The Development of English Humour: Pt. 1. From the Early Times to the Renascence

affinity amusement Anglo-Saxon artistic restraint attitude background ballads Beowulf broad Canterbury Tales character Chaucer Chaucer's humour comedy comic concrete Conquest conscious elements English humour English Literature explicit fabliaux farce feeling field of humour flavour fourteenth century France French humour French literature Gavin Douglas genius genuine Gower Guillaume hints humorist humorous expression humour de finesse instance instinct irony J. B. Priestley Jean de Meung kind Kingis Quair less manner mediaeval French ment mental merry England Middle Ages Middle English mind mirth modern humour mood moral mour naïvety natural ness Norman Nun's Priest's Tale original parody perception play pleasantry poem poet popular Prologue Puritan purpose racy realism release remarkable Renascence satire Saxon seems sense shades shrewd slyness soul spirit story subtle supple Tale temper texts theme things thou thought tion tone touch trouvères ture under-statement vein words writers