Expanding your Knowledge 2

UNIT II
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
This unit explores on the literature after the Beowulf era. It will also introduce you some of
the famous writers of this period like Chaucer and Mallory. Further, their noteworthy and canon
works are included here. This unit will help you identify how did the universal themes of various
literary pieces sprout. Credits are due given to Encyclopedia Britannica (2020), Oxford University
Press (2020) and The Camelot Project (2020) for being the sources of this unit.

Objectives: Literature During the Middle English Period

At the end of the unit, I am able to: The Middle English Literature means English
1. trace the history of Middle literature that developed during the period from 1100 to
English Period;
1500 century. During this unique period, English got
2. familiarize with the different
literary periods of Middle English maturity and widespread popularity among people
Period; belonging to every strata of society.
3. enumerate the different The English literature came into being when the
characteristics of the Middle Anglos and Saxon and Jutes came to settle in England in
Engish Literature; the later part of the fifth century and eventually gave the
4. appreciate Metrical Romances country its name and its language. The Angles brought the
and Religious Dramas of Middle story of Beowulf with them to England in the sixth
English Period; century. This was about seventy years about the death of
5. differentiate Miracle Play,
Muhammad and in the same age as the beginning of the
Mystery Play and Morality Play;
and great Tang Dynasty in China. Three hundred years later,
6. acquaint with the different the manuscript that still survives was written down. What
representative writers/works of happened to it for the next seven hundred years is
Middle English Literature. unknown. In 1706, it was recorded as being in Sir Robert
Cotton’s library. Only twenty six years later, a disastrous
fire broke out in the library, and the Beowulf manuscript
narrowly escaped. The charred edges of its leaves can still be seen in the British Museum. Two
fragments of another poem, Wanderer, which may originally have been as long as Beowulf, were
found as recently as 1960 in the binding of a book in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. Gradually,
the English literature got maturity and later on Chaucer’s poetry made English as a perfect medium
for literature. This was the beginning of English literature in the Middle Ages.

Characteristics of Middle English Literature

a. Impersonality in Middle English Literature
b. Originality in Middle English Literature
c. Religion in Middle English Literature
d. Oral Quality of Middle English Literature
e. Chivalry in Middle English Literature
f. Romances in Middle English Literature

Metrical Romance
Metrical romance is a term generally applied to works of romantic poetry created using a
certain set of meters, hence the name metric poetry. A meter is the fundamental rhythmic structure
of verses, or of the lines within verses. Traditional verse forms often prescribe to a specific verse
meter, or a specific set of meters which are alternated in a predetermined order. Metrical romance
was, in some respect, formalized as a movement by the joint publication of Lyrical Ballads, by
Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798. It is deeply rooted within the traditions as established by John
Milton and Edmund Spenser. They, in agreement with John Keats, William Blake, Lord Byron and
Percy B. Shelley, believed that by pursuing the sublime and the romance, they were reviving and
upholding English poetry's true spirit.

Characteristics of Metrical Romance

 a. Code of Chivalry
b. An idealized noble Hero knight
c. Women held in high regard
d. Mystery and Supernatural Elements
e. Imaginative, vast, fairy tale-like setting
f. Simple, predictable plot
g. Quest for love and/or adventure

Religious Dramas
A play is where live actors get on a stage and act out a story in front of an audience. During
Medieval times most plays were religious and were used to teach people about the Bible, the lives
of saints, or how to live your life the right way.
There were three different types of plays preformed during medieval times; The Mystery
Play, the Miracle Play and the Morality Play.
a. Mystery plays were stories taken from the Bible.
b. The Miracle play was about the life or actions of a saint, usually about the actions that
made that person a saint. It is also called Saints Play, that presents a real or fictitious
account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom of a saint.

Characteristics of Miracle Play

a. The story revolved around the main character and the other characters were shortly
valued.
b. Comic scenes were also a part of miracles plays.
c. Devil’s character was also presented in the miracle plays.
d. Lives of saints or the scenes from Bible were the subject matter of miracle plays.
e. The structure of miracle plays was generally loose.

Morality plays
They are designed to teach people a lesson in how to live their life according to the rules of
the church. Sometimes these plays had elaborate sets, sometimes no sets at all.

Features of a morality play

The main theme is about choices between good and bad behavior.
 Man begins in innocence
 Man falls into temptation
 Man repents and is saved
a. The main character is tempted to pursue pleasure, material wealth and power, rather
than a frugal, hard-working Christian life.
b. Angels and devils fight over the man's soul- angels want him to go to Heaven, with God;
the devils want him to go to Hell, with Lucifer.
c. Other characters represent qualities (vices or virtues), e.g., Greed, Envy, Lust, etc.
d. The main character triumphs over the temptation and his soul goes to heaven.
e. The three greatest temptations that Man faces in morality plays are; The World, the
Flesh and the Devil.

Representative Writers/Works
This part discusses the representative writers of the Middle English Period together with
their works. To further know the various writers, kindly visit the links provided. Further, included
on the proceeding part are the links of the writers’ works. Visit the link provided to read the
contents of their work. Please do read to be able to answer the activities. Enjoy reading.
a. Pearl Poet (https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-
9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0218.xml)
 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/weston-sir-gawain-and-the-green-
knight)
b. Geoffrey Chaucer (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer)
 The Canterbury Tales (https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Canterbury-
Tales)
c. Sir Thomas Mallory (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Malory)
 Le Morte d’Arthur (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Le-Morte-Darthur)