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History and Anthology of English Literature
Part One The Anglo-Saxon Period
Beowulf
Questions:
1.
The
earliest
literature
falls
into
two
divisions
___________,
and_______________.
2.
Christianity
brings
England
not
only
__________
and___________but
also
the
wealth
of a new language.
3.
Who is Beowulf? And What is Beowulf?
4.
How did
Beowulf come into being?
5.
Who is Grendel? And what is the result
of Grendel
’
s fight with
Beowulf?
6.
How
did the Jutes hold the funeral for him?
Key points of this part:
The
most important work of old English literature is
Beowulf------- the national epic
of the
English people. It is of Germanic heritage,
perhaps the greatest Germanic epic
and
contains evidently pre-Christian elements existing
at first in an oral tradition, the
poem
was passed from mouth to mouth for generations
before it was written down.
The
manuscript preserved today was written in the
Wessex tongue about 1000A.D.,
consisting altogether of 3183 lines.
There are three
episodes related to the career of Beowulf:
1.
the fight with
the monster, Grendel.
2.
The fight with
Grendel
’
s mother, a still
more frightful she-monster.
3.
The moral
combat with the fire Dragon.
The
significance
lies
in
the
vivid
portrayal
of
a
great
national
hero,
who
is
brave,
courageous, selfless, and ever helpful
to his people.
There are three important features::
1.
Alliteration
(words
beginning
with
the
same
consonant
sound).
This
is
characteristic of all old English
verse.
2.
Metaphors
and
understatements.
There
are
many
compound
words
used
in
the
poem
to
serve
as
indirect
metaphors
that
are
sometimes
very
picturesque.
,
e.g.
“
riging-
giver
”
is
used for King;
“
hearth-companions
“for
his
attendant
warriors;
< br>“
Whale
’
s
road
”
for the sea;
“spear
-fighter
”
for soldier etc. And as understatement
we
can
see:
“
not
troublesome
”
for
welcome;
“need
not
praise
”
for
a
right
to
condemn. This quality is
often regarded as characteristic of the English
people and
their language.
3.
Mixture
of
pagan
and
Christian
elements:
the
observing
of
omen,
cremation,
blood-revenge, and the praise of
worldly glory.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
All these woven into the
poem.
Part Two
The Anglo-
Norman Period (1066---1350)
Questions:
1.
When and led
by whom did England begin to receive French
civilization and
language?
2.
What are the
chief features of the literature in this period?
3.
What are the
three types of the stories in this period?
4.
Who
is
the
green
knight?
Why
did
he
cut
Gawain
three
times
and
why
did
Gawain
feel shame?
5.
Did Gawain win the game of exchanging
blows?
6.
Why
did
the
green
knight
offer
the
green
girdle
as
a
free
gift
to
Gawain
finally?
Medieval Literature
Anglo-Norman Period
There are a few occurrences of historic
events that should be kept in mind:
The
Establishment of the Feudal System
The
1381
peasant
Uprising------Watt
Tyler
of
Kent:
100000
people
marched
on
London,
destroyed
manor-houses,
burnt
court
paper---
records
of
their
bondage
and demanded the
abolition of serf slavery and a general pardon.
The Launching of the Crusades: a series
of wars between Christians and Muslims
that lasted for 170 years.
The
Signing
of
the
Magna
Carter
in
1215
by
which
King
John
was
forced
to
recognize the rights of the powerful
barons.
The War with France or the
Hundred
Years’ War
(1337-1453)
Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight
One
important
story
in
the
Arthurian
legend
has
been
refined
in
detail
in
a
famous
medieval
poem.
Little
is
know
about
its
author
except
he
was
a
contemporary
of
Chaucer
and
probably
a
Christian
priest.
The
poem
was
composed towards the end of the
14
th
century (about 1375) as
an evident effort to
extol Sir Gawain
and his knightly virtues of loyalty, valor,
rectitude, and integrity.
Sir Gawain is
an upright knight, ever ready to uphold the ideals
of King Arthur
’
s
court. One Christmas, as the story
goes, a knight all in green appears at court and
challenges the king to cut off his head
on the condition that he comes to meet him
in one year
’
s
time. Sir Gawain stands out for his lord and
beheads the weird visitor.
The Green
Knight takes up his head and leaves. When the
appointed time comes,
Sir Gawain sets
off to meet him. He comes to a castle and is well
received by its
lord and lady. The lord
invites Sir Gawain to go hunting with him, but the
knight
prefers to stay at home. The two
agree to share in the evening whatever they may
have won during the day. This goes on
for three days. On the first day the lord of
the castle hunts for a deer, while Sir
Gawain is under the lady
’
s
siege to kiss her.
The lord is happy to
give half of his trophy in the evening to Sir
Gawain in return
for his brief kiss on
his
cheek. The second day ends with the
lord giving half a
boar
for
another
brief
kiss.
When
the
third
evening
comes,
the
lord
gets
three
kisses
for
half
of
his
fox
’
s
skin,
Sir
Gawain
having
withheld
the
girdle
that
the
lady
has
forced
on
him
for
his
safety.
Then
the
day
comes
to
meet
the
Green
Knight,
who turns out to be the lord of the castle. Sir
Gawain shrinks a little but
soon
recovers his valor to face the blow. But the Green
Knight only cuts a scratch
on his neck,
saying that he would not even have done that to
him had he shared
the girdle with him
in honesty. They become good friends. Sir Gawain
goes back
to the
king
’
s court.
Sir
Gawain
and
the
Green
Knight
is
a
4-part
work
of
2,530
lines
in
101
sections.
Part one(11.1-490) deals with the beheading; part
two(11.491-1125)tells
of the long and
arduous trip Gawain makes to the castle; part
three(11.1126-1996)
relates
the
three
days
he
spends
in
a
bargain
with
the
lord;
and
part
four(11.1997-2530)
wraps
up
his
trip
with
his
final
encounter
with
the
Green
Knight
and
the
anti-climatic
revelation
of
the
moral
of
the
story.
In
structural
terms
the
narrative
is
well
conceived
and
neatly
knit
into
an
organic
unity.
The
different parts and
sections interlock and the threads are pulled
together to offer a
sense of finality.
There is also a fine psychological element that
enriches the plot
and adds to the
characterization. Sir Gawain is not presented as a
rigid heroic type
but as a human being
with his worries and fears. The description of the
change of
seasons appears in a long
portion of the second part of the poem, serves in
fact as
a means of externalizing the
complex inner world of the man going to his death.
In
addition, Sir
Gawain
’
s hiding of the
girdle, which the lady says can protect him
form harm, is a nice
tour de
force
to throw the
man
’
s fear into relief.
There is then
the three
days
’
bargaining, which
reveals the nature of the temptations that put Sir
Gawain
’
s
integrity into a strenuous
test
—
the
lady
’
s progressive advances
to him.
To
the
intensity
of
the
lady
’
s
offensive,
the
hunting
serves
as
an
apt
foil
—
deer
(timidity). The boar (the wild and
aggressive), and the fox (the cunning).
The characterization of Sir Gawain is
very interesting to note. His portrait is
vivid and fully rounded. There is in
him a stranger medley of conflicting qualities
that makes him perfectly human.
Alongside the best of all human virtues, there is
also
an
indication
of
traits
not
altogether
admirable.
He
hesitates
in
face
of
possible
danger
as
Roland
in
C
hanson
de
Roland
does
not.
He
meditates
as
Roland does not. He is
just a little short of an ideal hero. The effect
of allowing
readers to see all the
aspects of his personality is achieved by a subtly
imbedded
irony, a good-natured
satirical edge, against chivalry.
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight
shares
quite a few basic features with Old
English
poems
like
Beowulf.
In
line
structure
and
the
use
of
devices
such
as
alliteration, it is
notably similar. As it was written in the north
Midland dialect, it
is less
approachable than Chaucer
’
s
London dialect. Usually, a modern translation
is dispensable.
Part III
GeoffreyChaucer
(1340----1400)
Warming-up activity for
pre-reading
I.
Fill in the blanks:
1.
Geoffrey
Chaucer, the
“
________
”
and one of the greatest
narrative poets
of England, was born in
London in about 1340.
2.
Chaucer
’
s
masterpiece
is
___,
one
of
the
most
famous
works
in
all
literature.
3.
The ________ provides a frame work for
the tales in
The Canterbury Tales
,
and it comprises group of
vivid pictures of various medieval figures.
4.
Chaucer
created
in
The
Canterbury
Tales
a
strikingly
brilliant
and
picturesque panorama of ______.
5.
The Canterbury
Tales opens with a general
“
Prologue
”
where we are told
of a company of pilgrims that gathered
at ____Inn in Southwark, a suburb
of
London.
6.
Despite the enormous plan, The
Canterbury Tales in fact contains a general
“
Prologue
”
and only ____ tales, of which two are left
unfinished.
II.
Choose the best answer:
1.
Who
is
the
“
father
of
English
poetry
”
and
one
of
the
greatest
narrative
poets of England?
a)
Christopher
Marlow
b)
Geoffrey
Chaucer
c)
W.
Shakespeare
2. When he
died, Chaucer was buried in ____the
Poet
’
s Corner
a) Westminster Abbey
b) Normandy
c)
Canterbury
III.
Question for
consideration:
1.
What is the social significance of
The Canterbury Tales?
The
English
which
was
used
from
about
1100---1500
is
called
Middle
English, and the greatest poet of the
time was Geoffrey Chaucer.
Geoffrey
Chaucer
is
the
greatest
writer
of
the
middle
ages.
Although he was born a
commoner, a merchant family, he did not live as a
commoner;
and
although
he
was
accepted
by
the
aristocracy,
he
must
always have been
conscious of the fact that he did not really
belong to that
society
of
which
birth
alone
could
make
one
a
true
member.
Chaucer
characteristically
regarded life in terms of aristocratic ideals, but
he never
lost
the
ability
of
regarding
life
as
a
purely
practical
matter.
The
art
of
being at once involved in and detached
from a given situation is peculiarly
Chaucer
’
s.
The
influence
of
Renaissance
was
already
felt
in
the
field
of
English
literature
when
Chaucer
was
learning
from
the
great
Italian
writers
like
Petrarch
and
Boccaccio
in
the
last
part
of
the
14
th
century.
Chaucer
affirmed
man
’
s
right
to
pursue
earthly
happiness
and
opposed
asceticism; he praised
man
’
s energy, intellect,
quick wit and love of life;
he expose
and satirized the social vices, including
religious abuses. It thus
can be said
the though essentially still a medieval writer,
Chaucer bore
；
[
‘；
marks of humanism and
participated a new era to come.
From
his birth to his death, Chaucer dealt continually
with all sorts
of
people,
the
highest
and
the
lowest,
and
his
observant
mind
made
the
most of this ever-present opportunity.
His wide range of reading gave him
plots and ideas, but his experience
gave him models of characters. In his
works,
Chaucer
explores
the
theme
of
the
individual
’
s
relation
to
the
society in which he lives; he portrays
clashes of characters
’
temperaments
and
their
conflicts
over
material
interests,
he
also
shows
the
comic
and
ironic
effects
obtainable
from
the
class
distinctions
felt
by
the
newly
emerged bourgeoisie as in the case of
the Wife of Bath who is depicted as
the
new
bourgeois
wife
asserting
her
independence.
In
short,
Chaucer
develops
his
characterization
to
a
higher
artistic
level
by
presenting
characters with
both typical qualities and individual disposition.
Chaucer dominated the works of his
15
th
-century English
followers
and
the
so-called
Scottish
Chaucerians
For
the
Renaissance,
he
was
the
English Homer. Edmund Spenser paid
tribute to him as his master; many
Shakespeare
’
s
plays show thorough assimilation as
Chaucer
’
s comic spirit.
Today,
Chaucer
’
reputation
has
been
securely
established
as
one
of
the
best English poets for his wisdom,
humor, and humanity.
The
Canterbury
Tales
total
altogether
about
17000
lines,
about
half
of
Chaucer
’
s
literary production
Chaucer
’
s best-
known work
The Canterbury Tales
was written in the last 14
years of the
poet
’
s life. According to
his original plan, the poem was to be a
collection
of
something
like
a
hundred
and
twenty
tales,
but
it
was
not
completed upon his death, and contains
,as we have it now, a general Prologue
and only twenty-four tales, of which
two are left unfinished. The poem as a
whole
gives
a
vivid
and
comprehensive
picture
of
the
social
conditions
of
fourteenth-century England.
The general Prologue, serves as a
general introduction to the collection
of tales. It first tells how the poet,
preparing to go on a pilgrimage shrine of St.
Thomas a Becket at Canterbury, meets at
the Tabard Inn in a London suburb
twenty-nine other pilgrims bent on the
same mission. Then he gives leisurely
descriptions of the pilgrims one after
another, revealing not only their outward
appearances and professions but also
their ways of life and their diverse tastes
and humors. At the close of the
Prologue, the host of the inn suggests to the
pilgrims
to
entertain
themselves
on
the
journey
to
and
from
Canterbury
by
telling
stories
to
one
another,
and
the
suggestion
being
accepted
by
all,
the
host offers to accompany
them on their pilgrimage. Then the next day, after
the drawing of lots the knight is the
first of the pilgrims to tell a story. The
twenty-nine pilgrims, representing
almost all the classes and social groups of
the poet
’
s day (
with the only exceptions of the royalty and top
nobility and
the
poorest
laboring
folk),
are
portrayed
very
effectively
by
the
poet
with
much humor and satire.
Part IV
. The Renaissance of
English literature