Middle English

(1066-1500)

c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English.

Middle English

1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most

schools.1362 English replaces French as the

language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time.

c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.

c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.

Timeline

Feudalism-The Pyramid Of Power The KingNobles

Knights Archbishop

FreemenYeomenServants

Peasants / Serfs / Villains

• Was possible for everyone to move higher up the ranks of the pyramid of power and this is what everyone aspired to do.

•Knights who proved to be courageous in battles could become wealthy and ambitious because of feudalism.

•If the knights importance in the land increased it became possible for him to join the nobility.

Fashion LowerUpper

Food LowerUpper

Torture On The Rack • Torture took place depending on the victim's crime and social status.

• In England torture by Stretching and Dislocation using a machine called the Rack was practised.

• This process involved the body being pulled in opposite ways and initially stretched.

• Limbs would be dislocated and prolonged use would end with limbs being torn from their sockets  inducing excruciating pain.

Dominated By Catholic Religion• From birth to death, whether you were a peasant, a serf, a noble a lord or a King - life was dominated by the church.

• Various religious institutions became both important, rich and powerful.

•Many people from this time period were dedicated to the Catholic church and religion.

•Nationality: English

•Date of Birth: He was born in London in 1343 ( his exact date of birth is unknown)

•Family connections : He was the son of a vintner

•Married: Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa de Roet at St Mary de Castro in Leicester. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen

•Education: Geoffrey Chaucer was well educated and studied law at the Inner Temple in London

•Career: Geoffrey Chaucer was an author, poet, philosopher, courtier, and diplomat.

•Date of Death: Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400 ( his exact date of death is unknown)

•Character of Geoffrey Chaucer: Intelligent, loyal and hard working

•Accomplishments or why Geoffrey Chaucer was famous: as the author of Canterbury Tales.

Father Of English Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer • For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French.

• In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

Chaucer introduces the iambic pentameter line

Some of Chaucer's work is prose and some is lyric poetry, but his greatest work is mostly narrative poetry, E.G = The Canterbury Tales.

Chaucer’s Work Style •The poetic meter, or rhythm, used throughout The Canterbury Tales is iambic pentameter. This means that each line is based on pairs of syllables, proceeding from one that would be unstressed in normal speech to one that is stressed.

•lines generally have five iambs each, for a total of ten syllables per line, the rhythm is described as iambic pentameter—"penta" is the Greek word for "five."

Old English ----- Middle English• 1362, during Chaucer’s lifetime, English was used at the opening of Parliament for the first time

•English was a still a language of low status – especially when it came to writing poetry and literature.

• Chaucer took the language of the man in the street and turned it into a series of masterpieces.

•Chaucer proved that poetry written in English could be as good as books in Latin or French.  

Reading Middle EnglishA knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,That fro the tyme that he first biganTo riden out, he loved chivalrie,Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.Ful worthy was he in his lordes were,And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,And evere honoured for his worthynesse. 

Words are the same

Read aloud

Sounds the same but is spelt differently

Example from The Canterbury Tales

•Spellings in Middle English were very variable - there were no real rules about spelling, so scribes used lots of different ways to spell the same thing. Sometimes the same word appears twice in one line of poetry, spelled in two different ways.

Critics ViewsLibrary source: `his purpose was not only to tell a story which had it’s roots in a convention of courtly love which had but little reality for most of his audience but also to deal with his material in such a way that the inner most feelings of the chief characters would be revealed’

CHAUCER AND THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY – H.S.BENNETT

Google Scholar

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