This scholarly edition gathers prose and verse texts from the crucial formative period of Middle English, spanning roughly 1130 to 1250 — the era when Old English was transforming into the language Chaucer would later use. Part 1 presents the primary texts, including early religious verse, lyric fragments, and prose homilies that document the emergence of a new literary language.
An important resource for students of English literary history, this free EPUB is cleanly formatted with the early texts presented as close to their original form as possible.