The Grave. Peterborough Chronicle. The Peterborough Chronicle (also called the Laud manuscript and the E manuscript), one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest. According to philologist J.A.W. Bennett, it is the only prose history in English between the Conquest and the later 14th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles were composed and maintained between the various monasteries of Anglo-Saxon England and were an attempt to record the history of Britain throughout the years AD.
Typically the chronicles began with the birth of Christ, went through Biblical and Roman history, then continued to the present. Every major religious house in England kept its own, individual chronicle, and the chronicles were not compared with each other or in any way kept uniform. When William the Conqueror took England and Anglo-Norman became the official language, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles generally ceased. The fire and the continuations[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit] Ancrene Wisse. Ancrene Wisse or the "Anchoresses' Guide" (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402), written sometime roughly between 1225 and 1240, represents a revision of an earlier work, usually called the Ancrene Riwle or "Anchorites' Rule,"1 a book of religious instruction for three lay women of noble birth, sisters, who had themselves enclosed as anchoresses somewhere in the West Midlands, perhaps somewhere between Worcester and Wales.
The author was apparently either an Augustinian canon or a Dominican friar, and by the time of the revision, Ancrene Wisse's readership had expanded to include a much wider community of anchoresses, over twenty in number according to the text,2 scattered mainly in the west of England. This edition provides a reading text of the entire Corpus version. Ancrene Wisse's Place in Literary History Thus, in West Midlands English, the AW author found a language already adapted to literary uses. Why the Vernacular? The Anchoritic Life Desert Spirituality Becoming an Anchorite. Katherine Group. All five texts are preserved in the manuscript Bodley 34. All except Hali Meiðhad also in Royal 17 A XXVII. Additionally, Cotton Titus D XVIII has Sawles Warde, Seinte Katherine and Hali Meiðhad J.
R. R. Tolkien repeatedly published on the Katherine Group, in Holy Maidenhood (1923), Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography and The Devil's Coach-Horses (1925), Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad (1929) and "Iþþlen" in Sawles Warde (1947). Editions[edit] Hali Meiðhad[edit] Early English Text Society (1922)A. Literature[edit] Fletcher, A. See also[edit] External links[edit] Katherine Group (upenn.edu) Kildare Poems (The Land of Cockaigne) MS Harley 913, fol.3r. Beginning of The Land of Cockaygne The Kildare Poems are a group of sixteen poems written in an Irish dialect of Middle English and dated to the mid-14th century. Together with a second, shorter set of poems in the so-called Loscombe Manuscript, they constitute the first and most important linguistic document of the early development of Irish English in the centuries after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.[1] The sixteen poems have religious and satirical contents.
They are preserved in a single manuscript (British Library, Harley 913), where they are scattered between a number of Latin and Old French texts. The conventional modern designation "Kildare poems" refers both to the town of Kildare in Ireland, which has been proposed as their likely place of origin, and to the name of the author of at least one of the poems, who calls himself "Michael (of) Kildare" (Frere Michel Kyldare). The poems have been edited by W. History[edit] Contents[edit] Text sample[edit] King Alisaunder. General Information Form: Couplets Date of Composition: Early fourteenth century Place of Composition: London Keywords: Accused Queen, Animal, Bedchamber, Conquest, Disguise, Dreams, Education, Ekphrasis, Familial Discord, Foundlings, Friendship, Hunting, Marriage, Military Combat, Monster, Rape, Religious Figures, Religious Spaces, Secular Spaces, Sexual Encounters, Siege, Supernatural, The Orient, Tokens of Recognition, Travel, Treachery, Urban Spaces Plot Summary The astrologer Neptabanus seduces Olympias, wife of King Philip of Macedon, by disguising himself as the god Jupiter Ammon.
Alexander lays siege to Tyre, losing many men. Some of Alexander’s men cross the Tigris without his knowledge and ambush a section of Darius’ army. Alexander tricks Darius into shifting his troops, then moves his own men across the river. Alexander travels to India in pursuit of Porus, and the poet describes the cities and peoples of the continent. From: Kyng Alisaunder, ed. Manuscripts Early Editions 1525? Mannyng's Chronicle. Mannyng's Chronicle is a chronicle written in Middle English by Robert Mannyng in about 1338. Mannyng began writing his chronicle at the beginning of Edward III’s reign in 1327 and probably finished it in 1338, dated at the end of the second part. The chronicle consists of two parts. The first, describing British history up to King Cadwaldre and a translation of Wace’s Roman de Brut, is 15,946 lines long. The second part, describing history from Cadwaldre up to the death of Edward III and a translation of the Anglo-French verse by Peter of Langtoft, is 8358 lines long.
Handlyng Synne. Handlyng Synne by Robert Manning of Brunne is a Middle English verse devotional work, intended for the use of both learned and unlearned men, dealing with the theory and practice of morality, and illustrating this doctrine with stories drawn from ordinary life. It was begun in the year 1303. It is valued today for its simple and entertaining style, and for the light it throws on English life in the Middle Ages. Description[edit] Manuscripts and editions[edit] Handlyng Synne survives in whole or part in nine manuscripts.
It was edited for the Early English Text Society by Frederick J. Influence[edit] It is one of the sources of a mid-15th century work called Peter Idley's Instructions to his Son.[7] Michael Malone's 1982 comic novel Handling Sin used Mannyng's title for a widely different treatment of the seven deadly sins.[8] Critical reception[edit] Handlyng Synne is considered a work of greater literary merit than Mannyng's only other known poem, the Chronicle. Notes[edit] References[edit] Genesis and Exodus. Bevis of Hampton. General Information Form: Auchinleck MS: Lines 1-474 in six-line tail-rhyme stanzas (aabccb); remainder in short couplets. Date of Composition: c. 1300 Place of Composition: Southampton? Keywords: Animal, Bedchamber, Conversion, Disease, Disguise, Dreams, Exile, Familial Discord, Forest, Friendship, Heraldry, Jerusalem, Marriage, Merchants, Military Combat, Mistaken Identity, Monster, Multiple Births, Pilgrimage, Religious Figures, Religious Spaces, Rome, Saracen, Secular Spaces, Sexual Encounters, Siege, Steward, The Third Estate, Tournament, Travel, Treachery, Urban Spaces Plot Summary The elderly Earl of Southampton and his young wife have a son, Bevis.
King Brademond demands to marry Josian, threatening war if he is refused. After seven years, Bevis escapes from prison. While he is away, Josian is forced to marry another Earl, but murders him on their wedding night. The rejected Ascopart betrays Bevis by offering to return Josian to Yvor. From: Ronald B. Manuscripts Early Editions 1626? Guy of Warwick. General Information Form: Various Date of Composition: c.1300? Place of Composition: London? Keywords: Animal, Bedchamber, Disguise, Dreams, Education, Exile, Familial Discord, Forest, Friendship, Garden, Hunting, Jerusalem, Marriage, Merchants, Military Combat, Mistaken Identity, Monster, Other-world, Penance, Pilgrimage, Quest, Religious Figures, Religious Spaces, Sacrament, Saracen, Secular Spaces, Sexual Encounters, Siege, Steward, Supernatural, The Orient, Tokens of Recognition, Tournament, Travel, Treachery, Urban Spaces Plot Summary Note: the different versions of Guy of Warwick are often treated as separate texts but have been grouped together here for ease of reference.
Guy, the son of a steward, falls in love with Felice, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, who rejects him because he is not a knight. Reunited, Guy and Herhaud go to the aid of Duke Segyn, who is being besieged by the Emperor of Germany and Duke Otous. From: J. Manuscripts Early Editions 1497? 1500? 1553? 1565. J. J. The Auchinleck Manuscript. The Harley Lyrics. The Harley lyrics 'The Harley lyrics' is the name usually given to the Middle English lyrics in the miscellany of English, French, and Latin works collected in London, British Library, MS Harley 2253.
A facsimile of the manuscript, with an introduction by N. R. Ker, was published in 1965 (Ker, 1965); Ker provides a detailed list of its contents, which include both religious and secular material, in prose and verse and in a wide variety of genres. The manuscript is mainly written in 'Anglicana formata', a more formal version of the English business script current at the time (though Parkes (1969), p. 1, sees its attempt at formality as 'somewhat half-hearted').
Both its dialect and some local connections link it to the West Midlands (its binding incorporates an early-C14 set of accounts for the Mortimer family, the great Marcher lords whose main seat was at Wigmore Castle in northern Herefordshire, and also extracts from the ordinal of Herefordshire Cathedral). The Fox and the Wolf. The Fox and the Wolf The words “tale” and “fable” appear frequently in Pierce the Plowman’s Creed. In one context, the accusation is that friars give no credence or respect to the gospels and distort or dismiss them: “I trowe, he toucheth nought the text but taketh it for a tale” (“I swear, he touches not the text, but takes it for a tale”; PPC 586).
In another context, friars are charged with including tales and fables in their sermons to enliven their preaching: “But now the glose is so greit in gladding tales” (“But now the glossing is so great in gladsome tales”; PPC 515). The first case is social criticism, and the second is fact. In his chapter on “Fiction and Instruction in the Sermon ‘Exempla,’” Owst identifies three specimens found in sermons: “narration” for stories of men and women; “fable” for animal tales; and “figure” for similitudes of natural objects, all intended to hold the listener’s attention (152).
The Fox and the Wolf “Fox,” said the cock, “What are you doing there? Dame Sirith. South English Legendary. Manuscripts[edit] Over sixty manuscripts containing all or part of the South English Legendary survive. Dialect and affiliations are the main evidence for the origin of a given manuscript, because for many of these manuscripts the provenance is lacking. The Bodleian Library houses the oldest manuscript (Laud 108), which is estimated to have been written in 1265, although its editor (Horstmann) dates it 1280-90. It is likely that the manuscript elements were being worked on for many years in advance of its compilation. Some of the other major manuscripts are: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud 108 London, British Library, Harley 2277 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 43 London, British Library, Egerton 1993 Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys 2344 London, British Library, Stowe 949 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. a.1 (Vernon MS) London, Lambeth Palace Library, Lambeth 223 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 779 Compilation and Audience[edit] Sources[edit] Editions[edit] Scholarship[edit]
Poema Morale. Cursor mundi. Lambeth Homilies. The Lambeth Homilies are a collection of homilies found in a manuscript (MS Lambeth 487) in the Lambeth Palace Library in Lambeth, England. The collection contains seventeen sermons and is notable for being one of the latest examples of Old English, written as it was c. 1200, well into the period of Middle English.[1] Date and provenance[edit] Contents[edit] According to R.
M. References[edit] Citations Bibliography Further reading[edit] O'Brien, S. External links[edit] Detailed description of London, Lambeth Palace, 487 by Elaine Treharne. Trinity Homilies. The Trinity Homilies are a collection of 36 homilies found in MS Trinity 335 (B.14.52), held in Trinity College, Cambridge. Produced probably early in the thirteenth century in the Early Middle English period, the collection is of great linguistic importance in establishing the development of the English language,[1] since it preserves a number of Old English forms and gives evidence of the literary influence of Latin and Anglo-Norman as well as of the vernacular used in sermons for lay audiences.
The same manuscript, like that of the Lambeth Homilies, also preserves a version of the Poema Morale. Date and provenance[edit] The manuscript contains twelve quires totaling 91 folios, with sections written in English Vernacular Minuscule by three or four hands between 1060 and 1220. Content[edit] References[edit] ^ Jump up to: a b Conti, Aidan (2006). External links[edit] Geoffrey of Monmouth. Return to the Merlin Menu of The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester Geoffrey of Monmouth was born sometime around 1100, perhaps in Monmouth in southeast Wales. His father was named Arthur. Geoffrey was appointed archdeacon of Llandsaff in 1140 and was consecrated bishop of St.
Asaph in 1152. He died c. 1155. Geoffrey is one of the most significant authors in the development of the Arthurian legends. The Historia proper begins in the legendary past and traces the origin of Britain to its eponymous founder Brut, the great-grandson of Aeneas. The Arthurian portion of the story tells of Arthur's conquests on the continent, his slaying of the giant of St. Over 200 manuscripts of the Historia survive (for a list of which see: Julia C. Geoffrey also wrote a Vita Merlini (Life of Merlin) in verse in about 1150. A convenient bibliography of works by and about Geoffrey can be found in Michael J. Henry of Huntingdon.
Chrétien de Troyes. Marie de France. King Horn. Layamon's Brut. The Owl and the Nightingale.