ENGL 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Sir Orfeo, Breton Lai, Courtly Love
Document Summary
The norman conquest when the middle class if french speakers brought anglo-saxon language from old to middle english. In ux of french and romantic period: imaginacyon: words that had this meaning were usually abstractions. Breton lay: short narrative play, usually along-side music. Medieval romance: heroic narratives that emphasize aristocratic values and re ned culture (queen, kings, castles, etc. French is a romantic language, courtly love or chivalric norms. Romance moves from loss to restoration, always good outcome. Classic myth: orfeus"s wife dies of a snake bite and ends up in the underworld, he saves her by playing his enchanting music. He is allowed to take her back but looks back at her and loses her again. Sir orfeo: wife falls asleep and is taken by faeries, gets his wife back. Read allegorically through christianity: temptation and sin are read in the way orfeus looks back, orfeus is a gure of redemption and liberation.
