Middle English period (14th century )

Middle English period (14th century ) 

In continuation with the previous lecture, we begin looking at the Middle English period.

 

Let us look at the time of Robert Mannyng of Brunne:

And the other notable figure is that of Robert Mannyng of Brunne he was also a monk as well as a chronicler and it is also said that he was perhaps part of the canon during the times that he lived. And there are two works of notable repute Handlyng Synne and Mannyng’s chronicle and Handlyng Synne is considered to be the first confessional manual in English literature. The nature of this confession could also be due to the religious tendencies that he had. And Mannyng’s Chronicle was yet another work based on history and again this was the story of England written in verse and it is said that it is extended through the reign of Edward the first. And some even feel that Mannyng’s chronicle was not very original that he had translated some myths of many old English text put together in that sense perhaps it is more less a compilation or a translation of old English text as well. And what makes Mannyng quite different from the others is that in his own works we find lot of biographical information about himself. and this is a quite surprising because many writers were not used to talking about themselves, we also noted that many writers did not even bother to sign with their own names after the work was completed. In that sense, Mannyng shows commendable insight and talking about himself his own life and his own surroundings so that you know it becomes a useful historical tract in the later times.

 

 

14th century

in the 14th century we find ourselves moving closer towards the life and work of Chaucer and this is that period which is known as the period of the alliterative revival. Alliterative revival as the term signifies it is resurgence of poetry with particular kinds of alliterations and rhymes built into it. And we do not find England going back from this period onwards; we do find that there is an increased interest and an increased attention being provided to poetry and other forms of literature. This is also the time when England prepares itself to produce greater classics, shows more attention and more interest in the other classics of Greek and Latin.

 

And the notable feature of this time is a presence of a particular anonymous poet who has come to be known as the Pearl poet or the Gawain poet based on a set of poems known as the pearl poems or the based on the major work known as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is also the best known Arthurian tale from the Middle English times and pearl poet or the Gawain poet he is also said to be a contemporary of Chaucer, Gower and Langland about whom we will hear more about in the next session and this century was more important because a sense of literature or sense of national unity sense of national literature is getting emerged from this period onwards. How has it become possible for us to access these old English and Middle English text, perhaps one should be very thankful to this major figure Robert Cotton, and most of these works that we talk about whether it is an old English text like Beowulf or Middle English text like Gawain and the Green knight all these manuscripts has become accessible because they are present in this particular set known as Cotton Nero A.x and this was from a personal collection of this visionary figure known as Robert Bruce Cotton, he was a quite a successful and wealthy person who lived in the later 16th and earlier 17th century who should utmost interest as a collector of medieval text, he had a lot of interest in local history and he was also noted antiquarian of his times.

 

Robert Bruce Cotton

So we find him collecting most of the original old English and Middle English manuscripts which were available and he is also said to have credited to have preserved them so that they did not go extinct in any way. In fact, about his manuscripts historians feel that his collection outshone those of the crown, the church and the Inns of the court. This is very important because as we have noted earlier most of the manuscripts and most of the literary collection was available either with the court or with the church, the monasteries where in charge of it most of the times or it was with the Inns of the court which primarily comprise with the 4 institutions which together constitute the judiciary of those times.

 

So Robert Cotton is said to have had a collection which outshone all of these collections put together and one should be very thankful to Robert Cotton for showing this kind of a passion to preserve these extended text. And his grandson at a later point was quite kind enough to donate this entire set to the British library where it is still preserved. So in many sense we also begin to note that the Middle English and the old English period is important not just because of the efforts of the people who lived just during the time, but also because of the interest that posterity began to shown in their works and also because of the sense of national heritage which became all the more important in the later centuries.

 

So preserving an old English text or a Middle English text was not just about preserving literature, but it was also about preserving a heritage which had been handed out. So in that sense one remains internally grateful to many figures such as Robert Cotton who perhaps did not lived in the said age, but contributed to the age in many different ways than the one who were living in these ages could ever even begin to think of or comprehend.

So we look forward to seeing you in the next session thank you.