Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 61, fol. 1v
Language: English (Southeast Midland)
Manuscript date: ca. 1420
Chaucer wrote his “book of Troilus” about 1381–6; it survives in 16 manuscripts and the same number of fragments; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 61 is one of the earliest manuscripts. Only two others and an early Caxton print of the poem have illuminations, but the Corpus Christi College manuscript’s full-page illumination is much … Read the rest
London quickly received news of Henry V’s October 25, 1415, victory at Agincourt. Three days later, on October 28, the newly elected mayor, Nicholas Wotton, and many of London’s citizens processed on foot to Westminster to give thanks to God and praise for Henry before the queen and lords of the realm. In the month before the king arrived back in London on Saturday, November 23 (via Calais), the city … Read the rest
Church writers, national and local administrations, and interested observers of society regularly condemned their contemporaries’ extravagant behavior and appearance. Manners, carriage, gestures, diet, drink, clothing, makeup, and hairstyles all formed a complex aggregation thought to be specific to particular estates, classes, genders, sexualities, and occupations (see “Feasts,” p. 190). The pestilences of the later fourteenth century stimulated anxieties about social movement and personal transgressions, as evidenced in the legislation to … Read the rest
Tournaments were part of a knight’s training for war, and they became the ritualistic occasion for demonstrations of military prowess and the development of male social status. More mock battles than jousts in lists, tournaments began to flourish in the twelfth century and tended more and more towards theatrical and elaborately decorated ceremonies as the centuries progressed. Descriptions of chivalric criteria and tournaments appear in legal, historical, instructional, biographical, and … Read the rest
A
abay see bay
ac conj. but, and
adighten, adyghtyn v. adorn
adight, adyth p. adorned
advoutri(e) see avouteri(e)
after prep. according to
agayn see ayen
al conj. even if, although
alday adv. always, all the time
algate(s) adv. entirely, continually,
nevertheless
Alkaron n. Koran
almes(se) n. pl. alms (almes-dede,
good deed)
als, also adv. as, also, as well
and conj. and, if
anon(e) adv. at once, immediately
apeire, apaire … Read the rest
Enarratio, the analysis and exposition of texts, was part of the discipline of grammar, itself one of the three major areas of study within the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic or dialectic). Medieval grammar encompassed reading practices from simple grammar as we know it today to sophisticated literary interpretation. Enarratio means literally to lift a linguistic unit – a letter, syllable, word, or a longer passage – out of the … Read the rest
The English Language
Four principal dialects existed in late medieval England in addition to the western and northern Welsh and Scots. Latin was still the dominant institutional language and French was commonly spoken among the nobility and others. Gradually throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, written English would become the language of many kinds of records, replacing Latin and French. This complex linguistic situation, somewhat exacerbated by Lollardy, caused … Read the rest
Plays and Representations
Lollards often objected to any visual representation of religious subjects, including paintings, illuminations, and sculptures (even crosses) (see “Lollardy Trials,” p. 59, “Censorship,” p. 242, and the “Chaucer portrait: Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes,” p. 141). Such a rejection of images was part of a more general late medieval desire for unmediated communication with God and a relationship that was also outside established institutional conventions. Criticisms of … Read the rest
Style and Spectacle Feasts
Noble households were large socioeconomic enterprises, and meals were an integral part of their owners’ desire to display their status both at home and as they traveled around the countryside. Royal households employed anywhere from 300–800 indentured and other servants, while the households of lords and clergy employed an average of between 20 and 150 servants to perform the duties for the immediate family and its … Read the rest
Quick Sermons
Audience Reactions to Sermons
Medieval theoreticians and practitioners adapted the Classical arts of rhetoric – the artes dictaminis (letter-writing), artes poetriae (poetry), and artes praedicandi (speaking) – to their specific needs. The focus of the artes or ars praedicandi became the province of preachers, lawyers, and rulers, who learned the art of composing and delivering their sermons, arguments, and speeches. Very little, however, is known about the reception … Read the rest