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UNIT 2. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE.
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
The most important even that we should mention to distinguish the Anglo-Saxon period from the medieval one is the Norman Conquest, because it affected deeply in the social structure, in the linguist one and in the literature that was being produced.
The Norman Conquest took place on 1066 when the Normans defeated Anglo- Saxons on the Battle of Hastings. It was an important event that was reflected in artistic works such as the Bayeux Tapestry.
A new group of women and men came and settled in England. They were descendants of the Vikings but they came from France, so they adopted French, as well as the system of feudalism. The society was stratified. Each one occupied its position:
POPE CHURCH GOD
NOBLES LORDS
KNIGHTS VASSALS
MERCHANTS FARMERS TRADESMAN
PEASANTS SERFS
The Peasants’ Revolt reacted against the taxes they had to pay to the feudal system.
COURTLY LOVE
CULTURAL CONTEXT
The process of Christianisation helped the building of churches, abbeys… The Norman kings were also Christian. The church and the court continued to be the centre of the cultural life. The education took place manly in monasteries and grammars. The medieval book was written in manuscripts. It was very expensive.
At the beginning of the medieval period, in England coexisted three languages: French, Latin and English (ME). The French court spoke and wrote in French. It had negative consequences for the development of English literature.
From the 11th to the 12th century, there were not many English texts. Latin was the language used by ecclesiastic authorities and used for legal purposes. ME was used by the peasants, merchants…
The positive side of this coexistence of three languages was that many words from Latin and French were inserted at this time and these words enriched the English language.
Example :
OE French Latin ask question interrogate kingly royal regal house mansion domicile
At this moment, they system of Patronage began to be established. It implied that the members of the court invited artists to work for them to produce the literary works in the context of the court. At the moment, this cultural figures work both for the court and also for religious institutions. Sometimes they were paid, but sometimes they had to develop an alternative activity so as to earn a living.
Example : Geoffrey Chaucer. He was a trader and he also wrote texts.
We identify the authors of the text. Nevertheless, we also found some unknown texts (we are not sure of the name of the author but we can identify a figure who wrote with a determinate style and a specific dialect).
Example : One of the Arthurian romances. It’s written in an alliterative style. We don’t know certainly who wrote it but the text ‘ ’Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’’ and ‘’Pearl’’ it is thought that is written by Gawain Poet.
We’re going to see how at this time, French literature were imitated in England. We also detect a change of values in the way that the characters are represented.
Example : From the epic hero to the man of romance. They are much more complex heroes. They are humanized.
Poetry was composed for entertainment, mainly intended for the education of the lower classes. The courtly love was mainly composed for the entertainment of the upper classes and by the court.
The development of drama took place in England. The most important author was Chaucer.
Some critics consider that is worth distinguishing religious and popular poetry. Both are a simple type of poetry, based on the idea of repetition. These poems employ a very simple language. We’re speaking about poems that usually were recited orally and sometimes were accompanied with music. They were easy to remember and they were mainly directed / oriented for entertaining and teaching the lower classes. We distinguish between popular and religious just looking at the topic.
women. The woman is highly idealized as a perfect woman. The man is more than ready to worship her. This type of poetry was favoured by the members of the court and in fact, some courtly women invited French troubadours to the English court. Some courtly famous women were Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie of France, Countess of Champagne.
Some sociologists consider that this type of poetry had a social function, that it wasn’t a simple way of entertainment for the upper classes. It promoted an ideal of behaviour for those young men who could not marry because of the economic situation.
Focusing on the topics, the central topic is the love-relationship but it’s presented as an idealized love that is presented as impossible. It’s presented as an illness that is difficult to cure. We detect the influence of the classics as Ovidio.
The lover accepts to be faithful and loyal to her beloved without accepting anything in exchange. They use some metaphors that everybody would use and accept: her light skin, fair hair, her eyes are compared with the stars, her lips with roses…
Formally speaking, this type of poems are much more complex than the other type of poems that we have been commenting on (popular and Christian) because courtly love writers counted the syllables and imitated different type of stanzas such as ballads, roundeau… in a series of stanzas that were already popularized in European poetry.
ROMANCES
They were initially written in poetic form and later in prose. It’s a combination of the tradition of Courtly Love poetry plus epic poetry. We can see a difference in romances matter of France ( The sing of Roland ). This type of romances focused on the figure of Carlo Magno. Other romances focus on Rome, Troyan War with the figure of Alexander the Great. Oriental romances take place in faraway environments.
Romances with the matter of Britain and the king Arthur
King Arthur is a semi – historical, semi – legendary figure. The first time we see the figure of King Arthur in England was by Geoffrey Monmouth in Historia Regum Brittaniae (1136). The first writer who developed the story of this figure was Waee, an Anglo – Norman writer. This inspired Chrétien de Troyes (France).
In the 14th^ century King Arthur stories became popular (Sir Gawain). In the 15 th
century, we have the first legend of King Arthur written in prose by Thomas Malory, Morte D’Arthur.
MIDDLE ENGLISH DRAMA
Introits / tropes
▲ Quem Quaretis (The moment when 3 women are looking for Christ’s tomb)
▲ Officcium Pastorum & Officcium Stellea (They refer to the epiphany. These brief dialogues were initially represented in Latin. They have a religious origin. That medieval people practiced in spring time known as May-Day, May-games and the Mumer’s Plays. This was part of the folklore and we are referring to games, dances and physical performances in which young men and women participated. They celebrated the harvest and the good weather.
Since the religious authorities realised that people enjoyed this performances, they began to develop longer and longer performances and we can distinguish: Miracle plays, mystery plays or Corpus Christi plays and the morality plays.
▲ Miracle plays. The topic is the life of saints and miracles.
▲ Mystery plays/Corpus Christi plays. Cyclic performances that deal with long passages from the Bible. Usually from the creation (the Genesis) till the final judgment. Some medieval cities became very famous so that York, Chester, Wakefield and Coventry celebrated these performances.
▲ Morality plays. More abstract performances in which a dramatic crisis in the life of an individual is represented. The crisis implies a battle between good and civil forces and we find allegorical characters that symbolise vices and virtues.
The Wakefield Cycle is more comic than for instance the Coventry Cycle that was controlled by the church. Both religious and political authorities began to realize that these performances were becoming quite dangerous and that they even interrupted the traffic in medieval cities so that they forced people to continue with these performances in the outskirts of the cities, mainly in inns. Even later on, the authorities began to persecute these popular representations so that they decided to build the first theatres on the other side of the river Thames that is far away from the city.
Women contributed to the medieval literature. The medieval period implied something negative to women because of the feudal system. Women lost power and privilege and consequently they found it more difficult to participate in cultural life. There were some noble women who became patrons. They favoured culture. We can find women who left the attends at creativity. For example, Marie de France, ‘’Lais’’ (romances), Julien of Norwich (visionary writer, she suffered visions and they she wrote them), Margaery Kempe ‘’The Book of Margaery Kempe’’ (she dictated the book to two men. In the book, she dictates her visions but also her thoughts about marriage... She laments the situation of women at that time).
Also, ‘’Ancrene Wisse’’ is a book dedicated to women. Most of the text is related/composed by women, and it was a moral, didactic and religious tone. Christine of Pizan composed ‘’Book of the City of Ladies’’ and ‘’Moral Proverbs of Christine’’ was the first book composed by a women. She vindicated things, like better education for women.
