Middle English Literature

The first considerable one was Layamon's Brut (1205):

1. written in the alliterative form 2. connections with the Old English poetic measures 3. the first poem in English in which the legend of Arthur is told
Alliterative poetry never ceased to be composed, at least for oral purpose.

14th century, "alliterative revival" reappearance of written form and its peak is in: Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Layamon's Brut source was a Norman work by the poet Wace.

According to the Legends: England was founded by one Brutus (descendant of the Trojan Aeneas) [Britain/Brutus] Arthur (descendant of Brutus): - freed Britain from the Roman yoke - defended it from Anglo-Saxons
Layamon and the poet of Beowulf dealt with legendary materials and thought of these materials as history. Beowulfs genre: Epic Layamons method: use of Romance

Some characteristics of Romance:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. knights and involves too much fighting and adventures freely uses impossible events, and often supernatural things most of the time (not always) involved with the romantic love heroes and heroines easily move from one romance to another plot involves many events and repetition of the same events style is easy and colloquial

The majority of poets who composed romance were uncultivated and addressed a semi-literate audience.
o o o o The 12th and early 13th centuries: the golden age of medieval romance originated from the aristocratic society of France by the work of such poets as Chretien de Troyes The ME poets of romance introduced the French romances into English Replacement of aristocratic ideals of an unfamiliar society by the easily understandable ones of the lower and middle-class Englishmen

Because of the churchs dominancy during much of the Middle Ages:

The majority of English literature is religious anyone who learned to write and read wanted to become a cleric had a great role in producing books loss of secular works because of theirs contradictions with churchs interests

So the majority of ME works can hardly be regarded as literature, they usually included:
Sermons Manuals of priests Mystical writings Lyric poems Stories of miracles Moral allegories

Owl and the Nightingale ( one of the few works which survived)

During the last 25 years of the 14th century, ME literature suddenly flowered in 3 great poets:
Author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the best romance of the period, best religious poetries like Patience and The Pearl) William Langland in Piers Plowman (faces religious and social issues) Geoffrey Chaucer

The sudden success is partly because of the patrons. But patrons did not always make a poet great! John Gower, Chaucer's friend, supported by a royal patron but not succeed as Chaucer. His works include Confessio Amantis in English. And also a work in Latin, one in Norman French.

The 15th century, the flowering of popular literary genres:

1. Lyrics 2. Ballads 3. Dramas (mystery plays, morality plays, etc.)

Medieval English
Differences:
Weaker inflection system in ME English Entirely Germanic vocabulary of Old English, while Middle English is mostly French

Main difficulty of the Middle English for the modern reader is its spelling system because of:
no standard language composition of many regional dialects (each has its own sound system and writing)