cha-2-1 The Background

Early Alliterative and Metrical Romances in the 12th, 13th and Early 14th Centuries
Romances, alliterative and metrical, constitute the bulk of the literary works in England in the three centuries after 1066. The word “romance” here refers to some romance” verse narrative that sings of knightly adventures or other heroic deeds, and usually emphasizes the chivalric love of the Middle Ages in Europe.
The English language in this transitional stage from Old English to modern English, through some four centuries (from 12th to 15th) of development and change, has generally been known as Middle English.
There were numerous writings in England in the field of AngloAngloNorman or Anglo-French literature Angloin this period, extending from romances to fabliaux, from political poems and satires to religious works and legends of lives of saints, from lyrics and “debates” to drama, but debates” outstanding writers were few.
The three centuries following the Norman Conquest saw the large-scale introduction largeinto England of French culture, including French customs and manners, medieval French literature and literature of Italy and other European countries, as well as the extensive use of the Norman-French Normanlanguage, particularly in the cities and big manors where the Norman nobility lived.
Chapter Ⅱ
English Literature of the Late Middle Ages
Section Ⅰ
English Literature of the Late MidMid-11th Century to the MidMid14th
1.The Background: Political and Social
The Hundred Years’ War with France Years’ which began in 1337 led to the drafting of soldiers from among the peasantry and to the levying of extra taxes upon the poor labouring masses, thus intensifying the sufferings of the serfs. serfs. After the Norman Conquest England became no longer an isolated nation trade relations with the European Continent grew steadily.
Next should be mentioned the colourful figure of Roger Bacon(1214-1292), who Bacon(1214has been known to many as “the father of experimental science” and as a most science” versatile scholar, linguist, philosopher and scientist. He wrote chiefly in Latin(“Opus Latin(“ Maius” Maius”, “Opus Minus” and “Opus Tertium”). Minus” Tertium” Of these works “Opus Maius”, as a sort of Maius” encyclopaedia of facts concerning the sciences of the time, is more important.
2.Folk Literature and Religious Literature
As a result of the simultaneous use of three different languages, English, NormanNorman-French and Latin, in the centuries after 1066, there were in England a number of literary works written in NormanNorman-French and in Latin besides those in English.
There were of course also some native English tales dating back to the time of the invasions of the Vikings on the English coast, as well as other miscellaneous stories and legends. English romances of this period are, generally speaking, inferior and less colourful than similar verse narratives at about the same time in Germany and France.
In Anglo-Latin literature of the period, possibly Anglothe most important writer was Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Elshman and an archdeason whose “Historia Regum Britanniae” (The history Britanniae” of the Kings of Britain”), written in 1136, not Britain” only provided the earliest full account of the legends of King Arthur and his Round Table knights and Merlin but for the first time brought to the attention of English readers and writers the stories of Lear, Cymbeline, Gorboduc, Ferrex and Porrex, Locrine and Sabrina, that were later to inspire Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists and Milton in their dramas and poems.
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Most of the English romance deal with three major themes: “ The Matter of Britain”, about the Arthurian Britain” legend; “ The Matter of France”, France” about stories concerning Charlemangne and his knights; and “ The Matter of Rome”, about tales of Rome” antiquity, from the Trojan war to the feats of Alexander the Great.
The Norman Conquest of 1066 accelerated the development of feudalism in England. The chief social conflict in England in the three centuries after the Norman Conquest was inevitably that between the serfs or peasants and their feudal lords though some historians are inclined to think that the struggles and wars among the feudal barons and between the barons and king were the major contradiction of the time.