Dunn, Charles W., ed.; Byrnes, Edward T., ed., Middle English Literature (New York: Garland)
Text name(s): Peterborough Chronicle (William the Conqueror and The Anarchy of King Stephen); Proverbs of Alfred; Poema Morale; Lawman's Brut; The Owl and the Nightengale; Holy Maindenhood; The Anchoresses' Rule; King Horn; The Bestiary; Judas; A Love Rune; The Sayings of St. Bernard; The Fox and the Wolf; Dame Sirith; The Land of Cokayne; Handling Sin; Now Springs the Spray; The Five Joys of Mary; Alysoun; Spring; April; Love in Paris; Sir Orfeo; Halidon Hill; The Form of Living; The Parliament of the Three Ages; Morte Arthure; The Bruce; Piers Plowman; The Pearl; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; The Lover's Confession; The Wyclyfite Bible; A Defense of Translation; The Properties of Things; Thomas of Erceldoun; The Tale of Beryn; The Regiment of Princes; The Siege of Thebes; Christ and his Mother; St. Stephen and Herod; Robyn and Gandeleyn; The Blacksmiths; The Testament of Cressid; The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins; On the Resurrection of Christ; The Golden Targe
Number of pages of primary source text: 515
Author(s):
- Trevisa, John
- Rolle, Richard
- Minot, Laurence
- Mannyng, Robert of Brune
- Lydgate, John
- Langland, William
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Henryson, Robert
- Gower, John
- Dunbar, William
- Barbour, John
- Alfred
Dates: 1066 - 1467
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- English - Middle English
Translation:
- Translated into English.
- Original language included.
Translation Comments:
Geopolitical Region(s):
- British Isles
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Treatise - Instruction/Advice
- Chronicle Annals
- Literature - Prose
- Literature - Verse
- Literature - Drama
Subject Headings:
- Women / Gender
- War - Chivalry
- Royalty / Monarchs
- Religion - Institutional Church
- Literature - Didactic
- Literature - Epics Romance
- Piety
- Literature - Comedy / Satire
- Literature - Devotional
- Literature - Arthurian
- Literature - Allegory
Apparatus:
- Glossary
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
This edition is a comprehensive introductory handbook for students of Middle English. Dunn and Byrnes aim to capture the religious and secular facets of medieval life by selecting a wide range of works that encompass romance, drama, didactic religious texts, fabliaux, devotional lyrics, chronicles, and courtly tales. Many of the longer texts are excerpted.
Complete texts:
The Owl and the Nightingale
Holy Maidenhood
King Horn
Judas
A Love Rune
The Fox and the Wolf
Dame Sirith
The Land of Cokayne
Now Springs the Spray
The Five Joys of Mary
Alysoun
Spring
April
Love in Paris
Sir Orfeo
Halidon Hill
The Parliament of the Three Ages
Pearl
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Christ and his Mother
St. Stephen and Herod
Robyn and Gandeleyn
The Blacksmiths
The Testament of Cresseid
The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins
On the Resurrection of Christ
Excerpts:
Peterborough Chronicle
Proverbs of Alfred
Poema Morale
Lawman’s Brut
The Anchoresses’ Rule
The Bestiary
The Sayings of St. Bernard
Handling Sin
The Form of Living
Morte Arthure
The Bruce
Piers Plowman
The Lover’s Confession
The Wyclyfite Bible
A Defense of Translation
The Properties of Things
Thomas of Erceldoun
The Tale of Beryn
The Regiment of Princes
The Siege of Thebes
The Golden Targe
Each work has a short introduction and either is glossed marginally or paired with a facing-page Modern English translation. Maps, timelines, and tables give students a sense of the literature’s development over time and across different regions and genres. The table of contents divides English works by century. The book ends with a chapter on the Scottish Renaissance. The editors include four linguistic appendices (9 pp.) that address pronunciation, conjugation of verbs, dialects, and a glossary of common Middle English words and phrases, all of which are accessible for a beginner. A bibliography (8 pp.) notes references, linguistic resources, literary criticism, other bibliographies, and works about the period’s social, cultural, and political history.
Introduction Summary:
The introduction (33 pp.) defines the scope of Middle English literature as running from the 1066 Norman Conquest to the introduction of printing to England in 1476. Dunn and Byrnes clarify that although their anthology focuses on Middle English, the British Isles were richly multilingual during that period. Highlighting churches and cloisters as centers for literary production, the editors list texts with religious intent from the 12th century into the age of Chaucer and the Lollards. The second section outlines scholastic, courtly, and popular literature and notes the fluidity of these social classifications.
Considering the differences and similarities between the medieval and modern reader, they note Christianity’s dominance and the emphasis on duty and obedience in the Middle Ages. They argue that medieval readers were more adept at reading allegory because of the four-part biblical interpretive tradition that Church Fathers expounded. Audiences were not as concerned with originality as modern readers and valued re-tellings and translations of previously composed works.
The final section of the introduction gestures to Middle English’s change over time and variation across regions. There is a basic pronunciation guide and an overview of pronouns, articles, declension, conjugation, and negation, but these topics are treated in more depth in Appendices I and II. Dunn and Byrnes mention the rhetorical complexity and looser word order of Middle English syntax and warn readers that deceptively familiar words can have different meanings. Six manuscript images are paired with transcriptions to demonstrate abbreviation, graphemes that no longer exist in Modern English, and medieval punctuation. The editors also cover Middle English versification, modelling different rhyme schemes and poetic meters.
Cataloger: KMB
