PROSE

Old English prose texts were copied for more than a century after the Norman Conquest; the
homilies of Aelfric were especially popular, and King Alfred’s translations of Boethius and
Augustine survive only in 12th-century manuscripts. In the early 13th century an anonymous
worker at Worcester supplied glosses to certain words in a number of Old English manuscripts,
which demonstrates that by this time the older language was beginning to pose difficulties for
readers.
English prose continued to be composed without interruption, with manuscripts like the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle and the Peterborough Chronicle containing strong prose until 1154. However,
English faced competition from Anglo-Norman and Latin, leading to a decline in production.
The great prose works of this period were mainly for those who could read only English,
particularly women. The Old English alliterative prose tradition remained alive into the 13th
century, with the Katherine Group composed in the West Midlands. St. Katherine, St. Margaret,
and St. Juliana have rhythms reminiscent of Aelfric and Wulfstan, while Hali Meithhad and
Sawles Warde have newer influences. The prose of this time often had a rapturous, sensual
flavor, using love language to express religious fervor.
Due to the part that poetry was considered as a high class art, lower-class people of the middle
age tried to take prose as their art. The most well-known figure in prose-writing in this era is
John Wyclif (1324-1384). He was a scholar and a priest who was popular as a translator of the
Bible. His prose-style put in the scripture was adopted by many people and gave a great
influence to the development of english to its standard form. Another famous work of Wyclif is
Mendelville's Travel, the author's reportage about his travels to various countries.
Another great prose-writer of this era is John Gower. He wrote a great many books, in Latin and
in French as well as in English. His most famous is Confessio Amantis, the confession of a lover.
At the end the lover says he will give up love-but only because he is getting too old. Just like in
The Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman, there is irony in Gower's works, and the subject
matter is clearly very far from the heroism of Old English: emotions and human weakness are
becoming more common themes in literature.