Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction to The Medieval Period
History, Narrative, Culture
England Before the Norman Conquest
Roman and Celtic Britain
Migration and Conversion
Invasion and Unification
England After the Norman Conquest
The Normans and Feudalism
Henry II and an International Culture
The Thirteenth Century
The English Monarchy
Cultural Expression in the Fourteenth Century
Fifteenth-Century Transitions
Language and Prosody
History of the Language and of Print Culture
BEDE
from Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation
A Description of the Island of Britain and its Inhabitants
The Coming of the English to Britain
The Life and Conversion of Edwin, King of Northumbria; the Faith of the East Angles
Abbess Hild of Whitby; the Miraculous Poet Cædmon
Cædmon’s Hymn in Old and Modern English
EXETER BOOK ELEGIES
The Wanderer
The Seafarer
The Wife’s Lament
The Ruin
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD
THE COTTON MAXIMS
EXETER BOOK RIDDLES
Riddle 5
Riddle 12
Riddle 23
Riddle 24
Riddle 41
Riddle 42
Riddle 43
Riddle 45
Riddle 81
Riddle 82
Riddle 91
OLD ENGLISH METRICAL CHARMS
The Old English Bee Charm
Against a Dwarf
For a Sudden Stitch
The Nine Herbs Charm
BEOWULF
In Context: Background Material
Glossary of Proper Names
Genealogies
The Geatish-Swedish Wars
JUDITH
THE BATTLE OF MALDON
EXODUS
THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE
from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Coming of the Angles and Saxons to Britain (449-95)
The Story of Cynewulf and Cyneheard (755)
King Alfred’s Early Years (871-78)
King Æthelred’s Troubles (980-93)
The Life and Death of William the Conqueror (1086)
ALFRED THE GREAT, KING OF WESSEX
“Preface” to the Old English Version of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care
ÆLFRIC OF EYNSHAM
The Passion of Saint Edmund, King and Martyr
SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
The Passing of Mary of Egypt
WULFSTAN
Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
BLICKLING HOMILIES
Homily 10
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH
from A History of the Kings of Britain
MARIE DE FRANCE
Bisclavret (The Werewolf)
Lanval
Laüstic (The Nightingale)
Chevrefoil (The Honeysuckle)
MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS
Sumer is icumen in
Now goth sonne under wod
Foweles in the frith
Betwene Mersh and Averil
Now shrinketh rose and lily-flour
Lenten is come with love to toune
Stond well, moder, under Rode
Maiden in the mor lay
I lovede a child of this cuntree
Erthe tok of erthe erthe with woh
When Adam delf
The Lady Dame Fortune is both frende and foe
I have a gentil cock
I sing of a maiden
Adam lay ibounden
Farewell this world, I take my leve forever
To dy, to dy. What haue I
Bring us in good ale
Of all creatures women be best
My lefe is faren in a lond
A God and yet a man
CONTEXTS: THE CRISES OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
The Great Famine
from Anonymous (the “Monk of Malmesbury”), Life of Edward the Second
The Hundred Years’ War
from Jean Froissart, Chronicle
from Prince Edward, “Letter to the People of London”
The Black Death
from Ralph of Shrewsbury, Letter (17 August 1348)
from Henry Knighton, Chronicle
The Uprising of 1381
from Regulations, London (1350)
from Statute of Laborers (1351)
from Statute (1363)
from Jean Froissart, Chronicle, Account of a Sermon by John Ball
John Ball, Letter to the Common People of Essex, 1381
from Henry Knighton, Chronicle
SIR ORFEO
THE MABINOGI
Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
In Context: Fled Bricrend
from Fled Bricrend/Bricriu’s Feast
In Context: Illustrations from the Original Manuscript
CONTEXTS: LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN MEDIEVAL BRITAIN
Anglo-Saxon Laws
from The Laws of Æthelberht
from The Laws of Cnut
from The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215)
from Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love
from The Owl and the Nightingale
Royal Couples
from Christine de Pizan, “Seulete sui” (Alone am I)
from The Paston Letters
from Letter from Agnes Paston to her son John Paston I (c. 1449)
from Letter from Richard Calle to Margery Paston (1469)
from William Langland, The Vision of Piers the Plowman
from Robert Grosseteste (attr.), Speculum Confessionis
from Eadmer, The Life of Saint Anselm
from Letter of Anselm to fellow monks
from The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 22: How the Brothers Are to Sleep
from Anonymous, A Relation, or Rather a True Account, of the Island of England, with Sundry Particulars of the Customs of These People, and of the Royal Revenues under King Henry the Seventh
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
from The Canterbury Tales
The General Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Introduction
The Prologue
The Tale
The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
The Nun’s Preist’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue
The Tale
Chaucer’s Retraction
In Context: Backgrounds to The Canterbury Tales
Poems
To His Scribe Adam
Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse
Lenvoy de Chaucer
from Troilus and Criseyde
Troilus’s Song
THE TRAVELS OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE
from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Prologue
Chapter 7
Chapter 15
Chapter 20
Chapter 29
JULIAN OF NORWICH
from A Revelation of Love
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 11
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 58
Chapter 60
Chapter 86
MARGERY KEMPE
from The Book of Margery Kempe
The Proem
The Preface
Book 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 11
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 86
Book 2
Chapter 10
CONTEXTS: RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL LIFE
Celtic Christianity
Church and Cathedral
Religion for All: The Apostle’s Creed, the Pater Noster, and the Hail Mary
from Robert Manning of Brunne, Handlyng Synne
from William of Pagula, Priest’s Eye
from The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council
Monks, Anchoresses, and Friars
from The Rule of St. Columba
from The Rule of St. Benedict
from The Ancrene Wisse
Franciscan Friars
Scholasticism
from St. Anselm, Proslogion
The Miraculous and the Strange
from The Miracles of Thomas of Becket
Sin, Corruption, and Indulgence
from William Langland, The Vision of Piers the Plowman (B-text)
from Passus 1
Passus 5
from Passus 7
from Thomas Wimbleton, Sermon (c. 1388)
Lollardy
from Account of the Heresy Trial of Margery Baxter
The Persecution of the Jews
from Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich
from Roger Howden, Chronicle
from The Ordinances of the Jews
from The Charter of King John to the Jews
from The Ordinances of Henry III
Edward I’s Order
MEDIEVAL DRAMA
QUEM QUAERITIS
The Quem Quaeritis Ceremony
from Regularis Concordia of St. Æthelwold
THE CHESTER NOAH’S FLOOD
The Third Pageant of Noah’s Flood
In Context: Biblical Source Material
from Douay-Rheims Bible, Genesis 6-9
THE WAKEFIELD MASTER
The Second Shepherds’ Play
In Context: Biblical Source Material
from Douay-Rheims Bible, Luke 2.8-21
Herod the Great
In Context: Biblical Source Material
from Douay-Rheims Bible, Matthew 2
THE SERVICE FOR REPRESENTING ADAM (JEU D’ADAM)
MANKIND
EVERYMAN
SIR THOMAS MALORY
from Morte Darthur
from Merlin
The Death of King Arthur or The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthur Saunz Guerdon
Slander and Strife
The Vengeance of Sir Gawain
The Siege of Benwick
The Day of Destiny
The Dolorous Death and Departing out of this World of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere
In Context: Early Editions of Morte Darthur
Caxton’s Preface
Illustrating Morte Darthur
APPENDICES
Reading Poetry
Maps
Monarchs and Prime Ministers of Great Britain
Glossary of Terms
Texts and Contexts: A Chronological Chart
Bibliography
Permissions Acknowledgments
Index of First Lines
Index of Authors and Titles