Middle English literature
As Middle English literature refers to the works of literature between the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 and the mid-15th century Middle English language were written. The works of this period include verses , lyrical poems , allegories , fables , translations from Latin and French, works of historiography as well as mystery games and morals . The most important works of Middle English literature are:
- in the field of poetry: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer ;
- in the field of prose: Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory ;
- in the field of drama: Everyman .
Time limit
With the conquest of England, the language at the royal court became French or Anglo-Norman . While English was still spoken by the majority of the population, the language was heavily influenced by French. This influence, among other things, distinguishes the Middle English language from the Old English language . The period of the Middle English language and thus the Middle English literature ended with the frühneuenglischen Vowel Shift (also Great Vowel Shift or Great Vowel Shift ), which began in the 15th century. Alternative historical end dates include William Caxton's first printing press in England in 1476, the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1482, and the discovery of America in 1492.
Authors and works
The statement that all works of Middle English literature use the Middle English language creates an appearance of uniformity that is not justified. In fact, the Middle English language is a field of tension between the French of the conquerors and the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons. The French influence v. a. The English vocabulary was only slowly gaining ground - at first, of course, in the vicinity of the royal court - and Old English words and grammar can still be found in parts in Middle English works.
Before the printing press made literary works affordable to a wider audience - and thus enabled authors to earn an income - writers often appropriated their works to a patron from whom they could hope for a reward.
Middle English poetry
The most famous Middle English poet is Geoffrey Chaucer with his Canterbury Tales and other works such as Troilus and Criseyde . Other well-known authors and their works are:
- John Gower ( Confessio Amantis )
- William Langland ( Piers Plowman )
- the poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- John Lydgate with allegories, fables and poems, e.g. B. Falls of Princes , Troy Book, and Story of Thebes .
- Thomas Hoccleve ( Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum and numerous poems)
There are also a large number of z. Some excellent, but anonymous poems. One of these is The Owl and the Nightingale , a 1794 line poem in eight-syllable pair rhymes . The poet then describes the discussion between an owl and a nightingale, which he happens to witness, on a wide variety of topics such as their appearance, aspects of hygiene, religion, a happy marriage, etc. The two birds use every imaginable rhetorical means to win in to carry off the debate, but it finds no resolution, and they leave the place to see an arbitrator. Attempts to interpret the two animals as symbols did not give any clear results; the interpretations range from the animals as a parody of Heinrich II. and Thomas Beckett to the interpretation of the text as a teaching example for students of rhetoric.
Like The Owl and the Nightingale , written towards the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, Layamon's Brut is an early work of Middle English poetry. At 16,000 lines, however, it is much longer; it is based in large part on the Anglo-Norman novel de Brut by Wace and tells the story of the kings of Britain since their legendary progenitor Brutus sought refuge on the island after the fall of Troy, to the last king before the Anglo-Saxons, King Cadwallader . Brut is the first example of English Arthurian literature ; The clear focus of the text is on the time of this king. Otherwise, the Arthurian epic, which arose in the vicinity of English courts in the 12th century, is written in Anglo-Norman language (cf. Marie de France , Wace).
Even before the Canterbury Tales Chaucer had The Book of the Duchess (The Book of the Duchess) wrote an elegy on Blanche of Lancaster , also Anelida and Arcite , The House of Fame (The House of Fama) The Parlement of Foules (Parliament the birds), the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde . All of these works show Italian or French influence in form and language. In the Canterbury Tales, which emerged after 1388, he tells the story of the poet who goes on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury and joins 29 other pilgrims in a tavern in Southwark just outside London. The pilgrims go on their journey; To pass the time, they agree that everyone should tell two stories on the trip there and back. The prologues to each story enable the poet to describe each pilgrim, creating a portrait of the society of that time, the “Of sondry folk” (vs. 25), made up of different people, namely representatives of every social class from knights to nuns to the farmer. The stories that z. Partly based on ancient models (The Knight's Tale) or come across as a rough swank (The Miller's Tale) . The language styles are also differentiated according to the level of the narrator. The special attraction is not only made by the quality of the stories themselves and the unmatched variety of genres, but also by the pilgrims' comments. B. feel insulted if a representative of your class is portrayed negatively in the stories of your fellow travelers, and counter this in their own stories. For the means of the framework plot and the content of several stories, Chaucer oriented himself on the Decamerone by Boccaccio . The Canterbury Tales were laid out as a monumental work of 120 stories (two tales of thirty travelers each), but Chaucer only completed 22 (two of them in prose, the others in poetry) and left two unfinished. Even as a fragment, however, Chaucer's work is unique in Middle English literature.
Although the outstanding quality of Chaucer's work was recognized early on, he shared his popularity with other poets such as John Gower during his lifetime . He was famous for his fluency in expression in French, Latin and English. Confessio Amantis , his most important English work, is a poem divided into eight books in which a man complains that his worship of the goddess of love has been fruitless for too long. Venus asks him to confess to her priest, which is used as the framework for telling over 100 narrative poems. None of the material in these poems was new at the time - they were based on ancient models or e.g. B. Boccaccio's Decamerons - but publication in English made Gower's work popular. Gower and Chaucer were celebrated by their contemporaries as the founders of English poetry, but it was Chaucer's works that became models for later poets, causing Gower's importance to decline over time.
Piers Plowman (Peter the Ploughman) by William Langland is an allegorical , alliterative work of verse from the second half of the 14th century. In it the poet describes a dream vision of a tower on a mountain (an allegory for heaven) and a dungeon in a gloomy valley (allegory for hell). In between there is a “fair field full of folk”, namely the human world. The poet sets out in search of the allegorical figure of truth, later for the characters Dowell, Dobet and Dobest ("Doing well", "Doing better", "Doing best"); the humble plowman from the title offers himself to him as a guide in the first part. Piers Plowman is on the one hand an instructive theological allegory that is supposed to lead the way to heavenly reward, on the other hand, in its portrayal of people as hunters for earthly wealth without conscience and reason, a social satire. There are over 50 different manuscripts of Langland's work, which makes scientific discussion difficult.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a romance in verse, written around the year 1400, the authorship of which is controversial. It tells the story of Gawain , King Arthur's nephew , who accepts the challenge of the gigantic Green Knight and cuts off his head. The victim does not die, however, but announces to Gawain that he will counter the blow in a year. On the way to this duel, Gawain stops at Hautdesert Castle. When the lord of the castle goes on the hunt, the lady of the castle offers herself to Gawain, who at first remains chivalrously steadfast, but agrees when the lady offers him a belt that has the ability to save a person from death. In the duel with the Green Knight, he spares him because Gawain took the belt out of love for life and did not give in to his instincts. However, Gawain blames himself for not having acted chivalrously, but when he returns to Arthur's court he realizes that he is alone with his self-criticism. Various aspects of Sir Gawain have been identified in the research , e.g. For example, that of the Green Knight as an allegory of nature and Gawain as the human-imperfect embodiment of Christian values, the questioning of Christian values and the accessibility of knightly ideals as well as the aspects of comedy and the change of perspective in the narrative. The poet of Sir Gawain comes close to Chaucer in the virtuosity of the language and the multifacetedness of the content . In the same manuscript there are three other poems by the same writer, but with a stronger emphasis on religious aspects, namely Pearl , Purity and Patience .
John Lydgate was best known for his translations from Latin and French, namely the Troy Book , The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man and The Siege of Thebes , all of which date from the early 15th century. His allegories Temple of Glass and The Complaint of the Black Knight mimick the works of Chaucer, whose friend and admirer Lydgate was.
In a row with Lydgate is the Scot Thomas Hoccleve (also Occleve), whose Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum , a moralizing, didactic work that he wrote for Henry V , has become best known.
Middle English prose
Outstanding among the Middle English prose works is the translation of the Bible by the church reformer and doctor of theology John Wyclif . It is unclear which parts of the translation were done by him and which by John Purvey , who revised them, but the initiative for a complete English Bible undoubtedly came from him. About 150 manuscripts of this work are still available today.
But the days of medieval manuscripts were numbered. In 1476, William Caxton revolutionized the spread of literature by opening a printer's workshop in England. He had printed his first English book, his translation of a courtly romance by Raoul LeFevre, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye , in Bruges as early as 1474 . He has now published numerous translations and original works by other authors and often provided himself with lively prefaces and epilogues .
Caxton also had an influence on Thomas Malory 's Le Morte d'Arthur . Malory wrote the eight-story cycle about King Arthur, probably between 1450 and 1470. The work, which he called The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table , tells the story of Arthur about his birth and his rise the adventures of Lanzelot , the experiences of Tristan and Isolde and the search for the Holy Grail up to the breaking of the round table and the death of Arthur. When Caxton first printed the cycle in 1485, he renamed it Le Morte Darthur (sic) and divided it into 21 books of 507 chapters to make it easier to read. The book was popular and was reprinted several times, but then lost the favor of readers until it was rediscovered by the romantics , who generally showed great interest in the Middle Ages. To this day, Malory's Morte d'Arthur determines the general idea of Arthur and the Round Table. One of the most famous scenes is the one in which young Arthur loosens the sword, which it was prophesied that only the rightful king could draw, from a stone:
- Now assay said Syre Ector vnto Syre kay / And anon he pulled at the swerd with alle his myghte / but it wold not be / Now shal ye assay said Syre Ector to Arthur I wyll wel said Arthur and pulled it out easily / And therwith alle Syre Ector knelyd doune to the erthe and Syre Kay.
Translation:
- "Now you try," said Sir Ector to Sir Kay. And so he pulled the sword with all his might, but it shouldn't be. "Now you should try," said Ector to Arthur. "I would like that," said Arthur, pulling it out with ease. And then Sir Ector and Sir Kay knelt on the ground.
- - (Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur , chap. 6)
Middle English dramas
The dramatic works of the Middle English period were determined by works with a religious background, namely the
- Morality Plays
- Mystery Plays
- Miracle Plays .
Morality Plays or moralities are allegorical dramas in which the main character impersonations of various virtues and vices face and urging them to make a decision between good and evil. The best-known Middle English morality is Everyman , in which the person of Jedermann (also the namesake of the play) is asked by death to face the last judgment. Everyone finds that their friends (including friendship and possessions ) will not go with them, and after all, only good deeds (or virtue ) that is weak because they disregarded them during his lifetime will go with them on their final journey after they are through everyone's commitment in confession has been strengthened. In the epilogue, the allegory is partially resolved and the audience is warned again in the manner characteristic of the drama type morality :
- This moral men may haue in mynde.
- Ye herers, take it of worth, olde and yonge,
- And forsake Pryde, for he deceyueth you in the end;
- And remembre Beaute, V. Wyttes, Strength, & Dyscrecyon,
- They all at the last do Eueryman forsake,
- Saue his Good Dedes there dothe he take.
[...]
- If his rekenynge be not clere whan he doth come,
- God wyll saye, 'Ite, maledicti, in ignem eternum. ′
- And he that hath his account hole and sounde,
- Hye in hay he shall be crounde.
Translation:
- Let people remember this morality.
- You listeners appreciate them, young and old,
- and let go of pride, for it will deceive you in the end;
- and remember beauty, five senses, strength and reason -
- they all fail everyone in the end,
- and he only takes his good deeds with him.
[...]
- Should his account not be pure
- God will say: "Go, damned, into the eternal fire!"
- And the one whose report is good and decent,
- shall be crowned high in heaven.
- ( Everyman , 19th scene)
The Everyman is a major source of everyone , the successful drama of the Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal .
The Mystery Plays are the English equivalents of the mystery plays . In them, biblical narratives are presented in a dramatized form. They were sometimes performed by traveling groups of actors on improvised stages, but often by the guilds of a city, each of which took on the representation of other scriptures. This is how whole dramatic cycles emerged, e.g. B. the York Cycle with 48 pieces or the Wakefield Cycle . Although the Mystery Plays have a religious theme, they were ultimately intended for entertainment, which is why particularly emotional episodes from the Bible were preferred, such as the fall of Lucifer , Cain and Abel , Abraham and Isaac , and the birth and passion of Jesus Christ . Sometimes the performance took place on an ornate float with which the play could be shown in different parts of the city.
Miracle Plays are similar to Mystery Plays , but they are dramatic versions of episodes from the lives of saints .
Footnotes
literature
- Albert Baugh & Thomas Cable (1993). A History of the English Language . ISBN 0-415-28099-0
- Hans Ulrich Seeber (Ed.) (1993). English literary history . ISBN 3-476-00911-4
- Ewald Standop & Edgar Mertner (1992). English literary history . ISBN 3-494-00373-4