middle english

Question 1

When was the Middle English Period?

Answer 1

1066-1400

Question 2

What event marks the beginning of the Middle English Period?

Answer 2

In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England and defeated King Harold at Hastings

Question 3

Give a definition of the feudal system.

Answer 3

The feudal system is a hierarchical system based on the ownership of land

Question 4

Explain how the feudal system organized the country.

Answer 4

The king divided his land and distributed them to Norman lords, who on their part afterwards divided them. They gave them to knights who had farmers then work on it

Question 5

What happened in 1066?

Answer 5

The invasion of England by William the Conqueror who then defeated King Harold at Hastings

Question 6

Which book was commissioned by William the Conqueror?

Answer 6

Domesday book

Question 7

What is Domesday Book?

Answer 7

It has all the land and property, houses, villages, mills, animals and the rights and duties of every landowner and every court written in it

Question 8

Mention two kinds of poetry. mid english

Answer 8

romance and allegories

Question 9

What is a romance?

Answer 9

A rhymed narrative poem

Question 10

What is its theme? romance

Answer 10

A chivalrous adventure with courty love

Question 11

Give an example of a romance.

Answer 11

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Question 12

What is an allegory?

Answer 12

A story in which people, animals, things and/or happenings have a symbolic or hidden meaning

Question 13

Who is the Father of English Poetry?

Answer 13

Geoffrey Chaucer

Question 14

What is the name of Geoffrey Chaucer’s most important work?

Answer 14

The Canterbury Tales

Question 15

What do you call the construction of this work?

Answer 15

It is a link and frame story

Question 16

What is the central incident that unites this work?

Answer 16

A pilgrimage of thirty people traveling to the shrine in Canterbury

Question 17

Why is this work so interesting to us?

Answer 17

The pilgrims represent the three classes of medieval society: the clerks, the common people and the nobility

Question 18

Describe in what way drama developed in the Middle English Period.

Answer 18

The liturgical plays of the Old English Period turned into two different types of dramas

Question 19

What kind of plays do you find in this period? mid engelish

Answer 19

Miracle- and Mystery plays

Question 20

Explain both names of the plays Miracle- and Mystery plays

Answer 20

Miracle plays: plays dealing with lives of saints

Mystery plays: plays dealing with scenes from the bible

Question 21

What were they usually called? Miracle- and Mystery plays

Answer 21

Cycle plays

Question 22

Give four characteristics of these plays. Miracle- and Mystery plays

Answer 22

1: the plays were performed in open air or on wagons instead of within the church
2: the Latin was replaced with Middle-English
3: the actors were members of town guilds instead of priests
4: it was about the human elements of the bible