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The middle Ages, The Normans - Coggle Diagram
The middle Ages
The nòvelty introduced with the middle English was the rhyme, the text was divided in metrical feet, but the alliteration is still a core of the English poetry.
Ballads are short, anonymous narrative songs or poems, most of them talks about supernatural elements or historical events. It can be defined “popular verse"
The most popular form of art in the Middle Ages was Drama, the two mains of drama were mystery plays and morality plays. It was written in English and Not in Latin.
Geoffrey Chaucer
He was born in London into a middle-class family, after he came under the patronage of John of Gaunt. He was captured by the French during one of Edward III’s frequent expeditions. Chaucer also went to Flanders and Italy
During his French phase his poetic models were the allegorical poems, and during his Italian phase his best work is Troilus and Criseyde, and his English phase is rapresented by ‘The Canterbury Tales’.
He introduced also the iambic pentameter(ten syllable line)
Canterbury Tales are written in couplets(distici) of iambic pentameters.
Canterbury Tales
Is a collection of verse tales, The frametale is the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. There are 30 pilgrims, including himself, everyone must tell two tales on the road to Canterbury, and after on the way back. Just 23 pilgrims tell a story. His pilgrims cover the middle layers of society and this is carried out with fine irony.
In the opening lines of General prologue the author describes the time of the year that is spring. After Chaucer introduces himself as one of the pilgrims. He wants to introduce his fellow pilgrims and he will describe according to they character, circumstances and clothing.
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The Normans
During the 1066 William of Normandy conquered the England with the battle of Hastings and established the Norman organization, the feudal system.
In the Middle times the power of the church was immense and Henry II was the first that caused the clash between the crown and the church. Thomas Becket opposed the king’s attempt and spent six years in exile in France. He became a martyr on his return.
Henry second’s son, Richard I better known as the Lionheart joined the third crusade for defend the England by the French, but he was killed.
The feudal nobility didn't want to pay the taxes and forced the grant of the magna carta, the first document in the man's history. That according to the liberty that concerned the nobility and the freeman.
The hundred years’ war has started in the 1337 with the war between the France and England, the conflicts were interrupted due to tragic events such as the black plague, until reaching the victory of the French thanks to Giovanna D'Arco.Finally in the 1453 the English king had lost all their continental possessions except Calais.
The wars of the roses started in the 1454 like a civil war. There was the fought between York and Lancaster, two noble houses, that ended in the 1485 with the victory of the Tudors. The end wars of the roses led to the coronation of Henry Tudor as Henry VII of England and this event is considered as the beginning of Renaissance.
The Norman conquest had important consequences for English culture. The Old English went on being spoken by the common people and french was spoken by the upper classes. During the 12th century the English literature began to reappear. Works written in English produced in aristocratic circles exemplified new forms and genres. These were also written in Middle English.
The social and cultural life of medieval England was dominated by a code of chivalry. The ideal of chivalry is based on many rules such as the loyalty between the knight and his sovereign, courage in the face of death, absolute devotion to the woman, and especially they had to be “gentleman” with the ideas that the love is the most powerful emotion.
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