Essentials of Early English: An Introduction to Old, Middle, and Early Modern English

Front Cover
Psychology Press, 2005 - Foreign Language Study - 248 pages

This is a completely revised and updated edition of a highly successful textbook.

It provides a practical and highly accessible introduction to the early stages of the English language: Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English. Designed specifically as a handbook for students beginning the study of early English language, whether for linguistic or literary purposes, it presumes little or no prior knowledge of the history of English.


Features of this second edition include:

  • newly added Middle English and Early Modern English sample texts and accompanying notes
  • a new section on historical methods
  • web links and an updated annotated bibliography.

From inside the book

Contents

Chapter 2
18
Old English
45
Middle English
89
Early Modern English
123
Section A Old English Texts
155
Section B Middle English Texts
169
1 From The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
170
2 From The Pardoners Tale
172
1 From Loues Labours Lost
195
2 From As You Like It
197
3 From The Tragedie of King Lear
198
4 From The Tragedie of Julius Cæsar
200
5 From The Tragedie of Hamlet
202
6 From The Tragedie of Richard the Third
203
7 From The Tragedie of Macbeth
205
8 From the Authorised Version of the Bible 1611
206

3 From The Parsons Tale
176
4 From The Peterborough Chronicle
178
5 From Sir Orfeo
180
6 From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
182
7 From John Lydgate A Balade in Commendation of Our Lady
184
8 From The Guildhall LetterBook 1418
185
9 From William Caxtons Preface to his edition of The Morte Darthure 1485
186
10 From William Caxtons Preface to the Eneydos 1490
187
11 From Sir Thomas Malory The Morte Darthur
188
12 A letter from Margaret Paston
189
Early Modern English Texts
193
9 From John Miltons Areopagitica 1644
208
10 From John Dryden All for Love or the World Well Lost 16771678
209
11 From E K s Preface to Spensers Shepheardes Calender 1579
211
12 From A Letter of Syr J Cheke 1557
212
13 From Richard Mulcasters The First Parte of the Elementarie 1582
213
14 From George Puttenham Of Language in The Arte of English Poesie 1589
214
15 From The Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley 1642
215
16 From The Tryall of Ralph Hall and Mary his wife 1665
216
Annotated Bibliography
221
Thematic Index
245
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Jeremy Smith is Reader in English Language at the University of Glasgow and has been actively teaching Early English for 20 years. He is the author of An Historical Study of English (1996)

Bibliographic information