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UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
September Examinations 2013
Medieval to Renaissance English Literature
First Year / Level One Students:
Time allowed:
3 hours plus 15 minutes reading time during which notes may be made
on the question paper but NO ANSWER MAY BE BEGUN.
Answer questions 1-4.
Students taking the module at Honours Level:
Time allowed:
1 ½ hours plus 15 minutes reading time during which notes may be
made on the question paper but NO ANSWER MAY BE BEGUN.
Answer questions 1 and 2.
For all students taking the exam: Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and
make sure that the particulars required are entered fully on each answer book used.
Do not substantially repeat material from assessed essays (Honours level) or between sections
on the exam.
1. Translate the following passage into modern English prose. (12 marks)
(approx. 20 mins)
Then comaunded the kyng the knight for to rise,
And he ful radly upros and ruched him fayr,
Kneled doun before the kyng and caches that weppen,
And he lovelyly hit him laft and lyft up his hande
And gafe him Goddes blessyng and gladly him biddes
That his hert and his hande schulde hardy be both.
‘Kepe the, cosyn,’ quoth the kyng, ‘that thou one kyrf sette,
And if thou redes him right, redily I trowe
That thou schal bide the bur that he schal bede after.’
Gawayn gos to the gome with giserne in hande,
And he boldly him bides, he bayst never the helder.
Then carpes to Sir Gawayn the knight in the grene:
‘Refourme we oure forwardes ere we fyrre passe.’
From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt 1
radly: promptly
ruched: made his way
kyrf: cuff, blow
redes: manage
giserne: axe
bayst never the helder: never the more dismayed
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2. Write a critical commentary on ONE of the following passages. (24 marks)
(approx. 40 mins)
a) “What! Wene ye youre wise fader wolde
Han yeven Antenor for yow anon,
If he ne wiste that the cite sholde
Destroied ben? Whi, nay, so mote I gon!
He knew ful wel ther shal nat scapen oon
That Troian is; and for the grete feere
He dorste nat ye dwelte lenger there.
“What wol ye more, lufsom lady deere?
Lat Troie and Troian fro youre herte pace!
Drif out that bittre hope, and make good cheere,
And clepe ayeyn the beaute of youre face
That ye with salte teris so deface,
For Troie is brought in swich a jupartie
That it to save is now no remedie.
“And thenketh wel, ye shal in Grekis fynde
A moore parfit love, er it be nyght,
Than any Troian is, and more kynde,
And bet to serven yow wol don his myght.
And if ye vouchesauf, my lady bright,
I wol ben he to serven yow myselve,
Yee, levere than be kyng of Greces twelve!”
And with that word he gan to waxen red,
And in his speche a litel wight he quok,
And caste asyde a litel wight his hed,
And stynte a while; and afterward he wok,
And sobreliche on hire he threw his lok,
And seyde, “I am, al be it yow no joie,
As gentil man as any wight in Troie.”
From Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, Book 5
lufsom: loveable
clepe ayeyn: summon back, recall
a litel wight: a little bit
b) My Sweetest Lesbia
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love,
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them: heav’n’s great lamps do dive
Into their west, and straight again revive,
But soon as once set is our little light,
Then must we sleep one ever-during night.
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If all would lead their lives in love like me,
Then bloody swords and armour should not be;
No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleeps should move,
Unless alarm came from the camp of love.
But fools do live, and waste their little light,
And seek with pain their ever-during night.
When timely death my life and fortune ends,
Let not my hearse be vexed with mourning friends,
But let all lovers, rich in triumph, come
And with sweet pastimes grace my happy tomb;
And Lesbia, close up thou my little light,
And crown with love my ever-during night.
Thomas Campion
weigh: heed
ever-during: ever-lasting
move: disturb
alarm: the call to arms
c) F.J., now rousing himself boldly, took occasion thus to handle his answer. ‘Mistress,’
quod he, ‘my words indeed are strange, but yet my passion is much stranger, and
thereupon this other day to content mine own fantasy I devised a sonnet which,
although it be a piece of Cocklorell’s music, and such as I might be ashamed to
publish in this company, yet because my truth in this answer may the better appear
unto you, I pray you vouchsafe to receive the same in writing.’ And, drawing a paper
out of his pocket, presented it unto her, wherein was written this sonnet.
G.T.
Love, hope and death do stir in me such strife
As never man but I led such a life.
First burning love doth wound my heart to death,
And when death comes at call of inward grief
Cold lingering hope doth feed my fainting breath
Against my will, and yields my wound relief:
So that I live, but yet my life is such,
As death would never grieve me half so much.
No comfort then but only this I taste,
To salve such sore, such hope will never want,
And with such hope, such life will ever last,
And with such life, such sorrows are not scant.
Oh strange desire, oh life with torments tossed,
Through too much hope mine only hope is lost.
Even HE
F.J.
This sonnet was highly commended, and in my judgement it deserveth no less. I have
heard F.J. say that he borrowed the invention of an Italian, but were it a translation or
invention, if I be judge, it is both pretty and pithy.
From Gascoigne, The Adventures of Master F.J.
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Cocklorell’s music: foolish music, or a young man’s music
an Italian: probably Petrarch, Rime, CXXIV.
d) Thence turning backe in silence soft they stole,
And brought the heavie corse with easie pace
To yawning gulfe of deepe Avernus hole.
By that same hole an entrance darke and bace
With smoake and sulphure hiding all the place,
Descends to hell: there creature never past,
That backe returned without heavenly grace;
But dreadfull Furies, which their chaines have brast,
And damned sprights sent forth to make ill men aghast.
By that same way the direfull dames doe drive
Their mournefull charet, fild with rusty blood,
And down to Plutoes house are come bilive:
Which passing through, on every side them stood
The trembling ghosts with sad amazed mood,
Chattring their yron teeth, and staring wide
With stonie eyes; and all the hellish brood
Of feends infernall flockt on every side,
To gaze on earthly wight, that with the Night durst ride.
They pas the bitter waves of Acheron,
Where many soules sit wailing woefully,
And come to fiery flood of Phlegeton,
Whereas the damned ghosts in torments fry,
And with sharpe shrilling shriekes doe bootlesse cry,
Cursing high Jove, the which them thither sent.
The house of endlesse paine is built thereby,
In which ten thousand sorts of punishment
The cursed creatures doe eternally torment.
From Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 1, canto 5.
brast: burst
bilive: quickly; alive
Acheron and Phlegeton: rivers in hell
3. Write an essay in answer to ONE of the following questions (32 marks) (1 hr)
Do NOT write an answer on a text on which you have already commented in question 2.
a) Discuss the importance of rules in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
b) What attitude(s) to women can be seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
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c) Examine the role of comedy in Troilus and Criseyde.
d) Discuss the representation of the classical past in Troilus and Criseyde.
4. Write an essay in answer to ONE of the following questions (32 marks) (1 hr)
Do NOT write an answer on a text on which you have already commented in question 2.
a) Is More’s Utopia a work of dystopian fiction?
b) In the poetry of Wyatt, how distinct is home from the monarch’s court?
c) Did Sidney write Astrophil and Stella to teach his readers about love?
d) EITHER Does Spenser’s moral aim in The Faerie Queene make the poem tiresomely
didactic?
OR In what ways does Spenser upend the expectations and conventions of medieval
courtly romance in The Faerie Queene?
e) How far and in what ways are the gods in Hero and Leander and Venus and Adonis
godlike?
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