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The
Invention of Middle English An Anthology of Primary Sources
David O Matthews
2000
Literature - English
Paperback: $24.00 SH
ISBN-10: 0-271-02082-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-271-02082-2
At
a time when medieval studies is increasingly concerned with historicizing
and theorizing its own origins and history, the development of the
study of Middle English has been relatively neglected. The Invention
of Middle English collects for the first time the principal sources
through which this history can be traced. The documents presented
here highlight the uncertain and haphazard way in which ideas about
Middle English language and literature were shaped by antiquarians
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a valuable sourcebook
for medieval studies, for study of the reception of the Middle Ages,
and, more generally, for the history of the rise of English.
The anthology is divided into two sections. The first section traces
the development of ideas about the Middle English language in the
work of thirteen writers, including George Hickes, Thomas Warton,
Jacob Grimm, Henry Sweet and James Murray. The second section represents
literary criticism and commentary by nineteen authors, including
Warton, Thomas Percy, Joseph Ritson, Walter Scott, Thomas Wright,
and Walter Skeat. Each of the extracts is annotated and introduced
with a note presenting historical, biographical, and bibliographical
information along with a guide to further reading. A general introduction
provides an overview of the state of Middle English study and a
brief history of the formation of the discipline.
David
Matthews is lecturer in English at the University of Newcastle,
Australia. He is the author of The Making of Middle English, 1765-1910
(Minnesota, 1999).
