Examines a wide variety of medieval literature from the British Isles, including courtly romances and dream visions, bawdy fabliaux, alliterative heroic verse, lyric poetry, verse satire, and drama. Also explores the historical context of the individual works: the politics and shifting social structures of this period, the intellectual and cultural environment, and the ways in which the works respond to the international political, religious, and military conflicts of the age and to contact with non-European cultures.