The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485)

1.  概論General Introduction  and  2. 時代背景Historical Background

The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485), or medireview period, designates the time span from the collapse of the Roman empire to the Renaissance. For English literature the medireview period extends for more than eight hundred years, from Caedmon’s Hymn at the end of the seventh century to Everyman at the beginning of the sixteenth.  The date 1485, with the accession of Henry VII and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty, is an arbitrary but convenient one to mark the “end” of the Middle Ages.

Two periods—the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) and the Middle English—are sharply distinguished from each other as a result of the Norman Conquest of the island in 1066 and will be discussed separately in this unit.

Middle English Genres:  Courtly Romance; Breton Lay (short romantic poem, not a song); Fabliaux (fable-like short story with a snappy ending); Tragedy (through medireview eyes, at least); Exempla; Sermon (or didactic treatise); Beast Fable.

Medireview English Drama: Mystery, Miracle and Morality plays.