Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer worked for this King in the 1380s while he struggled for power.
The King of England; Richard II 1389-99
This poet wrote the highly regarded Middle-English poem, 'Piers Plowman'.
William Langland: The poem explored Christian values in a very simple language that could be easily read and understood.
Year of the earliest surviving text from Middle English
1150
The main difference between early and late modern English.
Vocabulary
This defines the word 'meed'.
reward; "Old English mēd, of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Greek misthos ‘reward’".
TRUE OR FALSE: Chaucer escaped the 'Black Death' when he was a child.
True. His father gave up working for the King when Geoffrey was 6 or 7 and moved them into the countryside and away from the city of London.
A play with these 'lyrics' or lines, "Come hither, come hither, come hither! Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather".
'As You Like It' - Shakespeare
William Caxton brought the first printing press to England in 1476 after running one in this country north of France.
Belgium
The sudden shift in pronunciation that happened at the very beginning of Early English
The Great Vowel Shift
THIS occurs when a particular ending or rule becomes so popular that it becomes the 'normal' choice and all new words will follow the same process when conjugated.
The Process of Analogy
This place is where Chaucer found his infinite love for poetry, music, and the arts.
Genoa, Italy. The Italian poetry he was exposed to had become an integral part of his writing style.
A famous poet who was born in Warwickshire, England on April 26th, 1564.
William Shakespeare
This man gave his life making sure people had a copy of the Bible in English.
William Tyndale; he was imprisoned, strangled and burned at the stake.
In 1524 this man left England to preach abroad and smuggled bibles back in.
William Tyndale; was an Oxford-educated ordained priest who crafted 80% of the latest King James Bible.
This defines the word 'alderliefest'.
dearest; from Middle English alderlevest, from alder-, (from Old English alra, genitive plural of Old English all) + levest, superlative of leef dear.
It was this Italian Poet with his most famous work who inspired and influenced Chaucer.
Dante's 'Divina Commedia'.
The first reference of Shakespeare in the literary world was an insult from this fellow dramatist.
Robert Greene; in 1592 he insulted him in a pamphlet written on his death bed.
Besides teachers and writers, these people had the most influence on spelling.
Printers; had the last say on what went and what didn't.
King Henry VIII renounces the Catholic faith after he wants to do this and is told no by the pope.
Get an annulment; 1533.
Word endings no longer relied on this in Medieval times after the -S was introduced.
A person's gender.
This poet's reputation once matched that of Chaucer but his popularity waned in the 16th century. (Hint: 1330-1408 London Literature).
John Gower: his works are in French, English, and Latin. His most famous English poem is called 'In Praise of Peace' and it was a plea with the king of England to avoid the horrors of war.
This famous poet was incarcerated for being an ally to the Roman Catholic church in the rebellion of 1536, he was in fact.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
The English Bible was made in secrecy by this group of people.
The Lollards; meaning to whisper.
The Catholic church had one of these in 1521 outside the old St. Paul's Cathedral, it lasted 2 days.
A bonfire; the church burned 6,000 boughten copies of the Bible written in English on their steps.
This year the first English dictionary was published.
1604