“YEAR OF STRENGTHENING NATIONAL

SOVEREIGNTY”

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SAN MARTIN FACULTY OF

EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES PROFESSIONAL
LANGUAGE SCHOOL

Course: BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE

Topic: Middle English Literature

Teacher: Mg. Fernanda Gómez Alegría

Group members: Brenda Días Galecio

Harol Francis Pinedo Flores
Michel Solsol Pérez
Samuel Cárdenas del Pino
Teddy Diaz Izquierdo

Cycle: VI

MORALES-PERÚ
2022
 MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

Middle English (ME) was the dominant and traditional spoken language form in many
parts of England during the Middle Ages. Though most language historians suggest
that prior(earlier) to about 1000 CE, the primary language in England was Anglo-
Saxon, the Norman invasion of England had a significant effect on Anglo-Saxon. It
gradually morphed the language into Middle English, a form almost recognizable, at
least in text, as far more relative to modern spoken and written English. History can
have an intense effect on language. For England, the Norman invasion changed the
English forever. In the courts and in much of the writing of the time, French was
preferable, accounting for the numerous French-based words (over 10,000) that are
now the common everyday words of today’s English. Most documents dated after
1000 were written in either French or Latin, and Middle English drew from both, while
still retaining some of its Anglo-Saxon roots. This in part accounts for the significant
“exceptions” in English grammar, spelling, structure, and pronunciation that can
make English such a challenging language to learn, especially for those acquiring it
as a second language. The term Middle English literature refers to the literature
written in the form of the English language known as middle English, from the 12th
century until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard a form of London-based
English, became widespread and the printing process regularized the language.
Between the 1470s and the middle of the following century, there is a transition to
early modern English though in literary terms the characteristics of the literary works
written do not change radically until the effects of the categories of Middle English
Literature: Religious, country love, and Arthurian, though much of Geoffrey
Chaucer's work stands outside these. Among the many religious works are those in
the Katherine group and the writings of Julian of Norwich and Ricard rolle.

There had been a great change between the time of Beowulf and the time of The
Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s language is on the whole understandable to a modern
reader. The differences between Old English and the English of Chaucer’s time were
a result of changes in both the grammatical system and the vocabulary of the
language. The most noticeable change in the grammatical system was the
disappearance of most grammatical endings of words. And the Conquest of the
Normans brought the French language into England, which contributed to the
vocabulary of the English language. (Churchmen and scholars continued to borrow
words from Latin at that time too.)One extremely significant development that took
place in Middle English was the gradual adoption of a standard written language.
Before that period, there was no such thing as “Standard English”. The other change
is in pronunciation; the long vowel sounds in what is called the Great Vowel Shift.
 Author’s biography

1. MARGERY KEMPE:

Born Margery Burnham or Brunham around 1373 in Bishop's Lynn (now King's
Lynn), Norfolk, England, she was an English Christian mystic. His father, John
Brunham, was a merchant in Lynn, the mayor of the town, and a Member of
Parliament. The earliest record of his Brunham family is a mention of his grandfather,
Ralph of Brunham in 1320 in the Lynn Red Register. By 1340 he had joined the
Parliament of Lynn. Kempe's relative, the possible brother, Robert Brunham, became
Member of Parliament for Lynn in 1402 and 1417.

The book of Margery Kempe

Known for writing via dictation The Book of Margery Kempe, is a work considered by
some to be the first autobiography in the English language. His book recounts
Kempe's domestic tribulations, his extensive pilgrimages to holy sites in Europe and
the Holy Land, as well as his mystical conversations with God. She is honored in the
Anglican Communion but was never named a Catholic saint.
 Manuscript of Margery Kempe's book, chapter 18 (excerpt)

Almost all that is known of Kempe's life comes from his Book. In the early 1430s,
despite his illiteracy, Kempe decided to record his spiritual autobiography. In the
book's preface, she describes how she employed as her scribe an Englishman who
had lived in Germany, but died before the work was completed and what he had
written was unintelligible to others. Possibly John Kempe, his eldest son.

Margery Kempe's book The Book of Kempe begins just after her marriage,
recounting the experience of her difficult first pregnancy. She fell ill while giving birth
and feared for her life. He called a priest to hear him in confession, as he had a
"secret sin" that had weighed on his conscience for a long time. The priest began
censuring her before she could divulge this sin in its entirety, and then left. Fearing
eternal damnation, he fell into a state of self-delusion, in which he saw devils. She
was chained in a room for six months. Possibly in 1413, Kempe visited the mystic
and hermit Juliana of Norwich. According to his account, Kempe visited Juliana
(possibly in 1413) and stayed there for several days. At the end of 1413, he left
Yarmouth and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, via Constance and Venice,
living on alms. He arrived in Jerusalem and visited Calvary and the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. He then returned to Venice and visited Assisi and Rome. He
returned to England after Easter 1415. In 1417, he again set out on a pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela, traveling through Bristol, where he stayed with Thomas
Peverel, Bishop of Worcester. On his return from Spain, he visited the shrine of the
Holy Blood at Hailes, in Gloucestershire, and then proceeded to Leicester. He visited
other holy places in England. His book is made up of a series of accounts of his
travels, although a final section includes a series of sentences

Analysis of Margery Kempe’s book

Part of Kempe's significance lies in the autobiographical nature of his book; it is the
best available insight into a middle-class female experience in the Middle Ages.
Kempe and his Book are important because they express the tension in late
medieval England between institutional orthodoxy and increasingly public forms of
religious dissent, especially those of the Lollards. Throughout her spiritual career,
Kempe was challenged by both church and civil authorities for her adherence to the
teachings of the institutional Church. The Bishop of Lincoln and the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, were involved in trials for their alleged teaching and
preaching on Scripture and faith in public, and wearing white clothing (construed as
hypocrisy on the part of a married woman). In his efforts to suppress heresy, Arundel
had enacted laws prohibiting allowing women to preach, as a woman preaching was
considered anti-canonical.

2. Geoffrey Chaucer

(London, c. 1343 - London, 1400) English poet. The son of a court-vendor vintner is
believed to have attended St Paul's Cathedral Latin grammar school and studied law
at the Inns of Court. In 1357 he was page to the Countess of Ulster, and later (circa
1367) shield to Edward III of England. A man close to the court, around 1366 married
Philippa Roet, a lady-in-waiting to the queen.

Geoffrey Chaucer held the positions of Comptroller of Customs in the Port of London
(1374-1386) and then Justice of the Peace in Kent, Parliamentarian, and in charge of
the royal gardens and palaces. In royal commissions, he made various trips to the
kingdom of Navarre, France, and Italy, which helped him to learn about the work of
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. At the end of his life, he rented a house near
Westminster Abbey and obtained the privilege of being buried there.

The Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four

stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between
1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus. The tales (mostly written in
verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group
of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint
Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Fragment Group Tales

Fragment I A General Prologue

The Knight's Tale

The Miller's Tale

The Reeve's Tale

The Cook's Tale

Fragment II B1 The Man of Law's Tale

Fragment III D The Wife of Bath's Tale

The Friar's Tale

The Summoner's Tale

Fragment IV E The Clerk's Tale

The Merchant's Tale

Fragment V F The Squire's Tale

The Franklin's Tale

Fragment VI C The Physician's Tale

The Pardoner's Tale

Fragment VII B2 The Shipman's Tale

The Prioress's Tale

Thomas Tale

The Tale of Melibee

The Monk's Tale

The Nun's Priest's Tale

Fragment VIII G The Second Nun's Tale

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

Fragment IX H The Manciple's Tale

Fragment X I The Parson's Tale

Old English Pronunciation Current English

'Wepyng and waylyng, ˈweːpiŋɡ and ˈwailiŋɡ ‖ 'Weeping and wailing,

care and oother sorwe ˈkaːr‿and ˈoːðər ˈsɔrwə ‖ care and other sorrow
 I knowe ynogh, on even iː ˈknɔu iˈnoːx ‖ ɔn I know enough, in the
and a-morwe,' evening and the
ˈɛːvən and aˈmɔrwə ‖ morning,'

Quod the Marchant, 'and ˈkwɔd ðə ˈmartʃant ‖ said the Merchant, 'and
so doon oother mo so do many others
and ˈsɔː ˈdoːn ˈoːðər ˈmɔː
‖

That wedded been.' ðat ˈwɛddəd ˈbeːn ‖ who have been

married.'

The play begins with the meeting of a group of pilgrims in the inn of the Tabard of
Southwark, a small historic hotel founded in 1301 in Borough High Street
(Southwark, London). The owner of the inn is Harry Bailey, and it is he who initiates
the literary challenge or contest. A group of thirty-three pilgrims aims to reach
Canterbury, none of them know each other and all have planned their journey alone.
It is then that Harry Bailey proposes they travel together, including him.

With that invitation, they meet outside the inn, organize their belongings, and set out
to reach Canterbury. But first, to make the pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral much
more entertaining, Harry Bailey suggests that each of them tell four tales, two on the
way to Canterbury, and two more on the way back to the tavern. Whoever manages
to win this contest will get a full dinner and a free inn for a full night.

That is the excuse to weave the stories together in the form of a great sociological
fresco about the beginnings of what would become England. Among this group of
pilgrims is also Chaucer himself, as part of those who will narrate the stories.

Literary analysis.

The Canterbury Tales is a literary classic. It is a foundational work where the

historical and social elements of the nascent English nation are highlighted. The
work as a whole is composed of a great mosaic of stories, where the protagonists
are the social classes that make up the kingdom of Britain.

All the tales leave certain teaching, although it has nothing to do with a moral since
the stories do not have a religious or moral sense; on the contrary, Chaucer uses the
simplicity of many of his characters to tell us about everyday life, and the conflicts
present in society. This is the most important point that transforms the work into a
reference, because, before Chaucer, mythology was the only Anglo-Saxon literary
theme, and magic was the only signifier of the European world, and therefore, of
literature.

But in The Canterbury Tales, strong realistic content is present, as opposed to

mythology. That is to say, we will no longer be told of a distant event of doubtful
existence, but of a "real Pilgrimage". Nor will magic be the only protagonist of the
stories, because astronomy and medicine will be present as a symbol of modernity in
the narratives. But The Canterbury Tales mean much more for English and world
literature since Chaucer composed an open work, that is to say, the stories form a
kind of epic, in which the narratives are interrupted to be placed in the present time
and to express opinions. This is called a frame novel. Hence Chaucer is defined as
the English Homer.

Structure

The collection of stories is made up of twenty-four tales that are preceded by a

prologue each, where details of the subject matter are given, at times indirectly, and
at other times directly. In addition to this structure, there is a prologue by Chaucer in
which the general presentation and description of each of the pilgrims are made.
Within this formal proposal, what can be called "intersections" or "interruptions"
stand out. It is these interruptions that elevate the stories and make the narrative
move with the pilgrimage. By way of scene cuts, the characters will air their opinions,
confront ideas, and sometimes argue passionately about their points of view.

Message

Chaucer makes a universal allegory about life, about the steps taken to reach a
destination. But also, a journey in search of identity. Those are The Canterbury Tales
and its theme of the pilgrimage that is represented in a real way, but also in a
symbolic way.

The English writer tells us that life is a journey in which everything is transformed.
This great metaphor of the pilgrimage is joined by other themes: love, nobility,
religion, science, marriage, sex, humor, and chivalry, among others. Each character
develops a particular theme.

The religious aspect is remarkable. Chaucer treats it in a lighthearted way, including

pagan legends in the work. Other stories are marked by allegory, and others seek to
provide doctrines or lessons on some subject, such as marriage.

Chaucer and The English language

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered the father of the English language. This is another
point to highlight in The Canterbury Tales. It is important to know that they constitute
the first work written in an almost pure and complete way, in a primitive English
dialect.

If one wants to know English literature from its origins, The Canterbury Tales, and
Chaucer's other works, cannot be overlooked. Before the writer began the
composition of his tales, most British writers used French and Latin as a medium of
expression.

It was with the sequence of written works, and the construction of national identity,
that the dialect spoken by the peasants, the puppeteers, the minstrels, and the
common people in England, was transformed into English Literature. The first writer
to translate this whole mechanism of expression was Chaucer.

Later, writers like Shakespeare would further refine the English language, creating
works that would take for granted its importance in literature. But it all began with
The Canterbury Tales.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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