OBJECTIVES The overall aim is for students to identify the most important aspects of medieval culture and relate these to medieval English history. For a complete list of objectives, see the Teacher's Manual.

FOCUS / MOTIVATION Our times are ones of great change, but students might consider some of the upheavals that took place in the medieval period, such as invasion, linguistic change, and the Black Death, and try to imagine having to adjust to them.

PRESENTATION A time of enormous upheaval and change in England, the medieval period encompassed the reigns of some of the most famous, and infa­mous, kings in English history. Invasion, disas­trous wars (both foreign and civil), and, finally.

I The Medieval Period 1066-1485

The ^7oT1TlCtTl ^ 1 T h e history of the medieval period begins in 1066 with Conquest the Batde of Hastings, in which Harold , the king of

England, was defeated by Wil l iam "the Conqueror," Duke of Normandy. Wil l iam invaded England to support his claim that he had been promised the succession to the English throne. T h e coming of the Normans to England was not another hit-and-run raid, but a full-fledged invasion and occupation. T h e occupation was im­posed systematically and can be described in modern terms. T h e r e

2 was an inventory and seizure o f property. Martial law was put into effect. A strong central government was set up with lines of authority

3 clearly defined. Wil l iam was an efficient and ruthless soldier and an able administrator. Wi th his followers, many of whom were adven­turers and soldiers of fortune, he was soon able to conquer the whole country. H e reigned for twenty-one years, and the succession was assured at his death.

4 T h e Normans—a name derived from "Northman"—were in large part descended from the Vikings who had seized and then remained

The Bayeux Tapestry (detail), c. 1077. The sailing of William's invasion fleet.

* F o r additional teaching materials related to this period, see the Teacher's Literature Companion: Selection Test 6 / Study Guide 5 / Mastery Test 2 / Analogy Test 2 / Composition Test 2 / Reteaching Worksheet 2 43

THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

Also known as the "Middle Ages" because period was later perceived by some historians as falling between two cultural " h i g h " points: Roman civilization and the Renaissance.

Result of inventory was Domesday Book, 1086.

the

William slaughtered many of the Anglo-Saxon nobility and re­placed them with Normans, ac­counting for clear historical break between Anglo-Saxon and Nor­man-dominated England.

Northmen were continuous threat to the Anglo-Saxons. Har­old, the last Saxon king, had rushed his troops to Hastings af­ter repulsing Viking invasion in North.

VISUAL CONNECTIONS About the Artwork The Bayeux Tapestry, a work of embroidered linen twenty inches high and over two hundred feet long, was commissioned in France to record the invasion and conquest of England. The style is Romanesque, the predominant painting style of the eleventh cen­tury. The central panel, a portion of which is shown here, is en­closed by two border strips which act as both decoration and frame.

43

reconsolidation marked England's emergence as an important nation. English literature also came of age as it moved from the native oral tradition of Anglo-Saxon days through significant linguis­tic change to the cosmopolitan written tradition exemplified by Geoffrey Chaucer.

5 Modern Norman-French is still different from the French spoken in the rest of the country.

The Normans' use of stone far exceeded that of the English, al­though they could not match the Anglo-Saxons in learning or as ar­tisans and craftsmen.

Richard I is king in Robin Hood legends.

(Detail) The Murder of Thomas a Backet, from an early illuminated manuscript, Harley MS. 5102, f. 32. 7 The British Library

8 Murder in the Cathedral and Becketare modern dramas based on these events.

in northwestern France, which became known as Normandy. After more than a hundred years in France, the Normans had adopted many French customs and had their own variety of the French lan-

5guage, Norman-French. T h e y were a curious people: superb soldiers, excellent administrators and lawyers, great borrowers and adapters, but lacking inventiveness and original ideas. Even the architecture

6 and the ambitious building in stone that they introduced into England originated in northern Italy. I t used to be assumed that the Norman conquerors "civilized" the defeated Anglo-Saxons, but in some re­spects, notably in their more democratic system of government and in their crafts and designs, the Anglo-Saxons were more advanced than the Normans. Wil l iam was able to subdue the whole land partly because he could adopt and use the institutions of the highly cen­tralized and stable Anglo-Saxon government.

T h e dual realms of England and Normandy as ruled by Wil l iam became the most powerful force in Europe. Wilham's descendants greatly increased their land holdings in Europe, either through mar­riage or by conquest. T h e Norman kings of England spent much o f their time across the Engl ish Channel , fighting for their French ter­ritories, and later administering their Continental kingdoms. T h e court, of course, accompanied the king. I t is a tribute to the stability of the kingdom and its management that one of its kings, Richard "the Lion-Hearted," could spend all but five months of his ten years' reign outside of his English kingdom.

I T h e Norman and Anglo-Saxon elements were gradually fused into a national Engl ish character, neither predominately Norman nor Anglo-Saxon but a subde blend of both. After losing their own rulers, the Anglo-Saxons adapted to Norman ways. Many found that they could raise their station through the Chur c h or through the court, and began to mingle with their Norman overlords. One prominent example is that of Thomas a Becket, who became Henry I I ' s L o r d Chancellor and later Archbishop of Canterbury. T h e old antagonisms died slowly, however. After Becket was made Archbishop, he de­fended the claims o f the Church against the interests of the K i n g , for which he was murdered by several of Henry's knights. Thereafter he became a saint of the C hu r c h and a hero of the people.

Land and the ^ ^ , | - . J 1 C * Since most of the great Anglo-Saxon landowners were reuaai oyStetn wiped out by the invasion, Wil l iam had a great deal of

land at his disposal. Retaining much himself, the rest he granted to those who had fought faithfully with him. T h e year 1066 brought the largest change of land ownership in the history of England. Wil l iam felt that the land o f England was his by right of conquest and that he was free to deed land to his vassals by royal

44 44 T H E M E D I E V A L P E R I O D

charter, expecting obedience and service in return. T h u s , Wil l iam introduced into England the feudal system as it was practiced on the Continent.

Feudalism was a complicated system of landholding. Nobody owned land independently but only as a vassal of an overlord, who in turn owed allegiance either to some great noble or to the king. T h e system was really an elaborate chain o f loyalties, with rent, so to speak, paid principally in military service to the overlord.

T h e grants Wil l iam gave were mainly the estates o f certain Anglo-Saxons who had died at the Conquest. T h e boundaries o f these estates were frequently vague, and the first twenty years o f Norman rule saw many disputes about property. Therefore , in 1086, Wil l iam had a complete inventory of all property drawn up in the very im­portant Domesday Book (sometimes called Doomsday), the book of judg­ments. I t listed all the landowners and showed the extent o f their claims. T h e Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a history written by monks hostile to Wil l iam, says of this great inventory, " I t is a shame to tell though he thought no shame to do it. So very narrowly he caused it to be traced out that there was not one single hide or yard of land, not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine, that was not set down in writing."

l <tftriat.'MgW>5W» «)iiMr<l!irw ^a.f.^.tafMi

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•Ai-muafM- ('^••'«" "^«r "mSi ittmr-

'7^ 7 iiitv -ha. iinfr Am?!(>( af'-WoOTft

A page from the Domesday Book, Vol. describing the land of small tenants.

-.. - .- - - raty-i .

.l^efurt mmimfitr vrAnf' fSttrut^fufrXiA

I . The survey for Bedfordshire 1086.

Introduction 45

In Anglo-Saxon period, l<ing kept loyalty of his warriors by sharing spoils of war . In medieval period, land replaced plunder as com­modity bonding king to lord and lord to vassal.

,10 Dom is the Anglo-Saxon word for " judgment ." Also called "Book of the Day of Assessment," the Domesday Book still exists and is presen/ed in London.

11 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was begun by Alfred the Great about 200 years earlier.

VISUAL CONNECTIONS Exploring the Subject Domesday Book was called "the book of judgments" because all Normans who held English prop­erty had to account for the man­ner in which they obtained it. This accounting was used to approve or deny land claims. William's other motives were to ascertain the tax base and his military re­sources.

45

T h i s was an administrative feat without equal anyplace else in E u ­rope. T a x e s in England could now be based on real property— previously, there had been a uniform tax for al l .

i2 Crusades demonstrated that Christian nations, often in con­flict, could rally under banner of religion.

13 In Middle Ages no subject was studied as an end in itself but rather as a demonstration of God's hand in the world.

14 Beginning in twelfth century, ef­fort to apply reason to faith and emphasis on logic and methodol­ogy helped lay foundations of modern science, but Church came to believe that orthodoxy was threatened. In 1277, Bishop of Paris condemned 219 errors taught by the Paris Faculty of Arts.

15 Shift from agrarian to pastoral economy forced many peasants into towns. Labor shortage caused by Black Death temporar­ily improved peasants' living con­ditions.

16 Significant proportion of raw wool was exported to Flanders and Florence for use in cloth in­dustries.

17 Population shift into cities further eroded feudal system because these peasants were no longer tied to the manor.

The Medieval „ ., . . , . ^ y-y, , Roughly from the eleventh to the htteenth century, y^nUTCn [j^g people o f Western Europe belonged to one ho-

mogeneous society with a common culture and a com-% mon set o f beliefs. T h e single institution that did most to promote

this unity was the Medieval Church . T h i s institution crossed physical boundaries and differences in language. La t in , the language of the Church , became the language of all educated persons. Despite fierce

12 national loyalty, every person was also responsible to the Church . No matter what kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, or free cities people belonged to, they were all also sons and daughters of the Church , the Christ ian commonwealth of Europe.

T h e Ch u r ch grew and prospered during the period and continued 13 to be the dominant force in preserving and transmitting cul ture—in

teaching, writing, and translating, and in copying, collecting, and distributing manuscripts. I t was Europe's chief publisher, l ibrarian, and teacher. Its scholars and philosophers moved freely from uni-

14 versity to university and from one country to another. I n England, its abbeys and monasteries were the main centers of learning and the arts in the period before the founding of Oxford and Cambridge universities in the thirteenth century. As economically self-sufficient units, they were also often immense farms, places where all manner o f handicrafts were taught and practiced.

^^edieval Life Most people lived in the country and were attached to a feudal manor. T h e r e they worked their own fields

and the lands of the lord o f the manor, to whom they owed their 15 allegiance. As the period progressed, however, farming became less

important than herding. 'The wool produced by English sheep was 16 considered preferable to that o f almost any other part of Europe. I t

became profitable, therefore, to turn cornfields into pasture land for sheep. B y the end of the thirteenth century, there were probably as many as fifteen or eighteen million sheep in England—four or five for every person. T h i s economic development greatly altered the

17 daily life of the common people. Instead of farmers, many people became herders, but also a large percentage of the population became involved in the wool industry. Cottages became small mills involved in carding and combing, spinning and weaving—some even in dyeing

46 46 T H E M E D I E V A L P E R I O D

Scenes from medieval life from a prayer book, the Breviario Grimani, by an Italian artist. (Left) Sheepshearing from the Month oj July. (Right) Plowing from the Month of October.

the finished cloth. T h e common people now paid what they owed their overlords from their wages rather than in farm labor.

Earlier, some large towns and cides had grown up, mainly in the south and related to the court. London is an example. Bu t the wide­spread production of wool and woolen fabric, and its wide-scale exportation, encouraged the growth of cities in the north. More and more people began to live in towns and cities rather than on manors. A whole new class o f merchants grew up. Many became immensely r ich, and through favors to the court many of them entered the gentry; some, even the nobility. These populous centers, far from the influence of the French court, developed native forms of litera­

l s ture, songs and ballads, and a native drama with a good deal of color and pageantry.

19 T h e first people to form guilds (societies to regulate prices and standards) were the merchants. Later the cottage workers also formed guilds to assure fair wages and prices and good standards of material

20 and workmanship. T h e guild system encouraged a kind of extended family life. A master dyer would often have living with h im several

VISUAL CONNECTIONS Exploring the Subject A breviary is a clerical book of prayers and a model for private devotions. It was often decorated with miniatures illustrating the la­bors of the months. The illumina­tions pictured here are from a breviary commissioned by the Grimani family of Venice. Other notable examples are found in Les Tres Riches Heures du Due de Berry and on the west fagade of Amiens Cathedral .

18 While songs and ballads had varied subjects, medieval drama was generally religious, depicting events related to Scriptures.

19 Guilds were one result of rise of middle class of industrious free­men living in towns.

20 Though organized around vari­ous professions, guilds were also religious societies. Each had a pa­tron saint. In many towns, guilds produced mystery plays on reli­gious feast-days.

Introduction 47 47

TIME LINE The Time Line gives students an overview of the l<ey historical and literary events of the period.

READING THE TIME LINE The medieval period marks the consolidation of the English state. William the Conqueror intro­duced the feudal system of land tenure and governmental organi­zation to England. His consider­able administrative ability also helped to concentrate power in the monarchy. The period is char­acterized by the development of a strong central government as well as conflicts between the monarch and nobles and be­tween the monarch and the Church.

The population was decimated by the Black Death in the fourteenth century, and the resulting social dislocation was such that people began to question the estab­lished order. People attacked cor­ruption in the Church, the peas­ants revolted, and there was an increased emphasis on individual life and achievement. With the in­troduction of the printing press at the end of the medieval period, the possibilities for individual ex­pression were greatly enhanced.

1066

1086

1096

Norman Conquest

Doomsday Book

Crusades begin

1170

1215

1265

1337-1453

Murder of Thomas a Becket

Magna Carta

First Parliament

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1300s)

Hundred Years' 'War

G E O F F R E Y C H A U C E R (1340P-1400) Canterbury Tales begun (1386)

SIR T H O M A S M A L O R Y (P-1471)

Wars of the Roses 1455-1485

- j j ^ Caxton's priming press

Morte rf'/lrt/iMr published (1485)

Everyman (c. 1485)

Scene 11 om a !!ie(lic\al romance

Joust bclorc King thin

48 48 T H E M E D I E V A L P E R I O D

21

22

23

24

apprentices and also journeymen, men who had passed their ap­prenticeship and were in training to be masters themselves.

Wi th prosperity and a simultaneous growth in population, the English turned to other kinds of work. T h i s is the period of the great English cathedrals, Winchester and Lincoln , Salisbury and Durham. I t is hard to believe the labor that went into the construction of these cathedrals—often over a period of several hundred years. (York-minster was begun as a Norman church in 1070 and was not com­pleted until 1472.) Guilds were founded for many of these workers: stonecutters and masons, carpenters and woodcarvers, glass blowers and stainers. Much of the communal life of the city centered upon these magnificent monuments, where, among other things the first Engl ish dramas were performed.

L i fe in the Middle Ages was austere in many ways. T h e r e were few of the comforts and conveniences we take for granted. T r a v e l was difficult and often dangerous. Food, even for the r ich, probably offered little variety. Since there was no way to preserve or refrigerate food, sometimes a lot had to be eaten quickly while it was in season. Winters brought a limited and unwholesome diet for most people.

T h e austerity of life was relieved by religious festivals, magnificent tournaments, and brilliant pageantry. T h e countryside and to some extent the towns were probably fresh, colorful, and beautiful without the smoke of modern industrial factories. Also, the dress of the period seems to have been bright and varied, as evidenced by the paintings of the time: great lords in sumptuous attire and their retinues in colorful hvery; even the guild members, in clothing char­acteristic o f their trades.

English haw

25

I n the twelfth century, Richard Fitzneal, an English cleric, wrote, "When Wilham the Conqueror had sub­

dued the whole island, and by terrible examples had tamed the minds o f the rebels, he decided to place the government of the people on a written basis and subject them to the rules of law." T h e r e had been written documents under Anglo-Saxon kings, but not all of them were easily available or centrally based. One of William's innovations was to institute written public documents for most government ac­tions.

Even more important in the development of England's present-day system of laws was the notion of common law that took root dur ing this period. T h e term common law refers to law that is com­mon to the whole country and all its people, in contrast to kinds of law applying only to certain classes o f persons. I t developed as society itself developed, based not on legal statutes but on custom and usage.

21 English population almost tripled between 1068 and 1348.

22 These huge structures created revolution in architecture as de­signers wrestled with difficulties associated with size and com­plexity.

23 More than houses of worship, cathedrals were histories written in stone, stained glass, and wood , telling Biblical stories; faith made manifest.

24 People sought religious festivals not merely for relief but for joy. Medieval texts tell of spiritual pleasure associated with religious reflection.

25 Henry II reformed legal system; most reforms dealt with system­atizing procedure. In time, con­tent was also systematized, a national code replacing regional codes, with one exception — Kent retained its mode of inheritance.

Introduction 49 49

26 Trial by ordeal often involved such " tes ts" as walking on hot coals or swimming with hands chained behind back.

27 Assiz of Clarendon issued by Henry II in 1166 improved system of indictment but failed to abolish ordeal system. It did provide, however, for banishment of wel l-known criminals w h o passed their ordeals.

28 Church periodically banned ex­travagance and violence of medi­eval tournaments.

29 Despite its importance. Magna Carta was concerned only with rights of nobles. For example, one provision canceled all debts to Jews.

30 "Coeur de L ion" got his name by supposedly tearing out heart of living lion and eating it. Sir Walter Scott's nineteenth-century novel Ivanhoe, and later movie adapta­tions, popularized King Richard's adventures.

31 Sophisticated level of Arabic learning, especially Arabic inter­est in Aristotle's works , stimu­lated Renaissance in Western Europe.

One significant law that came into effect dur ing this period was the law of primogeniture, which gave the firstborn son exclusive right to inherit his father's titles, lands, and estates. I t is still the rule in England today.

26 Dur ing the early part o f this period, matters of law were still settled by what were called ordeals. People's innocence or guilt was settled by setting them tasks, and i f they were successful at them, they were

27 judged innocent. Disputes between two people were also settled by 28 ordeals, such as the personal combat central to Sir Gawain and the

Green Knight. I n 1215 Pope Innocent I I I declared that the ordeal system was "irrational." Without the sanction of the Church , secular governments had to find a suitable replacement for ordeals. Gradu­ally, in England, people who were indicted were asked to abide by the judgment of their neighbors. I n this way, the very important j u r y system came into being.

I n 1215, a group of angry barons forced K i n g J o h n ( I I 9 9 - 1 2 1 6 ) 29 to sign an agreement called the Magna Carta, or Great Charter.

Although the charter originally had mainly to do with taxes levied by the king, it firmly established that levies must be made with the consent of the barons. I n retrospect, the charter has come to seem much more important than merely limiting the king's taxing powers. I n it we can see foreshadowed the right of trial by jury , habeas corpus, or the right not to be illegally detained, and the beginnings o f rep­resentative government in Parliament.

The CvUSCldeS ^ p j j g Q f [ j j g treasured memory of great heroes like JOKing Richard "the Lion-Hearted," the history of the

Crusades makes dismal reading. T h e first Crusade was proclaimed in 1095 by Pope Urban I I . Other Crusades followed in 1191, 1202, 1217, and I2'70. Each Crusade began in high hope, in a genuine desire to rescue Jerusalem from the T u r k s , but most ended squalidly in raiding, loodng, and a tangle of power politics. SuU, in the end. Western Europe gained much from these expeditions to the Near

31 East. Christ ian Europe was exposed to Arabic culture—especially mathematics and medicine. Commercial and intellectual horizons were greatly broadened, and both knowledge and all manners of refinements in l iving were brought back from the East. I t was the Crusades too, even though they ended so badly, that encouraged the ideal of true knightly behavior known as chivalry.

Today we use the term chivalrous to describe the conduct of well-mannered and sensitive men toward women, but the medieval idea of chivalry, though it included the relations between the sexes, went far beyond this. I t sought, with the aid of the Church , to make the knighdy warr ior as devout and tenderhearted off the batdefield as

50 50 T H E M E D I E V A L P E R I O D

' t JKcfTcflfcioiioiciit OX' fsnirbicncfhsif rtHimbiK .1 us aotiS aicus coumvs CmmtAi JTEC la male ctwi)anttt«irc

• w8 ---•—•"««•

32

33

The capture of Alexandria (detail), from a French manuscript, MS. Franc, 1584.

he was bold and fearless on it. T h e bloodstained, ferocious history of the Crusades suggests that chivalry was an ideal rather than an actual code of conduct. I t was, however, o f considerable importance in literature, where it was jo ined to the companion idea of romance.

The Hundred Years' War

34

I t took about two hundred and fifty years for Normans and Saxons to merge their individual identities into one English nation. Unfortunately for both England

and France, the Engl ish monarchy never voluntarily relinquished its hold on its French possessions. As a result, there were numerous costly wars in France, culminating in the series of wars now known as the "Hundred Years ' War" (1337-1453) . Although in the end dr iven from France, England won many a famous victory in these wars, thanks largely to the terrible longbows of the Engl ish infantry. Used by the Engl ish from the time of Edward I ( I 2 7 2 - I 3 0 7 ) onward, these six-foot bows, with yard-long arrows capable of piercing a

VISUAL CONNECTIONS About the Artwork This Gothic manuscript illumina­tion, while less conventionalized than Romanesque painting, is still a stylized and imaginative por­trayal of the fall of the Christian patriarchate of Alexandria. The city fell to the Arabs in c. AD. 646 after a fourteen-month siege.

32 Chaucer's knight in "Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales is ideal­ized portrait of soldier of Christ fighting pagans.

33 Derived from romanice, meaning "in the Roman language," ro­mances were stories of courtly love, usually involving knights or classical heroes.

34 At Battle of Crecy in 1346, En­glish archers using longbows killed more than 1500 French knights whose heavy armor failed to protect them.

Introduction 51 51

E knight's armor, were among the most effective weapons known to Western Europe in the late Middle Ages. I n fact, the longbows— together with gunpowder, another new element in European

j warfare—eventually did much to end the Middle Ages by making • knights and casdes less effecUve in warfare.

35 Historians dispute how many people died; estimates range from a third to half of Europe's population. Fourteenth-century writers often mention disasters of war , yet Blacl< Death is rarely noted. Many considered plague to be divine retribution for sin and best left unexamined.

36 Wycliffe's radical ideas were pop­ularized by itinerant preachers, such as John Ball, who preached that all men were equal and that Church lands should be confis­cated and distributed to poor. Ball's ideas contributed to Peas­ants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler.

37 Henry VII, first of Tudors, de­feated Richard III in 1485 at Battle of Bosworth Field.

38 Later writers such as Spenser {The Faerie Queene, p. 155) and Keats (The Eve of St. Agnes, pp. 5 6 2 -573) were influenced by ro­mance.

39 Arthur, as reported in ancient writings of Gildas and Nennius, would have been a Christian Briton, member of Celtic tribes dispossessed by Anglo-Saxons in sixth century. Geoffrey of Mon­mouth, twelfth-century historian, is largely responsible for enrich­ment of Arthurian legend.

The Wars r .1 -Q 35 I n 1348 England was struck by the Black Death, the

OJ trie KOSeS f^^jt o f a series of plagues that killed more than a third of the population. T h e scarcity of labor caused by the

plagues was the death knell of feudalism. I n 1381, inflamed by re­pressive laws and burdensome taxes and encouraged by the teachings

36 of the religious reformer J o h n Wycliffe, the peasants rose in bloody revolt. T h e revolt was put down harshly, but economic and social unrest continued. T h e n , hard on the heels of the Hundred Years' War, came the so-called Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) , a civil war between the House of York , whose emblem was the white rose, and the House o f Lancaster, symbolized by a red rose. When in 1485

37 Henry V I I succeeded Richard I I I and united the feuding families through marriage, he ended the wars and founded the T u d o r line.

• Wi th Henry 's accession, the real Middle Ages vanished.

Medieval Literature:

The Romance T h e form of literature much favored by the Anglo-

38 Normans was the romance. Medieval romance consisted

39

largely of tales of chivalry to which were added a love interest and all sorts of wonders and marvels—fairy

enchantments, giants, dragons, wizards, and sorceresses. T h e medieval concept o f romantic love came from France. Indeed

the first Engl ish romances—verse, and later prose tales relating the quests knights undertook for their ladies—were translations from the French. These romantic tales came from three principal sources— Br i ta in (the story of K i n g A r t h u r and his knights), France (the court of Charlemagne), and Rome (classical stories such as the conquest of T r o y ) . I n the famous legends of K i n g A r t h u r and his Knights of the Round Table , collected and retold by Sir Thomas Malory in his Morte d'Arthur (mort 'dar ' thar) , chivalry and romance play equal parts.

K i n g Ar thur ' s Br i ta in is based on Celtic folklore and has almost no historical basis. T h e Round Table is not the usual military and polit­ical alliance, but an ideal aristocratic brotherhood. Its knights ride forth to realize themselves through individual feats of arms and acts of courtesy. T h e i r adventures are often novel and unexpected, but they are alike in illustrating the chivalric ideals of honor, courage,

52 52 T H E M E D I E V A L P E R I O D

courtesy, and service to women. T h e finest verse romance in English, Sir Gawain (ga'wan, ga-wan') and the Green Knight, is about one of the knights at the court of K i n g Arthur .

Qeoffrey Chaucer 40 T h e first truly great figure in English literature that

we know much about was Geoffrey Chaucer (1340? -1400). Although ready to traffic in the fashionable

romance of the day, he obviously was quite skeptical about it, being 41 as sharply realistic as a modern novelist in much of his work. Because

Chaucer is so far removed from us, and his manner and language, especially in the original Middle English, may seem quaint, we can

I easily underestimate this astonishing man. H e was not only a great ( poet and a fine storyteller but also the first of the poker-faced hu-

morists. T h e r e is jus t a twinkle in his eye as he gravely, often ironi­cally, adds one descriptive stroke to another, never failing, i f we are

42 alert, to make his points. T h i s man, whether moving as a diplomat from one royal court to another or lounging about an innyard among people, missed nothing. A n d his greatest work belongs not to ro­mance but to poetic ancl humorous realism. Wi th Chaucer, the writer is no longer anonymous but emerges in all the variety and subtlety of an impressive individual.

Folk Poetry and the Drama F r o m the common people of early England and Scot­

land came ballads—songs not written down but recited and sung in innumerable alehouses and at thousands

43 of firesides. T h i s folk poetry flourished in the fourteenth and fif-| , teenth centuries, but it was not until the middle of the eighteenth I century that it was carefully collected and published. T h r o u g h the § German poet Herder, who had a passion for folk poetry, these E n g ­

lish and Scottish ballads came to influence the whole German Ro­mantic movement and then later, the English Romantic poets. Bu t most of them originally belong, as their themes and settings suggest,

I to the later Middle Ages, to whose unknown wandering minstrels I many future generations of poets were enormously indebted. t T h e popular drama reached a tremendous height in the Elizabe-^ than Age, but its origins are in the Middle Ages. Dur ing the frequent

holiday times celebrating religious festivals, the trade guilds enter-44 tained the crowd with miracle plays—rough dramatizations of Bib-

I lical stories performed on large wagons or on platforms erected in j- marketplaces or innyards. As a rule the wicked characters in these I plays, including the Devil himself, were played as comic characters, 1 thereby creating a tradition o f popular comedy that the Elizabethan

40 Much Old and Middle English lit­erature was anonymous. Individ­ual's role in creative process was not considered as crucial as it is today.

41 Chaucer's The Canterbuiy Tales is notable for its sharp descriptions of different strata of medieval so­ciety.

42 Chaucer served in several high-level posts in administration of John of Gaunt, who was Duke of Lancaster and probably most powerful man in England.

43 Many ballads were not written down until centuries after they were composed, making accu­rate dating of their age impos­sible.

44 Plays based on religious miracles evolved into cycles of mystery plays, particularly popular from Easter through Corpus Christi Day.

Introduction 53 53

CLOSURE Ask students to list the most important aspects of medieval culture and to explain how these relate to English history.

FOR REINFORCEMENT / EVALUATION The Review may be used to check students' understanding of the content of the Introduc­tion. A separate Study Guide worksheet and a Unit Introduction test are available in the Teacher's Literature Companion.

45 Plays also dramatize coming of death and religious and political controversies.

46 Medieval view held God as au­thor of universe; his hand can be found everywhere in it, though not necessarily in obvious ways . One's mind must search for hid­den truth.

47 Religion was uniting force in al­most every aspect of life in Mid­dle Ages.

REVIEW 1. 1066 dates beginning of me­dieval period (Norman invasion); 1485 dates its end (accession of Henry Tudor to throne) (pp. 4 3 , 52).

2 . Feudal system (p. 45) . 3. To end boundary disputes

(p. 45 ) ; to establish basis for property tax (p. 46) .

4. Was a unifying institution during Middle Ages (p. 46) .

5. Sheep herding rather than farming became highly profit­able; wool industry encouraged growth of cities (p. 46 ) .

6. Beginnings of parliament can be traced to this document (p.50).

7. Created labor shortage (p. 52).

8. Hundred Years' War , be­tween England and France ( 1 3 3 7 - 1 4 5 3 ) (p. 51) ; Wars of the Roses, civil war between House of York and House of Lancaster ( 1 4 5 5 - 1 4 8 5 ) (p. 52) .

9. The romance (p. 52) . 10. Miracle plays, dramatizations of Biblical stories; morality plays, dramatic allegories of virtues and vices (pp. 5 3 - 5 4 ) .

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^ dramatists followed. I t was all very rough-and-ready, but in these humble performances there was already stirring the glorious theater o f Shakespeare.

T o w a r d the end o f the Middle Ages in England, dur ing the dark troubled times o f the fifteenth century, the miracle plays gave place to the morality plays. These plays, although presented in the same way as the miracle plays, tended to be elaborate and sophisticated

( dramatic allegories in which characters representing various virtues and vices confronted one another. T h e most famous o f the morality

45 plays, and one still often performed in many countries, was Everyman. Although this play was not English in origin, a thoroughly Engl ish adaptadon of it soon became very popular. Even dur ing the present century this morality play has been performed in the Engl ish theater fairly often.

Engl ish literature owes a great deal to the Middle Ages. I n this period a great many literary forms had their origin. T h e H igh Middle

46 Ages, best represented now by the Gothic cathedrals, have always ^ haunted the imagination of the more poetic English writers with a

bright and gaily colored vision of cavalcades of knights, squires, minstrels, pages, pilgrims, crusaders, troubadours, monks, scholars, and fine ladies in hilltop castles. B i i t the real secret of the appeal of this period at its best does not lie in its romantic picturesqueness, enchanting though that may be. I t comes from the fact that dur ing these years Western civilization—restless, inventive, aggressive,

47 troubled—achieved an elaborately organized way of life completely contained within a common religion.

54 T H E M E D I E V A L PE"