Middle English Literature: A Historical Sourcebook

This collection of fourteenth– and fifteenth–century documents is designed for students of Chaucer and Middle English literature. It makes readily available accounts of key historical events and descriptions of pertinent cultural phenomena. The documents have been chosen to complement the themes and styles that appear in the literature, enabling students to compare fourteenth– and fifteenth–century creative writing with contemporary debates on a range of important topics such as friars, marriage, Lollardy, the perception of non–Western others, lechery, law, the revolt of 1382, books, and the English language. Twelve images are also included. Modern English translations have been used where the texts were originally written in Latin and French, but Middle English selections remain in Middle English, with glosses and explanatory footnotes where necessary. Succinct introductions help to place the documents in relation to historical, authorial, and manuscript contexts. Select bibliographies list other related medieval works and the most helpful secondary studies.

List of Literary Works and Related Topics. Table of Dates, 1325–1500. List of Plates. Acknowledgements. Map. Introduction. 1. Conventions And Institutions. Benedictine Rule. Friars. Humors. Marriage. Pilgrimage. Prioresses. 2 Force And Order. Battle of Agincourt. The English and England. Lollardy Trials. Usurpation. 3 Gender, Sexuality, And Difference. Amazons. Chastity, Marriage, Widowhood, And Virginity. The Far East. God’s Unknowability. Lechers And Sodomites. Saracens. Women: Margaret Paston. 4 Images. Lovell Lectionary. Anne Of Burgundy, Duchess Of Bedford, Before St. Anne. Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (Ellesmere). Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (Hengwrt). Chaucer Portrait: Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment Of Princes . Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde . Court Of King’s Bench. “Miracle Of The Boy Singer”. New College, Oxford University. Revolt: Jean Froissart, Chroniques. Richard Ii Presented To The Virgin And Christ. Royal Benefactors. 5 Labor And Capital. Guilds. Ordinance And Statute Of Laborers. Pestilence. The Revolt. 6 Style And Spectacle. Feasts. The Hunt. Pageants. Processions. Sumptuary. Tournaments. 7 Textualities. Audience Reactions To Sermons. Books. Censorship. Enarratio (Analysis And Exposition Of Texts). The English Language. Plays and Representations. Appendix: Currency, Income, Prices; Measures. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.

Matthew Boyd Goldie is Assistant Professor of English at Rider University.

"This astute and well–referenced collection offers numerous ports of embarcation for those seeking adventure in the turbulent and productive textual seas surrounding the more thoroughly explored masterworks of medieval literary culture." Paul Strohm, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor, University of Oxford "Intelligently chosen, carefully set out, and succinctly introduced...As far as documents can tell the story, this is the ′real world′ of our medieval writers." Derek Pearsall, Gurney Professor of English, Emeritus, Harvard University