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Literary Overview
At the beginning of the 12th
century, there is a clear thirst for poetry and fictional narratives of a
much higher level of symbolic sophistication and psychological complexity
than the old heroic forms, particularly among the highest classes in the
various courts of France. It is a strange fact that just when England was
lying prostrate, culturally, under the French-speaking Normans who had no
literary culture of their own, stories from the Celtic lands of Wales and
Brittany that had ancient Britain as their setting conquered France and
Germany and became the great myths of the Middle Ages, only returning to
England by way of translation and later adaptation.
In 1136 a Welsh cleric, Geoffrey of Monmouth, wrote his
Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), a Latin
prose work about legendary kings of Britain including King Arthur. His
material was partly the chronicles of British history preserved in Wales and
Bede, but much came from his imagination, or from the oral developments of
stories about Arthur and others that have not survived in written form. This
became a very popular work, in France as much as in England.
The historical importance of Geoffrey’s work is incalculable.
He introduces into writing some of the major stories of the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance. He is the first to link the British people with Troy by
making their founder a great-grandson of Aeneas, Brutus or Brut (whence the
name Britain), and the first Britons groups of Trojan refugees accompanying
him. He tells the story of King Lear. He also first tells the story of
Cymbeline.
Above all, he introduces the heroic figure of Arthur into
European literature. Arthur becomes a great leader of the British, setting
out to attack Rome in company with his knights.
In 1155 a Norman called Wace completed a French verse
version of Geoffrey’s story, Le Roman de Brut. He added greatly to
the romantic detail of his original. It is he, for example, who first
introduces the story of the Round Table. Here Arthur has already become the
model of chivalry and of courtesy by which is meant all the ideal qualities
required of the noble warrior in his dealings with the world.
Some time before the end of the century, a priest living in
the West of England, calling himself Layamon (Lawman), wrote an English
version of Wace's work, the Brut, which is the first major work written in
the simpler grammatical form of English known as Middle English. The
metrical form is a sign that the short half-line of Old English tradition
had continued, although the alliteration is no longer regular. It is
preserved in two 13th century manuscripts, and this is interpreted as a sign
of its popularity.
In the twelfth century a type of narrative literature called
romance emerged. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in
prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The central
character of romances was the knight, a man of noble birth skilled in the
use of weapons. He was commonly described as riding forth to seek
adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his lord in battle.
He was devoted to the church and the king. The code of manners and morals of
a knight is known as chivalry. One who wanted to be a knight should serve an
apprenticeship as a squire until he was admitted to the knighthood with
solemn ceremony and the swearing of oaths.
The enormous number of the romances falls into three cycles
or three groups: the “matters of Britain”, the “matters of France”, and the
“matters of Rome”. 1)The matters of France deal largely with the exploits of
Charlemagne, often know n as
Charles the Great, King of Frank and Emperor of
the West Empire. The famous romance of this group is
Chanson de Roland.
2)The Matters of Rome deal with tales from Greek and Roman sources.
Alexander the Great (356_323 B.C.), King of Macedonia and conqueror of
Greece, Egypt, India and Persian Empire is the favorite hero of this group.
Besides this, Trojan War is also dealt with in this group. 3) The matters of
Britain mainly deal with the exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the
Round Table. The most interesting of all Arthurian romances are those of the
Gawain cycle. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the
culmination of the Arthurian romances.
Almost all the famous works of medieval English literature,
except for the dramas, and the works of Lydgate and Malory, were written in
the second half of the 14th century (1351-1400): Piers Plowman, Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and the other works of the so-called
Alliterative Revival, many lyrics, the works of Chaucer and Gower, as well
as the spiritual writings of people such as Julian of Norwich. These works
mark the first flowering of English literature.
Very few new works of literature survive from the period 1300
- 1350, but in the second half of the century we suddenly find a
considerable number of long narrative poems written in forms of alliterative
metre very similar to that used in Old English poems like Beowulf.
Some of these poems are among the most famous works of the Middle Ages:
Pearl, Piers Plowman, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. These
alliterative poems show a new confidence in the strength of English as a
literary language, and may be the result of a spreading literacy among the
gentry living on estates in the country areas. The only alliterative poem
that was certainly read nation-wide, even in London, is Piers Plowman.
In the manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight we find three religious poems, perhaps by the same unknown
author, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience. Cleanness tells
stories from the Old Testament that are concerned with punishments for
impurity, such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Patience tells in a
lively way the story of the prophet Jonah. Pearl is a dream vision,
of particular interest because of its very sophisticated techniques of
narration and versification.
Without any disputation Chaucer is the greatest literary figure of the
Medieval Ages. As the father of English poetry, his contribution to English
poetry and literature as well is unparalleled among the writers of the age.
It is he who illuminated the fourteenth century literary filed.
The 15th century saw the development of popular literature,
chiefly popular ballads, and the birth of English native plays: miracle and
morality plays and interludes.
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