Introduction xv

Acknowledgements xix

List of Abbreviations and Short Titles xx

Chronological Table of Dates xxiii

Map xxvi

Geoffrey Chaucer (C.1343–1400) 1

The Parliament Of Fowls 2

From Troilus And Criseyde 20

The wooing of Criseyde (from Book II) 21

The winning of Criseyde (from Book III) 44

The loss of Criseyde (from Book V) 69

The epilogue (from Book V) 76

From The Canterbury Tales 79

The General Prologue 80

The Miller’s Prologue and Tale 99

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale 116

The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale 143

The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale 164

Minor Poems

Adam Scriveyn 177

Truth 177

The Envoy to Scogan 178

The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse 180

William Langland (Fl. 1375–1380) 182

From The Vision Of Piers Plowman (C-Text)

The Field Full of Folk (Prologue) 182

Meed at Westminster (from Passus III) 187

Will’s ‘apologia pro vita sua’ (from Passus V) 189

The Confession of the People (from Passus VI) 192

Piers Plowman and the Search for Saint Truth (from Passus VII) 196

The Ploughing of the Half-Acre (from Passus VIII) 200

The Pardon sent from Truth (from Passus IX) 207

The Beginning of the Search for Dowel (from Passus X) 213

The Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell (from Passus XX) 214

The Coming of Antichrist (from Passus XXII) 222

The Letters Of John Ball (1381) 227

John Trevisa (D. 1402) 230

From His Translation Of Higden’s Polychronicon

The languages of Britain 230

The Wycliffite Bible (c.1380–c.1400) 232

The parable of the great supper (Luke 14:12–24) 232

The nature of charity (1 Cor. 13) 232

‘The Gawain-Poet’ (Fl. 1390) 234

From Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Fits Three And Four 235

From Patience

Jonah And The Whale 266

John Gower (D. 1408) 273

From Confessio Amantis

The lover’s business (from Book IV) 273

The Tale of Tereus and Procne (from Book V) 276

Mandeville’s Travels (C.1390–1400) 287

The holy places west of Jerusalem (chap. 11) 287

The people of Dundeya (chap. 22) 288

The approach to the land of Prester John (chap. 30) 289

The fools of despair (chap. 31) 289

The Brahmins (chap. 32) 290

The Earthly Paradise (chap. 33) 291

The Cloud Of Unknowing (c.1390–1400) 292

The plan of campaign (chap. 3) 292

The cloud of unknowing and the cloud of forgetting (chaps 4–7) 293

False contemplatives (chap. 53) 295

Nowhere is everywhere (chap. 68) 296

Julian (Juliana) Of Norwich (1342–C.1418) 297

 From The Revelations Of Divine Love (Longer Version)

The bodily sickness and the first revelation (chaps 3–4) 297

The second revelation (chap. 10) 299

The seventh revelation (chap. 15) 300

The eighth revelation (chap. 16) 301

The thirteenth revelation (chap. 27): Sin is behovely 301

Jesus as Mother (chap. 60) 302

The Alliterative Morte Arthure 304

Arthur’s fight with the giant of St Michael’s mount 304

William Thorpe (Fl. 1407) 308

From The Testimony Of William Thorpe 308

Nicholas Love (Fl. 1410) 313

From The Mirror Of The Blessed Life Of Jesus Christ (1410)

The purpose of this work (chap. 40) 313

The scourging (chap. 41) 314

The crucifixion (chap. 43) 315

The seven last words from the Cross (chap. 44) 317

Thomas Hoccleve (1368–1426) 319

 From La Male Regle De T. Hoccleve Living it up in London 319

From The Regement Of Princes The sleepless night and meeting with the old man 322

Hoccleve’s troubles 327

Hoccleve’s hard life as a scribe 329

Chaucer is dead 331

A way to remember Chaucer 333

From The ‘Series’

From The Complaint of Hoccleve 334

From Dialogue with a Friend 339

John Lydgate (1371–1449) 343

From The Troy-Book

Lamentation upon the fall of Troy (from Book IV) 344

From The Siege Of Thebes

Prologue 345

From The Life Of Our Lady

The Commendation of Our Lady at the Nativity (from Book III) 350

From The Dance Macabre 353

From The Fall Of Princes

The letter of Canace to her brother 362

Exclamation on the death of Cyrus 365

Letter To Gloucester 366

From The Testament Of Dan John Lydgate 367

Margery Kempe (C.1373–C.1440) 369

 From The Book Of Margery Kempe

Her first childbirth, and first vision of Christ (chap. 1) 369

Her contract with her husband, 23 June 1413, on the road to Bridlington (chap. 11) 371

Among the monks at Canterbury (chap. 13) 372

Wedded to the Godhead (chap. 36) 373

Before the archbishop of York (chap. 52) 374

Her husband’s last illness (chap. 76) 376

Charles Of Orleans (1394–1465) 378

Ballade 48: ‘To longe, for shame’ 378

Ballade 70: ‘In the forest of Noyous Hevynes’ 379

Ballade 72: ‘Whan fresshe Phebus’ 380

Roundel 35: ‘Take, take this cosse’ (with the text of Charles’s French original) 381

Roundel 37: ‘I prayse nothing’ 381

Roundel 57: ‘My gostly fadir’ 382

Charles meets his new lady (5219–5351) 382

Ballade 96: ‘Syn hit is so we nedis must depart’ 385

Anonymous Songs And Short Poems, Religious, Comic And Amatory 387

‘Adam lay ibowndyn’ 387

‘I syng of a mayden’ 387

‘Ther is no rose’ 388

‘Lully, lulla, thow litel tiny child’ 389

‘A God and yet a man’ 389

‘Who cannot wepe come lerne at me’ 390

‘In a tabernacle of a toure’ 391

The Corpus Christi Carol 393

Christ Triumphant 394

‘Farewell, this world’ 394

‘Kyrie, so kyrie’ 395

‘I have a gentil cok’ 396

‘I dar not seyn’ 397

‘Care away for evermore’ 397

The Schoolboy’s Lament 398

Against Blacksmiths 399

‘Alone walkyng’ 400

‘Myn hertys joy’ 401

‘Westren wynde’ 401

Love-Poems (By Women?) From The Findern Manuscript 402 1 ‘As in yow restyth my joy and comfort’ 402

2 ‘What-so men seyn’ 402

3 ‘My woofull hert, thus clad in payn’ 403

4 (a) ‘Come home, dere herte, from tarieng’ 404

(b) ‘To you, my joye and my worldly plesaunce’ 404

(c) ‘There may areste me no pleasance’ 405

(d) ‘Welcome be ye, my sovereine’ 405

5 ‘Continuaunce / Of remembraunce’ 405

Popular Ballads 406

Saint Steven 406

The Hunting of the Cheviot 407

Robin Hood and the Monk 413

Reginald Pecock (C.1392/5–C.1460?) 423

 From The Repressor Of Overmuch Blaming Of The Clergy  Images not a form of idolatry 423

The Paston Letters 425

Margaret Paston to Sir John Paston II 425

Elizabeth Brews to John Paston III 427

The same 427

Margery Brews to John Paston III 427

The same 428

Sir John Fortescue (C.1395–C.1477) 429

 From The Governance Of England

Jus regale and Jus politicum et regale 429

Sir Thomas Malory (C.1410–1471) 431

From The Morte D’arthur, Book 8, ‘The Moste Pyteuous Tale Of The Morte Arthure Saunz Gwerdon’

The accusation and rescue of Guenevere 432

The vengeance of Sir Gawain 440

The combat of Lancelot and Gawain 449

The last battle and the death of Arthur 452

The death of Guenevere and of Lancelot 459

William Caxton (C.1422–1492) 465

Prologue To Malory’s Morte D’arthur 465

Prologue To Eneydos 467

Robert Henryson (C.1430–C.1505) 469

The Testament Of Cresseid 469

From The Fables 484

The Cock and the Fox 485

The Fox and the Wolf 490

The Wolf and the Wether 495

The Wolf and the Lamb 498

William Dunbar (C.1456–C.1515) 503

Meditation In Winter 503

Christ In Triumph 504

From The Golden Targe 505

From The Treatise Of The Two Married Women And The Widow 508

‘Timor Mortis Conturbat Me’ 515

Gavin Douglas (C.1475–1522) 519

From The Aeneid-Translation

Book II, chapter 9 520

(with Latin of Aeneid, II.544–58)

Book VII, Prologue (1–96) 522

Book XIII, Prologue 524

Stephen Hawes (D. After 1521) 529 From The Pastime Of Pleasure

Dedication 529

How Graunde Amour met with Fame 530

The Tower of Doctrine 533

The nature of poetic style 534

Farewell to the world 535

Farewell to his book 535

John Skelton (C.1460–1529) 536

From The Bowge Of Court 536

From The Book Of Philip Sparrow 542

From The Tunning Of Elinor Rumming 556

From Colin Clout 560

From The Garland Of Laurel 565

The First English Life Of Henry V (1513) 571

The prince of Wales presents himself to his father, Henry IV 571

Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) 573

 From The History Of King Richard Iii The fall of lord Hastings 573

Shore’s wife 575

The duke of Buckingham has Richard acclaimed king 576

From Utopia 578

Restrictions on travel among the Utopians 579

How the Utopians regard gold 579

How the Utopians wage war 580

The superiority of the Utopian commonwealth 581

From A Dialogue Of Comfort Against Tribulation

How the Christian prepares himself to die for his faith 583

Sir Thomas Elyot (C.1490–1546) 585

From The Book Named The Governor

The importance of beginning Latin early 585

Why gentlemen’s children are seldom properly educated 586

An illustration of the virtue of placability 586

William Tyndale (1494–1536) 588

 From The Prologue To The New Testament 588

From The New Testament

The parable of the great supper (Luke 14:12–24) 589

The nature of love (1 Cor. 13) 589

From The Obedience Of A Christian Man That the scripture ought to be in the English tongue 590

Why they will not have the scripture in English 591

Blind mouths 591

Simon Fish (C.1500–1531) 592

 From A Supplication For The Beggars (1529) 592

William Roper (1496–1577) 594

From The Life Of Sir Thomas More The testimony of master Rich 594

Sir David Lindsay (C.1486–1555) 596

From Squire Meldrum Prologue 596

The sea-fight 598

The wooing of the lady of Gleneagles 600

George Cavendish (C.1499–C.1562) 603

From The Life And Death Of Cardinal Wolsey Wolsey’s last journey 603

From Metrical Visions

The Complaint of Cardinal Wolsey 605

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) 607

1 ‘The longe love, that in my thought doeth harbar’ 608

 (with Italian of Petrarch, Sonnet 107)

2 ‘Who-so list to hunt, I knowe where is an hynde’ 609

3 ‘Farewell, Love, and all thy lawes for ever’ 609

4 ‘My galy charged with forgetfulnes’ 609

5 ‘Madame, withouten many wordes’ 610

6 ‘They fle from me that sometyme did me seke’ 610

7 ‘What no, perdy, ye may be sure!’ 611

8 ‘Marvaill no more’ 611

9 ‘Tho I cannot your crueltie constrain’ 612

10 ‘To wisshe and want and not obtain’ 613

11 ‘Some-tyme I fled the fyre that me brent’ 614

12 ‘The furyous gonne in his rajing yre’ 614

13 ‘My lute, awake!’ 614

14 ‘In eternum’ 615

15 ‘Hevyn and erth and all that here me plain’ 616

16 ‘To cause accord or to agre’ 617

17 ‘Th’answere that ye made to me, my dere’ 618

18 ‘You that in love finde lucke and habundaunce’ 619

19 ‘What rage is this? what furour of what kynd?’ 619

20 ‘Is it possible?’ 620

21 ‘And wylt thow leve me thus?’ 621

22 ‘Forget not yet the tryde entent’ 621

23 ‘Blame not my lute’ 622

24 ‘What shulde I saye?’ 623

25 ‘Spight hath no powre to make me sadde’ 624

26 ‘Wyth serving still’ 624

27 ‘I abide and abide and better abide’ 625

28 ‘Stond who-so list upon the slipper toppe’ 625

29 ‘Throughout the world, if it wer sought’ 626

30 ‘In court to serve decked with freshe aray’ 626

31 Satire 1: ‘Myne owne John Poynz’ 626

32 Paraphrase of Ps. 130: De profundis clamavi 629

John Leland (C.1506–1552) 630

 From A New Year’s Gift To Henry Viii 630

Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517–1547) 632 1 ‘When ragyng love with extreme payne’ 632

2 ‘The soote season, that bud and blome furth bringes’ 633

3 ‘Set me wheras the sonne doth perche the grene’ 633

4 ‘Love, that doth raine and live within my thought’ 634

5 ‘Alas, so all thinges nowe do holde their peace’ 634

6 ‘Geve place, ye lovers, here before’ 635

7 ‘O happy dames, that may embrace’ 635

8 ‘Good ladies, you that have your pleasure in exyle’ 637

9 ‘When Windesor walles sustained my wearied arme’ 638

10 ‘So crewell prison howe could betyde, alas’ 638

11 ‘W. resteth here, that quick could never rest’ 640

12 ‘Th’Assyrans king, in peas with fowle desyre’ 641

13 ‘Marshall, the thinges for to attayne’ 641

From The Aeneid-Translation

Book II (ll. 654–729) 642

Hugh Latimer (1491–1555) 644

From The ‘Sermon On The Plougher’ 644

Roger Ascham (1515–1568) 646

From Toxophilus, Or, The School Of Shooting Why he writes in English (from the Preface) 646

The wind on the snow 646

From The Schoolmaster

How Italian books and Arthurian romances corrupt the young 647

A Mirror For Magistrates (Second Edition, 1563) 649 From The Induction To The Complaint Of Henry, Duke Of Buckingham,

By Thomas Sackville (1536–1608) 649

From The Tragedy Of Lord Hastings,

By John Dolman (C.1540–C.1602) 652

John Foxe (1517–1587) 654

 From Acts And Monuments Of Martyrs Concerning Simon Fish 654

The behaviour of doctor Ridley and master Latimer at the time of their death (16 October 1555) 655

George Gascoigne (1539–1578) 659

From The Steel Glass Exhortation to knights, squires and gentlemen 659

Pray for ploughmen 660

From The Spoil Of Antwerp The seizing of the town 661

Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) 663

January, From The Shepherd’s Calendar 663

Textual Variants 666

Glossary of Common Hard Words 672

Index 676