Though the miracles were serious and religious in intention, English comedy grew out of them. They were acted by people of the town on the wheeled stages so they could be moved to everywhere and the play could be shown in different parts of the town. The subject matter of such plays was biblical, such as, the disobedience of Adam and Eve, Noah and the great flood, Abraham and Isaac, events in the life of the Christ and so on. The first English plays, called Miracle or Mystery plays were religious and were performed in or near the churches. It has two themes: one is the search for the Holy Grail, and the other is Arthur’s battles against his enemies. It is about the adventure of King Arthur and his Knights. Another important prose work is Mort D’ Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. He himself translated some part of it into English. That is why he arranged the production of the whole Bible in English. But the problem was that it was written in Latin and uneducated people could not read it. He believed that everyone ought to be allowed to read the Bible. His attack to the religious ideas could no longer been tolerated so he had to leave Oxford. He translated the Bible from Latin to English. John Wycliffe, who was a priest, made the Bible available for the common man. He is very noted for his prose style and his work is important in the history of prose. Another work The Form of Perfect Living was also written by Richard Rolle probably in the thirteen century. It tells them a lot about the rules of life. The Ancress is a prose work mainly written for religious women. Mostly the Middle English prose was religious in nature. It is a story related to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. This alliteration can be seen in another poem, as well as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It describes the sorrows of the poor in alliterative lines. Langland sadly says in his poem how most people prefer the false treasures of this world than the true treasures of heaven.
The characters in this poem are not as real as Chaucer’s. It looks a lot older than Chaucer’s rhymed verse, though they are contemporary writers. Chaucer also wrote Troylus and Cryseyde and The Legend of Good Women.Īnother poet of Chaucer’s time was William Langland, who wrote The Vision of Piers the Plowman. One of the most enjoyable characters is wife of Bath. Chaucer’s characters are true-to-life and they represent their own class and profession. They represent the English life and the various professions like the knight, the merchant, the lawyer, the cook, the priest, and the plowman. There are more than twenty stories, but the descriptions of the characters are much more important than their stories. It is a collection of stories told by pilgrims on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. His great work was The Canterbury Tales, which is in about 17000 lines.
He is one of the most skillful and attractive English writers of the entire history of English literature. The greatest poet of this period was Geoffrey Chaucer, often called the father of English poetry.
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