Recitation(9-17-21) : Middle English Flashcards
- this period was during 1200-1500
- famous writer here was Geoffrey Chaucer
MIDDLE/MEDIEVAL PERIOD
LANGUAGE
- they spoke only English language
PEASANT CLASS
LANGUAGE
- they spread out into the countryside and learned English of necessity
NORMANS
LANGUAGE
- it reemerged during the 14th century as a dominant language
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
- it was the co-existence of Norman French and the emerging English now known as?
MIDDLE ENGLISH
SOCIETY
- a method of organizing society consisting of three estates: clergymen, noblemen, and peasants
FEUDALISM
SOCIETY
- those who tended to the spiritual realm and spiritual needs
CLERGYMAN/CLERGY
SOCIETY
- they were granted fiefs by the king
- those who ruled, protected, and provided civil order
NOBLEMAN/NOBILITY
SOCIETY
- they worked on the fief
- who physically labored to produce the necessities of life for all three estates
PEASANTS/COMMONERS
SOCIETY
- the metaphor used
in the Middle Ages to describe the social hierarchy believed to be created by God
- Originating with Aristotle and, in the Middle Ages, believed to be ordained by God, the idea of —-
- attempted to establish order in the universe by picturing each creation as a link in a chain beginning with God at the top, followed by the various orders
of angels, down through classes of people, then animals, and even inanimate parts of nature
GREAT CHAIN OF BEING or SCALA NATURAE
SOCIETY
- by Chaucer’s lifetime (late 14th century), another social class, a merchant middle class,
developed in the growing cities
- many of Chaucer’s pilgrims represent the emerging middle class: the following are —-?
the MERCHANT
the GUIDESMEN
the WIFE OF BATH
PHILOSOPHY
- it is the most important philosophical influence of the Middle Ages was the ——
- it dominated life and literature
- In medieval Britain, “the —–” referred to the Roman
Catholic Church
CHURCH
- Outbreaks of the plague, known as the —–
- affected both the everyday lives and the philosophy of the Middle Ages. It was not unusual for the populations of entire villages to die of plague.
- Labor shortages resulted, as did fear of being near others who might carry the contagion.
BLACK DEATH
- the second philosophical influence on medieval thought and literature
- it was the code of conduct that bound and defined a knight’s behavior
CHIVALRY
- The word chivalry, based on the French word ——
- it derives from the French words for horse (cheval) and horsemen indicating that chivalry applies only to knights, the nobility.
CHEVALERIE
two ideas of literature prominently in medieval literature and they are:
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE & CHIVALRIC LITERATURE
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- collections of prayers and devotionals, often illuminated
BOOKS OF HOURS
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- books containing psalms and other devotional material, often illuminated
PSALTERS
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- books containing the prayers and other texts read during the celebration of mass throughout the year
MISSALS
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- books containing prayers and instructions for celebrating mass
BREVIARIES
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- stories of the lives of saints
HAGIOGRAPHIES
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- plays depicting events from the Bible
MYSTERY PLAY
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- plays, often allegories, intended to teach a moral lesson
MORALITY PLAY
mystery plays and morality plays served
a —–
PREDOMINANTLY ILLITERATE POPULATION
- particularly the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, flowered in the MEDIEVAL ROMANCE, a narrative, in either prose or poetry, presenting a knight and his adventures.
CHIVALRIC LITERATURE
- it presents a knight in a series of adventures (a quest) featuring battles, supernatural elements, repeated events, and standardized
characters.
MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
- he revolutionized the history of literature in the English language in 1476 when he set up the first printing press in England somewhere in the precincts of Westminster Abbey.
- he is the first to print books in English,
- he helped to standardize English vocabulary and spelling
WILLIAM CAXTON
- it depicts events from the Bible.
- often performed as cycle plays, a sequence of plays portraying all the major events of the Bible, from the fall of Satan to the last judgment.
MYSTERY PLAYS
- One of the most well-known of mystery plays is the —- part of the Wakefield cycle
- The play blends comic action, serious social commentary, and the religious story of the angelic announcement of Christ’s birth to shepherds.
- At the beginning of the play, three shepherds complain of the injustices of their lives on the lowest rung of the medieval social ladder. When another peasant steals one of their lambs, the thief and his wife try to hide the animal by disguising it as their infant son; thus, an identification of a new-born son with the symbolic lamb foreshadows the biblical story. At the end of the play, the religious message becomes clear when angels announce the birth of Christ.
The Second Shepherds’ Play
- it is intended to teach a moral lesson
- These plays often employ allegory, the use of characters or events in a literary work to represent
abstract ideas or concepts. - it depicts representative characters in moral dilemmas with both the good and the evil parts of their character struggling for dominance.
- it portrayed characters much like the members of the audience who watched the play. From the characters’ difficulties, the audience could learn the moral
lessons the Church wished to instill in its followers. One of the most well-known extant morality plays is Everyman. - In this play, God sends Death to tell
Everyman that his time on earth has come to an end.
MORALITY PLAYS
from 1360 to 1400, produced the three greatest
works of medieval literature:
• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• Malory’s Morte d’Arthur
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the Pearl Poet, the unidentified author of
Pearl, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
they are part of a movement known as the alliterative revival, a resurgent use of the alliterative verse form of oral Old English poetry such as
Beowulf.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- a group of five short lines at the end of an alliterative verse rhyming ABABA.
BOB AND WHEEL
it introduces individuals from every level of society—
peasant, nobleman, clergy, and the new middle class—with vividness and detail.
“The General Prologue”
it pictures the medieval world with a richness of description that makes it vibrant and alive.
The Canterbury Tales
- he (c. 1343–1400) was born into an apparently prosperous merchant family.
- As a boy, he served as a page to a noble
family and throughout his life worked in increasingly more prominent government positions.
Geoffrey Chaucer
he is a wealthy and politically
powerful younger son of King Edward III, became Chaucer’s patron.
John of Gaunt
Chaucer’spoem —— was written to commemorate the death of John of Gaunt’s wife Blanche.
The Book of the Duchess
—a narrative with the following characteristics:
◦ a plot about knights and their adventures
◦ improbable, often supernatural elements
◦ inclusion of the conventions of courtly love
◦ standardized characters (the same types of characters appearing in many stories: the chivalrous knight; the beautiful lady; the mysterious old hag)
◦ repeated events, often repeated in numbers with religious significance such
as three
▪ examples of these are The Canterbury Tales: “The Knight’s Tale,” “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” (an Arthurian romance)
MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
—a humorous, bawdy tale, often including satire of foolish characters
examples of it is The Canterbury Tales: “The Miller’s Tale,” “The Reeve’s Tale,” “The Summoner’s Tale”
FABLIAU
—a moral tale, often used to illustrate a point in a sermon
◦ examples of these are The Canterbury Tales: “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The Pardoner’s Tale,” “The Monk’s Tale”
EXEMPLUM
—a story depicting the life and martyr’s death of a saint
◦ examples of these are The Canterbury Tales: “The Prioress’s Tale,” “The Second Nun’s Tale”
SAINT’S LEGEND
—a fable, often allegorical, that features animal characters
◦ An example of this is The Canterbury Tales: “The Nun’sPriest’s Tale”
BEAST EPIC
- the use of characters or events in a literary work to represent abstract ideas or concepts
ALLEGORY
- depict representative characters in moral dilemmas with both the good and the evil parts of their character struggling for dominance.
ALLEGORICAL
- One of the most well-known of
extant morality play - In this morality play, God sends Death to tell
Everyman that his time on earth has come to an end.
EVERYMAN
- a resurgent use of the alliterative verse form of oral Old English poetry such as Beowulf.
ALLITARIVE SURVIVAL
- the two-syllable line called ?
BOB
- the four lines called ?
WHEEL
- a character in ancient fertility myths representing spring and the renewal of life, a parallel of Christian belief in the resurrection. In some decapitation myths, a motif found in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- the blood of the—- symbolizes the fertilizing of crops, thus ensuring an adequate food supply.
- —— symbols are common in Gothic cathedrals, such as these in Ely Cathedral, in York Minster, and in the ruins of Fountains Abbey.
GREEN MAN
an integral part of the medieval romances sung by troubadours as entertainment in the courts of France, stories of knights inspired to great deeds by their love for fair damsels, sometimes a damsel in distress rescued by the knight. The idea behind amour courtois is that a knight idealized a lady, a lady not his wife and often in fact married to another and performed deeds of chivalry to honor her.
COURTLY LOVE
