UNIVERSIDAD DE JAEN
DPTO. DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA
3° de FILOLOGÍA INGLESA
Literatura Inglesa y sus relaciones con la
literatura europea
TOPIC 2
THE MIDDLE AGES: THE EPIC AND THE NARRATIVE TRADITIONS.
EUROPEAN EPICS. CHAUCER IN HIS EUROPEAN CONTEXT
PLAN
l. THE EUROPEAN EPIC
1.1 EARLY LITERARY TRADITION IN RELATION TO ENGLAND
1.2. THE EPIC GENRE: THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT
2. CHAUCER
2.1. BIOGRAPHY
2.2 CHAUCER AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
2.3 THE FRENCH INFLUENCE
2.4 THE ITALIAN INFLUENCE
2.5 THE CANTERBURY TALES
2.6 CHAUCER AND SPAIN
Luciano García García
l. EUROPEAN EPIC
l.l. EARLY LITERARY TRADITION IN RELATION TO ENGLAND
The earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry that has come down to us shows two main features:
1. It is of an earlier date than the extant poetry of other Germanic peoples.
2. It belongs to the oral tradition of Germania's Heroic age.
These two features point out the essential fact
that Anglo-Saxon poetry belongs to the continental Germanic tradition that the
Angles, Saxon and Jutes brought with them into England and, therefore, to get a
full understanding of their literature, we must learn something about the
common culture shared by the Germanic tribes on the continent.
To start with, despite their political
independence, the English still belonged to a certain cultural commonwealth of
nations, the Germania of their continental forefathers, which included the
Scandinavian countries and the countries of central Europe. Within that
commonwealth they were at home and shared most of the beliefs, myths, heroes
and legends common to Goths, Swedes or Langobard, for example. T'his accounts
for the fact that the majority of legends mentioned or being the theme of Old
Anglo-Saxon poetry deal with events or heroes not only continental, but many
times not even Anglo-Saxon at all (Gothic, Burgundian, Frankish, Langobardish,
Scandinavian).
Secondly, the heroes and legends flourished in a
period thought of as heroic and which answers roughly to the great migration of
the Germanic tribes in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. A period
of disaster for the Romans and romanized people of Western Europe, but of
glorious achievements for the Germanic tribes. This again accounts for the fact
that most of the events and heroes belonged to a past time on the continent.
Thirdly, the legends and heroes of Anglo-Saxon
poetry reflect and uphold the traditional morality of the Germanic people,
based essentially on fighting one's way to glory through prowess in battle and
mutual reliance between king, who should be generous, and his dright (body of
retainers) who should be loyal to him up to the point of death.
Fourthly, the heroes nearly always belonged to
the upper classes of society, though the society in which they lived had hardly
begun the differentiation of classes so marked later on in the Middle Ages.
An interesting formal feature derived from point
2 above is that AngloSaxon poetry, like Germanic poetry in general, was meant
to be recited rather than read. The person encharged with the recitation was
the "scop" or "gleeman", a professional minstrel kept at
court who would recite his poems to the accompaniment of the harp. He was not
only an entertainer, but the glorifier of the heroic ideal and a kind of
historian as well. His poetry was not only a means of stirring the hearts and
steeling the mood of his people (its theme was generally high and its tone
earnest) by singing of heroes and calling his hearers to the heroic life, but
also a means of keeping historical records of events as well, since he ensured
his patrori s acts immortality by singing the praise of the king or chieftain
who employed his services.
This poetry was composed without rhyme and
consisted of lines with a variable number of syllables in stressed alliterative
verse, i.e., lines with no fixed number of syllables being fitted to a form or
chant with a ftxed number of accents, the accents (reinforced by alliteration)
possibly marking the strong chords or clashes of whatever noise accompanied the
voice. Each line was divided in two by a caesura or pause, with two stressed
syllables in each half. Of these, two or three -one or two in the first half
line and always the first of the second half line- should be alliterated.
Another fact worthwhile mentioning is the
Church's dominance and control over the production of manuscripts. The Germanic
tribes possessed their own system of writíng: the runic alphabet of twenty-four
letters, to which, in course of time, they added several new signs of their
own, but this kind of writing was not well suited to the recording of literary
compositions, since runes where epigraphic characters, i.e., characters meant
to be cut or hammered out on hard surfaces. This and the combined circumstances
that runemasters were few and far between and that the scops were naturally
interested in uttering or having their compositions uttered before audiences
led to the outcome that no English poems of heathen times have come down to us
in the form of runic inscriptions. 'The missionaries brought with them
parchment, pen and ink, and the custom of writing literary compositions down,
and, though the English runic alphabet (or furthark) might have been
used for writing with pen and inlc, what happened is that the foreign
missionaries and their Anglo-Saxon pupils associated Roman alphabet with
writing on parchment and used it in making English texts as well.
Since the writing of manuscripts was the work of professional cleric scribes (a layman might know how to read, but to undertake the job of a scribe would be as far from him as for a modern reader to undertake the job of a printer) the Church inevitably dominated the production of written material. Works that the clerics disapproved of were either not recorded or given a Christian editing, which is why most of the early and secular works that have come down to us are tinged to a lesser or greater extent with Christian colouring.
In fact, the main body of Anglo-Saxon literature
is composed of Christian poetry with two main schools, the School of Caedmon
(from the second half of the 7th century onwards) and the School of Cynewulf
(second half of the 8th century onwards). There are also samples of secular
poetry more or less coloured with Christian feeling and, above all, with an elegiac and
lamentable note, even when these composition approach the lyrical or amorous
theme. Pieces like The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, The
Wife's Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer, etc. exhibit this mood. But also
the purely epic poems such as Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon
are not deprived of this typical Anglo-Saxon melancholy.
1.2. THE EPIC GENRE: THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT
The epic poetry of the Middle Ages had its roots in the elements provided by
the Germanic people, who had probably prompted the apparition of this kind of
literary manifestation in France and Spain, since this literary kind was
unknown to the Romance countries prior to the Germanic invasions. We can
distinguish three main areas of influence of the Germanic epic besides the Anglo-Saxon
domain: the Scandinavian countries (Iceland and the Scandinavian peninsula),
where the tradition manifests itself in a purer way, presenting more definitely
pagan colouring and deprived most than anything else of Christian shades;
central Europe (the Low Countries, Germany, Austria) exhibiting a clearly
Germanic spirit, but, because of the spatial and chronological conditions of
its transmission, with the extant fragments noticeable pervaded by Christian
elements, which anyway are more superimposed than wholly integrated in a the
Germanic worldview and ethos. Finally, in the most romanized countries such as
France, Italy or Spain the influence of the Roman tradition and Christianity
made itself heavily felt, merging with the Germanic tradition over which they
are clearly dominant. The Romance epic, in what is perhaps its most distinctive
note, shows the religious and political antagonism against a new and kind of
enemy, the Muslims. From the thirteenth century onwards the French influence
made itself felt all throughout Europe, even in the farthest corners of the
Germanic world such as Iceland.
The earliest instance
of an extant epic poem may have occurred in
However, the real
source of the purest and oldest forms of Germanic literature and mythology are
Iceland and Norway. Here we witness many primitive versions (such as the legend
of Siegfried) of stories later developed in Central Europe, together with a
series of narrative of an heroic, fantastic and mythological character. Three
different literary species are to be named: the edda, the scalds, and the
sagas. The first, strictly speaking, (The Edda) is a didactic and
mythological treatise written by the Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson in which
the versification, conventions and mythology of the primitive Norse poetry is
presented, commented and exemplified; however, it is generally applied to a
whole group of brief compositions (also referred to as eddaic poetry) of a
didactic nature appeared in the Scandinavian and Icelandic countries between
the ninth and thirteenth centuries. In the eddaic poetry we find the primitive
and legendary matter of Germanic literature in its purest form, and least
contaminated by Christian elements. The skalds, or rather the skaldic poetry
(from skald = poet), is oral court poetry of a more refined and
sophisticated making than the edda, originating in
The Romance
epic has its own distinctive character and even possesses its own peculiar
name: chanson de geste or cantar de gesta. Most of the one
hundred extant chansons de geste are in some variety of French and a few
of them either in Provençal or Castilian. The length of this kind of poems is
very irregular: they oscillate between eight hundred and twenty thousand lines,
although the latter come late in time and often show contamination with the
chivalric novel. The jongleur or juglar was the person in charge
of reciting the chansons de geste to the accompaniment of some musical
instrument in which is a basically oral art. The two most famous samples of
this kind are La chanson de Roland (second half of the 12th
century) and El poema del mío Cid (beginning of 13th
century), but there are many more, especially in France, where other
contemporary poems stand out: La chanson de Guillaume, La chanson de
Gormont and Le Pélerinage de Charlemagne contemporary with La
chanson de Roland. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries three cycles
or groups of songs emerge around three different heroes: Charlemagne, Guillaume
d'Orange and Doon de Mayence.
Despite the
many differences in the various regions of
War as the subject-matter realistically
portrayed and with an exemplary aim.
Honour, loyalty and mutual reliance between
lord and liege.
Pride in genealogy.
Verse based in the
division in two hemistichs
Accentual
prosody based on irregular verse length.
Such stylistic
resources as parataxis, parallelism, appositions and elegant variation more or
less present in the different epic works.
2. CHAUCER
2.1. BIOGRAPHY
Chaucer's biography
is of great importance because it, together with his particular genius,
accounts for his deep knowledge of people of different social classes and
trades, his understanding of human nature, the mastery of his craft and his
turn on French and Italian literature to change the trends of English verse.
Chaucer was born
in
This,
naturally, introduced him into the circle of John of Gaunt, which included a
wide variety of people, from the mistress of the King to John Wycliff, the
religious reformer. This also helped to promote him as a civil servant an a diplomat,
being sent on important commercial and diplomatic missions abroad: in 1372 and
1378 to
He continued
being promoted in what we could call now the Civil Service until in 1386 he
suffered a kind of standstill when John of Gaunt, his protector, left
In 1389 John
of Gaunt returned and Chaucer was restored to favour and office. Towards the end
of his life he was less financially secure, though by no means poor. He died on
Many critics
customarily divide his works into three main periods, the French, the Italian
and the English, according to whether French, Italian or English sources
influenced him.
It has proved
a useful division, provided that we accept it as an approach to his progress as
a craftsman. Otherwise it is not completely accurate, nor completely indicative
of the substance and form of Chaucer's verse. It does not mean that Chaucer
adopted a French manner and dropped it to further adopt an Italian manner, but
rather that Chaucer laboured at his art and passed from one kind of writing
into another and thence into yet another.
2.2 CHAUCER AND THE
CLASSICAL TRADITION
The Medieval
Age is highly influenced by the classical tradition mainly through the Latin
heritage of Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, and a number of cumbersome medieval Latin
poems; also by the immeasurable literature of Christianity. In
2.3 THE FRENCH INFLUENCE
French culture
was highly esteemed and widely extended in aristocratic circles in England at
that time, and Chaucer was quite familiar with people from these circles, for
whom French had been not so long ago their own language together with English,
and whose tastes were educated in French things. Then it is not surprising that
Chaucer should be completely Continental in literary affiliation: he is
remarkably indifferent to English writings, but the Roman de la Rose
(Gillaume de Lorry & Jean de Meun) and the work of contemporary poets like
Deschamp and Froissart are quite influential on him. These and Ovid are the
main classical mentors of this period.
Chaucer
greatly admired both Gillaume and Jean and was influenced both by the graceful
love allegory of the first and by the sceptical philosophy and satirical humour
of the second. As a consequence of his admiration, Chaucer worked on a
translation of the poem (The Romaunt of the Rose) in the octosyllabic
couplets of the original and, though the version that has come down to us
covers only part of the original and is doubted to be all of his work.
The Book of
the Duchess,[1] practically
his first book, is greatly indebted to Machault, Froissart, Ovid and other
French poets. In reality, it is a mixture of different passages remembered or
read, though the concept, tone and treatment is his. And thus, The Legend of
Ceys and Alcyone is taken from Ovid, whom Chaucer read in French; the
beginning of the poem is taken from Paradys d'amour by Jean Froissart
(chronicler & lyricist); and the meeting with the man in black can be
referred to The Jugement du Ro et de Behaigne by Gillaume de Machault, a
contemporary of Chaucer, whose other lyrics probably inspired Chaucer.
Another of
Chaucer's works, the ABC of the virgin, clearly shows his French stamp
in that it is adapted from Deguileville's octave (rhyming ababbcbc), chief
rival of the rhyme royal (ababbcc), which Chaucer was to employ in several of
his works.
But as Emil
Legouis has pointed out (Legouis, 1989: 42-43) Chaucer's debt to France goes
beyond imitation, borrowing and echoes of style. He is definitely penetrated by
the spirit of the trouvères, aiming at expressing in English the beauty
that he found in the best poetry of France: and hence "he has the
light-heartedness of the trouvères, the same pleasure in life; their
very tone of voice, neither too low, very clear if perhaps rather thin. His
style is simple, fluent, unforced yet restrained, as temperate in emotion as in
laughter. But like the trouvères he is too talkative, he cannot
condense. His verse borders on prose, but it is always saved by its
cheerfulness and simplicity; its very faltering, when there is any, becomes and
added attraction and serves to point his most subtle shafts of wit. These
features are not mere characteristics of his early days, they were inherent in
him and will be found throughout his work".
2.4. THE ITALIAN
INFLUENCE
Chaucer's
journeys to Italy and France are of the utmost importance because they allowed
hím to come into contact with the literature of these two countries. It has
been suggested that Chaucer might have met Petrarch as he mentions visiting
Florence' in 1372. Whether it be certain or not is not so relevant as the fact
that Italy was then a cultural centre of unprecedented activity filled with the
spirit of Dante (who died half a century earlier), Petrarch (d. 1374) and
Boccaccio (d. 1375). And it applies to his contact with France, too, for French
and Italian poetry in the fourteenth century were accomplished when English
poetry was still tentative. Chaucer drew from them the stimulus and the example
that helped him to forge his verse, ideas and mood beyond the Channel.
Regarding
Italy, it has been suggested that the spirit of Chaucer was more congenial to
Boccaccio than to Dante or Petrarch, whose works may be more subtly assimilated
than those of the first. So, the House of Fame, has been interpreted as
a light-hearted imitation of the Divine Comedy, and it is known that
Chaucer mentions Petrach by name showing respect to him, although without
borrowing much, for he was too near the ancients and too much in advance of his
contemporaries on the way to the Renaissance. Curiously enough, there is no
mention of Boccaccio in Chaucer's works; however, it is more than clear that
many of the Canterbury Tales and other Chaucerian pieces are, as we
shall see, indebted to one or another of the works by the Italian.
This is the
case with The Parliament of Fowls, perhaps the first poem in which we
findd true Chaucerian values: fortunate blending of humour and pathos, adoption
and yet transcendence of medieval commonplaces (dream, catalogue of trees and
birds, digressions) and the faculty of composition that renders the poem a poem
and not a copy of verses.[2]
The House of
Fame, in three books, generally dated about 1379 and incomplete, might be a
reversion in metre (octosyllabic), plan (dream form) and episode (promiscuous
classical digression) to an earlier stage of French influence.[3] However,
the subtle influence of the Divine Comedy stated above should not be missed; it perhaps
suggested Chaucer the idea of a journey to regiosn unknown that he adroitly
turned to his own purpose.
But it is in Troilus
and Criseyde,[4] unanimously
considered as one of his greatest artistic achievements, where the traces of
Italian influence can be clearly seen and stated. It shows a direct influence
from The F'ilostrato, by Boccaccio, who in turn, had possibly borrowed
his theme from Guido delle Collogne's prose Latin Historia Troiana (13th
century), based itself on Le Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-More,
(12th century), originating in a Middle Ages' development in Latin of the tale
of Troy (Briseis, cause of the wrath of Achilles) unknown to classical
tradition and by the name of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius
(5th or 6th centuries).
Chaucer made
use of about 2600 lines of Boccacio's, partly translating, partly modifying
them. However, his contribution to the story is very great. He has basically
altered the character of Pandarus and he has added complexity and mystery to
Criseyde, making of both characters the main interest of the "novel",
because without losing its essential character of medieval romance (the
background being the medieval idea of the War of Troy) or abandoning the
convention of courtly love (terms of the relationship developing between the
couple), somehow, this work approaches considerably the scope of the
psychological novel.
The Legend of
Good Women. In decasyllabic couplets, not regularly used in
England but very common in France and which were for the following years to
replace the traditional octosyllabic couplet. It is handled by Chaucer with a
mastery not to be excelled till The Canterbury Tales. The story is about
famous and unhappy ladies of old, and its precedents can be traced back in
Ovid's Heroides (Epistles of the Heroines), and Boccaccio's De
claris mulieribus.
The Prologue
is considered to be the most valuable part of it because it is the most varied,
personal and complete utterance of Chaucer. He returns here to medieval
allegory (Garden of the Rose). Transitions of mood are also remarkable,
especially rapid shifting from the serious to the humorous which pervades the
whole piece and the metre, as in the rest of the story. Another interesting
feature is the frank enjoyment of nature and spring, his amusing description of
the God of Love's anger at him, the generous intercession of the Queen and the
enumeration of his own works. The work, however, was never finished.
2.5 THE CANTERBURY
TALES
Regarding The
Canterbury Tales, which form the matter of what is called Chaucer's English
period, we should say that the classical, French and Italian influences are at
work not necessarily as direct sources (although some of the stories such as
the "Knight's Tale" or the "Reeve's Tale" are positively
referred to Italian and French sources),[5] but rather as
operating factors under the form of conventions (the collection of tales),
traits of style (the decasyllabic couplets) or genres (the different medieval
genres proposed by Chaucer).
So, the
narrative framework of The Canterbury Tales (i.e., the scheme of
collecting and uniting stories by means of a central character) lends itself
very easily to be traced back to Boccaccio's Decameron. However, it is
unlikely that Chaucer knew that work, since he did not borrowed from it, and it
is posited that if he had known it, he would have certainly made use of it. There
is a closer analogy with Giovanni Sercambi's Novelle (1374), where we
can find the device of a pilgrimage with a leader and some byplay among the
stories, but, as different from Chaucer, all the stories are told by the
author, a pilgrim himself. The true thing is that the device was in the air of
the time and is, in fact one of the stock methods in the world, The Arabian
Nights and The Decameron itself being two of the most outstanding
examples of this method.
Similarly, a
coincidence of The Canterbury Tales with The Decameron is its
character of medieval compendium or anthology. All the great forms of the
European Middle Ages are to be found there: the courtly romance
("The Knight's Tale", "The Squire's Tale", "The Man of
Law's Tale"); the Breton lay ("The Franklin's Tale"), the
retelling of a classical legend ("The Physician's Tale"); the folk
tale ("The Wife of Bath's Tale"); the fabliaux ("The
Reeve's Tale", "The Miller's Tale ", "The Merchant's
Tale"); the saints' legend ("The Second Nun's Tale" about
Saint Cecilia); the miracle of the virgin ("The Prioress's
Tale"), the tragedy as understood by the Middle Ages ("The
monk's example" of great men's downfall); the exemplum or stories
to adorn sermons ("The Pardoner's Tale"); the sermon or didactic
treatise ("The Parson's Tale" and "Chaucer's Tale of
Melibeus"); and the beast fable ("The Nun's Priest's
Tale" about Chauntecleer and Dame Pertelot).
2.6 CHAUCER AND SPAIN
There is no
actual relationship between Chaucer and Spanish literature. However, we must
not forget that John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Chaucer's patron, was in
Spain from 1386 to 1389 claiming his title to the Spanish crown on account of
his marriage to his second wife, Constance of Castile. Some connections have
been established between the Infante Don Juan Manuel and Chaucer, especially in
relation to the common didacticism of both authors, but they are not wholly
conclusive.
On the other
hand, there are several mentions of Spain and Spanish history or geography
throughout the Canterbury Tales, but they are not indicative of any knowledge
or relationship of Chaucer with Spain deeper than with any other country.
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READINGS
THE BATTLE OF MALDON
Abrams et alii. (eds.). 1973, etc. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Vol. I. (Any available
edition: 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th)
[library]:
"The Middle Ages (To
1485)" up to the heading "The Norman Conquest and Its Effects"]
"[Introduction to] Beowulf"
"[Introduction to] The Battle of Maldon".
Bravo, Antonio.
1998. "Introducción". In Los lays heroicos y los cantos épicos
cortos en inglés antiguo pp. 8-44. Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo Servicio
de Publicaciones. [UJA: 820 BRA lay]
Bravo, Antonio.
1998. "Los cantos épicos históricos". In Los lays heroicos y los
cantos épicos cortos en inglés antiguo pp. 142-181 (especially pp. 162-181
referred to The Battle of Maldon"). Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo Servicio
de Publicaciones. [UJA: 820 BRA lay]
LA
CHANSON DE ROLAND
Gallegos, Castellón, María del
Carmen. 1983 Estudio comparativo de dos poemas épicos : Poema de mio Cid -
Cantar de Roldan. Granada: Universidad, Instituto de Ciencias de la
Educación, D. L. [library]
Jonin, Pierre. 1979. "Introduction" to his edition of La
Chanson de Roland. Paris: Folio. [library]
Siciliano, I. 1968. Les chansons de geste et l'épopeye: Mythes,
histoires, poèmes. Turin. Smith, Colin. 1998. "Introducción" to
his edition of Poema de Mio Cid. Madrid: Cátedra (Letras Universales). [library]
Victorio, Juan. 19974.
"Introducción" to his edition of the Cantar de Roldán. Madrid:
Cátedra (Col. Letras Universales).
POEMA DEL MÍO CID
Deyermond,
Alan. 1987. El "Cantar de Mio Cid" y la épica medieval española.
Barcelona: Sirmio. [Jaén, Casa de la Cultura: 860 DEY can].
Menéndez Pidal,
Ramón. 1969. "Los godos y el origen de la epopeya española". En Los
godos y la epopeya española: "Chansons de Geste" y baladas nórdicas.págs.
11-57. [Jaén, Casa de la Cultura de Jaén: P MEN god].
THE
SONG OF THE NIEBELUNGS
Bertau, K. 1972-73. Deutche
Literatur im europáischen Mittelalter. Munchen. 2 vols.
Beutin, Wolgang, et al. 1991. Historia
de la literatura alemana. Madrid: Cátedra. Pp. 39-41.
LE ROMAN DE LA ROSE
Riquer Martín de y José María
Valverde. 1955-58. Historia de la literatura universal. Vols. II.
Barcelona: Planeta. 10 vols. Pp. 312-320 for a critical account of Le roman
de la rose and a summary of the plot. [library]
Horvile, Robert (coordination).
1988. Histoire de la littérature française. Tome I: Moyen Age, XVIe
et XVIIe siècles. Paris: Nathan (Colectión Henri Mitterand).
"Le didactisme profane". Pp. 112-119 for a critical account of Le
roman de la rose. [library].
Prado, Javier del (coordinador)
et alii. 1994. Historia de la literatura francesa. Madrid: Cátedra
(Crítica y Estudios Literarios). See Sección 2.3 "La literatura
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didacticismo" (pp. 179-200). [library]
Victorio, Juan. 19984.
"Introducción" to his Spanish edition of Roman de la Rose. Madrid:
Cátedra (Letras Universales).
EL
LIBRO DEL BUEN AMOR
Blecua, Alberto. 19984.
"Introducción" to his edition of Libro de buen amor. Madrid:
Cátedra (Letras Universales). [library]
THE
DECAMERON
Hernández Esteban, María. 1994.
"Introducción" to her Spanish edition of El Decamerón. Madrid:
Cátedra (Letras Universales).
SET READINGS
To read in this order if possible:
Guyot, Ch. y E. Wegner (eds.).
1986. Cuentos de los vikingos: extraídos de las antiguas sagas. Palma de
Mallorca: José J. Olañeta, P. L. The following stories should be read at least:
"La muerte de Hjalmar" and "El viejo Stoerkodder". It is
highly recommendable to read "La ley de la sangre" (composed of the
following sagas: I. "Kiartan, el invencible", II. "La muerte de
Boddli" and III. "El vengador"). Students are encouraged at all
events to read the complete collection. [library]
Anon. "The Battle of
Maldon". In M. H. Abrams et alü. (eds.). 1973, etc. The Norton
Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Vol.
I. (Any available edition: 3rd, 4th , 5th, or
6th). [library]
Anon. "The Battle of
Maldon". In Notes on the Battle of Maldon (electronic edition of
the original text in Anglo-Saxon by Jonathan A. Glen, University of Central
Arkansa). Web page: http://www.uca.edu/english/ glenn/second/malnotes/ htm.
Anon. 1999. «"The Wife
Lament". Translation from the Anglo-Saxon by Granham Holderness». The
European English Messenger 8/2: 38-39.
Riquer Martín de y José María
Valverde. 1955-58. Historia de la literatura universal. Vols. II, pp.
139-141 Barcelona: Planeta. 10 vols. This for an extensive account of the plot
of La Chanson de Roland. [library]
Anon. 19974. Cantar de Roldán.
Juan Vitorio (ed. y trad.). Madrid: Cátedra (Col. Letras Universales). Laisses
LXXXVII-CLXIV. This excerpt could be confronted, for the benefit of those
students who can read French, with the Anglo-Norman and modern French edition:
Jonin, Pierre. 1979. La Chanson de Roland. Paris: Gallimard. Same
laisses as in the Spanish version. [library: 1994 edition]
Anon. 1998. Poema de Mio Cid.
Colin Smith (ed.). Madrid: Cátedra (Letras Universales). Tirades 34-121. This
reading could be supplemented with the resort to a translation into modern
Spanish such as Cardona, A. and J. Rafel. 1972. Poema de Mio Cid. Barcelona:
Editorial Bruguera. 4th edition). [library]
Lorenzo Criado, Emilio. 1994.
"Introducción" to his Spanish edition of Cantar de los Nibelungos.
Madrid: Cátedra. Pp. 20-27, for an extensive summary of the story. [library:
edition by Editorial Swan]
Anon. 1994. Cantar de los
Nibelungos. Emilio Lorenzo Criado (ed.). Madrid: Cátedra (Col. Letras
Universales). Canto I, strophes 1-5 in the German original with translation
into Spanish to see the actual shape of the primitive verse. Canto IV, "De
cómo luchó contra los sajones" (only in Spanish translation). [library:
edition by Editorial Swan]
Anon. 1994. Das
Nibelungenlied. Helmut Bracknett (ed. & translator into modern German).
Frankfurt am Main: Fischer. Excerpts of strophes 139 to 149 (4th
Adventure) just to see what the original is like in Middle High German.
Lorris, Gillaume and Jean de
Meun. 1987. Roman de la Rose. Juan Victorio (ed. y tr.). Madrid: Cátedra
(Letras Universales). Read the following excerpts: "La primavera",
pp. 42-43, 11. 45-83; "La verdadera nobleza", pp. 541-550, (ll.
18589-18714, 1873418754, 18886-18896 for correspondence with the text in
French offered below); "Historia de Pigmalión", pp. 600-611.
Lagarde, André et Laurent
Michard. 1985. Les grands auteurs français du programme. Anthologie et histoire littéraire: Moyen Ages. Paris: Bordas. [library]. Read the following excerpts: "Le
printemps", "La vraie noblesse" (excerpts from Le roman de la
rose), pp. 194-198.
Ruiz, Juan, Arcipreste de
Hita. 19984. Libro de buen amor. Alberto Blecua (ed.). Madrid: Cátedra
(Letras Universales). "Exiemplo de lo que conteçió a don Pitas Payas,
pintor de Bretaña", estrofas 467-489. [library]
Boccaccio, Giovanni.
1994. El Decamerón: Jornada octava, historia séptima: "Un escolar
ama a una viuda, la cual, ena.morada de otro, le deja esperándola una noche de
invierno en la nieve; luego él, dándole instrucciones, a mediados de julio, la
deja a ella completamente desnuda todo un día sobre una torre a las moscas, a
los tábanos y al sol". María Hernández Esteban (ed. y trad.). Madrid:
Cátedra (Letras Universales).
Boccaccio, Giovanni.
1994. El Decamerón: Jornada novena, historia sexta: "Dos jóvenes se
hospedan con uno, y uno de ellos va a acostarse con la hija de éste, y la
esposa de él, sin darse cuenta, se acuesta con el otro; el que estaba con la
hija se acuesta con el padre de ella y se lo dice todo, creyéndo que se lo dice
a su compañero; arman un escándalo entre ellos; la señora, al darse cuenta, se
mete en la cama con su hija y con unas palabras lo apacigua todo". María
Hernández Esteban (ed. y trad.). Madrid: Cátedra (Letras Universales).
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 1973, etc.
"The Miller's Tale". In M. H. Abrams et alii. (eds.) The Norton
Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Vol.
I. (Any available edition: 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th).
[library]
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 1951.
"The Miller's Tale". In The Canterbury Tales, translated into
modern English by Nevill Coghill's. Harmondsworth, Midlesex: Penguin. [library]
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 1951.
"The Reeve's Tale". In The Canterbury Tales, translated into
modern English by Nevill Coghill's. Harmondsworth, Midlesex: Penguin. [library]
[1] It is a narrative
poem in octosyllabic couplets, the customary French metre of the time, in the
form of a dream or vision, which was a very popular convention since Le
Roman de 1a rose. It is an elegy on the death of Blanche, the first wife of
John of Gaunt (d. 1369) and tells how the author fell asleep while reading
Ovid's tale of drowned Ceyx and Alcyone. He dreams that a man in black is
mourning the death of the lady he loves. He tells him that he has played a game
of chess with Fortune and has lost. The narrator does not seem to quite
understand and the man explains to him how he met the lady one day, persuaded
her to accept his heart and lived happily for many years. All this he relates
sadly and at length. Now he has lost her, the man tells him and becomes
submerged again in grief. A bell strikes in a nearby castle and the dreamer
awakes.
[2] It takes its theme from the popular belief than on St. Valentine's day the birds choose their mates and it accordingly represents a gathering of birds for that purpose into which the poet is introduced by means of a dream while reading Cicero's Somnium Scipionis in the edition and commentary by Macrobius. Three eagles aspire to be the mate of a female royal eagle and they address her in terms of courtly love. Nature bids her to choose, but she asks, and is granted, a year's delay to make her choice. There is much amusing by-play over the impatience of the lesser birds, who represent both in ideas and language the people from lower classes (the eagles being the Lords).
[3] In the flrst book the poet dreams that he is in the Temple of Venus, where he reads on the wall (and tells at length) the story of Dido and Aeneas (digression pleasantly related); at the end of the book he is seized by a golden eagle that carries him up to the House of Fame. The Second Book is completely taken up with the eagle's flight and is "one of the most delightful humorous episodes in literature provided by the eagle's friendliness and loquacity (it has been interpreted as an allegorical representation of Philosophy) contrasted with the poet utter terror ("Yes", "well", "nay"). High comedy. The third book describes what the poet finds at the House of Fame and the people he meets, how he is taken to the House of Rumour which is full of holes allowing all the rumours and gossip to escape and reach the House of Fame. The poem ends suddenly when we learn that the poet is about to hear an announcement from "a man of greet auctoritee".
[4] In some 8000 lines, in three skilfully ordered books which allow the story to steadily rise to a climax, and in stanzas of rhyme royal, it tells the tragic love story of Troilus and the young widow Criseyde, who later is unfaithful to him, death putting an end to his suffering. In the first book we witness the approaches of Troilus with the help of Pandarus (Criseyde's uncle) till he possesses her both body and soul and they enjoy three years of mutual love that cannot be more complete. In the last two books events move inevitably towards their tragic conclusion. Criseyde has to leave through an exchange of prisoners and once in the Greek camp she falls in love with her handsome escort Diomede, giving him the brooch which had been Troilus's parting gift.
[5] The former to Boccaccio's long poem Teseide; the latter to the French folkloric traditions of fabliaux.