A classic of early English literature, by an anonymous poet from the time of Chaucer
Although the date of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is uncertain, and we know nothing about the author, its composition is roughly contemporary with Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in the latter part of the fourteenth century. It is a remarkably subtle and accomplished poem, in which the hero's knightly virtues of courage, courtesy and fidelity are put to the test in a strange adventure involving a huge green knight on a green horse, a winter journey, a lady in a mysterious castle...

The facsimile reproduces three manuscripts containing all of Thomas Hoccleve's known poetry except his Regiment of Princes (of which no autograph copy survives). It gives a rare opportunity to read the writings of a medieval English poet in copies made by the poet himself.

Essays on Medieval Literature

Gestures and looks played an even more important role in public and private exchanges of medieval society, than they do today. Gestures meant more than words, for example, in ceremonies of homage and fealty. In this compelling study, medievalist Burrow examines the role of non-verbal communication in a range of narrative texts, including Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory's Morte D'arthur, the romances of Chretien de Troyes, the prose Lancelot, Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, and Dante's Commedia.

A profoundly organic view of humanity in nature, the concept of "ages of man" made itself felt in nearly all forms of medieval discourse--sermons, Bible commentaries, moral and political treatises, encyclopedias and lexicons, medical and astrological handbooks, didactic and courtly poems, and
even stained glass windows. J.A. Burrow's analysis ranges over the many manifestations of this idea, and considers the ways in which such ideas of natural order entered into medieval writers' assessment of human nature.

John Burrow examines the role of non-verbal communication in a range of narrative texts.

Examines the flourishing and subsequent decline of praise poetry as a genre from Antiquity to the present.

A series of innovative critical studies introducing writers and their contexts to a wide range of readers. Drawing upon the most recent thinking in English studies, each book considers biographical material, examines recent criticism, includes a detailed bibliography, and offers a concise but challenging reappraisal of a writer's major work.

A profoundly organic view of humanity in nature, the concept of ages of man made itself felt in nearly all forms of medieval discourse--sermons, Bible commentaries, moral and political treatises, encyclopedias and lexicons, medical and astrological handbooks, didactic and courtly poems, and
even stained glass windows. J.A. Burrow's analysis ranges over the many manifestations of this idea, and considers the ways in which such ideas of natural order entered into medieval writers' assessment of human nature.

Thomas Hoccleve's Series, written c.1420 was edited for EETS in 1892. This is a new edition of the first two sections and glosses the poems more fully than before. The introduction presents new findings about Hoccleve, whose poems have attracted much attention in recent years.