Middle English Literature Genres

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Middle English LiteratureGenres
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Medieval Religious Prose

• Sermons and Homilies
• Visionary literature accounts and
  interpretations of individuals visions of
  encounters with the divine presence of God
• Hagiography saints lives
• Religious Instruction Ancrene Riwle
• Exempla tales told to exemplify good or evil
  lives
• Allegories narratives to be interpreted on a
  variety of levels often dream visions
• Piers Plowman
• Pearl

The DreamerMS Corpus Christi 201
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Allegorical Levels

• Literal the concrete, historical meaning
• Typological connection of events in the Old
  Testament with events of Christs life in the New
  Testament
• Jonahs 3-day confinement in the belly of the
  whale prefigures Christs 3-day descent into Hell
• Moral the abstract, symbolic meaning of the
  literal, especially in terms of behavior
• Anagogical dealing with the future events of
  Christian history, heaven, hell, the last
  judgment prophecies.
• Thus the four types of allegory deal with past
  events (literal), the connection of past events
  with the present (typology), present events
  (moral), and the future (anagogical).

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Basic Conventions of Allegory

• Everything on the literal level of the story can
  be interpreted symbolically characters,
  settings, tests, etc.
• The protagonist, an Everyman character,
  usually embarks on a journey symbolic of the
  journey through life or to death

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Types of Narrative
-Either- Romances Fabliaux Bestiaries Beast
Fables

• Prose
• Chronicles
• Novelle

• Poetry
• Epics
• Breton lais

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Chronicle

• A record of historic or purported historical
  events
• Legendary Histories of Britain
• William of Malmesbury
• c.1125 Gesta Requm Anglorum (Deeds of the
  English Kings)
• c. 1129 De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiaea
  (a history of Glastonbury Abbey)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth
• c.1136 Historia Regum Brittaniae.(History of the
  Kings of Britain)
• c.1150 Vita Merlinei (The Life of Merlin)
• WaceRoman de Brut, c. 1155, Anglo-Norman
  (French) translation of Geoffrey
• Lazamon Brut, c. 1190, Anglo-Saxon (English)
  translation of Geoffrey

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Romance

• Story of heroic adventure often encompassing
  courtly love a chivalrous, heroic knight, who,
  abiding chivalry's strict codes, fights and
  defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning
  favour with a beautiful but fickle princess.
• Traditional Material
• The matter of Rome Alexander the Great
• The matter of France Charlemagne
• The Matter of Britain King Arthur

Romance
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Major Medieval British Romances

• 12th c Anglo-Norman, c. 1175 Thomas
  dAngleterre, Tristan,
• 13th c Welsh Romances
• The Black Book of Carmarthen
• Mabinogion final version
• 14th c English Arthurian Romance
• Alliterative Morte Arthur
• Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight
• Chaucer, The Wife of Baths Tale
• Stanzaic Mort Artu
• 14th c Various Romances
• Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde
• Gower, Confessio Amantis
• Popular romances
• 15th c Malory, Le Morte Darthur

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Breton Lai

• Short, rhymed tale of love and chivalry
• Breton/Celtic troubadour influence
• Courtliness and magic
• Investigations into the intricacies of love and
  honor
• Exploration of questions of sovereignty in
  relationships
• The Lais of Marie de France 11thc.

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Middle English Breton Lais

• Sir Orfeo,Sir Degaré, Sir Gowther,'Emaré
  and The Erle of Tolouse, all by anonymous
  authors
• Lay le Freine, a translation of Marie de
  France's Le Fresne
• The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales
  by Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Sir Launfal by Thomas Chestre (a retelling of a
  translation of Marie de France's Lanval)
• Lai du Cor by Robert Biket

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Novella

• The novella is defined as a short, prose
  narrative, usually realistic and often satiric in
  tone.
• Novella is an Italian word deriving from the
  feminine form of the word for new. The quality
  of newness in the novella is, perhaps, best
  associated with the subject matter of the stories
  
• Novelle (pl.) are based on current local events
  -- with a viewpoint that ranges from amorous to
  humorous and satirical to political or moral.
• The characters in a novella are placed in a
  realistic setting, complete with the rhythms of
  everyday life and conversation.

Novella
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Fabliau

• Originally a French form
• A comic, bawdy tale with a plot that usually
  involves a cuckolded husband
• Characters include peasants, tradesmen, greedy
  clergy, restless young wives, and young scholars
• The plots are realistically motivated tricks and
  ruses.
• The fabliaux thus present a lively image of
  everyday life among the middle and lower classes.
  

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Bestiary and Beast Fable

• A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a
  compendium of beasts.
• Bestiaries were illustrated volumes that
  described various real or imaginary animals,
  birds and even rocks.
• The natural history and illustration of each
  beast were usually accompanied by a moral lesson.

• A beast fable is a short tale with an explicit
  moral, often stated at the end as a maxim.
• Characters in beast fables are personified animals

Ram from the Aberdeen Bestiary
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Secular Lyric Poetry
Courtly Love

• Ballades poems with at least three stanzas
  having the same rhyme and metrical schemes and
  repeating the same last line refrain
• Complaints
• Reverdies spring songs
• Love Songs
• Courtly Love
• Aubades poem or song about lovers parting at
  dawn

• Humility
• Courtesy
• Adultery
• The Religion of Love

C.S. Lewis
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Religious Lyric Poetry

• Devotional songs
• Hymns
• Marian lyrics
• Carols

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Medieval Religious Drama

• Liturgical tropes gospel dramatizations
• Mystery plays Biblical plays
• Miracle plays saints lives
• Morality plays allegories

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Medieval Secular Drama

• Interludes and farces secular plays performed at
  court
• Folk plays pagan and folklore elements in
  popular festival performances