EN1210
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
September 2014 Examinations
Medieval to Renaissance English Literature
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Time allowed: 3 hours, plus 15 minutes of reading time. During this reading time notes
may be made on the question paper but NO ANSWER MAY BE BEGUN.
First-year students should answer questions 1-4, in 3 hours.
Honours-level students, and visiting students taking the module at Honours level, should
answer questions 1 and 2, in 1 ½ hours.
Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and make sure that the particulars
required are entered on each answer book used.
Do not substantially repeat material between questions on the exam.
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1. Translate the following passage into modern English prose. (12 marks; approx. 20
minutes)
The lede lystened ful wel that lay in his bed,
Thagh he loukes his liddes ful littel he slepes;
By uch kok that crue he knew wel the steven.
Deliverly he dressed up ere the day sprenged,
For there was light of a laumpe that lemed in his chamber.
He called to his chamberlayn, that cofly him swared,
And bede him bryng him his bruny and his blonk sadel.
That other ferkes him up and feches him his wedes
And graythes me Sir Gawayn upon a grete wyse.
First he clad him in his clothes the colde for to were,
And sithen his other harnays, that holdely was keped,
Both his paunce and his plates piked ful clene,
The rynges rokked of the roust of his riche bruny;
And all was fresch as upon first, and he was fayn then
to thonk.
From Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
steven: appointed day
cofly: promptly
bruny: mail shirt
blonk: horse
paunce: armour for the stomach
piked: polished
rokked: rubbed free of
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(Continued)
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2. Write a critical commentary on ONE of the following passages. (24 marks; approx. 40
minutes)
a)
This gentil May, fulfilled of pitee,
Right of hire hand a lettre made she,
In which she graunteth hym hire verray grace.
Ther lakketh noght oonly but day and place
Wher that she myghte unto his lust suffise,
For it shal be right as he wole devyse.
And whan she saugh hir tyme, upon a day
To visite this Damyan gooth May,
And sotilly this lettre doun she threste
Under his pilwe; rede it if hym leste.
She taketh hym by the hand and harde him twiste
So secrely that no wight of it wiste,
And bad him been al hool, and forth she wente
To Januarie, whan that he for hire sente.
Up riseth Damyan the nexte morwe;
Al passed was his siknesse and his sorwe.
He kembeth hym, he preyneth hym and pyketh,
He dooth al that his lady lust and lyketh,
And eek to Januarie he gooth as lowe
As evere dide a dogge for the bowe.
He is so plesant unto every man
(For craft is al, whoso that do it kan),
That every wight is fayn to speke him good,
And fully in his lady grace he stood.
Thus lete I Damyan aboute his nede,
And in my tale forth I wol procede.
From Chaucer, The Merchant’s Tale
sotilly: subtly, craftily
threste: thrust
pilwe: pillow
kembeth: combs
pyketh: cleans, adorns
dogge for the bowe: dog trained to hunt with an archer
b)
Forget not yet the tried intent
Of such a truth as I have meant,
My great travail so gladly spent,
Forget not yet.
Forget not yet when first began
The weary life ye know since when,
The suit, the service none tell can,
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Forget not yet.
Forget not yet the great essays,
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,
The painful patience in denays,
Forget not yet.
Forget not yet, forget not this,
How long ago hath been and is
The mind that never meant amiss,
Forget not yet.
Forget not then thine own approved,
The which so long hath thee so loved,
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved,
Forget not this.
From the poems of Thomas Wyatt
suit: pursuit, wooing
essays: trials
denays: denials
c)
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Come, let me write. “And to what end?” To ease
A burdened heart. “How can words ease, which are
The glasses of thy daily vexing care?”
Oft cruel fights well pictured forth do please.
“Art not ashamed to publish thy disease?”
Nay, that may breed my fame, it is so rare.
“But will not wise men think thy words fond ware?”
Then be they close, and so none shall displease.
“What idler thing, than speak and not be hard?”
What harder thing than smart, and not to speak?
Peace, foolish wit; with wit my wit is marred.
Thus while I write I doubt to write, and wreak
My harms on ink’s poor loss: perhaps some find
Stella’s great powers, that so confuse my mind.
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What may words say, or what may words not say,
Where truth itself must speak like flattery?
Within what bounds can one his liking stay,
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Where nature doth with infinite agree?
What Nestor’s counsel can my flames allay,
Since reason’s self doth blow the coal in me?
And ah, what hope that hope should once see day,
Where Cupid is sworn page to chastity?
Honor is honored, that thou dost possess
Him as thy slave, and now long-needy Fame
Doth even grow rich, naming my Stella’s name.
Wit learns in thee perfection to express,
Not thou by praise, but praise in thee is raised;
It is a praise to praise, when thou art praised.
From Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella
glasses: mirrors
fond ware: foolish trinkets
hard: heard
wit: reason, intellect
doubt: hesitate, fear
Nestor: an elderly Greek counsellor, proverbial for his wisdom
d)
I
The noble hart, that harbours vertuous thought,
And is with child of glorious great intent,
Can never rest, untill it forth have brought
Th’eternall brood of glorie excellent.
Such restlesse passion did all night torment
The flaming corage of that Faery knight,
Devizing, how that doughtie turnament
With greatest honour he atchieven might;
Still did he wake, and still did watch for dawning light.
II
At last the golden Orientall gate,
Of greatest heaven gan to open faire,
And Phoebus fresh, as bridegrome to his mate,
Came dauncing forth, shaking his deawie haire:
And hurls his glistring beams through gloomy aire.
Which when the wakeful Elfe perceiv’d, streight way
He started up, and did him selfe prepaire,
In sunbright armes, and battailous array:
For with that Pagan proud he combat will that day.
(Continued)
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III
And forth he comes into the commune hall,
Where earely waite him many a gazing eye,
To weet what end to straunger knights may fall.
There many Minstrales maken melody,
To drive away the dull melancholy,
And many Bardes, that to the trembling chord
Can tune their timely voyces cunningly,
And many Chroniclers, that can record
Old loves, and warres for ladies doen by many a Lord.
From Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Canto 5, stanzas 1-3
doughtie: worthy
Phoebus: the god Apollo, here used for the sun
weet: learn
timely: measured, keeping time
doen: done
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3. Write an essay in answer to ONE of the following questions (32 marks; approx. one
hour).
Do NOT write an answer on a text on which you have already commented in question
2.
a) ‘This kyng lay at Camylot upon Cristmasse...
With rich revel aryght and rechles mirthes.’ (SGGK, 37-40)
What is the role of ‘mirthe’ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
b) What is the difference between female power and male power in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight? What are the consequences of this difference for the poem?
c) Chaucer gives us many examples of marriage in his Canterbury Tales, but shows us
relatively few children. Examine the role of procreation and the family in any TWO
of the Tales.
d) Examine the presentation of social aspiration in any TWO of The Canterbury Tales.
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4. Write an essay in answer to ONE of the following questions (32 marks; approx.
one hour).
Do NOT write an answer on a text on which you have already commented in question
2.
(Continued)
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a) In Utopia Thomas More create an imaginary commonwealth which is clearly far
from ideal in some respects. Why does he do so?
b) The powerful intensity of Wyatt’s poetry derives from the fact that neither
audience nor poet is permitted to stand at a comfortable distance from the
speaker (Greenblatt, adapted). Do you agree with this judgement?
c) Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella was the work of England’s first theorist of English
vernacular poetry. Are Sidney’s theoretical positions prominent in his sonnets?
d) ‘We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us’ (Keats, 1818). Spenser’s
Faerie Queene has just such designs upon its readers. What does Spenser want to
do to his readers, and how does he deal with their resistance?
e) In Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis and Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, the pagan
gods are shown as voraciously, even violently, sexual. Why do these poets present
them in this way? Your answer may refer to Venus and Adonis OR to Hero and
Leander, or to BOTH poems.
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(End)
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