English 10A Week 3 Lecture 6 01 24 2012 Middle English try reading it aloud to get past the different spelling understanding it loosely is better than nothing translations interpretations of the text often historical additions therefore making them entirely different Readings for Week 1 2 Old English Readings for Week 3 Middle English Middle English period 1100 1500 roughly Developing as a written and spoken English centralization in London 1400 Chaucer dies The Great Vowel Shift don t know when why o Changed because of poems after late Middle English o Occurred after 17th Century vowels move forward and up when pronounced o Ex ahh ayy 14th Century England 14th Century London had a lot of lawyers rather than the stereotypical knights damsels in distress etc Soldiers mercenaries Actual knights if more rich than they didn t serve the king they hired men to fight for them Fantasized about the 12th Century however the 12th Century didn t have that knights dragons damsels in distress stereotype either Merchants were in the upper middle class Was still medieval but also fascinated by the medieval past acted on this romanticization of the war past through tournaments could be similar to our football games the tournaments were controlled wars Sir Orfeo p 236 45 Middle English Dated 1334 1336 Lines 409 444 Minim the upper strokes to create lowercase letters o Enforces the uncertainty of the poetry o Decoding of handwriting Breton lai poetic form evolved in England France during the 12th Century originating from the oral legends of Brittany o Short classical rhyming cuplet short narrative poem with a strong story line o Themes regarding chilvaric poems Ln 411 Than has been edited so that the thorn has been taken out so that it s easier to read therefore edited standardized edited so that various characters have been removed Manuscript is in 2 columns Storyline similar to Orpheus who lost wife wasn t allowed to turn around ends up turning around after all and she s lost forever however Orfeo leaves his wife in the inn and goes to inquire about his steward s loyalty Ln 548 552 abrupt transition Consider the relationship between music art desire and death 01 24 2012 01 24 2012