2 Middle English (1066-1500

Scenario Literature 2 MIDDLE ENGLISH (1066-1500)

3

Word

bite meet meat mate out boot boat

A new language

Middle English is the name given to the different forms of English spoken after the Norman invasion of 1066 until the end of the 15th century. Middle English developed as a contamination

of Old English dialects and Norman French. For much of the early Medieval period, Norman-French continued to be the language of the court and the aristocracy, Latin was used by the clergy and scholars while most of the population still spoke Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), the language of the pre-Conquest period. Gradually the three languages mixed together, and by the end of the XIV century a new language, Middle English, had developed. It retained inflectional

The Great Vowel Shift verb endings from Old English, but its rich vocabulary contained Vowel pronunciation many words from Norman-French and from Latin, alongside those Late Middle English of Anglo-Saxon origin. before the GVS Later, in the space of the 150 years or so between Chaucer and Shakespeare, English became simplified. At some time in this period the so-called Great Vowel Shift occurred: the pronunciation of vowel sounds in English began to differ from other European languages. Meanwhile the printing press had been developed by Johannes Gutenberg in 1470, and the first English printer William Caxton was issuing books by 1476.

Modern English after the GVS

/iː/ /aɪ/ /eː/ /iː/ /ɛː/ /aː/ /eɪ/ /uː/ /aʊ/ /oː/ /uː/ /ɔː/ /oʊ/

▲ The manuscript of The Cuckoo Song.

New literary forms

New schemes of rhyme and metre were borrowed from continental literary forms. The Normans brought in metrical romances (tales in verse dealing with love, chivalry and religion) and a new form of lyric poetry focused on nature and joyous themes, like in The Cuckoo Song (ca. 1260), one of the most popular lyrics.

Middle English Modern English

Sumer is icumen in – Luhde, sing cuccu! Groweth sed and bloweth med And springth the wde nu Sing! cuccu, nu. Sing cuccu!

Summer has arrived –Sing loud, cuckoo! Grows seed and blows mead And blossoms the wood now. Sing cuckoo!

Ballads

The ballad (→ p. 532) is probably the simplest form of Modern English poetry. Ballads were anonymous and spontaneous oral poems accompanied by music and dance that had been handed down from generation to generation since Anglo-Saxon times. Their themes were religion, love, supernatural events (ghosts, magic, superstition) or famous people of the time, and they had a recreational function but no moralising intent. Since they originated from and were directed at illiterate people, the stories were simple, direct and full of repetitions.

A ballad is a type of narrative song composed in simple stanzas, generally of two or four lines. In many ballads there is a refrain, and a frequent characteristic is the repetition of a stanza with slight modifications as the story advances. The story is usually a single episode, sometimes organised in brief scenes. Many ballads are about domestic tragedies where love – generally the sorrow and tragedy of love – has a prominent place. Ballads are always objective: the author never attempts to interpret the actions or the characters of the story. Ballads reflect the social conditions of the period: one of the most famous ballads is about a famous outlaw, Robin Hood, who is portrayed as the people’s hero as opposed to the aristocracy.

T1

Geordie

(British ballad, around 16th century)

Medieval drama

Medieval English drama had a religious origin. Dramatic performances focused mainly on short episodes of the Old Testament and about the ‘mystery’ or the ‘miracle’ of the arrival of Christ as the Saviour of mankind. These performances, called Mystery plays and Miracle plays, had a religious intent: their aim was to instruct ordinary Christians in the mysteries concerning their faith. The earliest mystery plays date back to the 14th century; at the beginning Latin was used, later replaced by Middle English. Performances were first held inside churches and later transferred outside church buildings as they developed into something more entertaining and less tied to religion. Morality plays were not based on sacred history but on the eternal struggle between good and evil, with the characters as allegorical personifications of virtues and vices fighting inside man’s soul. Everyman (ca. 1495)is considered the masterpiece of this genre, its theme being man’s ultimate destiny and death. By the end of the Middle Ages, drama was established as a form of entertainment put on by itinerant groups of performers at markets or in the courtyards of inns or taverns on semi-permanent stages.

After being informed by Death that he must die, Everyman is abandoned by friends, family, Knowledge, Beauty, etc. Only Good Deeds will accompany him to his final destination.

Prose

For more than a century and a half after the Norman invasion, English prose did not produce any relevant expression. Then, in the 14th century, John Wycliffe (1328?-84) gave impulse to prose literature with his translation of the Bible (1382), which had a remarkable influence on English intellectual life. The nobles and wealthiest part of England had already started speaking a more refined variety of Middle English, the same language that was used by Geoffrey Chaucer, who contributed to Middle English literary dignity with his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) (→ p. 41).

▲ A rare copy of the famous Morality play Everyman.

CHECK IN

1. How did Middle English originate? 2. What was the Great Vowel Shift? 3. Who introduced the first printing press into England? 4. What are the main characteristics of a ballad? 5. What themes are most common in ballads? 6. What were the origins of English drama?