A Book of Middle English
This essential Middle English textbook, now in its third edition, introduces students to the wide range of literature written in England between 1150 and 1400.
* New, thoroughly revised edition of this essential Middle English textbook.
* Introduces the language of the time, giving guidance on pronunciation, spelling, grammar, metre, vocabulary and regional dialects.
* Now includes extracts from 'Pearl' and Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'.
* Bibliographic references have been updated throughout.
* Each text is accompanied by detailed notes.
List of illustrations.
Preface to the Third Edition.
Abbreviations.
Part One.
1 Introducing Middle English.
2 Pronouncing Middle English.
3 Vocabulary.
4 Inflexions.
5 Syntax.
6 Metre.
7 From Manuscript to Printed Text.
8 Select Bibliography.
Part Two: Prose and Verse Texts.
Note on Treatment of Texts.
1 The Peterborough Chronicle 1137.
2 The Owl and the Nightingale.
3 LaÇamon: Brut.
4 Ancrene Wisse.
5 Sir Orfeo.
6 The Cloud of Unknowing.
7 William Langland: Piers Plowman.
8 Patience.
9 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
10 Pearl.
11 St Erkenwald.
12 John Trevisa: Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk.
13 John Gower: Confessio Amantis.
14 Lyrics.
15 The York Play of the Crucifixion.
16 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Parliament of Fowls.
17 Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus.
18 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
Textual Notes.
Glossary
Preface to the Third Edition.
Abbreviations.
Part One.
1 Introducing Middle English.
2 Pronouncing Middle English.
3 Vocabulary.
4 Inflexions.
5 Syntax.
6 Metre.
7 From Manuscript to Printed Text.
8 Select Bibliography.
Part Two: Prose and Verse Texts.
Note on Treatment of Texts.
1 The Peterborough Chronicle 1137.
2 The Owl and the Nightingale.
3 LaÇamon: Brut.
4 Ancrene Wisse.
5 Sir Orfeo.
6 The Cloud of Unknowing.
7 William Langland: Piers Plowman.
8 Patience.
9 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
10 Pearl.
11 St Erkenwald.
12 John Trevisa: Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk.
13 John Gower: Confessio Amantis.
14 Lyrics.
15 The York Play of the Crucifixion.
16 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Parliament of Fowls.
17 Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus.
18 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
Textual Notes.
Glossary
"Classroom experience with this authoritative and accessible
introduction to Middle English confirms that this is now our best
available vademecum to the subject. The appearance of a
third edition of Burrow and Turville-Petre's Book of Middle
English is good news to teachers and students of Middle
English." Fred Robinson, Yale University
"Currently the most lucid and illuminating introduction to the
language of Middle English, with an excellent selection of literary
texts chosen and annotated to suggest the interest, sophistication,
and variety of Middle English writing from the Peterborough
Chronicle through the works of Chaucer and his contemporaries."
Andrew Galloway, Cornell University
introduction to Middle English confirms that this is now our best
available vademecum to the subject. The appearance of a
third edition of Burrow and Turville-Petre's Book of Middle
English is good news to teachers and students of Middle
English." Fred Robinson, Yale University
"Currently the most lucid and illuminating introduction to the
language of Middle English, with an excellent selection of literary
texts chosen and annotated to suggest the interest, sophistication,
and variety of Middle English writing from the Peterborough
Chronicle through the works of Chaucer and his contemporaries."
Andrew Galloway, Cornell University
J.A. Burrow is Emeritus Professor at Bristol University. His
many publications include Medieval Writers and their Work
(1982) and Gestures and Looks in Medieval Narrative (2002).
Thorlac Turville-Petre is Professor of Medieval English
Literature at the University of Nottingham. His previous
publications include England the Nation (1996) and The
Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Vol. 2: Trinity College,
Cambridge, MS B.15.19 (CD-ROM, 2000).
many publications include Medieval Writers and their Work
(1982) and Gestures and Looks in Medieval Narrative (2002).
Thorlac Turville-Petre is Professor of Medieval English
Literature at the University of Nottingham. His previous
publications include England the Nation (1996) and The
Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Vol. 2: Trinity College,
Cambridge, MS B.15.19 (CD-ROM, 2000).