Introduction to the History of English

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• Introduction to the History of English
• Week 8

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MidTerm Test!!

• Good Luck!

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Middle English Literature 1

• both in English and French
• ca. 1066-1300 mainly French
• imported from France composed in England
• vernacular literature in various dialects
• translations from French
• ca. 1300-1500 mainly English

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Middle English Literature 2

• prose, poetry, drama
• biblical paraphrases, saints lives, homilies,
  sermons,..
• historical writing
• travelogues
• miracle plays, morality plays
• ballads, lyrics
• romance
• mystics
• reworkings of classical tales
• letters
• ...

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Middle English Literature 3

• La?amons Brut (transl. from French)
• Morte DArthur (Sir Thomas Malory, c. 1450)
• Ormulum (c. 1200)
• Ancrene Riwle (c, 1215)
• The Owl and the Nightingale (Nicholas of
  Guilford?)
• Sir Orfeo
• Piers Plowman (William Langland)
• Paston Letters
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Confessio Amantis (John Gower)
• Cursor Mundi
• ...

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• c.1340-1400, London. Author and translator
• served at the court, travelled widely, state
  official
• important works
• The Canterbury Tales
• Troilus and Criseyde
• Parlement of Foules
• Legend of Good Women
• Bok of the Duchesse
• Hous of Fame
• De Consolatione Philosophiae (Boethius
  translation)