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Middle English: 1066-1500. A look to the history behind the literature. William the Bastard becomes William the Conqueror…. In 1066, William the Bastard of Normandy along with his troops conquer Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings.
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Middle English: 1066-1500 A look to the history behind the literature
William the Bastard becomes William the Conqueror… • In 1066, William the Bastard of Normandy along with his troops conquer Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. • William the Conqueror brings the French Court, French Custom, and French Language to England. • The Hybrid of Old English and Old French make up what is today known as: Middle English. • Words like: wine, cheese, brother enter the English Lexicon.
What does Middle English Look and Sound Like? • Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote • The droghte of March perced to the roote, • And bathed every veyne in swichlicour • Of Which vertuengendered is the flour; • Whan Zephirus eek with his sweetebreeth • Inspired hath in every holt and heeth • The tendrecroppes, and the yongesonne • Hath in the Ram his halve course yronne • And smalefowelesmakenmelodye • That slepen all the nyght with open ye • So priketh hem nature in his corages • Thannelongen folk too goon on pilgrimmages…
It takes a couple hundred years…by Chaucer’s time the two languages are fully integrated into Middle English • Geoffrey Chaucer 1343-October 25, 1400 • The Book of the Duchess, Blanche of Lancaster, and The Canterbury Tales. • His works represent Middle English in its form.
The Canterbury Tales • Chaucer did not finish all the books he intended. • The Pilgrims were going to visit the shrine of Thomas A Becket (martyred Archbishop of Canterbury on order by King Henry II of England. • The Pilgrims walk twenty miles to Canterbury each telling a tale there and back. The best storyteller wins a free dinner. • Funny thing is…these people would have never travelled with one another. Why?
