A Companion to Medieval Poetry

List of Figures x Notes on Contributors xi Acknowledgements xvi Introduction 1 Corinne Saunders Part I Old English Poetry 11 Contexts 13 1 The World of Anglo-Saxon England 15 Andy Orchard 2 The Old English Language and the Alliterative Tradition 34 Richard Dance 3 Old English Manuscripts and Readers 51 Rohini Jayatilaka 4 Old English and Latin Poetic Traditions 65 Andy Orchard Genres and Modes 83 5 Germanic Legend and Old English Heroic Poetry 85 Hugh Magennis 6 Old English Biblical and Devotional Poetry 101 Daniel Anlezark 7 Old English Wisdom Poetry 125 David Ashurst 8 Old English Epic Poetry: Beowulf 141 Daniel Anlezark Part II Middle English Poetry 161 Contexts 163 9 The World of Medieval England: From the Norman Conquest to the Fourteenth Century 165 Conor McCarthy 10 Middle English Language and Poetry 181 Simon Horobin 11 Middle English Manuscripts and Readers 196 Ralph Hanna Genres and Modes 217 12 Legendary History and Chronicle: La3amon's Brut and the Chronicle Tradition 219 Lucy Perry 13 Medieval Debate-Poetry and The Owl and the Nightingale 237 Neil Cartlidge 14 Lyrics, Sacred and Secular 258 David Fuller 15 Macaronic Poetry 277 Elizabeth Archibald 16 Popular Romance 289 Nancy Mason Bradbury 17 Arthurian and Courtly Romance 308 Rosalind Field 18 Alliterative Poetry: Religion and Morality 329 John Scattergood 19 Alliterative Poetry and Politics 349 John Scattergood Poets and Poems 367 20 The Poet of Pearl, Cleanness and Patience 369 A. V. C. Schmidt 21 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 385 Tony Davenport 22 Langland's Piers Plowman 401 Lawrence Warner 23 Chaucer's Love Visions 414 Helen Phillips 24 Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde 435 Alcuin Blamires 25 Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales 452 Corinne Saunders 26 The Poetry of John Gower 476 R. F. Yeager Part III Post-Chaucerian and Fifteenth-Century Poetry 497 Contexts 499 27 England in the Long Fifteenth Century 501 Matthew Woodcock 28 Poetic Language in the Fifteenth Century 520 A. S. G. Edwards 29 Manuscript and Print: Books, Readers and Writers 538 Julia Boffey Poets and Poems 555 30 Hoccleve and Lydgate 557 Daniel Wakelin 31 Women and Writing 575 C. Annette Grisé 32 Medieval Scottish Poetry 592 Douglas Gray 33 Courtiers and Courtly Poetry 608 Barry Windeatt 34 Drama: Sacred and Secular 626 Pamela King Epilogue: Afterlives of Medieval English Poetry 647 Corinne Saunders Index 661