★ Must-know
After the Norman Conquest, Norman French replaced Old English in official administration, Latin remained the Church’s language, and common people continued speaking varieties of Old English.
Middle English gradually absorbed many French words while retaining Anglo-Saxon grammatical features, including many irregular verbs and the genitive ’s.
William Caxton was the first printer in England, and his printing press helped standardize English; after 1477, the London variety became the predominant written form.
Further detail
Norman rule → French administration → English absorbs French vocabulary
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Under the feudal system, the king granted land to lords, who controlled their territories, maintained armies, protected peasants, and owed military service to the king.
Medieval society was divided among the Church, which held spiritual authority; the aristocracy, which held military and political power; and peasants, who provided food and materials.
Hardships included:
Further detail
A middle class, especially merchants, emerged toward the end of the Medieval Period.
The Church taught that earthly life was a vale of tears, suffering was temporary, and faithful people would be rewarded in Heaven; disasters could be interpreted as punishment for sin.
Excommunication excluded a person from the Church and was considered especially severe because it threatened that person’s salvation.
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Medieval literature included oral songs, poems, and folk ballads, while poetry remained the dominant literary form.
Medieval poetry often used alliterative verse, allegory, chivalric codes of honour, and religious themes, and it was frequently didactic.
📌 A medieval romance originally meant a story written in a Romance language, especially Old French, rather than necessarily a love story.
Further detail
Abstract ideas represented include:
Traditional subjects included:
Allegory tells a literal story while also conveying symbolic meaning
Geoffrey Chaucer, nicknamed the Father of English Literature, wrote The Canterbury Tales, dated approximately to 1387.
Chaucer chose to write in English rather than Latin or Norman French, helping establish English as an important literary language.
The Canterbury Tales is framed by a pilgrimage to Canterbury, one of the rare occasions when people from different social classes could travel together.
In The Canterbury Tales, pilgrims from varied social backgrounds and professions tell one another stories during their journey, creating a comic, ironic, serious, and moral portrait of medieval society.
A cross-section of medieval society travels together, sharing stories on the road to Canterbury
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an anonymous verse poem dated approximately 1375–1400 and belonging to the Arthurian tradition.
His knightly virtues include:
🔄 The challenge unfolds as follows:
The poem presents Gawain’s failure as evidence that human perfection is unattainable and that he remains responsible for his choices because nobody forces him to act as he does.
Further detail
📌 Unlike Beowulf, who fights to save other people, Gawain fights to prove that he is a perfect knight; the poem draws on French romances, especially stories associated with Chrétien de Troyes.
Gawain seeks to prove his own perfection, unlike Beowulf, who fights to save others
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Pearl is an anonymous poem dated approximately 1375–1400 and consisting of 101 stanzas.
The poem combines:
In Pearl, a grieving father dreams of his dead baby daughter, who tells him that she is happy in Heaven and that they will be reunited in the next world, not this one.
The lost pearl represents the daughter’s preciousness and purity, and therefore her innocence.
Further detail
A father sees his lost pearl—his innocent daughter—in a heavenly dream vision
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The Vision of Piers Plowman is a dream vision written around 1380 by William Langland, who was probably a cleric in England or Wales in the 14th century.
Piers Plowman is a long allegorical, didactic poem about Christianity that also offers social criticism.
Its lesson is to:
Piers, a humble and uncorrupted peasant, represents the ideal Christian, whom Langland presents as more deserving of salvation than the Pope of Rome and his corrupt Church.
In the poem’s dream landscape, the Dungeon of Wrong, also called Care, represents Hell, the Tower of Light represents Heaven, and people in between must choose their path through free will.
Further detail
The humble peasant embodies Christian virtue, unlike the corrupt clergy criticized in the poem
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Bacon studied optics and developed ideas by direct observation and experimentation rather than beginning with a theory or relying exclusively on established authorities.
John Wycliffe, who lived approximately from 1320 to 1384, was an English theologian, philosopher, and Church reformer associated with promoting the first complete English Bible translation for people able to read.
Wycliffe challenged papal authority, criticized Church corruption and indulgences, and was associated with the Lollards, who later propagated his critical view of the Church of Rome.
Further detail
His works covered:
Wycliffe’s ideas anticipated some aspects of the Protestant Reformation, although he lived well before the Reformation itself.
Bacon tests nature through observation; Wycliffe challenges Church authority and promotes an English Bible
★ Must-know
Sir Thomas Malory’s identity is uncertain, and he wrote Le Morte d’Arthur around 1470 while in prison.
Malory’s prose compilation brings together Arthurian legends, including the fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail, a cup associated with Jesus and believed to have miraculous powers.
📌 Malory presents chivalry as an ideal while also showing its disillusioning contradictions and human weaknesses.
Further detail
📌 Malory’s work draws on French romances but emphasizes fellowship among the Round Table knights more than courtly love, which was central to works by Chrétien de Troyes.
Malory’s compilation brings previously unconnected stories together into a comprehensive Arthurian cycle and helps construct an English literary history through translation and adaptation.
Tintagel in Cornwall is traditionally associated with Arthurian legend, but no historical proof establishes that Arthur lived there or that the castle was his.
Malory presents chivalric ideals while showing how desire and betrayal undermine them
★ Must-know
Medieval English drama was mainly religious, though secular drama also existed, and Greek and Roman plays were not widely known in England during the early Middle Ages.
English medieval drama developed in connection with religious festivals, especially Christmas and Easter, and helped teach Christian faith to audiences who generally could not understand the Church’s Latin.
The three types were:
Further detail
A performance involves attention to:
Many early religious plays were written and performed by clergy as educational works, sometimes called the books of the illiterate, to explain human history, biblical stories, and salvation.
Limited literacy → religious plays teach biblical stories and salvation to audiences
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Mystery plays dramatized major events from the Old and New Testaments, from Creation to the Last Judgment, in chronological cycles presenting the history of salvation.
The traditional York, Chester, and Wakefield mystery-play cycles contained 48, 24, and 32 plays respectively.
A pageant wagon was a mobile stage that could move between towns or locations within a town, bringing performances to audiences.
Further detail
Episodes included:
Local craft guilds often organized and performed mystery plays, and performances took place in streets and public spaces rather than requiring a permanent theatre.
The original Coventry Corpus Christi cycle is almost entirely lost, with only two plays surviving; it is distinct from the collection formerly called Ludus Coventriae, now generally known as the N-Town Plays.
A travelling wagon brings Bible-story scenes directly to crowds in town streets
★ Must-know
📌 Miracle plays dramatized the lives, legends, and miracles of Roman Catholic saints such as the Virgin Mary, Saint George, and Saint Nicholas, unlike mystery plays, which staged biblical events.
Morality plays appeared particularly in the 15th century and often used an ordinary man called Everyman to represent all humanity.
Morality plays explored the struggle between good and evil, temptation, and the importance of making right decisions through allegorical characters representing ideas, virtues, or vices.
Further detail
Some morality plays used stage areas to represent Heaven, Earth, and Hell, but this arrangement was not universal.
Very few examples of medieval secular drama survive; the notes identify Robin Hood and De Clerico et Puella among them.
Mummers’ Plays were folk performances associated with dancing, music, and traditional characters; mummers were masked or disguised performers, and not all performances were entirely silent.
Mystery plays stage biblical events, miracle plays saints’ lives, and morality plays moral struggle
| Type | Subject | Typical form |
|---|---|---|
| Mystery | Biblical events | Chronological plays in cycles |
| Miracle | Saints’ lives and miracles | Saint legends |
| Morality | Good and evil, temptation | Allegorical characters |
| Work or figure | Ideal | Tension |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Gawain | Perfect knighthood | Gawain fails to attain perfection |
| Malory’s Arthurian cycle | Chivalry and kingship | Human weakness and betrayal undermine the ideal |
| Lancelot | Bravery and loyalty | Love for Guinevere conflicts with loyalty to Arthur |
Take a 10-question practice quiz on Medieval English Literature, with every answer explained.
1. Which dates mark the beginning and end of the Medieval Period in England?
2. Under the feudal system, which arrangements linked kings and lords?
Memorize the key concepts of Medieval English Literature with 10 flashcards.
When did the Medieval Period, or Middle English Period, begin and end?
It ran from 1066 to 1485.
Which language did common people speak after the Norman Conquest?
Varieties of Old English.
Under feudalism, what did the king grant to lords?
Land.
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