This volume in The New Pelican Guide to English Literature covers the period from Chaucer to Thomas More and the Court of Henry VIII. It includes a section on the social context of medieval literature, a survey of the verse and drama of the period and a series of essays which deal in detail with individual writers and works, plus an appendix of biographies and bibliographies. Finally, there is a specially edited anthology of medieval poems and drama that are otherwise virtually inaccessible to the general reader.

CONTENTS:
PART 1
The Social Context of Medieval English Literature
Change and Continuity – Towards a Unified Nation – The General Medieval Outlook – The Setting – Reading, Writing and Individualism – Development of Twon and Court – The Church, Churches and the Gothic Style – The Social Structure of the Church – The Relationship of Church and Secular Society
PART 2
A Survey of Medieval Verse and Drama
Chaucer’s Art – Chaucer’s Poems and Medieval Genres – The Alliterative Poems and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" – The Metrical Romances – Malory’s "Morte D’Arthur" – Medieval Lyrics and Carols – "The Owl and the Nightingale" – The Miracle Cycles – Gower and Mannyng – The Scots Poets – The Morality Plays – From Medieval to Elizabethan
Postscript: Changing Perspectives
Middle English Prose
PART 3
The Language of English Medieval Literature
Chaucer:
Chaucerian Themes and Style in The Franklin’s Tale
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Trolius and Criseyde and The Knight’s Tale
Langland’s Piers Plowman
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Pearl: Poetry and Suffering
Dream-Poems
Medieval Lyrics and Music
The Miracle Plays of Noah
The Visual World of the Middle Ages
Two Scots Poets: Dunbar and Henryson
Malory: Knightly Combat in Le Morte D’Arthur
The Morality Tradition
The Poetry of Wyatt
Thomas Moore and the Court of henry VIII
PART 4
An Anthology of Medieval Poems and Drama
Three Harley Lyrics
Winner and Waster
The Lord of Love
William Langland: Apologia. The Harrowing of Hell.
Thomas Chestre: Sir Launfal
Pearl
John Gower: Tereus and Procne. The Blacksmiths.
Thomas Hoccleve: Three Roundels
The Towneley Second Shepherds’ Play
The York Crucifixion Play
Nine Sloane Lyrics
Robert Henryson: The Lion and the Mouse
Textual Notes
PART 5
Appendix
For Further Reading and Reference
Authors and Works
Notes
Index