In European history, the Middle age or Medieval period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of western Roman empire and merged into Renaissance and the age of discovery middle ages.The Middle English Literature means English Literature that developed during the period from

1. THE MEDIEVAL AGE
Literature semester 1
THE MEDIEVAL AGE
In European history, the Middle age or Medieval period
lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the
collapse of western Roman empire and merged into
Renaissance and the age of discovery middle ages. The
Middle English Literature means English Literature that
developed during the period from 1100 to 1500 century.
During this unique period, English got maturity and
widespread popularity among people belonging to every
strata of society. The English Literature came into being
when the Anglo Saxon and Jutes came to settle in
England in the later part of the 5th century and
eventually gave the country its name and its language.
Historian usually divides the middle ages into three
smaller periods:
• Early Middle Ages
• High Middle Ages
• Late Middle Ages

2. During much of the Middle Ages, people in Europe were
fighting against the Islamic Empire to take back the
Eastern Mediterranean especially Jerusalem for the
Christian religion. These wars were called the Crusades.
The Middle Ages was defined by a feudal system in much
of Europe. This system consisted of Knights, King, Lords,
Vassals and Peasants.
Major themes
• War
• Religion
• Everyday Affairs
Oral Traditions of the Age:
• Stories
• Hymns
• Poetry
Stories:
Some important stories of the MEDIEVAL AGE are as
follows:
• Wolf Hall
• Freedom of Religion

3. • Book Burning and Censorship
• Stained Glass Windows
Hymns:
The important hymns of the Age are:
• Green Sleeves
• Song of Roland
• Foy Porter
Poetry:
English Lyric Poetry- It was written in the 13th, 14th,
15th centuries and remains anonymous. They are love-
lyrics, French – inspired. They render a new fascination
with service to a fair lady rather than to a feudal king.
Some important writings of the Medieval Age are as
follows:
• Beowulf
• Piers ploughman
• Canterbury Tales

4. Beowulf (Epic Poem):
Many ancient writers use Epic poetry to tell tales of
intense adventures and heroic feats. First epic poem of
Old English Literature is Beowulf. Beowulf, heroic poem,
the highest achievement of old literature and the earliest
European vernacular epic is supposed to be the difficult
text. It contains 3182 alliterative lines.
Characteristics of the Age:
• Romance
• Courtly Love
• Chivalry
• Miracle Play
• Morality Play
• Mystery Play
• Ballads
Romance:
"Romance is a literary genre popular in the Middle Ages,
dealing, in verse or prose, with legendary, supernatural,
or amorous subjects and characters. The romance and
the epic are similar forms, but epics tend to be longer
and less concerned with courtly love." Sir Gawain and

5. the Green Knight, King Horn, Athelstan, the song of
Ronald (1098) are the best examples of Medieval
Romance.
COURTLY LOVE:
Courtly love, also called refined love, refers to a romantic
relationship between two unmarried people in the
medieval times. These love relationships were not
physical. It was not between husband and wife because it
was an idealized sort of relationship that could not exist
within the context of "real life" medieval marriages. It is a
kind of spiritual love. Women were put on a pedestal.
They were not get married & don’t wish to get married.
In the middle ages, marriages amongst the nobility were
typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather
than on love. A highly conventionalized medieval
tradition of love between a knight and a married
noblewoman first developed by the troubadours of
southern France and extensively employed in European
literature of the time. The love of the knight for his lady
was regarded as an ennobling passion and the
relationship was typically unconsummated.
Chivalry said that this is the ideal form of love.

6. Chivalry:
Refers to the lifestyle and moral code of the medieval
knights. The Medieval knight was bound to the chivalric
code to be loyal to his God Lord and Lady. Chivalric
ideals include benevolence brotherly love politeness.
Mystery play:
Mystery plays were stories taken from the Bible. Each
play had four or five different scenes or acts. The priests
and monks were the actors.
The Miracle play:
The miracle play was about the life or actions of a saint,
usually about the actions that made that person a saint.
One popular Miracle play was about Saint George and
the dragon.
Morality play:
Morality plays were designed to teach people a lessons
how to live their life according to the rules of the church.
Ballads:

7. Ballads are one of the most popular forms of literature in
the narrative song. Ballads told of common folks and of
characters and events from legend and folklore. It
consists of stanzas that contain a quatrain, rhyme
scheme ABAB.
Important figures:
• William Langland
• John Gower
• Geoffrey Chaucer
William Langland (1332-1400) and Piers Plowman:
He was a satiric poet. In the English literature of the 14th
century, Langland’s Piers the Plowman stands out as the
most renowned work. The vision of William concerning
Piers the Plowman is a prologue & allegorical poem
written in alliterative verse in the form of a dream vision,
which depicts in great detail the structure and moral
values of the English society during the fifteenth century.
Piers Plowman is considered one of the most challenging
pieces of English literature from the Medieval Period. It's
a dream vision that follows the poem's unnamed
narrator. Allegory is a fancy word that really just means

8. "extended metaphor." In an allegory, people, places,
things, and happenings (oh, those nouns) have two layers
of significance. Langland is making the abstract concrete
here. Piers Plowman presents a quest or pilgrimage, as
the narrator Will seeks Truth. The poem includes
debates, and many scenes recall the mystery and
morality plays of the period.
John Gower (1325-1408)
He has important place in English Medieval poetry. He is
a great stylist. He proved that English might complete
with the other language which had most distinguished
them in poetry. He is Narrative poet His Works are the
confession Amanitas which is conversation between poet
and a divine interpreter. He presents himself as moralist.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400)
He is the Father of English the poetry.
In his first phase, he was under the influence of the
French
(1357-72).French was the official language of
conquerors.

9. The second phase was under the influence of Italian
(1372-86).
Latin was the language of religious people and of
church because their Holy book 'Bible' was in Latin.
The third phase of his life was that he focused on the
native originality and produced his own literature in
English (1386-1400).
He didn’t give English poetry a dress but a new body &
new soul.
Literature was not published or not in people approach
before him. Chaucer found his English a dialect and left it
a language. He wrote for the elite but so did all of his
contemporaries.
There are the three stages in his work.
The Remount of the Rose
Troilus and Criseyde (1380)
Realism

10. LOWELL says:
“Chaucer found his English a dialect and left it a
language”
Chaucer’s first major work was the book of the Duchess
an elegy for the first wife of his Patron John of Gaunt
other works include parliament of fouls the legend of
good women and Troilus and Criseyde.
Hudson says about Chaucer:
“Though he holds the mirror up to the life of his time the
dark under sight of his age is nowhere reflected by him”
“Like Shakespeare, He makes it his business, in the
Canterbury tales, to paint life as he cease it, and leaves
others to draw a moral”.
(By Compton- Rickets)
“Chaucer’s work in Medieval; what beneath the
Milidiance, the leaven of the Renaissance is already at
work”