1. … to the king.
You are the wall-stone that the stonewrights
once rejected from their labors. It suits you
that you should be the capital of the glorious hall,
and you gather up the capacious walls,
with fixed joint and stone unbroken,
so that throughout all earthly cities,
by the sight of the eyes, all men
can marvel forever at the Lord of Glory.

2. Isaiah 28:16
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.
Psalm 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
1 Peter 2:6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

3. Middle English period: begun with the Norman conquest 1066 (as depicted on the Bayeux tapestry)

4. =Norman conquest, Battle of Hastings, October 1066
“In 1066 the death of the childless Anglo-Saxon ruler Edward the Confessor occasioned the most important change in English political life. Edward’s mother was Norman, giving the duke of Normandy a hereditary claim to the English throne. Before his death, Edward…directed that his throne be given to William, the reigning Duke of Normandy. But the Anglo-Saxon assembly…vetoed Edward’s last wishes, choosing instead Harold Godwinsson.” –The Western Heritage, 275
=Norman conquest, Battle of Hastings, October 1066

5. William—his son Henry I—(chaos from ) his daughter Matilda, her son Henry II (steered English monarchy toward an oppressive rule (married Eleanor of Aquitaine) establish Angevin dynasty which lasted until death of Richard III in 1485—Richard the Lion-Hearted and John (Robin Hood) (Crusades)

6. “As Henry II acquired new lands abroad, he became more autocratic at home. He forced his will on the clergy in the Constitution of Clarendon. These measures…gave the king control over the election of bishops. The result was strong political resistance from both the nobility and the clergy. The archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas á Becket, once Henry compliant chancellor, broke openly with the king and fled to Louis VII…(Two hundred years later, Geoffrey Chaucer, writing in an age made cynical by the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War, had the pilgrims of his Canterbury Tales journey to the shrine of Thomas á Becket.)” The Western Heritage, 278

7. “The circumstances of writers in the English vernacular changed greatly in the years after the Norman Conquest. The collapse of the written standard established by West-Saxon monks and the exclusion of English writings from the main centres of power and patronage…” The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, 22-23
Literary language shifted to predominance of latin and french, influencing the evolution of anglo-saxon to the middle english of chaucer and his contemporaries

8. During the reign of Richard II (1377-99)
„This is the remarkable ‚Ricardian’ period, in which, in the lifetime of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, alliterative poetry flowered again in England.” The Oxford Illustrated History, 27
Alliterative Revival
„This very large body of work, which is many times greater than the whole surviving corpusn of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, includes many notable poems, among them…Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and…Morte Darthure…” Oxford, 27
1476—William Caxton introduces printing press to England

9. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
“Whoever he was, the Gawain-poet ranks as one of the most brilliant representatives of that remarkable generation of English poets which may be called ‘Ricardian’ (after Richard III, who reigned from 1377 to 1399). His chief contemporaries were Gower, Langland, and Chaucer.” Oxford, 30

10. „trawthe” and „untrawthe”
„Does any other romance writer…show what it might actually feel like to wake up on the morning of a perilous tryst, as Gawain does on the stormy New Year’s Day when he is due at the Green Chapel to receive the return blow? For in this Arthurian romance as in no other knightly courage is exposed to something like the full strength of those forces which turn most people into cowards—and is shaken by the impact.” Oxford, 33
„trawthe” and „untrawthe”

11. William Langland Piers Plowman
„The poem…concerns the narrator's intense quest for the true Christian life, from the perspective of medieval Catholicism. This quest entails a series of dream-visions and an examination into the lives of three allegorical characters, Dowel ("Do-Well"), Dobet ("Do-Better"), and Dobest ("Do-Best")” Wikipedia
Long Will
Piers (Peter)
„…the mysterious abruptness of his arrivals and…his equally mysterious departures…serve to express Langland’s deepest sense of the elusiveness of that inner goodness and truth for which Piers himself stands.” Oxford, 36

12. „Will has two dreams of how contemporary England might be reformed, in the administration of justice and in the conduct of all classes of society, by living and acting ‚truly’ in accordance with the dictates of reason and conscience. But this ideal of conduct, which comes to be called ‚Do Well,’ presents many difficulties, both because human nature is deeply perverse and also because the ideal itself seems difficult to grasp.” Oxford, 37

13. „Langland does not distinguish between social, moral intellectual, and theological issues…for him, the Church and society are ideally coterminous; both depend for their health upon the condition of individuals; and for the individual, intellectual and moral ‚truth’ are inseparable.” Oxford, 37

14. Thomas Malory Morte Darthure
deals with declining aristocratic and chivalric values
Compiled Arthurian tales into coherent group of related stories
Summary of the history of Britain as seen through the perspective of the end of the age of chivalry (knights divided by Hundred Years’ War and War of the Roses)

15. John Wyclif: philosopher, politician and reformer.
First complete translation of the Bible into English by Wyclif and his followers from the Latin text of the Vulgate. (1384)
Lollardy (precursor to Protestant Reformation)

16. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) „Father of English literature”

17. Troilus and Criseyde
Canterbury Tales
‘Only the Knight, the poor Parson and the Plowman are treated without any touch of irony, as almost ideal figures, and they are anachronisms by Chaucer’s time. The Knight represents chivalry and courtesy, the Parson’s genuinely Christian behaviour is contrasted with that of the other representatives of the Church, and the Plowman…would be hard to find in an age of the peasants’ revolt…These nostalgic portraits represent Chaucer’s oblique comments on the troubles of his time, which he never overtly discusses…The old order was breaking up…’ (David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature. Vol. I: From the Beginnings to Milton, p. 106) *from Dr. Dósa’s lecture notes

18. The Knight’s Tale
Love is a gretter lawe, by my pan,
Love is a greater law, by my skull,
Than may be yeve to any erthely man;
Than may be given to any earthly man;
And therfore positif lawe and swich decree
And therefore positive (man-made) law and such decree
Is broken al day for love in ech degree.
Is broken every day for love in every way.
A man moot nedes love, maugree his heed;
A man must of necessity love, in spite of all he can do;
He may nat fleen it, thogh he sholde be deed,
He can not flee (from) it, though he should be dead,
Al be she mayde, or wydwe, or elles wyf.
Whether she be maid, or widow, or else wife.

19. 1251 "Allas, why pleynen folk so in commune
"Alas, why do folk so commonly complain
On purveiaunce of God, or of Fortune,
About the providence of God, or of Fortune,
That yeveth hem ful ofte in many a gyse
That gives them full often in many a manner
Wel bettre than they kan hemself devyse?
Much better than they can themselves imagine?
Som man desireth for to han richesse,
One man desires to have riches,
That cause is of his mordre or greet siknesse;
Which is the cause of his murder or great sickness;
And som man wolde out of his prisoun fayn,
And one man would happily (go) out of his prison,
That in his hous is of his meynee slayn.
Who is slain in his house by members of his household.
Infinite harmes been in this mateere.
Infinite harms are in this matter.
We witen nat what thing we preyen heere;
We know not what thing we pray for here;
We faren as he that dronke is as a mous.
We act like one who is drunk as a mouse.
A dronke man woot wel he hath an hous,
A drunk man knows well he has a house,

20. 1263 But he noot which the righte wey is thider,
But he does not know which is the right way to it,
And to a dronke man the wey is slider.
And to a drunk man the way is slippery.
And certes, in this world so faren we;
And certainly, so we fare in this world;
We seken faste after felicitee,
We seek eagerly after felicity,
But we goon wrong ful often, trewely.
But we go wrong very often, truly.
Thanne seyde he, "O crueel goddes that governe
Then said he, "O cruel gods that govern
This world with byndyng of youre word eterne,
This world with binding of your eternal word,
And writen in the table of atthamaunt
And write in the table of adamant (hardest of stones)
Youre parlement and youre eterne graunt,
Your decision and your eternal decree,
What is mankynde moore unto you holde
Why is mankind more obligated unto you
Than is the sheep that rouketh in the folde?
Than is the sheep that cowers in the sheepfold?
For slayn is man right as another beest,
For man is slain exactly like another beast,

21. 1310 And dwelleth eek in prison and arreest,
And dwells also in prison and detention,
And hath siknesse and greet adversitee,
And has sickness and great adversity,
And ofte tymes giltelees, pardee.
And often times guiltless, indeed.
"What governance is in this prescience,
"What (sort of) governance is in this foreknowledge,
That giltelees tormenteth innocence?
That torments guiltless innocence?
And yet encresseth this al my penaunce,
And yet this increases all my suffering,
That man is bounden to his observaunce,
That man is bound to his duty,
For Goddes sake, to letten of his wille,
For God's sake, to refrain from his desire,
Ther as a beest may al his lust fulfille.
Whereas a beast may fulfill all his desire.
And whan a beest is deed he hath no peyne;
And when a beast is dead he has no pain;

22. 2238 I kepe noght of armes for to yelpe,
I care not to boast of arms
Ne I ne axe nat tomorwe to have victorie,
Nor do I ask to have victory tomorrow,
Ne renoun in this cas, ne veyne glorie
Nor renown in this case, nor vain glory
Of pris of armes blowen up and doun;
Nor fame for deeds of arms proclaimed everywhere;
But I wolde have fully possessioun
But I would have fully possession
Of Emelye, and dye in thy servyse.
Of Emelye, and die in thy service.
Fynd thow the manere hou and in what wyse:
Find thou the manner how and in what way:
I recche nat but it may bettre be
I care not if it may better be
To have victorie of hem, or they of me,
To have victory over them, or they over me,
So that I have my lady in myne armes.
So that I have my lady in my arms.
For though so be that Mars is god of armes,
For though it be true that Mars is god of arms,
Youre vertu is so greet in hevene above
Your power is so great in heaven above
That if yow list, I shal wel have my love.
That if you please, I shall well have my love.

23. Wife of Bath’s Tale

24. 1117 Crist wole we clayme of hym oure gentillesse,
Christ wants us to claim our nobility from him,
Nat of oure eldres for hire old richesse.
Not from our ancestors for their old riches.
For thogh they yeve us al hir heritage,
For though they give us all their heritage,
For which we clayme to been of heigh parage,
For which we claim to be of noble lineage,
Yet may they nat biquethe for no thyng
Yet they can not bequeath by any means
To noon of us hir vertuous lyvyng,
To any of us their virtuous living,

25. 1133 "Eek every wight woot this as wel as I,
"Also every person knows this as well as I,
If gentillesse were planted natureelly
If nobility were planted naturally
Unto a certeyn lynage doun the lyne,
Unto a certain lineage down the line,
Pryvee and apert thanne wolde they nevere fyne
Then in private and in public they would never cease
To doon of gentillesse the faire office;
To do the just duties of nobility;
They myghte do no vileynye or vice.
They could do no dishonor or vice.

26. 1162 Thy gentillesse cometh fro God allone.
Thy nobility comes from God alone.
Thanne comth oure verray gentillesse of grace;
Then our true nobility comes from grace ;
It was no thyng biquethe us with oure place.
It was not at all bequeathed to us with our social rank.
Thanne am I gentil, whan that I bigynne
Then am I noble, when I begin
To lyven vertuously and weyve synne.
To live virtuously and abandon sin.