routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

20 Old and Middle English 600–1485
contrast with the simple, positive assertions of the song lyrics. The
ballad Lord Randal is a question/answer dialogue, ending in his death:
‘What d’ye leave to your true-love, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your true-love, my handsome young man?’
‘I leave her hell and fire; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down.’
It is difficult to put dates to most ballads, since they were collected for
publication centuries after they first appeared in the oral tradition. Some
scholars date the earliest ballads to the thirteenth century, others trace
them back to the fifteenth century. Whatever the case, this is the beginning
of a popular tradition of song, story, and ballad, which will run through
every century. It is sometimes quite close in style and subject matter to
the more ‘literary’ writings, but is often a quite separate, distinct and more
unrestrained voice of popular dissent and dissatisfaction.
LANGUAGE AND DIALECT
Writers in what we now call the Middle English period (late twelfth
century to 1485) did not necessarily always write in English. The language
was in a state of flux: attempts were made to assert the French language,
to keep down the local language, English, and to make the language of
the church (Latin) the language of writing. The major growth of literature
comes more than a century after Layamon’s Brut, and confirms the
range of potential languages for literature. Robert Mannyng based his
lively Handling Synne, a verse treatise on the Ten Commandments and
the Seven Deadly Sins, on a French source. John Gower wrote his bestknown
work Confessio Amantis in English (despite its Latin title), but
wrote others in Latin (Vox Clamantis) and French (Mirour de l’Omme).
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote wholly in English and gave most of his works
English titles, but derived his inspiration and found his forms in a wide
range of European sources, including Latin and Italian.
These European influences were largely channelled through London,
now the capital city of the kingdom of England. The kingdom was
quite different geographically from present-day Britain: it extended