Flashcards on English Literature from Medieval to Romantic
English Literature from Medieval to Romantic: A Student Guide
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Medieval English literature
41 cards
Card 1
Question: What is the Ancrene Wisse and who was it written for?
Answer: A guide for anchoresses (religious women in enclosed hermit life), written as a mirror for the anchoress to see her true self and to guide her spiritu
Card 2
Question: How does the anchoress ideally view herself according to Ancrene Wisse?
Answer: She should see herself for who she really is while seeking to go beyond self-knowledge toward union with God, avoiding self-absorption and seeking a s
Card 3
Question: What is an anchoress (or anchorite) and how did they live?
Answer: A specific kind of hermit who lived in an enclosed cell usually attached to a church; isolated from the world, often entered by a burial-like ceremony
Card 4
Question: What major Middle English drama cycle is mentioned and what does its manuscript represent?
Answer: The Towneley (Towneley/Townley) manuscript cycle; it represents a cluster of plays and individual plays collected over time, often linking ancient his
Card 5
Question: Summarize the plot of The Second Shepherds' Play.
Answer: Three shepherds are joined by Mak; they find a stolen sheep hidden with Mak’s wife and her apparently newborn 'baby' (actually the stolen sheep). Afte
Card 6
Question: What role do pageants like The Second Shepherds' Play play in medieval drama according to the content?
Answer: They combine local comic scenes and religious narrative to connect biblical events to contemporary life, often using parody and song to close the page
Card 7
Question: At what age were children typically taught to read in medieval England, and why?
Answer: Reading was taught at about six or seven years old—the age when poorer families might withdraw children from schooling to work; reading skills were co
Card 8
Question: Who were generally responsible for teaching Bible study and Latin texts, and who depended on popular accounts or church art?
Answer: Those able to decipher Latin (literate elites) had Bible study; others depended on popular accounts of scripture narratives or their representations i
Card 9
Question: When did English biblical translations begin to be smuggled into Britain, and which humanist scholar is named in the content?
Answer: In the 1520s; the humanist scholar named is William Tyndale (Tyndal/Tyndale).
Card 10
Question: How did girls' and boys' reading education differ in medieval England according to the content?
Answer: Girls were often taught reading for 'self occupations' and household/family business, while boys learned reading, writing, and numeracy in grammar sch