12Th-15th century: Middle English period

In 1066, Norman ruling class conquered England and began the rise of Norman-French in English cultural life. So this period, extending from 1066 to 1485, is noted for the influence of French literature on native English writing. French largely replaced English in fiction and poetry and Latin remained the language of learned works, with only the common people speaking English. It was not until the 13^th century that the native literature regained its strength and only by the 14th century, English (in its altered form now called Middle English) was again the language of the ruling classes. Middle English included elements of French, Latin, Old English, and local dialects.

Middle English literature of the 14th and 15th centuries is more diversified than the Old English literature. Prose was concerned chiefly with popular devotional use, but verse emerged typically in the numerous romances based on the stories of Charlemagne, the classical episodes of Troy, and the Arthurian legends. Medieval romances (adventure stories, usually in verse, about battles and heroes) originated in France during the 1100's and by the end of the 1200's, they had become the most popular literary form in England. Such is the popular poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (1370?), drawn from a French source.

Of purely native inspiration was a popular Christian visionary poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman", better known as "Piers Plowman" attributed to William Langland and written in the old alliterative verse in the late 1300s. Religious and symbolic "Piers Plowman" provides a fascinating glimpse of English life during the 1300's as well as the anonymous poem "Pearl".

The greatest poet of the period and the first of the great English poets was Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the famous "The Canterbury Tales" (probably after 1387) written in classical Middle English. It is an unfinished collection of comic and moral stories of a group of pilgrims going to Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer introduced a rhythmic pattern called iambic pentameter into English poetry. This meter consists of 10 syllables alternately unaccented and accented in each line, which may or may not rhyme. Iambic pentameter became a widely used meter in English poetry though Chaucer's mastery of versification was not shared by his successors. More successful were the anonymous authors of songs and carols, and of the ballads, which (for example, those concerned with Robin Hood) often formed a complete cycle.

Drama flowered in the form of miracle, and morality plays which originated from brief scenes that monks acted out in churches to illustrate Biblical stories. Morality plays appeared during the 1400's and featured characters who represented a certain quality, such as good or evil, to teach a moral lesson. Eventually, craft and merchant guilds (associations) took over presentation of the plays and staged them in town squares.

Prose rose to a great height with Thomas Malory in the 15th century. His romance "Le Morte Darthur", or "The Death of Arthur" (1469-1470) is the most complete English version of stories about Arthur. Malory's masterpiece set the tradition of Arthurian legends in English prose and has kept its popularity for many a century.