MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (1066-1485) This period is the name given to the transition period during which Old English was changing to Modern English. The year 1066 is taken because in this year one of the most important events in English history took place, namely The Norman Conquest. This event is important not only because it completely changed the course of English literature but also significantly influenced the development of English language. Not long after the Conquest, the University of Cambridge and Oxford were established. Soon after the conquest, French became the language used by educated people. The Anglo-Saxon (Old English) was spoken only by uneducated people. This situation of two parallel languages in daily use in the same country lasted for more that 300 years. There may be several reasons to the blank time of production of literary works. Firstly, the conquest has stunned English literature into silence. Secondly, the limitation of Anglo-Saxon language probably prevented it from further advance. Thirdly, the Norman, at the conquest, had no literature to offer. By taking the French literature as its model, English literature revived at the beginning of the 13th century. This process of assimilation, however, enriched English literature because the French , different from the Anglo-Saxon, which was humorous less in spirit, hard in vocabulary, and monotonous in alliteration (although it had more feeling and thought), was gay and colorful in spirit, soft in vocabulary and musical in its bright verse. Chaucer The greatest literary figure of this time is Geoffrey Chaucer. He was influenced by many kinds of writing and used many European models. Chaucer was a European in outlook and experience, but his ambition was to make the literature of English the equal of any other European writing. Chaucer’s greatest work is The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400). It is also the first major work in english literature. There are many aspects to The Canterbury Tales, both secular and religious. The Canterbury Tales is still the great mirror of its times, and a great collection of comic views of the life it describes. Chaucer uses irony to describe him as ‘a verray parfit gentil knight’ [parfit=perfect, gentil=gentle] – completely perfect and gentle are high moral values which are, difficult to keep. Chaucer is describing a society that is changing, and its people and their values are changing too. Again and again the stories and the story-tellers contrast old ways of behaving and of thinking with more modern attitudes. So religion is less important than enjoying life, and making money is a new ambition. Another famous poet of this time is William Langland who wrote, among others, Piers Plowman which uses the dream-vision form to write a long series of dream stories. It is a social allegory which stress the importance of hard-workings and honesty in life.
Many anonymous text appeared in this era. The most popular are Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Night. Both of them also explore the themes of emotions and human weakness. Pearl is talking about a dream father has of his daughter who died. She is now perfect, in heaven, and the father can see how far she is from the human level. Gawain, is in fact, a kind of anti-hero, and the poem is an ironic questioning of the value of the historical myth of heroism in those changed times, much as Chaucer questioned the old-fashioned values of his knight. Prose The most well-known figure in prose-writing in this era is John Wyelif (1324-1384). He was a scholar and a priest who was popular as a translator of the Bible. His prose-style put in the scripture was adopted by many people and gave a great influence to he development of English to its standard form. Another famous work of Wyelif is Mendelville’s Travel, the author’s reportage about his travels to various countries. Another great prose-writer of this era is John Gower. He wrote a great many books, in Latin and in French as well as in English. His most famous is Confessio Amantis, the confession of a lover. Just like in The Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman, there is irony in Gower’s works, and the subject matter is clearly very far from the heroism of Old English: emotions and human weakness are becoming common themes in literature. Drama The main writing of this period was in poetry, but the tradition of drama, in addition in prose, was beginning at this time, too. The original medieval dramas were set in and around the church at festival times, and they showed scenes from the Bible for an audience. The plays were usually performed on moving carts, by the businessmen of the city, and the text which remains are often called by the name of the group of businessmen which performed them. Group of there plays remain from the cities of York, Wakefield, and Chester. Many of the theatrical effects were very impressive – Hell’s Mouth is the most famous example. These plays are an important step forwards the great theatrical period at the end of the 16th century. Influenced by the work of Chaucer in England, a group of writers in Scotland produced some major poetry. The names of these writers, the first great figures in Scottish literature, are Robert Henryson and William Dunbar. The King of Scotland, King James the First (1394-1437) was also an important poet. His Kings Quair [King’s Book] is a book of love poetry written in the verse from which, because of his use of it, came to be known as ‘rhyme-royal’. The major event in literary terms in the 15th century was the invention of printing, by Gutenburg (1398-1468) in Germany. The firs books to be printed were Bibles, but when William Caxton and later his assistant, Wynken de Worde, brought printing to England in the 1470s, they began to print literary works. The first of which was a story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, called Le Morte d’ Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, published in 1458. The author had died several years before Caxton published the book – and it is not even certain who Malory was. Since the
story had already been familiar myth, and has remained popular until the present day. The final figure in the late medieval period is John Skelton, a very individual poet who wrote short rapid lines of poetry about such subjects as drinking alcohol, a pet bird, and low life. Skeleton’s humor, as well as his poetic style, are unique. He and his poetry are difficult to describe, not many critics have written about him in literary history. But he brings together many of the themes of the middle English period: humor, and a different view on the values of the time, new verse forms and play with language and style, and a strong sense of English identity.
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