-
Part One
①
Beowulf:
The national heroic epic of the English people. It
has over 3,000 lines. It describes the
battles between the two monsters and
Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for
the fatal
wound. The poem ends with the
funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in
its poetical form
is
the
use
if
alliteration.
Other
features
of
it
are
the
use
of
metaphors(
暗喻
)
and
of
understate
ments(
含蓄
).
②
Alliteration: In
alliterative verse, certain
accented(
重音
) words in a line
begin with the same
consonant
sound(
辅音
). There are
generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show
alliteration, as
can be seen from the
above quotation.
③
Romance: The most
prevailing(
流行的
) kind of
literature in feudal England was the Romance. It
was a long composition, sometimes in
verse(
诗篇
), sometimes in
prose(
散文
), describing the
life
and adventures of a noble hero,
usually a knight, as riding forth to seek
adventures, taking part in
tournament(
竞赛
),
or fighting for his lord in battle and the
swearing of oaths.
④
Epic:
An
epic
is
a
lengthy
narrative
poem,
ordinarily concerning
a
serious
subject
containing
details of heroic
deeds and events significantly to a culture or
nation. The first epics are known as
primacy, or original epics.
⑤
Ballad: The most important
department of English folk literature is the
ballad which is a story
told
in
song,
usually
in
4-line
stanzas(
诗节
),
with
the
second
and
fourth
lines
rhymed.
The
subjects of ballads are various in
kind, as the struggle of young lovers against
their feudal-minded
families, the
conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of
jealousy, the criticism of the civil
war,
and
the
matters
and
class
struggle.
The
paramount(
卓越的
)
important
ballad
is
Robin
Hood(
《绿林好汉》
).
⑥
Geoffrey Chauce
r
杰弗里
.
乔叟
: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and
diplomat. He
is the founder of English
poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin,
French and Italian. His
best remembered
narrative is the Canterbury
Tales(
《坎特伯雷故事集》
), which the
Prologue(
序
言
)
supplies a miniature(
缩影
) of
the English society of
Chaucer
’
s time. That is why
Chaucer has
been called
“
the founder of English
realism
”
. Chaucer affirms
men and women
’
s right to
pursue
their happiness on earth and
opposes(
反对
) the dogma of
asceticism(
禁欲主义
)
preached(
鼓吹
)
by
the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he
praises man
’
s energy,
intellect, quick wit and
love of life.
Chaucer
’
s contribution to
English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he
introduced
from France the rhymed
stanza of various types, especially the rhymed
couplet of 5 accents in
iambic(
抑扬格
)
meter(the
“
heroic
couplet
”
) to English poetry,
instead of the old Anglo-Saxon
alliterative verse.
⑦【
William Langland
威廉
.
朗兰
: Piers the
Plowman
《农夫皮尔斯》
】
Part Two
The English Bible:
The first complete English Bible was translated by
John Wycliffe(
约翰
?
威克里
夫
).
The
Authorized
Version
is
King
James
Bible
made
in
1611.
The
result
is
a
monument
of
English language and
English literature.
Renaissance: Renaissance or the birth
of letters is an intellectual movement. Its two
features are
a thirsting curiosity for
the classical literature and the keen interest in
the activities of humanity.
Humanism is
the key-note of the Renaissance.
William
Caxton
威廉<
/p>
.
卡克斯顿
:
He
is
the
first
English
printer
and
invented
in
England
the
profession of publisher.
Thomas More
托马斯
.
莫尔
: The greatest of the
English humanists was Thomas More, the author
of Utopia
《乌托邦》
.
He is also one of such
“
gian
ts
”
(
巨匠
) of the Renaissance. He distinguished
himself
as
a
learned
scholar,
a
master
of
Latin,
a
witty
talker,
a
lover
of
music,
an
honest
statesman , and a man
of noble character, modest but
steadfast(
坚定的
), to his
convictions. He
was a far-sighted
thinker, aspired for a totally new society with
happy, classless, and free from
poverty
and exploitation. He was one of the forerunners of
modern socialist thought.
Utopia:
It
is
More
’
s
masterpiece,
written
in
the
form
of
a
conservation
between
More
and
Hythloday,
a
returned
voyager.
It
is
divided
into
two
books.
The
first
book
contains
a
long
discussion on the social conditions of
England. In the second book is described in detail
an ideal
communist society, Utopia. The
name
“
Utopia
”
comes from Greek words meaning
“
no
place
”
and was
adopted by More as the name of his ideal
commonwealth.
Philip
Sidney
菲利普
.
锡德
尼
: He
is well-known
as
a poet
and
critic
of
poetry.
His
collection
of
love sonnets, Astrophel and
Stella
《爱星者与星》
, was published
in 1591.
Edmund Spenser
埃德蒙
.
斯宾塞
(
莎翁之前最杰出的英国诗人
)
：
The poet
’
s poet of the
period
was ES who was buried beside
Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. ES has held his
position as a model
of poetical art
among the Renaissance English poets, and his
influence can be traced in the works
of
Milton, Shelley, and Keats. ES is the first master
to make that language the natural music of his
poetic
effusions(
感情的流露
).
His
sonnets
in
Amoretti,
together
with
Sidney
’
s
Astrophel
and
Stella and
Shakespeare
’
s sonnets ,are
the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabeth
Age.
【
In 1579 he wrote The
Shepherd
’
s
Calendar
《牧人日记》
which marked the
budding(
萌芽
) of
the
Renaissance
flower
in
the
northern
island
of
England.
The
faerie
Queen
《仙后》
is
his
greatest work which was
dedicated to Queen
Elizabeth.
】
Francis
Bacon:
He
is
the
founder
of
English
materialist
philosophy
and
the
founder
of
modern
science
in England. His New Instrument is called the
Inductive Method of reasoning. He is also
the first English essayist. To give a
few,
“
Men fear death as
children fear to go in the
dark..
”
“
Studies serve for
delight.
”
“
Reading makes a full man;
conference a ready man; and writing an
exact man.
”
Drama: The
Miracle Play
圣迹剧
The Morality
Play
道德剧
寓意剧
The Interlude
幕间节目
Christopher
Marl
owe
克里斯托弗
.
马洛
:
The
most
gifted
of
the
“
university
wits
”
was
Christopher Marlowe. His
best work include 3 of his plays,
Tamburlaine
《帖木儿大帝》
(1587),
The
Jew of
Malta
《马耳岛的犹太人》
(1592), and
Doctor Faustus
《浮士德博士》
(1588).
He was the
greatest of the pioneers of
English drama. His work paved the way for the
plays of the greatest
English dramatist
——
Shakespeare
——
whose achievements were the monument of
the English
Renaissance.
【
His
plays
show
the
spirit
of
the
rising
bourgeoisie,
its
eager
curiosity
for
knowledge,
its
towering pride, its
insatiable(
不知足的
) appetite
for power won by military, might, knowledge, or
gold. The theme of his plays is the
praise of individuality freed from the restraints
of medieval
dogmas and law, and the
conviction of the boundless possibility of human
efforts in conquering
the universe. The
heroes in his plays are merely individualists,
their individualistic ambition often
brings ruin to the world and sometimes
to themselves.
】
William
Shakespeare:
Shakespeare
is
one
of
the
founders
of
realism
in
world
literature.
His
dramatic creation often used the method
of adaptation
（改革）
.
Shakespeare long experience
with the
stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art
thus acquired make him a master hand
for playwriting. Shakespeare was
skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the
sonnet, the couplet,
and the dramatic
blank verse. He was especially at home with the
blank verse. Shakespeare was a
great
master of the English language. Shakespeare has
been universally acknowledged to be the
summit of the English Renaissance, and
one of the greatest writers over the world.
①
The great
comedies: A Midsummer
Might
’
s Dream, The Merchant
of Venice, As You Like It,
Twelfth
Night.
②
The great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello,
King Lear, Macbeth.
The
Merchant of Venice:
威尼斯富商安东尼奥
Antonio
为了成全好友巴萨尼奥
Bassanio
的婚
事，向犹太人高利贷者夏洛克
Shyl
ock
借债。由于安东尼奥贷款给人从不要利息，并帮夏洛
克的
女儿私奔，
怀恨在心的夏洛克乘机报复，
佯装也不要利息，
但若逾期不还要从安东尼奥
身上割下一磅肉。不巧传来安东尼奥的商
船失事的消息，
资金周转不灵，贷款无力偿还。夏
洛克去法庭控
告，
根据法律条文要安东尼奥履行诺言。
为救安东尼奥的性命，
巴萨尼奥的未
婚妻鲍西娅
Portia
假扮律师出庭，
她答允夏洛克的要求，
但要求所割的一磅肉必须正好是一
磅肉，
不能多也不能少，
更不准流血。
夏洛克因无法执行而败诉，
害
人不成反而失去了财产。
剧本的主题是歌颂仁爱、
友谊和爱情，
同时也反映了资本主义早期商业资产阶级与高利贷者
之间的矛盾
，表现了作者对资产阶级社会中金钱、法律和宗教等问题的人文主义思想
Ben
Jonson
本
.
琼森
:
Of
the
many
contemporaries
and
successors
of
Shakespeare,
the
most
well-known
was
Ben
Jonson.
He
wad
a
prolific(
多产的
)
dramatist,
writing
dozens
of
plays,
including
tragedies,
comedies,
and
,masques(
假面剧
).
Jonson
’
s
comedies
are
“
comedies
of
humours.
”
Every Man in His
Humour
《人各有癖》
is one of his
best comedies.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
上一篇：十六十七世纪的英国文学
下一篇：英语网站