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 28 September. We will be continuing with Part 2 of the Stanzaic Morte Arthur from line 2046, beginning:

Launcelotes herte was full sore
For the lady fair and bright;
A damesel he did be yare,
In rich apparail was she dight,

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

Note: the online version of the text is out of alignment with glosses and line numbers. A PDF  is here.
Rose has
put together a summary of what was covered in last week’s session for those who were absent:

Lancelot and his company ride in to save the queen. Gaheries and Gaheriet, unarmoured and unarmed, are killed in the fray, along with many other good knights. The king is told that the queen has been taken by Lancelot, and he laments the slaughter of his knights. The king desires that no one tell Gawain of his brothers’ deaths. Gawain hears the news from a squire and runs madly to the chamber where his brothers’ corpses lie, covered with cloths of gold. Gawain declares that there shall be no peace between himself and Lancelot until one has slain the other.

Lancelot learns of what has happened from a squire he sent to court. He is in shock and disbelief, horrified that circumstances fell out so that he and Gawain’s brothers were adversaries. He knows that he and Gawain will never be reconciled. He petitions the great ladies he has previously defended for support. The wealthy ones send him earls with large retinues, while those who are less wealthy send him barons and knights. Lancelot and his company, now greatly strengthened, go to his castle, Joyous Gard.

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