A Literary History of the English People, from the Origins to the Renaissance Flashcards
J. J. (Jean Jules) Jusserand · Public domain edition · 425 cards · 115 chapters
Jusserand argues that English literature reflects the character of the English people across their history. The deck covers his account of Saxon temperament, Chaucer’s life and aims, and early Celtic customs and literary figures.
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Chapter 2 · Question
What does the author say his descriptions of Saxons as sad and solemn actually mean?
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Chapter 2 · Answer
The author explains that calling Saxons a sad, solemn race without a gift for repartee does not mean they all wept for six centuries or never answered questions. All men share human qualities; the passages only imply that one quality was more developed in one race and another in a different race. He asks readers to allow for the roughness of speech as an instrument for measuring ideas.
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Section 24 cards
What does the author say his descriptions of Saxons as sad and solemn actually mean?
The author explains that calling Saxons a sad, solemn race without a gift for repartee does not mean they all wept for six centuries or never answered questions. All men share human qualities; the passages only imply that one quality was more developed in one race and another in a different race. He asks readers to allow for the roughness of speech as an instrument for measuring ideas.
Chapter 2
What excuse does the author offer for writing this book, and what anecdote illustrates it?
The author says the true reason is like the London cabman's: when asked why he wanted sixpence more than the proper fare, the cabman replied, "I should like it so!" The author admits he might allege various reasons but the real one is the same—he did it because he could not help it and loved it so. He signs the preface "J." on All Souls Day, 1894.
Chapter 2
What does the author describe as happening in the doleful hour after finishing a book?
The author describes a doleful hour when, retracing his steps, he thinks of what he attempted, the task's difficulties, and the unlikeliness of overcoming them. Misprints dance round him like black, thorny creatures; he is awe-stricken and wonders at his boldness, asking "Qu'allait-il faire dans cette galere?" Usually he finds excuses, prints them or not, and recovers his spirits.
Chapter 2
Why does the author say his earlier subjects were easier to justify than this one?
The author says his previous works—on roadway stragglers, Piers Plowman, Count Cominges, and Tudor novelists—were largely left-off subjects to which no books had been dedicated, so the attempt could not be considered an undue intrusion. In the present case, he asks what excuse can be found when so many have written, and so well too.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
What roles did Chaucer hold besides being a poet, according to the chapter?
The chapter notes that Chaucer was a member of Parliament and served as Clerk of the king's works. These official positions place him within the practical, administrative life of his time rather than in purely literary isolation, which the chapter connects to his gift for observing real life and its details.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter distinguish Chaucer's aim from Boccaccio's in their tale collections?
The chapter compares Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' with Boccaccio's 'Decameron' and treats their aims as different. It stresses Chaucer's variety, his speakers and listeners, and the dialogues among the pilgrims. Where Boccaccio's frame serves the tales, Chaucer's pilgrims themselves become part of the work's substance and humour.
Chapter 3
What kinds of tales does the chapter say Chaucer's collection includes?
The chapter lists facetious and coarse tales, plain ones, fairy tales, tales of common life, heroic deeds, and grave examples, ending with a sermon. This range supports the chapter's emphasis on Chaucer's variety and on the part he allots to 'lowe men' in his picture of real life.
Chapter 3
According to the chapter, what qualities of Chaucer does it single out for praise?
The chapter praises Chaucer's care for truth, his good sense, and his language and versification. It also discusses his relation to the Anglo-Saxons and to the French, presenting him as a poet rooted in real life with humour and sympathy, and allotting a part to 'lowe men.'
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
What did Caesar observe about the interior Britons' diet and dress?
Caesar writes that most people of the interior do not sow but live on milk and flesh and clothe themselves in skins. He also notes that all Britons stain themselves dark blue with woad, giving them a terrible aspect in battle, wear their hair long, and shave the whole body except hair and moustaches.
Chapter 4
What did the Celts believe about death, according to the chapter?
The chapter states Celtic belief held the soul immortal and death not a goal but a link between two existences. The dead lived again under the light of heaven, not in a subterranean realm of shades like the Latin underworld. The author notes this made the race optimistic, and the druids carefully fostered these beliefs.
Chapter 4
Why does Ireland preserve the oldest Celtic literature?
Ireland was not affected by the Roman Conquest, and the barbarian invasions did not cause the total ruin they brought to England and the Continent. So Celtic literature had a longer period of development there, and clerks of the seventh and eighth centuries wrote down ancient epic tales in which pagan origins constantly reappear.
Chapter 4
How did the File differ from the bards?
The chapter says the File, or seers, never invented but remembered, and were obliged to know not any stories whatsoever but certain particular tales, with lists of them found. The corporation was divided into ten classes, from the Oblar who knew only seven stories to the Ollam who knew three hundred and fifty.
Chapter 4
Section 54 cards
What qualities does the chapter say mark Celtic authors of this period?
The author argues Celtic authors of the period are remarkable for the sense of form and beauty, the dramatic gift, and fertility of invention. He notes this is all the more striking because the epoch was barbarous, with many passages recalling the people's wild savagery, and he compares their slaughter scenes to those of the oldest Germanic poems.
Chapter 5
How does Cuchulainn die in the legend quoted in the chapter?
Mortally wounded, Cuchulainn fixes his eye on the hostile group and leans against a high stone in the plain, fastening his body to it with his belt. He refuses to die sitting or lying, insisting he will die standing. His enemies gather but dare not approach, since he seems still alive. The chapter says not even Roland or Ragnar Lodbrok die more heroically.
Chapter 5
What is the mainspring of the story 'The Murder of the Sons of Usnech'?
The chapter says woman plays the principal part and love is the mainspring of the story, by which the heroes are led to death, a thing not found elsewhere in European literature of the period. Yet the author insists the heroes are no fragile dreamers; setting aside their love and considering only their ferocity, they are worthy of Woden's Walhalla.
Chapter 5
What does the chapter say the Celtic makers created, and how did Macpherson's work affect their fame?
The author credits the Celtic makers with an inexhaustible fertility of invention: they created the cycle of Conchobar, then that of Ossian, then the cycle of Arthur, most brilliant and varied of all. Macpherson's 'adaptations' of Ossian gave it world-wide renown, and in the author's own century they directed Lamartine's early steps towards poetry.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
Who began the real Roman conquest of Britain, and how long did Roman rule last?
The real conquest took place under the emperors, beginning from the reign of Claudius, and for three centuries and a half Britain was occupied and ruled by the Romans. Caesar's earlier expeditions ended with hostages, and after his second journey he departed never to return.
Chapter 6
What infrastructure and buildings did the Romans establish in Britain?
They built a network of roads whose remains still subsist, marked distances by milestones (sixty found, one still standing at Chesterholm), and raised two great walls against the people of Scotland, one in stone flanked by towers and protected by moats. British hut groups became cities, and villas rose in York, Bath, London, and many other places.
Chapter 6
Which emperors came to Britain, and what notable events occurred at York?
Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius came to Britain, either to win the title "the Britannic" or to enjoy the charms of peace. Severus died at York in 211, Caracalla began his reign there, Constantius Chlorus lived and died there, and Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor in the same city.
Chapter 6
Which tribe does Tacitus mention that later overthrew Roman civilization in Britain?
Tacitus, after describing Agricola's campaigns and Germany, enumerated its principal tribes and mentioned one he calls Angli. He gives the name and says no more, little suspecting their future role. The author states their first famous act was to overthrow the political order and sweep away the civilisation Agricola's conquests had established among the Britons.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
According to Tacitus, why must Germany always have been inhabited by the same people?
Tacitus paints Germany as a dismal land of bitter sky and sad soil, and reasons that no one would immigrate there willingly from Asia, Africa, or Italy. Since it was nonetheless inhabited, he concludes it must always have held the same people. The author notes the inhabitants loved this land of clouds and morasses as their home and remained there.
Chapter 7
Into what two principal branches does the chapter divide the Teutonic peoples?
The chapter divides the Teutonic peoples into a Germanic branch proper—including Goths, Angles, Saxons, upper and lower Germans, Dutch, Frisians, Lombards, Franks, and Vandals—and a Scandinavian branch settled farther north, composed of Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. The author says these tribes later had as capitals towns founded long before by Celts: London, Vienna, Paris, and Milan.
Chapter 7
How does the chapter characterize the two great Teutonic invasions of the first ten centuries?
The author says the Teutonic race twice hurled savage hordes upon the civilized world. The first invasion, most vehement in the fifth century, was mainly Germanic tribes: Angles, Franks, Saxons, Burgundians, Vandals. The second, most destructive in the ninth century under Charlemagne's successors, came mostly from Scandinavian tribes, called Danish or Norman by contemporary chroniclers.
Chapter 7
What does the chapter say the Germanic tribes lacked and preserved before the invasions?
The chapter describes the Germanic tribes as continually at war, without riches or culture, ignorant and savage, preserving their strength and ferocity. They hated peace, despised the arts, and had no literature but drinking and war-songs. The author argues they were powerful but incomplete natures, needing an admixture of new blood and new ideas, which they were to find in Britain.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
What evidence does the author give against the total annihilation of the Celts?
The author argues the massacre theory is impossible: Caesar noted Britain's dense population, and the invaders faced an intelligent, assimilable race. Chroniclers mention general massacres only at Chester and Anderida, suggesting these were exceptional. Excavations show Britons and Saxons buried side by side, and Celtic/Latin town names like London and York survive, indicating the natives were not destroyed.
Chapter 8
How did Germanic place names differ from Celtic or Latin ones in England?
The author states that the conquerors' encampments became boroughs bearing Germanic family or tribe names, such as Nottingham, Buckingham, and Glastonbury. Older, more important towns retained Celtic or Latin names, including London, York, Lincoln, Winchester, Dover, Cirencester, and Manchester. The Anglo-Saxons did not destroy these towns, since they still exist, though they largely avoided living in cities.
Chapter 8
What does the author say about the Anglo-Saxons' attitude toward cities?
The author states that the Anglo-Saxons, like all Germans, had a horror of sojourning in cities. They avoided towns, regarding them as tombs, and thought living in towns was like burying oneself alive. This helps explain why they settled in fields and encampments rather than the older Roman towns, whose populations they only feebly mingled with.
Chapter 8
How does the author explain the Anglo-Saxons' rapid change in manners?
The author argues the preservation of the pre-established race explains it: the roving pirates lost their taste for maritime adventure and built no more ships. The fertility of the conquered land, and the facility of turning it to account through the labour of others, moderated their instincts. Tacitus noted Germans cultivated only what was necessary; the Anglo-Saxons recalled romanised husbandmen to their toil and took the fruits.
Chapter 8
Section 94 cards
Why did Latin survive in France but not in England after the Germanic invasions?
The author argues two causes: the Germans came to France in much smaller numbers and had long contact with Romans, and Gaul's romanising was more complete—Gaul prided itself on purest Latin and best poets. In England the invaders were numerous enough to destroy Latin civilisation's monuments, leaving only shapeless remnants.
Chapter 9
How did Clovis and the Franks come to adopt Roman ideas according to the chapter?
The author argues the victor had to reckon with the vanquished, who became allies rather than slaves. Latin tradition was so powerful that Clovis donned the toga and chlamys, became a patrice, and ascribed his power to the emperor. He was imbued with the Roman notion of the State and tried to mould Franks, Gallo-Romans, and Visigoths into one.
Chapter 9
What happened to the Britons and their language under Germanic settlement?
The Britons subsisted in large numbers even in eastern and southern counties, but as a conquered race—tilling the ground and doing manual labour in cities. Wales and Cornwall remained refuges for independent Celts preserving idiom and traditions. Elsewhere the national tongue lost ground; the Britons, swift to learn, forgot Celtic, then Latin, and learned their masters' language.
Chapter 9
Why does the chapter say the new empire in Gaul had nothing Germanic but its name?
In France the vanquished taught the victors their language; the grandsons of Clovis wrote Latin verses, and poems in a Romance idiom made Karl the Frank into Charlemagne. Thus the new empire founded in Gaul had nothing Germanic save the name—and that name, France, has survived.
Chapter 9
Section 104 cards
What prosodic feature marks Anglo-Saxon verse instead of rhyme or equal syllables?
The author explains that Anglo-Saxon verse is measured by about the same number of accents rather than an equal number of syllables, and lacks rhyme. Instead it uses alliteration, the repetition of the same letters at the beginning of certain syllables. Each long verse has four accented syllables, divided by a caesura into two short verses bound by alliteration, with two accented syllables in the first and one in the second.
Chapter 10
Why does the author say Anglo-Saxon poems are so hard to date and localize?
The author argues that the steady, slow-developing Anglo-Saxon genius produced works so similar in tastes and tendencies that dating and localizing them is extremely difficult. Late manuscripts preserve the oldest pagan conceptions, showing continuity of taste. Even Cynewulf, the only poet known by name whose works are signed, has been placed anywhere from 720-730 by Ten Brink to the eleventh century by Earle.
Chapter 10
How does Anglo-Saxon poetry compare with Scandinavian poetry, according to the chapter?
The author states that the Anglo-Saxon, German, and Scandinavian tribes spoke dialects of the same tongue and preserved common traditions. Comparing Grein's Anglo-Saxon Library with Powell and Vigfusson's Corpus Poeticum Boreale, the resemblances are striking and the differences few. Beowulf and the saga of Gretti, Waldhere and the Niblung-Volsung tales, turn on the same incidents or heroes, representing a similar ideal of life and manners.
Chapter 10
What two master passions does the author say the Anglo-Saxons did or did not share?
The author argues that of the two master passions Cato attributed to the Gauls, the Anglo-Saxons shared only the love of war, rem militarem; the other, argute loqui (speaking cleverly), was unknown to them. Contrary to Celtic literature, Anglo-Saxon works have no place for light gaiety or subtle shades of feeling. The new settlers are strong, but not agile.
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
Where were most surviving Germanic and Scandinavian literary works preserved, and why?
The chapter states that the greater number of monuments of ancient Germanic and Scandinavian literature survived in the remotest countries where the race settled, because distance better sheltered them from wars, so songs and manuscripts were more easily saved from destruction. It compares this to Celtic tales, most of which survive in Ireland, and notes most pieces in the 'Corpus Poeticum Boreale' come from Icelandic documents.
Chapter 11
What traits does the chapter attribute to the northern heroes' speech and sentiment?
The author argues that nuances and refined sentiments escape such heroes: they do not describe beauty, flowers, or women's cheeks, and have no aptitude for light repartee—they do not play, they kill, and their jests fell the adversary. Gudrun's mocking speech to Attila about eating his sons' hearts is described by the poet as 'a word of mockery,' and Loki's exchange with the gods is of the same order.
Chapter 11
What does the chapter say about the Anglo-Saxon war-song and the Brunanburh poem?
The chapter says the war-song stayed persistently in favour among the Anglo-Saxons, keeping its haughty pride and ferocity, and its cruel accents recur even in pious poems and monastic chronicles. It quotes the Brunanburh song celebrating Æthelstan and Edmund's victory, where the poet rejoices over corpses and calls the raven, eagle, and war hawk to share the carcases, dwelling complacently on the carnage.
Chapter 11
How does the chapter describe the emotional swings of these northern and Anglo-Saxon peoples?
The author argues these strong men veer from dauntless courage to being daunted by shadows and vague thoughts, and that their world seemed old to them already, with causeless regrets, vain sorrows, and disgust of life; no literature produced more disconsolate poems. He adds that the mild 'serenite' of classical tendencies was unknown to them, and no Norman Conquest, Angevin rule, or 'Augustan' imitation could force the word into the language.
Chapter 11
Section 123 cards
What is Beowulf described as, and how was it preserved and discovered?
The author calls Beowulf the most important monument of Anglo-Saxon literature. It was discovered at the end of the last century in a manuscript written about the year 1000, now held in the British Museum. Few works have been more discussed, and scholars from England, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, and America have taken part in literary wars over it that have not yet ended.
Chapter 12
How does the chapter explain the composition and religious inconsistency of Beowulf?
The poem is a medley of pagan legends that did not originally concern Beowulf, plus historical facts, each part having had a separate literary life. An Anglo-Saxon Christian, perhaps in the eighth century or later, combined them and added new discrepancies while adapting the old tale to his faith. Its heroes are at once pagan and Christian, believing in Christ and Weland, fighting Scandinavian monsters they see as descendants of Cain.
Chapter 12
What does the chapter say the Beowulf ideal of happiness consisted of?
The author argues happiness then meant satisfying simple, primitive tastes: fighting well, then eating and drinking heartily, listening to songs and music, and enjoying sound sleep. Possessing many rings, handsome weapons, and treasure was indispensable, so some rings and jewels were buried with the chief, 'useless to men,' a line the author notes carries a touch of regret. Grief was considered childish; Beowulf says avenging a friend is better than mourning exceedingly.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
How does the chapter characterize Beowulf's verbal style in his exchange with Hunferth?
The author argues Beowulf's retorts are blunt and forceful rather than graceful: he uses the iron hammer, not the feathered arrow. Taunted by Hunferth about a swimming match, Beowulf answers with a strong speech reducible to liar, drunkard, coward, murderer. Hrothgar's warriors are not indignant but rather laugh, like the Scandinavian gods trading insults.
Chapter 13
What landscape and weather imagery does the chapter say Anglo-Saxon poets dwell on?
The author argues their souls delight in bleak boreal climes: north wind, frost, hail, ice, howling tempest and raging seas recur as often as blue waves and sunlit blossoms in southern writings. Descriptions are short except for ice, snow, or the surge of the sea, where the poets linger complacently and their tongue loosens. The longest in Beowulf describes the monsters' abode.
Chapter 13
What does the sparrow simile, spoken by an Anglo-Saxon chief before King Eduini, illustrate?
According to Bede, a chief in Eduini's council compared human life to a sparrow flying through a warm winter hall from one door to another: briefly sheltered, then gone back into the cold. What came before and what follows, we know not. The author says this anxiety about death persisted in Puritans, Bunyan, Dr. Johnson, and Cowper.
Chapter 13
How does the chapter contrast the northern view of death with the classical French attitude?
The author argues northern races were harassed by the idea of death, while classical equanimity, as among the French, held that one should not poison life with it and need only remember death when its hour strikes. Mademoiselle de Sevigne answered that her hands were not decayed yet; La Fontaine said one retires from life discreetly, as from a banquet.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
What are the three main versions of the epic material mentioned in the chapter?
The chapter states that the most ancient fragments of this epic survive in the verse Edda; a complete version exists in Icelandic prose, the Volsunga Saga, from the twelfth century; and the German version, the Nibelungenlied, dates from the end of the same century.
Chapter 14
Which manuscript contains Beowulf, and how long is the poem?
The Beowulf manuscript is in the British Museum, Cotton Vitellius A. xv., written toward the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century; it also contains Judith. The poem has 3,183 long lines of alliterative verse in 41 sections, less than a third the length of the Aeneid.
Chapter 14
What does the Exeter manuscript contain and who gave it to Exeter?
The Codex Exoniensis, written in the tenth or eleventh century, was given in 1046 by Leofric, first bishop of Exeter, to the cathedral library there, where it remains. It contains many poetic pieces, including Christ, Guthlac, Phenix, Wanderer, Seafarer, Widsith, Panther, Whale, Deor, Ruin, and Riddles.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about the Vercelli and Junius xi manuscripts?
The Codex Vercellensis, kept at Vercelli in Lombardy and written in the eleventh century, contains Andreas, The Departed Soul's Address to the Body, Dream of the Holy Rood, and Elene. The Bodleian MS. Junius xi., written in the tenth century, holds a poetical version of part of the Bible, some attributed to Caedmon.
Chapter 14
Section 154 cards
What did Augustine preach to the Anglo-Saxon warriors upon arriving in 597?
Augustine, prior of St. Martin of Rome, was sent by Gregory the Great and arrived in 597. He taught the Germanic pirates to be kind and worship the God of the weak, who unlike Woden rewards not valour but mercy. The chapter notes these ideas, now familiar, must have caused amazement among warriors who counted on dying in battle so the Valkyrias might carry them to Walhalla.
Chapter 15
How does the chapter describe the initial Anglo-Saxon conversion?
The chapter states the conversion was at first superficial and limited to outward practices: the warrior bent the knee but his heart remained the same. Converts remained doubtful between old manners and new beliefs, and after repentance and relapses a chieftain might die better prepared for Walhalla than Paradise. Contradictory faiths were held side by side: Christ was believed in, but Woden was still feared and secretly appeased.
Chapter 15
How did Anglo-Saxons' obedience to the new religion differ from St. Paul's counsel?
St. Paul had said obedience should be qualified by reason, but the chapter says the Anglo-Saxons' obedience was not so qualified; they believed out of obedience, militarily. Following the prince's lead, all his subjects were converted; if the prince returned to heathendom, all his people became heathens again. Yet from year to year the new religion progressed, aided in the south by Augustine and Roman monks and in the north mainly by Celtic monks from Iona.
Chapter 15
What does the chapter say about Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the Continent?
The chapter says the taste for proselytism appeared early: once converted, the Anglo-Saxons produced missionaries who carried the gospel to pagan brothers on the Continent and became saints of the Roman Church. St. Wilfrith left Northumberland about 680 to preach to the Frisians; St. Willibrord started from England about 690 and settled among Frisians and Danes; Winfrith, or St. Boniface, worked in Thuringia and Bavaria, reorganised the Frankish Church, and was martyred by the Frisians in 755.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
What is Bede's most important work and what sources does it use?
Bede compiled the "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" in Latin prose, which remained the basis of later histories. For the island's description and earliest period he quotes Pliny, Solinus, Eutropius, Orosius, and Gildas; from Augustine's arrival onward the work is his own, gathering documents and legends without criticism but without falsification. The author calls him honest and conscientious, lacking art but not straightforwardness.
Chapter 16
How does the author say Anglo-Saxon Christian poetry retained the old pagan character?
The author argues the Teutonic genius remained nearly intact after conversion, since the full Latin infusion came centuries later with the last invasion. Christian songs keep the old poetry's impetuosity, passion, lyricism, and magnificent apostrophes, plus alternating deep melancholy and noisy exultation. The apostles appear as "warriors" and "heroes," and St. Andrew's icy wilderness resembles Grendel's abode.
Chapter 16
How does Bede's account explain Caedmon's gift, and what happened to him?
Bede tells how Caedmon, unable to sing at feasts, left when the harp approached and, in a stable, was commanded in a vision to "sing the origin of things," whereupon excellent verses came to mind. Bede translated a few flatly, blaming translation itself. Taken to the abbess Hilda, Caedmon became a monk and died saintly; Bede says no one since could equal his pious poems.
Chapter 16
What does the author say about the Anglo-Saxon verse Bible and its authorship?
An incomplete Anglo-Saxon verse translation of the Bible survives, apparently by several authors of different epochs; whether Caedmon is among them has been much discussed and remains doubtful. The author describes its tone as haughty and peremptory, with abrupt appositions, triumphant war accents, and lovingly detailed dismal landscapes. Ethereal figures become tangible: the fiend dons a helmet and presents himself to Adam as God's vassal.
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
What does the cross say to Cynewulf in his vision?
The cross appears to Cynewulf in the depths of heaven, surrounded by angels, sparkling with jewels and flowing with blood. It is given life and speaks, recalling that long ago it was cut down at the end of a wood and stirred from its sleep. It is carried to a mountain top, where the young hero, Almighty God, makes ready, and the cross trembles when the champion embraces it.
Chapter 17
How does the Anglo-Saxon sea differ from Tacitus's view?
The author notes that, contrary to what Tacitus thought, the sea of these poets was not a slumbering sea. In the poem on St. Andrew, attributed to Cynewulf, all the sonorities of the ocean are heard, with the cadence and variety of the ancient Scandinavian sagas. The sea quivers, foams, and sings, and a ship is called foamy-necked, likest unto a bird gliding over the ocean.
Chapter 17
What miracle does St. Andrew perform in Mermedonia?
St. Andrew decides to punish the wild inhabitants of Mermedonia by a miracle. He commands a marble stone, by God's command, to let streams bubble from its foundation for the destruction of men. The stone splits open and a foaming flood covers the earth. The sleeping warriors wake to this bitter service of beer and try to flee, but an angel spreads pale fire over the town and bars their way.
Chapter 17
What makes the phoenix poem unique in Anglo-Saxon literature?
The author states the phoenix poem is the only one in all Anglo-Saxon literature in which the warmth and hues of the south are preserved and sympathetically described. It has scarcely any frost, stormy waves, or north wind. The poet notices it is not at all as here with us: no hail, rime, rain, cold, steep mountains, cares, or sorrows, but evergreen plains and always-fruiting trees.
Chapter 17
Section 182 cards
What did Alfred say about Latin learning in England at his accession?
Alfred claimed that south of the Thames there was not a single Englishman able to translate a letter from Latin into English. He recalled that foreigners once came to England seeking wisdom, and said learning had so decayed that translations had never been made because earlier good and wise men did not think men would become so careless.
Chapter 18
What did Ohthere report to Alfred about his northern voyage?
Ohthere told Alfred he dwelt northmost of all Northmen and sailed north along the waste land, reaching as far as whale-hunters go, then eastward along the land. He sought walruses for their noble bone teeth, which he brought to the king, and said he owned six hundred tame reindeer in a province called Helgoland.
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
How does Alfred's retelling of Orpheus differ from Boethius's version?
Alfred adds a Christian moral absent from Boethius: Orpheus looks back at the beloved shadow despite his promise, and the shadow fades. The lesson is that when going to Christ one must never look behind, for fear of being beguiled by the tempter. The chapter notes this practical conclusion is not to be found in Boethius.
Chapter 19
What characterizes the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as described in the chapter?
The chronicler registers events in succession, usually without comment: kings are killed, bishops driven out, storms destroy crops, and he adds no word of opinion. He writes as a recorder chary of words, letting deeds move the reader rather than words. A comet, being rare, is described; a king's killing, being everyday, is not.
Chapter 19
Why, according to AElfric, have miracles ceased?
AElfric argues miracles were needful at the beginning of Christianity, since by such signs the heathen were inclined to faith. He compares God to a planter who waters trees until they take root, then stops; so the Almighty showed miracles until the heathen believed, and when faith had sprung up over all the world, miracles ceased.
Chapter 19
How do the homilists try to give their sermons literary dignity?
The preacher, learned himself and slightly ashamed to write for an illiterate public, tries hard to speak well. The homilies purposely use prose close to poetry's tone and forms, introduce a rude cadence, and employ alliteration, the ornament of Germanic verse. Wulfstan and AElfric use repeated sonorities so much that one collection of AElfric's sermons has been published as poems.
Chapter 19
Section 204 cards
How does the chapter describe the political organization of the Germanic settlers in England?
The author argues the Germanic settlers remained grouped in tribes, with the hamlet as their mother country, unable to unite against a foreign foe. Their subdivisions changed constantly, producing a swarm of petty kings known only from charters—kings of the South Angles, of half Kent, ruling fewer people than a village mayor. Periods of unification under Alfred, AEthelstan, or Cnut were temporary and due to individual princes.
Chapter 20
What does the chapter call the event that allowed a nation to arise from chaos?
The author argues that out of the political chaos of petty kingdoms, earldoms, and tribes, a nation capable of producing Shakespeare and crushing the Armada could not naturally arise—no less than a miracle was needed. That miracle, the author says, took place: it was the battle of Hastings.
Chapter 20
According to the footnotes, how were English kings' genealogies traced?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle traces royal descent back to Woden—Hengest and Horsa through Wihtgils, Witta, Wecta to Woden, and Penda through Pybba and others to Woden. Orderic Vital, writing in Normandy in the twelfth century, still traced English kings to Woden, noting that Woden's day became Wednesday. Similar genealogies appear in Matthew Paris in the thirteenth century.
Chapter 20
What does Bede's account say about translating poetry between languages?
Bede states in the Historia Ecclesiastica that poems, however well composed, cannot be translated word for word from one language to another without loss of their beauty and dignity. The chapter cites this in a footnote, alongside material on Caedmon's metrical paraphrase and Cynewulf's signed poems.
Chapter 20
Section 214 cards
What is the likely origin of the Anglo-Saxon poem Andreas?
The chapter states that Andreas is imitated from a Greek story of St. Andrew, called the Praxeis Andreou kai Matthaiou, of which some Latin version was probably known to the Anglo-Saxon poet. A copy of the Greek text is preserved in the National Library, Paris, Greek MS. 881.
Chapter 21
What does the Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus consist of in its Anglo-Saxon version?
The chapter describes it as an adaptation of a work of eastern origin, popular on the Continent and known through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and familiar to Rabelais. In the Anglo-Saxon text it is a didactic treatise cut into questions and answers, such as asking of what substance Adam was made and answering eight pounds by weight.
Chapter 21
What does the chapter say about the origin of the Physiologi and their successors?
The chapter states that writings of this kind were widely popular early and were called Physiologi, existing in nearly all European languages and also in Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopian. The original seems to have been composed in Greek at Alexandria in the second century. They were succeeded in the Middle Ages by Bestiaries, also numerous and popular, source of sayings like the dove's faithfulness and the pelican's fatherly love.
Chapter 21
Which version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continues latest, and to what year?
The chapter lists seven Chronicles, more or less complete and differing from one another, beginning at various dates such as the birth of Christ or Caesar's crossing to Britain and usually coming down to the eleventh century. The Peterborough text alone continues as late as 1154. The Peterborough and Winchester versions are called the most important.
Chapter 21
Section 224 cards
Why did Ælfric translate into simple English rather than word-for-word?
In his preface to the Sermones Catholici, Ælfric says he translated from Latin for the edification of the simple, using plain English so it could reach the hearts of readers or hearers whose souls might not otherwise be instructed in a language other than the one they were born into. He states he rendered sense from sense, not word from word, following Augustine, Jerome, Bede, Gregory, Smaragdus, and sometimes Haymon.
Chapter 22
What did Ælfric say in the preface to his Lives of Saints sermons?
Ælfric states in the preface to his sermons on the lives of the saints that he intends not to translate any more, giving as his reason 'ne forte despectui habeantur margarite Christi' — lest the pearls of Christ be held in contempt. The chapter cites this alongside his Sermones Catholici preface as evidence of his translation principles.
Chapter 22
How does the chapter describe William's army at Hastings?
The author argues William's army was a French army, not merely Norman. It had three divisions: Bretons and Poictevins on the left, Normans in the centre, and French proper on the right. Contemporary writers call it French; Domesday Book terms William's people 'Franci,' the Bayeux tapestry reads 'Hic Franci pugnant,' and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls the invaders 'Frenciscan.'
Chapter 22
How did William secure victory at Hastings despite a doubtful battle?
The evening of 14 October 1066 decided England's fate, and the issue was doubtful. William won by cleverness: his foes were 'ingenio circumventi, ingenio victi.' He ordered his soldiers to simulate flight and had his archers shoot upwards so falling arrows wrought havoc among the Saxons. One arrow put out Harold's eye; the English chief fell by his standard, and the battle ended.
Chapter 22
Section 233 cards
What did Duke William vow to build after the battle, and what name did it receive?
William vowed to erect an abbey to St. Martin of Tours on the field of the fight. He kept his word, but the building never bore the saint's name among men; it received and has retained the appellation of "Battle." Its ruins, preserved with pious care, overlook the dales where the Conqueror's host gathered for the attack.
Chapter 23
What is the Domesday, and how does the author describe it?
The author describes the Domesday as the minute inventory William took of his estate, rectifying its boundaries and protecting its approaches despite the immensity of the work. He calls it a unique monument, such that no nation in Europe possesses the like. William behaved as heir of the Anglo-Saxon princes, and his will was lucid and persistent.
Chapter 23
How does the Anglo-Saxon chronicler judge King William, according to the chapter?
The chronicler calls William a very wise and powerful man, more dignified and strong than his predecessors, mild to good men who loved God but over all measure severe to those who gainsayed his will, and so rigid and cruel that none durst act against him. He spared not his own brother Odo, yet made a good peace in the land. The author treats this as the nation's judgment.
Chapter 23
Section 244 cards
What three literatures did the Norman masters of England possess?
The chapter states that the Normans had not one literature but three: a French, a Latin, and later an English one. Their manuscripts were ample and superabundant, with numberless branches and endless ramifications, written as if for men of leisure with interminable days to spend on lengthy pastimes, such as chronicles of 43,000 lines.
Chapter 24
How did Norman kings' French ties show in their reigns and burials?
The author notes the kings were French by origin, education, manners, and language, with their centre of interest in France. William the Conqueror left Normandy to his eldest son and England to his younger; none was buried at Westminster before 1272, most sleeping at Caen or Fontevrault. Henry II. spent over twenty-one of thirty-five reign years in France.
Chapter 24
What bargain does the bull Laudabiliter illustrate?
The author argues the bull 'Laudabiliter,' by which the English Pope Adrian IV. gave Ireland to Henry II., was a formal bargain: the king buys and the Pope sells, with the price minutely discussed beforehand and set down in the agreement. This exemplifies the Norman habit of making bargains even with exalted powers, described as 'Norman bargains.'
Chapter 24
How did poets and chroniclers serve the Norman policy of unity?
The author argues the new dynasty used poets and chroniclers to unify past and present, blending French, Danes, Saxons, Britons, and even Trojans into one race. Chroniclers wrote by command of kings, tracing origins to Troy rather than Scandinavia. The theory established was that a nation's unity is a question not of blood but of place.
Chapter 24
Section 252 cards
According to the chapter, what effect did shared wars have on England's scattered tribes?
The chapter states that William and his successors did not distinguish between their subjects—all were English and were led together against Continental foes. This shared memory of wars fought together became another bond of fraternity among the races of Britain, so the once-easily-conquered island now gained victories and took an unexpected rank among nations.
Chapter 25
What does the chapter claim about the relationship between Hastings and the Armada?
The chapter asserts that "Hastings has made the defeat of the Armada possible," presenting the Norman Conquest as the starting point that eventually produced a unified nation capable of later victories. It uses this to argue that the collection of scattered tribes, once easy for an invader to conquer, later gained victories and unexpected rank among nations. The author argues this continuity rather than stating it as neutral fact.
Chapter 25
Section 264 cards
How long did French remain superimposed on English after the Norman Conquest?
The chapter states that for about two or three hundred years the French language remained superimposed upon the English, with the upper layer slowly infiltrating the lower, being absorbed, and disappearing while transforming it. This was the work of centuries, not a sudden change.
Chapter 26
Why did Gerald de Barry regret not writing in French?
Gerald de Barry, who had written in Latin, regretted at the end of his life that he had not used French, 'gallicum.' He believed French would have secured his works a greater and more lasting fame. The chapter cites this to show that even the wisest of the period thought only French works were assured of longevity.
Chapter 26
What kinds of French works did English-blooded authors imitate?
English-blooded authors wrote in French to imitate the style favored by the rulers. They produced chronicles, as Jordan Fantosme and Peter de Langtoft did; religious poems, as Robert of Greteham, Robert Grosseteste, and William of Wadington did; verse romances like Hue of Rotelande's; moralised prose tales like Nicole Bozon's; lyric poems and fabliaux; and ballads by John Gower.
Chapter 26
How does Robert of Gloucester differ from Peter de Langtoft?
Peter de Langtoft, a true Englishman, versified a history of England in French in the fourteenth century, but he is called the last representative of an art that is over. Robert of Gloucester, his contemporary, uses the English tongue and is called the first representative of an art that begins, a distant ancestor of Gibbon and Macaulay, and solely English.
Chapter 26
Section 273 cards
Why did the author write religious works in French rather than Latin?
The author explains, in the quoted verses, that he made a simple sermon for simple people, not for the learned, who already have enough writings and reason. He wrote in the Romance tongue for children who are not lettered, because they will better understand the language they have used since childhood.
Chapter 27
How does the Song of Roland differ from Beowulf in spirit?
The author argues the Normans rejected the Anglo-Saxon poet's sadness and despair, wanting a literature for happy men. In the Song of Roland massacres still dominate, but a place is kept for tender sentiment and eloquent speech. Roland's love is not Aude but Durandal, his sword, which he wishes to die with him.
Chapter 27
How did these romances treat the manners and dress of antiquity?
The author says manners and dress were scarcely better observed than probability; everything was really translated, including raiment, civilization, and ideas. Venus becomes a princess, heroes are knights, Oedipus is dubbed a knight, and Aeneas consults his barons. This manner lasted till the Renaissance and later, as when Augustus wore a perruque under Louis XIV.
Chapter 27
Section 284 cards
Why did the Anglo-Normans embrace Celtic literature rather than Saxon?
The chapter states that the conquerors drew little from the Saxon not because they were ignorant of it, but because they never could well understand its genius. Among the races they encountered, they were attracted by intellectual sympathy to the Celtic mind, which resembled their own. Alexander had been an amusement, but Arthur became a passion, and the Anglo-Norman singers produced the most ancient and beautiful surviving poems of the Briton cycle.
Chapter 28
What does the chapter say distinguishes the matter of Britain from France and Rome?
The chapter contrasts the three subject matters: in the matter of France, the heroic valour of the country's defenders forms the principal interest; in the matter of Rome, the mirabilia; and in the matter of Britain, love. The chapter adds that this shift moves the literature farther and farther away from Beowulf.
Chapter 28
How did Geoffrey of Monmouth give the Arthurian legends authority?
Professional historians were largely silent about Arthur: Gildas never mentions him and Nennius gives only a few lines. Geoffrey supplied the missing Latin starting-point with his Historia Regum Britanniae, which appeared in 1139. He claimed a mysterious book from Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, that no trace has ever been found, and forbade William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon to write of the British kings without it.
Chapter 28
How does the chapter summarize the story of Tristan and Iseult?
Tristan, carried off by Norwegian merchants, arrives in Cornwall and charms King Marc with Briton lays. He kills the giant Morolt, is poisoned, and is healed in Ireland by the queen, whose daughter Iseult he teaches. A swallow's golden hair leads Marc to swear to marry Iseult; bringing her to Cornwall, Tristan and Iseult mistakenly drink the enchanted draught meant for Marc, producing a passion only death could end.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
What signal did Tristan arrange for Iseult's ship, and how is it misused?
Tristan, dying of a wound, sends for the queen of Cornwall: a white sail means she comes, a black sail means she refuses. His wife, having overheard the message, lies and reports a black sail. Tristan tears the bandage from his wound and dies; Iseult lands, finds his corpse cold, and expires beside him.
Chapter 29
How does the chapter contrast the new love-poetry with the old epic poems?
The author argues that in the ancient epics love was nothing and woman had no part, while in the new British-cycle romances love is everything and woman plays the first role; warlike feats become only a means to win her heart. Religion, virtue, and country count for nothing, and love defies and even replaces them.
Chapter 29
How does the chapter describe the progression of courtly love from passion to ceremony?
The author argues the beloved first becomes a saint, then a goddess whose caprices are laws; heroes pale at her sight, and Andre le Chapelain lays down thirty-one rules for the perfect lover. Each romance writer adds more, until love becomes mere ceremonial: Guinevere capriciously orders Lancelot to do his worst, and he obeys without understanding.
Chapter 29
What happens in Marie de France's lay of the Two Lovers?
A Norman nobleman will give his daughter only to the man who can carry her to the top of a mountain. A young count who loves her and is loved gets strengthening potions from her aunt at Salerno. She fasts and wears only her shift to weigh less; he climbs without drinking, reaches the top, and falls dead. She dies beside him, and they are buried on the mountain.
Chapter 29
Section 304 cards
How did English subjects become familiar with French chansons, according to the chapter?
The author explains they learned them in two ways: many songs were sung in England itself, and many Englishmen—soldiers, clerks, minstrels, messengers—followed the king and stayed in regions where French chanson flourished. Through Angevin domains, northern, southern, and Poitou/Maine lyric poetry reached the heart of the empire.
Chapter 30
What kinds of French songs does the chapter list, and what is each about?
The chapter names reverdies (May songs celebrating springtime, flowers, and free loves), carols or dancing songs, pastourelles whose heroines are shepherdesses, disputoisons or debates, and aube songs about lovers parted by dawn—the latter containing lines the author compares to Shakespeare's Juliet and her Romeo.
Chapter 30
How does the thirteenth-century English sermon use the French song about Fair Alice?
The preacher takes a verse of a French song instead of Scripture as his text, then interprets Belle Alice as, or as possibly being, the Virgin Mary, and the five flowers she finds as faith, hope, charity, virginity, and humility. The author uses this to argue that turning worldly songs to religious ends is not a recent idea.
Chapter 30
What is the Roman de Renart, and what does the author claim about its social effect?
It is a beast-epic romance built in branches over several centuries from the twelfth onward, by various often anonymous authors, partly in the continental estates of English kings. The author argues its mockery of king, nobles, clergy, and customs served as revenge, and that songs like it delayed or averted riots and jacqueries in France.
Chapter 30
Section 314 cards
How does Renard's treatment of the king's messengers undercut the king's promise?
The king solemnly promises, in the most impressive words, that the traitor will be punished. Yet Renard defeats the king's messengers: Bruin the bear has his nose torn off and Tybert the cat loses half his tail. Renard then jeers at them, at the king, and at the Court, so the verbose royal promise ends in utter defeat.
Chapter 31
What evidence does the chapter give that Renard was popular in England?
Parts of the romance were translated or imitated in England; superb manuscripts were illustrated for noble libraries; incidents were represented in tapestry, sculptured on church stalls, and painted on the margins of English missals. At the Renaissance, Caxton printed a prose Renard at his Westminster presses.
Chapter 31
According to Aelred of Rievaulx, how did fabliaux reach recluses?
The chapter describes an old woman sitting under an anchoress's window and amusing her with stories of married and unmarried life, wicked wives, and wronged husbands; the recluse laughs aloud. Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx in the twelfth century, testifies that scarcely any recluse of that day lacked such a friendly old woman telling tales.
Chapter 31
How does the chapter contrast the realism of the fabliaux with that of the Song of Roland?
The author argues that the French love of magnifying the abject side of things, which he calls so-called realism, is only one side. He insists that next to the realism of the fabliaux stands the realism of the Song of Roland, perhaps more real, since France lived by that song far more than by her merry tales; Du Guesclin and Corneille both sang it.
Chapter 31
Section 324 cards
How did French literature reach England after the Norman Conquest?
The chapter states that all this literature went over the Channel with the conquerors: Roland, Renard, and Gombert came to England. These works helped transform the mind of the vanquished race, while the vanquished race in turn contributed to transforming the descendants of the victors.
Chapter 32
What did Robert of Gloucester's chronicle say about English and French?
The quoted verse says the Normans could speak only their own speech and taught their children French, so that nobles of the land who came of their blood held to that speech. But unless a man knows French, little is thought of him, while low men still hold to English and their own speech; the poet thinks no country but England alone holds to its own speech.
Chapter 32
What did Gerald of Wales call French in his 1209 letter to King John?
In a letter of 1209 sending King John the second edition of his Expugnatio Hiberniae, Gerald of Wales speaks further on of French as the 'communi idiomate' — the common idiom or language.
Chapter 32
What does the chapter say about the quantity of historical literature in French?
The chapter notes that the wealth of historical literature in the French tongue is greater at first than that of literature produced by subjects of the French kings. Besides the great chronicles, it cites lives of saints that are sometimes historical biographies, such as St. Edward and St. Thomas Becket, and the Estoire le roi Dermot on Irish troubles.
Chapter 32
Section 334 cards
Where is the unique manuscript of the Chanson de Roland kept, and when was it first printed?
The unique manuscript of the Chanson de Roland, written about 1170, is at Oxford, where it was found in the nineteenth century. It was printed for the first time in 1837. The chapter also cites Leon Gautier's critical text and translation of 1881 and L. Cledat's archaic rhymed translation of 1887.
Chapter 33
Who wrote the Roman de Troie, when, and for whose court?
Benoit de Sainte-More, a poet of the court of Henry II, wrote his Roman de Troie about 1160, according to Gaston Paris. It was edited by Joly, Paris, 1870, in two volumes. The chapter also notes that the Roman de Thebes and Eneas were wrongly attributed to Benoit; Eneas seems the work of a Norman of the twelfth century, imitated from the Aeneid.
Chapter 33
How was the Tristan poem of Thomas reconstructed, and what versions survive?
Only fragments of Thomas's Tristan survive, and Chrestien de Troyes's version is entirely lost. Gaston Paris says Thomas's poem could be reconstituted by means of three versions: a German one by Gotfrid of Strasbourg, unfinished; a Norwegian prose one of about 1225, faithful but compressed; and an English one of the fourteenth century, a greatly impaired text.
Chapter 33
What does William of Newburgh say about Geoffrey of Monmouth's Arthur?
Writing at the end of the twelfth century, William of Newburgh says a certain writer has emerged in our times to expiate the stains of the Britons, weaving ridiculous fictions about them, and this man is called Geoffrey. He adds that Geoffrey makes the little finger of his Arthur thicker than the back of Alexander the Great.
Chapter 33
Section 343 cards
What does the chapter say about the authorship of the Latin sermon text it discusses?
The chapter states that the text of the sermon, as we have it, is in Latin, and that it has long but wrongly been attributed to Stephen Langton. It notes the text was printed by T. Wright in his Biographia Britannica, Anglo-Norman period, 1846.
Chapter 34
What does the chapter say about John Lackland's submission to the Pope?
The chapter says John Lackland's fruitless attempts to reach absolute power resulted in the gift of his domains to St. Peter and the oath of fealty sworn by him as vassal of the Pope. It quotes the charter of May 15, 1213, in which John offers England and Ireland to God and Pope Innocent for the remission of his sins.
Chapter 34
What does Domesday show about Church holdings in Dorset, according to the chapter?
The chapter says that in the county of Dorset, according to Domesday, the Church with her vassals and dependents enjoyed more than a third of the whole county, and that her patrimony was greater than that of all the Barons and greater feudalists combined.
Chapter 34
Section 354 cards
How did the number of religious foundations change from the twelfth to the fifteenth century?
The chapter states 418 foundations were counted from William Rufus to John, a span of one hundred years; 139 during the three following reigns, 108 years; 23 in the fourteenth century; and only 3 in the fifteenth. The number decreases steadily as the Renaissance draws nearer.
Chapter 35
How does the chapter distinguish the Dominicans from the Franciscans?
The chapter says the Dominicans more especially represent doctrine: they expound dogmas, fight heresy, and furnish the papacy with its Grand Inquisitors. The Franciscans represent practice: they do charitable works and nurse lepers and wretches in the suburbs of towns. All science not tending to charity was forbidden the Franciscans.
Chapter 35
What powers did ecclesiastical tribunals hold, and what abuses did summoners commit?
Ecclesiastical courts had considerable powers over clerks, faith and beliefs, tithes, and deeds and contracts with a moral character, such as wills. Their justice was inquisitorial, citing and chastising adulterers. Summoners acted as spies and accusers; some compounded with the guilty for money or summoned the innocent out of spite, and Chaucer's satires did more to ruin the institution than petitions to Parliament.
Chapter 35
What does the chapter say about bishops' worldly and warlike conduct?
Bishops kept seigneurial retinues, built and lived in fortresses, had archers and dogs, hunted, laid siege to towns, and made war, resorting to excommunication only when other means failed. The chapter cites Longchamp, Nunant, Puiset, and Geoffrey Plantagenet as prelates who fought, besieged, and excommunicated one another. Others among the bishops became saints.
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
How does the chapter describe the warlike habits of medieval bishops?
The chapter says warlike habits were only attenuated by degrees. Edward II wrote in 1323 reproaching Louis de Beaumont, bishop of Durham, for failing to defend his bishopric against the Scotch as if he were a mutterer of prayers; the bishop was ordered to take arms and camp on the frontier. Later Henry le Despencer, bishop of Norwich, hacked peasants to pieces during the great rising and made war in Flanders for one of the two popes.
Chapter 36
What does Richard de Bury's Philobiblon defend and complain about?
Richard de Bury, bishop palatine of Durham, collected books with a passion like the Medici court, using emissaries across England, France, and Italy. In his Latin prose Philobiblon he defends books, Greek and Roman antiquity, and poetry. He indignantly condemns pupils who dry flowers in books, clerks who bring dogs or falcons into libraries, and those who sell volumes to convert them into silken hoods and furred gowns.
Chapter 36
Why did Paris hold first rank among medieval universities?
The chapter says Paris had two capitals of the Latin country: religious Rome and literary Paris. Bartholomew the Englishman called Paris the mother of wisdom welcoming guests from everywhere; Richard de Bury called visits to Paris a flood of joy and its libraries orchards of science. Its lustre dates from the twelfth century, when the theological school of Notre-Dame fused with Abelard's logic schools, and Innocent III's bulls of 1208 and 1209 formed the universitas.
Chapter 36
How were students and faculties organized at the University of Paris?
Students were divided into nations—France, Normandy, Picardy, England—by race rather than country, so Italians counted in the French nation and Germans in the English. The English were the most numerous foreigners, with six colleges for theology alone. There were four faculties: theology, law, medicine, and arts; arts, though lowest in rank, had the most pupils and prepared for the others. The arts student began around fifteen, passed determinance and licence, then inceptio made him a master.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
Where were the principal schools of Paris located, and what was the street called in Latin and by Dante?
The principal schools stood in the rue du Fouarre (straw, litter), called by Dante "vico degli Strami." The street still exists under the same name, though its ancient houses were gradually disappearing. It was formerly dark and narrow, surrounded by lanes with old names such as the rue de la Parcheminerie, and there the most illustrious masters taught and the most singular disorders arose.
Chapter 37
How did the medieval commentator's method of expounding an authoritative book proceed?
The commentator opened with a prologue on general questions, usually treating the work's material, formal, final, and efficient causes. He then gave the principal divisions, took the first member, subdivided it, divided the first member of that subdivision, and continued cleaving each division into two until reaching a division covering only the first chapter. The same process was applied to each part, continued until only one phrase with a single complete idea remained.
Chapter 37
What did John of Salisbury report after revisiting his old companions on St. Genevieve's Mount?
John of Salisbury, a brilliant twelfth-century scholar of Paris, returned after a long absence to see his old companions whom dialectics still detained on St. Genevieve's Mount. He found them just as he had left them, at the same point: they had not advanced one step in solving the ancient questions nor added the smallest proposition to their science. He concluded dialectics is fruitful as a means to reach the sciences but inert and barren when made the object of study itself.
Chapter 37
What privileges did the Pope's legate impose on Oxford's citizens after clerks were hanged in 1214?
After some clerks were hanged by Oxford citizens in 1214, the Pope's legate made Rome's power felt and avenged the insult to privileged persons of the Latin country. For ten years the inhabitants had to remit students half their rent, pay fifty-two shillings each year on St. Nicholas' day for indigent students, and give a banquet to a hundred poor students, with the bill of fare fixed by Roman authority. The perpetrators had to come barefooted, without girdle, cloak, or hat, remove their victims, and bury them with their own hands.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
What happens to Burnellus after years of study at Paris?
Nigel Wireker's Burnellus, an ambitious monk figured as an ass, studies at Paris among the English nation for many years, scourging himself and attending lectures, yet learns only to say "ya" (semper ya repetit). He remains an ass, and Bernard the peasant, his master, finally leads the would-be magister and bishop back to his stall with a stick.
Chapter 38
What does Geoffrey de Vinesauf's Nova Poetria teach, and how is it judged?
Geoffrey de Vinesauf's early thirteenth-century Nova Poetria teaches how to praise, blame, and ridicule, supplying model prosopopoeias, including an apostrophe to England under Richard Coeur-de-Lion and a lament for Richard's death. The author argues such work shows the risk of formulating theories too early, and notes Oxford regulations prescribing simplicity and prohibiting emphasis.
Chapter 38
What kinds of prose tales did twelfth- and thirteenth-century English authors produce?
Pious authors wrote prose tales in astonishing quantities, amusing readers under pretext of edifying them and often forgetting to edify. Collections gathered legends, jokes, and facetious stories, sometimes adding a moral and sometimes saying "Moralise as thou wilt!" The author argues something of the art of the conteur later seen in Chaucer, and almost of the novelist, can already be detected there.
Chapter 38
What is the Gesta Romanorum and what does it contain?
The author notes research making it nearly certain that the immense Gesta Romanorum was compiled in England about the end of the thirteenth century. Such collections hold everything from jokes and retorts to real novels: coarse fabliaux, objectionable tales, graceful stories, miracles of the Virgin, fables, Renart episodes, and Roman anecdotes, drawn from French, Latin, English, and Hindu sources.
Chapter 38
Section 394 cards
How does the Virgin function in the tales Jusserand describes?
The author argues the story-tellers depart from the scriptural type: the Virgin becomes an indulgent protectress, an intermediate being between saint, goddess, and fairy. Her patience no crime can exhaust, and the slightest act of homage enlists her goodwill. She substitutes for the runaway sacristan-nun for five years and holds up a hanged thief until he is taken down and turns monk.
Chapter 39
How does the maiden save the knight from the merchant's bond?
The bond entitles the merchant to remove all the knight's flesh with a knife if the debt is unpaid, but says nothing of blood. Disguised in men's clothes, the maiden pleads that he take the flesh and nothing but the flesh. The merchant yields, asking only his money, and the knight is released.
Chapter 39
What does John of Salisbury criticize in his Policratic?
The author notes John's gift of observation gives his satire historical value. He satirizes the courtier (curialis), indecent histrions preluding drama, fashionable singers whose songs resemble women, sirens, nightingales and parrots, hunting-monks, and chiromancers, for whom Becket himself had a weakness. He ends by claiming he satirized only himself and his peers.
Chapter 39
What bold political views does Jusserand attribute to John of Salisbury?
John praises Brutus and holds that the murder of tyrants is not only justifiable but an honest and commendable deed: 'Non modo licitum est, sed aequum et justum.' He also warns that however prosperous the great appear, the State will go to ruin if the common people suffer, comparing a suffering people to a sovereign with the gout.
Chapter 39
Section 403 cards
What did Map claim about St. Bernard's attempted miracle for Walter?
Map mocked St. Bernard by recounting that when Bernard commanded a corpse, "Walter, come forth!" the dead man did not rise. Map explains that Walter, not hearing the voice of Jesus, did not listen with the ears of Lazarus, and came not. The author notes Map was never weary of sneering at monks, especially the Cistercians, and imputed abortive miracles to Bernard.
Chapter 40
What was the 'Dissuasio Valerii' and who did the Middle Ages credit as author?
Map wrote the 'Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum de ducenda uxore,' a satire against marriage, saying he wrote it 'changing only our names'—Valerius for himself (Walter) and Rufinus for his red-haired, uxorious friend. Despite Map asserting authorship, the Middle Ages persistently attributed it to St. Jerome, just as Cornelius Nepos was credited with Joseph of Exeter's 'Trojan War.'
Chapter 40
What did Scot conclude about matter, and how did Rabelais later treat him?
Scot concluded that matter is one: 'Socrates and the brazen sphere are identical in nature,' and almost reached the conclusion that 'being is one.' His reputation was immense in the Middle Ages but diminished at the Renaissance; Rabelais listed his works in St. Victor's library under the irreverent title 'Barbouillamenta Scoti,' between the 'Maschefaim des Advocats' and the 'Ratepenade des Cardinaux.'
Chapter 40
Section 414 cards
What did William of Malmesbury do before and after writing his histories?
Before beginning to write, William of Malmesbury collected a multitude of books and testimonies; after writing he looked over and revised his text. The author contrasts him with Abbe Vertot, who held that a siege once made cannot be altered. The author argues William was alive to the interest of popular customs and characteristic traits, and noted anecdotes to keep the reader's attention.
Chapter 41
How does Matthew Paris illustrate his manuscripts, and what examples does the chapter give?
Matthew Paris, an English monk of St. Albans, was a skilled draughtsman, 'pictor peroptimus,' who illustrated his own manuscripts. He depicted religious life, a Gothic shrine carried by monks, an architect receiving the king's orders, an antique gem lent to pregnant women, and an elephant from Egypt, a gift from Louis IX to Henry III, said to be the first seen in England.
Chapter 41
What anecdote does Matthew Paris record about the wandering Jew?
Matthew Paris tells of the wandering Jew, still living in his time, a fact attested in his presence by an Archbishop of Armenia who came to St. Albans in 1228. The porter of the praetorium struck Jesus, saying 'Go on faster'; Jesus replied, 'I go on, but thou shalt tarry till I come.' Since then Cartaphilus tarries, his life renewing each century.
Chapter 41
Which fourteenth-century chroniclers does the chapter name, and why did some not achieve literary fame?
The chapter names Ralph Higden, whose Universal History became a standard work, translated into English and printed at the Renaissance; Walter of Hemingburgh, Robert of Avesbury, and Thomas Walsingham, plus many anonymous authors. The author argues that Walsingham and others, despite dramatic vigour, would have held a conspicuous place in medieval English literature had they not written in Latin.
Chapter 41
Section 424 cards
Who did some manuscripts claim wrote the Philobiblon instead of Richard de Bury?
According to seven manuscripts, the Philobiblon would be the work of Robert Holkot rather than Richard de Bury. The editor E. C. Thomas, whose 1888 edition is called the best, treats this as a mistaken attribution. His introduction also contains a biography correcting some current errors and notes on the various manuscripts.
Chapter 42
How does the Philobiblon describe the neglect of books in chapter four?
The books themselves are represented as speaking: their places are occupied now by dogs, birds, and a two-footed beast whose dwelling with clerics was forbidden of old. They lie unseen in a corner, protected only by a dead spider's web, and are traded away for costly headgear, clothes, and various furs.
Chapter 42
What does the Philobiblon say about Paris in the author's day?
The author argues that just as Athens once adorned Greece as mother of the liberal arts and nurse of philosophers, so Paris in his own times has elevated not only France but the rest of Europe in knowledge and morals. As mother of wisdom, it gathers arrivals from all parts of the world, aids them in necessities, and rules them peacefully.
Chapter 42
What did a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century regulation require of grammar school pupils?
Pupils were to be taught prosody and to write verses and epistles, composing letters with decent words rather than bombastic or sesquipedalian ones, and expressing as much meaning as possible. They were to learn Latin, English, and French, so that French would not be entirely abandoned.
Chapter 42
Section 434 cards
What does John of Salisbury report about Pope Adrian IV's affection for him?
John of Salisbury wrote that Adrian IV publicly and privately declared he loved John above all mortals, was glad to have him as a guest at his own table, and wished them to share the same cup and dish, despite John's reluctance. John noted this somewhat conceitedly in his Metalogicus. Adrian, as pope, also issued the bull Laudabiliter granting Ireland to Henry II.
Chapter 43
How does John of Salisbury criticize church music in his writings?
The author cites John of Salisbury's complaint that worship is corrupted when singers, in the sanctuary itself, soften devout souls with womanish modulations and ostentatious vocal display. Hearing such overly soft melodies, he says, one would think them the concerts of Sirens rather than of men, and their facility surpasses the nightingale or parrot.
Chapter 43
What does John of Salisbury's Policraticus say about the ruler and the state?
The author quotes the Policraticus arguing that an afflicted people exposes and convicts the prince's gout, and that the commonwealth's safety will be sound and glorious only when the higher members devote themselves to the lower and the lower respond to the higher by equal right. The title derives from Greek polis and chratein.
Chapter 43
What inventions and topics does the author attribute to Roger Bacon's works?
The author notes that Bacon's Opera inedita allude to many curious inventions: diving bells, gunpowder, oarless and very swift boats, and carriages able to move without animals at extraordinary speed. Bacon also wrote on the causes of errors, namely authority and habit, in the Opus majus. He was born in Somersetshire, studied at Oxford and Paris, and died about 1294.
Chapter 43
Section 444 cards
What does the chapter say about the effect of the Norman Conquest on English literature?
The author argues that after Hastings the native race passed through a period of stupor and silence lasting about a hundred years. He claims this silence had some happy results, comparing it to a master imposing silence on pupils. English speakers barely recopied old manuscripts and listened without understanding the songs the foreigners brought, while clerks were the only exception.
Chapter 44
Why did English come to be used again for religious instruction?
The author explains that after the Conquest the goal of life remained gaining heaven, and Latin was wasted on common people. French served the new masters and their adherents, Latin served the clerks, but the mass of "lowe men" needed English. Bishop Grosseteste's French work noted all people cannot know Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and an English translator added "nor French."
Chapter 44
Who was Gerald of Wales and what works did he write?
Gerald was born at Manorbeer castle near Pembroke, son of William de Barry and Angareth, granddaughter of Welsh prince Rhys ap Theodor. He studied at Paris, became chaplain to Henry II, helped Archbishop Baldwin preach the crusade in Wales, and made fruitless efforts to become bishop of St. Davids. He died about 1216. His Latin works include Topographia Hibernica, Expugnatio Hibernica, Itinerarium Kambriae, and De Principis Instructione.
Chapter 44
How does Henry of Huntingdon's chronicle differ from William of Malmesbury's?
The chapter states Henry writes much more as a dilettante than William of Malmesbury, seeming to do it mainly to please himself. He was clever at verse writing and inserted Latin poems of his own composition into his Chronicle. His chronology is described as vague and faulty. His Historia Anglorum covers the period from A.C. 55 to A.D. 1154.
Chapter 44
Section 454 cards
What kinds of English works were first written after the Conquest?
The first English works after the Conquest were sermons and pious treatises, some imitated from Bede, AElfric and ancient Saxon models, others translated from French. The chapter says there was no originality or invention; the time was one of depression and humiliation, summed up as 'the victor sings, the vanquished prays.'
Chapter 45
How does the chapter contrast English sermons' hell imagery with the Torcello mosaic?
The author argues English sermons continue not the art of Torcello but the art of Giotto. At Torcello, antique equanimity survives: the judgment scene's grandeur and solemnity convey rule, law and fate, as in antique tragedy. English sermons instead render hell vividly—monstrous torments, wells of flame, an ocean with seven bitter waves—a rudimentary version of legends later interpreted by Dante and Giotto.
Chapter 45
What is the 'Ancren Riwle' and why is it notable?
The 'Ancren Riwle' is a thirteenth-century prose rule for reclusive women, perhaps the first original English treatise written after the Conquest. Addressed to three young women of good family living apart without vows, it is a manual of self-renunciation covering getting up, going to bed, eating and dressing. The author argues even a light look is dangerous: 'of little waxeth mickle.'
Chapter 45
Which saints appear in the English verse collections, and what humorous legend is told of St. Dunstan?
The collections give large place to English saints: Thomas Becket, Edward, Kenelm, Edmund, Swithin, Wulfstan, Cuthbert and Dunstan. Of Dunstan, a blacksmith as well as saint and statesman, humorous legends circulated: when the devil appeared as a beautiful woman, Dunstan heated his tongs red-hot and caught him by the nose, causing burnt flesh and yells heard for miles.
Chapter 45
Section 464 cards
What danger did authors of rules for recluses warn anchoresses against?
They warned against the temptation to look and talk out of the window. Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx, denounced the abuse as early as the twelfth century: old women, talkative ones and newsbringers, would sit before the recluse's window telling tales and feeding her vain news and scandal about how this monk or that clerk looked and behaved.
Chapter 46
Why did religious writers use verse and insert romantic stories in their treatises?
Because to be read, the books had to please. Verse charmed the ear and romantic stories delighted the mind. Robert Mannyng, translating the Manuel des Pechiez, explains that many people are so made that it pleases them to hear stories and verses in their games, at their feasts, and over their ale.
Chapter 46
Who was Richard Rolle of Hampole and why is he significant?
He was a lay preacher and, excepting the doubtful case of the Ancren Riwle, the first English prose writer after the Conquest who can pretend to the title of original author. He studied at Oxford, never took orders, lived as a contemplative and roaming preacher, settled at Hampole, and died in 1349, when Chaucer was about ten and Wyclif thirty.
Chapter 46
What did Layamon's Brut blend, and how did he treat his sources?
Its vocabulary is Anglo-Saxon, with apparently no more than fifty French words in the whole lengthy poem, yet French chivalrous ideas and tastes appear on each page. Layamon follows mainly Wace's poem but paraphrases it, adds legends unknown to Wace, and inserts speeches, mostly warlike invectives, treating Bede and Wace as equally worthy authorities.
Chapter 46
Section 474 cards
What does the author say about the spirit of the fabliaux in England?
The author argues that nothing could be less congenial to the Anglo-Saxon race than the spirit of the fabliaux, yet this spirit was acclimatised in England and, like other products of the French mind, grafted onto the original stock. The tree thus bore fruit that would never have ripened as it did without the Conquest, citing Chaucer, perhaps Swift, and Sterne as examples.
Chapter 47
How did Germanic stories like Havelok and Horn reach English minstrels?
A few Saxon traditions, such as Havelok, a Dane who ended by reigning in England, and Horn and Rymenhild, had been adopted by French poets. English minstrels then took them back, but left these old heroes their French dress, since following the fashion was necessary for their work to be cared for. Goldborough or Argentille, originally a Valkyria, is scarcely recognisable under her French disguise.
Chapter 47
Which English heroes entered the poetic pantheon thanks to French minstrels?
Some more recent English heroes found a place thanks again to French minstrels, who made them fashionable by versifying about them. Thus were written, in French then English, the adventures of Waltheof and Sir Guy of Warwick, who marries Felice, goes to Palestine, kills the giant Colbrant, and dies in a hermitage. The deeds of outlaws like Fulke Fitz-Warin, a prototype of Robin Hood, were likewise told.
Chapter 47
What does the Cursor Mundi author say men like to hear?
The author of the Cursor Mundi, writing shortly after 1300, says men like to hear jests and read romances in various manners: of Alexander the conqueror, Julius Caesar the emperor, the strong strife of Greece and Troy where many a man lost his life, of Brute the bold baron, first conqueror of England, of King Arthur, of how King Charles and Roland fought with Saracens, and of Tristrem and Isoude the sweet.
Chapter 47
Section 484 cards
What difference does the author draw between English and French spring songs?
The author argues that English spring poetry is mixed with winter while French spring poetry is mixed with summer: England sings May verses while remembering April, whereas France sings them looking forward to June. He illustrates this with an English poet's refrain asking the northern wind to blow and send his sweetheart, showing that recurring sadness persists even amid the joy of "Merry England."
Chapter 48
What physical features do the love poets of this period praise in women?
The poets celebrate women's beauties one by one like a litany, praising eyes of "vair" and gray "y-noh" as the preferred colours, skin white as milk and "soft ase sylk," and scarlet lips used to read romances aloud. One English poet writing in French declared that the beauty of woman surpasses the rose, and innumerable songs were also dedicated to the Queen of Angels.
Chapter 48
Which French love tales were translated and popular in England?
Graceful love tales popular in France were translated and enjoyed no less popularity in England, where a public for this sort of literature now existed. The chapter names Amis and Amile and Floire and Blanchefleur among many others. Alongside these, poets produced imitations of May songs, disputoisons, and carols, singing of love, roses, and birds in sweet words to soft music.
Chapter 48
What mixture does the author say appears from the time of Edward II?
From the time of Edward II, the author says, there appears that mixture of mysticism and sensuality which was to become one of the characteristics of the fourteenth century. Contact with the new-comers had modified Anglo-Saxon gravity without sweeping it away wholly, so the possibility of recurring sadness is felt even amid the joy of "Merry England."
Chapter 48
Section 494 cards
What does the Ayenbite of Inwyt teach about true nobility?
The Ayenbite of Inwyt, a Kentish-dialect work of 1340 by Dan Michel of Northgate, argues that "the sothe noblesse comth of the gentyl herte," and that bodily all are children of one mother, the earth. It deals with the Ten Commandments and the seven deadly sins. Some chapters of Lorens's Somme were adapted by Chaucer in his Parson's Tale.
Chapter 49
What did Robert Mannyng of Brunne write and translate?
Robert Mannyng of Brunne (1260?–1340?) wrote a free English metrical translation in 1303 of William de Wadington's Manuel des Pechiez, called Handlyng Synne, containing exempla and curious stories. He also wrote a metrical chronicle from Noah to Edward I, after Peter de Langtoft and Wace, and possibly a meditation on the Last Supper imitated from St. Bonaventure.
Chapter 49
What is the Cursor Mundi and what were its sources?
The Cursor Mundi, compiled about 1300, draws on Peter Comestor's Historia Ecclesiastica, Wace's Fete de la Conception, and Grosseteste's Chateau d'Amour, among others. It was wrongly attributed to John of Lindbergh. Morris edited it for the Early English Text Society, 1874–93, in seven parts.
Chapter 49
Why did Mannyng write Handlyng Synne in English?
In his prologue Mannyng says he undertook it "for lewde men" and to make the book "on Englyssh tunge," because many people of that sort gladly hear tales and rhymes at games, feasts, and at the ale. The work is a free English rendering of Wadington's Manuel des Pechiez, written in 1303.
Chapter 49
Section 504 cards
What evidence does the chapter cite for Havelok's Scandinavian origin?
The chapter notes that a sign of Scandinavian origin is the flame issuing from Havelok's mouth at night, which betrays his royal origin. The events are set at Lincoln, Grimsby, and in Denmark, and the thirteenth-century seal of Grimsby depicts 'Habloc,' 'Goldeburgh,' and 'Gryem,' the town's founder and supposed father of the hero.
Chapter 50
What does the chapter say about the origins of Robin Hood stories?
The chapter states it is possible Robin Hood existed, in which case he probably lived under Edward II. However, the stories told about him had almost all been told previously, connected with other outlaws such as Hereward and Fulke Fitz-Warin. He was the hero of many songs from the fourteenth century, though most surviving ones belong to the sixteenth.
Chapter 50
What is the plot device in the story of the drinking horn?
The chapter describes a story of a drinking horn from which husbands with faithless wives cannot drink without spilling the contents. Arthur invites his knights to try the experiment and is not a little surprised to find that it turns against himself. The French text, 'Le lai du Cor,' was written by Robert Biquet in the twelfth century.
Chapter 50
What is 'The Owl and the Nightingale' and what does the chapter say about it?
The chapter calls 'The Owl and the Nightingale' one of the most characteristic of all the estrifs, or debates. It belongs to the thirteenth century and consists of a debate between the two birds about their respective merits. They are very learned and quote Alfred's proverbs, but they are not very well bred and come almost to insults and blows.
Chapter 50
Section 514 cards
What legal rule about the murdered person's origin was repealed in 1340?
Until Edward III's fourteenth year, when a murder's perpetrators were unknown, the victim was presumed French ("Francigena") and the whole county was fined, unless the county proved the dead man was only an Englishman. The statute of 1340 abolished this "presentement d'Englescherie," removing a conspicuous mark of the Conquest.
Chapter 51
According to the chapter, on whose lips did the fusion of English and French first begin?
The author argues the fusion began among the "lowe men," the rurales, who tried to frenchify themselves to imitate nobles but never spoke pure French, mixing vocabularies and grammars and dropping genders. He calls them the real founders of modern English, crediting the "French of Stratford-at-Bow" alongside the "French of Paris."
Chapter 51
What did the 1362 statute decree about language in English law courts?
It ordained that all pleas be conducted in English and enrolled in Latin, discontinuing French, "which is too unknown in the said realm." Counsel and clients no longer understood each other. Earlier, around 1300, Oxford allowed parties to speak in any language generally understood.
Chapter 51
What did Trevisa report in 1385 about French in English grammar schools?
Translating Higden, Trevisa corrected the claim that country people eagerly learn French: since the pestilence of 1349 this has "sumdel i-chaunged." By 1385 children in all England's grammar schools leave French and learn English, knowing no more French "than can hir lift heele," and gentlemen no longer much teach their children French.
Chapter 51
Section 523 cards
What evidence shows English entering Parliament and Westminster in the fourteenth century?
The chapter notes that members of Parliament continued to use French, but English appeared even among them: in 1363 the Chancellor opened a session with a speech in English, the first ever heard in Westminster. The author treats this as a sign that French, though still an elegance of court and nobility, was near its end as England's esteemed language.
Chapter 52
How were English and French versification combined to create English verse?
Native verse had two ornaments, number of accents and alliteration; fourteenth-century French verse had number of syllables and rhyme. The French gave up strict syllable counting and consented to note accents; the natives discarded alliteration and accepted rhyme. Thus English verse was created, its cadence Germanic and its rhyme French, as in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales": rhymed English verse with five accents and syllables varying from nine to eleven.
Chapter 52
What grammatical simplifications resulted from the Anglo-Saxon and French compromise?
Anglo-Saxon had complex declensions, including double trigeneric adjective inflections, verbs conjugated without auxiliaries, and grammatical gender that made sun feminine and wife and maiden neuter. The compromise with French, which had lost its primitive declensions and inflections, hastened an already begun transformation, giving fourteenth-century English a grammar remarkably simple, brief and clear: auxiliaries were introduced, nouns and adjectives lost their declensions, and gender followed natural sex.
Chapter 52
Section 531 cards
What does the chapter say about Parliament's character in the fourteenth century?
The chapter says Parliament, once conscious of its strength, acted like an assembly of Normans: calculating, deliberating, and bargaining rather than acting hastily. All compromises between Court and Parliament were a series of bargains—Parliament paid on condition the king reformed, and watched fulfillment closely. The author says Parliament proved more Norman than the Court, remaining master of the situation.
Chapter 53
Section 543 cards
According to the chapter, how did English and French responses to taxation and reform differ in the Middle Ages?
The chapter contrasts the two: at Westminster, Parliament voted subsidies on condition that reforms be instituted, and the people paid while the king reformed. In France, the people tried not to pay and the king tried not to reform; the subsidy voted by the States-General of 1356-7 caused bloody riots, agents were massacred at Rouen and Arras, and King John published a decree forbidding the States' orders to be fulfilled.
Chapter 54
What did foreign observers like Froissart, Commines, and Courtin say about England's political system?
The chapter cites several French observers who admired English liberties. Froissart said the king of England must obey his subjects and do what they want. Commines called England the community where public business is best attended to and people least exposed to violence. Ambassador Courtin in 1665 wrote that the English are masters of their king, who can do nothing unless it is what they will.
Chapter 54
How does the chapter describe England as a 'merchant island' under the Plantagenets?
The chapter says England already availed itself of religion, trade, and liberty four hundred years before Montesquieu. Mines including 'sea-coal' were worked; a mercantile navy carried wool, skins, cloth, wheat, butter and cheese to the Baltic, Iceland, Flanders, Guyenne, and Spain; Venetian galleys brought cotton, silks, sugar, spices, and glass. Edward III granted London gilds the right to elect members to Parliament, which they kept until 1832.
Chapter 54
Section 554 cards
Who was the greatest builder of the century and what did he build?
William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of Edward III and Richard II, is called the greatest builder of the century. He restored Windsor and founded New College at Oxford, and the chapter credits him above all with securing lasting fame for the English Perpendicular Gothic style.
Chapter 55
What complaints and changes marked domestic life and manners in this period?
The chapter notes life became more private and refined: the rich man dined in a chamber with a chimney rather than the common hall, and those clinging to old customs complained. Table manners were regulated in English manuals, and baths, grooming, and scented rooms are described. The author argues these show growing attention to comfort and elegance.
Chapter 55
How did dress and physical beauty draw attention in this era?
Luxury in dress grew so excessive that Parliament forbade lower-class women to wear furs except cat and rabbit. Edward III spent lavishly on gowns, pearls, and an embroidered waistcoat. The chapter says men and women wore tight garments showing the figure, and the Black Prince and Richard II had their looks recorded on tombs.
Chapter 55
What evidence does the chapter give that beauty of art and landscape was newly valued?
The author argues a sense of beauty spread: sculptors began using living models, as when Abbot Hugh of Leven's artist kept a naked man before him to shape a crucifix at Meaux. In 1350-1 the Commons complained in Parliament about cutting down large trees that overshadowed houses, citing the damage and blemish to dwellings.
Chapter 55
Section 564 cards
What did the 1362 statute (36 Ed. III) require for pleas and their enrollment?
The statute complained that the laws, customs and statutes of the realm were unknown because they were pleaded, shown and judged in French, too unfamiliar to litigants. It therefore ordered that all pleas be pleaded, shown, defended, answered, debated and judged in the English language, and that they be entered and enrolled in Latin.
Chapter 56
Despite the statute, in what language were plea accounts still transcribed?
The chapter notes that in spite of these arrangements, the accounts of the pleas continued to be transcribed in French into the Year-books, several of which were published in the Rolls collection. Around 1300 the author of the Mirror of Justice had still chosen French as the language best understood by 'you and the common people.'
Chapter 56
How did the English ambassadors and the French differ over the language of their letters?
The ambassadors, Swynford and Rysshetoun, argued French was the language of treatises but that Latin, used by St. Jerome, was the common and vulgar idiom, and they wrote in Latin. The French replied in their own language, and the vexed ambassadors acknowledged receiving letters written in French as if in Hebrew.
Chapter 56
What did the Commons protest regarding the Court of Rome's presentations to English benefices?
The Commons protested against appeals to the Roman Court, which they said undid and annulled the laws of the realm, and against the Court of Rome presenting to numberless English benefices out of covetousness. In the Good Parliament of 1376 they claimed the taxes collected for the Pope on this account amounted to five times the king's yearly revenue from the whole kingdom.
Chapter 56
Section 574 cards
What does the author note about the facial expressions in the St. Stephen's chapel paintings?
The author observes that the smiling aspect of the figures should be noted, especially that of the women, and that there is a look of happiness about them. The chapel, finished about 1348 and painted afterwards, was destroyed by fire; only the crypt remains, with fragments of the Job paintings preserved in the British Museum.
Chapter 57
How much did Edward III pay for a manuscript romance, and how does that compare to an ox?
Edward III bought a manuscript romance from Isabella of Lancaster, a nun of Aumbresbury, for 66 pounds, 13 shillings and 4 pence, keeping it always in his room. The chapter notes that an ox then cost about twelve shillings, underscoring the manuscript's great expense.
Chapter 57
What motto is associated with William of Wykeham, and what does it mean?
Wykeham's famous motto was 'Manners makyth man,' meaning that moral qualities alone make a man of worth. Born at Wykeham, Hampshire, in 1324 of an obscure family, he became clerk of the king's works in 1356, bishop of Winchester in 1366, and Chancellor in 1367 and again under Richard II.
Chapter 57
How did fourteenth-century wall decoration differ from that of the thirteenth century?
The chapter states that in the fourteenth century walls were hung rather than painted as in the thirteenth. Wealthy people owned 'salles,' suits of hangings for a room; common ones were made at Norwich, while the finest came from Flanders. Henry III had earlier commissioned painted histories, even ordering one covered with linen in his absence.
Chapter 57
Section 584 cards
What class did Chaucer's family belong to, and what was his father's trade?
Chaucer's family belonged to the merchant class of the City. His father, John Chaucer, his uncle Thomas Heyroun, and other relations were members of the Corporation of Wine Merchants, or Vintners. John Chaucer was purveyor to the Court and accompanied Edward III on his first expedition to the Continent, a connection the future poet would profit from.
Chapter 58
How did Chaucer come to be captured, and how was he ransomed?
In 1359 Chaucer took part in the king's expedition to France. The campaign went badly for Edward, who failed before Reims and Paris and signed the treaty of Bretigny. Chaucer was taken prisoner by the French, and Edward paid sixteen pounds to ransom his daughter-in-law's page. The chapter notes Edward had spent far more on horses.
Chapter 58
What court positions did Chaucer hold after returning from France?
After his return Chaucer was attached to Edward's person as valet of the chamber, 'valettus camerae regis,' making the royal bed, holding torches, and carrying messages. A little later he was squire, 'armiger' or 'scutifer,' serving the prince at table and riding after him on journeys. The chapter says these duties did not absorb all his thoughts, since he read, wrote, and loved.
Chapter 58
What did Chaucer read and write in his early court years, according to the chapter?
Chaucer read works fashionable in the elegant society he lived among: romances of chivalry, love-songs, and allegorical poems, from 'Roland' and 'Tristan' to the 'Roman de la Rose.' The chapter argues that poets rarely show originality at twenty, and Chaucer imitated the writings best liked around him, which at the king's court were mostly French books.
Chapter 58
Section 594 cards
What did Des Champs praise Chaucer for in his verse letter?
Des Champs congratulates Chaucer above all for having "planted the rose-tree" in the "isle of giants," the "angelic land" of Angleterre, and for being there the god of worldly loves, noting that Chaucer translated the book of the Rose "en bon angles." This ascribes to Chaucer a real authority in matters of love, which the chapter says is genuine.
Chapter 59
Why did the Roman de la Rose's alleged faults contribute to its popularity?
The chapter explains that digressions, disquisitions, and sermons did not frighten fourteenth-century readers as they do modern ones; twenty-three thousand lines of moralisation, psychological analysis, and abstract dissertations by personified abstractions did not weary their young imaginations. The allegorical form, later disfavoured, delighted readers who enjoyed unriddling its easy enigmas.
Chapter 59
How does the chapter describe the differing contributions of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun?
The chapter says Guillaume de Lorris built the porch of his cathedral of Love, placing in the niches tall, pure, and noble figures. Jean de Meun, forty years later, continued the edifice and was not sparing of gargoyles—mocking, grotesque, and indecent. This contrast sparked interminable discussions, some holding for Guillaume, others for Jean, which added to the work's fame.
Chapter 59
What does the chapter say about Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose?
The chapter states that Chaucer's translation is lost, but that we know it existed and was celebrated; its merit was known in France. Des Champs, sending his works to Chaucer, congratulates him on planting the rose-tree in England and on translating the book into good English. Chaucer also composed many amorous poems in the French style, most now lost.
Chapter 59
Section 604 cards
What diplomatic missions did Chaucer undertake in the 1370s, and where?
In December 1372 Chaucer crossed France to Genoa to treat with the doge on commercial matters, then went to Florence, returning to England in summer 1373. Further missions followed in 1376 (a secret one), 1377 and 1378, negotiating in France and again in Italy, where he had to treat with his compatriot Hawkwood.
Chapter 60
How does the chapter describe the shared role of ambassador and messenger in the Middle Ages?
The chapter argues the Middle Ages was not a period of nuances: the distinction between ambassador and messenger was held insignificant and escaped observation, so the two functions formed but one. Men of letters often filled these mixed functions, including Boccaccio in Italy, Chaucer in England, and Des Champs in France.
Chapter 60
What hardships of diplomatic travel does Des Champs describe?
Des Champs paints a lamentable picture: his horse is half dead and 'sits on his knees'; inhabitants speak only their own language, so one cannot order dinner and must eat what is served. Lodging is worse—no one lies alone, but two or three in one bed in a dark room—making him regret France, where one gets room, fire, bed, and scented sheets for a reasonable price.
Chapter 60
What did Chaucer observe of Italian art and the early Renaissance during his visits?
Chaucer saw the Renaissance beginning: Giotto, Orcagna, and Andrew of Pisa were the century's artists, and he viewed frescoes still fresh in their glowing colours. He saw Pisa's leaning tower, cathedral, baptistery and Campo Santo, Pistoja's carved pulpit, and Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, Bargello, Santa-Croce and Santa-Maria-Novella, with the cathedral under scaffolding and Giotto's campanile finished by Gaddi.
Chapter 60
Section 614 cards
What Italian authors did Chaucer come to know after his journeys?
Before his journeys Chaucer was ignorant of Italian literature; afterward he knew Italian and had read the great Tuscan authors: Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Dante. Their works haunted his memory, the Roman de la Rose ceased to be his main literary ideal, and he spoke of the old classics with a veneration resembling Petrarch's.
Chapter 61
What duties did Chaucer's oath as comptroller of the customs require?
For twelve years from 1374 Chaucer was comptroller of the customs, and for the first ten he was obliged by oath to write the accounts and draw up the rolls of receipts with his own hand: 'ye shall write the rolles by your owne hande demesned.' He attended the weighing and verifying of merchandise, recording owner, quality, quantity, and tax, and he caught the smuggler John Kent.
Chapter 61
Where did Chaucer live from 1374 to 1386, and what did he write there?
The municipality granted Chaucer lodgings in the Aldgate tower, where he lived twelve years, 1374 to 1386, obliged to quit if the town's defence required it. There, his labour ended, he began his poet's life. He wrote chiefly there the Lyf of Seinte Cecile, Compleynt of Mars, a Boethius translation, Parlement of Foules, Troilus and Criseyde, Hous of Fame, and Legend of Good Women.
Chapter 61
How does the chapter describe Chaucer's use of Italian and Latin sources?
Chaucer borrows from the Italians a line, idea, comparison, closely translated passages, or a tale's plot or inspiration: the Lyf of Seinte Cecile borrows from Dante's Paradiso, Troilus and Criseyde adapts Boccaccio's Filostrato and includes a Petrarch sonnet, and the Legend of Good Women draws on Boccaccio's De claris Mulieribus. Yet in the Hous of Fame the author argues Chaucer's own personality clearly appears.
Chapter 61
Section 623 cards
In The House of Fame, what groups does Chaucer place in the house of news?
Chaucer describes a house of news, noisy as an Italian public square on a day when something has happened. Messengers, travellers, pilgrims, and sailors throng there, each carrying a bag full of news and lies. Truth and falsehood fly away together, and a tiny secret grows like a spark until a whole city burns.
Chapter 62
How does the chapter describe Troilus's love for Cressida beginning?
Troilus first mocks lovers, but seeing Cressida in the temple seals his fate. Absent from her, his imagination perfects her image until he beholds only a superhuman form fashioned in his own brain, never the real earthly Cressida. The chapter says he is ill for life with the love illness.
Chapter 62
What does the chapter say Troilus and Criseyde contributes to English literature?
The author argues it is the first great poem of renewed English literature and a great date in English literature. In semi-epic form it connects with the novel and drama, blending tragic and comic, heroic and trivial, examining sentiments closely while showing material facts clearly, with characters who are real men of muscles and hearts.
Chapter 62
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What does Chaucer prioritize over historical accuracy in Troilus and Criseyde?
The author argues Chaucer cares nothing for anachronisms, such as besieged Trojans reading the Lives of the Saints. History matters little to him; he tells those interested to look "in Omer or in Dares." His real subject is the motions of the human heart, not the march of armies. From its birth, the author concludes, the English novel is psychological.
Chapter 63
How does Pandarus first approach Cressida about Troilus's love?
Pandarus arrives to find Cressida reading a romance of Thebes. He mingles frivolities with serious, practical advice like a good uncle, then rises to depart without stating his errand, exciting her curiosity until it becomes almost anguish. Only then does he reveal that Troilus loves her and that, unless she helps, it will be his bane.
Chapter 63
How does Cressida react when Pandarus says a word too much?
Chaucer has Pandarus overreach, and Cressida unmasks him on the spot, forcing him to admit that in asking less he desired more for his friend. She blushes and is indignant. The author argues this shows Chaucer's subtlety: Pandarus's wiles serve only to make us appreciate the slow inward working in Cressida's heart, not to make her yield outright.
Chapter 63
What is Cressida's state of mind after first seeing Troilus?
She dreams, meditates, and argues, but is not yet love's prisoner. She keeps her vision lucid and reviews elevated, low, and practical reasons, noting she is her own woman with no husband and is not religious. The author describes her as suffering from diboulia, or alternate will, with two Cressidas in her, the comedy dialogue continuing in her heart in a graver key.
Chapter 63
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What does Cressida's letter to Troilus say about her return?
Cressida writes short letters excusing her brevity and says Troilus can count on her friendship; she will return, but not in ten days—only when she can. The narrator notes that letter length means nothing, and she never liked writing, and where she is it is inconvenient.
Chapter 64
How does Chaucer's ending differ from Boccaccio's as rendered by Pierre de Beauveau?
Chaucer ends with a resigned, almost sad, religious appeal to 'yonge fresshe folkes,' transforming Boccaccio's conclusion. Beauveau's French version instead moralises that young women are wilful, haughty, and variable as a leaf in the wind. The narrator says Beauveau's graceful moralisation is itself as light as a leaf in the wind.
Chapter 64
What offices and experiences did Chaucer have before writing the Canterbury Tales?
Chaucer was page, soldier, prisoner of the French, squire to the king, and negotiator in Flanders, France, and Italy. In 1386 he entered Parliament for Kent; he lost his places, then in 1389 was appointed clerk of the royal works. The narrator says experience had ripened him and he had read and seen all there was.
Chapter 64
Why did Chaucer lose his positions in 1386, and how did he recover?
Chaucer entered Parliament for Kent in 1386 during a stormy session in which Richard II's ministers were impeached. Having remained faithful to the king and John of Gaunt, he was viewed with ill favour by those in power under Gloucester, and lost his places, falling into want. After three years Richard dismissed the Council and Chaucer was appointed clerk of the royal works in 1389.
Chapter 64
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What does the Clerk of Oxford own, and how is he described?
The Clerk is a poor, threadbare scholar from the young University of Oxford, with hollow cheeks and a lean horse. His entire wealth consists of twenty books "clad in blak and reed." He is modest and, as the text notes, no one knew he was in debt.
Chapter 65
How does the Physician's learning and relation to the Church appear?
The Physician is learned, knows Hippocrates and Galen by heart, and understands the causes of disease, whether hot or cold, moist or dry. He thrived during the plague. But he is on bad terms with the Church because, as the text says, "His studie was but litel on the Bible."
Chapter 65
How does the author contrast Chaucer's sympathy with Froissart's treatment of common people?
The author argues Chaucer loves common people, such as his plowman and poor parson, and suffers at their hardships. In Froissart, by contrast, common people scarcely figure except as raw material for feats of arms, with few tears shed for the many who perish. The author sees Chaucer's sympathy as distinctive.
Chapter 65
What pilgrimage plan and storytelling contest do the pilgrims agree on?
Twenty-nine pilgrims gather at the Tabard, bound for the shrine of Thomas Becket, fifty-six miles from London. To shorten the way, each is to tell two tales, and on return the troop will honor the best teller with a supper.
Chapter 65
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How does Chaucer's frame for the Tales differ from Boccaccio's?
The author argues Chaucer's plan is more humane and truer to nature. Boccaccio keeps young nobles strolling from palace to garden; Chaucer puts his narrators on the road, stopping at inns, drinking at public-houses, hurrying at evening, meeting passers-by. His knights are real knights and his millers real millers, who swear and strike as in a mill.
Chapter 66
How does the Host's manner vary toward different pilgrims?
The Host speaks as an innkeeper throughout, but Chaucer shows nuance in his temper. He roughly threatens the Miller with 'Tel on, a devel wey!' yet addresses the Prioress with polite salutations and embarrassed compliments, asking if she would tell the next tale. The author notes the poet never makes him step out of his role.
Chapter 66
How do the pilgrims' personalities affect how their tales are told?
The author argues their temper rules them and they are not masters of their speech. The Friar, blinded by anger, stammers and chokes, leaving his narrative shapeless; the Pardoner cannot leave his profession, so his tale resembles a sermon ending with an offer of relics and pardon. The Wife of Bath talks inexhaustibly about matrimony, her specialty.
Chapter 66
Where does Chaucer get his tales, and how does he handle their license?
Chaucer invents none; he takes them from France, Italy, and ancient Rome, then models them to fit his characters. The Knight's tale comes from Boccaccio, the Nun's Priest's from the Roman de Renart, the Monk's from Latin authors and Dante. The author notes Chaucer excuses the coarse tales by blaming his road-companions and the Southwark beer, not himself.
Chapter 66
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What comic detail shows the alchemists' failed experiment in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale?
The pot breaks and everything is lost: "The pot to-breketh, and farewel! al is go!" Rather than accept blame, the alchemists each blame a different cause—the fire-making, the blowing, the tempering of the metal, or the fire not being made of beech—and simply resolve to begin again.
Chapter 67
How does the friar in the Summoner's Tale behave when visiting the dying Thomas?
The friar arrives with a greeting of "Deus hic," sets aside his staff, wallet, and hat, shoos the cat off the bench, and settles in while the wife bustles about. He claims his stomach is destroyed yet requests light delicacies, and preaches a self-interested sermon urging Thomas to give to him and his convent rather than the neighboring one.
Chapter 67
How does the fox catch Chauntecleer in the Nun's Priest's Tale?
The fox flatters the cock, saying his father sang well but Chauntecleer sings better, and that he came only to hear him sing. To prove it, the cock shuts his eye to crow, and the fox seizes and carries him off. The narrator notes it was a Friday, when such misfortunes always happen.
Chapter 67
What does the chapter say about the popularity of the Griselda story?
The author notes Griselda's immense popularity: Boccaccio told her tale in the Decameron, Petrarch honored it with a Latin translation, and Chaucer made it the Clerk of Oxford's tale. It was translated into French several times, painted by Pinturicchio, and dramatized in Italy, France, and England. The author argues people wept over such exaggerated tales as eighteenth-century readers wept over Clarissa.
Chapter 67
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Why did Chaucer alter Petrarch's Griselda text so little?
The author explains that Petrarch probably gave Chaucer the tale to read during his visit, and Chaucer, for that very reason, felt less free with it than with most of his other stories, so he scarcely altered anything in Petrarch's text. In both versions Griselda is Patience personified, neither woman nor mother, only the patient spouse.
Chapter 68
How does the author describe Chaucer's attitude toward his own pious characters?
The author argues Chaucer is not their dupe. He suspects his pious stories may offend by monotony and exaggerated sentiment, and scatters mocking notes showing he is superior to his epoch. He laughs at the tiresome Constance, shows the pilgrims drowsy under the monk's solemn tales, and lets the host abruptly interrupt his own Sir Thopas.
Chapter 68
Why did Chaucer write solely in English despite knowing Latin and French?
The author says Chaucer belonged to the English nation, and that reason sufficed for him. In his Treatise on the Astrolabe he argues that true conclusions in English suffice, as Greek conclusions suffice noble Greek clerks, Arabic to Arabians, Hebrew to Jews, and Latin to the Latin folk. He wanted 'naked wordes in English,' words cousin to the deed.
Chapter 68
What does the author say about Chaucer's use of French words?
The author argues Chaucer did not attempt impossible reforms against the current. His proportion of French words is no greater than that of most contemporaries, and the words he used were living and fruitful, since they and their families survive, with wonderfully few lost. He retained something of the Anglo-Saxon genius without knowing it, since the tradition was broken.
Chapter 68
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What did Chaucer do to help standardize English as a literary language?
The author argues Chaucer regularized English's discordances of tongue, orthography, and vocabulary, and worried about dialectal variation and careless copyists. His brilliant use of English, the instant fame of his works, and his proof that English suited both high and low themes assured the idiom its definitive place among great literary languages. After him, dialects lost importance, and his East Midland dialect became the language of the nation.
Chapter 69
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What evidence links the poet's wife Philippa to Philippa Roet, sister of Catherine Roet?
The chapter says it seems likely but not certain. Both women served the queen and shared the name, function, and a pension of ten marks described in the same words in public documents. Philippa Roet's father, Sir Payne Roet, came from Hainault like the queen, and her sister Catherine became John of Gaunt's mistress and third wife, explaining the poet's favour with the Lancastrians.
Chapter 70
What does the chapter conclude about Thomas Chaucer's parentage?
It seems very probable, though not absolutely certain, that Thomas Chaucer was one of the poet's children. Thomas used both the Chaucer and the Roet arms, was Speaker of the House of Commons under Henry V, and was a man of great influence. The chapter presents this as likelihood rather than established fact.
Chapter 70
What does the Book of the Duchesse suggest about Chaucer's eight-year sickness?
A passage from 1369 leaves little doubt about the reality of the unlucky passion the poet describes. He interrupts his speech to answer a supposed question about his melancholy, saying he has suffered this sickness for eight years and his cure is never nearer, for there is only one physician who may heal him. The chapter notes the loved one is unknown.
Chapter 70
Which works were wrongly attributed to Chaucer, and why?
The chapter says Chaucer's reputation was such that many writings were attributed to him, a way to increase their reputation, not his. The more important are The Court of Love, the Book of Cupid (Cuckoo and Nightingale), Flower and Leaf, the Romaunt of the Rose as we have it, the Complaint of a Lover's Life, the Testament of Love in prose, the Isle of Ladies or Chaucer's Dream, and various ballads.
Chapter 70
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What mission did Chaucer and Edward de Berkeley undertake in May 1378?
They were ordered to go on the king's message to Barnabo, Duke of Milan, and to John Hawkwood in Lombardy, for business touching the conduct of the war. Berkeley received 200 marks and Chaucer 100, paid from the war subsidy Parliament had voted the year before. During his absence Chaucer appointed attorneys, one of whom was the poet Gower.
Chapter 71
Why does the chapter think Chaucer likely met Petrarch at Padua?
The chapter argues the meeting probably happened. The Clerk of Oxford in the Canterbury Tales says he learned his tale at Padua from a worthy clerk, Francis Petrarch the laureate poet, a circumstantial reference unusual for Chaucer, who usually cites only 'a book' or uses wrong names. At that date Chaucer was known as a poet abroad, and Petrarch was at Arqua near Padua working on his Latin translation of Boccaccio's Griselda story.
Chapter 71
Why did Boccaccio fail to complete his public lectures on Dante?
Boccaccio began the lectures on Sunday, October 23, 1373, but disease, probably diabetes, soon obliged him to interrupt them. He died in his house at Certaldo on December 21, 1375. The chapter notes Chaucer could not have attended the lectures, since he had returned to London in the summer.
Chapter 71
Why did Chaucer write the Legend of Good Women, according to the chapter?
In the Prologue, Venus and Cupid reproach Chaucer for poems in which women and love do not appear favorably, such as Troilus and his translation of the Roman de la Rose, which is called 'an heresye ageyns my lawe.' He wrote the Legend to make amends. Its good women are all love's martyrs, like Dido, Ariadne and Thisbe, and it was his first attempt at a story collection with a Prologue.
Chapter 71
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What stanza form does the Manciple's Tale use, unlike most Canterbury Tales?
The Manciple's Tale is written in stanzas rather than the couplets used by most of the tales. It employs Chaucer's favourite seven-line stanza, rhyming a b a b b c c. The chapter notes this as an exception among the tales, which are otherwise largely in rhyming couplets.
Chapter 72
According to the chapter, what sources lie behind the Knight's Tale?
The chapter states the Knight's Tale, the history of Palamon and Arcyte, is derived from Boccaccio's Teseide. It is the first tale told, on the first day's journey from London to Dartford, fifteen miles. The chapter also mentions the tale's description of a young lady gathering flowers at dawn in a garden at the foot of a dungeon.
Chapter 72
What is the source of the Clerk of Oxford's tale of Griselda?
The chapter says the Clerk of Oxford's tale is the story of Griselda, taken from Petrarch's Latin version of the last tale in the Decameron. It is told on the third day, during the rest at Ospringe, forty-six miles along the road.
Chapter 72
How does the chapter describe the Canon's Yeoman's Tale and its animosity?
The chapter says the tale concerns the frauds of an alchemist, possibly drawn from Chaucer's personal experience. It notes that the satire shows such keen animosity against alchemists, contrary to Chaucer's usual practice, that it seems as if the poet, then rather hard up, had himself a grudge against such quacks. The canon and his man join the pilgrims during the fourth day's journey.
Chapter 72
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How did dramatic versions of Patient Griselda differ across countries?
A French play was performed at Paris in 1395 and printed c. 1550; Hans Sachs wrote a German version in 1550; Apostolo Zeno made it an Italian opera in 1620. In England, Henslowe lent three pounds in 1599 to Dekker, Chettle and Haughton for their "Pleasant Comodie of Patient Grissil," printed in 1603. The chapter says the English authors drew hints from the French play but theirs is the best written on the subject.
Chapter 73
What role did minstrels play in Merry England, according to the chapter?
The chapter describes minstrels as numerous and influential: with their vast memory they act like perambulating libraries, instructing, amusing and edifying. Passing county to county, they hawk news, compose satirical songs, and function as living newspapers, representing or shaping public opinion. The king and nobles kept minstrels in their pay, feasting them and giving furred robes and money.
Chapter 73
How did the standing of minstrels decline, and what did critics say?
The king's minstrels protested against sham minstrels—uncultured peasants and workmen pretending to be royal minstrels—and a statute was issued against them, but decline was imminent. The chapter says the printing-press gave learning other means of spreading. In the sixteenth century minstrels still abounded but were held in contempt; Philip Stubbes called them drunken parasites singing filthy songs in taverns and ale-houses.
Chapter 73
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In Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, what bargain does Gawayne make with his host?
The host goes hunting daily and agrees to give Gawayne all his game, on condition that Gawayne gives him whatever he has taken while staying at the castle with the lady. Each evening Gawayne exchanges the kisses he received for the spoils of the chase—a buck, a boar, and a fox—but conceals the protective belt.
Chapter 74
Why does Gawayne receive only a slight wound at the Green Chapel?
The giant explains that the kisses Gawayne honestly returned should have earned mortal blows, but because Gawayne kept the protective belt and said nothing, he bears a scar on his neck for life. The giant reveals himself as Bernlak de Haut-Desert and says Gawayne was sport for Morgan the fairy.
Chapter 74
What is the subject and imagery of the poem The Pearl, found in the same manuscript?
It is an anonymous song of mourning by a father who has lost his daughter, his 'pearl,' fallen in the grass. In a sunlit August landscape of bright flowers and a crystal brook, he has a vision of her as a white-clad maiden, who tells him he lost only a rose that has now become a pearl forever.
Chapter 74
According to the chapter, how did nobles and royalty participate in poetry?
The author argues the Plantagenets were art-loving: Edward III spent freely on St. Stephen's Chapel, Richard II continued Westminster Abbey in Henry III's style, and the hero of Poictiers put French verses in his will for his tomb at Canterbury. Nobles copied ready-made ballads supplied by professional poets, much as sermons were written for dull priests.
Chapter 74
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What was the Pui of London and what did it do?
The Pui was a London association founded in imitation of those in northern France, established to encourage the art of the chanson and award prizes for the best verses and music. In the fourteenth century it was at its height and included both foreign and English merchants. Its stated aim was that jollity, peace, courtesy, gentleness and love without end be maintained, all good promoted, and evil prevented.
Chapter 75
How did the Pui judge chansons and guard against bias?
Judging rested with the old and new princes plus about fifteen of the most knowing companions, all sworn not to fail for love, hate, favour, promise, neighbourhood, lineage, or any tie old or new. Two or three judges skilled in singing and music examined the tune, since a written text without music could not be called a chanson nor crowned. The winning song was copied and posted under the prince's coat of arms.
Chapter 75
What did the Pui's feast and procession involve?
After the competition all dined together on a set bill of fare: good bread, good ale and good wine, then potage and a course of strong meat, then a double roast in a dish, and cheese, nothing else. The poorest were served as liberally as the richest. Then members mounted horses, rode through town, accompanied the new prince to his hostel, danced, drank once, and returned home.
Chapter 75
Who was Laurence Minot and how does the chapter judge his poems?
Minot was the author of a series of English poems celebrating Edward III's battles, preserved in a single manuscript; nothing is known about him. The author argues his verse is rude, sometimes mixing alliteration with rhyme, both roughly handled, and that he extols Edward's prowess with the best will but the worst poetry. Grand subjects, the author notes, risk recalling the Sir Thopas example when magnified by unskilful artists.
Chapter 75
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What does Barbour claim about the truthfulness of 'The Bruce'?
Barbour says he intends to write a true history, expecting to give twofold pleasure because it is a history and because it is true. Yet the author notes that where passion holds sway, truth rarely reigns: Barbour's passionate love of Scotland makes his critical sense vanish when a legend favors his country, so miracles become history for him.
Chapter 76
How does Gower's linguistic practice reflect older Angevin England?
Gower is tri-lingual, hesitating between idioms and unsure English is the right one. He writes long poems in Latin and English, uses French when addressing 'the universality of all men,' and writes French 'of Stratford,' excusing his mistakes with 'English I am.' The author argues this shows Gower belongs to the half-French England of former days.
Chapter 76
What are Gower's three great poems and their languages?
Gower wrote three major poems: the 'Speculum Meditantis' in French, which is lost and survives only in an analysis showing he treated the vices and virtues of his day; the 'Vox Clamantis' in Latin, suggested by the great rising of 1381; and the 'Confessio Amantis' in English.
Chapter 76
What does Barbour's anecdote of the king and his hound illustrate?
Traitorously attacked by three men while alone in the mountains, the king kills them all. When congratulated, he replies that he slew only one without more, and 'God and my hound has slane the twa.' The author says Barbour delights in such picturesque anecdotes that make his heroes popular, showing the king as simple, patriarchal and valorous.
Chapter 76
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What form does Gower adopt for the Vox Clamantis, and what happens to his audience?
Gower, described as not inventive, adopts the form of a dream, as if it were a new "Romaunt of the Rose": it is springtime and he falls asleep. The author says the audience's slumber will be broken, since in the midst of Gower's droning sermon he suddenly screams and flies into a passion; his hearers open an eye, recognize Gower, and go back to sleep.
Chapter 77
What terrifying event does the author say gives the Vox Clamantis its unusual force?
The author argues the sermon is remarkable for its intense horror and dismay: the quiet Gower and his community were suddenly faced with something terrifying even for that period. The earth shook and a gulf opened; hundreds of victims, including an archbishop of Canterbury, disappeared. The abyss still yawns, but its two edges have united and closed over a heaving sea of lava whose rumblings warn it may burst forth again.
Chapter 77
Why does Gower apologize for writing in English, and how does the author judge that apology?
Gower explains that few men write in English, so he thinks to make a book "for Englondes sake." The author notes he has no idea how out of place this apology is, so common a hundred years before, now that Chaucer's "Troilus" exists. Gower's English book is a lengthy compilation written at young King Richard's request, offering "somwhat of lust, somwhat of lore."
Chapter 77
How does the Confessio Amantis frame its tales, and how does it end for the lover?
Gower imagines a confession: the lover seeks a priest of Venus, the learned old Genius, already a confessor in the "Roman de la Rose." Genius condemns vices, hates Lollardry, commends virtues, and the stories serve as examples, passing through the seven deadly sins and the "Secretum Secretorum." The lover writes Venus a letter with tears instead of ink; she laughs scornfully at the aged lover, and Gower decides to withdraw.
Chapter 77
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How does the author date and describe the Pearl manuscript's miniatures?
The author states that some coarsely-painted miniatures illustrate the chief incidents of Pearl, and that they are by no means equal to the gracefulness of the poem. They are by the same hand as those of Sir Gawayne. A reproduction of one appears in the author's Piers Plowman, page 12.
Chapter 78
What does the lazy parson in Langland confess he can chant?
The author cites the lazy parson in Langland's Visions, who admits he cannot chant the services but says he can rhyme of Robin Hood and Randolf earl of Chester. The author uses this to show Robin Hood was popular and praised in song as early as the fourteenth century, though most surviving Robin Hood pieces are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Chapter 78
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What three principal versions of Langland's Visions exist, and their probable dates?
The chapter states three principal versions exist, without counting intermediate remodellings: the first contains twelve passus (probably 1362-3), the second twenty passus (1376-7), and the third twenty-three passus (1398-9). Allusions to contemporary events in the poem allow these dates to be assigned.
Chapter 79
How does the chapter contrast Langland's poetry with Gower's?
The author argues Gower's books were made out of books, keeping us always in his library, while Langland's are made of real life, things seen, dreams dreamt, and feelings actually experienced. Gower links to Angevin England; Langland to the remote England of Saxons and Scandinavians. The author calls Langland the greatest poet after Chaucer in medieval English literature.
Chapter 79
What does the chapter say about Langland's birthplace, extraction, and early life?
The author thinks Langland was probably born in 1331 or 1332 at Cleobury Mortimer, near the Welsh border. He was, the author thinks, of low extraction, apparently escaping bondage through patrons pleased by his ready intelligence. From childhood he knew peasants and poor folk, describing their habits and cottages familiarly. His life oscillated chiefly between Malvern and London.
Chapter 79
Why does the chapter call Langland mysterious, and how does his spirit differ from classic authors?
The chapter says his very name is doubtful, no one appears to have seen him, and no contemporaneous information survives. The author argues his spirit is that of the Middle Ages: powerful, desultory, limitless. Unlike a classic author who makes a plan and completes it, Langland rarely keeps to a plan, adding porch, wing, and chapel like an unfinished medieval cathedral.
Chapter 79
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According to the chapter, what did Langland's will lack compared to his aspirations?
The chapter states his will was not on a par with his aspirations, and this inadequacy caused numberless disappointments. Clergye calls him one who wants to know but hates to study: "The wer lef to lerne | but loth for to stodie." Even in early youth his mind seemed to lack balance, and the author describes him as already "a soul in trouble" while still a boy.
Chapter 80
What were chantries, and how did clerks earn a living from them?
Men of fortune left money so masses or the service for the dead would be chanted for their souls; these foundations were called chantries, and they were countless, filling cathedral arches and sometimes separate buildings. Priests celebrated the masses; clerks, often tonsured but not necessarily in holy orders, served as choristers. It was almost a trade, prompting salary disputes and even strikes. The services were named Placebos and Diriges, the latter giving English "dirge."
Chapter 80
What doubts about divine justice troubled Langland, according to the chapter?
The chapter says doubts assailed the dreamer and theology only darkened them: the more he mused, the mistier it seemed. He wondered how theology could be reconciled with justice, noting that Aristotle and Solomon, though wise, are held by Holy Church "bothe ydampned," while on Good Friday a lifelong thief was saved at once without purgatory—"A robbere was yraunceouned | rather than thei alle!" He wished he had the simple "sad bileve" of plowmen and pastors.
Chapter 80
How does the chapter describe Langland's appearance and behavior in London?
He appears as a great, gaunt figure in sombre, large-folded garments, sad with endless grief, bewailing lost protectors and illusions. He forms no new friendships, greets no one, and passes lords, lawyers, and ladies without saluting—not even men in furs and gold collars, who ought to be greeted. People shrug and call him "a fole," mad; the words "fole," "frantyk," and "ydiote" recur under his pen.
Chapter 80
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In the vision on Malvern hills, who explains the landscape and the tower of Truth?
Holy-Church appears and explains the landscape and the vision to the dreaming poet. She identifies the tower as the tower of Truth and the castle as the "Castel of Care" containing "Wronge." She also points out how mankind ought to live and teaches kings and knights their duties with regard to Truth.
Chapter 81
What does the name Lady Meed signify, and why is she hard to do without?
The monosyllable "Meed" means both reward and bribery. The chapter says disinterestedness is rare, so scarcely anything is undertaken without hope of recompense, and one who toils for recompense is never quite safe from bribery. Thus getting on without her is impossible, yet it is hard to know what to do with her.
Chapter 81
What does the knight Conscience say against Lady Meed before the king?
Conscience refuses to marry Meed and lays bare her ill-practices: she corrupts all orders of the kingdom and caused the death of the king's father, Edward II. He says she would not be an amiable spouse, being "as comune as the cart-wey," and that she connives with the Pope over benefices, obtaining bishoprics for fools though they be lewd.
Chapter 81
How does Piers Plowman teach duty, and what does he protest against?
Piers Plowman, a variable emblem here representing the man of "good will," teaches the way to Truth and instructs everyone in present duties and definite obligations. The author has him protest against useless, unoccupied lives—those later called "dilettante" who treat life as a sight and merely amuse themselves and judge others. Even lovely ladies with long fingers have practical duties.
Chapter 81
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How does Langland's portrayal of crowds and classes differ from Chaucer's?
The author argues Chaucer's horror of abstractions gives each character sharp individuality, so we think of the person and forget the class or nation. Langland instead keeps crowds, groups, and classes always present: the merchant class, the religious world, the Commons. Chaucer's people brawl on the highway; Langland's crowds sack the Savoy and take the Tower of London.
Chapter 82
What does Langland's line about knighthood and the commons express about royal power?
The author says the whole organisation of the English State is summed up in the line where the king is surrounded by his people: knighthood led him, and the might of the commons made him to reign. The power of the Commons is always on Langland's mind; he sees it as impossible to do without them.
Chapter 82
How does Conscience limit the king's claim to rule, according to Langland?
When the king stretches his prerogative and speaks as Richard II later did, claiming to be head of law while Clergy and Commons are mere members, Langland has Conscience add a menacing condition: the king must defend and rule his realm in reason and in truth. The author sees the deposition of Richard and the fall of the Stuarts foreshadowed in these words.
Chapter 82
Who guides Langland's visionary and what does he represent?
The author says Langland is led by Piers Plowman, who differs from Dante's Virgil and from the Lover of the Roman de la Rose. Piers is the mainspring of the State and embodies the ideal of disinterestedness, conscience, and reason; he is the real hero, patiently ploughing the same endless furrow from dawn to twilight of life.
Chapter 82
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In Langland's poem, who feeds the sincere and who looks after the rest?
Piers undertakes the care of all sincere people, while Hunger looks after the rest. Piers refuses to feed the useless—jugglers, players, baudes, and false friars—since all whose names are in the "legende of lif" must take life seriously. The author argues every class that performs duties insincerely, or fails to justify its privileges by services, will perish.
Chapter 83
How does the chapter describe Langland's relationship to his own thought?
The author describes a dual personality in Langland: he is the victim and not the master of his thought, which acts as a separate entity with wishes opposed to his desires. In the poem, a figure like himself named Thought says he has followed him seven years. Langland is scarcely aware that he invents; his personages are beyond his reach.
Chapter 83
What single fault does Langland hate above all, and what does it include?
The author argues Langland's fundamental indignation is against lack of sincerity—all shapes of "faux semblants" or false seeming. He sees shams as the true source of good and evil and the touchstone of right and wrong. Fals-Semblant is never named but assumes all forms: the pope selling benefices, the corrupt knight, the dishonest merchant, the friar, the pardoner, down to the lying juggler.
Chapter 83
Section 843 cards
What motto does Jusserand say sums up Langland's life ideal?
The author states that Langland summed up his life's ideal in the motto "Disce, Doce, Dilige"—"Learn, Teach, Love." Jusserand argues these words are the true interpretation of Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest in the poem. The motto reflects the tender heart beneath the poet's rough exterior.
Chapter 84
What verse form did Langland prefer, and why, according to the chapter?
Langland rejected rhyme, the main ornament of French verse that Chaucer adopted, and instead used alliteration—the ornament best liked by Anglo-Saxons, Germans, and Scandinavians. Jusserand says Langland did not accept any of Chaucer's metres, preferring to remain in closer contact with the Germanic past of his kin.
Chapter 84
What does the chapter say about French words in Langland's vocabulary?
Jusserand says Langland's vocabulary is nearly the same as Chaucer's, the normal vocabulary of the period. Chaucer has been reproached for securing citizenship in England for French words, but the accusation does not stand, since Langland did not write for courtly men and his French admixture is no less considerable.
Chapter 84
Section 854 cards
What does the chapter say happened to the historical existence of Sir John Mandeville?
The chapter states that Mandeville, the knight of St. Albans who supposedly left England in 1322, is a myth and never existed. Scholars first questioned his truthfulness, then withdrew the French and Latin versions from him, and finally denied his existence altogether. What remains is the book of travels bearing his name, whose English translation is one of the best and oldest specimens of simple, flowing English prose.
Chapter 85
Who does the chapter say actually compiled the original Travels of Mandeville, and how?
The chapter says the original text was compiled in French by Jean de Bourgogne, a physician called John-with-the-Beard, who wrote treatises including one on the plague, died at Liege in 1372, and was buried in the church of the Guillemins. The author argues John invented the character of Mandeville much as Swift invented Gulliver and Defoe invented Robinson Crusoe.
Chapter 85
Why does the chapter say English prose lagged behind French in the fourteenth century?
The chapter argues that in fourteenth-century England prose was mostly used from necessity, for translations, scientific or religious treatises, and sermons, while an English Froissart would have written in Latin. French prose, by contrast, already had skilled writers like Froissart, whose clear, limpid style showed art and selection. Many years would pass before English prose became, like verse, an art.
Chapter 85
What evidence does the chapter give for the popularity of the Mandeville Travels?
The chapter reports that about three hundred manuscript copies of the Travels survive, compared with only seventy-five of Marco Polo's authentic travels. Mandeville also had more than twenty-five editions in the fifteenth century, while Marco Polo had only five. The author notes that medieval readers accepted the book enthusiastically and modern critics treated it with kindness and goodwill.
Chapter 85
Section 864 cards
Why did Jean de Bourgogne write his book in French rather than Latin?
He explains that he could have turned the booklet into Latin for brevity, but wrote in French (romance) because many understand it better than Latin. This way lords, knights, and noblemen with little or no Latin who have been overseas could understand whether he speaks truth and could check and correct his errors, since things seen long ago may be forgotten.
Chapter 86
What real facts does the chapter say Mandeville's book helped popularise?
The chapter lists several true facts mingled with fanciful wonders: the artificial hatching of eggs in Cairo, the cotton-plant producing "wool" for clothing, the Asian custom of binding girls' feet to keep them tiny, the magnetic needle pointing north, the country of the five thousand islands (Oceania), and the roundness of the earth with antipodes whose feet are opposite ours.
Chapter 86
How does the chapter characterise Chaucer's prose compared with his poetry?
The author argues Chaucer's prose is laboured, heavy, and sometimes obscure, quoting a convoluted astrological passage and setting it beside a graceful poetic treatment of the same idea. The author says Chaucer sticks fast in prose, the least obstacle stops him, and needs the blue paths of the air: high-flying birds are bad walkers.
Chapter 86
What did the rebels do at the Savoy, and why, according to the chapter?
To show disapproval of John of Gaunt and his policy, the rebels destroyed the Savoy but did not plunder it, proving they fought for an idea. Death was decreed for anyone who took anything found there; gold and silver objects were chopped into pieces and thrown into the Thames or sewers, and silk and gold cloths were torn.
Chapter 86
Section 874 cards
How did the king's chancellor open a medieval Parliament?
The chancellor explained the cause of the summons and the questions to be discussed, often in a set speech. Some were plain, practical discourses; others were flowery orations full of quotations and compliments to the king, such as Bishop Adam Houghton's 1377 speech in French. After the speeches, receivers and triers of petitions were appointed and the two houses deliberated separately.
Chapter 87
How did the Commons handle the government's eloquent speeches?
They were not swayed. The author describes them as practical and cold-blooded: they granted concessions only in exchange for concessions, and added an annulling clause stating that if conditions were not met they were not obliged to grant the aid. Debates were long and minute, sometimes running from January 24 to February 19, and members might refuse to assent without consulting their constituents.
Chapter 87
What did the Good Parliament of 1376 present through Speaker Peter de la Mare?
The Commons joined the Lords and brought a bill of complaints against royalty, protesting loyalty while arguing that with loyal counsellors the king would have been rich and need not burden his Commons. They listed grievances against named prevaricators, including Alice Perrers, and presented about a hundred and forty petitions attacking abuses such as papal and Avignon encroachments on English benefices.
Chapter 87
What did the Commons complain about regarding church benefices?
They argued that benefices once went to worthy, resident clergy who preached and shrived their parishioners, bringing prosperity to the realm. Now, they said, the See of Rome and the 'sinful city of Avignon' practiced simony: a worthless fellow ignorant of his duties might get a benefice worth a thousand marcs while a doctor of decree struggled for twenty. Foreign absentees, they claimed, did more harm than all Jews and Saracens.
Chapter 87
Section 884 cards
What language remained in use at Westminster despite English's progress, and what trace survives today?
French continued to be used at Westminster as a token of power and emblem of authority, even as English appeared in opening speeches from 1363 and in the acts around Richard's deposition in 1399. The author notes this sign subsisted because the formula ratifying laws is still in French at the present time.
Chapter 88
How did English feature in the events of Richard's deposition in 1399?
Richard signed his resignation on 29 September; the next day Parliament met in Westminster Hall before the people, with the throne holding Jacob's stone covered in cloth of gold. Richard's act of resignation was read first in Latin, then in English, and the people applauded. Henry claimed the kingdom in English and thanked God and the estates in English.
Chapter 88
Why does the author call Wyclif the 'Father of English prose'?
The author argues the title rightfully belongs to Wyclif now that Mandeville has dissolved in smoke. The translators lacked originality and the orators mostly spoke French, so English prose could not be perfected in their hands; it progressed through them but far more through Wyclif, who made common English his fighting weapon. The author groups Wyclif, Langland, and Chaucer as the three great medieval figures.
Chapter 88
How did Wyclif escape condemnation at St. Paul's in 1377 and at Lambeth in 1378?
At St. Paul's in 1377, Wyclif was accompanied by John of Gaunt and Lord Henry Percy; the duke's threat to drag the bishop out by the hair caused a tumult, and the City crowd drove him out. At Lambeth in 1378 the bishops had orders not to condemn Wyclif, from the Princess of Wales, and a crowd invaded the palace, so no sentence was given.
Chapter 88
Section 893 cards
What was Wyclif's theory of 'Dominium' and its condition?
Wyclif held that all lordship comes from God, who bestows it on man as a fief conditional on keeping His commandments. Deadly sin breaks the contract, depriving the sinner of right to property, priesthood, royalty, and magistracy. He summed it up as: any 'dominium' has grace for its foundation. The theory borrowed from Fitzralph but carried conclusions much further.
Chapter 89
What did Wyclif teach about the Bible's authority and civil laws?
Wyclif treated the Bible as a kind of Koran in which everything is found. No other law should be obeyed save that alone; civil and canonical laws are useless if they agree with the Bible and criminal if opposed to it. He also held all goods should be common, wives alone excepted, though he hinted this was a distant ideal, not for now.
Chapter 89
What was the lasting political result of Wyclif's doctrine?
The lasting result was to strengthen the Commons of England in diminishing the Pope's authority and loosening ties binding the kingdom to Rome. Against Boniface VIII's 'Unam Sanctam,' Wyclif argued there is no single supreme sovereignty on earth; the Pope is not sole depositary of divine power. Since all lordship comes from God, the king's comes from Him too—kings are 'vicars of God,' beside the Pope, not below him.
Chapter 89
Section 904 cards
How did Wyclif's prose style shift when he reached burning controversies?
The chapter says Wyclif's sermons and treatises begin in a clear, measured style, but when he reaches a burning question his irony bursts forth, he uses scathing similes, thunders against worldly "emperoure bishopis," and speaks in short, haughty phrases. He condenses his theory into brief, memorable formulas, though he never seeks artistic effect in English or Latin.
Chapter 90
What argument does Wyclif make against preaching in Latin or French?
Wyclif asks why the people are preached to in a foreign tongue, and answers that Christ, when with his apostles, taught them the Paternoster not in Latin or French but "in the langage that they usede to speke." The chapter presents this as one of his brief, memorable arguments, drawn from Christ's own practice rather than church custom.
Chapter 90
How does Wyclif use humor against the friars' letters of fraternity?
Asked what use the "letters of fraternity" sold by friars are, Wyclif replies gravely that by such reasoning many men think these letters may do good "for to covere mostard pottis." The chapter calls these familiar jests, gravely uttered, a kind of humor Englishmen have favored in all times, paired with his brief arguments.
Chapter 90
What happened to Wyclif's doctrines in England and Bohemia after his death?
In England his followers, the Lollards, survived him for a time; his propositions were posted at St. Paul's in 1395, and the statute De haeretico comburendo (1401) and condemnation of his books preceded a decline. Abroad, Czech students carried his Latin works to Bohemia, where John Hus, his most illustrious disciple, was burnt at Constance in 1415; the doctrine survived among Taborites and Moravian Brethren.
Chapter 90
Section 913 cards
What reason does Mandeville give for ending his travels and writing his book?
In the quoted conclusion, Mandeville says he departed in 1322 and wandered many lands, but now has come home "mawgre my self" to rest because gouty arthritis ("gowtes artetykes") constrains him against his will. He writes his recollections in 1356, the 34th year since his departure, and asks readers to pray for him.
Chapter 91
What did the 1376 Parliament complain about regarding the king's finances?
The speech quoted in the Rolls argues the commons would bear burdens if the king or realm visibly gained from them, and even war spending would be tolerable. But it is plain, the speaker says, that neither king nor realm profited, and it is not credible the king lacks infinite treasure if his ministers were faithful.
Chapter 91
What question did Richard II's council put to Wyclif in his first regnal year?
The "Fasciculi Zizaniorum" records a "Dubium" asked of Wyclif by King Richard II and his great council: whether the realm of England may legitimately, in imminent necessity of its defense, retain the realm's treasure rather than hand it over to foreigners, even if the pope demands it under censure and obedience.
Chapter 91
Section 922 cards
According to the chapter, what were the two sources of the modern drama in England?
The chapter states that in England, as in the rest of Europe, the sources of modern drama were of two sorts: civil and religious. The lay drama sprang from the desire for amusement and the craving for laughable things, which never disappeared entirely even in the darkest days. Dramatic art evolved slowly from these distant and obscure origins.
Chapter 92
What kinds of amusement did the early lay drama rely on, according to the chapter?
The chapter says the means formerly used to amuse and raise a laugh cannot be expected to have shown much refinement, and none was found in them. All means considered good which ensured success; kicks were among the simplest and oftenest resorted to, but not among the grossest. Others were worse and much more popular, and some have recently recovered part of their pristine popularity.
Chapter 92
Section 934 cards
What does John of Salisbury record about twelfth-century entertainers?
John of Salisbury, writing in the twelfth century, lists a variety of pastimes while protesting the means used to produce laughter—a heavy, noisy, tumultuous laughter he compares to Rabelais before Rabelais. He allows a modest hilarity an honest man might enjoy, but condemns jugglers and tumblers, saying it would be better for them to do nothing than to act so wickedly.
Chapter 93
What was the game of the King and Queen, and how did the Church respond?
It was a society game in castle halls: a person was chosen to answer questions, and amusement came from unexpected or puzzling questions and answers. After-dinner conversation often turned licentious, with love the favored subject. Bishops condemned such games in their Constitutions; Walter de Chanteloup, bishop of Worcester, forbade "ludos de Rege et Regina" in 1240.
Chapter 93
How does the chapter trace the influence of debates (estrifs) on English drama?
The author argues estrifs, disputoisons, and jeux-partis were popular in England and France, with specimens like the Anglo-Saxon Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus and later debates between Owl and Nightingale and others. Their influence on drama is certain: the oldest dramatic fragment in English is an estrif between Christ and Satan, whose author says in his prologue, "A strif will I tellen on."
Chapter 93
What does Aelred of Rievaulx describe about chanters in church?
Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx in the twelfth century, describes chanters who resemble actors: inflating cheeks to imitate thunder, murmuring and whispering, twisting lips, shoulders, and fingers with histrionic movements. Audiences, amazed at these gesticulations, burst into laughter, feeling they are at the play rather than at church and have only to look, not pray.
Chapter 93
Section 944 cards
How did the fabliau about the clerk and maiden become a drama?
The author explains that the fabliau was already nearly all dialogue, so the jongleur only had to suppress a few narrative lines to turn it into a rudimentary drama. The author argues that no deep study of human feelings should be sought in it. This happened some time before Chaucer's birth, giving rise to the lay drama in England.
Chapter 94
What did medieval authorities repeatedly forbid regarding churches and cemeteries?
Councils, popes, and bishops repeatedly prohibited theatrical or dishonest games, dancing, carolling, and singing in churches and cemeteries, especially on feast days and vigils. Innocent III, Gregory IX, Bishop Walter de Chanteloup, the Scottish provincial council of 1225, and Oxford University all issued such bans. The author notes the faithful kept dancing regardless.
Chapter 94
How were Christmas parodies of hymns used in medieval revelry?
The author describes Christmas licence inherited from the Roman saturnalia, where clergy took part in bacchanals and parodies of Church prayers. A Latin Nativity hymn, Letabundus, was transposed line for line into a song in honour of ale, with phrases like Res miranda and Semper clara turned into drinking refrains. The author says people caricatured the Church yet did not doubt her.
Chapter 94
What was the feast of the Innocents and the boy bishop?
The feast of the Innocents was popular in England, led by a "boy bishop" who presided with a mitre over his companions' frolics. Kings took interest: Edward II gave six shillings and eight pence, then ten shillings, to a boy bishop, and Richard II gave a pound. Bishop Robert Grosseteste forbade the related feast of Fools in his diocese.
Chapter 94
Section 953 cards
What did the 1393 entry pageant for Richard II include, and what mishap occurred?
The streets were lined with cloth of gold and purple, flowers, and tapestries; scenes included an admirable tower, a musical concert, and a forest of animals at Temple Bar representing the desert of St. John the Baptist. Two cars of ladies following Queen Anne broke, and the ladies fell head downwards, which the crowd could not help laughing at.
Chapter 95
How did religious drama originate according to the chapter?
The author traces it to the imitation inherent in the mass and to the antiphoned parts of the service. At Easter and Christmas, chanters moved from their stalls to recall the day's action, and additions entered the service text; religious drama then gained its own existence, dating from the tenth century, with the shepherds' play as a starting point.
Chapter 95
How did the religious drama move from church to public square?
The author argues that additions grew yearly: verse replaced prose, the vulgar idiom replaced Latin, and open air replaced the church nave. Boys dressed as women took feminine parts, and sometimes actual women appeared. The drama left the church because its increased importance made it cumbersome there, it was badly seen, and having power it wanted freedom.
Chapter 95
Section 963 cards
What evidence does Fitzstephen give for miracle plays in London?
Fitzstephen, writing under Henry II, mentions the "representations of miracles" held in London as a common occurrence. In the following century, under Henry III, some were written in English. By the fourteenth century, during Chaucer's time, mysteries reached the height of their popularity, with kings journeying to attend and characters in Chaucer's tales alluding to them.
Chapter 96
What arguments did defenders of mysteries give against the English treatise's attack?
Defenders answered that they play miracles in worship of God, leading men to meditate; devils are seen carrying the wicked to hell; Christ's sufferings move the hardest to bitter tears. Some people can only be converted by mirthful means, "by gamen and pley." All men need recreation, and playing miracles is better than other "japis." A painted miracle is a "deed bok," a played one a "quick."
Chapter 96
What abuses does the fair-minded author concede against miracle plays?
The author argues the plays are too amusing, making everyday life dull; women of "yvil continaunse" flock there. Priests are forbidden to be players or even watch, yet they play in "entirlodies" and attend, becoming "verry ypocritis and lyeris." Citizens become avaricious, grudging rent and debt but spending double on plays, cheating neighbors in buying and selling—"hideous coveytise" and "maumetrie."
Chapter 96
Section 974 cards
How were performance locations chosen at York after 1417?
At York, after 1417, the choice of places for the representations was regulated by auction, and the plays were performed under the windows of the highest bidders. Residents of neighboring houses thus enjoyed a privileged front-row view, a privilege so enviable that they had to pay for it. In other towns the scaffolds were fixed, so the performance occurred at only one place.
Chapter 97
What did the Chester pageant cart look like and how did it move?
At Chester the pageant was a high place like a house with two rooms, open at the top. The lower room was used for dressing the actors; the upper room was the stage. It stood on six wheels, and when a performance at one place was finished, the cart was wheeled from street to street. In some cases scaffolds were lower, with boards connecting platform and ground.
Chapter 97
How did mystery plays handle time, place, and the three Unities?
The authors of Mysteries paid little attention to the three Unities. The French Mystery of the Vieil Testament spans four thousand years, not one day. Distant localities like Rome, Jerusalem, and Marseilles stood side by side, with a few square yards of ground (sometimes water) standing for the Mediterranean. A few minutes did duty for months, years, or centuries; Noah shuts his window, a brief silence, then declares the forty days past.
Chapter 97
What did costumes and props signify to mystery-play audiences?
Dresses were rich but not historically accurate; the audience wanted signs, not accuracy. Saints wore curling gold beards; God the Father was dressed as a pope or bishop, since copes and tiaras were religious signs by excellence. Herod wore a turban and swore by "Mahound," the turban and Mahomet being symbols of irreligiousness to the mob. Similarly, a stone or sword stood for a saint's martyrdom.
Chapter 97
Section 984 cards
How did medieval mystery plays create the sounds of the damned in hell?
The chapter states that hell had the best machinery: the mouth opened and closed, threw flames from its nostrils, and released devils with hooks and yells. The moans of the damned were produced by a simple process—pots and frying-pans knocked against each other. In "Adam," devils were also to knock pans and caldrons so they could be heard from outside.
Chapter 98
Why does the author say Shakespeare never used elaborate stage machinery?
The author argues that complicated machinery grew more costly toward the Renaissance, so for long only the Court or municipalities could afford it. Inigo Jones achieved fine scene-shifting and elegant decorations at Court, but such splendid inventions were too costly to transfer to the stages for which Shakespeare wrote. Shakespeare, the author says, used no other magic but that of his poetry.
Chapter 98
Why did audiences tolerate lame verse and clumsy machinery in the Mysteries?
The author argues the emotion came from the subject, not the manner of representation: all the past of humanity and its eternal future were at stake. Spectators came in a state of mind where nothing prevented their being touched—neither lame verse nor clumsy machinery. Players were sometimes interrupted by passionate exclamations from the crowd, such as insults addressed to Eve.
Chapter 98
How are kings typically portrayed in the Mysteries, and why?
The chapter says kings are the personages worst treated, mostly shown as grotesque and mischievous. Playwrights could excuse this because their kings are miscreants, but the author adds a sly pleasure in caricaturing great men—not only because they were heathens but because they were kings. Satire often continues even with Christian princes and lords.
Chapter 98
Section 994 cards
What language did Herod and other tyrant figures speak in English Mystery plays, and why?
Herod and other tyrant figures spoke French in the English Mysteries because French was a token of power and authority, the sign of princeship. The author notes the English Herod could not claim kinship with Norman Dukes, but subjects of Angevin monarchs would have scorned a prince who did not speak French. The French was often very poor, though it did not matter.
Chapter 99
How do the Mystery plays portray Noah's wife, and what is the comic conflict?
In all collections of English Mysteries Noah's wife is an untamed shrew who refuses to enter the ark. She insists on going to town, complains Noah kept the ark secret for a hundred years, wants time to pack and to bring her gossips along, and gives Noah a box on the ear. He merely says, "I pray the, dame, be stille."
Chapter 99
According to the author, where lies the main literary merit of the English Mysteries?
The author argues the main literary merit of the Mysteries lies in scenes where authors described what they knew by personal experience, especially men of the poorer sort. There the earliest scenes of real comedy in the English stage may be found. By contrast, portrayals of rank and refined feeling were drawn by hearsay and are shallow.
Chapter 99
How does St. Joseph's speech about the census tax reflect the workman of his time?
St. Joseph, a poor carpenter, laments that Augustus's census brings a new tax: poor men's welfare is always in doubt, and he must pay tribute despite age and no power. He has won his meat with axe, piercer, auger, and hammer, never owning castle or tower, and now must sell his last ox. The author says such words would find ready echo amid the Statutes of Labourers and peasant risings.
Chapter 99
Section 1004 cards
What comic episode precedes the shepherds' visit to the Christ Child in the Woodkirk Mysteries?
The Woodkirk Mysteries include a comedy, compared to the farce of "Pathelin," in which the shepherd Mak, suspected of theft, steals a "fatt shepe" at night and takes it to his wife. The shepherds search his house, where his wife claims to have just given birth, and the fraud is discovered when a visitor lifts the cloth and sees the sheep's long snout.
Chapter 100
How did English religious drama develop and decline between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries?
The author states that the fourteenth century saw the religious drama at its height in England, the fifteenth its decay, and the sixteenth its death. Mysteries based on the Bible were the most popular form; saints' plays and Virgin miracles were far less common in England than in France. Moralities later separated from Mysteries and reached their greatest development under the early Tudors.
Chapter 100
What were Moralities and how did they differ from Mysteries?
Moralities were pious treatises and ethical books turned into dramas, as Mysteries dramatized Scripture. Individuals disappeared, replaced by abstractions each representing a single quality or defect; sins and virtues fought to draw mankind to them. The author argues these plays, unendurable to us, aimed to teach virtues, religion, morals, and sciences, and were enlivened by tavern scenes and the clown Vice.
Chapter 100
How did authorities try to suppress the Mysteries, and with what success?
The Protestant bishop of Chester prohibited a representation in 1572, but it took place anyway; the archbishop of York renewed prohibition in 1575, yet the Mysteries were performed for four days, with some representations even later. At York in 1579 citizens sent their book to the archbishop for correction, but he simply maintained the prohibition, and the York plays died.
Chapter 100
Section 1014 cards
What did the Parliament of Paris complain about regarding Mysteries in 1542?
The Parliament of Paris complained of the Mysteries' too great popularity: parish priests and even chanters of the Holy Chapel sang vespers at noon, an unbecoming hour, and sang them "post haste" in order to see the performances. Six years later, in 1548, the performance of Mysteries was forbidden at Paris.
Chapter 101
When was the Confreres de la Passion's privilege finally abolished, and who had died before that?
The privilege of the Confreres de la Passion, which dated three centuries back, was definitively abolished in the reign of Louis XIV, in December 1676. Moliere had then been dead for three years. Their emblems, the cross and ladder, continued to be seen above the gates of the Hotel de Bourgogne after Mysteries were banned in Paris.
Chapter 101
What did the old religious dramas leave behind in England when the York performance was stopped?
According to the author, by the time the Archbishop stopped the representation at York, the old religious dramas had produced all their fruit: they had kept alive the taste for stage plays and left behind them authors, a public, and companies of players. At that date, William Shakespeare was fifteen.
Chapter 101
What did young Shakespeare see on the wall of the Holy Cross Chapel?
He saw painted on the wall a paradise and hell similar to those in the Mysteries: angels of gold and black devils, and that immense mouth where the damned are parboiled, "ou damnes sont boulus," as Villon's mother says in a ballad of her son's. At the York prohibition, Shakespeare was fifteen.
Chapter 101
Section 1024 cards
What did Robert Grosseteste forbid at Lincoln Cathedral regarding the Feast of Fools?
Grosseteste ordered that the Feast of Fools, held on the day of the Circumcision, no longer be permitted in Lincoln Cathedral. He called it full of vanity and filthy with pleasures, hateful to God and beloved of demons, and argued it turned a house of prayer into a house of jesting and scurrility. The mandate invokes obedience and extends to the whole diocese.
Chapter 102
What did Archbishop Eudes Rigaud forbid the nuns of Villarciaux?
Eudes Rigaud, archbishop of Rouen in the thirteenth century, forbade the nuns from practicing their customary mockeries on the feasts of the Innocents and of Mary Magdalene. Specifically, they were not to dress in secular clothing, dance among themselves or with secular people, or eat outside the refectory.
Chapter 102
How did medieval religious drama begin, according to the chapter's cited texts?
It grew from liturgical dialogue sung in church, such as the 'Quem quaeritis' exchanges: shepherds asked whom they sought in the manger and answered 'Christ the Lord'; the Easter version asked whom they sought in the tomb and announced the risen Jesus. The chapter notes this same beginning and gradual development, citing use at Limoges in the eleventh century.
Chapter 102
What did critics like Robert of Brunne's source say about miracle plays?
The French treatise behind Robert of Brunne's 'Handlyng Synne' (1303) concedes plays may represent events chastely in church service, such as Christ placed in the sepulchre and the Resurrection, to increase devotion. But it condemns clerics who disguise their faces with visors, and says those who delight in their games, prepare horses with harness, or lend dedicated vestments sin greatly.
Chapter 102
Section 1033 cards
What does the chapter say about the state of English poetry in the fifteenth century?
The author argues that the century after Chaucer's death in 1400 was one of decline, repose, and preparation. Poets could not find new ways; instead they fixed their eyes on Chaucer's tomb and imitated him, with Lydgate imitating Chaucer and Stephen Hawes imitating Lydgate, their voices growing weaker like an echo repeating an echo.
Chapter 103
How does the chapter characterize Lydgate's output and reputation?
Lydgate, a monk of Bury St. Edmund's, is described as worthy and industrious but above all prolific, writing tales, fabliaux, romances, allegories, and saints' lives at about five thousand verses a year. He left some hundred and thirty thousand verses of longer works, compared with Virgil's fourteen thousand. The author notes his works have long baffled publishing societies.
Chapter 103
What social and clerical conditions does the chapter describe at the end of the Middle Ages?
The author argues that the old feudal and clerical aristocracy was decaying: great houses became extinct in the French wars and the Wars of the Roses, while the people gained what the aristocracy lost. The clergy lived in luxury, ignored publicly pointed-out abuses, received no new endowments, and faced envy from the prince and scorn from the lower classes.
Chapter 103
Section 1044 cards
How does Lydgate connect his 'Story of Thebes' to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?
Lydgate frames it as an addition to the Canterbury Tales series, claiming he met the pilgrims on their homeward journey. The host asks his identity, and he replies he is Lydgate, Monk of Bery, nearly fifty years of age. Admitted into the company, he tells a tale of war, love, and valorous deeds in which Greeks wear knightly armour, are blessed by bishops, and batter walls with cannon.
Chapter 104
What does the chapter say about Lydgate's prosody and his defense of it?
The chapter calls his prosody lax, saying he was ready to produce verses to order, though they are slightly deformed and halt somewhat. Lydgate himself admits, 'I toke none hede nouther of shorte nor longe.' He assures readers that Chaucer, his good master, would have excused his faulty prosody, and the author asks what right we have to be more severe than Chaucer.
Chapter 104
What is Hoccleve's chief merit according to the chapter, despite his admitted faults?
The chapter says Hoccleve's best work is not his 'De Regimine Principum' but a drawing: he caused a portrait of Chaucer to be painted on a manuscript margin. This portrait agrees so well with descriptions in Chaucer's writings that there is no doubt as to the likeness. The author argues all lovers of literature should be grateful to Hoccleve for preserving Chaucer's features.
Chapter 104
How does James I of Scotland's poem 'The King's Quhair' imitate Chaucer?
The chapter says the poem, celebrating James's love for Jane Beaufort, is allegorical and imitated from Chaucer. The prince lies sleepless at night and takes up Boethius's 'Consolation,' as Chaucer does in the poem of the Duchess. A matin bell breaks the silence and seems to say 'Tell on, man, quhat the befell.' He invokes Clio and Polymnia like Chaucer, adding Tysiphone as a Muse because he is less familiar with mythology.
Chapter 104
Section 1054 cards
What stanza form, named after James, closes the poem with eulogies on Gower and Chaucer?
The poem is written in seven-line stanzas, later called "Rhyme Royal" because of James. It ends with a eulogy on Gower and Chaucer. The royal poet ventures into the kingdom of Venus, then Minerva, and returns to earth reassured, with certitude of happiness promised by both goddesses.
Chapter 105
How does Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid" differ from Chaucer's treatment of Cresseid?
Henryson reads Chaucer by the fire one winter night and cannot understand the master's leniency toward the frail and deceitful woman. So he takes pen and adds a canto, the "Testament of Cresseid," in which she dies a dreadful death, forsaken by all.
Chapter 105
In Henryson's fable, why does the field mouse return to the country?
The town mouse hosts her sister with cheese, butter, malt, and fish, but a spenser with rattling keys sends them fleeing, and then the cat Gilbert drives them out again. Perched beyond Tybert's reach, the field mouse takes leave and goes back to her poverty, peas, nuts, and tranquillity.
Chapter 105
How does the chapter characterize Dunbar's poetry compared with Chaucer's?
The author argues Dunbar imitates Chaucer but decks his pictures with glaring colours, "out-Chaucers Chaucer." His flowers are too flowery, his odours too fragrant, his birds sing among coloured perfumes. The author calls these signs of decline, shared by English and Scottish poets, while anonymous border singers drawing directly from the people escape it.
Chapter 105
Section 1064 cards
What does Jusserand argue about the poets Lydgate, Henryson, Dunbar, and Hawes?
The author argues they represent a dying art, writing like architects build, with a florid literature in Henry VII's style. Their poems are like splendid but over-blown roses that have spent all their strength, beauty, and fragrance, leaving no youthful store; soon only a stalk without petals will remain of this past glory.
Chapter 106
How does Jusserand say the fifteenth-century English nation responded to the Wars of the Roses?
The author argues the nation paid very little attention to the dynastic struggles, regarding them as 'res inter alios acta' rather than being stunned and immobile. Thorold Rogers, examining thousands of documents, found only two allusions to the civil wars, and Jusserand notes the wars lasted only about three years in total when hostilities are added together.
Chapter 106
What does the Paston family correspondence reveal about the middle classes, according to Jusserand?
The author argues the Pastons thought and wrote like worthy citizens—economical, practical, and careful—giving the collection a modern character despite mentions of violent deeds. Margaret Paston managed property, renewed leases, and collected rents in her husband's absence, repairing disasters rather than lamenting them. It is the oldest series of private English letters we possess.
Chapter 106
What is the 'Libelle of Englyshe Polycye' and what does its author advocate?
Jusserand describes it as a sort of consular report in verse, listing for each country the goods to import and export and the guileful practices to fear abroad. Its author insists England needs a strong navy, exaggerates rivals' maritime power so Parliament votes supplies, urges firm holding of Calais, and demands conquest of 'the wylde Iryshe' at any price.
Chapter 106
Section 1074 cards
How does Fortescue explain England's many thieves?
Fortescue confesses thieves are numerous in England but treats it as a point of pride: three or four thieves, driven by poverty, have set upon seven or eight true men and robbed them all. He contrasts this with the French, who he says lack the hearts for such bold acts, so more men are hanged in England in a year for robbery and manslaughter than in France in seven years.
Chapter 107
How does Bishop Pecock use Wyclif's irony against Wyclif's positions?
Pecock defends pilgrimages, friars, clergy possessions, and church images that Wyclif attacked, using forcible eloquence embittered by sarcasms. Against Wyclif's rule that only what is in the Bible is permitted, Pecock asks how we dare wear breeches or use clocks, since Scripture mentions neither. The author argues Pecock continues an English tradition of irony renewed later in Swift and eighteenth-century humourists.
Chapter 107
What effect does the author say the fifteenth-century peasant and craftsman had on literature?
The author argues that the diminished importance of nobles and the increased importance of citizens and the working class brought national elements closer together. The thrift and toil of the English peasant and craftsman thus had an unexpected literary influence: they helped form an audience for Shakespeare. In a hundred years, the judgment of both high and low men would matter, and the pit's tastes would make even Ben Jonson yield.
Chapter 107
What consequence does the author draw from the fall of Constantinople for Europe?
The author describes Mahomet II besieging Constantinople with a hundred and thirty cannon from 11 April 1453, the city falling and the emperor killed. Fleeing Greeks brought manuscripts to Italy, enriching Nicholas V. and Bessarion in Rome and Venice. The author argues the disaster gave classic studies a new impulse, a light like dawn that would illuminate Italy, France, and England.
Chapter 107
Section 1084 cards
Which English poem by Adam de Cobsam tells the story of the honest wife who mocks her would-be lovers?
"The Wright's Chaste Wife," written in English about 1462 by Adam de Cobsam, was published by the Early English Text Society, edited by Furnivall in 1865 with a supplement by Mr. Clouston in 1886. It is the old story of the honest woman who dismisses her would-be lovers after making fun of them, a tale also found in the "Gesta Romanorum" and the "Arabian Nights."
Chapter 108
What fraud did Hardyng commit with his spurious charters, and how was it exposed?
Hardyng sold spurious charters establishing England's sovereignty over Scotland for a large price to the brave Talbot, who knew little about palaeography. The charters exist at the Record Office, and the fraud was proved by Palgrave. Hardyng also wrote a "Chronicle in metre," published in London in 1543, one of the fifteenth-century chronicles the chapter notes are all in "rym dogerel."
Chapter 108
How does Lydgate defer to Chaucer in his prologue to the Troy Book?
Lydgate calls Chaucer "my maister, Chaucier, chief poete of Bretayne," and says he took his refrain from "hym that was in makyng soverayne." Elsewhere he excuses his own rudeness, asking pardon because he was born in Lydgate and never entered the gate of Tully's garden. The author notes this appeal to Chaucer is in itself quite touching.
Chapter 108
What does the chapter say about Hoccleve's metre and his view of writing?
Furnivall says Hoccleve's metre is poor: "so long as he can count ten syllables by his fingers he is content." Hoccleve himself insists writing is no light game, warning that whoever tries it will find it grame, since it is "wel gretter labour than it seemeth." He was born about 1368-9, entered the Privy Seal in 1387-8, and died about 1450.
Chapter 108
Section 1094 cards
In Dunbar's 'Lament for the Makaris,' which poets does he name and mourn?
Dunbar weeps for 'The noble Chaucer, of makaris flouir,' along with 'The monk of Bery and Gower all three.' The poem is described as a kind of 'Ballade des poetes du temps jadis,' a form for which Lydgate and Villon had already furnished models.
Chapter 109
What does Fortescue say distinguishes 'Dominium regale' from 'Dominium politicum et regale'?
In 'De Dominio regali et politico,' Fortescue says the difference consists principally in this: in the second case the king 'may not rule hys people by other lawys than such as they assenten unto.' Fortescue was born about 1395 and died after 1476; he also wrote 'De natura Legis Naturae' and 'De laudibus Legum Angliae.'
Chapter 109
Why was Bishop Pecock's writing condemned, and what happened to him?
The Church found that Pecock went too far and allotted too great a part to reason. His writings were condemned and burnt; he was relegated to the abbey of Thorney in 1459 and died there a short time after. He wrote the 'Repressor of over much blaming of the Clergy' and other English prose works.
Chapter 109
What is the 'Boke of St. Albans,' and who is credited with it?
It is attributed to Dame Juliana Berners and contains treatises on hawking, hunting and cote armour. It was printed at St. Albans by the Schoolmaster printer in 1486, partly in verse and partly in prose, and adapted from the French. It was reproduced in facsimile by W. Blades, London, 1881.
Chapter 109
Section 1103 cards
What does the chapter's index say about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's coverage?
The index lists the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at pages 46, 47, 62, and 86 ff., noting that it covers the Battle of Hastings (pages 100, 103) and William (pages 105 ff.). It is grouped with Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and literature, showing it as a key vernacular historical source for the period.
Chapter 110
According to the index, how was the Anglo-Saxon mind transformed by the Norman Conquest?
The index lists 'how transformed by Norman conquest' at pages 203 ff. and 250, separate from the earlier entries on Anglo-Saxon internal divisions (page 93) and mind and genius (pages 300, 316, 344, 402). Chaucer and the Anglo-Saxons are treated at pages 338 ff., linking the transformation to later English literary development.
Chapter 110
What does the index record about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Bayeux tapestry?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle appears at pages 46, 47, 62, and 86 ff., with Hastings at pages 100 and 103 and William at pages 105 ff. The Bayeux tapestry is listed at page 100, the same page range as the Chronicle's Hastings material, placing both among the sources for the Norman Conquest in this chapter's survey.
Chapter 110
Section 1114 cards
What does the chapter index suggest about the use of French in England by the 14th century?
The index lists French as taught at the University, used at Court and in Parliament, and spoken by Richard II and Gaston de Foix, yet also notes it was 'not known by the lowe men' and its disuse at Oxford and in the courts of law. The author thus traces French surviving in high and diplomatic circles while receding among common people.
Chapter 111
How does the chapter characterize the fusion of English and French?
The index points to a fusion of the two languages treated in Book III, chapter i, alongside the formation of the English people and the adoption of French tastes by English authors. It presents this blending as central to how English literature and the English people took shape after the Norman period.
Chapter 111
What role does the chapter assign to the 'fabliaux' in English literary history?
The index distinguishes French fabliaux, Latin fabliaux, and English fabliaux, noting English ones around 225 ff. and 325, with some turned into dramas and fifteenth-century examples at 496 and 498. It thus presents the fabliau as a form crossing languages and later feeding both drama and later English comic narrative.
Chapter 111
What does the chapter indicate about Wyclif's views on communism and dogma?
The index records Wyclif on communism at 430 ff. and notes dogmas attacked by Wyclif at 425 and 435 ff., alongside Fitzralph and Wyclif on 'dominium.' It also connects Wyclif to the Friars and to the use of English, presenting him as a religious controversialist whose arguments touched property, doctrine, and vernacular writing.
Chapter 111
Section 1124 cards
What does the chapter index suggest about the dating of Gaimar's work?
The index lists Gaimar at pages 113 ff., 121, and 223, indicating his work is discussed in the section on early Anglo-Norman chronicles and again in connection with later romance material. The chapter presents him as a chronicler whose writing spans the period covered by those pages.
Chapter 112
How does the chapter index connect Gower and Langland?
Gower appears at pages 364 ff. for his life and works, and the index explicitly notes him 'compared with Langland' at 373 ff. Langland's own life and works occupy Book iii, chapter iv, pages 373 ff. So the chapter treats the two poets as a paired comparison.
Chapter 112
What role do gilds play in medieval religious drama according to the index?
The index entry for 'Gilds' states that they 'perform religious plays,' citing page 465. This places gilds among the performers of mystery plays, alongside the broader discussion of mysteries, miracles, and histrions listed elsewhere in the chapter.
Chapter 112
Which Italian artists and writers does the index associate with Chaucer's models?
The index lists Giotto at pages 206 ff. and 284 ff., and notes that Italy supplied models 'copied by Chaucer' at 291 ff., with travels in Italy at 283 ff. and the early Renaissance at 285 ff. Chaucer's Italian debt is thus framed through both visual art and literary models.
Chapter 112
Section 1134 cards
What does the chapter note about the authorship of the treatise against miracle plays?
The chapter lists a treatise on miracle plays, Miraclis pleyinge, and elsewhere notes the Miracles de Notre Dame. It records these as items in its survey of early drama, without attributing Miraclis pleyinge to a named author in this section.
Chapter 113
How does the chapter connect Chaucer with Petrarch?
The chapter records that Chaucer met Petrarch, marked with a question mark, and lists Petrarch among the authors associated with Chaucer's works. It also notes Petrarch's presence in the literary background of the period, including his connection with Pisa and his later influence.
Chapter 113
What role does the chapter assign to the University of Oxford in the Wyclif affair?
The chapter links Oxford with Wyclif and notes a council of Oxford and lollardry at the university. It also mentions bacchanals at Oxford. So Oxford appears both as a center of Wyclif's cause and of later lollard activity.
Chapter 113
What does the chapter say about the Pope's revenues and standing in England?
The chapter states that the Pope's revenues were drawn from England, that his suzerainty over England is noted, and that appeals were made to him. It adds that the Commons were hostile to the Pope and that Langland commented on him.
Chapter 113
Section 1144 cards
What does the chapter say about the 'Pui' of London?
The chapter lists a "Pui" of London at pages 355 ff. and 452. A pui was a literary society or guild, and its placement in the index links it to the chapter's discussion of French literary culture in England and to later shows and festivities. The entries are cross-references rather than a narrative explanation.
Chapter 114
Which English prose writers does the chapter index list for the fourteenth century?
The index groups fourteenth-century English prose under Book iii, chapter v (pages 403 ff.), and compares English prose with French (404 ff.). It separately lists Wyclif's prose (432 ff.), Sir John Fortescue's (519 ff.), Pecock's (520), Malory's (521), and Caxton's (521), plus Rolle of Hampole (218) and Chaucer's prose (337, 411).
Chapter 114
What does the chapter note about the Roman de la Rose and its English translation?
The index lists the Roman de la Rose at pages 213, 259, 273, and 276 ff., with an English translation at 278 ff. and 280, plus further references at 288, 291, 298, 325, 371, and 490. The entry shows the poem's wide influence across the period covered.
Chapter 114
How does the chapter index treat the Towneley Mysteries and other mystery plays?
The index lists the Towneley Mysteries at 466 ff., alongside the Resurrection play (466), the Sacrament play (466, 485), and the Shepherds play (457, 483, 486 ff.). It also cites Lucy Toulmin Smith on Mysteries (466) and Baron James de Rothschild on Mysteries (474), placing these plays within the chapter's treatment of the stage.
Chapter 114
Section 1154 cards
What does the index entry for 'Woman' list as topics across different literary traditions?
The entry for 'Woman' lists her treatment in Celtic literature, Scandinavian literature, Anglo-Saxon sermons, the Chanson de Roland, chansons, English songs, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Gawayne, and Langland. It also notes she was excluded from the Pui Society and was satirised by Map and elsewhere. These entries show the range of genres and traditions in which women appear or are discussed.
Chapter 115
What does the index say about the York plays and their conclusion?
The index lists the York plays at pages 465 ff. and notes 'their end' at page 493. This indicates the plays are treated in the text beginning around page 465, with their termination or conclusion discussed near page 493. The Woodkirk Mysteries are listed separately at 465 ff., and the end of the York plays is also recorded at 493.
Chapter 115
How does the index characterize the vocabulary of Chaucer and Langland?
The index has a general entry for 'Vocabulary' at pages 237 ff., covering vocabulary after the Conquest at 243 ff. and in the fifteenth century at 517. It separately lists the vocabulary of Chaucer at pages 338 and 367, and of Langland at page 400. This shows the text treats their word choice as distinct topics.
Chapter 115
Which authors and works does the index connect to the Wife of Bath?
The index lists the Wife of Bath at pages 191, 316, 318, 324, 325, 370, and 461–462. This scatters her across many sections rather than one continuous discussion. The entry sits among Chaucer-related topics, and the index also lists 'Wife's Complaint' separately at page 59, a different work.
Chapter 115
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #22049 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-29. Cards reviewed 2026-10-29.
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