CORREZIONE VERIFICA

The ballad Lord Randal makes the reader understand that the woman was considered inferior than the man in the middle Ages because the man had the power of everything. The woman depended by the man, she has not any role and she could be a mother, a wife, a nun, a daughter or a prostitute. In the family a woman could not inherit anything after the death of her husband, only the first son. The ballad wants to teach to stay away by women's approaches because there aren't only women who depend by the men.

The language used in the ballad is simple and concrete, not of Latin origins. It is informal because it was written by illiterate people. It has a multitude of figures of speech, such as repetition, incremental repetition, alliterative lines, assonance, consonance, and refrain. All these help to memorize the text. The objective of the ballad is to remember dancing and music that accompanied the ballad. It describes also the ordinary life of the people in the Middle Ages.

3. What can a reader understand about the society of the Middle Ages from ballads? Consider: setting, social classes, role of women and men, and religion and magic.

In the ballads the setting was very vague and imaginary, but they can be castle, wood or garden. The setting was not always explicated. In the Middle Ages there were a lot of differences in the social classes. Indeed the aristocracy was a relevant point in the ballads. There were poor people that depended by rich people. Only rich people had the power and gave orders. There were very rigid rules in society, as for as the role of people in the family. The father was at the centre of the family management and, in most cases, the woman was mainly conceived of in her role of mother or wife. The role of men was very important in the Middle Ages, such as in the family a man controlled all the lands and his money. The man had the power of all. Instead the role of women depended by the men's one. The women educated the children and tidied the house. They were often closed in the house. The most important value in society was religion. Everybody was scared to go to Hell. Any form of art in the Middle Ages was directed to God, religious matters, salvation and the church. Another relevant aspect in the society was the magic that helped the people when they were in difficulty.

4. How many languages were spoken during the Middle Ages?

During the Middle Ages three languages were spoken in England: Latin, Norman-French and English. Norman-French was introduced in 1066 when the Normans conquered England. It became the language of English court and of aristocracy. Instead Latin was the language of the clergy. English was the language of common people, conquered by the Normans and they were illiterate. All these language were used in the literary culture: ballads, dramas, histories, romances and fables.

5. What is the difference between a novel and a romance?

The difference between a novel and a romance is that a romance is about historical and legendary adventures of heroes and it is an imaginary story. Instead a novel is a real story of the people of Middle Ages about their ordinary life.

6. Explain the main features of romances (origin, target, content/s, language and any other relevant features).

Romance originally meant any story or poem written in old Franch (spoken in Southern of France, a language derived from Latin). It is a tale of high adventure, story about heroic knights in search of adventure, often containing supernatural elements. It can be a religious crusade, a conquest for a knight's Lord, the rescue of a captive woman. The rise of the romance dated back to the end of the 12^th century and is often related to the rise of the religious cult of the Virgin Mary. This explains the religious love of he knight for his noble lady. It was written in prose or in verse. The romances was divided in four group:

- Matter of Rome: themes derived from Greek and Roman literature or from the Orient.

- Matter of France: poems about Charlemagne and his Peers.

- Matter of England: stories derived from Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Germanic and Teutonic traditions.

- Matter of Britain: stories about the adventures of knight Arthur and the knights of Round Table.

One of the most important of romances is "History of the Knights of Britain" (Historia Regum Britanniae), a story of English people, written in Latin by the monk Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136. It is about the Celtic legends of Knight Artur and his Knights of Round table.

7. What is the quest undertaken by a Knight?

The quest undertaken by a Knight is to fight for God and his King, and to defend his own and his lady's honour with his life. The thought of God filled the knights' hearts, and the main character of the medieval knight's service was to due the Church. The Knights spends also his time in hunting, in music and exercising the science of gallantry and poetry. He was motivated by romantic love.

8. What is courtly love?

The courtly love is and illicit form of love in which a knight or courtier devotes himself to a noblewoman who is usually married and feigns indifference to preserve her reputation.