Medieval English Literature
Medieval English Literature is the first volume of the comprehensive Oxford Anthology of English Literature to be published in a second, expanded, and fully revised edition. It provides an authoritative and representative selection from the vast riches of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature of the period between AD 700 and AD 1500. The texts are presented either in full or in ample selections, helpfully and fully glossed and annotated according to the most recent scholarship. They are...
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Medieval English Literature is the first volume of the comprehensive Oxford Anthology of English Literature to be published in a second, expanded, and fully revised edition. It provides an authoritative and representative selection from the vast riches of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature of the period between AD 700 and AD 1500. The texts are presented either in full or in ample selections, helpfully and fully glossed and annotated according to the most recent scholarship. They are situated in their cultural context through general and particular introductions and through the carefully chosen illustrations, many of them new. Texts, annotations, introductions, and the bibliography have been thoroughly revised and brought up to date, and there is a full glossary of literary and historical terms. Anglo-Saxon poetry appears in modern verse translation. In addition to the whole of Beowulf (Edwin Morgan's translation), elegies, The Dream of the Rood, and The Battle of Maldon, there is a sampling of wisdom literature and of biblical epic made with particular reference to the situation of women in Anglo-Saxon society. The generous choice of Chaucer's poetry, in a lightly modernized, glossed text, now includes, as well as the General Prologue and the tales of the Miller, the Nun's Priest, the Wife of Bath (with her Prologue), the Franklin, and the Pardoner, an extract from The Legend of Good Women, and others from the Scottish Chaucerians Henryson and Dunbar. For romance, the whole of the third book of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and the entire text of Sir Orfeo, both glossed, have been added to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (revised translation by Keith Harrison). The selections from Malory's Morte Darthur have been augmented, as have the translated extracts from The Visions of Piers Plowman (with the account of the Harrowing of Hell). Modernized versions of the Chester Play of Noah and the Seven Deadly Sins episode from The Castle of Perseverance join the Second Shepherds' Play and Everyman in the Theater section. Ballads and lyric poetry have also been changed and amplified to link with a notable innovation: the section entitled Women's Writing and Women's Experience, an introduction to Middle English prose written by and for women.
Editors' PrefaceIntroduction: Medieval English LiteratureOld English Poetry1Caedmon's Hymn1Beowulf2Judith78from The Death of Holofernes79Elegies81The Wanderer81The Wife's Complaint85The Husband's Message86Wulf and Eadwacer89Enigmas and Wisdom89The Queen and the Frisian Wife89Riddles90Genesis B93from The Temptation of Eve93The Dream of the Rood94The Battle of Maldon100Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1343-1400111The Canterbury Tales122General Prologue124The Miller's Prologue and Tale148The Nun's Priest's Prologue and Tale167Two Other Fox Stories186from The Bestiary186from Robert Henryson, Fables187The Fox and the Wolf188The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale192William Dunbar225from The Two Married Women and the Widow225The Franklin's Prologue and Tale229Gentilesse252The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale252from The Legend of Good Women270The Legend of Thisbe of Babylon271Troilus and Criseyde276Robert Henryson324The Complaint of Cresseid325Chaucer's Words unto Adam, His Own Scribe329Chaucer's Retractions330Romance332Sir Orfeo333Thomas the Rhymer349The Land of Cokaygne352Sir Gawain and the Green Knight356Sir Thomas Malory417The Visions of Piers Plowman439from The Prologue441from Passus I447from Passus XVIII453Theater460The Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play466The Chester Play of Noah487Everyman496from The Castle of Perseverance: The Seven Deadly Sins518Women's Writing and Women's Experience530Ancrene Wisse (A Guide for Anchoresses)534Holy Maidenhood (A Letter on Virginity)534Saint Scholastica538The Book of Margery Kempe540What So Men Sayn545Middle English Lyrics547Spring549Now Springs the Spray550Sumer Is Ycomen In550The Thrush and the Nightingale551Alison556Separated Lovers557Western Wind558He Is Far558I Have a Young Sister558The Maid of the Moor559The Agincourt Carol560Bring Us in Good Ale561I Have Set My Heart So High562All Too Late562A Woman Sat Weeping563Divine Love564I Sing of a Maiden565Of One That Is So Fair and Bright566Adam Lay Ybounden567Corpus Christi Carol568Ballads569The Cherry-Tree Carol571The Two Magicians573The Carpenter's Wife [The Demon Lover]575The Wife of Usher's Well576The Unquiet Grave578Lord Randal579The Three Ravens580The Birth of Robin Hood581Sir Patrick Spence583William Dunbar, c. 1460-c. 1514/15585Lament for the Makers585William Caxton, 1415/24-1492589The Proem to The Canterbury Tales590from The Preface to The Aeneid592Glossary595Suggestions for Further Reading615Author and Title Index623First-Line Index625
