Contents

Beowulf / 7

Th e Wanderer / 32

Th e Dream of the Rood / 42

Medieval Lyrics / 53

Cuckoo Song (“Sumer is Icumen in”) / 54

Alisoun / 56

I Sing of a Maiden / 59

Of a Rose Synge We / 61

Sir Orfeo / 64

Th e Th rush and the Nightingale / 97

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / 110

William Langland, Piers Plowman / 142

Geoff rey Chaucer, Th e General Prologue to Th e Canterbury Tales / 172

Secunda Pastorum (Th e Second Shepherds’ Play) / 225

Everyman / 297

Th omas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book II / 350

Bibliography / 377