MEDIEVAL AND DARK AGE
Traditionally
the Western history is divided into the Classical Age, the Medieval Age and the
Modern Age. There seems to be little
agreement regarding the time frame of medieval age. The Medieval Age is assumed
to begin with the death of the Roman Emperor Theodosius in 395, or with the
migration and settlement of the Germanic tribes, or with the fall of Rome in
410 or with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It ends with the fall of Constantinople
or with the invention of printing press, or with the discovery of America, or
with the beginning of the Italian wars in 1494, or with the Reformation in 1517,
or with the election of Charles five as the Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. The
most accepted time span of medieval age covers the Old English Period (5th
century – 1066) and the Middle English Period (1066-15th century).
The
Old English period is believed to begin from the Anglo Saxon invasion and
extends to the Norman Conquest. English used at that time is hard to
comprehend. The Normans who invaded England used a dialect of French which
later came to be known as the Anglo-Norman. Parallel to the development of
Anglo Norman Old English developed into the Middle English.
For the Anglo Saxons the shift
from oral tradition to that of a written tradition occurred with the influence
of Christianity in the 7th century. Writings were preserved as manuscripts.
Monasteries became centers of learning. Latin became the standard language of
international scholarship. The major scholars of the eighth century, Bede and
Alcuin were churchmen. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People was
one of the major works of Bede. At the same time, works were also being written
in the vernacular Anglo Saxon. This includes, Beowulf which is
considered as one of the greatest Germanic epic poems and lyric laments like
“The Wanderer”, “The Seafarer” and “Deor”. Other poems include The Battle of Maldon, The
Dream of the Rood, The Rune Poem etcetera. Caedmon and Cynewulf wrote poems
on biblical themes. Caedmon’s poems include The Genesis, Exodus and Daniel.
And that of Cynewulf include four poems Juliana, Elene, Christ and The
Fates of the Apostles. A number of sermons lives of saints and paraphrases
of biblical parts were also written in Old English. Alfred the Great, the king of West Saxon
who united all the seven kingdoms of his time was a patron of literature. He
himself translated many works from Latin to Old English and supervised many
translations. He introduced The Anglo Saxon Chronicle which records the
important events of England.
The
period between the Norman Conquest and around 1500s is usually considered as
the Middle English period. The span from 1100 to 1350 is also known as the
Anglo-Norman period because of the fact that the non- Latin literature of the
period was written in the Anglo Norman language which was a French dialect used
during that time. Chivalric Romances were
a popular genre. Usually written in verse form, they describe the adventures of
legendary knights and celebrate loyalty, honor and courtly love. Marie de
France’s was one of the most accomplished vernacular writers of the 12th
century, who wrote in Anglo Norman language. She wrote short songs known as lais,
which were mostly based on knights and the ladies in the court of King
Arthur. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) too defended the use of native medium
rather than Latin for literary compositions. It was at this juncture Middle
English, heavily influenced by Anglo Norman came into general use. In the early
Middle Ages quantity was replaced by quality of literature. The 14th century is
a landmark in the history of England as well as that of the English Literature.
Perhaps, it was during this age that English began to be used in the government
and law instead of French. The eventful century witnessed the Black Death, the
Peasant Revolt and the Hundred Years War. It was the period of John Gower,
Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland.
Some
consider Chaucer as the Father of English Literature. Chaucer’s first major work
is 'The Book of the Duchess' which an elegy for the first wife of his
patron John of Gaunt. Other works include 'Parlement of Foules', 'The
Legend of Good Women' and 'Troilus and Criseyde'. It was in 1387, he
began his most famous work, 'The Canterbury Tales', in which a diverse
group of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
There
were also a number of vernacular romances like Sir Orfeo as well as Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. The latter is the most accomplished chivalric
romance written in verse. William Langland is known for his religious and
satirical poem Piers Plowman. The 15th century marks a shift to
humanistic themes in literature. The Scottish interest in Chaucer is a
remarkable feature of this century. There were many poets who imitated the
writing style of Chaucer. Scottish
Chaucerians who included King James I of Scotland and Robert Henryson were some
of the outstanding poets of the century. It was the age of excellent songs both
secular and religious, and of various folk ballads. Another feature of the
period includes Miracle and Morality plays.
They were performed mostly in towns and grabbed the attention of the
working class. They were based on biblical stories and themes. The
revolutionary invention of the moveable printing machine by Johannes Guttenberg
happened towards the end of the 15th century.
Medieval Criticism
Medieval literature constitutes a vast area and its works
transcends national confines. Hence the criticism of that period restricts
itself to self-defined territories based on the resemblance of culture. Another problem encountered by the scholars is
the lack of clear cut dividing lines between the classical and the medieval.
English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase by J.W.H.Atkins published in
1952 is the only available work on criticism.
The
elements of classical age are either absorbed or modified into the medieval
age. Medieval criticism followed the system of classifying literature based on
grammar, rhetoric and logic. There was the development of a systematic and
poetic grammar and a reading curriculum for the poets. The term grammar implies
the science of correct speaking. Another form of criticism was the study of
versification and scansion of poetry which was otherwise known as prosody. As
it was a period which gave much importance to form, it provides knowledge on
the existing poetic forms and their metrical patterns. The syllables, feet,
metre and numbers are treated in full detail. In the 7th century Bede and
Alcuin explained grammar logic and Biblical and Christian poetry and in 12th
century John Salisbury and few other classical theorists infused life into
literary studies. Horace one of the most famous Roman poet and critic of the
Augustan age, had a clear influence on the Middle Ages.
Many
documents of the period relate poetry with theology and philosophy. Since
poetry was considered as a prophecy it was treated as an equivalent to
philosophy. A substantial amount of medieval criticism dealt with biblical
criticism, mysticism and allegorical readings of works.
Medieval
criticism can be classified into The Late Classical, Carolingian, Scholastic
and Humanist. According to Saintbury the middle Ages makes very less
contribution to literary criticism except the document of De Vulgari Eloquio
by Dante. Most historians of
literary criticism ignores this vast period. For instance, in their Short
History of Criticism Wimsatt and Brooks assumes that Middle Ages lacks
interest in literary theory and criticism because of its theological
orientation.
We
cannot easily ignore the middle ages in the history of English because even some
of the contemporary theories of criticism have their antecedents in medieval
beliefs. Today many critics defense the view that a reappraisal of the medieval
literary criticism is necessary.
Dark Age
The term Dark Ages is often used as a synonym
for Middle Ages by some of the scholars. In 1904, W.P Ker observes that the
terms Dark Ages and Middle Ages are not the same. According to him ‘…the Dark
Ages are now no more than the first parts of the Middle Age, while the term
Medieval is often restricted to the later centuries, about 1100 to 1500…’ (Ker,
11). Another historian Sir Frank Stenton uses the Middle Ages for the pre
conquest England and the term Dark Ages for post Conquest England. One of the
possible reasons for using the term Dark Age for the whole or most often the
earlier part of the Middle Ages might be its intellectual stagnation. Another
interpretation is that, it is not the
quality of the period but our dim perception of the period (due to the lack of literary
evidence) which is denoted by the usage of the term dark.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
·
Abrams, M.H, Geoffrey
Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary
Terms. New Delhi: Wadworth, 2012. Print.
·
Albert Edward. History of English Literature. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979. Print.
·
Ker, W.P.The Dark
Ages . Edinburgh,1904.
·
Nayar K Pramod. A Short History of English Literature. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Print.
·
Nagarajan MS. English Literary Criticism and Theory. Chennai:
Orient Black Swan, 2012. Print.
·
Nelson, L. Janet. History
Workshop Journal. No 63(Spring, 2007) : 191-201.JSTOR.Web.8 August 2015 .
·
Robinson, C.Fred. Speculum, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Oct., 1984): 745-756.JSTOR.Web.8
August 2015.
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