Medieval LiteraryGenres

Religious

Prose

Medieval Religious Prose• Sermons and Homilies• Visionary literature: accounts and

interpretations of individuals’ visions of encounters with the divine presence of God

• Hagiography: saints’ lives• Religious Instruction: Ancrene Riwle• Exempla : tales told to exemplify good or evil

lives• Allegories: narratives to be interpreted on a

variety of levels – often dream visions• Piers Plowman• Pearl

The DreamerMS Corpus Christi

201

Basic Conventions of Allegory

• Everything on the literal level of the story can be interpreted symbolically: characters, settings, tests, etc.

• The protagonist, an “Everyman” character, usually embarks on a journey – symbolic of the journey through life or to death

Allegorical Levels Literal: the concrete, historical meaning• Typological: connection of events in the Old Testament with

events of Christ’s life in the New Testament: • Jonah’s 3-day confinement in the belly of the whale

prefigures Christ’s 3-day descent into Hell Moral: the abstract, symbolic meaning of the literal,

especially in terms of behavior• Anagogical: dealing with the future events of Christian

history, heaven, hell, the last judgment: prophecies.• “Thus the four types of allegory deal with past events

(literal), the connection of past events with the present (typology), present events (moral), and the future (anagogical).”

Narrative

Types of NarrativeProse

Chronicles

Novelle

Poetry Epics

Breton lais

-Either-

Romances

Fabliaux

Bestiaries & Beast Fables

Chronicles• Records of historic or purported historical events• Legendary Histories of Britain

• William of Malmesbury: • c.1125: Gesta Requm Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings) • c. 1129: De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiaea (a history of

Glastonbury Abbey)• Geoffrey of Monmouth:

• c.1136: Historia Regum Brittaniae.(History of the Kings of Britain)• c.1150: Vita Merlinei (The Life of Merlin)

• Wace:Roman de Brut, c. 1155, Anglo-Norman (French) translation of Geoffrey

• Lazamon: Brut, c. 1190, Anglo-Saxon (English) translation of Geoffrey

Romance • Story of heroic adventure often encompassing courtly love: a chivalrous, heroic knight, who, abiding chivalry's strict codes, fights and defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning favour with a beautiful but fickle princess.

• Traditional Material• The matter of Rome:

Alexander the Great• The matter of France:

CharlemagneThe Matter of Britain:

King ArthurRomance

Courtly Love

• Humility• Courtesy• Adultery• The

Religion of Love

C.S. Lewis

Major Medieval British Romances• 12th c: Anglo-Norman, c. 1175 Thomas d’Angleterre, Tristan, • 13th c: Welsh Romances

• The Black Book of Carmarthen• Mabinogion: final version

• 14th c: English Arthurian Romance• Alliterative Morte Arthur• Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight• Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” • Stanzaic Mort Artu

• 14th c: Various Romances• Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde• Gower, Confessio Amantis• Popular romances

• 15th c: Malory, Le Morte Darthur

Breton Lais• Short, rhymed tales of love

and chivalry• Breton/Celtic troubadour

influence• Courtliness and magic• Investigations into the

intricacies of love and honor

• Exploration of questions of sovereignty in relationships

• The Lais of Marie de France –11thc.

Middle English Breton Lais• “Sir Orfeo,” “Sir Degaré,” “Sir

Gowther,” “Emaré” and “The Erle of Tolouse,” all by anonymous authors

• “Lay le Freine,” a translation of Marie de France's “Le Fresne”

• “The Franklin's Tale” from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

• “Sir Launfal” by Thomas Chestre (a retelling of a translation of Marie de France's “Lanval”)

• “Lai du Cor” by Robert Biket

Novella• The novella is defined as a short, prose narrative,

usually realistic and often satiric in tone. • Novella is an Italian word deriving from the feminine

form of the word for new. The quality of newness in the novella is, perhaps, best associated with the contemporary subject matter of the stories

• Novelle (pl.) are based on current local events -- with a viewpoint that ranges from amorous to humorous and satirical to political or moral.

• The characters in a novella are placed in a realistic setting, complete with the rhythms of everyday life and conversation.

Novella

Fabliau• Originally a French form• A comic, bawdy tale with a plot that usually involves a

cuckolded husband• Characters include peasants, tradesmen, greedy

clergy, restless young wives, and young scholars• The plots are realistically motivated tricks and ruses. • The fabliaux thus present a lively image of everyday

life among the middle and lower classes.

Bestiary and Beast Fable• A bestiary, or Bestiarum

vocabulum is a compendium of beasts.

• Bestiaries were illustrated volumes that described various real or imaginary animals, birds and even rocks.

• The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson.

• A beast fable is a short tale with an explicit moral, often stated at the end as a maxim.

• Characters in beast fables are personified animals

Lyric Poetry

Secular Lyric Poetry

• Ballades: poems with at least three stanzas having the same rhyme and metrical schemes and repeating the same last line: refrain

• Complaints• Reverdies: spring songs• Rounds and Dances• Love Songs

• Courtly Love• Aubades: poem or song

about lovers parting at dawn

“summer is icumen in”

Religious Lyric Poetry

• Devotional songs

• Hymns

• Marian lyrics

• Carols

“Adam lay ybounden”

“Coventry Carol”

Drama

Medieval Religious Drama

• Liturgical tropes: gospel dramatizations

• Mystery plays: Biblical plays

• Miracle plays: saints’ lives

• Morality plays: allegories

Medieval Secular Drama• Interludes and farces:

secular plays performed at court

• Folk plays: pagan and folklore elements in popular festival performances