UNIT 3:

ME LITERATURE: THE 14TH CENTURY

1. PROSE FROM 1350 TO 1400

What has happened in England from that moment we know the

name of the authors?

During the 14th century, England is a consolidated monarchy. The

capital is London, attracted by the wealth, by the activity, promises of
improvement. Being close to the political administrative centre of
England is, sooner or later, that you’re will be known.

Unfortunately, there is one exception to this development: Sir

Gawain and the Green Knight’s author, because he spent his life far
away from London, living in some aristocratic but provincial household
and he never had a contact with the city of London.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN ENGLAND DURING THE 14TH CENTURY

England was a consolidated monarchy but it was through a series

of political, military and natural calamities. There was a war going on
against France (war of 100 year), several popular rebellions during the
century, and the most decisive event is the famous Black Death, the
pest, which killed ⅔ of the European population. It has a terrific
demographic effect: those who worked the land died, as a result of the
famine. Travel becomes so dangerous because of the raising of
delinquents. It makes sense that all the big names of the periods, belong
to the high class.

RANULF HIGDEN’S LATIN POLYCHRONICON (before 1363)

Polychronicon = many chronicles. It was written in Latin, so it was

not a widely read work. It was an ambitious project where the author
was trying to compose a history of the world. Form a very theoretical
perspective. It was translated to English by John Trevisa in 1382. It was
one of the first book printed in England in 1480 when the first printer in
England (William Caxton) established his business on it.

THE TRAVELS OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE (1377)

It is a very interesting book, especially for the Marco Polo’s

followers. We assume that the travels of this work are a translation of a
French version. Further than this, we don’t know the name of the English
translator, what we say that the story is narrated by John Mandeville.

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SCALE OF PERFECTION, BY WALTER HILTON (late 1380s)

It is a religious text by Walter Hilton. It is a kind of manual for

Christians who want to achieve spiritual perfection, a kind of monastic
rule but not for monks, rather for people living in the world. This work
explores the “devotio moderna” (created in French) where a new way
of approaching spiritual life was spread by author as Thomas Kempis in
“The imitation of Christ”. These authors were not writing for monks, but for
the common people and in that sense they represent a change in
medieval spirituality that had played some much importance in
monasticism. It conveys a change from the medieval religious
conceptions, addressing the common folks.

JOHN WYCLIFF (1324-84): TRANSLATED THE NEW TESTAMENT

It is outstanding in several ways. In the first place, John Wycliff was

a philologist: he translated the New Testament into English.

Alfred The Great commanded to translate specific passages of the

gospel, but it is the first time that the whole testament was translated into
a vernacular language.

It was really risky, because he was about to translate “god words”

to his own words. He was sent to prison for that and he was facing serious
dangers for his life while being in prison.

Centuries after, Martin Luther and the Protestants made a kind of

ancestor of their religion. The problem with Wycliff is that he became
associated with a kind of religious and political movement known as the
“Lollards” who used to run the villages and the churches killing monks
and destroying the places to bring the Church to his poor beginning.
They used to say that it was a way to become the church spiritual again.
This rebellion was really persecuted and his leaders were also executed.

2. SGGK AND THE POEMS OF THE M.S. COTTON NERO A.X.

The manuscript is preserved in the British Library and was once

property of the famous literary collector Robert.

Cotton Nero is not a very beautiful rich manuscript, but it is very

small and, actually, in a very low quality. The manuscript has been dated
around the year 1400 and it’s in the process of being digitalised.

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The low quality shows the low status that the person who ordered
it. Low status = he was probably an aristocrat but in second class family,
not in a very well position in terms of wealth and power.

In authorship, there is a close relationship in between of the

unknown author of SGGK and the manuscript that contains his works
than for example the relationship between Beowulf and the author. The
author of Beowulf had not had contact with the manuscript, whereas
the author of SGGK really knew the manuscript, maybe because he
ordered its preparation. This needs to be understood in the context of
the chronology of the genesis of both poems: Beowulf (VIII-XI), SGGK
(1350-1375).

The only certainty that we have about the Gawain’s poet is that
he was born in the North West Midlands of England and that he
composed this poem in the second half of the 14th century, because of
the dialect, in which SGGK and the other three poems are written. SGGK
is the most outstanding piece of the alliterative revival. The Gawain’s
poet knew how to write poetry and he added in the manuscript.

The 4 poems present alliteration, but not rhyme, so it’s alliterative

revival.

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

SGGK is a romance settled in the Arthurian tradition, written in the

moment in which this sub genre was dying away.

The poem is much more attractive to modern audience, but it

remains as a medieval poem. This romance has been praised of his
complexity, of its sense frame. These literary motives appear combined in
this romance.

For some reason, it has been argued that it’s the translation of a
previous French Romance in which these literary motives have been
already combined. The truth remains that as no such romance has come
to us, we have to conclude that it’s not a translation. It was the skill of this
poet to bring into the three alliterative motives.

The behaving game, deeply rooted in the Celtic Irish folklore,

appears in many other texts before and after SGGK, and highly
characterised by the idea of supernatural magic (for the model minds,
free of superstition and magic, it is completely absurd). It is a play to be

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placed in two contestants: the challenger, who proposed the game,
and the hero.

• The challenger: he conforms the “churl”: a man in the limits of

humanity (almost a monster) with a very wild savage appearance
and behaviour, dressed up poorly with some kind of leather or
animal’s feathers, long hair and long beard, carrying one single
weapon known as a “club” (basto, porra, como el palo de la
baraja). It gives proof of primitivism.
• The hero: he is a human being singled out for his courage from a
group of potential players. He offers himself to be decapitated,
but he demands the commitments of the other players that after a
period of time, they would look for the hero and check that he
was decapitated.

It is a game that defines irrationality and only the brave will be ready
to play the game. That’s the case of SGGK.

If a foreigner goes to the kingdom of the Arthur in the New Year’s Eve,
he can ask for everything, so the Green Knight asked to play the game.
It’s taken for granted that Green Knight is a monster, but Gawain would
not survive without his head.

In the case of the other three poems, the purpose is doctrinal. It

seems to predominate above enjoyment. The three poems were written
by the same author, but something changes the conception of the
author’s world and that’s the reason why the difference between the first
one and the other three.

Dealing with a close analysis of the Cotton Nero, experts have

concluded that the entire section the manuscript devoted to the four
poems, was written down by the same hand and we can say that it is
the poet’s hand, but it is not sure. However, in the Cotton Vitelieus, we
can see two hands where one of them corrects the other.

PEARL

It is a dream poem.

At the beginning, the narrator is presented as a father who has lost

his daughter and he decided to visit his grave, to find some comfort and
there he fall asleep. In his dream, he sees himself in a beautiful garden
and there is a stream of water (riachuelo). He looks happy but when he

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looked at the other side of the steam, he realised that heaven is at the
other side.

At some point he sees a young angel, who he identifies as his

dead daughter. The name that he father uses is “Pearl” and the pearls
are consider as an icon of purity. The father wanted to cross the river, but
his daughter said to him that if he does that, he would die. So the
daughter said to him not to worry, she is in a good place.

Suddenly, a heavenly parade is organized at the other side and it

moves to the other side of the river. Her dad understands that the
parade of virgins and angels is like going to “New Jerusalem”. He
wanted to take part into the parade, but he wakes up and his mood is
better. Then, he fell asleep, because he understood that his daughter is
safe.

CLANNES

The translation in MoE is ‘cleanness’.

It is much more direct in its appeal. It is not a glorification of

heavenly happiness but illustrates the virtue of purity ! Clannes of the
heart (chastity).

The virtue of chastity makes reference to the correct, proper use of

human sexuality depending in your state in life.

Temperance ! chastity:

• Lay (laicx) person: not into a religion.

• Religious person: meaning you are a person in some
monastic order.

So chastity has a different application depending of your position:

• A religious person would be into celibacy, totally devoted to

god, mind and body.
• Meanwhile, for a lay person it only means avoiding adultery
and referring sexual actions before marriage.

The story is told with “exempla” from the Old Testament. The stories
are contained in the book of Genesis.

For example:

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• The Flood ! according to the author, God punished the
world because of his lack of purity ! the world was full of
deprivation.
• Sodom and Gomorrah: They were the most outstanding
figures of deprivation in the Bible. The two cities were
punished by God for homosexuality. King Belshazzar’s dad
(called “Nebuchadnesser”) was punished for his pride. At
some point of his behaviour, he ended up walking on 4 legs,
as a punishment of God and Belsahazzar was absolutely
blasphemous, with unclean behaviour. Finally, he was
assassinated.
• Lot Christ and Abraham are presented as models of purity
and chastity. None of them were unmarried, so for the
audience it’s a clear example.
Episode on Lot: Abraham’s nephew (Lot) lives in Sodom but
he is a straight person with a wife, daughters and sons. But
one day he is visited by three unknown characters (the
identity of these people is described as beautiful and
handsome) that are invited to come into Lot’s house. He is
the host of these three travellers (hospitality was something
very serious ! ‘everything that is mine, is yours’. Also there
are some rules to the host and the guest). He opened his
house to these foreigners and the inhabitants of Sodom
noticed that he had three guys living with him and they
wanted to spend the night with Lot’s guest. Lot cannot offer
the three guests, so he offered his daughters. That’s the way
the author shows the weakness of the inhabitants.

PATIENCE

It is devoted to illustrate the virtue of patience. It enables you to

endure a negative situation until the moment it changes. It is not simply
the stoic passivity, but making a virtue of a negative situation.

The book of Jub seems to illustrate the man’s patience with pain,
hardships, which are permitted or allowed by God. Jub’s patience helps
him to endure God’s will.

For the poet, he will choose a different character; he uses ‘The

Book of Jonah’. Jonah was a Jew, but one day he was sent to visit
Niniveh by God to know him and become good person. The poet is tying
to illustrate God’s patience with men.

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Firstly, God’s patience with Jonah: Jonah wants God to leave him
alone and he go into a boat and go as far as he can go (Tarshish). Then,
God sent a storm to the boat Jonah was in and the boat was about to
sink. The sailors ask themselves what they have done wrong to be
punished by God this way. Jonah told them that it was his fault, that they
were punished for him. So, the sailors threw Jonah to the sea and then a
big fish (wale) swallowed him. He spent three days there and the whale
vomited him in Niniveh. There, the inhabitants accepted God and
following the good behaviour [y del final no me entero].

So in that way Jonah is not a way of example, but God is.

It is the shorter poem.

3. WILLIAM LANGLAND AND PIERS PLOWMAN

It is not either a particular beautiful text, but it is the simplicity of the

text combined with a harsh social criticism and church-state critic.

Piers Plowman is also a text that is part of the alliterative revival, so

it shows alliteration with very little poetic devices, e.g. it doesn’t contain
rhyme.

‘Loose structure, careless beauty’ are words applied to Piers

Plowman and one tends to think that the poem is more interesting in the
message than in the form. Good texts presents a balance between
content and form but, in this case, it seems the author put all the
emphasis in the content but for some reason the form is called careless
beautiful.

The poem is an example of popular literature. It pays attention to

those word classes that were discriminated in the Middle Ages. However
the main character is a peasant.

And in this sense, Piers Plowman “is addressed at a public different

for the aristocratic audiences for whom more alliterative were probably
written” by A.C Speaning.

It has been said that it is a visionary poem. The allegorical

overtones in the poem are quite clear ! the main character seems to
stand for each and everyone of us. What happens to him happens to
everyone, the tyranny by the church, his fears. He is everyman.

The plot of the poem is simply a frame, in which the author

develops his criticism and his doctrinal moralising intention.

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The story has very little relevance but what it’s said is relevant. The
narrator falls asleep at several moments along the passus and every time
he falls asleep he has a dream.

DREAM 1

There is a dream in which when he opened his eyes, he saw

himself in the middle of a field and in this field there are two high
buildings described as towers and a far distance between this two
buildings.

The first tower is named ‘Treuthe’, meaning truth. The second tower
is named ‘Wrong’ meaning evil. In the middle of them there is a crowd of
people attending their business, a business that take them to the tower
of Truth or to the tower of Wrong.

The allegorical reading is crystal clear. At some point in the

narration, we have a character named Lady Holy Church (the allegory is
outstanding) ! for the Christians, the Church represented as a woman
who teaches people the way to the Tower of Truth, but it seems to be
some degree of confusion between the people and the Lady and she
fails to clearly manifest her message.

Another character appears to try to fix up this failure in

communication: he is Peter the Plowman whose allegorical meaning
seem to be confusing: he stands for humble people, living a simple life
but he also has been said to stand for Christ himself. This character is
more successful in his attempt to guide people, but his message is not
attended by everyone.

A new character appears by the name of Hunger, who punishes

those who follow the word of Peter by making them work very hardly.

At this point the intensity of the narration, the density of the

comprehension of the passage forces the author to wake up, in the
sense that there are too many allegorical characters, so it is too difficult
for the reader to follow the plot.

DREAM 2

The next he falls asleep, his vision takes us to a different place: The
Crucifixion of Christ that is also accompanied by the Lower World and
Hell.

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The vision is so terrifying that again the moral teaching that is given
in this succession of passus interacts with these dreams.

OTHER DREAMS

The poet presents us several episodes that apparently have no

connection with the story: Lady Meed is married with False, so the critic is
against greed and corruption ! the benefit we get by money
operations)

In another episode we have a kind of parade of the 7 deadly sins.

All of them in straight life going to confession: each of them is going to
the church to confess. It critics the 7 deadly sins.

GENESIS AND STRUCTURE

The way in what this text develops is:

• The A text (1360s): it is the first version of the poem and it was left
unfinished, because the poet was not happy with what he was
writing. It’s divided into 12 sections, named passus. There is a strong
symbolism behind the 12 passus. They also mean “going through”
as a reminder of life. This text goes alone ! it doesn’t have any
connexion with the rest.
• The B version (1370s): it includes the A text. It is a kind of
reelaboration of the A text adding 8 sections. It is much more raff
that the first one.
• The C version (1380s): it is the definite version that the poet
considered as his definitive idea. It was a revision of the A and B
version further adding 2 more passus and a prologue (22 passus).
The prologue is extremely relevant for the overall comprehension
of the poem ! it places the reader on what he/she is going to
face.

ALLEGORY AND SOCIAL SATIRE

4. JOHN GOWER

It is often said that if Chaucer didn’t existed, John Gower will have
occupied his place in English literature.

JG and GC were friends, but they were literary competitors. The

overall is that Chaucer won the competition due to The Canterbury

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Tales. Chaucer’s poems were much more enjoyable and attractive than
Gower’s one, who seems to be more scholarly and intellectual author.
Gower’s poetry demands on the audience ability more than Chaucer’s.

JG was a scholar who has devoted much of his time to read and
to learn different languages. He was a natural speaker of English, and
tried to learn Anglo-Norman. Also, he was fluent in Latin: learning it
makes a difference ! it made you a true intellectual. There were many
members in church who did not know Latin even it was the official
language in it. Apart from that, Latin was also really useful in university.

ANGLO-NORMAN: SPECULUM MEDITANIS & CINKANTE BALADES

Speculum meditannis is a Latin title for a text written in Anglo-

Norman. It has an alternative title: Mirour de l’Omme, meaning ‘the
mirror of the person who thinks’.

LATIN: VOX CLAMANTIS

In Latin he wrote what he consider a much more serious work, a

work where he committing himself to a serious criticism. The title means
‘the voice of the one who is shouting, crying out his message’. In this
poem, Gower is denouncing the evils in English society that ended up in
the Peasant’s Revolution, conducted by Wat Tyler in 1381. This revolt was
smashed down in a bloody response by the authority, so Gower with
some kind of population sensibility.

ENGLISH: CONFESSIO AMANTIS & IN PRAISE OF PEACE

Confessio Amantis uses the structure for the title, meaning ‘the
confession of the lovers’. By confession he doesn’t mean that the lovers
do a public declaration to the reader, it means that the lovers confess
their love to the priest. It is the story of a couple of lovers who go to
confession and starts accusing themselves out of greedy (codicia),
gluttony, etc. The priest tells them a series of narrations so as to provide
an antidote to the 7 capital sins.

There are about 100 stories to fulfil these sins. It is composed by 8

books and a prologue.

The Religion of love from fin’amors is also presented here.

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5. GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340-1400)

HIS LIFE

He might be described as the perfect example of the upper

middle classes, a fine instance of the bourgeoisie.

England was a consolidated monarchy, but definitely the

aristocracy had lost much of its former power, or at least provincial
aristocracy.

GC was a son of a wealthy merchant. His father wanted his son to

have a solid education, so when GC was 17 his father sent him to the
court to be educated in the manners of the English Royal Court and he
entered to work as a kind of domestic servant (page) at the service of
the very son of King Edward III, whose name was Lionel of Antwerp.

From this early age, Chaucer remained in close contact with the
London court and with the royal aristocracy because his father could
afford it. We might say that Chaucer never abandoned the court from
an official point of view because he was a diplomatic.

In 1355, he was sent to France to fight with the English army in the
100 years War and he was taken prisoner.

Back to England, he began his services as squire (escudero) under

the patronage of the Duke of Lancaster. He actively took part in several
diplomatic missions back to France: the Low Countries, Italy and Spain,
etc. In all this travels, Chaucer behave as a solvent politician and
probably became more than familiar with several familiar languages: he
was able to talk French, Italian, Latin and a bit of Spanish.

He was a close friend of the Duke of Lancaster’s son who

eventually was to be crown king of England in the year 1399.

Henry IV favours and preferences for Chaucer open the way for a
brilliant future for him, but the very next year he died.

In The Canterbury Tales, Spain was mentioned in it and for what we

could say that Spain had a very important role in him.

[no me entero, algo ha pasado aquí]

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CHAUCER’S ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF ENGLISH POETRY. FRENCH
INFLUENCE; LOVE LYRICS & TRANSLATION OF LE ROMAN DE LA ROSE.

The influence exercise by the French literature ever from the time
of the Norman Conquest is needed to be emphasized.

When Chaucer began poetry, the lines in English poems were 8

syllables lines, the so-called “octosyllabic line”; but Chaucer made an
important innovation and imported the popular 10 syllables line, called
“decasyllabic line”. For long time, it is going to remain as the most
popular line in English poetry. William Shakespeare worked with the
iambic pentameter, which is also a decasyllabic line.

His influence comes in the form of his adaptation of the typical

French lyrical poems.

The provenzal lyrics usually were devoted to sing about the human
love and lovers. In this sense, as late as the 14th century, this short lyrical
compositions by Chaucer are much more vivid, fresh and poetic than
the already old-fashioned French models.

Chaucer was also a translator. For his rendered into English, he

translated one of the most influential French courtly love: Le Roman de la
Rose, translated into English as The Roman of the Rose. Chaucer
became familiar with the allegorical mote by translating this allegorical
French work.

Where is the allegory in Le Roman de la Rose? Allegory seems to

be as a personification of something into another something but it is also
the telling of two stories: the upper & ordinary story and the moral one,
who tells us moral conceptions and that stuff. In that story, we have the
image of the rose, which stands for love and then, we have the main
character that wants to pick the rose from a beautiful garden. He had to
fight several human enemies (personifications of envy, jealousy, etc.),
but he was helped by perseverance and mercy. All the feelings and
emotions that are present in a love relation are present into the story.
(Here is the allegory).

Translation was a very common way for women to introduce

themselves into the literary world.

ALLEGORICAL WORKS

He produced a series of literary works that might be classified as

allegorical works:
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BOKE OF BLAUNCHE THE DUCHESSE

It was a text composed by GC as a kind of commemoration for

the death of Duke of Lancaster’s wife in 1369. The poem begins with a
dream and so it goes.

The French influence is clearly perceived but Chaucer manages to

go beyond the mere imitation of the French models.

PARLEMENT OF FOULES

It means the conversation of the birds. It is also an allegorical text

composed between 1375 and 1385.

The text begins with a dream in which the narrator sees birds with
the ability of speak. A group of bird had gathered in St. Valentine day
and they discuss about different matters of love. They present different
contradictory visions of love. Venus is in the middle of this dialogue
acting as a kind of moderator.

There is a social hierarchy reflecting human beings in the way

these birds are presented:

• The eagle is majesty as a member of the aristocracy and in its

speech about love he develops all the conventions of courtly love.
• Other birds, such as the gross-feeders support more natural and
“ordinary” ideas about love, less idealised, much more “vulgar”.

This parliament was composed in the form of rhyme royal, since it is a

conversation about birds, it remind us to The Owl and the Nightingale.

HOUS OF FAME

Some scholars have assumed the influence of Italian literature,

even to the point of it is a poor imitation of the Divine Comedy.

The poem was left incomplete, because Chaucer was fed up with
the topic or maybe, because it was too artificial (topic: the ups and
downs of human fame).

LEGENDE OF GOOD WOMEN

The Middle Ages were an anti feminist period. In this sense, that
work is welcome. But if we read the work, we can say that Chaucer was
also chauvinist. He presents his characters under a favourable view.

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Although for modern audiences the reasons why these women are
viewed under this sympathy is not fair.

We have the name of Lucretia, Philomela and Ariadne in

particular. They were honest lovers, who unfortunately were betrayed by
the men they loved. Chaucer has planned to include some more
legends, but as in the case of the Hous of Fame, he got fed up and
stopped writing.

The main reason to explain this is that he has his mind in The
Canterbury Tales.

CHAUCER UNDER ITALIAN INFLUENCE

Anybody who was lucky enough to visit Italy at the end of 14th
Century will have suffered a great transformation. When a scholar went
there and visited the country, they won’t be the same when they leave.

The splendour of Italy was outstanding. Italian literature was the

finest, because writers were gradually discovering the splendour of
classic literature.

KNIGHTES TALES

At the time GC visited Italy, the works of Boccaccio and Petrarch

were just written. Chaucer has direct influence to The Divine Comedy
and that kind of works. The influence of the Decameron seems to be
clear in The Canterbury Tales. Some scholar had pointed out the relation
between Chaucer and Italian literature.

TROILUS AND CRYSEYDE

It was the time of the war of Troy.

The author gradually shows us a character as Troilus, who is young

and inexpert; and then, the character of Cryseyde, who was a mature
woman with a marriage life. The issue of adultery is not presented
because Cryseyde is a widow. In the absence of Troilus, Cryseyde offers
herself to other men but eventually, Troilus returns (similarity with the
Odyssey).

It is the first great love poem in English literature, a story where GC

manages to include comic elements and modernity in the psychological
descriptions of the characters, something similar to what we have in
SGGK. Troilus and Cryseyde was later on revisited to William Shakespeare
and it shows us the importance of Chaucer’s literary works.
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