Listen to Middle-Inglish

Aldvm   Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:18 pm GMT
Middle English was in use from around the year 1100 AD, just after the Norman Conquest in 1066, until around 1500 AD. It existed in many regional dialects, such as the North-West Midland's Dialect in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is written, and the London Dialect in which Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales, and on which our Modern English language (post 1500) is founded.


http://eee.uci.edu/programs/medieval/meclips.html

-Listen and read Middle-English-^


---------------------


The London Dialect:

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (ca.1387-1400)

The General Prologue: lines 1-18

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So Priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially fron every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

------------------

The Nun's Priest's Tale: Norton Edition: lines 609-636; Riverside Edition: lines 3375-3402

This sely wydwe and eek hir doghtres two
Herden thise hennes crie and maken wo,
And out at dores stirten they anon,
And syen the fox toward the grove gon,
And bar upon his bak the cok away,
And cryden, "Out! Harrow and weylaway!
Ha, ha! The fox!" and after hym they ran,
And eek with staves many another man.
Ran Colle oure dogge, and Talbot and Gerland,
And Malkyn, with a dystaf in hir hand;
Ran cow and calf, and eek the verray hogges,
So fered for the berkyng of the dogges
And shoutyng of the men and wommen eeke
They ronne so hem thoughte hir herte breeke.
They yolleden as feendes doon in helle;
The dokes cryden as men wolde hem quelle;
The gees for feere flowen over the trees;
Out of the hyve cam the swarm of bees.
So hydous was the noyse -- a, benedicitee! --
Certes, he Jakke Straw and his meynee
Ne made nevere shoutes half so shrille
Whan that they wolden any Flemyng kille,
As thilke day was maad upon the fox.
Of bras they broghten bemes, and of box,
Of horn, of boon, in whiche they blewe and powped,
And therwithal they skriked and they howped.
It semed as that hevene shoulde falle.

-----------------------------

The North-West Midlands Dialect:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ca. 1360): lines 713-739

Mony klyf he overclambe in contrayes straunge.
Fer floten fro his frendes, fremedly he rydes.
At uche warthe other water ther the wye passed
He fonde a foo hym byfore, bot ferly hit were,
And that so foule and so felle that feght hym byhode.
So mony mervayl bi mount ther the mon fyndes
Hit were to tore for to telle of the tenthe dole.
Sumwhyle wyth wormes he werres and with wolves als,
Sumwhyle wyth wodwos that woned in the knarres,
Bothe wyth bulles and beres, and bores otherwhyle
And etaynes that hym anelede of the heghe felle.
Nade he ben dughty and drye and Dryghtyn had served,
Douteles he hade ben ded and dreped ful ofte.
For werre wrathed hym not so much that wynter nas wors,
When the colde cler water fro the cloudes schadde
And fres er hit falle myght to the fale erthe.
Ner slayn wyth the slete he sleped in his yrnes,
Mo nyghtes then innoghe, in naked rokkes
Theras claterande fro the crest the colde borne rennes
And henged heghe over his hede in hard iisseikkles.
Thus in peryl and payne and plytes ful harde
Bi contray caryes this knyght tyl Krystmasse Even,
Alone.
The knyght wel that tyde
To Mary made his mone
That ho hym red to ryde
And wysse hym to som wone.