MIDDLE ENGLISH

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MIDDLE ENGLISH

• 1100 - 1500 AD

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Onward to Middle English (1100-1500)

• A Major New Subject
• A Major New Genre
• Key Dates / Events / Trends
• The Triumph of English (ca. 1350-1400)

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Big New Literary Subject

• male - female relations
• esp. courtly love as part of noble life
• literature of elite/ruling class mainly (as in
  OE)
• old subjects remain too
• negative male - female interactions another
  aspect
• other new subjects too

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Major New Literary Form

• from epic to romance
• epic definition
• romance definition
• many older forms remain too
• dream vision, history, saints lives, sermons....

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Dates / Events / Trends Skeleton History II

• variety and force of cultural models
• events
• Political
• Social
• Literary/Linguistic
• P/S/L forces interact, lead to triumph of
  English (culture, language, literature...)
• other models still have lots of influence

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Pearl Formal Aspects

• Genre -- Dream Vision (definition)
• Poet
• anonymous, northwest Midlands dialect
• learned in both theology and court life
• Verse Form
• alliteration rhyme (definitions)
  (English origin French origin)

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Middle English Dialects
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Formal Aspects, contd.

• Alliterative Revival -- definition
• very complex rhyme scheme
• 12-line stanzas rhyming abab abab bcbc
• 5- (and one 6-) stanza sections linked by
  c-rhymes
• c-rhyme words repeated in line 1 of next stanza
  (concatenation)
• Numerological Elements 5, 12, 101, 1212.
• return to beginning perfection

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Pearl Content and Structure Analysis as Guide
to Meaning

• Sections
• Heart/Emotion (Section I)
• Eye/Sight (II-IV)
• Ear/Mind/Word (V-XVI)
• Eye/Sight (XVII-XIX)
• Heart/Emotion (XX)

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Frame and Vision Sections

• I Grief in the Garden Grove
• II-IV Vision of Land of Marvels
• bejeweled landscape, daughter as jewel
• cf. jewel/jeweler metaphor (V) -- pearl of great
  price in Bible (Matt. 1344-46)
• (V-XVI)
• XVII-XIX Vision of New Jerusalem
• XX Rapid re-entry to earthly life

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Lessons from the Pearl-Maiden

• Sections V-XVI
• seeing vs. believing
• arrogance
• communal courtesy of Heaven vs. power hierarchies
  of Earth
• class, gender, age, experience
• finite (zero-sum) vs. infinite thinking
• earthly materialism vs. heavenly commerce
• Need to recognize higher planes of reality!!

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Esthetic Unity of Poem

• partly from structural patterning
• numbers, symmetries, internal linkings, sheer
  complexity
• partly from repetition and interlinking of
  (emotional powerful) imagery
• organic food images, precious jewel/metal
  images, commercial social metaphors
• related to repeated interrelated themes
• innocence, mercy, grace, courtesy, redemption