|
The Middle Ages (to ca.
1485), or medireview period, designates the time span from the collapse
of the Roman empire to the Renaissance. For English literature the
medireview period extends for more than eight hundred years, from
Caedmon's Hymn at the end of the seventh century
to Everyman at the beginning of the
sixteenth. The date 1485, with the accession of Henry VII and
the beginning of the Tudor dynasty, is an arbitrary but convenient one
to mark the "end" of the Middle Ages.
Two periods—the Old
English (or Anglo-Saxon) and the Middle English—are sharply
distinguished from each other as a result of the Norman Conquest of the
island in 1066 and will be discussed separately in this unit.
Middle English Genres: Courtly Romance; Breton Lay (short romantic
poem, not a song); Fabliaux (fable-like short story with a snappy
ending); Tragedy (through medireview eyes, at least); Exempla; Sermon
(or didactic treatise); Beast Fable.
Middle English Drama: Mystery, Miracle and Morality plays.
|
