A Book of Middle English

The fourth edition of this essential Middle English textbook introduces students to the wide range of literature written in England between 1150 and 1400. Beginning with an extensive overview of middle English history, grammar, syntax, and pronunciation, the book goes on to examine key middle English texts — including a new extract from Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Divine Love — with helpful notes to direct students to key points within the text. Keeping in mind adopter feedback, this new edition includes a new model translation section with a student workbook and model exercise for classroom use. This new chapter will include sections on 'false friend' words, untranslatable idioms and notes on translating both poetry and prose. The text and references will be fully updated throughout and a foreword dedicated to the late J. A. Burrow will be included.

THORLAC TURVILLE-PETRE is Emeritus Professor of Medieval English at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of numerous books including The Alliterative Revival, England the Nation, and Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry. His Reading Middle English Literature is designed as a companion to this book.

J. A. BURROW^† was Emeritus Professor at Bristol University, UK, a Fellow of the British Academy and Honorary Director of the Early English Text Society. He was the author of many classic studies, including A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Medieval Writers and their Work, and The Ages of Man.

List of Illustrations           ix

Preface to the Third Edition         xi

Abbreviations    xii

PART ONE

1              Introducing Middle English           3

1.1          The Period          3

1.1.1 From Old to Middle English 3 1.1.2 From Middle to Modern English 4

1.2          Varieties of Middle English           5

1.2.1 Regional Dialects 5 1.2.2 Early and Late Middle English 8 1.2.3 Spelling 8

2              Pronouncing Middle English         9

2.1          Introduction       9

2.2          Vowels 10

2.2.1 The Long Vowels 10 2.2.2 The Short Vowels 11

2.2.3 Unstressed Final -e 11 2.2.4 The Diphthongs 12

2.3          Consonants        12

2.4          Stress    13

3              Vocabulary         14

3.1          Introduction       14

3.2          Scandinavian      14

3.3          English, French and Latin               15

3.4          Latin Loan-Words            17

3.5          French Loan-Words         18

4              Inflexions            19

4.1          Introduction       19

4.1.1 The Inflexional System 19 4.1.2 Loss of Inflexional Endings 19

4.2          Nouns   20

4.2.1 Introduction 20 4.2.2 Noun Inflexions: Early Southern Texts 21 4.2.3 Developments in Noun Inflexions 22

4.2.4 Genitive Singular Without Ending 23 4.2.5 Unchanged Plurals 23 4.2.6 Mutated Plurals 23

4.3          Pronouns and Articles    24

4.3.1 Forms of the Personal Pronouns 24 4.3.2 First and Second Person Pronouns 24 4.3.3 Third Person Pronouns: Masculine and Neuter Singular 25 4.3.4 Third Person Pronouns: Feminine Singular 25 4.3.5 Third Person Pronouns: Plural 26

4.3.6 The Definite Article 26 4.3.7 Demonstratives 27

4.3.8 The Indefinite Article 27

4.4          Adjectives and Adverbs 27

4.4.1 Definite and Indefinite Inflexions 27 4.4.2 Inflexions for Case 28 4.4.3 Comparison of Adjectives 29 4.4.4 Comparison of Adverbs 29

4.5          Verbs    30

4.5.1 Introduction 30 4.5.2 Present Tense 30 4.5.3 Past Tense and Past Participle 32 4.5.4 Past of Weak Verbs 32 4.5.5 The Verbs ‘Have’ and ‘Say’ 33 4.5.6 Past of Strong Verbs 34 4.5.7 Irregular Verbs 35 4.5.8 The Verb ‘To Be’ 36

5              Syntax  38

5.1          Gender 38

5.2          Number               38

5.3          Use of Cases       39

5.3.1 Nominative and Accusative 39 5.3.2 Genitive 39

5.3.3 Dative 40

5.4          Pronouns and Articles    41

5.4.1 Ϸou and ʒe 41 5.4.2 Non-expression of Personal Pronouns 41 5.4.3 Man 42 5.4.4 Self 42

5.4.5 Reflexive Pronouns 42 5.4.6 Relative Pronouns 43

5.4.7 The Articles 44

5.5          Adjectives and Adverbs 44

5.5.1 Position 44 5.5.2 Comparatives and Superlatives 44

5.5.3 Adjectives as Nouns 45

5.6          Verbs    45

5.6.1 Use of Present Tense 45 5.6.2 Use of Past Tense 45

5.6.3 Auxiliaries of the Past 46 5.6.4 Auxiliaries of the Future: shall and will 46 5.6.5 The Infinitive 47

5.6.6 The Subjunctive 48 5.6.7 The Imperative 50

5.6.8 Impersonal Verbs 50 5.6.9 Verbs of Motion 51

5.6.10 The Passive 51

5.7          Negation             52

5.8          Questions           52

5.9          Word-Order       53

5.9.1 Inversion 53 5.9.2 The Object 54

5.9.3 Prepositions 54 5.9.4 Relative Clauses 54

5.9.5 Adverbial Phrases 54 5.9.6 Verb in Final Position 55

5.10        Recapitulation and Anticipation 55

6              Metre   56

6.1          Introduction       56

6.2          Rhymed Verse  56

6.3          Alliterative Verse             59

6.4          Laʒamon’s Brut 61

7              From Manuscript to Printed Text               62

8              Translating Middle English

9              Select Bibliography          65

9.1          Bibliographies and Indexes          65

9.2          Language Studies             65

9.3          General Studies of the Literature               67

9.4          Studies of Particular Genres        69

9.5          Historical and Social Studies        70

PART TWO: PROSE AND VERSE TEXTS

Note on Treatment of Texts        74

1              The Peterborough Chronicle 1137             75

2              The Owl and the Nightingale       81

3              Laʒamon: Brut   96

4              Ancrene Wisse  106

5              Sir Orfeo              112

6              The Cloud of Unknowing              132

7              William Langland: Piers Plowman              141

8              Patience              162

9              Sir Gawain and the Green Knight               182

10           Pearl      202

11           St Erkenwald      221

12           John Trevisa: Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk            235

13           John Gower: Confessio Amantis 243

14           Lyrics     255

15           The York Play of the Crucifixion  272

16           Geoffrey Chaucer: The Parliament of Fowls          283

17           Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde  309

18           Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales 327

18a         The Reeve’s Tale              328

18b         The Prioress’s Tale           346

19           Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love

Textual Notes    356

Glossary               363

List of Illustrations

The dialects of Middle English     7

Dot maps of THEM: ‘th-’ type and ‘h-’ type           16

Lines from St Erkenwald (MS Harley 2250)            62

A page from Confessio Amantis (MS Fairfax 3)     245

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