Abstract
Abstract After a brief discussion of the terms ‘Anglo-Norman’, ‘the French of England’, ‘Anglo-French’, and ‘insular French’, this chapter offers perspectives on the ways in which both insular and Continental texts in French provided models for poetry in Middle English. The demise of English as a literary vernacular following 1066 has been exaggerated, but the establishment by colonisation in the islands of French-speaking aristocrats, ecclesiastics, and an associated clerical class opened up French verse as a medium for all kinds of literature and introduced new genres and modes to the islands. Many early texts in Old French verse are of insular origin and English authors writing in Anglo-Norman may be regarded as ‘precocious’ and even as ‘English literature in French’. Continental literature in French was also read in England and influenced poets writing in Middle English throughout the Middle Ages. The linguistic situation in England was multilingual, with some manuscripts containing texts in French, English, and Latin.
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