English literature of XI-XIV cc.

The Anglo-Saxon language (Wessex) ceased being the language of literacy and the state. Limited to the folk usage it started to disintegrate into local dialects. The language and literature of the period are archaic. By far the most important and interesting work of this period, however, is the Poema Morale, came to us in manuscripts of the XIII с., but written in mid.XII c. The author depicted himself as wise old man, who laments his years, his ill-spent life, and exhorts his readers to pass their days wisely. Firtsly, he’s a Christian preacher, that’s why he alludes to the terrors of the last judgment. Hell is depicted in all the colours of the medieval fancy, and the joys of Heaven are touched with corresponding charm. He talks of the suffering of souls in heat or severe cold, they can’t find peace ever: "These are the souls of inconstant ones...those, who didn’t know what they wanted". If the description of Hell is characteristically material, Heaven, on the other hand, is spiritually conceived. The verse-form is also interesting. Here, for the first time in English, is found the fourteener line, the catalectic tetrameter of Latin poets. The iambic movement of that line is adapted with wonderful facility to the native word-form, accent-displacement is not abnormally frequent and the lines run in couplets linked by end-rime.

The II half of the XII c. was a period of experiment and of conflicting elements. The age became once more articulate, and the 4 chief works of the time are eloquent witnesses of the impulses which were abroad. The Ormulum is representative of purely religious tradition, while the Ancren Riwle points to an increased interest in the religious life of women, and also, in part, to new mystical tendencies. Layamon’s Brut with its hoard of legendary fancy, is clearly the outcome of an impules fresh to English soil; while The Owl and Nightingale is the herald of the love theme in England.

Of the several attempts at scriptural exposition the Ormulum (19992verses) is the most considerable. It was probably written in the I decade of the XIII c. in the north-east midlands (Mercia). Its author, Orm, was a member of an Augustine monastery in that district, and, in response to the wishes he undertook to turn into English paraphrases all the gospels for the ecclesiastical year as arranged in the mass-book, and to add to each paraphrase an exposition for English readers. The work, as projected, entailed a treatment of 243 passages of Scripture: the result, as extant, embodies only 1-8^th of the planed 30 paraphrases with the corresponding homilies. It has been usual to point to the works of Augustine and Aelfric as among the sources. Orm is orthodox; but it is the orthodoxy of Bede. Of later developments, such as the thirteenth century mysticism, he has not a sign. His dogma and his erudition are alike pre-Conquest; and in this sense Orm may be said to stand outside his age and to represent merely a continuation of Old English thought. Again, he is only following the methods of the earlier schools in his allegorical interpretation. Most illuminating as to this fanciful treatment is his handling of the name of Jesus. As a monument of industry the work is beyond all praise. By his method of doubling every consonant immediately following a short vowel, Orm furnishes most valuable evidence regarding vowel-length at a critical period of the language. The line invariably consists of 15 syllables and is devoid of either timing or alliterative ornament.

As for the prosaic religious didactic works, Ancren Riwle is most interesting of its kind - " Rules of anchoritesses ", created in the II half of the XII c. under the influence of new theological ideas that arrived after the Norman conquest. It’s a kind of an instruction for 3 young noble nuns in 8 parts. It’s very reach on everyday allegoric stories and medieval scientific ideas, the quotations from current theological works. The author is unknown.

The new ideals coloured the atmosphere of court life, and the exaltation of woman in its courtly sense found a counterpart in the revived Virgin cult, just as knightly wooing suggested the image of the wistful sould striving for union with the Divine. The Virgin cult is represented in the first place by The Five Joys of the Virgin, a poem in 8-line stanzas; A Song to the Virgin, with Latin insertions; A Prayer to Our Lady, a sinner’s repentance in interesting 4-line stanzas; etc. Equally with the lyrics dedicated to Mary one may find the hymns to Jesus as her son and “heaven bridegroom of soul” – mystic works that combine sensual images of the "Song of Songs" with symbolic images of the feudal world ("king", "knight", etc).

It must be conceded, in the I place, that the general literary tone of the I half of the XIII c. was determined mined by the prevailing power of the church and the monastery. The intellectual atmosphere of England was mainly cleric, as opposed to the laic independence which existed across the Channel; and this difference is suggested by the respective traits of contemporary Gothic architecture in England and in France. From the XI to the XIII cc. the power of the Pope, so far as western Europe was concerned, was at its height. National enthusiasms aroused by the crusades played unconsciously into the papal hands, and, during this time, more than one pope deposed a ruling monarch and then disposed of his dominions. Theology was the main study at the newly founded universities of Paris and Oxford; it dominated all learning. And, whereas the church, generally, had attained the zenith of its power, its influence in England was visible in the strong personalities of Lanfranc and Anselme, while the religious revival under Henry I and the coming of the frairs later were ample evidence of the spirit of devotion which was abroad.

As the imperial power declined, individual countries wrested their freedom, and in England, by 1215, clear ideas had been formulated as to the rights of the individual citizens. This groping for political freedom found its intellectual counterpart in France, not only in the appearance of secular littérateurs but also in that school of laic architects which proceeded to modify French Gothic style. In England it appeared in a deliberate tendency to reject the religious themes which had been all but compulsory and to revert to that which was elemental in man. Fancy, in the shape of legend, was among these ineradicable elements, long depised by erudition and condemned by religion; and it was because the Arthurian legend offered satisfaction to some of the inmost cravings of the human heart. The Brut of Layamon is, therefore, a silent witness to a literary revolt, in which the claims of legend and fancy were advanced anew for recognition in a field where religion had held the monopoly. France, in the XI-XII cc., had been swept by a wave of popular love-poetry which brought in its wake the music of the troubadours. Germany, in the XII c., produced the minnesingers. The contemporary poets of Italy were also lovepoets, and, at a slightly later date, Portugal, too, possessed many of the kind. This general inspiration, originating in France, and passing over the frontiers on the lips of the troubadours, was destined to touch England soon after 1200. Though it failed for some time to secularise English poetry, it imparted a note of passion to much of the religious work. The religious writings of the time may be divided into 4 sections, according to the aims which they severally have in view. The purport of the I is to teach Biblical history; the II to exhort to holier living; the III is connected with the religious life of women; the last with the Virgin cult and mysticism.

XIII c. is also the time of the I romances in English. The author of a huge poetic encyclopaedia “World runner” (Cursor mundi), written on the north Англии в I fourth XIV c., admitted that despises romances, especially in French. In 30000 verses he runs across all the history of world finishing with the Dommsday. The south of England however, was interested in the French secular poetry. The best testimony of this is a romance “Brut”, about 1205 by Layamon - I English romnce, which peculiarly combined traditions of Anglo-Saxon epic and French court literature.

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