contents · 4.9 roger bacon, a defense of alchemy (1287) 158 4.10 john of mirfeld on signs of death...

Contents

List of Illustrations xiii

Acknowledgments xiv

List of Abbreviations xviii

Series Editor’s Preface xix

Timeline of Historical Events xx

Timeline of Literary Events xxvii

Introduction 1Late Medieval English Literature: Recent Critical Trends 4Recovering Texts 7Master Narratives 9Historical Contexts 11How to Use This Book 14

1 The English Languages 16

1.1 John Trevisa, Concerning the Language of the Inhabitants of Britain (c.1387) 19

1.2 John Trevisa, Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk (c.1387) 221.3 From the Prologue to The Holy Bible . . . from the Latin Vulgate by

John Wycliffe and His Followers (c.1384–95) 241.4 Osbern Bokenham, “A shorte epiloge excusatorie of the

translatours rudnesse” from Mappula Angliae (c. 1438–45) 271.5 William Caxton, Prologue to the Aeneid (1490) 281.6 From Thomas Usk, The Testament of Love (1384–7) 311.7 Extract from the Will of William Creswyk (1405) 321.8 Will of John Pyncheon (1392) 331.9 Letter sent to the King by the Mayor and Aldermen of London

(1417) 341.10 A false sack of coals (1419) 361.11 Proclamation Against Brokers (1418–9) 361.12 Nusauncis and defautis foundin in the warde of farundon with-out

(1422) 37

vii

1.13 From John Barbour, The Bruce or The book of the Most Excellent and Noble Prince Robert de Broyss, King of Scots (c.1375) 38

1.14 A York Bidding Prayer (1405) 401.15 From The York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers (1357) 411.16 A celuy que pluys ayme de monde, from The Armburgh Papers

(mid-fifteenth century) 42

2 Spiritual Affirmations, Aspirations, and Anxieties 45

2.1 Will of Katherine, widow of John Carpenter (1458) 472.2 John Carpenter’s Will, 1441 502.3 Excerpts from Churchwardens’ Accounts, St Mary at Hill

(1420–1559) 512.4 From History of the Mass, in The Golden Legend or Lives of the

Saints as Englished by William Caxton (1483) 542.5 Excerpts from The Sarum Missal in English 562.6 Sarum Rite: Marriage 582.7 Sarum Rite: Order of Service for Pilgrims 602.8 “On the Day of Doom and the Last Judgement,” from Bk V,

The Pricke of Conscience (mid-fourteenth-century) 622.9 Pride and Covetousness: from Memoriale Credencium: A late

Middle English Manual of Theology for Lay People (first half of fifteenth century) 66

2.10 The Holy Land: from Mandeville Travels (mid fourteenth century) 682.11 Life of St Etheldreda: From The Kalendre of the Newe Legende of

Englande (1516) 702.12 From Nicholas Love, The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ

(c. 1410) 722.13 The York Pater Noster Guild (1338–9) 742.14 Corpus Christi Day (1311) 752.15 On the Virgin Mary: from The Writings of Julian of Norwich

(c.1373/1388) 762.16 Hours of the Blessed Virgin: Evensong and Concluding Devotions 772.17 On Monks: From Regular Life: Monastic, Canonical and Mendicant

Rules 822.18 On Monks from The Middle English Translation of the Rosarium

Theologie (c.1385–1420) 832.19 On Friars: From The Regular Life: Monastic, Canonical and

Mendicant Rules 852.20 On Friars: From John Gower, The Voice of One Crying in the

Wilderness (1385) 862.21 The Lanterne of Light (c. 1409–15) 872.22 From Remonstrance against Romish Corruptions in the Church

Addressed to the People and Parliament of England in 1395 88

viii CONTENTS

2.23 Objections to Drama: from A Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge (early fifteenth century) 90

3 Violence and the Work of Chivalry 93

3.1 A Model of Chivalry, c.1385, from Life of the Black Prince 943.2 A Knight’s Ideal Knight, c. 1350, from The Book of Chivalry of

Geoffroi de Charny 993.3 A Knight’s Office, from The Book of the Ordre of Chyualry, trans.

and printed by William Caxton [1484] 1023.4 A Gentleman’s Paternal Advice, c.1445–1450, from Peter Idley’s

Instructions to his Son 1073.5 A Lament for the Decline of Chivalry, 1475, from William

Worcester, The Boke of Noblesse 1153.6 Liveries, Loyalties and Service: Sir Roger Leche v. William

Vernon et al., 1410, from The Court of King’s Bench, 1410 1183.7 Lords, Their Wives, and Local Warfare: Margaret Paston to

John Paston II, 1469, from The Paston Letters 1213.8 Commanding Tenants and Exercising Lordship, late fifteenth

century, from The Plumpton Letters 1233.9 Critics of a Knight’s Misbehavior: Petition of the King’s Tenants

at Banstead, Surrey [between 1413–1419], from A Book of London English 126

3.10 Patronage and Betrayal: Joan Armburgh to John Horell of Essex,1429/30, from The Armburgh Papers 128

3.11 Ideals of Loyalty and Dangers from Confederacies: Rex v. John Berwald et al., 1393, from The Court of King’s Bench 131

3.12 Founding Families, Abducting Women: Kebell v. Vernon, 1502, from Cases before the King’s Council in the Star Chamber 134

4 Scientia: Knowledge Practical, Theoretical, and Historical 138

4.1 Concerning the Solar Year: Translated from On the Properties of Things: Trevisa’s Translation of De Proprietatibus Rerum 140

4.2 A Zodiacal Lunary for Medical Professionals (1475–1500) 1414.3 An Attack upon Astrology: from Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers 1464.4 Humoral Theory: from John Trevisa, On the Properties of Things 1494.5 Medieval Faculty Psychology: From John Trevisa, On the

Properties of Things 1504.6 Constantine the African and Gerard of Berry on Lovesickness or

Amor Hereos (late 11th century; c. 1200) 1514.7 Illusions of the Mind: an Imaginary Castle from Forbidden Rites:

A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century 1544.8 On Alchemy: The Romance of the Rose (c.1230/c.1275) 157

CONTENTS ix

4.9 Roger Bacon, a Defense of Alchemy (1287) 1584.10 John of Mirfeld on Signs of Death (1380–95) 1594.11 Rules of Robert Grosseteste for the Countess of Lincoln, on how

to guard and govern lands and household (1235–53) 1614.12 The Master of Game: Edward, Duke of York’s hunting book

(c.1410) 1654.13 Medieval Compendia of Knowledge: From Sidrak and Bokkus

(c. 1475–1500) 1694.14 The Golden Age: from Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun,

The Romance of the Rose (c. 1230/c.1275) 1774.15 Richard de Bury, Philobiblon: That, though we love more the

works of the ancients, yet we have not condemned the studies of the moderns (c. 1340–45) 179

4.16 Giovanni Boccaccio, Preface to Famous Women (1361–2) 1814.17 William Caxton, Mirrour of the World (1481) 1834.18 From The Brut or The Chronicles of England, Albina and Brutus

(c.1400) 185

5 Book Production: The World of Manuscripts, Patrons, and Readers 192

5.1 Recipe for Ink from The Commonplace Book of Robert Reynes of Acle (1450–1512?) 194

5.2 Making Parchment and Paper 1965.3 The Book Trade from William Caxton’s Dialogues in French and

English (1480) 1975.4 How Books circulate: John Shirley’s Book Lists (c. 1438–56) 2005.5 Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon on valuing and sharing books:

“That the Treasure of Wisdom Lieth Especially in Books” and from “Of the Manner of Distributing Our Books to All Students” (c. 1340–5) 203

5.6 Thomas Hoccleve, “Balade to my gracious Lord of York” (1402–15) 207

5.7 Book Ownership in later Medieval England (1375–1450) 209Joan Neville, John Carpenter, Margaret Courtenay, Robert Thornton, Philippa de Coucy, Sibilla de Felton, Sir John Fastolf

5.8 A warning against reading for pleasure: from Robert de Gretham, The Middle English ‘Mirror’ (c. 1250–60) 217

5.9 Moral virtue of reading: William Caxton, Prologue to the Game and Play of the Chesse (1483) 219

5.10 In Praise of Chaucer’s Art: from William Caxton, Proheme to The Canterbury Tales (1484) 220

5.11 Literature and Action: from William Caxton, Epilogue, Godefroy of Bologne (1481) 222

x CONTENTS

6 Producing and Exchanging: Work in Manors and Towns 225

6.1 Peasants’ Work and the Rule of Custom: Two Custumals of the Manor of Cockerham, 1326 and 1483 226

6.2 Peasant Suits in a Lord’s Court: Manorial Court Proceedings in Essex, 1449, from Select Cases in Manorial Courts 232

6.3 Legislating the Value of Work: The Statute of Labourers, 1351, from Parliament Rolls 235

6.4 A Commons’ Petition against Rebellious Villeins, 1377, from Parliament Rolls. 240

6.5 Trial and Execution of John Shirle before the King’s Justices, July, 1381, from The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 243

6.6 The Continuing Burden of Villeinage: Netheway v. Gorge, 1534, from The King’s Court of Requests 244

6.7 Advice to the President of Magdalen College on ManorialAdministration: Thomas Ely to Richard Mayhew, late fifteenth century, from England in the Fifteenth Century. 246

6.8 Enclosure and Depopulation, Late Fifteenth Century, from Domesday of Inclosures, 1517–18 249

6.9 ‘On England’s Commercial Policy,’ temp. Edward IV, from Political Poems and Songs 251

6.10 Regulating Weavers in Shrewsbury, 1448, Shrewsbury Borough Archives, from English Historical Documents. 256

6.11 Contesting Authority over Urban Workers: The Mayor of Exeter et al. v. Stoden et al., 1477, from Select Cases before the King’s Council in the Star Chamber 258

6.12 Civic Regulation of Work and Morals in Coventry, 1475, 1477, and 1492, from the Coventry Leet Book 263

7 Polity and Governance, Unity and Disunity 269

7.1 Challenging Bondage and Using Parliament: Petition of ThomasPaunfeld of Cambridgeshire, 1414, from An Anthology of ChanceryEnglish 270

7.2 Ruling Well and Doing Justice: “The III Considerations Right Necesserye to the Good Governance of a Prince,” fifteenth century, from Tracts of the Later Middle Ages 277

7.3 A Prince Rules Personally: Prince Arthur’s Reception in Coventry, 1498, from Coventry Leet Book 280

7.4 Strong Kingship and a Strong Kingdom: The Governance of England by Sir John Fortescue, 1471–5, from The Politics of Fifteenth-Century England. John Vale’s Book 285

7.5 Royal Offices, Noble Patronage, and Importunate Gentry: Godfrey Greene to Sir William Plumpton, 8 November [?1477], from The Plumpton Letters 292

CONTENTS xi

7.6 Temporal and – or? – Spiritual Authorities: Earl of Arundel v. Bishop of Chichester, 1365, from The Court of King’s Bench 294

7.7 Civic Disunity and the Riot called “Gladman’s Insurrection,” from The Records of the City of Norwich 297

7.8 Reporting on the Workings of Parliament: An Account by TwoBurgesses of Colchester, 1485, from Parliamentary Texts of the Later Middle Ages 302

7.9 Paying for War and Promoting “English” Unity: Edward IV’s instructions to an alderman of London, 1462, from John Vale’s Book 308

7.10 Lords Doing Justice to Lords: Henry Percy to William Plumpton, 18 September [before 19 May 1527], from The Plumpton Letters 311

7.11 Advice to Aristocratic Wives on Mediation and Governance, c.1404, from Christine de Pizan, The Treasury of the City of Ladies 312

7.12 Seeking Patrons and Arranging Marriages among England’s Governors: Two Letters, 1535/6 and 1496/7, from The Plumpton Letters 316

7.13 Analyzing Custom, Order, and Adultery, 1486, in a case of trespass from Year Books of Henry VII. 319

Further Reading 323

Index 327

xii CONTENTS

1

The English Languages

Introduction

The language and literature of later medieval England reflect the complicatedcultural history of Britain,1 a fertile island rich in natural resources. In the mid-twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth described Britain in this way at thebeginning of his account of the various nations and tribes who had successivelyinvaded, occupied, defended, and lost control of Britain:

Britain, the best of islands, is situated in the Western Ocean, between Franceand Ireland. It stretches for eight hundred miles in length and for twohundred in breadth. It provides in unfailing plenty everything that is suitedto the use of human beings. It abounds in every kind of mineral. It has broadfields and hillsides which are suitable for the most intensive farming and inwhich, because of the richness of the soil, all kinds of crops are grown in theirseasons. It also has open woodlands which are filled with every kind of game.Through its forest glades stretch pasture-lands which provide the variousfeeding-stuffs needed by cattle, and there too grow flowers of every hue whichoffer their honey to the flitting bees. At the foot of its windswept mountainsit has meadows green with grass, beauty-spots where clear springs flow intoshining streams which ripple gently and murmur an assurance of deep sleepto those lying on their banks.2

Because of its fertility, and its proximity to Europe, Britain received waves ofinvaders, settlers, and raiders in the 1,300 years before the late Middle Ages.Geoffrey of Monmouth’s narrative tells part of the story of how the Britonscoped with the Romans, the Angles and the Saxons. Subsequent invasions byVikings, Danes, and Normans ensured that the people of Britain would be adiverse, at times unsettled population, and that their language, like the landthey inhabited, would be the product of a continual process of fertile renewal.

1 The island of Britain comprises the modern nations England, Scotland and Wales.2 Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, trans. Lewis Thorpe (New York: Penguin

Books, 1966), p. 53.

16

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGES 17

Historians of the English language have generally concentrated their narra-tives on three major elements of English: its roots in Germanic languages, theinfluence of Latin on its vocabulary, especially on the formation of an eccle-siastical discourse during the Anglo-Saxon period, and the influence of twoforms of French.3 The first was Anglo-Norman, the French spoken and writtenin England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 until the later thirteenthcentury. This form of French became the basis of the legal language ofEngland termed “law French.”4 From the beginning of the fourteenth centurythrough the period this book covers, a second wave of French influence,largely in the form of new and “re-borrowed” vocabulary, expanded thelanguage’s capacity for abstraction and its ability to express religious, theo-logical, and political discourses in an English vernacular which rapidlyAnglicized French borrowings. David Crystal estimates that in the last quarterof the fourteenth century 2,500 new French words, largely abstractions,entered English.5 By the late fourteenth century, the English language demon-strated evidence of the history of Britain. English was structurally a Germaniclanguage in respect to its core vocabulary and grammar: for instance, the verbto be in Middle English (ME) been/beon developed from Old English (OE) beon;to see, ME seen/seon, came from OE seon; the prepositions, in, at, to, fromderived from OE as did common nouns like the words for wife, brother, sister,father, home, land, water. Allowing for dialectical differences in orthography,6

all are essentially the same words in Old English, Middle English, and ModernEnglish. Medieval English used the singular third person pronouns of OE, he,she, hit, but a set of Old Norse plurals, familiar to us today as the English they,their, them, largely supplanted OE plural pronouns, first in the Northerndialect, and by the end of the fifteenth century throughout England. Invasionand settlement patterns also influenced spelling, place names, and dialects.Suffixes such as -by and -thorpe, common in the North of England that wasonce part of the Danelaw,7 indicated different communities of settlers andinscribed a history of invasion into the geography of the country.8 The netresult was that by the later fourteenth century English-speaking people in

3 See bibliography for references to some of the plethora of texts now available on the history of theEnglish language.

4 For an informed early twentieth-century discussion about the persistence of French in the Englishuntil the seventeenth century and its evolution, see http://www. orbilat.com/Influences_of_Romance/English/RIFL-English-French-The_Anglo-French_Law_Language. html.

5 David Crystal, The Stories of English (New York: Overlook Press, 2004), p. 154.6 Spelling.7 A large area of Eastern England settled by Danish immigrants; by the middle of the ninth century,

the Danelaw was recognized as a distinct cultural region of Britain.8 The suffix -by in names like Whitby and Rugby occurs in areas occupied by the Danes; the suffix

derives from a Danish word meaning “farm” or “town.” The suffix -thorp(e) in place names likeAlthorp derives from a Scandinavian word for village.

18 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Britain seem to have been self-consciously aware of the diverse forms theirlanguage took, aware that English sounded different and was written differ-ently in various parts of the country.9 Although there was no fixed orthogra-phy in English at this point, the written record preserves a number of textsthat begin to identify Northern and Southern dialects as less or more “correct”and, by implication, to define the North as lacking against a Southern stan-dard. This division of “North and South” would continue to dominate Englishpolitical and social thought into the twentieth century. By the end of the four-teenth century writers in the south of England, especially those associatedwith the royal court at London, began self-consciously to shape English intoa literary language. Their work, and the London dialect they used, became thefoundation of a future national language, one distinct from Latin or romancelanguages, with its own style and a rich capacity for multiple registers ofexpression through which to present English people and their thoughts to oneanother and to the rest of the world.

In addition to reflecting persistent concern about the inconvenience oflinguistic diversity in English, the documents in this chapter reflect some ofthe concern English writers felt about the capacity of their language to func-tion as an adequate vehicle for translation and for elegant expression. A recur-rent anxiety about the difference between English’s imputed “rudeness” andthe smooth eloquence of French appears in some of these documents. Thedocuments that create apologies for translation demonstrate an awareness ofthe value of the vernacular, an implicit challenge to the hegemony of Latinand clerical culture. Such an emphasis on the need for translation and the util-ity of the vernacular was not unique to England. Earlier in the fourteenthcentury Dante made a plea for the utility and capacity of the vernacular in DeVulgari Eloquentia, and in the middle years of the century Nicole Oresme, oneof Charles V’s great court translators, argued passionately for the Frenchvernacular as a language of literature and culture. Many of the documents inthis section, particularly the ones written in London English, show thatEnglish was capable of creating a variety of registers of expression thatproduced lively and engaging writing. Finally, this section also contains docu-ments that demonstrate how easily late medieval English people movedamong Latin, French, and English; wills, civic records, and even love poetrydemonstrate the multi-lingualism of this culture.

9 For a detailed presentation of Middle English dialect difference, see A Linguistic Atlas of Late MedievalEnglish, Angus McIntosh, M. L. Samuels, Michael Benskin with the assistance of Margaret Laing andKeith Williamson (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986).


The English Vernacular: Voice(s) of the Mother Tongue

1.1 John Trevisa, “Concerning the Language of the Inhabitants ofBritain,” from a Translation of Higden’s Polychronicon, based onFernand Mossé, A Handbook of Middle English, James A. Walker,trans. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1966), pp. 286–9.

In the mid 1380s John Trevisa10 translated Higden’s Polychronicon, an immenselypopular mid-fourteenth-century “universal” history which survives in more than ahundred manuscripts, from Latin into English. The passage below, an excerpt from thattranslation, documents the linguistic diversity of late medieval England, its bi-lingual-ism, as well as its several dialects linked to geography and economics. An investigationof its lexicon will show that Trevisa relies on both Germanic and Romance (French)vocabulary in translating the Latin text. Perhaps the most significant element of thisfamous passage is Higden’s recognition of the evolving status of French and of Englishin the years before and after the Black Death. Reference to the grammar innovations ofJohn Cornwall have been linked to a John Cornwall who taught Latin grammar inOxford in the middle years of the fourteenth century. Baugh and Cable note, “his nameappears in the accounts of Merton in 1347, as does that of Pencrich a few years later.”The innovation was probably due to a scarcity of competent teachers. At any rate, after1349 English began to be used in the schools and by 1385 the practice had becomegeneral.11

De incolarum linguis (Concerning the language of the Inhabitants)12

As hyt ys yknowe how meny maner people buth13 in this ylond, ther buthalso of so meny people longages and tonges; notheles Walschmen andScottes, that buth not ymelled14 with other nacions, holdeth wel ny here

10 John Trevisa (c. 1342–1402) was educated at Oxford, spending approximately eighteen years atQueen’s College, during which time he translated the Polychronicon, from 1384–87 (David C.Fowler, John Trevisa, English Writers of the Middle Ages Series [Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1993], p.14). While in the service of Thomas, Lord Berkeley, whom he served as “priest and bedesman”(Fowler, 23), he translated two other major Latin works in addition to the Polychronicon:Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ On the Properties of Things, and Aegidius Romanus’ De Regimine Principumduring the period 1394–98.

11 Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice Hall, 1993), p. 147.

12 The orthography of this document reflects Trevisa’s southwestern dialect (he was born in Cornwall);it uses “u” where modern English uses “i” or “e”; at other times, as in “Bote,” “o” is used wheremodern orthography uses “u” or “a”; past participles are denoted by the prefix “y” as in the first line“yknowe.”

13 Are.14 Mixed together.


furste15 longage and speche, bote yef16 Scottes, that were som tyme confed-erat and wonede17 with the Pictes, drawe somwhat after here speche. Bote18

the Flemmynges19, that woneth20 in the west syde of Wales, habbeth21 ylefthere strange speche and speketh Saxonlych22 ynow.23 Also Englischmen,thogh hy24 hadde fram the bygynnyng thre maner speche, Southeron,Northeron, and Myddel speche in the myddel of the lond, as hy come of thremaner people of Germania; notheles, by commyxstion and mellyng, furstwith Danes and afterward with Normans, in menye25 the contray longage ysapeyred,26 and som vseth strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng,grisbittyng.27 This apeyryng of the burth tonge ys bycause of twey28 thinges.On ys for29 chyldern30 in scole, agenes31 the vsage and manere of al othernacions, buth compelled for to leue here32 oune longage, and for to construehere lessons and here thinges a Freynsch, and habbeth suththe33 theNormans come furst into Engelond. Also, gentilmen children buth ytaughtfor to speke Freynsch fram tyme that a34 buth yrokked in here cradel, andconneth35 speke and playe with a child hys brouch36; and oplondysch37 menwol lykne hamsylf38 to gentil men, and fondeth39 with gret bysynes for tospeke Freynsch, for to be more ytold40 of.

15 First.16 “Except that.”17 Dwelled.18 But.19 Henry II favored the immigration of Flemings who settled in the area Trevisa describes as the “west

syde” of Wales, i.e. Pembrokeshire.20 Dwell.21 Have.22 In the manner of Saxons.23 Although this spelling usually designates a form of the modern word “enough,” here it seems to be

an unusual variant spelling of “now” (see OED).24 Though they.25 Many.26 Impaired, i.e. deteriorated; it was thought that such mixture as is described injures language.27 This string of words is intended to be onomatopeic; it translates as stammering, chattering, snaf-

fling, grating and grinding of teeth.28 Two.29 Because.30 Children.31 Against, in distinction to.32 Their.33 Since.34 They; here and below “a” functions as a third person plural pronoun.35 Know.36 A child’s plaything.37 Rustic, rural, unsophisticated.38 Liken themselves.39 Attempt, try.40 To be held in high esteem.


Thys manere was moche y-vsed tofore the furste moreyn,41 and ys seth42

the somdel ychaunged.43 For Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere, chayn-gede the lore in gramerscole and construccion44 of Freynsch into Englysch;and Richard Pencrych lurnede that manere techyng of hym, and other men ofPencrych, so that now, the yer of oure Lord a thousond thre hondred fourescore and fyue, of the secunde kyng Richard after the conquest nyne, in al thegramerscoles of Engelond childern leueth45 Frensch, and construeth andlurneth an Englysch, and habbeth therby avauntage in on syde, anddesavauntage yn another; here avauntage ys that a lurneth here gramer ynlasse tyme than childern wer ywoned46 to do; disavauntage ys that nowchildern of gramerscole conneth no more Frensch than can hire lift heele,47

and that ys harm for ham and a scholle passe the se and trauayle in strangelondes,48 and in meny caas also. Also gentil men habbeth now moche yleft forto teche here childern Frensch. Hyt semeth a gret wondur how Englysch, thatys the burth-tonge of Englyschmen, and here oune longage and tonge, ys sodyuers49 of soun50 in this ylond; and the longage of Normandy ys comlyng51

of another lond, and hath on maner soun among al men that speketh hytaryght in Engelond.52 Notheles ther ys as meny dyuers maner Frensch yn therem53 of Fraunce as ys dyuers manere Englysch in the rem of Engelond.

* * *

Al the longage of the Northhumbres, and specialych at York, ys so scharp,slyttyng, and frotyng, and unschape,54 that we Southeron men may thatlongage unnethe undurstonde.55 Y56 trowe57 that that ys bycause that a buthnygh58 to strange men and aliens, that speketh strangelych, and also bycause

41 Death, plague; or sickness of animals; here the plague of 1348–9.42 Since.43 Somewhat changed.44 Translation, interpretation.45 Leave.46 Used to.47 Left heel.48 And that is harmful for them if they should travel across the sea and work in strange lands.49 Diverse.50 Sound.51 A stranger, come from another land.52 French, having come from abroad, is a more unified and less diverse language – it has “on maner

soun,” one kind of sound.53 Realm.54 Piercing, grinding, and unformed.55 Scarcely understand.56 I.57 Believe.58 That they are close to.


that the kynges of Engelond woneth59 alwey fer fram that contray: For a buthmore yturnd60 to the south contray; and yef a goth61 to the north contray, agoth with gret help and strengthe. The cause why a buth more in the southcontray than in the north may be betre cornlond, more people, more noblecytés, and more profytable hauenes.62

1.2 John Trevisa, Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk (c. 1387), from J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre, A Book of Middle English,3rd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 237–42.

At the beginning of his translation of Higden, Trevisa created a “dialogue” between aLord and a Clerk, a form of exposition common in Latin scholastic writing. In a politicreversal of role, the Lord instructs the Clerk by arguing for the utility and importance ofknowledge to be gained by translating from Latin into the English vernacular.Translation from Latin and French sources constituted a major source of English liter-ature for the hundred years between Chaucer and Caxton. Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve,Lydgate, Malory all “Englished” works from other European vernaculars or Latin.Chaucer refers continually to his work as a translator, especially in the retraction at theend of The Canterbury Tales, and in the prologue to The Legend of Good Women.

Trevisa’s argument is but one of many made particularly during the last two decadesof the fourteenth century, linking “the mother tongue” and access to valuable knowl-edge. His concern is not so much access to what we would term literature, but to thelearning and knowledge of past times and other cultures.

And so Ranulph monk of Chester63 wrot yn Latyn hys bookes of cronykes64

that discreveth65 the world aboute yn lengthe and yn brede,66 and makethmencyon and muynde67 of doyngs and of dedes, of mervayls68 and ofwondres, and rekneth the yeres to hys laste dayes fram the vurste69 makyngof hevene and of erthe.70 And so tharynne ys noble and gret informacion andlore to hem that can tharynne rede and understonde. Tharvore ich wolde

59 Dwell; are used to be, inhabit.60 They are more turned to, i.e. oriented to.61 If they go to the north country, they go.62 Havens; properties.63 Ranulph Higden, who was from Chester.64 Chronicles.65 Describe.66 Breadth.67 Makes mention and brings to mind.68 Marvels.69 First.70 Reckons the years to his last days from the first making of heaven and earth; that is, he wrote a

chronicle of the history of the world.


have71 theus72 bokes of cronyks translated out of Latyn ynto Englysch, for themo73 men scholde hem74 understonde and have thereof konnyng,75 infor-macion and lore.”

[In his arguments against the Clerk’s position, the Lord defends translation as anhistorical phenomenon and essential aspect of translatio studii – the inexorable andappropriate transmission of learning from generation to generation and from nation tonation. In late medieval Italy, France, and England authors were keenly desirous ofclaiming the mantle of the classical tradition.]

Dominus76: Hyt is wonder that thou makest so feble argementys and hastygo77 so long to scole. Aristoteles bokes and othere bokes also of logyk and ofphilosofy were translated out of Gru78 into Latyn. Also, atte prayng79 of KyngCharles [Charles the Bold], John Scot80 translatede Seint Denys hys bokes outof Gru ynto Latyn. Also holy wryt was translated out of Hebrew ynto Gru andout of Gru into Latyn, and thanne out of Latyn ynto Frensch.81 Thanne whathath Englysch trespased82 that hyt myght noght be translated into Englysch?Also Kyng Alvred, that foundede the unyversité of Oxenford,83 translatedethe beste lawes into Englysch tonge and a gret del84 of the Sauter85 out ofLatyn into Englysch, and made Wyrefryth byschop of Wyrcetre,86 translateSeint Gregore hys bokes Dialoges out of Latyn ynto Saxon.87 Also Cedmon ofWhyteby was inspired of the Holy Gost and made wonder poesyes88 anEnglysch nygh of al89 the storyes of holy wryt. Also the holy man Beda90

71 I would have.72 These (theus is a SW dialect form).73 More.74 Them.75 Cunning, knowledge.76 The lord.77 Gone.78 Greek.79 Request.80 John Scotus Erigena, c. 810–c. 877, translated works by Dionysius the Areopagite from Greek into

Latin.81 French vernacular translation of the Bible dates from the thirteenth century, nearly a hundred years

before the English translation.82 How has English failed, or done wrong.83 King Alfred (c. 849–99) was mistakenly thought to have founded Oxford.84 Deal.85 Psalter, book of Psalms.86 Werforth, Bishop of Worcester; Trevisa’s parish of Berkeley was in the Worcester diocese.87 Four Books on the lives and miracles of the Saints in Italy, and on the immortality of the soul.88 Poems; Caedmon’s hymn is an example of spiritual inspiration resulting in religious poetry

composed by a simple farm laborer.89 In English nearly all of.90 Bede c. 673–735, historian and author of The English Church and People.


translatede Seint John hys gospel out of Latyn ynto Englysche. Also thou wostwhere the Apocalips ys ywryte in the walles and roof of a chapel bothe inLatyn and yn Freynsch.91 Also the gospel and prophecy and the ryght fey92

of holy churche mot be taught and ypreched to Englyschmen that connethno Latyn. Thanne the gospel and prophecy and the ryght fey of holy cherchemot be told ham an Englysch, and that ys noght ydo bote by Englyschtranslacion.93 Vor94 such Englysch prechyng ys verrey95 Englysch translacion,and such Englysch prechyng ys good and neodful; thanne Englysch translacion is good and neodfol.

[By the time the debate concludes, Clericus submits to Dominus’ arguments, and artic-ulates a credal statement of the central elements of Christian doctrine in which writingbecomes a metaphor for salvation. At the day of judgement:]

Thanne al men that buth ywryte yn the bok of lyf schal wende with hym[Christ] ynto the blysse of hevene, and be there in body and in soul, and seand knowe hys godhede and manhede in joye without eny ende. ExplicitDialogus.

1.3 From the Prologue to The Holy Bible . . . from the Latin Vulgate byJohn Wycliffe and His Followers (c. 1384–95), ed. Josiah Forshall andSir Frederic Madden, 2 vols (Oxford: 1850), p. 59.

The excerpt below, from the Prologue to the Wycliffe translation of the Bible intoEnglish, repeats some of the arguments that appear in Trevisa’s exchange above. It usesthem to support widely held convictions about the appropriate, indeed necessary, trans-lation of the Bible, knowledge of which was increasingly deemed essential to salvationby English people critical of the corrupt state of the Catholic Church throughout thelater medieval period. The excerpt below focuses not so much on the importance ofaccess to Holy Scripture as a matter of salvation, as on the importance of access to scrip-ture in the vernacular, one’s own birth tongue. It is an early assault on clerical privilegeand the Roman Church’s hegemony in the matter of salvation.

The Prologue to the “Wycliffe Bible” introduces the first translation of the Oldand New Testaments into the English vernacular after the Norman Conquest. The

91 Burrow and Thorlac-Petre note that, “Passages from an Anglo-Norman translation of the Book ofRevelation are still to be seen inscribed on the roof beams in the morning room, formerly thechapel, of Berkeley Castle” (p. 241).

92 Faith.93 Told to them in English, and that cannot be done except by English translation.94 For.95 Truly.


translators recognize the exceptional nature of their undertaking, and, in the passagebelow, reflect on the dangers of misunderstanding leading to mistranslation. The argu-ments in the Prologue to the Wycliffe Bible echo similar arguments made at almost thesame time in France in the translation projects authorized by Charles V. Nicole Oresmeargued in the prologues to his translations of Aristotle’s Politics and Ethics commis-sioned by Charles (1370s), that French people ought to have access to the learning ofthe past in their own tongue, just as the ancient Romans (termed Latyns in the Biblepassage below) had access to ancient wisdom in their own vernacular, or mothertongue. Both English and French translators recognized the inherent difficulties of anytranslation project, realizing the need for neologisms to expand their lexicon. Thepassage below reflects the influence of Latin terms conveyed through French intoEnglish.

Yit96 worldli clerkis axen gretli what spiryt makith idiotis hardi to translatenow the bible into English, sithen the foure greete doctouris dursten neueredo this?97 This replicacioun98 is so lewid,99 that it nedith100 noon answer, nobut stillnesse, eithir curteys scorn;101 for these greete doctouris weren noonEnglish men, neither thei weren conuersaunt among English men, neithir incaas thei kouden the langage of English,102 but thei ceessiden neuere til theihadden holi writ in here modir tunge, of here owne puple. For Jerom, that wasa Latyn man of birthe, translatide the bible, bothe out of Ebru103 and out ofGreek, into Latyn, and expounide ful myche therto;104 and Austyn, and maniemo Latyns105 expouniden the bible, for manie partis, in Latyn, to Latyn men,among whiche thei dwelliden, and Latyn was a comoun langage to here106

puple aboute Rome, and biyondis, and on this half, as Englishe is comounlangage to oure puple, and yit this day the comoun puple in Italie spekithLatyn corrupt, as trewe men seyn, that han ben in Italie; and the noumbre oftranslatouris out of Greek into Latyn passith mannis knowing, as Austynwitnessith in the ij. book of Cristene Teching, and seith thus, “the transla-touris out of Ebru into Greek moun be noumbrid,107 but Latyn translatouris,

96 Yet.97 Yet worldly clerks often ask what spirit makes the unlearned [layperson] now bold to translate the

Bible into English, considering that the four great doctors [of the Church] never dared to do this.98 Rejoinder.99 Ignorant.

100 Needs.101 But silence or polite scorn.102 Nor could they know the English language.103 Hebrew.104 Explained, explicated it extensively as well.105 Romans; users of Latin.106 Their.107 Might be counted.


either thei that translatiden into Latyn, moun not be noumbrid in onymanere.” For in the firste tymes of feith,108 ech109 man, as a Greek book cameto him, and he semyde to him silf to haue sum kunnyng110 of Greek and ofLatyn, was hardi to translate;111 and this thing helpide more than lettide112

vndurstonding, if rederis ben not necligent, forwhi the biholding of maniebokis hath shewid ofte, eithir declarid, summe derkere sentencis.113 This seithAustyn there. Therfore Grosted seith, that it was Goddis wille, that diuersemen translatiden, and that diuerse translacions be in the chirche, for whereoon seide derkli,114 oon either mo seiden openli. Lord God! sithen at thebigynnyng of feith so manie men translatiden into Latyn, and to greet profytof Latyn men, lat oo symple115 creature of God translate into English, forprofyt of English men; for if worldli clerkis loken wel here croniclis116 andbokis, thei shulden fynde, that Bede117 translatide the bible, and expounidemyche in Saxon, that was English, either118 comoun langage of this lond, inhis tyme; and not oneli Bede, but also king Alured,119 that foundideOxenford, translatide in hise laste daies the bigynning of the Sauter120 intoSaxon, and wolde more, if he hadde lyued lengere. Also Frenshe men,Beemers,121 and Britons han the bible, and othere bokis of deuocioun and ofexposicioun, translatid in here modir langage ; whi shulden122 not Englishmen haue the same in here modir langage, I can not wite,123 no but forfalsnesse and necgligence of clerkis, either for oure puple is not worthi tohaue so greet grace and gifte of God, in peyne of here olde synnes.124 God forhis merci amende these euele causis, and make oure puple to haue, andkunne, aud kepe truli holi writ, to lijf and deth!125 But in translating of wordis

108 Faith.109 Each.110 And if it seemed to him that he had some knowledge.111 Bold to translate.112 Hindered.113 If readers are not negligent, because the reading of many books has often shown or made clear

some obscure [dark] meanings.114 Grosseteste; was obscure.115 One simple.116 Read their chronicles carefully.117 Bede, monk of Jarrow, author of The English Church and People, d. 735.118 Or.119 King Alfred.120 Translated in his later life the beginning of the Psalter.121 An uncertain term thought to refer to Bohemians and/or residents of the low countries.122 Should.123 Know.124 I do not understand, except for the falseness and negligence of clerks, or because our people is not

worthy to have so great a grace and gift from God, because of their ancient sins.125 Know and keep truly holy writ, in life and death.


equiuok,126 that is, that hath manie significacions vndur oo lettre,127 mailightli be pereil,128 for Austyn seith in the ij. book of Cristene Teching, that ifequiuok wordis be not translatid into the sense, either vndur-stonding, of theautour, it is errour. . . .

1.4 “A shorte epiloge excusatorie of the translatours rudnesse,” from Osbern Bokenham, Mappula Angliae, ed. Carl Horstmann,Englische Studien, 10 (1887), pp. 1–34, esp. pp. 33–4.

Bokenham (1393–1467?) was an English Augustinian friar who had travelled in Italywhere his knowledge of the classics was likely augmented by knowledge of Boccaccioand Petrarch’s work. Author of Lyves of the Seyntys (The Legends of HolyWomen),129 and the Mappula, a history of England, Bokenham writes in a Suffolkdialect. He apologizes for his style on the grounds both of upbringing and of custom,linking his “modur-tounge” to the landscape of his early life, suggesting that his learnedLatinity is one voice among many he uses. His anxiety is typical of the period and representative of a conventional deprecation of the capacities of English:

Me semythe130 that hit is my parte, aftir thes lytylle & shorte treteys drawyn& abstract out of anothur mannys longe & laboryous werke, to preyen andlowly to besechyn131 yche132 man that schalle be redere or herere ther-of ofIII thyngis yn aspecialle. First that they wille vouchesauffe133 to supporte me,alle be-hit that this seyde tretis be not so convenyently nor so eloquentlyexpressid & spokyn yn englyssh tounge as the excellence of the auctours latynstile requirithe. For, certenly, the natyff rudnesse of my modur-tounge hatheso inflectyde & cankeryed134 my speche & my language w[ith] the barbarismeof the soyle the w[hich] I haue be fostryd & brought forthe yn of youthe thaty neyther may ner can other thynge vttrryn ne shewyne then hit hathe beenvsyd,135 & acustomyd to. . . . And the olde prouerbe seithe: custome & vse isa nother nature or kynde.

126 Equivocal: uncertain, ambiguous.127 Have many meanings/connotations represented by one word/spelling.128 May lead easily to peril.129 A Legend of Holy Women: Osbern Bokenham, Legends of Holy Women, Sheila Delay, ed. and trans.

(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992).130 “It seems to me.”131 Beseech.132 Each.133 Graciously deign.134 Corrupted.135 With the barbarism of the soil which I have been born to and brought up in since youth that I

neither may nor can utter nor bring forth but what I am accustomed to.


1.5 William Caxton, Prologue to the Aeneid, Prologues and Epilogues ofWilliam Caxton, ed. W. J. B. Crotch, EETS, o. s. 176 (London:Oxford University Press, 1928), pp. 107–9.

William Caxton began his life as a mercer, a merchant who dealt with textiles. Histrade took him overseas and brought him into contact with the trade and politics ofFlanders and France. He settled in Bruges in the 1460s, becoming the governor of theEnglish nation in Bruges: that is, head of the resident merchant community. During thedifficult trading and diplomatic period of the 1460s Caxton undertook negotiations onbehalf of English interests. In 1471 he moved to Cologne, a center of early Germanprinting. Evidence suggests that by this time he was already dealing in manuscripts, butwhile at Cologne it seems he made a decision to deal in printed books. It is no exag-geration to say that decision made him one of the most important figures in fifteenth-century English literature, because of his translations and publications. He returned toEngland in the mid-1470s and in 1476 established his printing press in the vicinity ofWestminster Abbey. He brought with him not only the technology of print, but also awide acquaintance with Francophone literature that he rightly guessed would appeal toa large English audience. Over time he printed at least a hundred works, and his shopbecame a site of print and manuscript trade.136

Caxton left little to chance, it seems, and so printed his editions with interpretiveprologues and epilogues. These ancillary materials provide an extraordinary index toliterary tastes in England by the end of the fifteenth century. Carefully attuned to hismarket, anxious to be accommodating to patrons – both those who bought and thosewho commissioned – Caxton was also a master apologist for the texts he sponsored,and a reliable witness to the difficulties that arose from the absence of a standard formof English. Working at the end of the fifteenth century, William Caxton describes thedifficult choices that confronted him as a translator trying to respond to the desires ofhis patrons and to the anomalies of the English language.

The prologue to the Aeneid (Eneydos) translation of 1490 provides insight intoEnglish as a language of learning and literature, yet one still bedeviled in common prac-tice by regional variation and intermittent, as well as unsettling, incomprehension, asthe famous anecdote below about confusion over the word for “eggs” illustrates. In itsreferences to Old English the passage shows that English people were aware of theearlier forms of their language, and that some of them, like the Abbot of Westminster,recognized the information contained in “olde englysshe” and saw the value of claim-ing both the older form of language and the information encoded in it as part of Englishcultural heritage. This passage, like several others in this section, conflates culturalsophistication and geography, associating archaic and simple forms with “rudevplondyssh” Northern readers, in contrast to the “noble gentylman” who understandslove and arms as well as more sophisticated verbal patterns. This passage preservesboth the orthography and the punctuation of the original publication.

136 On this market and for more of Caxton’s writings see 5.3.


After dyuerse werkes made/ translated and achieued/ hauyng noo werke inhande. I sittyng in my studye where as137 laye many dyuerse paunflettis138

and bookys. [It] happened that to my hande cam a lytyl booke in frensche.whiche late was translated oute of latyn by some noble clerke of frauncewhiche booke is named Eneydos/ made in latyn by that noble poete and greteclerke vyrgyle139/ whiche booke I sawe ouer and redde therin. [here Caxtonsummarizes the story of Aeneas after the fall of Troy and his coming into Italy tofound Rome] . . . In whiche booke I had grete playsyr. by cause of the fayr andhonest termes and wordes in frenshe/ Whyche I neuer sawe to fore lyke.140 nenone so playsaunt ne so wel ordred. whiche booke as me semed sholde bemoche requysyte141 to noble men to see as wel for the eloquence as the histo-ryes/ How wel that many honderd yerys passed was the sayd booke of eney-dos wyth other werkes made and lerned dayly in scolis specyally in ytalye andother places/ whiche historye the sayd vyrgyle made in metre142/ And whanI had aduysed me in this sayd boke. I delybered143 and concluded to translateit in to englysshe And forthwyth toke a penne and ynke and wrote a leef ortweyne/ whyche I ouersawe agayn to correcte it/ And whan I sawe the fayrand straunge termes therin/ I doubted144 that it sholde not please somegentylmen whiche late blamed me sayeng [that] in my translacyons I hadouer curyous terms145 whiche coude not be vunderstande of comyn peple /and desired me to vse olde and homely146 termes in my translacyons. andfayne wolde I satysfye euery man/ and so to doo toke an olde boke and reddetherein/ and certaynly the englysshe was so rude and brood147 that I coudenot wele vnderstande it. And also my lorde abbot of westmynster ded doshewe to me late certayn euydences wryton in olde englysshe for to reduce148

it in to our englysshe now vsid/ And certaynly it was wreten in such wyse thatit was more lyke to dutche than englysshe/ I coude not reduce ne brynge it tobe vnderstonden/ And certaynly our langage now vsed varyeth ferre149 fromthat. whiche was vsed and spoken whan I was borne/ For we englysshe men/ben borne vnder the domynacyon of the mone. whiche is neuer stedfaste/ buteuer wauerynge/ wexynge one season/ and waneth and dyscreaseth another

137 Where.138 Pamphlets.139 Virgil.140 The like of which I had never seen before.141 Requisite, fitting for.142 Meter, poetry.143 Deliberated.144 Feared.145 Elaborately constructed expressions, or unknown vocabulary.146 Familiar; homely in the sense of commonly used and simple.147 Unlearned and inelegant.148 Translate.149 Differs greatly.


season/ And that comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth froma nother. In so moche that in my dayes happened that certayne marchaunteswere in a shippe in tamyse150 for to haue sayled ouer the see into zelande/ andfor lacke of wynde thei taryed atte forlond.151 and wente to lande for torefresshe them And one of theym named sheffelde, a mercer,152 cam in to anhows and axed for mete153. and specyally he axyd after eggys And the goodwyf answerde that she could speke no frenshe. And the merchaunt was angry.for he also coude speke no frenshe. but wold haue hadde egges/ and shevnderstode hym not/ And thenne at laste a nother sayd that he wold haueeyren/ then the good wyf sayd that she vnderstod hym wel/ Loo what sholdea man in thyse dayes now wryte. egges or eyren/ certaynly it is hard to playseeuery man/ by cause of dyuersite and chaunge of langage. For in these dayeseuery man that is in ony reputacyon in his countre. wyll vtter his commyny-cacyon154 and maters in such maners and termes/ that fewe men shall vnder-stonde theym. And som honest and grete clerkes haue ben wyth me anddesired me to wryte the moste curyous termes that I could fynde/ And thusbytwene playn rude/ and curyous I stand abasshed. but in my Iudgemente/the comyn termes that be dayli vsed ben lyghter to be vnderstonde155 thanthe olde and auncyent englysshe/ And for as moche as this present booke isnot for a rude vplondyssh156 man to laboure therein/ ne rede it/ but onely fora clerke and a noble gentylman that feleth157 and vnderstondeth in faytes ofarmes158 in loue and in noble chyualrye/ Therfor in a meane bytwene botheI haue reduced and translated this sayd booke in to our englysshe not ouerrude ne curyous but in suche termes as shall be vnderstanden by goddys graceaccordynge to my copye.

London Multi-Lingualism: Writing in a Tri-Lingual Culture

While poets and translators worried about phrasing and audience, English flourishedas a prose form in a variety of civic discourses in London. The excerpts immediatelybelow, largely from official records of fifteenth-century London, demonstrate severalimportant features of late medieval London English in respect to style and voice: theydocument awareness of English as a language with its own discourse and idioms; theyillustrate the rich narrative exposition that documenting acceptable and unacceptable

150 Thames.151 At a cape, headland.152 A merchant who deals in textiles.153 Came into a house and asked for meat.154 Communication.155 Easier to understand.156 Unsophisticated, unlearned, country person.157 Comprehends; has experience in.158 Deeds of arms.


legal, civic, and social practices fostered; they testify to the existence of a high civic styleused to address royalty; and they reveal comfort with macaronic159 constructions thatrelied upon specialized discourses drawn from Latin and French.

1.6 Thomas Usk, from the Prologue to The Testament of Love, in Chaucerian and Other Pieces, ed. Walter W. Skeat (Oxford:Clarendon Press,1897), pp. 1–2.

Thomas Usk, a London scrivener, was a contemporary of Chaucer’s whose best knownwork, The Testament of Love (c. 1384–7), a prose inquiry into love, grace and freewill, draws on Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy.

This excerpt from The Testament of Love indicates that Usk understood LondonEnglish to offer registers of expression quite distinct from those of French or Latin.The passage is full of metaphors and figures, often communicated through verbsthat suggest Usk’s wit and sophistication, as well as his ability to shape English tohis will. Nevertheless he maintains that English is essentially a plan, simplelanguage.

Many men there ben that, with eeres openly sprad,160 so moche swalowen161

the deliciousnesse of jestes and of ryme,162 by queynt knittyng coloures,163

that of the goodnesse or of the badnesse of the sentence164 take they litelhede or els non.

Soothly, dul wit and a thoughtful soule so sore have myned andgraffed165 in my spirites that suche craft of endytyng166 wol not ben of mynacqueyntaunce. And, for rude wordes and boystous167 percen the herte of theherer to the inrest168 poynte, and planten there the sentence of thinges, sothat with litel helpe it is able to springe; this book, that nothyng hath of thegreet flode of wit ne of semelich colours,169 is dolven170 with rude wordes andboystous, and so drawe[n] togider,171 to maken the cacchers therof ben the

159 From an adjective that denotes a jumble or mixture; used of language, it denotes a combination oflanguages in one line or work.

160 Ears “wide open.”161 Metaphorically, to enjoy as if to eat or drink up, to devour.162 Gests, accounts of deeds and actions, here likely those in romance and ballads; rhymed stories.163 United by rhetorical devices.164 Moral substance, ultimate meaning.165 Dug into and grafted upon.166 Such a style of writing.167 Rough, unpolished.168 Innermost.169 Attractive verbal ornaments.170 Dug – a continuation of Usk’s digging and farming metaphor; see “plante,” “spring”.171 Composed.


more redy to hente sentence.172 . . . In Latyn and French hath many [English]soverayne wittes had gret delyt to endyte,173 and have many noble thyngesfulfild; but certes, there ben some that speken their poysye-mater in Frenche,of whiche speche the Frenchemen have as good a fantasye174 as we have inhering of Frenche mennes English. And many terms ther ben in English [of]whiche unneth we Englishmen connen declare the knowleginge.175 Howshulde than a Frenche man born suche termes conne jumpere in his mater,but as the jay chatereth Englyssh?176 Ryght so, trewly, the understanding ofEnglishmen wol not strecche to the privy terms in Frenche, what-so-ever webosten of straunge langage. Let than clerkes endyten in Latyn, for they havethe propertee of science, and the knowinge in that facultee; and letFrenchmen in their Frenche also endyten their queynt terms, for it is kyndelyto their mouthes; and let us shewe our fantasyes in suche wordes as we lerne-den of our dames tonge.”177

Multi-Lingual London Wills

Wills from the later fourteenth and early fifteenth century in London were commonlywritten in Latin, French, or English. The first will cited below, written chiefly in Latin,combines Latin, English and French phrases. The second will combines English andFrench. The wills strongly suggest that ordinary Londoners of the merchant class werecomfortable with a kind of macaronic discourse combining legal phrases from LawFrench and Latin liturgical terms with English.

1.7 Extract from the Will of William Creswyk dated 1405, registered1407, A Book of London English 1384–1425, ed. R. W. Chambersand Marjorie Daunt (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), p. 212.

Orate pro animabus Willelmi Cresewyk & Alicie vxoris sue Henrici & RicardiAgnetis & Agnetis patrum & matrum ipsorum Willelmi & Alicie Roberti fratrisipsius Willelmi Thome quondam viri ipsius Alicie & pro eis quibus tenentur

172 Apprehend meaning.173 Compose.174 Supposition, comprehension.175 And there are many terms in in English which we Englishmen can scarely recognize.176 How should then [someone] born a Frenchman know how to put such terms together in his

writing, without his English sounding like the chattering of the jay?177 Right so, truly, the understanding of Englishmen will not stretch to the little-known terms of

French, whatever we boast about foreign languages. Let then clerks write in Latin, for they havethe wisdom and the knowledge in that subject; and let French men also compose in their strangeterms, for French is natural to their mouths; and let us show our imaginations in such words as welearned of our mother’s tongue.


& pro omnibus parochianis istius ecclesie & pro omnibus alijs viuis & defunctis.

Et volo quod idem Capellanus qui sic pro tempore fuerit cotidie introe-undo ad missam cum vestitus fuerit alba suscipiendo casulam antequam offi-cium incipiat vertens se ad populum dicat in anglicis verbis in hac forma:

For William soule Cresewyk and Alice his wif and for all these paresshinslyues and dedes and for all Cristen soules pater noster par charyte.

(Pray for the souls of William Cresewyk and Alice his wife, also Henry and Richard,Agnes and Agnes, the fathers and mothers of William and Alice, Robert, brother toWilliam, Thomas former husband of Alice, and for all the parishioners of this church,and for those who hold them in affectionate regard, and for all the parishioners of thischurch, and for all others living and dead. And I wish that that same chaplain who wasin this position temporarily of daily entering for mass, clothed by taking up the whitechausuble, before he begins the service, should, turning to the people, say in Englishwords in this form: For the soul of William Cresewyk and Alice his wife and for allthese parishioners living and dead, and for all Christen souls, pray the Our Father, forcharity sake.)178

1.8 Will of John Pyncheon (1392), Book of London English, p. 210.

Ioe volle que la moneye soit despendu, cestassauoir, to the pore Men that hanben Men before of god conuersacion, some man xx. s, ant som ij Marc, andsom xl. s, aftyr that here stat hat ben by-fore, and that thay be of the sameparche, and Of Petris & Cristoforys, or of other next ther by; & wher me[n]may wetyn eny powre lame, ore powre Blynde, in Any plache in the Towne,that thay han Clothys to hele hem fro colde, & Schetys to than that han nede.And to the presonis of newgat, a serteyn A-weke duryng on yere; & to thepowre Mesellis a certeyn A-weke during on yere: & that the hows be ysold, &the Almes yi-do in the worst yere. And wher men may a-spye eny powr manof religion, Monk, Chanon, or Frere, that thay han of my god the gode, Andben powre, eche Man vjs. viijd. that ben prestys.

(I will that the money be distributed, that is to say, to the poor men than have beenmen, before, of good conversation [speech, well-spoken], some men 20 shillings, andsome 2 marks, and some 40 shillings, according to what their estate had previouslybeen, and that they be of the same parish, and of [St] Peter’s and [St] Christopher’s, orof another next thereby; and where men may know any poor, lame, or poor blind[person] in any place in the town, that they have clothes to heal [protect] them from the

178 We are grateful to our colleagues in Classics, Bruce Arnold and Jeff Sumi, for help with the syntaxof this passage.


cold, and sheets to those that are in need. And to the prisoners of Newgate, a fixed [sumof money] weekly during one year; and to the poor lepers a fixed [sum of money] weeklyfor one year; and that the house be sold, and the alms given in the worst year. Andwhere men may spy any poor man of religion – monk, canon, or friar – that they haveof my goods the profit, and if they are poor, each man 6 shillings, 8 pence, who arepriests.)

1.9 Writing to the King: “Letter sent to the King by the Mayor andAldermen,” 5 Henry V, A.D. 1417 (Letter-Book I), Memorials ofLondon and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, 1868), pp. 658–60.

This letter, written by the aldermen of London to Henry V, requests his presence inLondon in terms both aureate and obsequious. The language is heavily dependent onFrench courtly terms, and the rhetoric – like the chiasmus of “high excellence and excel-lent highness” – reflects knowledge of classical rhetorical figures as well as court-ship.Above all the letter is a coded and veiled reproach to the monarch for being absent fromthe city of London. In its double meaning it is one more text that demonstrates that bythe early fifteenth century London English was not a language “rude and boystous,” butone that it could be employed in multiple registers of style including those fullyadequate to address a monarch with simultaneous flattery and reproach.

Of alle erthely princes our most dred souereigne liege Lord179 and noblestKyng, we, youre simple officers, Mair and Aldermen of your trewe Citee ofLondon, with exhibicion of alle maner subiectif reuerence and seruisable lowe-nesse, that may be hadde in dede, or in mynde conceyued, recommende vsunto your most noble and hye magnificence, and excellent power, bisechyngthe Heuenly Kyng, of His noble grace and pitee, that he so wold illumine andextende vpon the trone180 of your kyngly Mageste the radyouse bemys of Hysbounteuous grace,181 that the begunnen spede182 by Hys benigne suffraunceand help yn your chiualrouse183 personne fixed and affermed, mowe so becontinued forthe, and determined, so to His plesaunce, your worship, and alleyour reumys184 proffyt, that we and alle your other lieges to the desered pres-ence of your most noble and graciouse persone, fro which grete distance ofplace long tyme hath priued185 vs, the sonner myght approche and visuelly

179 Having a claim to, and owed service.180 Throne.181 Of your kingly majesty the radiant beams of his bountiful grace.182 Success so far achieved.183 Chivalrous.184 Realm’s.185 Deprived.


perceyue, to singuler confort and special joye of vs alle: makyng protestacioun,our most dred soueraigne liege Lord, and noblest Kyng, that be186 this feruentdesire wiche we han187 to the bodyly sight of your most excellent and noblepersone, our entente is noght to move you fro no thing of your hye worship,ne to no thyng that myght be perille to your lond, that ye haue put in obbeis-saunce.188 Our most dred soueraign liege Lord, noblest Kynge, for-as-moche aswe trust verryly that the kyngly desyre of your inspired excellence deliteth tohere of the welfare of your forsayd cite, which your noble and soueraign Gracewith innumerable prerogatifs & liberalle fraunchises hath euer visited andendowed, like it vnto your kyngly Mageste to vnderstonde, that euer syn thetyme of your last departynge it hath stonde,189 yit doth, and euer shal, by thehelp of oure Lorde Almyghty, in as gret pees and tranquillite as euer did cite inabsence of his most soueraigne and excellent lord. And, forasmoch, most dredsouerein liege Lord, and noblest Kyng, as the hertly190 desire of your forsaydcite ys, as who seith, with an heuenly drynk and infusion so oftetymes gladedand refresshid, as it hereth the soueraign helth and prosperite of your mostgraciouse & noble personne;191 therfor we, mekely bowyng our hertes to-forthe clernesse of your kyngly Mageste, biseche your highe Excellence and excel-lent Highnesse, that it lyke, of the roted gentillesse and grounded grace in yournobley,192 so to visyte vs in assertenyng of your souueragn helth and pros-perite, as it is seyd before, that we, in defaute of such visitacioun, languisse notas men from so hie a grace sequestere and exiled. Our most dred soueraignliege Lord and noblest Kyng, we, your symple officers specially beseche vntoalle the holy company of heuenly knyghthode, assembled in the hie blissewher as is eternal ioye and non euynesse,193 so be-shyne the noble knyghth-ode in your cronicable excellence aporeued,194 that ye mowe in this worldvpon vs and alle your other lieges with report of wordly victory longe regneand endure; and after, whan your graciouse erthely personne from yourinward spirit ys dessolued,195 that ye mowe be brought tofor the throne of thehye Kynge, and ther with heuenly ierarchies in eternal glorie perpetuellyduelle and abyde. Wryten at your forsaid Cite of Londone, the xxie day ofDecember. Your humble lieges and simple officers, Richard Merlawe, Mair, andAldermen of your Cite of London.

186 By.187 Have.188 Which owes obedience to you.189 Stood.190 Heartfelt, earnest.191 Is, as if with a heavenly drink and infusion, so many times gladdened and refreshed, as it hears of

the sovereign health and prosperity of your most gracious and noble person.192 Noble nature.193 Heaviness.194 Proved.195 Dissolved, separated.


French of England in London Civic Life

The Guildhall Letter-Books, so named because of the letters written on them forpurposes of reference, record the proceedings of the Court of Common Council and theCourt of Aldermen in the city of London. The editors of this text describe them this way:“The Letter-books are fifty vellum books of considerable though varying sizewhich take their name from the letters written on the backs . . . the seriesextends from the reign of Edward I to that of James II” (p. 92).

1.10 A false sack of coals: Guildhall Record in A Book of LondonEnglish, 1384–1425, ed. R. W. Chambers and Marjorie Daunt(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), p. 98.

In the case below, from Letter-book I, 1419, the record of a confessed coal merchantwho cheated his customers is narrated in a lexicon heavily based on Anglo-French –confession, convict, mayor, deceit, mesure, ensample, false, pillory, for example, areall part of English through Anglo-French. The passage is written in a style of Englishprose that is succinct, pithy, and highly sophisticated in its use of clauses andphrases.

For as mych as John Vmbergh, de Shenfeld in Essex, Colier, that herestant,196 is opunly conuict,197 by his confession made afor the Meir &Aldermen, that he, in disceyt198 of the comune peple, hath199 sold coles thissame yeer, more than a xij tymes, by ech of thes vij sakkes, that lyen herebyside, for sakkis of viij busshels of ful mesure, wher in trouthe thei conteynebut v, vi, or vij busshels at moost; therfor, in ensample that al other shold beware in tyme comyng of such falsnes & disceyt, The Meir and Aldirmen hanawardid hym to stonde here on the pilory, & his sakkes to be brent vndurhym.

1.11 Proclamation Against Brokers, Guildhall Record in A Book ofLondon English 1384–1425, p. 97.

Another record from the Guildhall Letter-Books illustrates the French basis of thelanguage of commerce, particularly the wine trade, as it exposes the abuses ofBrokours, or the middlemen of trade whose function, termed brocage, was suspect

196 Stands.197 Openly convicted.198 Deception.199 Has.


because it generated money by buying and selling the products others made, withoutadding value to these products. Their function was associated with usury and over-charging. This text dates from c. 1418–19:

For as moche as here be-fore the Cite of London hatht [sic] had, ant yet islykly to haue, but it be the sonner remedied, gret Mischiefs, sclaundres, andharmes thorugh the gret disceyt and falsnesse of Brokours, which for drede ofgod ne shame of the world, cesen nat, but thaym200 fro day to day peyne andafforcen vnder colour of Brocage to manteigne the orrible vices of vsure andfals cheuisauns,201 be which vices is nat oonly this Cite sclaundered, butmany worthi men vtterly distroyed, and the good fourme and Cours ofMerchaundise poynt202 to be perisshed for euer, as god for-bede. . . .

1.12 Nusauncis and defautis foundin in the warde of farundon with-out; 1422 record from Guildhall Pleas and Memoranda, in A Book of London English 1384–1425, pp. 121–2.

Guildhall records include pleas and memoranda from the proceedings of the Mayor’scourt. As Chambers and Daunt suggest, as a whole these documents testify to thenuisances and the slow pace of improvement in London civic life. The document belowrecords the unhappy state of affairs in the ward of “Farundon without”(i.e. outside thewalls of the City) complained of in a wardemot, a meeting of the citizens of a munici-pal ward, in 1422. Once again civic documents suggest a lively vernacular register ofclear style and concise statements:

These ben nusauncis and defautis203 foundin204 in the warde of farundonwith-out, Taken in the wardemot, a-fore Rankyn Barton, Alderman of thesame warde, the yere205 of the kyng aboveseyd [i.e. 9 Henry V].

First, that the mayster of ludgate puttyth out oft tymes dung in theCanell,206 and stoppit the watir goyng, to grete nusans to all folk therpassyng. Also that a mud wall in the bailly207 by the hie strete, bytwene thehous of Shelhard habirdassher and hay Sporyer,208 Fallith doun gobet-mele209

200 Them.201 Lending money; Anglo-Norman, an ill-gotten gain obtained by a loan.202 On the point of being destroyed forever.203 Faults.204 Found.205 Regnal year.206 Gutter.207 Usually a space between two (castle) walls.208 Spur-maker.209 Piece wise.


in-to the hi strete, and makith the wey foule, in desese210 of folk ther passyngand dwelling. . . . Also the pamenits211 . . . a-fore the dore of harri gras, Barbur,and of Walsshis dore, be diffectif and nedeful to be amendid. Also thecommun privey of ludgate is ful diffectif and perlus,212 and the ordur therofrotith the stone wallys, so that it is like to be a ful grete cost and pereel213 oftho wallys in tyme comyng, but thei be the sunur214 amendid. . . .

Uplandisch English: Multi-Lingualism Outside of London

1.13 John Barbour, The Bruce. Based on The Bruce or The book of theMost Excellent and Noble Prince Robert de Broyss, King of Scots, ed. Walter W. Skeat, 2 vols (Edinburgh: William Blackwood andSons, 1894), vol. 1, pp. 1–2.

This poem, written in eastern Scotland during the last quarter of the fourteenth century(c. 1375), tells of Scottish resistance to the attempts of Edward I and Edward II ofEngland to invade Scotland and conquer the Scots, with whom the neighboring Englishlived in a near constant state of hostility during the fourteenth century. The Scotsdialect of this poem is difficult to distinguish from the Northern dialect of MiddleEnglish at this period.215 The influence of Anglo-French in this poem is likely a resultof the Norman presence in Scotland as early as the late eleventh century, and continu-ing cultural and strategic ties between Scotland and France over the course of the laterMiddle Ages. This poem shows the influence of French on English language far from theroyal court, and far from London. (Key words adapted directly from French in Italics.)

Incipt liber compositus per magistrum Iohannem Barber, ArchidiaconumAbyrdonensem: de gestis, bellis, et virtutibus domini Roberti de Brwyss, regisScocie illustrissimi, et de conquestu regni Scocie per eundem, et de domino deDouglas Iacobo

(Here begins the book composed by Master John Barber, archdeacon of Aberdeen, whichis about the deeds, wars, and virtues of Sir Robert de Bruce, most illustrious king ofScotland, and of his conquest of the kingdom of Scotland, and of Sir James Douglas)

210 Discomfort.211 Pavements.212 Perilous.213 Danger.214 Sooner.215 Both Scots and Northern English are distinct from other dialects of English in their use of “a”

where other Middle English dialects, as well as modern English use “o,” as in “sa” (so) and “haly”(wholly) and the -and suffix of the present participle, as in plesand.


Stories to rede ar delitabill216 5Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill;217

Than suld218 storys that suthfast219 wer,And thai war said on gud maner,Hawe220 doubill plesance in heryng.The fyrst plesance is the carpyng,221 10And the tothir the suthfastnes,That schawys222 the thyng rycht as it wes;223

And suth thyngis that ar likand224

Tyll mannys heryng ar plesand.Tharfor I wald fayne set my will, 15Giff my wyt mycht suffice thartill,225

To put in wryt a suthfast story,That it lest226 ay furth in memory,Swa that na [lenth of tyme] it let227

Na ger it haly be forget.228 20For aulde storys that men redysRepresentis to thaim the dedysOf stalwart folk that lywyt ar,Rycht as thai than in presence war.229

And, certis, thai suld weill hawe prys 25That in that tyme war wycht and wys230

And led thar lyff in gret trawaill,And oft in hard stour231 off bataillWan [richt] gret price232 off chewalry,And war woydyt233 off cowardy: 30

216 Pleasurable.217 Fable.218 Should.219 Truthful.220 Possess.221 Reciting.222 Shows.223 Right as it was.224 Agreeable.225 If my wit might suffice thereto.226 Last forevermore.227 So that no length of time should hurt it.228 Nor cause it to be wholly forgotten.229 Lived before/Right as if they were present.230 And certainly they should well have fame/That in that time were valiant and wise.231 Conflict.232 Renown.233 Devoid.


As wes king Robert off Scotland,That hardy234 wes off hart and hand;And gud Schyr James off Douglas,That in his tyme sa worthy wasThar off hys price & hys bounte235 35In fer landis renownyt wes he.Off thaim I thynk this buk to ma;236

Now God gyff grace that I may swaTret it, and bryng it till endyng,That I say nocht but suthfast thing. 40

1.14 A York Bidding Prayer c. 1405, in The Lay Folks Mass-Book: The Manner of Hearing Mass, Thomas Frederick Simmons, EarlyEnglish Text Society, o.s. 71 (London, 1879), pp. 64–6.

The documents in this section illustrate the multiple languages a citizen of York in thenorth of England might be expected to know and use in the later Middle Ages. We beginwith a liturgical document, a “bidding” prayer, inviting parishioners to pray for specificneeds and desires. The editor of the prayer notes: “The Bidding Prayers, according to theuse of York . . . are . . . the only devotions in English which were used publicly inchurches before the Reformation” (p. xii). The prayer is written in a Northern dialect ofMiddle English; note the signature dialect use of “a” where today we use “o”.

Ye sal237 mak your prayers specially till our lord god almighti and til hisblessyd moder mary and till all the haly court of heuen for the state and thestabilnes of al halykirk.238 For the pape of Rome and al his cardinals and forthe archebishop of York and for al ercebischops and bischops and for al menand women of religion and for the person of this kirke that has your saules tokepe and for all the prestes and clerkes that has serued or serues in this kirkor in any other. And for al prelates and ordiners and al that halykirk reulesand gouerns that god len239 thaim grace so for to reuel240 the popil and swilkensaumpil for to tak or scheu thaim and thaim for to do thare-after, that itmay be louing unto god and saluacyon of thaire saules.241

234 Brave was of heart and action.235 Excellence.236 Of them I think this book to make.237 Shall.238 Haly, or holy, kirk, a northern form of church in which “ch” is “hardened” to a “k” and “ur”

spelled “ir”.239 God give.240 Govern.241 And for all prelates and those ordained and all who holy church rules and governs, that God give

them grace so to rule the people and such example to show them for them to do thereafter, thatit may be pleasing unto God and for the salvation of their souls.


Also ye sal pray specially for the gode state of this reume242 for the kyngand the quene and for al the peris and the lordes of this lande that God sendloue and charite thaim omang and gif thaim grace so for to reule it andgouern it in pes that it be louing to God and the comons un-to profet.243

1.15 From The York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers, vol. cxxix,Surtees Society (Durham, 1918), pp. 4–5.

The same citizens of York who heard and used the language of the bidding prayer alsokept their records using a combination of languages. This excerpt from the account rollsof the York fraternity of the Blessed Mary begins with Anglo-French:

Faite a remembrer des espenses faite . . . les reparacouns des mesouns enFossgate par J[ohan] Freboyse, mestre du fraternite de nostre dame, lan duregne le roi E, tierz puis le conquist, xxxj (1357).

(Made to record the expenses of repairs of masons in Fossgate by John Freboyse, masterof the fraternity of our lady, the regnal year of the king E[dward], third since theconquest, xxj [1357]).

The record continues in French describing the expenses for work done in May: “lesimaine procheyn devant le pentecost, lan avantdit” (The week next beforePentecost (21May–28 May), in the year before specified . . . and switches to Latin mixedwith English and French, shortly thereafter): “Die Veneris proximo post festumCorporis Christi (9 June), Item in vj hominibus laborantibus circa meremiumapud Sayn Lenerd lendyng, ijs. . . .” (The Friday next after the feast of Corpus Christi:Likewise for 6 laborers concerning timber near Saint Leonard’s landing, 2 shillings.”)

The Language of Love

The influence of French on the language of love and on the expression of love-longing in what became conventional English poetic expression was so pervasive it ishard to over-estimate. The verses below incorporate well-known and familiar conven-tional expressions of Anglo-French love poetry. They are part of several hundred linesof verse written by one of several scribes who composed a manuscript recording anextended legal dispute about an inheritance (for more on this dispute see 3.10). Titledby their modern editor The Armburgh Papers, the collection of letters details the

242 Realm.243 For the king and the queen, and for all the peers and lords of this land, that God send love and

charity among them, and give them grace so to rule it [this kingdom] in peace that it be pleasingto God and profitable to the commons.


contentious dispute over the Brokholes inheritance and the various machinations thatattended that dispute.

1.16 A celuy que pluys ayme de mounde, from The Armburgh Papers:the Brokholes Inheritance in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex c. 1417–c. 1453: Chetham’s Manuscript Mun. E. 6. 10 (4), ed.Christine Carpenter (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1998),pp. 155–6.

Carpenter argues the importance of the correspondence both for what it tells a readerincidentally about gentry life in fifteenth-century England, as well as more specificallybecause it provides a “graphic account of how members of the gentry went to law. Inparticular we can see, in both outline and detail, the truth of all the accounts thatemphasize the inseparability of private power and private influence from the officialpublic processes and the fact that this was not seen normally as a form of ‘corruption’,but accepted as part of the way the body politic functioned” (p. 40). The manuscript isa roll containing an epistolary record of the dispute(s); it exists in two separate sections,written by four hands. One of these hands, “Hand 2,” inscribed a series of love poemsnumbering several hundred lines, using spare space on a roll which contains datableentries from the 1420s and 1430s (p. 55), although the copying as well as the inscription of the poems may well have occurred after these dates.

The poems, composed as letters to a beloved, are heavily influenced by Frenchgenres and French discourse. Written by a man to a woman, in three differentlanguages, the poems open a window on literacy, language and gender. One canreasonably infer that both writer and implied reader of these were tri-lingual. Whilethe grammar of both the French and Latin is adjusted to accommodate the versepattern, the author manages to convey a strong sense of sentiment and urgency in thispoem which begins the collection:244

Aceluy que pluys ayme de moundeOf all that I haue foundeCarissimaSalutez ad verray amourWith grace joie and honour 5Dulcissima.

Sachez bien plessaunce and beleThat I am in good heleLaus ChristoMon amour done vous aye 10As youre man nygyh[t] and dayConsisto.

244 This is the only one of the poems known to exist outside the Armburgh Papers (Carpenter, p. 155).


Dishore serray joious and fayneYf ge will me in certaigneAmare 15Assech serra ioiouz and leleTher were nothing that mygth meGrauare.

Mis tresdouce and tresamezEuer stedfast that ye will be 20SuspiroSoiez parmaneuant and leleAnd in youre hert loue me welRequiro.

Jeo vous pray en toute manere 25Theise wordys that be writyn hereTeneteOre a dieu que vous gardeAnd turne youre hert to me wardValete. 30

He that is youre manI ensure yow to his lasteSendyth to yow as he canA rude letre y writen in haste.

Translation:

(To the one that I love best in the worldOf all that I have foundDearest oneGreetings, with true loveWith grace, joy, and honorSweetest one.Know full well, pleasant and beautiful oneThat I am in good healthThanks be to Christ.I send you my constant loveAs your man, night and day,I am steadfast.Distant, I will be joyous and happyIf you will me surelyLoveSatisfied, I will be joyous and loyalThere would be nothing that might meDistress.


My sweet and well-belovedEver steadfast that you will beI hopeBe constant and loyalAnd in your heart love me wellI ask.I pray you in every respectThese words written here,Hold Fast.I pray that God keep youAnd turn your heart to me.Farewell.He that is your manI assure you to his last [breath]Sends to you as he canA simple letter written in haste.)

Further Reading

Cambridge History of the English Language, Richarad M. Hogg, gen. ed. (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1992–2001).

Copeland, Rita, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1991).

Crystal, David, The Stories of English (New York: Overlook Press, 2004).Fisher, John H. The Emergence of Standard English (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky

Press, 1996).Lusignan, Serge, La langue des rois au Moyen Âge: Le français en France et en Angleterre (Paris:

Presses Universitaires de France, 2004).Machan, Tim William, English in the Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press,

2003).Millward, C. M., A Biography of the English Language, 2nd ed. (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt

Brace, 1996).Oxford History of English, Lynda Mugglestone, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press,

2006.Trotter, David, Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000).Turville-Petre, Thorlac, England the Nation: Language, Literature and National Identity

1290–1340 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).Wogan-Browne, et al., eds. The Idea of the Vernacular (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania

State University Press, 1999).Wogan-Browne, et al., eds. Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England,

c. 1100–1500 (York: York Medieval Press, 2009).

Aberdeen University, xxviAckworth (Yorks), 124n102adultery, 319–21Aeneid, the, 28–30Aers, David, 5Agincourt, battle, xxiii, 10, 202agriculture

enclosures, 249–51rules for, 226–32transformation of, 9, 10, 236

Albina, story of, 185–9alchemy, 157–9, 263

of death, 159–61Alexander the Great, 159, 159n97Alfred, King, 23, 23n83almsgiving, 33–4, 49–50, 163alphabet, medieval, 14Ancrene Rewle, 9Anglo-Norman (language), 9, 17Anti-Christ, the, 87n193Apocalypse, the, 62aristocracy, the

as beneficiaries of agricultural changes, 236

defending rights by force, 93–4misbehaviour of, 126–8as over-mighty subjects, 288–9patronage by see patronagepowers over villeins, 225–51retainers of, 118–21role of, 103–4, 292–4, 311–12wives of, advice to, 312–16see also knights

Aristotle, 25, 141, 159, 159n97Armburgh family/Papers, 41–4, 128–31Arras, Treaty of, xxivArthur, Prince, 280–4Arthurian romances/legend, 1, 3, 93, 154

see also Malory, Sir ThomasArtois, Lord Robert of, 313n271

arts, seven liberal, 184Arundel, earl of, 294–7Arundel, Sir Richard, 126–8Arundel, Thomas, archbishop of

Canterbury, 72astrology, 138, 141–6

astrological calendar, 315attack on, 146–9

astronomy, 138, 184Auchinleck Manuscript, xxvii, 1Avignon, popes at, xxii, 10, 45

“Babylonian Captivity,” xxBacon, Roger, 158–9“Bad Parliament,” xxiiBalliol, Edward, xxBanstead (Surrey), 126–8Barbour, John, xxvii, 38–40Barnet, battle, xxvBarnston, Essex, 232–5Basse, John, 248–9bastard feudalism, 118, 311beadles, 127n113Beaufort, Margaret, xxvBede, Venerable, 23–4, 23n90, 26n117Bedford, dukes/duchesses of, xxiii, 305,

305n222, 307n251Berney, Osbern, 122n96Berwald, John, 131–4Berwick, Treaty of, xxibestiaries, 128Bible, the

French translations of, 23n81Lollard view of, 82as a standard, 218–19Wycliffe translation of, xxvii, 24–7, 193

bigamy, 256–7Black Death see plagueBlack Prince, Edward, the, xxi, xxviii, 94–9Blanche, Queen of France, 313

327

Index

Boccaccio, Giovanni, xxix, 3, 27, 181–3Boethius, 31Bohemia, Anne of, xxiiBokenham, Osbern, 27Bolton, Maureen, 9“Book of English Policy,” 251–5books

artisans creating, number of, 192audience for, 193–4care of, 205–7as keys to the past, 177owners of, 209–17production of, 192–224reading, 217–23sale and circulation of, 179, 199, 200–3,

204–5wisdom found in, 204

Books of Hours, 45–6, 76, 77–81Bosworth Field/Market Bosworth, battle,

xxv, 2, 10Bradley, Henry, 198n32Bradwardine, Thomas, 179Brenner, Robert, 124n101Bretigny, Treaty of, xxiBreviarum Bartholomei, 159–60Bridgettine Order, xxiiiBristol, xx–xxiBritain

founding legends, 185–90Geoffrey of Monmouth’s description, 16

brokers, 36–7Brokholes inheritance, 42–4, 128–31Brut, 2, 9, 185–90Bryce, Hugh, 184Burgundy, dukes of, xxiv, xxvBurley, Walter, 179Burton, T. L., 169Bury, Richard de, 179–80, 194, 203–7

Cabot, John, xxviCade, Jack, xxivCaister (Norfolk), 121–3, 216Calais, capture of, xxcalendar,

astrological/ecclesiastical, 315church, 45

Calle, Richard, 122Cameron, Alan, 135n155

canon of Late Medieval English literature,4–5

Canterbury, xxiCarpenter, John, 50–1, 210–11Carpenter, Katherine, 47–50Catholic Church, 10–11

corrupt state of, 24, 45, 81–2, 88–9doctrines of, 46, 61, 62, 66, 81–2rivalry with secular power, 294–7secular power of, 89structure of, 225see also Mass, the

Cavanaugh, Susan, 215Caxton, William, xxv

life of, 28use of punctuation, 15works printed by, xxix, 28, 54, 102–7,

197–200works written by, 28–30, 183–5, 219–23

Chandos Herald, xxviii, 94–9Charles V, king of France, 18, 25, 147Charles VI, king of France, xxii, xxiii, 10,

147Charles VII, king of France, xxiv, 10Charny, Geoffroi de, 99–102Chaucer, Alice see Suffolk, Alice, Duchess

ofChaucer, Geoffrey, xxvii–xxviii, 1–5, 8,

200, 201, 207Caxton’s praise of, 220–2influence of, 2–3, 4–5life of, 1as translator, 22writings of, 66, 93, 152, 154, 157,

157n93, 162, 166, 170n107, 177,181, 193, 218

Chaucer, Thomas, 207Chester, Corpus Christi play, xxix, 3–4Chesterton, Cambs, 270, 274, 277Chichester, bishop of, 294–7chivalry, 93–137

decline of, 115–17rule of, 102–7see also knights

Christmas, Thomas, 302–7Church see Catholic Churchcities see towns and cities; individual cities

by name

328 INDEX

Clarence, dukes of, xxvii, 122–3Claydon, John, 193Claymond, John, 248–9Clement V, pope, xxclergy

and secular power, 89, 294–7see also friars, monks

clerk(s)compared with knights, 103dialogue with lord, 22–4

climate: mini ice age, 10Cobham, Lord see Oldcastle, Sir JohnCockerham, Lancs, 226–32Colchester, 302, 307Coleman, Joyce, 8Collette, Carolyn P., 157n94, 312n271Cologne, 68, 68n90Columbus, Christopher, xxvconfederacies, 131–4Constance, Council of, xxiii, 10Constantine the African, 151–3Constantinople, xxivCook, Thomas, 308–10Cornwall, John, 19, 21Corpus Christi

feast of, 75plays, xx, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, 75–6, 263,

281Coucy, Philippa de, 215–16counsellors, rewarding of, 110–11court, the, at core of the historic canon,

4see also aristocracy, kings

Coventry, xxi, 263–7Corpus Christi play, xxviiiLeet Book, 263–7, 280–4royal visit, 281–4

crafts see guilds, craftCrecy, battle, xx, 10, 97–8Creswyk, William, 32–3Crystal, David, 17customaries, 226–32

D’Evelyn, Charlotte, 107n37Danelaw, 17, 17n7–8Dante Alighieri, 18David II, king of Scotland, xx, xxiDean, Ruth, 9

deathalchemy of, 159–61by execution, 243–4rates from famine and plague, 10

demesne, 274n31Derby, Henry Bolingbroke, earl of, see

Henry IVle Despenser, Edward, xxle Despenser, Hugh, xxDevon, Margaret Courtenay, Countess of,

212DiMarco, Vincent, 157n94Dinshaw, Carolyn, 5–6Dioclician, 185–7disease, symptoms of, 160–1

see also medicine, plagueDouglas, Earl, xxiidrama see playsdreams, 175–6Driver, Martha, 7Drogheda, Statute of, xxviDurham, bishops of, 179Dyer, Christopher, 249n71dyers, 264–5

Early English Text Society, 7Edward I, 38Edward II, xx, 11, 38, 308Edward III, xx–xxi, 95, 179, 308Edward IV, xxiv–xxv, 10, 118n92, 184

letter by, 308–10Edward V, xxvElizabeth Wydeville, queen to Edward IV,

xxvElizabeth of York, queen to Henry VII, xxvEly, Thomas, 246–8England

concept/nationhood, 11–12, 269, 270–1North/South division, 18

English languagedialects of, 17–18, 19as Germanic language, 17influence of French and Latin on, 16–17as literary language, 18specific use contexts, 13, 19statute prescribing use, xxithree major elements, 17

Epstein, S. R., 124n104

INDEX 329

Erasmus, Desiderius, xxviErigena, John Scotus, 23escheator, 132Etheldreda, St, 70–1Everyman, 62Exchequer, the, 274n32Exeter, 258–62

faculty psychology, 150–1families

aristocratic, 134–7letters of, see individual families by

namefamine, xxFastolf, Sir John, 216–17Felton, Sibilla de, 215–16feminist criticism, 5–6feudalism

burdens of, 244–5and transfer to capitalism, 123–4, 226see also land tenure, peasants, tenants

Fleetwood, William, 303n209Flemings, 20n19Flodden Field, battle, xxviFlorarium Bartholomei, 160Fortescue, Sir John, xxix, 277, 285–92,

308Foucault, Michel, 6France, R. S., 226Francis, St, 85–6French, John, 263, 265–6French

and language of love, 41books written in, 147n82translations from, 22use in England, 9, 12–13, 17, 19words entering English, 17

friarscriticisms of, 46, 85–6, 243rule of, 85–6see also monks

friendsbehavior towards, 165books shared among, 210

Froissart, Jean, xxvii

Garter, Order of, xxiGascoigne, Sir William, 293n151

Gascony, 10Gaunt, John of, xxi, xxiiGaveston, Piers, xxGawain-poet, 1, 3, 4gender, theories of, 139

see also womengentleman, qualities of a, 170Gerard of Berry, 153–4Gibson, Gail McMurray, 8“Gladman’s Insurrection,” 297–302Gloucester

Humphrey, duke of, xxiii, xxiv, 209Richard, duke of, see Richard IIIThomas, duke of, xxii

Glyndwr, Owain, xxiiiGodefroy of Boulogne, 222–3“Good Parliament,” xxiGorge, Sir Edward, 244–6, 245n24governance, 269–321

Fortescue’s conception of, 285–92Gower, John, xxvii–xxviii, 1, 3, 86, 154,

157Green, Richard Firth, 5Greene, Godfrey, 292–4Gregory XI, pope, xxiGretham, Robert de, 217–18Grossteste, Robert, bishop, 161–5Guildhall Letter-Books, 36–8guilds

of Blessed Mary in York, 41craft, 258–64, 266Pater Noster in York, 74–5records of, 41religious, 74of St George in Norwich, 297–9,

298n171Guileville, Guillaume de, xxixGutenberg, William, xxiv

Hanawalt, Barbara, 6Hanna, Ralph III, 243n23Harfleur, capture of, xxiiiHastings, Lord, 184Hastings, Sir William, 294n162, 294n163Hawt, Richard, 304n211head and body, 150–1Henry II, 20n19Henry III, 289

330 INDEX

Henry IV, xxii–xxiii, 308Henry V, xxiii, 10, 207, 209

letter to, 34–5Henry VI, xxiii–xxv, 10, 11, 309Henry VII, xxv, 2, 10, 124–5, 225, 302–7Henry VIII, xxv, xxviHenryson, Robert, 2Herebert, William, 1heriots, 248n58Heydon, John, 299–302Higden, Ranulf, xxviii, 19–22, 22n63,

192Hilton, Walter, xxviiihistory

conceptions of, 177–90of Middle English literature, 1universal, 19

Hoccleve, Thomas, xxviii, 207–8, 209–10Holcot, Robert, 179Holy Land, the, 68–9Homildon Hill, battle, xxiiiHorell, John, 128–31, 128n118household, the, 5

husbandry, 161–5literature, 8women’s roles in, 11

Hudson, Ann, 192–3Hull, xxihumors, the, 149–50Hundred Years’ War, xx–xxiv, 2, 9–10,

96–8, 99, 216, 225Hungerford family, 306n244hunting, 104, 165–9

Idley, Peter, 107–15illustrations, early printed, 7images

power of, 6printing of, 7religious, 88

impeachment, xxiiink, recipe for, 194–6Ireland, xxii, xxiii, xxviIsabella, queen, xxIsabelle, queen, xxiiIsidore of Seville, 140n4Ives, E. W., 134n159

James IV, king of Scotland, xxviJean le Bon, king of France, xxiJerome, St, 83–5Joan of Arc, xxiii, 10Jonson, Ben, 162Julian of Norwich, xxvii, 3, 4, 47, 76Justice, Steven, 6

Kaeuper, Richard, 99Katherine of Valois, Queen (to Henry V),

10Kaye, Joel, 6Kebell, Margaret, 134–7Kebell, Thomas, 134Kempe, Margery, xxix, 4, 47, 67, 72, 209Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn, 7–8Kieckhefer, Richard, 154–5kings

deposition of, 308functions of, 270, 277–80, 285–92myth of all-powerful nature, 11petition of tenants to, 126–8powers of, 269and royal offices/servants, 290–1, 292–4see also individual kings by name

Kirby, Joan, 125n108Knighton, Henry, 192knights, 93–137

ceremony of knighting, 96ideal, 99–102literary depictions of, 4, 93loyalty of, 128–31, 131–2office of, 102–7role of, 107–15

knowledge, 138–91of ancient philosophers, 184–5common, 139compendia of, 169–76household, 161–9see also history, medicine, science, other

areas of knowledge

Lancaster, Henry of, xxvii, 116land tenure

disputes over, 10, 232–5forms of, 130n132, 229, 244, 250n78see also tenants

Langland, William, xxvii, 1, 3, 157

INDEX 331

languagesdialects, 11–12, 17–18, 38n215different national, 9Higden’s description of language of

inhabitants of Britain, 19–22uses of different, 12–13, 17see also English, French, Latin, London

EnglishLanterne of Light, The, 87, 193Latimer, Lord, 317n277Latin, 9, 13, 212

influence on English, 17translations from, 22

lawyers, practice/study of law, 107,108–9

Leadam, I. S., 134Leche, Sir Roger, 118–21legal system, 11

access by peasants, 233arguments about legal process, 319–21custom and precedent, 177ecclesiastical courts, 46king’s role in, 277–9languages used in, 12–13, 17law vs force, 118lawsuits, 42, 118–21, 131–4, 232–5,

244–5, 258–62lords’ courts, 230, 232–5role of aristocrats, 311–12sheriff’s court, 293n156trial and execution, 242–4use of, 270virtual breakdown of, 311see also Statutes

Libell of English Policye, xxixLiber Albus, 210libraries, 179, 204–5, 210Limoges, sack of, xxiLincoln, xxi

Cathedral Ms., 212–15countess of, 161–5

Lindberg, David C., 139literacy, 11, 195literature

critical trends in, 4–7English of the period, 1–3, 9, 16, 177Franco-Italian, 3vernacular, 9, 19–30

livery, 118–21, 123, 163and confederacy, 132–4see also patronage, servants

Livre des Metiers, 198Logres, 185Lollards, xxiii, 81–9, 295

and books, 192–3spirituality of, 87see also Wyclif

LondonEdward IV’s appeal to Londoners, 308–10English, 18, 30–1records/documents from, 30–8, 51–4St Bartholomews Hospital, 159St Mary at Hill, 51–4Town Clerk of, 210

Lords Appellant, xxiiLorris, Guillaume de, 177Louis, Cameron, 195Louis, St (Louis IX of France), 287,

287n128, 313n274Love, Nicholas, xxviii, 72–4, 192, 192n2love

allegory of, 177–9deeds undertaken for, 101–2language of, 42–4lovesickness, 151–4testament of, 31–2for a wife, 112

loyaltyand confederacies, 131–4of knights, 128–31, 131–2

Lull, Ramon, 102–7Luther, Martin, xxviLydgate, John, xxviii–xxix, 3, 4, 157, 177,

200, 202–3

Maddern, Philippa C., 298n171magic, 154–7, 174, 186Magnus Incursus, Treaty, xxviMalory, Sir Thomas, xxix, 3, 93, 152, 154Mandeville, Sir John, 67–9manuscripts

number of extant, 7, 169production, research into, 8survival and loss of, 7transmission of, 215–16see also books

332 INDEX

Margaret of Anjou, queen, xxiv, 309markets

and economic theory, 6see also trade

marriageand abduction, 134–7arrangement of in the Plumpton family,

316–19of Lady Greystoke, 209as release from servitude, 263, 267of Richard Calle and Margery Paston,

122service, 58–60

martyrs, religious, xxiiiMass, the, 54–62

and alchemy, 157for the dead, 49, 50for parliament, 302n201

master narratives, 9–10mathematics, 138, 148Mayhew, Richard, 246–8McDonald, Nicola, 8McRee, Ben R., 298n171Meale, Carol, 5mealtimes, conduct of, 164–5medicine, 138, 149–50, 152

and death, 160–1Meiksins Wood, Ellen, 124n104merchants

cheating, 36dealings of, 36–7guilds of see under guilds

“Merciless Parliament,” xxiiMeun, Jean de, 157–8Middle English, use in this book, 14Mirfeld, Johannes de, 159–61miscellanies, 212–15monks

books owned by, 209n77in conflict with townsfolk, 297–9criticisms of, 83labor of, 82–3life of, 83–5see also friars

Monmouth, Geoffrey of, 16morality plays, xxix, 4More, Thomas, xxvi, 251–2Mortimer, Roger, xx

Mount Grace Priory, 72mystery plays, 3–5, 87n193mysticism, 11, 45

necromancy, 154–7Netheway, William, 244Neville family, xxvNeville’s Cross, battle, xxiNew Historicist criticism, 6Newcastle, xxiNorfolk, dukes of, xxii, 121–3North, John, 118–21Northumberland, earls of, 292, 294, 311–12Norton, Thomas, 157Nottingham, xxiNorwich, xxi, 297–302

Old Norse, 17Oldcastle, Sir John, xxiiioptics, 138–9Oresme, Nicole, 18, 25, 146–9Otterburn, battle, xxiioutlawry, 271n7Ovid, 180Oxford

Corpus Christ College, 248–9earls of, 123n102, 215Magdalen College, 246–8

“Oxford Calculators,” 138

papacyGreat Schism, xxii, xxiii, 10–11, 45see also Catholic Church, individual

popes by namepaper

making of, 196–7mill, xxi

parchment, 196–7, 199–200Parliaments

Bad, xxiiGood, xximeeting places, 303n210Merciless, xxiipetitions to, 240–2, 270–6Reformation, xxvireport from, 302–7roles of, 308Wonderful, xxii

INDEX 333

past, reading the, 177–90Paston family/Letters, xxiii, xxix, 121–3,

216, 316–17patrons/patronage, 11, 128–31, 193,

207–8, 316–19Paunfeld, Thomas, 270–6pay see wagesPearl Manuscript, xxviiiPearsall, Derek, 7peasants

lawsuits involving, 232–5, 270–6rebellious, petition against, 240–2as tenants see tenants

Peasants’ Revolt, xxii, 240–4, 246Percy family, xxiii, xxv, 311–12Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), 27, 179Phébus, Gaston de, 165, 166n101Philip VI, king of France, xx, 97Philippa, Queen, 95Philobiblon, 179, 203–7Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede (Piers

Plowman), xxviii, 1, 4, 193pilgrims/pilgrimages, 67–8, 88, 222–3

mass for blessing, 60–1Pilkington, Sir John, 292n149Pisan (Pizan), Christine de, xxviii, 3, 6,

107, 181, 217, 217n97, 312–16plague, xxi, 2, 10, 225, 236plays, 3–4

and demonstrations in Norwich, 297–9objections to, 90–1origin, purpose and politics, 281n87Pater Noster in York, 74–5see also morality plays, mystery plays,

Corpus Christi playsPlumpton family/Letters, xxiii, 123–6,

292–4, 311–12, 316–19poetry, 39–40, 62–6, 107–15, 170–6,

200–3, 207–8, 252–5Anglo–French love, 41–4

Poitiers, battle, xxiPollard, Graham, 194n6Poynings, Edward, xxviprayers

for the dead, 33, 47, 50function of, 62for the Hours of the Virgin, 77–81during Mass see Mass, the

power of, 48York bidding prayer, 40–1

Pricke of Conscience, The, xxvii, 7, 62–6printing, xxiv, xxv, 194

research into, 7see also books

prymers, 4Pyncheon, John, 33–4

Quinn, William A., 8

Reformation, xxvi, 2and loss of literature, 7

religion, 45–92religious culture, 4writers on, 3see also Catholic Church, Lollards

Remonstrance, the, 88–9Reynes, Richard, 154Reynes, Robert, 194–6Richard II, xxi–xxii, 2, 10, 11, 240Richard III, xxvRichard of Maidstone, 177Richmond, Colin, 248Rolle, Richard, xxvii, 4, 214n95Romance of the Rose, 177–9romances, 8Rubin, Miri, 6

St Albans, first battle, xxivSt Albans, second battle, xxivSt Michael’s Mount, 123n99saints, 46, 70–1

see also individual saints by nameSalisbury, earls of, 96Sandler, Lucy Freeman, 241Sarum Missal, 56–7, 60–1Sawtry, William, xxiiiscience

Arabic, 138astrology as, 148methods of, 157see also alchemy, astronomy, knowledge

Scotland, xxdialect of, 38n215literature from, 38–40Richard II’s expedition, xxii

Scott, Kathleen L., 8

334 INDEX

scriveners, 198–9Scriveyn, Adam, 8Scrope, Richard (archbishop of York), xxiiiservants

how to treat, 114, 162–5of the king, 290–1and livery, 118–21problems with, 236qualities to seek in, 163, 280and tenants, 123–6, 228–9

Seyngyll, William, 258n111, 259Shakespeare, William, 5Shirle, John, 243–4Shirley, John, 200–3Shrewsbury, 256–7Shrewsbury, battle, xxiiiSidrak and Bokkus, 169–76silver mines, 255Simnel, Lambert, xxvsins

seven deadly, 66–7, 167tree of vices, 241

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 9, 154,189

sociolects, 1, 12solar year, 140–1Somerset, duke of, xxivSotehill, Sir John, 125n104Southampton, xxiSpenser, Edmund, 3spring, the, 141Stafford, earls of, 96Stanbury, Sarah, 6Star Chamber, xxvStatute “On Burning Heretics,” xxiiiStatute of Drogheda, xxviStatute of Labourers, xxi, 235–9, 240Statute on Livery and Maintenance,

118n92, 119Statute of Provisors, xxiStatute against taking awaye of Women,

134n159Stoddon/Stoden, John, 258–52Stonor family letters, xxStretton super Street, Warks, 250–1Strohm, Paul, 7students, book circulation among,

204–5

Suffolk, Alice, Duchess of (Alice Chaucer),193, 300

Suffolk, earls/dukes of, xxiv, 96Surrey, duke of, 72Sylla, Edith Dudley, 138n1Syon Abbey, xxiii

Taavitsainen, Irma, 141–2Talbot, John, xxiiitechnology

general developments in, 138of printing, 28, 194

tenants, 123–8forms of tenure, 226, 270n1, 274n31rules governing, 226–32, 234–5see also land tenure

Thornton, Robert, xxix, 212–15Thorp, Thomas, 305–6n234Tintern Abbey, 195tournaments and jousts, 99, 101, 104Tournour, Richard, 258–62, 259n111Tout, T. F., 139n3Townley play cycle, xxixtowns and cities

charters of incorporation, xx–xxiregulation of work in, 258–67see also individual places by name

Towton, battle, xxivtrade

in books, 194n6in wool, 225, 251–5

translationsby Caxton, 220by Chaucer, 22by the Duke of York, 165–6as learning aid, 197–8of Sidrak and Bokkus, 169see English, French, Latin, Bible

Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 77Tresham family, 307n248Trevisa, John, xxviii, 169, 177, 201

excerpts from works, 19–24, 140–1, 149–51

Troy, London seen as new, 177, 189–90Troyes, Treaty of, xxiiiTudenham, Sir Thomas, 299–302Tudor, Edmund, xxvTudor, Henry see Henry VII

INDEX 335

Usk, Thomas, 31–2

Vale, John, 285Vere, Robert de, xxiiVernon, Sir Henry, 134–7Vernon, Richard, 118–21Vernon, William, 118–21Vernon Manuscript, xxviiiVertue, John, 302–7Viaticum, 152Vienne, Council of, 75villeins see peasantsviolence

concepts of, 93–4, 99and domestic affairs, 134–7general level of, 2, 118, 121role of, 107, 121and the rule of law, 118, 121against tenants, 124–5, 126–8see also war

Virgil, 28–30Virgin Mary, 75–81

Hours of, 77vision, nature of, 150–1, 174–5Vowell, John, 260n120

Wack, Mary Frances, 152wages

to agricultural workers, 250disputes over, 10statutory rates of, 237, 251

Wakefieldbattle, xxivplays, xxix, 3–4

Wales, xxiiiWallace, David, 6Walsingham, Thomas, 192, 243, 243n22Warbeck, Perkin, xxvwars

deeds of arms in, 100the evils of, 111paying for, 308–10see also Hundred Years’ War, Wars of

the RosesWars of the Roses, xxiv, 2Warwick, countess of, 304Warwick, earls of, xxv, 96, 200Watt, Diane, 5

weavers, 256–7Welles, John, 306n243Westmoreland, Joan Neville, Countess of,

209–10Whittington, Richard, 210wills

books mentioned in, 194, 209–12excerpts from, 32–4, 47–51, 210–12

Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, 5, 9Wolsey, Cardinal, xxviwomen

abduction of, 134–7advice to aristocratic wives, 312–16advice regarding, 110attitude of husbands to, 112–13attitude of knights to, 106the Church’s view of, 46deeds undertaken for love of, 101–2of disrepute, 266–7famous, 181–3and feminist criticism, 5ideal depictions of, 4literature by, 4and local warfare, 121–3love for, see loveand marriage see marriagemen’s delight with, 172–3physical conception of, 139power of, 11roles of, 11, 317taking over businesses, 256–7their woe and joy, 176

Wonderful Parliament, xxiiwool

staple, xxvitrade in, 225, 251–5

Worcester, Werforth, bishop of, 23,23n86

Worcester, William, 115–17work, 225–68

in the book trade see under bookslost with agricultural enclosure, 250–1of friars, 85–6in hunting, 167–9legal framework of, 235–9management of, 13of monks, 82–3and national welfare, 251–5

336 INDEX

regulation in cities, 258–67right to, 10weaving, 256–7

world, theconception of, 140–1, 170–1mirror of, 183–5

Worms, Edict of, xxviworthies, the nine, 222n136writers

and choice of language, 18of chronicles, 192major canonical, 2–3, 4religious, 1, 72, 179see also individual writers by name

Writtle, Walter, 122n97Wyclif(fe), John, xxi, 294–5, 295n165Wycliffe Bible, xxvii, 24–7

Wycliffites, 11see also Lollards

Wydeville, Elizabeth, Queen, xxv

York, Edward, 2nd duke of, 165–9, 207–8York

archbishops see Scrope, Richardbidding prayer, 40–1Carpenter’s Crucifixion pageant, 90Corpus Christi plays, xx, xxvii, 75dukes of, xxiv, xxviii, 202, 306n234Pater Noster Guild, 74Play, 3–4records from, 41

zodiacal lunary, 141–6see also astrology

INDEX 337