MAJOR WORKS AND AUTHORS IN BRITISH LITERATURE
THROUGH THE 17TH CENTURY
Question no.5, Topic 2
1. THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD
- The earliest form of the English language developed after the settlement of the
Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England after the withdrawal of the Romans
Beowulf - a traditional heroic epic poem, composed around the 8th century (it’s in
dispute)
- it’s about a strong and courageous pagan hero of a Germanic tribe from southern
Sweden travels to Denmark to help defeat a terrible monster Grendel and its
mother
- he becomes a king and rules for a long period of time but then he kills a dragon,
he’s wounded and dies
- the story is mainly fictitious but it describes a few true historical events and
several personalities are real as well
- the poem survived in the well-known Cotton Manuscript (from 10th century)
2. THE MIDDLE AGES
- After the Norman Conquest in 1066 (the Battle of Hastings), the French language
gained a privileged position
- In the later medieval period (14th century) a new form of English now known as
Middle English evolved, this is the earliest form which is comprehensible to
modern readers and listeners, albeit not easily
John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384)
- philosopher, theologian, and religious reformer
- professor of Oxford University, with his disciples, they translated the whole Bible
into English
- Wycliffe's writings strongly influenced the Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus
in his revolt against the Church
Geoffrey Chaucer (1345 – 1400)
- a poet, diplomat, soldier and scholar
- well-educated man, familiar with Latin, French and Italian literature
The Book of the Duchess – first important original work, an elegy
The House of Fame – a poem that takes the form of a dream vision - poet’s
frustrating journey in the claws of a giant golden eagle who guides him through
the world of famous people
The Parliament of Fowls – a poem, it debates about love among the different
classes of birds (it also mentions St.Valentine’s Day as a special day for lovers)
Troilus and Criseyde – a poem in rhyme royal (a rhyming stanza form that was
introduced into English poetry by Chaucer, it consists of seven lines)
- it retells the love story of Troilus, a Trojan prince, and Criseyde which turns into
a deeply felt medieval tragedy, the human pursuit of transitory earthly ideals that
pale into insignificance beside the eternal love of God
The Canterbury Tales – a collection of stories set within a framing story of a
pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of St Thomas Becket
- The poet joins a band of 30 pilgrims, vividly described in the General Prologue,
who assemble at the Tabard Inn, Southwark, for the journey to Canterbury
- unfinished, contains only 24 out of intended 120 tales (two are in prose, the rest
is in verse)
Sir Thomas Malory (1408 – 1471)
- he was knighted and entered the English Parliament
- accused of many crimes (murder, rape,…), he was imprisoned for most of the
1450s, while in prison, he translated French stories and began writing an
Arthurian legend which is divided into 21 books
Le Morte d’Arthur – composed in prison, finished in 1470, it’s a compilation of
some French (that he translated into English) and English Arthurian romances
- It contains stories of Arthur, Lancelot, Holy Grail, Tristan and Isolde,…
3. THE RENAISSANCE
- the golden age of English literature
- started after the wars of 15th century were over (1453 – the Hundred Years’ War,
1485 – the Wars of the Roses)
- Henry VII and his son, Henry VIII, were turning the lords into courtiers in order
to break their power as potential political rivals
Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535)
- a great patron of art and a successful barrister, a leading humanist scholar
- he refused to acknowledge the justice of the King’s divorce from Queen Catherine
of Aragon in 1534, so he was committed to the Tower and executed in 1535
Utopia – a Latin work describing an imaginary island where gold is used for
children’s toys, wars are banned, both men and women are educated, etc
- he coined the word “utopia”
Thomas Kyd (1558 – 1594)
- a dramatist born in London, one of the most important figures in the development
of Elizabethan drama, a good friend of Christopher Marlowe
- used shocking and horrifying melodramatic situations
The Spanish Tragedy - highly popular and influential in that time
- it established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play
- its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a
personification of Revenge
- it was often referenced (or parodied) in works written by other Elizabethan
playwrights, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher
Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593)
- playwright and poet, although his entire activity as a playwright lasted only six
years
- educated at the University of Cambridge
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – his masterpiece, a man sells his soul
to the devil for power and knowledge
- it shows the decay of a person who chooses material gains (by commanding the
devils to suit his desires) over spiritual belief and in so doing loses his soul
Tamburlaine the Great – a heroic dramatic epic play in two parts about a man
who defeats the king of Persia, the emperor of Turkey
- it’s loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'
- it has some anti-Muslim content within it
The Jew of Malta - considered to have been a major influence of William
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
- an English poet and playwright, recognized in the world as the greatest of all
dramatists
- he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire as the eldest son of John
Shakespeare, a locally prominent merchant, and Mary Arden, daughter of a
Roman Catholic member of the landed gentry
- he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer in 1582 and they had three
children
- in 1588 he arrived to London and soon attained success as an actor, playwright,
poet and a dramatist
- he shared profits of his acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, later
called the King’s Men, and its two theatres, the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars
Poetry
Venus and Adonis – an erotic poem
The Rape of Lucrece – an erotic poem
Sonnets – 126 of 154 sonnets are apparently addressed by a male poet to another
man, it has caused some critical discomfort over the years
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the
Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night
Tragedies
Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
Romances
The Tempest
Histories
Henry VI. , VIII., Richard III., Julius Caesar
Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)
- dramatist and poet born in Westminster
- he was trained in his stepfather's trade of bricklaying
- wrote mainly satirical comedies
Every Man in His Humour - performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's
Company with William Shakespeare in the cast
Volpone (or the Fox) – a black comedy about a greedy, childless Venetian
nobleman who plays games with those who want to be his heirs
The Alchemist – a play in 5 acts about three low characters who have set up an
alchemical workshop to swindle gullible townsman
John Webster (1578 – 1632)
- Webster’s scenes were full of extreme emotion, and his plots of fratricide,
multiple murder, and incest - presented in a high rhetorical language
The White Devil - a play deeply concerned with the morality of performance and
role-play, the leading characters are aware of themselves playing out roles
The Duchess of Malfi - a macabre, tragic play that remains particularly popular
and is frequently revived
- It begins as a love story, with a Duchess who marries beneath her class, and ends
as a nightmarish tragedy as her two brothers exact their revenge, destroying
themselves in the process
Elizabethan theatre
- the central stage was surrounded by the audience, male actors only, female parts
were played by adolescent boys in woman’s costume
-
the most famous playhouses were the Curtain theatre, the Globe (it burnt down in
1613 and it was rebuilt), the Rose, the Hope, the Swan,…
- in 1642, the playhouses were closed by the Puritans
4. THE BAROQUE
- Baroque actually expressed new values, which often are summarized in the use of
metaphor and allegory, widely found in Baroque literature
- a relevant part of works was made on religious themes, since the Roman Church
was the main "customer"
John Milton (1608-1674)
- he was originally destined for a ministerial career, but his independent spirit led
him to give it up
- he had a major influence on the literature of the Romantic era and of Victorian age
Paradise Lost – an epic poem that concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man:
the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of
Eden