吴伟仁的英国文学史及选读
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;
“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.
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:
1)The Establishment of the Feudal System
2)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.
3)The Launching of the Crusades: a series of wars between Christians and Muslims
that lasted for 170 years.
4)The Signing of the Magna Carter in 1215 by which King John was forced to
recognize the rights of the powerful barons.
5)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 14th 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 14th 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 15th-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
Supplemental material for the Renaissance
The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement went to embrace the rest of Europe. The Renaissance, which means rebirth or revival, is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the recovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion. The Renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. English Renaissance is perhaps England?s Golden Age, especially in literature. Among the literary giants were Shakespeare, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlow, Bacon and John Donne.
Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It sprang from the endeavor to restore a medieval reverence for the antique authors and is frequently taken as the beginning of the Renaissance on its conscious, intellectual side, for the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.
English Renaissancemay be conveniently divided into three distinc stages: 1) Oxford Reformers by Thomas More and his Utopia 2) Elizabethan Age covers up roughly the second half of the 16th century,in poetry, Sidney and Spenser to Shakespeare and Ben Jonson and John Donne; in Drama, from the influence of church drama and folkdrama, By Marlowe, to the more mature comedies and the early tragedies of Shakepeare .
Thomas More1478-1535
More, the son of a judge of the king?s Bench, first studied the classics at Oxford and then went to the Inns of Court. He began his career as a lawyer and became member of parliament when he was only 22. He offended Henry VII by speaking in parliament against the king?s demands for subsidies. He retired to a monastery but left it after finding ignorance and hypocrisy in monastic life. When Henry VIII came to the throne, More returned to active life and was successively published his Under Shriff of Londen, Master of Request etc.
Thomas More is the greatest humanistic leader of early 16th century. His masterpiece is Utopia tells the story of More meeting a traveller, who has discovered …Utopia?which means …nowhere land coming from two Greek words signigying no place. In Utopia, the private ownership of property has been abolished. All citizens are politically equal. Everybody takes part in labour.The products of the society are distributed according to the needs of each citizen.The book at once became popular was translated into English from Latin.
Main idea of the book, The miseries of the English people arising out of the
practice of the enclosure of land are vividly painted in particular, and the existence of private proverty is pointed out as the source of all social evils.
Edmund Spenser(1552-1599)
He was born in London and received a good education at Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1576 and went to the north of England, where he fell in love and recorded his laments over the loss of Rosalind in love in The Shepheardes Calender He died “for want of bread”. He was buried beside his master Chaucer in Westminster Abbey.
His masterpiece is The Faerie Queene, a great poem of its age. According to his own explanation, his principal intention is to present through “ historical poem”the example of a perfect gentleman: “to fashion gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline.” He speaks of 12 virtues of the private gentleman, and plans 12 books, each one with a different hero distinguished for one of the private virtues. The hero of heroes, who possesses all of virtues, is Arthur , and he is to play a role in each of the 12 major adventures, which has its own individual hero. Another character contributing to the unity of the work is Gloriana, the Fairy Queen. It is from her court and at her bidding that each of the heroes sets out on his particular adventure. Prince Arthur?s great mission is his search for
the Fairy Queen, with whom he has fallen in love through a love vision. The Faerie Queene is full of adventur4es and marvels, dragons, witches, enchanted trees giants and the like.It is also an allegory.
Five main qualities of Spenser?s poetry should be mentioned; 1) a perfect melody;2) a rare sense of beauty; 3) a splendid imagination; 4) a lofty moral purity and seriousness; and 5) a dedicated idealism. It is Spenser?s idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as “the poets’ poet.”
Example from his The Faerie Queene
A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his forming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yied;
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fairy did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.
And the last thing for us to keep in our mind is The SpenserianStanza which was invented by the poet himself, meaning a stanza of nine lines, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last nine line in iambic hexameter, rhyming abab bcbcc
Christopher Marlowe
Born in 1564-1593, he was the son of a Canterbury shoemaker. Scholarships took him first to the King?s School, and then Cambridge. During his stay at Cambridge, his career as a man of letters got started. His play, Tamburlaine, written before he left Cambridge, turned out to be a sweeping success on the stage. When he came to London in 1584, his soul was surging with the ideals of the Renaissance, which later found expression in Dr. Faustus On May 30, 1593, Marlowe was killed in a quarrel over a tavern bill in Deptford.
As the most gifted of the “University Wits”, Marlowe composed six plays within his short lifetime. Among them the most important are : Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus , The Jew of Malta and Edward II.
Dr. Faustus is a play based on the German legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil. The play?s dominant moral is human rather than religious. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness; it also reveals man?s frustration in realizing the high aspirations in a hostile moral order. And the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of man?s condition.
His greatest achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse and made it the chief instrument of English drama.
Another achievement is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama. Such a hero is always individualistic and full of ambition, facing bravely the challenge from both gods and men. He embodies Marlowe?s humanistic ideal of human dignity and capacity. Different from the tragic hero in medieval plays, who seeks the way to heaven through salvation and God?swill, he is against conventional morality and contrives to obtain heaven on earth through his own efforts. With the endless aspiration fro power, knowledge, and glory, the hero interprets the true Renaissance spirit.
Example from Dr. Faustus:
METH. Now, Faustus, what wouldst thou have me do?
Faustus: I charge thee wait on me whilst I live
To do whatever Faustus shall command,
Be it be make the moon drop from her sphere
Or the Ocean to overwhelm the world.
METH. I am a servant to great Lucifer
And may not follow thee without his leave:
No more than he commands must we perform
Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
He was the last great Elizabethan and probably the first poet laureate(1616) and the first literary dictator in English history. And also he was regarded as Shakespeare?s formidable rival and most well-known successor. He was a soldier, an actor, a playwright, poet, scholar, critic, man of letters, and head of a literary group. Around him was clustered a group of literary figures called “sons of Ben”. Ben Jonson was a man of wisdom. He could always make himself victorious in all
matters. As a soldier in Flanders, he fought singled-handed with an enemy soldier and killed this man. As a person who was to be hanged for killing a fellow-actor, he got himself free by proving he could read and write. He came out of jail though he insulted the King?s home country Scotland. He had literary wars with other playwrights. He rode out the trouble when he was much suspected after the Gunpowder Plot. He grew more and more mature as he grew older. And he was so respected by his contemporary literary figures and the whole society that he became the uncrowned king of literature in London, the king?s pensioned poet.After his death he was buried in the Poets? Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Achievements: Every Man in His Humour his first comedy Volpone or the Fox(1606) 2nd comedy
Song to Celia: Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I?ll not look for mine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove?s nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not wither?d be;
But thou thereon didst only br5eathe
And sent?st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself but thee!
This famous poem is written in ballad metre: that is, in alternate 8-syllable and 6-syllable lines of iambic meters and with alternate rhymes.
Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
He was very popular poet in his own time. He was educated at Oxford.
Achievements: Apologie for Poetrie(1595) defends the noble nature of poetry and its moral value against Puritan criticism and elevates poetry as the supreme form of art that heps enrich and make nature.
A good number of Sidney?s poems appear in Arcadia(1593), his pastoral prose romance.
108 sonnets and 11 songs establish his fame in English literature.
King James’ Bible : containing the 2 main divisions of the Old Testament and the New one, first written in the Hebrew, Greek languages in the regions adjoining the eastern part of Mediterranean Sea by many writers of varied countries , and then translated into the modern English by 47 scholars? work.
W. Shakespeare (1564-1616)
I. Background knowledge about his education and life.
He has been said to have the “Midas?touch.”Whatever he happened to do turned out to be a great success. He excelled in the literary field characteristic of the age of English Renaissance---- poetry and drama.
III.Questions concerning his works:
1.What are the periods of Shakespeare?s plays?
2.When did Shakespeare write his main comedies? What did he tell us in their
comedies?
3.When were Shakespeare?s main tragedies written? What did he write in the
tragedies/
4.What do Shakespeare?s historical plays reflect?
5.What are the main features of Shakespeare?
6.What …s the main idea of The merchant of Venice?
7.What …s the theme of Hamlet?
8.What do you learn about Romeo and Juliet?
9.What?s your opinion of the heroines in Shakespeare?s works?
IV.An analysis of some of Shakespeare?s plays
1.Shakespeare, as a child of English Renaissance, best exemplifies the
zeitgeist of his time. All the best features of the age find adequate
expression in his works. These include the sense of individual worth,
the feeling of freedom in thought and action, the ambition and the
dynamic aggressiveness, the plentitude of talent and the excesses of
energy, the pioneering spirit of adventure and the desire for
accomplishment, the daring to conquer and the exuberance to invent
and innovate, the self-assurance, the vision, the insight, the
perspicacity and , on top of these all, the emotional abandon with
which Renaissance inspires all its writers.
The most famous speech in Hamlet is the prince?s soliloquy,” To be, or not to be.? Said to be the most famous soliloquy in the history of the theater, it discusses the attitude of a Renaissance humanist toward life and death. The speech comes a critical juncture in the drama when the truth about Claudius? murder is about to be confined with the staging of a play within the play. While waiting for the moment to come, his sense of anxiety drives Hamlet to think seriously about the existentialist condition of man. Is it worth it dying in the fight with evil? Or is ir better to settle for the passive accestance of the second best, i.e. to ignore evil and endure the pain and live on? He may die in his effort to remove evil and avenge the blood of his father. Death may be the way out of all the suffering of life, but is death the end of all? Is?nt there more anguish and sorrow in the next world? Hamlet realizes that, though thought guides action, excessive thinking makes people cowardly and jeopardizes the chances of success of great undertakings. This self-warning portrays the Renaissance humanists as both men of thought and action. Instead of talking about suicide and evading commitment as some critics think, Hamlet is in fact spurring himself to action. This speech is vehement criticism of the ills of the time---its oppression and its various
other forms of injustices. What strike the audience most is the density of thought and the poetry of the language.
Macbeth, or The Tragedy of Macbeth, another famous tragedy, has also received a good deal of critical attention over the centuries. It is based on the story of regicide that is said to have occurred in ancient Scottish history. Shakespeare got the subject from his reading of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577). As Shakespeare tells the story, Macbeth, having vanquished a rebellion and a foreign invasion, becomes ambitious enough to replace the weak King Duncan, his cousin. Encouraged by his wife Lady Macbeth, he murders the visiting monarch, and puts himself on the throne. He kills his fellow general Banquo in order to forestall a prophecy that Banquo?s descendants may become future kings, and he removes many others to consolidate his power, thus alienating himself from his courtiers and people.Macbeth is now so anxious and high-strung that he cannot sleep well any more. Neither can his wife who, harassed by her guilt, sleepwalks, fast loses her sanity, and finally takes her own life. In the meantime, the English forces are invited in to help remove Macbeth and restore rule and order.Macbeth fights bravely, but dies.
The characterization of Macbeth and his wife merits special analysis. Macbeth begins as a man of integrity, a pillar of his country, enjoying admiration and popularity. In view of a weakling king on the throne, he may have harbored an ambition of his own, but he would not have descended so low as to achieve his ends by killing his king, had he nit had Lady Macbeth to persuade him into doing it. He submits to her coercion, and oversteps the line between good and evil.That is when endless self-torment begins to prick his conscience so that he experiences sleepless nights and begins to admire the dead Duncan in his grave. The witches may be seen as an externalization of the complexity of his inner world. The first time the witches appear is when Macbeth is returning to a triumphant hero?s welcome after his victories. The three women predict that he will be the king, but add that his companion?s children will also be kings. This is in fact an objectification of Macbeth?s hidden ambition and fear, that he wants to be the king but feels the threat from his fellow general---Banquo. The other occasion on which the witches surface is when they are sought by Macbeth. Their advice to him can again be construed as a mirror for Macbeth?s inner soul: his fear lest Banquo?s son should invite English intervention but at the same time he feels a dubious, qualified self-confidence. He represents the effect of sin and guilt upon the moral fiber of man: he ends with the tragic vision of human existence: Life is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.”
The Merchant of Venice is another of Shakespeare?s popular plays. As the story goes, young Bassanio, who needs money to win the hand of the rich young heiress—Portia, comes to Antonio, a merchant of Venice, for help.Antonio, as he has no ready cash, goes to Shylock, the Jewish usurer, who has been at odds with Antonio because of the competition and recail discrimination he has suffered at his hands. The Jew decides to loan the money but asks him to sign a bond which demands a pound of flesh from him in case he fails to pay in time. With the money Bassanio wins Portia, but Antonio is in trouble.
英国文学史上个大名家
1 William Shakespeare威廉?莎士比亚1564~1616 ①Historical plays: Henry VI ; Henry IV : Richard III ; Henry V ；Richard II；Henry VIII ②Four Comedies:
英国文学史及选读__期末试题及答案
考试课程：英国文学史及选读考核类型：A 卷 考试方式：闭卷出卷教师: XXX 考试专业：英语考试班级：英语xx班 I.Multiple choice (30 points, 1 point for each) select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. 1._____，a typical example of old English poetry ,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. A.The Canterbury Tales B.The Ballad of Robin Hood C.The Song of Beowulf D.Sir Gawain and the Green Kinght 2._____is the most common foot in English poetry. A.The anapest B.The trochee C.The iamb D.The dactyl 3.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is NOT such an event? A.The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture. B.England’s domestic rest C.New discovery in geography and astrology D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion 4._____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. A.The Pilgrims Progress B.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners C.The Life and Death of Mr.Badman D.The Holy War 5.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _____. A.science B.philosophy C.arts D.humanism 6.“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(Shakespeare, Sonnets18)What does“this”refer to ? A.Lover. B.Time. C.Summer. D.Poetry. 7.“O prince, O chief of my throned powers, /That led th’ embattled seraphim to war/Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds/Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual king”In the third line of the above passage quoted from Milton’s Paradise Los t, the phrase“thy conduct”refers to _____conduct. A.God’s B.Satan’s C.Adam’s D.Eve’s
(完整)最全面英国文学史知识点总结,推荐文档
英国文学史 I. Old English Literature & The Late Medieval Ages
英国文学史及选读 复习要点总结
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements （此处可能会有填空，选择等小题） 2. Romance （名词解释） 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释)8. Renaissance（名词解释）9.Thomas More——Utopia 10. Sonnet（名词解释）11. Blank verse（名词解释）12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene” 13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies”（推荐阅读，学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照，本文用词正式优雅，多排比句和长句，语言造诣非常高，里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句，非常值得一读） 14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要，此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了，这些剧的主题，背景，情节，人物形象都要熟悉，当然他最重要的是Hamlet这是肯定的。他的sonnet也很重要，最重要属sonnet18。（其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读） 15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要，特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的，故事情节来自Old Testament，另外要知道此书theme和Satan的形象。 16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress 17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images. 18. Enlightenment（名词解释） 19. Neoclassicism（名词解释） 20. Richard Steele——“The Tatler” 21. Joseph Addison——“The Spectator”这个比上面那个要重要，注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样，它虚构了一系列的人物，以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文，这一部分要仔细读。 22. Steel’s and Addison’s styles and their contributions 23. Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “Essay on Man”, “The Rape of Lock”, “The Dunciad”; his workmanship (features) and limitations 24. Jonathan Swift: “Gulliver’s Travels”此书非常重要，要知道具体内容，就是Gulliver游历过的四个地方的英文名称，和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; （我们主要讲了三个地方）“A Modest Proposal”比较重要，要注意作者用的irony 也就是反讽手法。 25. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature. 26. Daniel Defoe: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, 当然是Robinson Crusoe比较重要，剧情要清楚，Robinson Crusoe的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形，以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意Defoe的style和feature，另外Defoe是forerunner of English realistic novel。 27. Samuel Richardson——“Pamela” (first epistolary novel), “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison” 28. Henry Fielding: “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Tom Jones”第一个和第三个比较重要，需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家，另外Fielding也被称为father of the English novel. 29. Laurence Sterne——“Tristram Shandy”项狄传 30. Richard Sheridan——“The School for Scandal” 31. Oliver Goldsmith——“The Traveller”(poem), “The Deserted V illage” (poem) (both two poems were written by heroic couplet), “The Vicar of Wakefield” (novel), “The Good-Natured Man” (comedy), “She stoops to Conquer” (comedy),
英国文学史一些重要的作家及其成就
1.(1)Chaucer:He is the earlist writer of humanist thought .he is the first man use many common English word in his writing.His early influence as a satirist is also important.Chaucer was a man of immense knowledge, culture and experience. He wrote wittily and observantly and never boringly. He lived at a time when English was beginning to emerge in something resembling its present form, which makes him accessible to the modern reader. Chaucer's great achievement was to establish English as a major literary language. Nothing like his "Canterbury Tales" had been produced before in English and it is a masterpiece of characterisation and narrative. He is able to present them with a wonderfully detached but sympathetic eye .he also might have been continuing an English tradition that had evolved from the alliterative verse of the Middle Ages and reflected the 'natural' rhythms of English speech. 1.(2)MIlton:h e is political both in life and art.he is a militant pamphleteer of the English literature and the he is the greatest revolutionary poet of the 17th century;h e wrote the greatest epic in English literature,and he and Shakespeare have always been regard as two patterns of English verse;h e is a master of blank verse,he is the first man use in non-dramatic works;h e is a great stylist and famous for his grand style.h is sublimity of thought and majesty of expression have admired by many people. 2.
(完整word版)吴伟仁--英国文学史及选读--名词解释
①Beowulf: 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 understatements(含蓄). ②Alliteration: 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. ③Romance: 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. ④Epic: 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. ⑤Ballad: 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》). ⑥Geoffrey Chaucer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》】
英国文学史上-The Renaissance
The Renaissance Period Reference: 1) 16th century, Thomas More, “sheep devoured men”羊吃人的时代 2) At the beginning of the 16th century, absolute monarchy was formed in England. King Henry VIII broke off with the Pope, dissolved all the monasteries修道院and abbeys大修道院in the country, confiscated没收their lands and proclaimed himself head of the Church of England. 3) The absolute monarchy in England reached its summit during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. 4) Beginning of the 16th century, Thomas More, a outstanding humanist杰出的人文主义者, wrote Utopia in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of the people’s suffering and put forward his ideal of a future happy society. 5) In the 1st half of the 16th century, there appeared lyrical poems抒情诗by Thomas Wyatt怀亚特. Wyatt was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature. In the 2nd half of the 16th century lyrical poetry became widespread in England. Famous lyrical and epic poets of the time were Philip Sidney菲利普?锡德尼, Thomas Campion托马斯?坎皮恩and Edmund Spenser埃德蒙?斯宾塞(
吴伟仁的英国文学史及选读
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; “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.
英国文学史上-The 17th Century—Revolution and Restoration
The 17th Century—The Period of Revolution and Restoration Reference: 1) The French influence was most marked in the drama. Rhymed couplets instead of blank verse,. Unities are important.用工整的对偶句代替以往的无韵诗，三一律也很重要。The comedies were coarse in language and their view of the relations between men and women was immoral and dishonest. 2) The literature in Restoration period was often witty and clever机敏睿智, but on the whole immoral and cynical颓废、愤世嫉俗. John Dryden(约翰?德莱顿)was the most distinguished literary figure of that time. John Donne约翰?多恩1572-1631 P114 the Metaphysical poet(玄学派诗人) Writing Styles:①extraordinary frankness坦诚的态度 ②Penetrating realism 对现实入木三分的描绘 ③Cynicism 愤世嫉俗的情绪 Metaphysical Poetry(玄学诗): the diction（用语，措词）is simple, the imagery is from the actual, the form(形式) is frequently an argument with the poet’s beloved, with god, or with himself.（主题：love, religious, thought）The essence of metaphysical poetry is the employment of conceits.巧智 Artistic features: 1) conceits or imagery奇思妙喻 2) syllogism三段论 Works: 1) Song 歌P116 （美女不信） √2) A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 离别辞：节哀P117 （给临产妻子。关于爱情如圆规和黄金的比喻十分著名） 3)Sonnet: Death Be Not Proud 致死神P119 Definitions of important literary terms: 1)Conceit:Conceits used in Renaissance poetry mean a precise and detailed comparison of something more remote or abstract with something more present or concrete; and often detailed through a chain of metaphors or similes明喻. 2)Metaphysical Poetry: The poetry of John Donne and other seventeenth-century poets who wrote in a similar style. Metaphysical poetry is characterized by verbal wit 用词巧妙and excess, ingenious structure灵巧的结构, irregular meter韵律, colloquial language直白的语言, elaborates imagery精致奇特的想象, and a drawing together of dissimilar ideas. John Milton约翰?弥尔顿1608~1674 P120 （诗人、政论家;失明后写《失乐园》、《复乐园》、《力士参孙》） Works: 1) Paradise Lost 失乐园P122 2) On His Blindness 失明述怀p128 (This sonnet is written in iambic pentameter rhymed in abba abba cde cde, typical of Italian sonnet. Its theme is that people use their talent for God, and they serve him best who can endure the suffering best.) 3) On His Deceased Wife 梦亡妻p128 John Bunyan约翰?班扬1628~1688 P130 （代表作《天路历程》，宗教寓言，被誉为“具有永恒意义的百科全书”，是英国文学史上里程碑式著作。与但丁的《神曲》、奥古斯丁的《忏悔录》并列为世界三大宗教题材文学杰作。）Puritan poet(清教徒派诗人)
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