Jocelyn Wogan-Browne & Carolyn P Collette 
Language and Culture in Medieval Britain 
The French of England, c.1100-c.1500

Groundbreaking surveys of the complex interrelationship between the languages of English and French in medieval Britain.


With co-editors: CAROLYN COLLETTE, MARYANNE KOWALESKI, LINNE MOONEY, AD PUTTER, and DAVID TROTTER


England was more widely and enduringly francophone in the middle ages than many standard accounts of its history, culture and language allow. The development of French in England, whether known as ‘Anglo-Norman’ or ‘Anglo-French’, is deeply interwoven both with medieval English and with the spectrum of Frenches, insular and continental, used withinand outside the realm. As the language of nearly a thousand literary texts, of much administration, and of many professions and occupations, the French of England needs more attention than it has so far received.

The essaysin this volume form a new cultural history focussed round, but not confined to, the presence and interactions of French speakers, writers, readers, texts and documents in England from the eleventh to the later fifteenth century.Taking the French of England into account does not simply add new material to our existing narratives of medieval English culture, but changes them, restoring a multi-vocal, multi-cultural medieval England in all its complexity, and opening up fresh agendas for study and exploration.


Contributors: HENRY BAINTON, MICHAEL BENNETT, JULIA BOFFEY, RICHARD BRITNELL, CAROLYN COLLETTE, GODFRIED CROENEN, HELEN DEEMING, STEPHANIE DOWNES, MARTHA DRIVER, MONICA H. GREEN, RICHARD INGHAM, REBECCA JUNE, MARYANNE KOWALESKI, PIERRE KUNSTMANN, FRANCOISE H. M. LE SAUX, SERGE LUSIGNAN, TIM WILLIAM MACHAN, JULIA MARVIN, BRIAN MERRILEES, RUTH NISSE, MARILYN OLIVA, W. MARK ORMROD, HEATHER PAGAN, LAURIE POSTLEWATE, JEAN-PASCAL POUZET, AD PUTTER, GEOFF RECTOR, DELBERT RUSSELL, THEA SUMMERFIELD, ANDREW TAYLOR, DAVID TROTTER, ELIZABETH M. TYLER, NICHOLAS WATSON, JOCELYN WOGAN-BROWNE, ROBERT F. YEAGER

Table of Content

Introduction

French Language in Contact with English: Social Context and Linguistic Change (mid 13th-14th centuries) – Serge Lusignan

The Language of Complaint: Multilingualism and Petitioning in Later Medieval England – W. Mark Ormrod

The Persistence of Anglo-Norman 1230-1362: A Linguistic Perspective – Richard Ingham

Syntaxe anglo-normande: étude de certaines caractéristiques du XIIe au XIVe siècle [with English summary] – Pierre Kunstmann

”Fi a debles, ‘ quath the king.’ Language Mixing in England’s Vernacular Historical Narratives,
c.1290 –
c. 1340 – Thea Summerfield

Uses of French Language in Medieval English Towns – Richard H Britnell

The French of England in Female Convents: The French Kitcheners’ Accounts of Campsey Ash Priory – Marilyn Oliva

The French of England: A Maritime
lingua franca? – Maryanne Kowaleski

John Barton, John Gower and Others: Variation in Late Anglo-French – Brian Merrilees and Heather Pagan

John Gower’s French and his Readers – Robert F. Yeager

‘Stuffed Latin’: Vernacular Evidence in Latin Documents – D A Trotter

From Old English to Old French – Elizabeth M. Tyler

Translating the ‘English’ Past: Cultural Identity in the
Estoire des Engleis – Henry Bainton

The Languages of England: Multilingualism in the Work of Wace – Francoise H M Le Saux

An Illustrious Vernacular: The Psalter
en romanz in Twelfth-Century England – Geoff Rector

Serpent’s Head/Jew’s Hand:
Le Jeu d’Adam and Christian-Jewish Debate in Norman England – Ruth Nisse

Salerno on The Thames: The Genesis of Anglo-Norman Medical Literature – Monica Green

‘Cest livre liseez…chescun jour’: Women and Reading
c.1230-
c.1430 – Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

French Devotional Texts in Thirteenth-Century Preachers’ Anthologies – Helen Deeming

Augustinian Canons and their Insular French Books in Medieval England: Towards An Assessment – Jean-Pascal Pouzet

Eschuer peché, embracer bountee: Social Thought and Pastoral Instruction in Nicole Bozon – Laurie Postlewate

The Cultural Context of the French Prose
remaniement of the Life of Edward the Confessor by a Nun of Barking Abbey – Alain Ricard

The Vitality of Anglo-Norman in Late-Medieval England: The Case of the Prose
Brut Chronicle – Julia Marvin

France in England: Anglo-French Culture in the Reign of Edward III –

Lollardy: The Anglo-Norman Heresy? – Nicholas Watson

The Languages of Memory: The Crabhouse Nunnery Manuscript – Rebecca June

French, English and the Late-Medieval Linguistic Repertoire – T W Machan

Aristotle, Translation and the Mean: Shaping the Vernacular in Late Medieval Anglo-French Culture – Carolyn P Collette

Writing English in a French Penumbra: The Middle English ‘Tree of Love’ in MS Longleat 253 – Julia Boffey

The French of English Letters: Two Trilingual Verse Epistles in Context – Ad Putter

The Reception of Froissart’s Writings in England: The Evidence of the Manuscripts – G Croenen

‘Me fault faire’: French Makers of Manuscripts for English Patrons – Martha W. Driver

The French Self-Presentation of an English Mastiff: John Talbot’s Book of Chivalry – Andrew Taylor

A ‘Frenche booke called the Pistill of Othea’: Christine de Pizan’s French in England – Stephanie Downes

Bibliography

About the author

Andrew Taylor is Professor of English at the University of Ottawa.