Terry Heath

Thomas More produced his fictional Utopia as a satire on his contemporaries’ religious and political thoughts. The positive light given to religious, political and philosophical ideas diametrically opposed to those of the author, the presence of ridiculous wordplay in the names, titles and locations within the piece, and the pseudo Renaissance-humanist air given by setting the work in Latin, all reveal More’s satiric intent. Over time the piece has become something more than its author’s original use of satire, giving birth to a new genre of fiction, but More’s initial purposes seem to have been something less than literary innovation. While the Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines “satire” as a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule, satirical writing or drama often scorns such folly by pretending to approve of values which are the diametric opposite of what the satirist actually wishes to promote. The i...

Geoffrey Chaucer followed his idealistic romance The Knight’s Tale with the bawdy fabliau The Miller’s Tale , providing powerful contrast within the context of his The Canterbury Tales . True to their individual genres, The Knight’s Tale paints nobles in a flattering light and The Miller’s Tale shows peasants acting like foolish simpletons. But neither view seems to reflect how Chaucer viewed his contemporary man. Instead, it is the subtleties Chaucer introduces to the two genres which make his characters seem human and at the same time show Chaucer’s own humanity. Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale is one of the great short stories of the English language, but finds its origins in the French fabliau. The fabliaux were a group of about 150 short stories with basically interchangeable characters: a cuckolded husband, an offending clergy, and foolish peasants. The plot of a fabliau usually goes, “There was a man who had a wife, and the wife fooled around with some clerk and made the local p...

Simple ballads and lyrics surviving from Medieval literature might at first glance seem inferior to the sophisticated imagery and complicated sentence structure of modern works. We might assume their authors remained anonymous because the pieces were too elementary to inspire the pride of authorship. But the oldest surviving pieces from Middle English (before colonization began to develop divergent forms of the language) had to be understood at a single hearing; obscure references would have been lost when the words rattled by without time for study and reflection. Our language had its birth in an oral tradition, and the purpose of its literature was different from what we sometimes have in modern times. The inspiration was not necessarily inferior or superior to that of modern works, and we cannot safely assume the feelings which sought expression then were either simpler or more complex than our own. "Sumer is i-cumen in" Spring has come in Loudly sing, cuckoo! Grows the se...

It’s not easy being green; if you happen to be a knight, being green may cost your head. Being a green knight carries a big responsibility. Some may even say that in your ever-green garments you’re a representation of no less than Christ himself. As a type of Christ, the Green Knight in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight attempts to teach King Arthur and his Round Table a lesson in grace, but is misunderstood and thought of as an evil green giant (and anything but jolly). As an acclaimed achievement of ancient alliterative adventure, this romance reeks of both mores and morality, all in the guise of a game. At Christmastime in Camelot, the gallant King Arthur and his followers celebrate the season, placing a premium on appearances. Knights must appear more noble, maidens must appear more fair, and Arthur himself seeks to appear so interested in sport and adventure that he refuses to eat dinner unless told some marvelous tale. But this showboating is not left long without an answer when a...

>According to Ingmar Bergman in his film The Seventh Seal you may be able to cheat death. However if you believe the Fifteenth Century morality play Everyman , Death can’t be bribed. When the same play’s main character was summoned to his final journey he tried the bribery route without success, but Death was amiable enough to allow Everyman a traveling companion. That is where the action of Everyman begins. Evidently, a traveling companion for life’s final journey is not easy to find. All of life’s little pleasures, like Fellowship, Beauty, and Strength abandon Everyman on the journey. In the end, after a little pick-me-up in the form of Everyman’s confession, Good Deeds is the only one to consent to the journey. The church had made a division between venial sins, which could be forgiven without the sacrament of Confession, and capital sins resulting in damnation. A largely illiterate audience couldn't be expected to remember each of the Seven Deadly Sins, or even the Seven C...

If Margery Kempe had lived 600 years later, she might have been a blogger. The Book of Margery Kempe is an account of her later life, much like a diary, without any obvious connecting theme or storyline. Much like a modern blogger might be technically challenged and enlist the help of a son or daughter, Mrs. Kempe was illiterate and solicited the help of an Englishman living in Germany, possibly her own son, and later the help of a priest to get her story written. But modern bloggers may owe a loosely associated debt to The Book of Margery Kempe since many consider it the first autobiography written in the English language. Two other similarities between Mrs. Kempe and modern blog writers are an interest in home-based businesses and seemingly random ramblings. Margery Kempe operated a grain mill and a brewery, both common home-based businesses operated by women in Medieval times, although without success. Even though Mrs. Kempe is sometimes thought of as an oddity, recent scholarship...

Simple ballads and lyrics surviving from Medieval literature might at first glance seem inferior to the sophisticated imagery and complicated sentence structure of modern works. We might assume their authors remained anonymous because the pieces were too elementary to inspire the pride of authorship. But the oldest surviving pieces from Middle English (before colonization began to develop divergent forms of the language) had to be understood at a single hearing; obscure references would have been lost when the words rattled by without time for study and reflection. Our language had its birth in an oral tradition, and the purpose of its literature was different from what we sometimes have in modern times. The inspiration was not necessarily inferior or superior to that of modern works, and we cannot safely assume the feelings which sought expression then were either simpler or more complex than our own. "Sumer is i-cumen in" Spring has come in Loudly sing, cuckoo! Grows the se...

>Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a practically perfect kingdom where knights were noble and ladies were fair. The tales of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table touch on civilization’s oldest quests for beauty, law, and order. These are the things of our fantasies and fairy tales, as well as our Broadway musicals. A law was made a distant moon ago here: July and August cannot be too hot. And there's a legal limit to the snow here In Camelot. The winter is forbidden till December And exits March the second on the dot. By order, summer lingers through September In Camelot. Camelot! Camelot! I know it sounds a bit bizarre, But in Camelot, Camelot That's how conditions are. The rain may never fall till after sundown. By eight, the morning fog must disappear. In short, there's simply not A more congenial spot For happily-ever-aftering than here In Camelot. Camelot! Camelot! I know it gives a person pause, But in Camelot, Camelot Those are the leg...