3.

Middle English Literature

 3.1. General Characteristics of the
Period
• The Middle English period may be defined
chronologically as the period from 1100 to 1500
• Some scholars prefer to date the beginning from 1150,
and there is much to be said for this view with respect to
literature (the final entry in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle is
dated to 1154)
• The adoption of 1500 as a closing date has only the
convenience of a round number to recommend it,
although in recent times the date 1547 has been preferred
(death of Henry VIII)
• In this period of approximately 400 years the dominant
factor that changed the course of English literature and
culture was the Norman Conquest
• In 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy, invaded
England and his supporters were rewarded with the lands
and titles of the English nobles
• The result was a new aristocracy in England that was
almost entirely French
• French became the language of the ruling class; and the
French nobles showed no interest in learning the language
of their new land
• English continued to be spoken by the mass of the people,
but was the language of the uncultivated
• The English language was enriched with thousands of
French words, thus becoming a more cosmopolitan and
supple medium for literary expression
• This sociolinguistic situation has direct effects
on the literary production and can help us
distinguish different periods within ME:
1) 1100-1250: English was the language of only
the lower classes. English writings at this date
are predominantly religious, representing the
efforts of the Church to instruct the common
people
2. 1250-1350: when the upper classes begin to
adopt English we get a much more varied
literature in the native language. The object of
English writing becomes entertainment as well
as edification
3. 1350-1500: we reach the high point with the
Ricardian period, which witnesses the
production of sophisticated works by Geoffrey
Chaucer, William Langland, John Gower and
the Gawain-poet; Caxton 1476
• English literature in the period following the
Conquest is in three languages:
• Latin, French, and English
• Latin was not only the language of learning, but
the vernacular of the learned, and the popularity
of such twelfth-century works as Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae attests
to it
• In French a large body of poetry was written in
England and constituted the literary
entertainment of the court
• In this context, a great part of ME literature must
be recognized as derivative and imitative
• English writers adopted the themes and fashions
of French literature all through the 13th c. and
much of the 14th
 3.2. Other features of ME lit:
• Impersonality: a great deal of ME literature is anonymous
• Textual variation: in the process of textual transmission
any written production was subject to the vagaries of
scribal practices
• Imitatio: there was a differing attitude towards originality,
which was not a requirement for medieval authors
• Orality/Aurality: much of literature was meant to be
listened to rather than read