Middle English Reading Group

All are welcome to come along, at whatever reading level you are; no familiarity with Middle English is required.

To be added to the mailing list please email Rose Albiston r.albiston@student.unimelb.edu.au or Stephanie Trigg sjtrigg@unimelb.edu.au

Resources

Online Middle English Dictionary

Middle English Basic Pronunciation and Grammar

An Introduction to Middle English - California State University site

Online Etymological Dictionary

J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre, A Book of Middle English, Blackwell 1992, 2nd ed. 1996.

Next Meeting

The group meets fortnightly on Mondays, 11:00-12:00 via Zoom. The next meeting is Monday 22 June. We will be continuing with the Stanzaic Morte Arthur from line 1321, beginning:

To find a man for her to fight
Or elles yeld her to be Brent;
If she were on a quest of knightes
Well she wiste she sholde be shent;

An online edition of the text is available at https://metseditions.org/texts/6Xwe62df8dzKu46LS19R4flVVK66z1X.

Stephanie has put together a summary of what was covered in last week’s session for those who were absent:

Arthur reads the letter accompanying Elaine’s body; and rushes to blame Lancelot for causing her death by refusing her love. Gawain says to Arthur that he was lying about Launcelot the other day that he was in love with some other lady. They agree to take Elaine into the palace and bury her like the duke’s daughter she was; and Arthur declares to the court that she died of sorrow because Launcelot would not love her as she wished.

Gawain goes to the Queen and declares to her he was lying when he said Launcelot loved Elaine. The Queen is very angry and tells Gawain off for slandering Launcelot. She thought he was a courteous knight but he has now behaved very discourteously. She banishes him from her presence. The queen laments to herself that she believed the untruth about Lancelot and….
… at this point our manuscript has lost a leaf. Perhaps 90 lines are missing? Benson, our editor, draws attention to the French source, Le Mort Artu (prose) which I have found online on Internet Archive. It’s free if you have an account: the text that is the source for our reading is at pages 76-77.

To be added to the mailing list please email Rose Albiston r.albiston@student.unimelb.edu.au or Stephanie Trigg sjtrigg@unimelb.edu.au

Previous Texts

The Middle English Reading Group started in 2002. Since then we have read:

  • Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid
  • Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
  • Psalm 23
  • Ywain and Gawain
  • Bevis of Hampton
  • William Caxton's 'Golden Legend'
  • The Man of Law's Tale
  • The Shepherds’ Play (N-Town Cycle)
  • Sir Thopas
  • The Awntyrs off Arthur
  • Confessio Amantis
  • Hoccleve’s Letter of Cupid
  • Patience
  • The Owl and the Nightingale
  • Polychronicon
  • The Brut of England
  • King Horn
  • Alliterative Morte Arthure
  • Piers Plowman
  • The Parlement of the Thre Ages
  • Wynnere and Wastoure
  • The Book of the Duchess
  • Sir Launfal
  • Havelok the Dane
  • Pearl
  • The Summoner’s Tale
  • The Friar’s Tale
  • The Second Shepherds’ Play (Towneley Cycle)
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • Sir Orfeo
  • The Reeve’s Tale
  • John Lydgate's The Siege of Thebes