Middle English Literature 2023 PDF

Middle English period Middle English period Harold II, last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, was killed in the Battle of Hastings on Oct. 14, 1066. William the Conqueror crossed to England from the North of France, overcame the English King Harold and assumed the kingship. https://...

Middle English period Middle English period Harold II, last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, was killed in the Battle of Hastings on Oct. 14, 1066. William the Conqueror crossed to England from the North of France, overcame the English King Harold and assumed the kingship. https://youtu.be/Ocg_Z-m6YHw https://theconversation.com/battle-site-shows-the-norman-conquest-t ook-years-longer-than-1066-and-all-that-55335 Middle English period The Norman Conquest greatly changed English life. The Normans wiped out the English ruling class. They destroyed vernacular English; purged and purified monasteries; emphasized knowledge of Latin; and gave England a new architectural novelty – the castle. Replica of a Norman village Source: www.mountfitchetcastle.com Read more at: https://www.shorthistory.org/middle-ages/medieval-britain/life-in-england-at- the-time-of-the-norman-conquest/ Middle English period Frenchmen filled all positions of power. The Old English language went untaught and was spoken only by "unlettered" people. The language of the nobility and of the law courts was Norman-French; the language of the scholars was Latin. This situation lasted for nearly 300 years. Education flourished; and the first universities, Oxford and Cambridge, were founded in the 12th century. Middle English period Age of Chivalry - Chivalry came into being, fed by the great Crusades. The tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were a result of this movement. Chivalry was closely connected with feudal obligations, with the church and with social relations between men and women. Middle English period Everyman is regarded as the best of the morality plays. It talks about Everyman facing Death. He summons the help of all his friends but only Good Deeds is able to help him. Characters in this morality play are personifications of abstractions like Everyman, Death, Fellowships, Cousins, Kindred, Goods, Good Deeds, etc. which makes the play allegorical in nature. Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, have meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Morality and Miracle Plays Middle English period English and Scottish ballads preserved the local events, beliefs, and characters in an easily remembered form. One familiar ballad is Sir Patrick Spens, which concerns Sir Patrick’s death by drowning. Ballad. A narrative poem meant to be sung. It is characterized by repetition and often by a repeated refrain (a recurrent phrase or series of phrases). The earliest ballads were anonymous works transmitted orally from person to person through generations. Sir Patrick Spens Sir Patrick Spens The King sits in Dunfermline town, The first line that Sir Patrick read, Drinking the blood-red wine; A loud laugh laughed he; "O where shall I get a skeely skipper The next line that Sir Patrick read, To sail this ship or mine?" The tear blinded his ee. Then up and spake an eldern knight, Sat at the King's right knee: "O who is this has done this deed, "Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor Has told the King of me, That ever sailed the sea." To send us out at this time of the year, To sail upon the sea? The King has written a broad letter, And sealed it with his hand, "Be it wind, be it wet, be it hail, be it sleet, And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens, Our ship must sail the foam; Was walking on the strand. The king's daughter of Noroway, 'Tis we must fetch her home." "To Noroway, to Noroway, To Noroway o'er the foam; The King's daughter of Noroway, 'Tis thou must fetch her home." Sir Patrick Spens (cont’d) They hoisted their sails on Monenday morn, "Make ready, make ready, my merry men all, With all the speed they may; Our good ship sails the morn." And they have landed in Noroway "Now, ever alack, my master dear Upon a Wodensday I fear a deadly storm. They had not been a week, a week, "I saw the new moon late yestreen In Noroway but twae, With the old moon in her arm; When that the lords of Noroway And if we go to sea, master, Began aloud to say, - I fear we'll come to harm." "Ye Scottishmen spend all our King's gowd, They had not sailed a league, a league, And all our Queenis fee." A league but barely three, "Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud! When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud, So loud I hear ye lie. And gurly grew the sea. "For I brought as much of the white monie The ankers brake and the top-masts lap, As gane my men and me, It was such a deadly storm; And a half-fou of the good red gowd And the waves came o'er the broken ship Out o'er the sea with me. Till all her sides were torn. Sir Patrick Spens (cont’d) They fetched a web of the silken cloth, "O where will I get a good sailor Another of the twine, Will take my helm in hand, And they wapp'd them into the good ship's side, Till I get up to the tall top-mast But still the sea came in. To see if I can spy land?" O loth, both, were our good Scots lords "O here am I, a sailor good, To wet their cork-heel'd shoon, Will take the helm in hand, But long ere all the play was play'd Till you go up to the tall top-mast, They wet their hats aboon. But I fear you'll ne'er spy land." And many was the feather-bed He had not gone a step, a step, That fluttered on the foam; A step but barely ane, And many was the good lord's son When a bolt flew out of the good ship's side, That never more came home. And the salt sea came in. "Go fetch a web of the silken cloth, Another of the twine, And wap them into our good ship's side, And let not the sea come in." Sir Patrick Spens (cont’d) The ladies wrang their fingers white, The maidens tore their heair, All for the sake of their true loves, For them they'll see nae mair. O lang, lang may the maidens sit With their gold combs in their hair, All waiting for their own dear loves, For them they'll see nae mair. O forty miles of Aberdeen, 'Tis fifty fathoms deep; And there lies good Sir Patrick Spens, With the Scots lords at his feet. SIR PATRICK SPENS SONG Middle English period Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The best example of the romance of the Middle Ages attributed to the Pearl Poet (14th century). Medieval Romance is a long narrative poem idealizing knight errantry. Middle English period SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT DAN KWARTER (TED-ED) SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT Middle English period The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer’s frame narrative (story within a story) which showcases the stories told by 29 pilgrims on their way to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury. https://youtu.be/Tm2in7KHmjk?list=RDLVh0ZrBr9DOwA  Characters of the Canterbury Tales 1. Narrator 2. Host 3. Knight 4. Squire 5. Yeoman 6. Prioress 7. Second Nun 8. Nun’s Priests (3) 9. Monk 10. Friar  Characters of the Canterbury Tales 11. Merchant 12. Clerk 13. Man of Law/Sergeant of Law 14. Franklin 15. Five Craft Workers (haberdasher, carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapester) 16. Cook 17. Shipman 18. Doctor 19. Wife of Bath 20. Parson  Characters of the Canterbury Tales 21. Plowman 22. Miller Why do you think 23. Manciple Chaucer gathered these 24. Reeve 25. Summoner characters in his 26. Pardoner collection of tales? 27. Canon 28. Canon’s Yeoman Le Morte d'Arthur. Originally written in eight books, Sir Thomas Malory’s collection of stories revolves around the life and adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Middle English period  Sir Thomas Malory Middle English period Sir Thomas Malory Thank you! Please email questions to Marla C. Papango [email protected]