedral (elegies, riddles and religious poems)

Junius Ms., (Caedmon Ms.) in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (religious poetry, Old Testament paraphrases)

Vercelli Book, today in Italy (the Dream of the Rood, other religious poems, homiletic prose)
INDIVIDUAL TEXTS EARLIER THAN THE MANUSCRIPTS:

CAEDMON’S HYMN , in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (731)

Fragment of DREAM OF THE ROOD,inscription on the stone cross from RUTHWELL, (late 8th century)
OLD ENGLISH HEROIC POETRY

BEOWULF composed between 678 and 730, over 3000 lines long

THE BATTLE OF FINNSBURGH 48 lines found on a single leaf of parchment – then lost again; known only from
a 1706 transription; battle referred to in Beowulf;

THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 73 lines about the victory of the Saxon King Athelstan over Norse invaders in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 937

THE BATTLE OF MALDON ( 991), manuscript destroyed in 1731
Major qualities of Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry:
• Composed of rhythmical alliterative verse
• elevated poetic language; formulaic:
- kenning (meodosetla = mead-seat, hronrade = whale-road)
- appositive phrase
- periphrase („The bolster received the warrior’s head”)
• Stories: heroic deeds of individual „superhuman” warriors
• Themes and values promoted: martial prowess, courage, loyalty, trustworthiness, honour, revenge
• Christian in narrative perspective with some pagan echoes
• Didactic in tone: provervial truths contained in gnomic verses*
*Frost shall freeze
fire eat wood
earth shall breed
ice shall bridge
water a shield wear.
One shall break
frost’s fetters
free the grain
from wonder-lock
—One who all can.
Anglo-Saxon elegiac poems
 The Ruin ("The Ruin" is an elegy in Old English, written by an unknown author probably in the
8th or 9th century, and published in the 10th century in the Exeter Book, a large collection of
poems and riddles.[1] The poem evokes the former glory of a ruined Roman city by juxtaposing
the grand, lively past state with the decaying present.)
OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES (Exeter Book)
 THE WANDERER (EARDSTAPA) ->The poem begins with the Wanderer asking the Lord for understanding
and compassion during his exile at sea. He cannot avoid going to sea, however, because this life is his fate.The Wanderer goes on to
recall the hardships he has faced in his life, like watching his kinsmen be ruined and even slaughtered. He knows that while he is
lonely and isolated, he will think about these things constantly. There is no living person with whom the Wanderer can share what is in
his heart. He knows that it is dignified for a man to keep his feelings to himself. He then argues that no matter how hard a man tries to
contain his emotions, he can never avoid his fate. An ambitious man can conceal his sorrowful heart, but he cannot escape it. The
Wanderer returns to his own example. His kind lord died of old age and as a result, the Wanderer has been exiled from his country. He
left home with the coldness of winter in his heart and sailed the rough waves in search of a new lord. He was friendless, yearning for
the comforts and pleasures of a new mead-hall, but found none.The Wanderer relates his tale to his readers, claiming that those who
have experienced exile will understand how cruel loneliness can feel. The Wanderer is freezing cold, remembering the grand halls
where he rejoiced, the treasure he was given, and the graciousness of his lord. All of these joys have now disappeared. He claims that
any man who stops receiving the wisdom of his lord will be filled with a similar sadness. Even when he sleeps, this lord-less man
dreams of happier days when he could lay his hands and head upon his lord's knees. When he awakens, the lonely man will be forced
to face his friendless reality, surrounded by the dark waves, frost, and snow. The rich happiness of a man's dreams make his solitude
even more miserable. He will imagine the faces of his kinsmen and greet them joyfully with song, but alas, the memories are transient.
A seaman's spirit goes through these bouts of agony every time he finds himself alone, which makes his overall sorrow more
acute.The Wanderer then goes on to contemplate how lords are frequently forced out of their halls and away from their kingdoms. He
questions why he feels so unhappy when comparatively, the tribulations lords face are usually much more severe. He then realizes
that the world is constantly fluctuating and a man's life experiences, good and bad, are ultimately what make him wise. The Wanderer
lists the lessons that he has learned; that a wise man must not be hasty in speech, rash or fickle in battle, and he must not be nervous,
greedy, or boastful. A wise man must not boast until he is free of doubt. A wise man must accept that riches fade, buildings fall, lords
die, and their followers die or disperse. The Wanderer offers a few examples of the latter, citing men who died in battle, men who
drowned, one man who who was carried off by a bird, and another who was killed by a wolf.The Wanderer now expands his ruminations towards the supernatural. He says that the Creator of Men has made the world unpredictable, and that hardships can happen to
anyone at any time. Things can go from bad to good in a moment. The Wanderer hypothesizes that the Creator of Men, who created
human civilization and conflict, is also wise. Even He has memories of battles, remembering one certain horse or man. He, like the
Wanderer, also must lament the loss of treasure, festivities, and glorious leaders. The Wanderer contemplates the way that all these
things disappear in time, leaving behind nothing but darkness.The Wanderer's former kingdom rots behind a wall covered in the carcasses of serpents. There is no longer any music, or powerful weaponry. Winter brings violent snowstorms and longer nightfall, leaving
men frightened and helpless. However, the Wanderer concludes, life is difficult at times. Everything is subject to fate. Wealth fades,
friends leave, and kingdoms fall. The Wanderer now ascribes these words to a wise man, or a sage, in meditation. He describes this
man as someone who is steady in his faith and, when something bad happens, he does not panic, but rather, stays calm until he can
figure out a solution. In conclusion, the Wanderer advises all men to look to God for comfort, since He is the one who is responsible for
the fate of mankind.
 THE SEAFARER ->
The Seafarer starts recalling his travels, and how he has endured much hardship during his time at
sea. When he would take the position of night watchman at the prow (or bow) of his ship, he would be drenched and overwhelmed by
the wildness of the waves and the sharpness of the cliffs. His feet would be frozen, and his insides ravaged by hunger in a way only
seamen can understand.The Seafarer claims that land-dwellers cannot comprehend the pain of spending winter in exile at sea, estranged from one's kinsmen and miserable in the cold. All alone, the Seafarer recounts that all he could hear was the roaring of the sea
waves. Sometimes he would pretend that the calls of birds were actually the sounds of fellow sailors, drinking mead and singing songs.
Alas, the Seafarer has no companion or earthly protector at sea.The Seafarer laments that city men, who are red-faced with wine and
enjoy an easy life, find it hard to fathom how the fatigued seafarer could consider the violent waters his home. The shadows are darker
at night, and during snowfall, the earth is oppressed by frost and hail. Similarly, the Seafarer's heart is oppressed by his need to prove
himself at sea. He feels compelled to take new journeys to faraway lands, surrounded by strangers. He claims that there is no man in
the world who would be fearless about a treacherous sea journey, no matter how courageous, strong, or good he might be, and no
matter how benevolent God has been to him in the past. A sea-journeying man, though, does not desire women, treasure, or worldly
pleasures. He is always longing for the rolling waves.During springtime, when flowers are blooming and plains are green, the Seafarer's mind prompts him to depart on a new journey. The cuckoo's song foretells the arrival of summer and brings the knowledge of
coming sorrow into the man's heart. The narrator reminds his readers that rich men on land do not know the level of suffering that exiles endure.The Seafarer, once again relating his own story, describes how his spirit leaps across the seas and travels the waves,
wandering for miles before returning, filled with anticipation. Meanwhile, the lone bird's cry "urges [his] heart" to take to the ocean's
watery ways.Now, the Seafarer proclaims that the Lord's joy is more exciting than a fleeting "dead life" on Earth. The wealth of the
Earth will wither someday, because it cannot survive forever. Men and women on earth will perish due to either illness, old age, or
armed conflict, none of which are predictable. The Seafarer urges every person to perform great deeds against the Devil so that, when
that person does die, he or she will go to Heaven and his children will honor him.The narrator observes that the days of glory in the
Earth's kingdom have passed. The powerful kings and "gold-giving" lords of yore are no more. Now, weak men hold all the power and
display none of their predecessors' dignity. Old age makes men's faces grow pale, their bodies slow down, and their minds weaken.
Even if a man fills his brother's grave with gold on Earth, it does not matter because his brother cannot take the gold with him into the
afterlife. A soul filled with sin cannot be hidden beneath gold, because the Lord will find it.God's wrath is great and powerful. After all,
He created the earth, the heavens, and the sea. The narrator proclaims that any man who does not fear God is foolish, and His power
will catch the unassuming man unawares. Humble men are happy and able to draw strength from God. God's hand is stronger than
the mind of any man. Even if a man is master of his home on Earth, he must remember that in the afterlife, his happiness depends on
God. Therefore, it is in every man's best interest to honor the Lord in his life, and remain humble and faithful throughout.
 THE RUIN ->
The narrator of the poem begins by describing a damaged stone wall "wrecked by fate". The old houses
around it are falling apart, their roofs are caving in, their towers are crumbling, their gates are broken, and frost clings to the mortar.The
unnamed craftsmen who built these structures over a hundred generations ago are now buried in the ground. The surviving walls have
outlived the inhabitants of many kingdoms. The structures have withstood violent storms even when the main gate gave way to nature's fury.A craftsman used his determination and intellect to build this city. He used metal rods to create a strong foundation. The
narrator describes the man's technique as a "marvel". When it was complete, the city boasted majestic halls and numerous bathhouses. The mead hall was always filled with the loud and boisterous clamor of the military men. Soon, though, fate altered the course
of this thriving metropolis.The plague ravaged the population, and even the strongest men could not withstand the pestilence. The city
builders and warriors perished alike, leaving empty ramparts throughout the city. Without the human resources necessary to maintain
it, the city fell into decay.Now, the poem continues, the courts are crumbling and tiles are falling off the arches. The proud city where
men dressed in gold, their cheeks red with wine, would lavishly celebrate their wealth has since been reduced to piles of stone.The
courts were made of stone and heated baths surrounded by walls. The poem's last few discernable fragments could indicate that the
baths somehow connect to the city's noble inhabitants, but it is unclear.
 THE WIFE’S COMPLAINT->
Written in the first person, the titular wife begins by saying that her words come from
a "deep sadness", which is a result of her exile. She has never experienced hardship like this before. She is tortured by her isolation.She explains that her misery began when her lord left their family and sailed away, leaving her behind. She was consumed with
anxiety about his whereabouts. Taking action, she decided to undertake a quest to find him, setting out as a lonely and "friendless
wanderer." However, her lord's kinsmen did not want the couple to be reunited and devised plans to keep them on opposite sides of
the "wide world." The continued separation left the wife heartbroken and longing for her husband.She shares that ultimately, her lord
requested her to live with him in a new country. She moved to this strange place where she had no friends, which made her sad and
lonely. Also, she quickly discovered that her husband had been plotting behind her back. Beneath his proclamations of love, "behind
[his] smiling face," he was actually planning to commit mortal crimes. She remembers the good times of their marriage, when they had
sworn to each other that only death could part them. Sadly, she relays, she realized that she could never feel fondness for this man
again. Their friendship vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.The Wife continued to face hardship as a result of her wayward lord and his ongoing schemes. To stay safe, she went to live in a forest grove in a cave under an oak tree, and that where she is
writing her lament. The cavern is very old and leaves her filled with longing. The landscape around her is bleak, the valleys are
"gloomy," the hills are high, the strongholds are overgrown with briars, and there is no joy to be found anywhere.The Wife describes
her despair over her estrangement from her husband. She thinks of happy lovers who lie together in bed on summer days while she
lives alone in the earth-cave under the oak tree. She is unable to quiet her mind or find any relief from her suffering.She resents the
fact that young women are supposed to be serious and courageous, hiding their heartaches behind a smiling face.She finishes her
lament by invoking her husband again. She does not know if he has conquered his fate, or if he is exiled in another land, sitting beneath cliffs before the stormy sea, cold in body and weary in mind. The Wife knows that her husband is also filled with anguish and
constantly reminded of the happy home he has lost. She muses that grief is always present for those who are separated from a loved
one.
 THE HUSBAND’S MESSAGE->
is an anonymous Old English poem, 53 lines long[1] and found only on folio 123 of the Exeter
Book. The poem is cast as the private address of an unknown first-person speaker to a wife, challenging the reader to discover the
speaker's identity and the nature of the conversation, the mystery of which is enhanced by a burn-hole at the beginning of the poem.
 DEOR’S LAMENT -> Weyland was a strong man, and he was used to suffering, longing, and "wintry exile." One time, a
lesser man, Nithhad, captured him and bound him with tendons. However, Weland overcame that particular hardship, and the narrator
will also be able to overcome his struggles.
Beadohild had also experienced sorrow in her life, especially when her brothers died. However, she experienced an even higher level of distress
when she found out that she was pregnant. She knew that nothing good could come out of that situation. However, Beadohild surmounted this
obstacle, and the narrator believes that he can do the same.The narrator next presents the example of Geat, who was in love with Maethild.
Geat's love soon grew too great for him to withstand, and he was no longer able to sleep. He managed to overcome this barrier, and similarly, the
narrator will overcome his.Everyone knew about Theodric, who was the ruler of the Maering stronghold for thirty years. He conquered his struggles, and the narrator will attain a similar outcome.Ermanaric had a "wolfish" mind and ruled over the realm of the Goths. During his reign, however, many of the warriors in the kingdom began to despair. They longed for the day that Ermanaric would be overthrown. Ermanaric overcame
the difficulties of his reign, and the narrator will similarly be able to withstand the challenges in his own life.The narrator goes on to share his belief
that when a man is sorrowful and has no pleasure in his life, the sadness can consume him. This man may start to believe that God above follows
a shrewd pattern of granting glory to some men and heaping sadness on others.Finally the narrator reveals his identity and shares his own story.
He was formerly known as Deor, and served as a scop for the Heodeningas. He was a favorite of his kind lord. Although Deor served faithfully for
many years, he was ousted and replaced by Heorrenda, a skillful bard. The narrator claims that he was able to overcome that struggle, and he
hopes that he will be able to remain resilient.
 WIDSITH -> Modern English Far Traveler, Old English poem, probably from the 7th century, that is preserved in the
Exeter Book, a 10th-century collection of Old English poetry. “Widsith” is an idealized self-portrait of a scop (minstrel)
of the Germanic heroic age who wandered widely and was welcomed in many mead halls, where he entertained the
great of many kingdoms. Because the heroic figures the minstrel claims to have visited range from the 4th to the 6th
century, the poem is obviously a fictitious account; nevertheless, it is an ingenious compendium of the important figures
in Germanic hero legend and a remarkable record of the scop’s role in early Germanic society.
ELGIES
•Most compelling short poems, compact, lyrical in tone, powerful imagery
•An isolated speaker who suffered loss of lord or kinsman
•Personal complaint moving towards a general lament for the transitoriness of life
•Gnomic verses - consolation: Christian or philosophical (stoical)
Major themes:
•Lordlessness
•Deserted hall = elegiac topos
•Vanity of worldly life
•Ubi sunt?
•Exile, loss, suffering, mutability, decay, mortality (based on A-S experience),
•separation, longing, endurance
Old English Religious Poems:
Caedmon’s scriptural poems (7th c.)
 Junius Ms: • Genesis • Exodus • Daniel • Christ and Satan
 Beowulf Ms: • Judith
Cynewulf, possibly Bishop of Lindisfarne (8-9th c.)
 Exeter Book • Juliana • Guthlac • Christ (signed by Cynewulf in runic letters)
 Vercelli Ms: • Andreas • Elene • The Dream of the Rood
Irish Monasticism:
St. Ninian at Whithorn (397)
St. Colomba at Iona (563)
St. Aidan at Lindisfarne (635)
Anglo-Saxon Monasticism:
Glastonbury (early 7th c) – believed to be Avalon –King Arthur’s grave (?)
Jarrow (Beda Venerabilis)
OLD ENGLISH MONASTIC CULTURE AND ANGLO-SAXON PROSE IN LATIN:

ALDHELM (640-709), bishop of Sherborne
Letters and educational prose

BEDA VENERABILIS (673-735), in Jarrow
Hiatoria Eccleasiastica Gentis Anglorum
(reputedly: dictated a translation of St.John’s Gospel on his death bed – now lost)

ALCUIN (735-804) in York, from 790 with Charlemagne in France (one of the architects of the Carolignian
Renaissance)
letters, poems, educational prose

NENNIUS (10th c.)
Historia Britonum
PROSE IN ANGLO-SAXON:

ALFRED, King of Wessex (849-901)
Translations: Bede’s Eclesiastical History
Pope Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis
Orosius’ Historia Adversus Paganos (added fragments on A-S history and geaography)
St Augustin’e Soliloquies
Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae

AELFRIC, Abbot of Eynsham near Oxford (955-1022)
Catholic Homilies , Lives of the Saints, Colloquy (Latin textbook)

WULFSTAN, Archbishop of York
THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE (started 870’s):
Abingdon, Canterbury, Winchester, Worcester, (until 1079), Peterborough till 1154)
The earliest vernacular history of a European country – nine versions
'Then Count William came from Normandy to Pevensey on
Michaelmas Eve, and as soon as they were able to move on
they built a castle at Hastings. King Harold was informed of this
and he assembled a large army and came against him at the
hoary apple tree. And William came against him by surprise
before his army was drawn up in battle array. But the king
nevertheless fought hard against him, with the men who were
willing to support him, and there were heavy casualties on both
sides. Then King Harold was killed, and Earl Leofwine his
brother, and Earl Grythe his brother, and many good men, and
the French remained masters of the field...‚
THE CULTURE OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
1. Medieval hierarchies
- Aristotle’s Chain of Being
- Ptolemaic universe
- The feudal society
2. Medieval scholastic philosphy (major percepts and leading
thinkers) - Scholasticism, the philosophical systems and speculative tendencies of various medieval
Christian thinkers, who, working against a background of fixed religious dogma, sought to solve anew
general philosophical problems (as of faith and reason, will and intellect, realism and nominalism, and
the provability of the existence of God), initially under the influence of the mystical and intuitional
tradition of patristic philosophy, and especially Augustinianism, and later under that of Aristotle.
3. The emergence of a new courtly culture (Provance, Aquitaine)
The feudal society: a hierarchy of dependencies based on the principle of land ownership and
social divisions understood as natural and created by God.
ALLEGORY OF THE THREE ESTATES
Feudal society was traditionally divided into three "estates" (roughly equivalent to social classes).
The "First Estate" was the Church (clergy = those who prayed). The "Second Estate" was the Nobility
(those who fought = knights). It was common for aristocrats to enter the Church and thus shift from
the second to the first estate. The "Third Estate" was the Peasantry (everyone else, at least under
feudalism: those who produced the food which supported those who prayed and those who fought,
the members of the First and Second Estates). Note that the categories defined by these traditional
"estates" are gender specific: they are defined by what a man does for a living as much as by the
social class into which he was born. Women were classified differently. Like men, medieval women
were born into the second or third estate, and might eventually become members of the first (by
entering the Church, willingly or not). But women were also categorized according to three
specifically "feminine estates": virgin, wife and widow. It is interesting to note that a woman's estate
was determined not by her profession but by her sexual activity: she is defined in relationship to the
men with whom she sleeps, used to sleep, or never has slept.
The rigid division of society into the three traditional "estates" begins to break down in the later
Middle Ages. By the time of Chaucer (mid-fourteenth century), we see the rise of a mercantile class
(mercantile = merchants) in the cities, i.e. an urban middle-class, as well as a new subdivision of the
clergy: intellectuals trained in literature and writing (and thus "clerics" like Chaucer's Clerk), but who
were not destined to a professional career within the Church. Chaucer arguably belonged to both of
these new categories. What biographical details may have made him particularly sensitive to issues
of social class? (Review the lyric poem "Gentilesse"; what does the line repeated at the end of each
verse have to say about this issue?)
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is highly conscious of the social divisions known as the "Estates."
While the genre of the Canterbury Tales as a whole is a "frame narrative," the General Prologue to
the Canterbury Tales is an example of "Estates Satire," a genre which satirizes the abuses that occur
within the three traditional Estates (in particular, the Clergy). In her personal Prologue, the Wife of
Bath argues forcefully that the feminine estates of "wife" and "widow" should be valued as much as
that of "virgin."
The characters described by Chaucer in the General Prologue have gathered at the Inn in Southwark
prior to departing on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. What is the usefulness of this situation to Chaucer?
(What sort of people went on pilgrimages?) From what walks of life do the pilgrims come? Note that
Chaucer takes care to include representatives of all three traditional "male"and "female" estates (the
Wife of Bath represents both "wife" and "widow," while the Prioress, a nun, is presumably a virgin).
Look for an idealized portrait of each of the traditional (male) "estates." Which portraits are satirical?
Note also the portraits representing two new groups that were gaining prominence in the fourteenth
century: the middle class and intellectuals (people trained as "clerks" -- i.e."clerics" -- but who are
not destined to a career within the church).
Scholasticism: the dominant western Christian theological and philosophical school of the
Middle Ages, based on the authority of the Latin Fathers and of Aristotle and his
commentators.
Provance and Aquitain in the 11th and 12th c. in close contact with the Muslim Spain.
The Mediterranean lifestyle develops new interests in: •pleasures of earthly life, •appeal of
courtly riches and courtly etiquette, •cult of romantic love (amour courteois ) ->Andreas
Capellanus, De Amore •ideals of courtesy and chivalry, •new perception of women.
The court of Bourdeaux became a centre of the new culture under William IX, protector of
poets, himself a troubadour of love and chivalric adventure.
ELEONORE OF AQUITAIN (1122-1204), William’s granddaughter •marries Henry Plantagenet
(future king Henry II), •moves to London and transfers the new culture to England, •mother
of two English kings: Richard the Lionhearted and John. •Patroness of Wace, Benoît de
Sainte-More, and Chrétien de Troyes.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
1359-1360 – soldier in the French war;
• in the 1360’s attached to the royal court of Edward III, later Richard II; • connected with
the court of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; marries Phillippa Roet; • in 1370s sent on
diplomatic and economic missions to Italy and France; • in 1374 he made the controller of
the customs for wool and hinds; • later justice of the Peace for Kent and in 1387 member of
Parliament; • in 1389 becomes clerk of the works for Richard II; • in 1390’s resigned his jobs
and lived on a royal pension; • died in 1400 , buried in Westminster Abbey.
Geoffrey Chaucer, (born c. 1342/43, London?, England—died October 25, 1400, London), the
outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of our language.” His The
Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English. He also contributed
importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management of public affairs as
courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three
successive kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his avocation—the writing of
poetry—for which he is remembered.
Chaucer’s great literary accomplishment of the 1390s was The Canterbury Tales. In it a group of about 30
pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the Thames from London, and agree to engage in a
storytelling contest as they travel on horseback to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury, Kent, and back.
Harry Bailly, host of the Tabard, serves as master of ceremonies for the contest. The pilgrims are introduced by
vivid brief sketches in the General Prologue. Interspersed between the 24 tales told by the pilgrims are short
dramatic scenes presenting lively exchanges, called links and usually involving the host and one or more of the
pilgrims. Chaucer did not complete the full plan for his book: the return journey from Canterbury is not
included, and some of the pilgrims do not tell stories. Further, the surviving manuscripts leave room for doubt
at some points as to Chaucer’s intent for arranging the material. The work is nevertheless sufficiently complete
to be considered a unified book rather than a collection of unfinished fragments. Use of a pilgrimage as a
framing device for the collection of stories enabled Chaucer to bring together people from many walks of life:
knight, prioress, monk; merchant, man of law, franklin, scholarly clerk; miller, reeve, pardoner; wife of Bath and
many others. Also, the pilgrimage and the storytelling contest allowed presentation of a highly varied collection
of literary genres: courtly romance, racy fabliau, saint’s life, allegorical tale, beast fable, medieval sermon,
alchemical account, and, at times, mixtures of these genres. Because of this structure, the sketches, the links,
and the tales all fuse as complex presentations of the pilgrims, while at the same time the tales present
remarkable examples of short stories in verse, plus two expositions in prose. In addition, the pilgrimage,
combining a fundamentally religious purpose with its secular aspect of vacation in the spring, made possible
extended consideration of the relationship between the pleasures and vices of this world and the spiritual
aspirations for the next, that seeming dichotomy with which Chaucer, like Boethius and many other medieval
writers, was so steadily concerned.
Chaucer’s works
• ROMAN DE LAROSE (1360’s) translation of the romance by JEAN DE MEUN and
GUILLAUME DE LORRIS
• THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS (1370) – elegy on the death of Blanche of Lancaster; indebted
to poems by JEAN FROISSART and GUILLAUME DE MACHAULT
• PARLIAMENT OF FOWLES (late 1370’s) – a discussion of the nature of courtly love in a
dream vision form
• THE HOUSE OF FAME (late 1370’s – early 1380’s) – unfinished; dream vision on the
fickleness of fame and fortune;
• TRANSLATION OF BOETHIUS’ CONSOLATIO PHILOSOPHIAE in prose;
• TRANSLATION OF THE TREATISE OF THE ASTROLABE an exposition of problems of
astronomy and astrology;
• TROILUS AND CRISEYDE (1386) – a Trojan story of love and infidelity based on Boccaccio’s
IL FILOSTRATO
• THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN (1386) – a collection of tales about faithful women;
unfinished.
THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386-1400)
 ROMANCES: • The Knight’s tale (chivalric romance based on Boccaccio’s Theseide) •
The wife of bath’s tale (Arthurian romance in an ironic framework of the Wife of
Bath’s Prologue) • The Clerk’s take (story of the patient Grisedla based on Boccacio’s
Decameron) • The Franklin’s Tale (story of Arveragus and Dorigen on equal status in
marriage and the importance of a given word) • Tale of Melibeus (told by Chaucer –
an anti-romance)
 PIOUS TALES • The Prioress’ Tale (a Marian miracle story – antisemitic) • The
Physician’s Tale • The Man of Law’s Tale

EXEMPLA • The Monk’s Tale (De Casibus Virorum Illustrium) • The Pardoner’s Tale
(Radix malorum est cupiditas) • The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (animal fable tradition,
debate)
 FABLIEAX : bawdy low-class narratives on promiscuous characters; often mysoginist
• The Reeve’s Tale • The Miller’s Tale • The Cook’s Tale
 THE RETRACTATION (apology for the bawdy parts of his works)
Wherfore I biseke yow mekely, for the mercy Of God, that ye preye for me that crist
have Mercy on me and foryeve me my giltes;/ and Namely of my translacions and
enditynges of Worldly vanitees, the whiche I revoke in My retracciouns:/ as is the
book of Troilus; the book also of Fame; the book of The xxv. Ladies; the book of the
duchesse; The book of seint valentynes day of the parlement of briddes; the tales of
counterbury, Thilke that sownen into synne;/ the book of the Leoun; and many
another book.
Chaucer’s contemporaries and followers

JOHN GOWER (1330-1408)
o Mirroir de l’homme (1376-79)
o Vox Clamantis (1381)
o
Confessio Amantis (1390-1393)
Illustration from Vox Clamantis:
"I throw my darts and shoot my arrows at the world. But where there is a righteous man, no arrow
strikes. But I wound those who live wickedly. Therefore let him who recognizes himself there look to
himself."
Chaucer named him „the moral Gower”.
John Gower, (born 1330?—died 1408, London?), medieval English poet in the tradition of courtly
love and moral allegory, whose reputation once matched that of his contemporary and
friend Geoffrey Chaucer, and who strongly influenced the writing of other poets of his day. After the
16th century his popularity waned, and interest in him did not revive until the middle of the 20th
century.
It is thought from Gower’s language that he was of Kentish origin, though his family may have come
from Yorkshire, and he was clearly a man of some wealth. Allusions in his poetryand other
documents, however, indicate that he knew London well and was probably a court official. At one
point, he professed acquaintance with Richard II, and in 1399 he was granted two pipes (casks) of
wine a year for life by Henry IV as a reward for complimentary references in one of his poems. In
1397, living as a layman in the priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, London, Gower married Agnes
Groundolf, who survived him. In 1400 Gower described himself as “senex et cecus” (“old and blind”),
and on Oct. 24, 1408, his will was proved; he left bequests to the Southwark priory, where he is
buried.
Gower’s three major works are in French, English, and Latin, and he also wrote a series of
French balades intended for the English court. The Speculum meditantis, or Mirour de l’omme, in
French, is composed of 12-line stanzas and opens impressively with a description of the devil’s
marriage to the seven daughters of sin; continuing with the marriage of reason and the seven virtues,
it ends with a searing examination of the sins of English society just before the Peasants’ Revolt of
1381: the denunciatory tone is relieved at the very end by a long hymn to the Virgin.
Gower’s major Latin poem, the Vox clamantis, owes much to Ovid; it is essentially a homily, being in
part a criticism of the three estates of society, in part a mirror for a prince, in elegiac form. The poet’s
political doctrines are traditional, but he uses the Latin language with fluency and elegance.
Gower’s English poems include In Praise of Peace, in which he pleads urgently with the king to avoid
the horrors of war, but his greatest English work is the Confessio amantis, essentially a collection
of exemplary tales of love, whereby Venus’ priest, Genius, instructs the poet, Amans, in the art of
both courtly and Christian love. The stories are chiefly adapted from classical and medieval sources
and are told with a tenderness and the restrained narrative art that constitute Gower’s main appeal
today.
 John Lydgate (1370-1451), a Benedictine monk of Bury
St. Edmunds
o The Siege of Thebes
o Troy Book (1412-14)
o
The Fall of Princes (1431-38)
His writing was supported by many aristocratic patrons.
John Lydgate, (born c. 1370, Lidgate, Suffolk, Eng.—died c. 1450, Bury St. Edmunds?), English poet, known
principally for long moralistic and devotional works.
In his Testament Lydgate says that while still a boy he became a novice in the Benedictine abbey of Bury St.
Edmunds, where he became a priest in 1397. He spent some time in Londonand Paris; but from 1415 he was
mainly at Bury, except during 1421–32 when he was prior of Hatfield Broad Oak in Essex.
Lydgate had few peers in his sheer productiveness; 145,000 lines of his verse survive. His only prose work, The
Serpent of Division (1422), an account of Julius Caesar, is brief. His poems vary from vast narratives such as The
Troy Book and The Falle of Princis to occasional poems of a few lines. Of the longer poems, one translated from
the French, the allegory Reason and Sensuality (c. 1408) on the theme of chastity, contains fresh and charming
descriptions of nature, in well-handled couplets. The Troy Book, begun in 1412 at the command of the prince of
Wales, later Henry V, and finished in 1421, is a rendering of Guido delle Colonne’s Historia troiana. It was
followed by The Siege of Thebes, in which the main story is drawn from a lost French romance, embellished by
features from Boccaccio.
John Lydgate and the Canterbury pilgrims leaving Canterbury, miniature from a manuscript containing The Troy
Book and The Siege of Thebes, c. 1455–62.Photos.com/Jupiterimages
Lydgate admired the work of Chaucer intensely and imitated his versification. In 1426 Lydgate translated
Guillaume de Deguilleville’s Le Pèlerinage de la vie humaine as The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, a stern
allegory; between 1431 and 1438 he was occupied with The Falle of Princis, translated into Chaucerian rhyme
royal from a French version of Boccaccio’s work. He also wrote love allegories such as The Complaint of the
Black Knight and The Temple of Glass, saints’ lives, versions of Aesop’s fables, many poems commissioned for
special occasions, and both religious and secular lyrics.
His work is uneven in quality, and the proportion of good poetry is small. Yet with all his faults, Lydgate at his
best wrote graceful and telling lines. His reputation long equalled Chaucer’s, and his work exercised immense
influence for nearly a century.
 THOMAS HOCCLEVE (1370-1426)
o The Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum (1412)
Author of courtly and religious poems
Thomas Hoccleve, Hoccleve also spelled Occleve, (born 1368/69, London—died c. 1450?, Southwick, Eng.),
English poet, contemporary and imitator of Chaucer, whose work has little literary merit but much value as social
history.
What little is known of Hoccleve’s life must be gathered mainly from his works. At age 18 or 19 he obtained a
clerkship in the privy seal office in London, which he retained intermittently for about 35 years. His earliest dated
poem, a translation of Christine de Pisan’s L’Épistre au dieu d’amours, appeared in 1402 as “The Letter of Cupid.”
His poem La Mâle Règle (1406; “The Male Regimen”) presents a vivid picture of the delights of a bachelor’s evening amusements in the taverns and cookshops of Westminster. Hoccleve married in about 1411.
In 1411 he produced The Regement of Princes, or De regimine principum, culled from a 13th-century work of the
same name, for Henry, Prince of Wales. A tedious homily, it contains a touching accolade to Chaucer, whose portrait Hoccleve had painted on the manuscript to ensure that his appearance would not be forgotten. In his later
years Hoccleve turned from the ballads addressed to his many patrons to serious religious verse and to recording
the ills of the day in a literal-minded manner that presents a clear picture of the time. His most interesting work, La
Mâle Règle, contains some realistic descriptions of London life.
Portrait of Chaucer from Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes (1412), where he pays
tribute to the poet.
SCOTTISH CHAUCERIANS:
 ROBERT HENRYSON (1450-1508)
o The Testament of Cressid
o The Moral Fables of Esope
Robert Henryson, Henryson also spelled Henderson, (born 1420/30?—died c. 1506), Scottish poet, the finest of
early fabulists in Britain. He is described on some early title pages as schoolmaster of Dunfermline—probably at
the Benedictine abbey school—and he appears among the dead poets in William Dunbar’s Lament for the Makaris, which was printed about 1508.
Henryson’s longest work is The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian, Compylit in Eloquent & Ornate Scottis, a
version of 13 fables based mainly on John Lydgate and William Caxton and running to more than 400 seven-line
stanzas. The collection has a prologue, and each tale is adorned with a moralitas. Its virtue lies in the freshness of
the narrative, in the sly humour and sympathy of Henryson’s animal characterization, and in his miniatures of the
Scottish countryside.
In The Testament of Cresseid, a narrative and “complaint” in 86 stanzas, Henryson completes the story of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, giving a grim and tragic account of the faithless heroine’s rejection by her lover Diomede and her decline into prostitution. The Testament is more than a splendid piece of rhetorical craftsmanship;
blended with Henryson’s unwavering concern for justice are an aesthetic attraction to the repulsive and grotesque
and a refined sense of the variance of human love.
Among the shorter poems ascribed to Henryson are the lovely Orpheus and Eurydice, based on Boethius and
akin to the Testament in mood and style; a pastourelle, Robene and Makyne, in which a traditional
French genre assimilates the speech and humour of the Scottish peasantry; and a number of fine moral narratives and meditations.

WILLIAM DUNBAR (1460-1520)
Poet at the court of James IV of Sctotland.
William Dunbar, (born 1460/65, Scotland—died before 1530), Middle Scots poet attached to the court of James IV who was the
dominant figure among the Scottish Chaucerians (seemakar) in the golden age of Scottish poetry.
He was probably of the family of the earls of Dunbar and March and may have received an M.A. degree from St. Andrews in
1479. It is believed that he was a Franciscan novice and travelled to England and France in the King’s service. In 1501 he was
certainly in England, probably in connection with the arrangements for the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor, which
took place in 1503. In 1500 he was granted a pension of £10 by the King. By 1504 he was in priest’s orders, and in 1510 he
received, as a mark of royal esteem, a pension of £80. In 1511 he accompanied the Queen to Aberdeen and celebrated in the
verse “Blyth Aberdeen” the entertainments provided by that city. After the King’s death at the Battle of Flodden(1513), he evidently received the benefice for which he had so often asked in verse, as there is no record of his pension after 1513.
With few exceptions the more than 100 poems attributed to Dunbar are short and occasional, written out of personal moods or
events at court. They range from the grossest satire to hymns of religious exaltation. Of his longer works, some are courtly
Chaucerian pieces like the dream allegory The Goldyn Targe, which wears its allegory very lightly and charms with descriptive
imagery. The Thrissill and the Rois is a nuptial song celebrating the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor.
In a quite different vein, the alliterative Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie is a virtuoso demonstration of personal abuse directed
against his professional rival Walter Kennedy, who is, incidentally, mentioned with affection in The Lament for the Makaris, Dunbar’s reminiscence of dead poets. Dunbar’s most celebrated and shocking satire is the alliterative Tretis of the tua mariit Wemen
and the Wedo (“Treatise of the Two Married Women and the Widow”).
Dunbar’s versatility was astonishing. He was at ease in hymn and satire, morality and obscene comedy, panegyric and begging
complaint, elegy and lampoon. His poetic vocabulary ranged through several levels, and he moved freely from one to another
for satiric effect. He wrote with uncommon frankness and wit, manipulating old themes and forms with imagination and originality. Like other Scots poets after him—notably Robert Burns—he was a vigorously creative traditionalist. In artistry and range,
though not in humanity, he was the finest of Scotland’s poets.
MIDDLE ENGLISH ROMANCE TRADITION
Continental precedents and inspirations:
 Marie de France (end of 12th c.), lived at Henry II’s court: Breton lays
(flourished 12th century), earliest known French woman poet, creator of verse narratives on romantic and magical
themes that perhaps inspired the musical lais of the later trouvères, and author of Aesopic and other fables,
called Ysopets. Her works, of considerable charm and talent, were probably written in England. What little is
known about her is taken or inferred from her writings and from a possible allusion or two in contemporary authors.
From a line in the epilogue to her fables, Claude Fauchet (1581) drew the name by which she has since been
known. The same epilogue states that her fables were translated from, or based on, an English source for a
Count William, usually identified as William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, or sometimes as William Marshal, Earl
of Pembroke. Her lais were dedicated to a “noble” king, presumably Henry II of England, though it is sometimes
thought that this was Henry’s son, the Young King. Her version of L’Espurgatoire Seint Patriz (“St. Patrick’s Purgatory”) was based on the Latin text (c. 1185) of Henry of Saltrey. Every conjecture about her has been hotly debated.
Her lais varied in length from the 118 lines of Chevrefoil (“The Honeysuckle”), an episode in the Tristan story, to
the 1,184 lines of Eliduc, a story of the devotion of a first wife whose husband brings a second wife from overseas.
 Chretien de Troyes (1135-1185):
Erec and Enide (1170) – first Arthurian romance
Parcifal of Wales and the Story of the Holy Grail
Lancelot,
the Knight of the Cart
(flourished 1165–80), French poet who is known as the author of five Arthurian romances: Erec; Cligès; Lancelot,
ou Le Chevalier à la charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au lion; and Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal. The non-Arthurian tale Guillaume d’Angleterre, based on the legend of St. Eustace, may also have been written by Chrétien.
Little is known of Chrétien’s life. He apparently frequented the court of Marie, comtesse de Champagne, and he
may have visited England. His tales, written in the vernacular, followed the appearance
in France of Wace’s Roman de Brut (1155), a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae,
which introduced Britain and the Arthurian legend to continental Europe. Chrétien’s romances were imitated
almost immediately by other French poets and were translated and adapted frequently during the next few
centuries as the romance continued to develop as a narrative form. Erec, for example, supplied some of the
material for the 14th-century poem Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight.Chrétien’s romances combine separate
adventures into a well-knit story. Erec is the tale of the submissive wife who proves her love for her husband by
disobeying his commands; Cligès, that of the victim of a marriage made under constraint who feigns death and
wakens to a new and happy life with her lover; Lancelot, an exaggerated but perhaps parodic treatment of the
lover who is servile to the god of love and to his imperious mistress Guinevere, wife of his overlord Arthur; Yvain,
a brilliant extravaganza, combining the theme of a widow’s too hasty marriage to her husband’s slayer with that of
the new husband’s fall from grace and final restoration to favour. Perceval, which Chrétien left unfinished, unites
the religious theme of the Holy Grail with fantastic adventure.
Chrétien was the initiator of the sophisticated courtly romance. Deeply versed in contemporary rhetoric, he treated
love casuistically and in a humorously detached fashion, bringing folklore themes and love situations together in
an Arthurian world of adventure. Interest in his works, at first concentrated on their folklore sources, was diverted
during the 20th century to their structure and narrative technique.
 Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170-1220), German minnesinger:
Parzifal
(born c. 1170—died c. 1220), German poet whose epic Parzival, distinguished alike by its moral elevation and its
imaginative power, is one of the most profound literary works of the Middle Ages. An impoverished Bavarian knight, Wolfram apparently served a succession of Franconian lords: Abensberg, Wildenberg, and Wertheim
are among the places he names in his work. He also knew the court of the landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia,
where he met the great medieval lyric poet Walther von der Vogelweide. Though a self-styled illiterate, Wolfram
showed an extensive acquaintance with French and German literature, and it is probable that he knew how to
read, if not how to write.
Wolfram’s surviving literary works, all bearing the stamp of his unusually original personality, consist of eight lyric
poems, chiefly Tagelieder (“Dawn Songs,” describing the parting of lovers at morning); the epic Parzival; the unfinished epic Willehalm, telling the history of the Crusader Guillaume d’Orange; and short fragments of a further
epic, the so-called Titurel, which elaborates the tragic love story of Sigune from book 3 of Parzival.
Parzival, probably written between 1200 and 1210, is a poem of 25,000 lines in 16 books. Almost certainly based
on an unfinished romance of Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval; ou, le conte du Graal, it introduced the theme of the
Holy Grail into German literature. Its beginning and end are new material, probably of Wolfram’s own invention,
although he attributes it to an unidentified and probably fictitious Provençal poet, Kyot (also spelled Kiot
and Guiot). The story of the ignorant and naive Parzival, who sets out on his adventures without even knowing his
own name, employs the classic fairy-tale motif of “the guileless fool” who, through innocence and artlessness,
reaches a goal denied to wiser men. Wolfram uses Parzival’s dramatic progress from folk-tale dunce to wise and
responsible keeper of the Grail to present a subtle allegory of man’s spiritual education and development. The
complexity of Wolfram’s theme is matched by his eccentric style, which is characterized by rhetorical flourishes, ambiguous syntax, and the free use of dialect.
Wolfram’s influence on later poets was profound, and he is a member, with Hartmann von Aue and Gottfried von
Strassburg, of the great triumvirate of Middle High German epic poets. Parzival also figures as the hero of Richard Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal (1882).
 Guillaume and Jean De Meun Le Roman de la Rose (1230-1275) –
allegorical dream vision about courtly love
(born c. 1240, Meung-sur-Loire, France—died before 1305), French poet famous for his continuation
of the Roman de la rose, an allegorical poem in the courtly love tradition begun by Guillaume de Lorris about 1225.
Jean de Meun’s original name was Clopinel, or Chopinel, but he became known by the name of his
birthplace. He probably owned a home in Paris and may have been archdeacon of the Beauce, a region between Paris and Orléans. Little is known of his life.
His poems are satiric, coarse, at times immoral, but fearless and outspoken in attacking the abuses of
the age. His strong antifeminism and censures on the vices of the church were bitterly resented.
Jean used the plot of the Roman de la rose (c. 1280) as a means of conveying a mass of encyclopaedic information and opinions on every topic likely to interest his contemporaries, especially the increasingly important bourgeois class. At various times he relates the history of classical heroes, attacks the
hoarding of money, and theorizes about astronomy and about the human duty to increase and multiply. Many of his views were hotly contested, but they held the attention of the age. The allegory itself
was of little importance to him; the famous “Confession” of Nature (one of the characters in the poem)
digressed from the narrative for some 3,500 verses, yet it was such digressions that secured the
poem’s reputation. Nearly a century later Geoffrey Chaucer translated a segment of the poem, and
some scholars hold that it influenced his work more than any other vernacular French or Italian poetry.
Marie de France
Roman de la rose, (French: “Romance of the Rose”) one of the most
popular French poems of the later Middle Ages. Modeled on Ovid’s Ars
amatoria (c. 1 BC; Art of Love), the poem is composed of more than 21,000
lines of octosyllabic couplets and survives in more than 300 manuscripts.
Little is known of the author of the first 4,058 lines except his name,
Guillaume de Lorris, and thus his birth in Lorris, a village near Orléans.
Guillaume’s section, written about 1225–30, is a charming dream allegory
of the wooing of a maiden, symbolized by a rosebud, within the bounds of a
garden, representing courtly society.
Pavane, “The Dance in the Garden” illumination from the Roman de la rose,
Toulouse, early 16th century; in the British Library (Harley MS 4425, fol. 14v)
Reproduced by permission of the British Library
No satisfactory conclusion was written until about 1280, when Jean de Meun
seized upon Guillaume’s plot as a means of conveying a vast mass of
encyclopaedic information and opinions on a great variety of contemporary
topics. The original theme is frequently obscured for thousands of lines while
the characters discourse at length. These digressions secured the poem’s fame
and success, for Jean de Meun was writing from a bourgeois point of view that
gradually superseded the aristocratic code of chivalry that had characterized
the early 13th century. His views were often bitterly contested, but they never
failed to hold the attention of the age.
Medieval walled garden combining a grassy and shaded pleasure area with an
herb garden, illumination from a 15th-century French manuscript of the Roman
de la rose (“Romance of the Rose”); in the British Museum.
The British Library (Public Domain)
A Middle English version, of which the first 1,705 lines were translated by
Geoffrey Chaucer, covers all of Guillaume de Lorris’s section and 3,000 lines of
Jean de Meun’s. The original Roman is the most important single literary
influence on Chaucer’s writings. In it he found not only the vision of idealized
love (fin’ amor), to which he was constant from youth to old age, but also the
suggestion and poetic example for much of the philosophizing, the scientific
interest, the satire, and even the comic bawdry found in his most mature work.
MIDDLE ENGLISH ROMANCE TRADITION:
AUCHINLECK MS: 14th century manuscript of English romances;
Plots of romances made up of: • war adventures, • internal feuds, • ousting usurper kings, •
crusades against the Saracens, • battles against supernatural foes, • love and chivalry, •
service for noble ladies, • dilemmas between loyalty and love, • QUESTS for information,
revenge or some magic objects.
Sources: classical, Oriental, Celtic, Germanic transformed by French romancers.
English romances focus more on ACTION AND ADVENTURE.
French romances focus more on COURTLY LOVE AND EMOTION.
Jean Bodel, French poet of 12th c., grouped romances by subjective matter:
•the Matter of ROME the Great: classical antiquity, Alexander the Great
•the Matter of FRANCE: Charlamagne and his paladins
• the Matter of BRITAIN: Arthur and the Round Table
THE MATTER OF ENGLAND: ROMANCES SET IN ENGLAND OR WITH ENGLISH
HEROS:

KING HORN (early 13th century) – follows the formula of expulsion of a hero and his
return after a series of adventures that prove his value.
King Horn, oddly written in short two- and three-stress lines, is a vigorous tale of a kingdom lost
and regained, with a subplot concerning Horn’s love for Princess Rymenhild.

HAVELOK THE DANE (late 13th century) – exile and return pattern.
Middle English metrical romance of some 3,000 lines, written c. 1300. Of the literature produced
after the Norman Conquest, it offers the first view of ordinary life. Composed in
a Lincolnshire dialect and containing many local traditions, it tells the story of the English
princess Goldeboru and the orphaned Danish prince Havelok, who defeats a usurper to become
king of Denmark and part of England.

SIR BEVES OF HAMTOUN (ca. 1300) – similar adventures found in many European
romances.

GUY OF WARWICK (ca. 1300) – a youthful champion of lower aristocracy gaining power
and fame by his deeds
English hero of romance whose story was popular in France and Englandfrom the 13th to the
17th century and was told in English broadside ballads as late as the 19th century. The kernel of
the story is a single combat in which Guy defeats Colbrand (a champion of the invading Danish
kings Anlaf and Gonelaph), thereby delivering Winchesterfrom Danish dominion. The Anlaf of
the story is probably the Norwegian king Olaf I Tryggvason, who, with Sven Forkbeard of Denmark, harried the southern counties of England in 993 and pitched his winter quarters at Southampton. Although the romance of Guy perhaps was inspired by some historical incident, Winchester was not in fact saved by the valour of an English champion but by the payment of
money.
The earliest French version of the tale probably dates from the 12th century; 13th-century versions survive in French and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. Four versions survive in English, as
translations from the French or Anglo-Norman, the two earliest dating from about 1300. One of
these has an appended sequel concerning Guy’s son Reinbrun. The strong religious interest of
the legend as it survives makes it likely that it had passed through monastic hands. The romance
is not distinguished by unity of structure or by grace of style and probably owed its popularity to
its combined secular and religious elements, furthered in England by its patriotic appeal.

ATHELSTON (ca 1350)
(died October 27, 939), first West Saxon kingto have effective rule over the whole of England.
On the death of his father, Edward the Elder, in 924, Athelstan was elected king of Wessex
and Mercia, where he had been brought up by his aunt, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians.
Crowned king of the whole country at Kingston on Sept. 4, 925, he proceeded to establish
boundaries and rule firmly. He annexed the Viking kingdom of York in 927. His dominion was
significantly challenged in 937 when Constantine of the Scots, Owain of Strathclyde, and Olaf
Guthfrithson, claimant of the kingdom of York, joined forces and invaded England. They were
routed at Brunanburh.
Six of Athelstan’s extant codes of law reveal stern efforts to suppress theft and punish corruption. They are notable in containing provisions intended to comfort the destitute and mitigate the
punishment of young offenders. The form and language of his many documents suggest the
presence of a corps of skilled clerks staffed by the cathedral of Winchester. Both his charters
and the silver coinage he issued through strictly controlled regional mints bore the proud title Rex totius Britanniae (“King of all Britain”).

RICHARD COEUR DE LION (early 14th c)
(born September 8, 1157, Oxford, England—died April 6, 1199, Châlus, duchy of Aquitaine), duke
of Aquitaine (from 1168) and of Poitiers (from 1172) and king of England, duke of Normandy, and
count of Anjou (1189–99). His knightly manner and his prowess in the Third Crusade (1189–92) made
him a popular king in his own time as well as the hero of countless romanticlegends. He has been
viewed less kindly by more recent historians and scholars.
Early Life
Richard was the third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was given the duchy of Aquitaine,
his mother’s inheritance, at age 11 and was enthroned as duke at Poitiers in 1172. Richard possessed precocious political and military ability, won fame for his knightly prowess, and quickly
learned how to control the turbulent aristocracy of Poitou and Gascony. Like all of Henry II’s legitimate sons, he had little or no filial piety, foresight, or sense of responsibility. He joined his brothers in
the great rebellion (1173–74) against their father, who invaded Aquitaine twice before Richard submitted and received pardon. Thereafter Richard was occupied with suppressing baronial revolts in his
own duchy. His harshness infuriated the Gascons, who revolted in 1183 and called in the help of the
“Young King” Henry and his brother Geoffrey of Brittany in an effort to drive Richard from his duchy
altogether. Alarmed at the threatened disintegration of his empire, Henry II brought the feudal host of
his continental lands to Richard’s aid, but the younger Henry died suddenly (June 11, 1183) and the
uprising collapsed.
Richard was now heir to England and to Normandy and Anjou (which were regarded as inseparable),
and his father wished him to yield Aquitaine to his youngest brother, John. But Richard, a true southerner, would not surrender the duchy in which he had grown up, and even appealed, against Henry II,
to the young king of France, Philip II. In November 1188 he did homage to Philip for all the English
holdings on French soil and in 1189 openly joined forces with Philip to drive Henry into abject submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, forced him to acknowledge Richard as his heir,
and at last harried him to his death (July 6, 1189).
King Of England
Richard received Normandy on July 20 and the English throne on September 30. Richard, unlike
Philip, had only one ambition, to lead the Crusade prompted by Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem in
1187. He had no conception of planning for the future of the English monarchy and put up everything
for sale to buy arms for the Crusade. Yet he had not become king to preside over the dismemberment
of the Angevin empire. He broke with Philip and did not neglect Angevin defenses on the Continent.
Open war was averted only because Philip also took the Crusader’s cross. Richard dipped deep into
his father’s treasure and sold sheriffdoms and other offices. With all this he raised a formidable fleet
and an army, and in 1190 he departed for the Holy Land, traveling via Sicily.
Sicily
Richard found the Sicilians hostile and took Messina by storm (October 4). To prevent the German
emperor Henry VI from ruling their country, the Sicilians had elected the native Tancred of Lecce,
who had imprisoned the late king’s wife, Joan of England (Richard’s sister), and denied her possession
of her dower. By the Treaty of Messina Richard obtained for Joan her release and her dower, acknowledged Tancred as king of Sicily, declared Arthur of Brittany (Richard’s nephew) to be his own heir,
and provided for Arthur to marry Tancred’s daughter. This treaty infuriated the Germans, who were
also taking part in the Third Crusade, and it incited Richard’s brother John to treachery and rebellion.
Richard joined the other Crusaders at Acre on June 8, 1191, having conquered Cyprus on his way
there. While at Limassol in Cyprus, Richard married (May 12) Berengaria of Navarre.
The Holy Land
Acre fell in July 1191, and on September 7 Richard’s brilliant victory at Arsūf put the Crusaders in
possession of Joppa. Twice Richard led his forces to within a few miles of Jerusalem. But the recapture of the city, which constituted the chief aim of the Third Crusade, eluded him. There were fierce
quarrels among the French, German, and English contingents. Richard insulted Leopold V, duke of
Austria, by tearing down his banner and quarrelled with Philip II, who returned to France after the fall
of Acre. Richard’s candidate for the crown of Jerusalem was his vassal Guy de Lusignan, whom he
supported against the German candidate, Conrad of Montferrat. It was rumoured, unjustly, that Richard connived at Conrad’s murder. After a year’s unproductive skirmishing, Richard (September 1192)
made a truce for three years with Saladin that permitted the Crusaders to hold Acre and a thin coastal
strip and gave Christian pilgrims free access to the holy places.
Imprisonment
Richard sailed home by way of the Adriatic, because of French hostility, and a storm drove his ship
ashore near Venice. Because of the enmity of Duke Leopold he disguised himself, but he was discovered at Vienna in December 1192 and imprisoned in the duke’s castle at Dürnstein on the Danube.
Later, he was handed over to Henry VI, who kept him at various imperial castles. It was around Richard’s captivity in a castle, whose identity was at first unknown in England, that the famous romance
of Blondel was woven in the 13th century.
Under the threat of being handed over to Philip II, Richard agreed to the harsh terms imposed
by Henry VI: a colossal ransom of 150,000 marks and the surrender of his kingdom to the emperor on
condition that he receive it back as a fief. The raising of the ransom money was one of the most remarkable fiscal measures of the 12th century and gives striking proof of the prosperity of England. A
very high proportion of the ransom was paid, and meanwhile (February 1194) Richard was released.
Return To England
He returned at once to England and was crowned for the second time on April 17, fearing that the independence of his kingship had been compromised. Within a month he went to Normandy, never to
return. His last five years were spent in warfare against Philip II, interspersed with occasional truces.
The king left England in the capable hands of Hubert Walter, justiciar and archbishop of Canterbury. It
was Richard’s impetuosity that brought him to his death at the early age of 42. The vicomte of Limoges refused to hand over a hoard of gold unearthed by a local peasant. Richard laid siege to his castle of Châlus and in an unlucky moment was wounded. He died in 1199. He was buried in the abbey
church of Fontevrault, where Henry II and Queen Eleanor are also buried, and his effigy is still preserved there.
Legacy
Richard was a thoroughgoing Angevin, irresponsible and hot-tempered, possessed of tremendous energy, and capable of great cruelty. He was more accomplished than most of his family, a soldier
of consummate ability, a skillful politician, and capable of inspiring loyal service. He was a lyric poet
of considerable power and the hero of troubadours. The evidence that he was a homosexual seems persuasive but has been strongly challenged. Richard had no children by Queen Berengaria, with whom
his relations seem to have been merely formal.
MATTER OF ROME
THE TROJAN WAR AND THE MYTH OF EUROPEAN ORIGIN:
French precedents: Benoit de Sainte Maure, Roman de Troy (12th c). Guido delle
Colonne, Historia Destructionis Troiae (1287): Latin compendium of all Trojan stories
English romances of Troy all use Benoit or Guido as sources:

Gest Historiae of the Destruction of Troy (late 14th c.)

The Siege of Troy (late 14th c.)

John Lydgate(English writer), Troy Book (ca 1420)
Romances on Alexander the Great:

King Allisaunder (ca. 1300)

Romance of Alexander (14th c.)
MATTER OF FRANCE
ROMANCES ON CHARLEMAGNE AND THE CAROLIGNIAN KINGS

Roland and Vernagu (ca 1340)

The song of Roland (late 14th c)
La Chanson de Roland, English The Song of Roland, Old French epic poem that is probably the
earliest (c. 1100) chanson de geste and is considered the masterpiece of the genre. The poem’s probable author was a Norman poet, Turold, whose name is introduced in its last line.
The poem takes the historical Battle of Roncesvalles (Roncevaux) in 778 as its subject. Though this
encounter was actually an insignificant skirmish between Charlemagne’s army and Basque forces, the
poem transforms Roncesvalles into a battle against Saracens and magnifies it to the heroic stature of
the Greek defense of Thermopylae against the Persians in the 5th century BC.The poem opens as
Charlemagne, having conquered all of Spain except Saragossa, receives overtures from the Saracen
king and sends the knight Ganelon, Roland’s stepfather, to negotiate peace terms. Angry because Roland proposed him for the dangerous task, Ganelon plots with the Saracens to achieve his stepson’s
destruction and, on his return, ensures that Roland will command the rear guard of the army when it
withdraws from Spain. As the army crosses the Pyrenees, the rear guard is surrounded at the pass of
Roncesvalles by an overwhelming Saracen force. Trapped against crushing odds, the headstrong
hero Roland is the paragon of the unyielding warrior victorious in defeat.The composition of the poem
is firm and coherent, the style direct, sober, and, on occasion, stark. Placed in the foreground is the
personality clash between the recklessly courageous Roland and his more prudent friend Oliver (Olivier), which is also a conflict between divergent conceptions of feudal loyalty. Roland, whose judgment
is clouded by his personal preoccupation with renown, rejects Oliver’s advice to blow his horn and
summon help from Charlemagne. On Roland’s refusal, the hopeless battle is joined, and the flower of
Frankish knighthood is reduced to a handful of men. The horn is finally sounded, too late to save Oliver, Turpin, or Roland, who has been struck in error by the blinded Oliver, but in time for Charlemagne
to avenge his heroic vassals. Returning to France, the emperor breaks the news to Aude, Roland’s
betrothed and the sister of Oliver, who falls dead at his feet. The poem ends with the trial and execution of Ganelon.
MATTER OF BRITAIN
Earliest treatments of the Arthurian legend in:

Goeffrey of Monmouth - Latin pseudo-history (1135) Historia Regum
Britaniae

Wace, Anglo-French writer at the court of Eleonor Roman de Brut

Layamon, (ca 1200) – extended version of Wace’s poem Brut
ENGLISH ARTHURIAN ROMANCES:

Arthour and Merlin (ca 1300)

Alliterative Morte Arthure (late 14th c.)

Stanzaic Morte Arthur (late 14th c.)

Yvain and Gawain(ca. 1350)

Joseph of Arimathie (ca. 1350)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th c.)

Sir Gawain and the carl of Carlise (early 15th c.)
Sir Thomas Malory brings together all the threads of the story of King Arthur and offers a
final picture of the chivalric Middle Ages.
(flourished c. 1470), English writer whose identity remains uncertain but whose name is famous as that of the author of Le Morte Darthur, the first prose account in English of the rise and fall of the legendary king Arthur and the
fellowship of the Round Table.
Even in the 16th century Malory’s identity was unknown, although there was a tradition that he was a Welshman.
In the colophon to Le Morte Darthur the author, calling himself “Syr Thomas Maleore knyght,” says that he finished the work in the ninth year of the reign of Edward IV (i.e., March 4, 1469–March 3, 1470) and adds a prayer
for “good delyueraunce” from prison. The only known knight at this time with a name like Maleore was Thomas
Malory of Newbold Revell in the parish of Monks Kirby, Warwickshire. This Malory was jailed on various occasions during the period 1450–60, but it is not recorded that he was in prison about 1470, when the colophon was
written.
A “Thomas Malorie (or Malarie), knight” was excluded from four general pardons granted by Edward IV to the
Lancastrians in 1468 and 1470. This Malorie, who may have been Malory of Newbold Revell, was probably the
author of Le Morte Darthur.
According to Sir William Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), Malory of Newbold Revell served in the
train of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, at the siege of Calais (presumably 1436, but possibly 1414); was
knight of the shire in 1445; and died on March 14, 1471. He was buried in the Chapel of St. Francis at Grey Friars, near Newgate. (He had been imprisoned in Newgate in 1460.)
Malory completed Le Morte Darthur about 1470; it was printed by William Caxton in 1485. The only extant manuscript that predates Caxton’s edition is in the British Library, London. It retells the adventures of the knights of the
Round Table in chronological sequence from the birth of Arthur. Based on French romances, Malory’s account
differs from his models in its emphasis on the brotherhood of the knights rather than on courtly love and on the
conflicts of loyalty (brought about by the adultery of Lancelot and Guinevere) that finally destroy the fellowship.
MEDIEVAL DRAMA AND THEATRE
 Religious ritual dramatized (10th century):
•Choir dialogue n the introit to the Mass
• Easter Tropes - "Quem quaeritis ..." (Winchester Cathedral instructions, 10th c.)
• Christmas Tropes
• Liturgical Plays (Latin, 12th-14th c)
 From the 14th century – in the vernacular:

Mystery Plays (biblical)

Miracle Plays

Saint’s Plays (hagiographic)
Mystery Cycles performed on Corpus Christi Day by Guil Processional Staging on
Pageant Wagons.
 Extant Manuscripts of Mystery Cycles:
 York Cycle - 48 plays (1350-1440)
York plays, a cycle of 48 plays, dating from the 14th century, of unknown authorship, which were performed during the Middle Ages by craft guilds in the city of York, in the north of England, on the summer feast day of Corpus
Christi. Some of the York plays are almost identical with corresponding plays in the Wakefield cycle, and it has
been suggested that there was an original (now lost) from which both cycles descended. It is more likely, however, that the York cycle was transferred bodily to Wakefield some time during the later 14th century and there
established as a Corpus Christi cycle.
The plays were given in York on one day, in chronological order, on pageant wagons proceeding from one selected place to another. The cycle covers the story of man’s fall and redemption, from the creation of the angels to
the Last Judgment; six plays are peculiar to York (the play of Herod’s son, of the Transfiguration, of Pilate’s wife,
of Pilate’s majordomo, of the high priests’ purchase of the field of blood, and of the appearance of the Virgin to the
Apostle Thomas).
In the last revision of the York plays, about 14 plays (mainly those concerning Christ’s Passion) were redacted into alliterative verse. These are powerful and the work of a dramatic genius, often referred to as the York
Realist.
 Wakefield Cycle (Townley Cycle) - 32 plays (1450?)
Wakefield plays, also called Towneley plays, a cycle of 32 scriptural plays, or mystery plays, of the early 15th century, which
were performed during the European Middle Ages at Wakefield, a town in the north of England, as part of the summertime
religious festival of Corpus Christi. The text of the plays has been preserved in the Towneley Manuscript (so called after a
family that once owned it), now in the Huntington Library in California. At some time, probably in the later 14th century,
the plays performed at York were transferred bodily to Wakefield and there established as a Corpus Christi cycle; six of the
plays in each are virtually identical, and there are corresponding speeches here and there in others. On the whole, however,
each cycle went its own way after the transfer. From a purely literary point of view, the Wakefield plays are considered
superior to any other surviving cycle. In particular, the work of a talented reviser, known as the Wakefield Master, is easily
recognizable for its brilliant handling of metre, language, and rhyme, and for its wit and satire. His Second Shepherds’ Play is
widely considered the greatest work of medieval English drama. It is not known how long the cycle, which begins with the
fall of Lucifer and ends with the Last Judgment, took in performance: the Chester cycle, which is shorter, was given over
three days; the York cycle, which is longer, was given in one. Two plays (about Jacob) are peculiar to the Wakefield cycle,
which omits many narratives from the New Testament that are found in all the other surviving cycles. The cycle has been
published, with notes and glossary, as The Towneley Plays, 2 vol. (1994), edited by Martin Stevens and A.C. Cawley.
 Chester Cycle - 25 plays (1475-1500)
Chester plays, 14th-century cycle of 25 scriptural plays, or mystery plays, performed at the prosperous city of Chester, in
northern England, during the Middle Ages. They are traditionally dated about 1325, but a date of about 1375 has also been
suggested. They were presented on three successive days at Corpus Christi, a religious feast day that falls in summer. On
the first day there was a performance of plays 1–9 (including the fall of Lucifer, key episodes in the Old Testament, the
Nativity, and the adoration of the Wise Men); on the second day a performance of plays 10–18 (including the flight into
Egypt, Jesus’ ministry, the Passion and Crucifixion, the Descent into Hell, and the arrival in paradise of the virtuous who had
died before the Redemption had been achieved); and, finally, on the third day a performance of plays 19–25 (including the
Resurrection, the Ascension of Christ into heaven, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Antichrist, and the Last
Judgment). The Chester plays are rich in content, yet tell the great story of human redemption more simply than the other
surviving cycles of York, Wakefield, and “N-Town.” The text, containing more than 11,000 lines of verse, has been preserved
in five manuscripts, which are kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Eng.; the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., U.S.;
and the British Museum, London. The cycle has been published with commentary and glossary as The Chester Mystery
Cycle, 2 vol. (1974–86), edited by R.M. Lumiansky and David Mills.
 Ludus Coventriae (N-Town Cycle) - 42 plays (1470s)
N-Town plays, an English cycle of 42 scriptural (or “mystery”) plays dating from the second half of the 15th century and so
called because an opening proclamation refers to performance “in N. town.” Since evidence suggests that the cycle was not
peculiar to one city or community but traveled from town to town, the abbreviation “N.” would indicate that the
appropriate name of the town at which the cycle was being presented would have been inserted by the speaker. The cycle
is preserved in the Hegge Manuscript, so called after its 17th-century owner, Sir Robert Hegge, and it is therefore
sometimes referred to as the Hegge cycle. On the flyleaf of the Hegge Manuscript is written “Ludus Conventriae” (“Play of
Coventry”), and until the 19th century it was believed that the plays represented the Coventry cycle, until individual plays
from Coventry were discovered and found to be totally different from equivalent plays in the N-Town cycle. Some scholars
have attempted to show that the N-Town cycle is closely related to the (lost) cycle that was performed at Lincoln. The NTown cycle begins with the creation of the angels and the Fall of Lucifer and ends with the Assumption of the Virgin and the
Last Judgment. Among the plays with no equivalent in other cycles are one on the death of Cain and five whose central
figure is that of the Virgin, with whom the cycle is generally much preoccupied. Typically the N-Town plays are grave and
dignified; the comic relief distinguishing other surviving cycles (from Chester, York, Wakefield) is markedly absent. A basic
difference between the N-Town plays and those of the other cycles is that this cycle, because it was a traveling one, was
apparently presented by professional actors. It did not use pageant wagons, whereby plays were presented as a procession,
but was given in a single open space, with “mansions” (indicating general scenes) set up about a single acting area. The
performances may have taken place over two successive days.
Morality Plays (from 15th c.):

Everyman (Dance of Death theme)
Everyman, an English morality play of the 15th century, probably a version of a Dutch
play, Elckerlyc. It achieves a beautiful, simple solemnity in treating allegorically the theme of
death and the fate of the human soul—of Everyman’s soul as he tries to justify his time on
earth. Though morality plays on the whole failed to achieve the vigorous realism of the Middle
Ages’ scriptural drama, this short play (about 900 lines) is more than an allegorical sermon
because vivid characterization gives it dramatic energy. It is generally regarded as the finest of
the morality plays.

The Castle of Perseverance (psychomachia)

Mankind (psychomachia)
1500s (Reformation) – Secularisation of Drama
Interlude
Morality Play
History Play
Tragedy
"The Daunce of Machabree," from John Lydgate's The Fall of Princes, printed by Richard Tottel,
London, 1554.
Stage plan for The Castle of Perseverance
Introduction to English Renaissance literature
FORMATIVE FACTORS:

THE WESTERN SCHISM – the election of two popes and then the move of the papal
court to Avignon for 70 years (1309-1377) lessened the grip of scholasticism on
education and undermined the reputation of papal power.

HUMANISM: beginnings associated with the growth of Italian cities, great fortunes of
Italian noble families, and the reform of universities, which revived their interest in
classical writings and art (14th – 15th c). (Focus on humans) reform on universities

REFORMATION: Tradition of critique of the corruption within the Church of the
institution was very old (Jan Hus, John Wickliffe – 14th c.). In 1517 MARTIN LUTHER
published his 95 articles against selling pardons – beginning of a movement that led to
the development of the Protestant Church.
In England in 1534 the Act of Supremacy creates the Church of England – the
annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon only a pretext for a move
towards independence from Rome.
Humanist thought brought to England by ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM, Dutch theologian and
philosopher. Erasmus enriched the earlier Italian humanism, interested primarily in art, with a
MORAL dimension. His The Praise of Folly (1509) reiterates major Christian ideals and shows how
they are abused within the Church itself.
Erasmus established a chair of GREEK at the university of Oxford and won over many enlightened
minds to his course of a moral revival of the church and education.
Early English humanists:

John Colet (1467-1519) – Dean of St. Paul’s cathedral

Thomas More (1478-1535) – author of Utopia, Henry’s Lord Chancellor and his first victim

Roger Ascham (1515 - 1568) – tutor of Elizabeth

Thomas Elyot (1490-1546) – author of The Book Named the Governour (1531)
Erasmus of Rotterdam
NEW POETRY
TUDOR SONNETEERS:

SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503-1542) – Henry VII’s and henry VIII’s courtier; translations
and imitations of Petrarch’s sonnets ; he experimented with stanza forms in his own
poems;

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURRAY (1517-1547) Petrarchan sonnets.
Howard used blank verse in English for the first time in his translation of Virgil’s
Aeneid .
ELIZABETHAN POETRY:

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586) – prominent courtier of Elizabeth
 AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY - essay on the nature of poetry
 ARCADIA - pastoral romance
 ASTROPHEL AND STELLA – first sonnet sequence in English

EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599)
 SHEPHERD’S CALENDAR - a collection of pastoral poems
 AMORETTI – sequence of love sonnets
 THE FAERIE QUEENE – allegorical chivalric romance in praise of the queen
 EPITHALAMION - wedding poem offered to his bride Elizabeth Boyle

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593)
 HERO AND LEANDER – narrative poem about the two mythological lovers
(unfinished)
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” - one of the most popular Elizabethan poems followed by
numerous poetic responses.