haucer's Language: Textshaucer's Language: TextsThis page collects some of the texts I have referred to in class as we begin to familiarize ourselves with Middle English in general, and with Chaucer in particular. There is a separate page with general guidelines for understanding and pronouncing Middle English: click here to go to that page.
edieval Writers on LanguageRobert Mannyng of Brunne's Story of England (today usually called his Chronicle) is a metrical history of Britain, wrapped in a larger frame which includes the Flood and the story of Troy (the latter important to British historians because of the belief that Britain was founded by refugees from the Trojan war). His main sources were the works of the Anglo-Norman poet Wace, and the Anglo-Norman chronicler Peter Langtoft (Pers, below); these chroniclers, for their part, worked from Latin texts. Mannyng's Prologue addresses the question of translation, and the status of Latin, French, and English in his day (he is thought to have died around 1338):
Lordynges, that be now here,
If ye wille listene and lere–
All the story of Inglande
Als Robert Mannyng wryten it fand,
And on Inglysch has it schewed
Not for the lerid bot for the lewed,
For tho that in this land won
That the Latyn no Frankys kon,
For to haf solace and gamen
In felawship when thai sitt samen. (1-12)And ryght as Mayster Wace says
I telle myn Inglis the same ways;
For Mayster Wace the Latyn alle rymes
That Pers overhippis many tymes.
Mayster Wace the Brute alle redes
And Pers tellis alle the Inglis dedes.
Ther Mayster Wace of the Brute left
Ryght begynnes Pers eft
And tellis forth the Inglis story;
And as he says, than say I.
Als thai haf wryten and sayd
Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd,
In symple speche as I couth
That is lightest in mannes mouth.
I mad noght for no disours,
Ne for no seggers, no harpours,
Bot for the luf of symple men
That strange Inglis can not ken. (23-40)
Chaucer's contemporary, John Gower, was a trilingual poet who wrote major works in Middle English, Anglo Norman, and Anglo Latin (visit my John Gower page for more details). He introduces his major Middle English poem, the Confessio Amantis, with Latin verses which emphasize the role of Latin in the work:
Qua tamen Engisti lingua canit Insula Bruti
Anglica Carmente metra iuuante loquar.[Let me, in Hengist’s tongue, in Brut’s isle sung,
With Carmen’s help, tell forth my English verse.]
Hengist's tongue is English; Carmenta is the goddess credited with the invention of the Roman alphabet. Gower's poem is wrapped in Latin, with prose marginal glosses throughout, and complex Latin verses heading many sections. Latin is clearly important to Gower, then, but the Prologue to the poem emphasizes that he is addressing an English audience:
And for that fewe men endite
In oure englissh, I thenke make
A bok for Engelondes sake,
The yer sextenthe of kyng Richard. (22-25)
Gower's tomb in Southwark Cathedral, however, shows his head resting on 3 books, his major works in the 3 languages in which he wrote: the Vox Clamantis is in Latin, the Speculum Meditantis, or Mirour de l'Omme is in French, and the Confessio Amantis is in Middle English. A poem which appears attached to many of the manuscripts of Gower's works praises him for his trilingual abilities, while at the same time making clear that English is his supreme achievement. The translation below is my own, from the article "Gower's 'bokes of Latin': Language, politics and poetry," Studies in the Age of Chaucer 25 (2003): 123-56.
To Virgil, for his Georgic lays,
Bucolics, Eneidos, the praise
Of schools is due; and the wreath
That poets’ tribe his works bequeath.
So Virgil’s honour’s claimed at Rome,
While, Gower, you weave gifts at home
Of little books for Englishmen–
Your threefold song within the ken
Of all. Virgil’s Latin verse
Italic letters must rehearse;
But French, then Latin stirred your tongue,
That, last and best, in English sung.
He pipes vain things to Roman ears–
A pagan muse is his– but here
Your work illumines Christendom:
In heaven’s realm your praise is won.
Yet despite his evident pride in his own linguistic accomplishments, Gower often also reflects a sense that the multiplicity of human tongues is evidence of our fallen state, and he seems sometimes to feel that no language is capable of expressing the truth. In the Prologue to the Confessio Amantis, he offers the Tower of Babel as a central symbol of the "division" which rules the world, from microcosm to macrocosm:
And over that thurgh Senne it com
That Nembrot such emprise nom,
Whan he the Tour Babel on heihte
Let make, as he that wolde feihte
Ayein the hihe goddes myht,
Wherof divided anon ryht
Was the langage in such entente,
Ther wiste non what other mente,
So that thei myhten noght procede. (Prologue, lines 1017-1025)
[A useful student edition of the Confessio Amantis is available online through the TEAMS Middle English Texts site]
Sometimes it was thought problematic to produce texts in English for religious reasons: controversy over the translation of the Bible raged during Chaucer's day. In the extract below, an anonymous early 15th-century writer defends the idea of translating the Bible into English:
... Seint Jerom translatide [the Bible] out of Ebrew into Latine; wos translacioun we usen most. And so it was translatid into Spaynesche tunge, Frensche tunge, and Almayne. And other londes also han the Bibel in ther moder tunge, as Italie hath it in Latyn, for that is ther moder tonge, and be many yeeris han had.... But ther ben summe that seien if the gospel were on Engliche, men myghten lightly erre therine.... And to hem that seien that the gospel on Engliche wolde make men to erre, wyte wele that we fynden in Latyne mo heretikes than of ale other langagis...
The Bible in English, a database to which our library subscribes, allows you to see many of the early translations of the Bible, including the late 14th-century versions attributed to the movement led by John Wyclif(fe).
By the end of the medieval period, Chaucer, Gower and John Lydgate were seen as a poetic triumvirate jointly responsible for the transformation of English into a poetic, national language. Here, for example, is George Ashby, in his Active Policy of a Prince (1475):
Maisters Gower, Chaucer and Lydgate,
Primier poetes of this nacion,
Embelysshing oure englisshe tendure algate,
Firste finders to oure consolacion
Off fresshe, douce englisshe and formacion
Of newe balades, not vsed before,
By whome we all may haue lernyng and lore.
If you are interested in reading further about the status of English in Chaucer's day, there are a couple of books you might find useful:
Thorlac Turville-Petre, England the nation: language, literature, and national identity, 1290-1340 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996); Koerner PR275.N29 T87 1996
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, Ruth Evans, eds., The idea of the vernacular: an anthology of Middle English literary theory, 1280-1520 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999); Koerner PR255 .I34 1999
hort poems for Language Practice We will be working through some of Chaucer's shorter poems as we learn his language. Remember to use the tools on the Introduction to Chaucer's Language page, and the vocabulary list on the Reading Middle English page, as you work through these texts.
Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryne
As fer as cercled is the mapamounde,
For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocounde
That at a revel whan that I see you daunce,
It is an oynement unto my wounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;
Your semy voys that ye so smal out twyne
Maketh my thoght in joy and blis habounde.
So curtaysly I go with love bounde
That to myself I sey in my penaunce,
"Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce."Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne
As I in love am walwed and ywounde,
For which ful ofte I of myself devyne
That I am trewe Tristam the secounde.
My love may not refreyde nor affounde,
I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
Do what you lyst, I wyl your thral be founde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.
You can hear this poem read aloud by following this link (for an external reader), or by clicking here (for me).
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