EPOCHS
• OLD ENGLISH 5TH -11TH CENTURY
• THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES; THE ANGLO-
SAXON CONQUEST
• MIDDLE ENGLISH
• THE NORMAN CONQUEST (1066) – LATE 15TH
CENTURY
• THE RENAISSANCE (LATE 15TH CENTURY)
• WILLIAM CAXTON – THE PRINTING PRESS (1475)
• THE END OF THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1485)
OLD ENGLISH
• THE HEROIC TRADITION
• BEOWULF WRITTEN DOWN BEFORE
THE 1OTH CENTURY
• ‘THE BATTLE OF MALDON’ HISTORY
991 ESSEX VS. VIKINGS
THE RELIGIOUS TRADITION
• CAEDMON, ‘HYMN OF CREATION’
• THE VENERABLE BEDE, THE
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF
THE ENGLISH NATION
• CYNEWULF, ‘THE DREAM OF THE
ROOD’
THE ELEGIAC TRADITION
• ‘THE WANDERER’
• ‘THE SEAFARER’
• ‘DEOR’S LAMENT’
• THE ELEMENTS OF THE 3
TRADITIONS ARE INTERTWINED
LITERARY DEVICES
• ALLITERATION
• KENNING
• APPOSITION
• RUN-ON LINES
• GNOMIC VERSES
MIDDLE ENGLISH
• (NORMAN FRENCH), LATIN, ENGLISH
• ENGLISH SUPRESSED
• THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE (1154)
• THE FIRST TEXTS IN ENGLISH - LATE
12TH CENTURY
• ENGLISH IN THE OPENING OF
PARLIAMENT 1363, SCHOOLS 1385,
COURTS OF LAW 1362
LYRICS AND BALLADS
• THOMAS OF ELY, THE STORY OF
CANUT
• SUMMER IS ICUMEN IN
• ADAM LAY I-BOWNDYN
• SONG OF LEWES, SIMON DE
MONTFORT 1264
BALLADS
• THE FAMOUS COLLECTORS:
• BISHOP THOMAS PERCY (LATE 18TH C)
• SIR WALTER SCOTT (EARLY 19TH
CENTURY)
• VERSIONS FROM 16TH, 17TH
CENTURIES
• THE RHYME, THE OCTOSYLLABIC
COUPLET
THE ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL
• PIERS PLOWMAN BY WILLIAM
LANGLAND
• THE PEARL
• PATIENCE
• PURITY
• SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGT
ALLEGORY
• BIBLICAL EXEGESIS
• ROMAUNT DE LA ROSE 13TH
CENTURY(GUILLAUME DE LORRIS,
JEAN DE MEUN)
• DREAM ALLEGORY
KING ARTHUR
• SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
• CHIVALRY
• THE PENTANGLE
• SIR THOMAS MALORY, MORTE DARTHUR
• SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
• THE SWORD IN THE STONE
• THE EXCALIBUR , CAMELOT, THE ROUND TABLE,
AVALON
• THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL
• THE ADULTERY OF SIR LANCELOT AND
GUINEVERE
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
• MYSTERY PLAYS (QUEM QUERITIS?)
• THE CORPUS CHRISTI FESTIVAL 1264
• BY GUILDS ON PAGEANT
• MYSTERY CYCLES (YORK, CHESTER,
WAKEFIELD, COVENTRY)
• MIRACLE PLAYS 15TH C
• MORALITY PLAYS – ALLEGORIES
• EVERYMAN
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
(1343-1400)
• MIDDLE CLASS
• A PAGE TO ARISTOCRATIC/ ROYAL
HOUSEHOLD
• AT KING’S COURT
• SENT ON DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS
LITERARY WORKS
• TRANSLATION OF ROMAN DE LA
ROSE
• PARLIAMENT OF THE FOWLS
• HOUSE OF FAME
• TROILUS AND CRISEIDE
THE CANTERBURY TALES
• 30 CHARACTERS, 4 STORIES, 120
• 22 STORIES, 2 IN FRAGMENTS
• DIFFERENT GENRES
• THE COURTLY ROMANCE, THE BRETON
LAY
• THE FABLIAU(X)
• THE BEAST FABLE
• THE EXEMPLUM
• THE SERMON
• THE SAINT’S LEGEND
THE RENAISSANCE
(1484-1660)
• 16TH C – THE TUDOR EPOCH
• 17TH C- THE JACOBEAN AND STUART
TIMES +CROMWELL’S REPUBLIC AND
PROTECTORATE (1649-1660)
• HUMANISM
• THOMAS MOORE, UTOPIA
• REFORMATION
• A NEW IMAGE OF THE WORLD
THE SONNET
• PETRARCH 14TH CENTURY, ITALY
• THEME: UNREQUITED LOV E
• FORM: AN OCTAVE+ A SESTET
• THE FIRST SONNETS – TRANSLATIONS
• THOMAS WYATT, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF
SURRY
• TOTTEL’S MISCLEANY 1557
• SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, ASTROPHEL AND STELLA
• EDMUND SPENSER, AMORETTI
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(1564-1616
)
• SONNETS – 154, published in 1609
• THE ADDRESSEES:
- A young man – Friend (1-126)
1-17 – ‘Procreation sonnets’
- A rival poet (79-86)
- A woman - The Dark Lady – 127-152
• THE PETRARCHAN AND ANI-PETRARCHAN
CONVENTIONS
FROM THE RELIGIOUS TO THE
SECULAR THEATRE
• THE INTERLUDE (THE FIRST: FULGENS AND
LUCRES BY HENRY MEDWALL, 1497)
• UNIVERSITY WITS – 15th/16th century:
- Christopher Marlowe
- Robert Greene
- Thomas Nashe
- John Lyly
- Thomas Lodge
- George Peele
- Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy)
SHAKESPEARE AS A
PLAYWRIGHT
• 36 PLAYS
• CHRONICLE PLAYS
• COMEDIES
• TRAGEDIES
• Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles (1577)
• Jan Kott, Shakespeare, Our Contemporary
THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AND
ACTING
• A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE (theatres
among brothels and bear-baiting halls)
• A MORAL PURPOSE
‘the purpose of playing… both at the first and
now, was and is, to hold as ‘twere the
mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own
feature, scorn her own image, and the very
age and body of the time his form and
pleasure’ (Hamlet)
• SHAKESPEARE – A PLAYWRIGHT, ACTOR
AND SHAREHOLDER
THE THEATRES
• 1576 the first theatre built by James
Burbage (The Theatre)
• Outdoor – The Globe: 3000 spectators
• Indoor – Blackfriars – 300
• Only men played
• Rehearsals – 2-4 weeks
THE METAPHYSICAL AND JONSONIAN
SCHOOL OF POETRY
• REACTIONS AGAINST PETRARCH AND
SPENSER
• TWO DIFFERENT POETICAL
TEMPERAMENTS
• POLITICS
- IN 1630 RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL
OPTIONS BECAME ENEMIES
- THE CIVIL WAR, CROMWELL’S REPUBLIC
AND PROTECTORATE (1640-1658)
• CAVALIERS VS. PURITANS
METAPHYSICAL POETS
• JOHN DONNE
• GEORGE HERBERT
• HENRY VAUGHAN
• RICHARD CRASHAW
WHY ‘METAPHYSICAL’?
• THE NAME FIRST USED BY JOHN DRYDEN,
LATER CONFIRMED BY SAMUEL JOHNSON
(CRITICAL APPROACH)
• THE CONCEIT – A COMPLEX, FAR-FETCHED
METAPHOR, LINKING TWO VERY DIFFERENT
IDEAS, OBJECTS, NOTIONS
• REDISCOVERED BY T.S.ELIOT IN THE 20TH
CENTURY
• AFTER THE METAPHYSICAL POETS
‘DISSOCIATION OF SENSIBILITY’
JOHN DONNE
(1572-1631)
• SON OF A CATHOLIC LONDON MERCHANT
• OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE BUT NO DEGREE
• A STUDENT AT THE INNS OF COURT IN LONDON
• TOOK PART IN TWO NAVAL EXPEDITIONS
• SECRETARY TO SIR THOMAS EGERTON, SECRETLY
MARRIES HIS DAUGHTER
• 1602 DECLARES FOR ANGLICANISM
• 1615 - ORDAINED
• 1621- DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S
DONNE’S WORKS
• REJECTION OF ‘THE MISTRESS OF MY
YOUTH’ (POETRY) FOR THE WIFE OF
MINE AGE’ (DIVINITY)
• ELEGIES, LOVE POEMS, SONNETS,
HOLY SONNETS, SERMONS,
MEDITATIONS
• ESSAYS IN DIVINITY
GEORGE HERBERT
(1593-1633)
• STUDIED AT OXFORD
• AN MP FOR 2 YEARS
• RECTOR OF BEMERTON NEAR SALISBURY
• The TEMPLE PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY
a private liturgy of the vicarage
• ‘The Collar’, ‘The Pulley’, ‘The Church-
Floor”
THE CAVALIER POETS
THE SONS OF BEN
• THE CARPE DIEM MOTIF
• BEN JONSON
• ROBERT HERRICK
• THOMAS CAREW
• SIR JOHN SUCKLING
• REICHARD LOVELACE
BEN JONSON
(1572-1637)
• THE SON OF A LONDON BRICKLAYER
• A SOLDIER (FAUGHT IN FLANDERS)
• AN ACTOR AND A MAJOR PLAYWRIGHT
- VOLPONE
- THE ALCHEMIST
- BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
• MET SHAKESPEARE IN THE MERMAID INN
• LYRIC, SATIRICAL, EPIGRAMATIC, ELEGIAC
VERSE
ROBERT HERRICK
(1591-1674)
• AN APPRENTICE TO A GOLDSMITH
• TOOK ORDERS
• FROM LONDON TO DEAN PRIORY
• BANISHED BY THE PURITANS, RETURNED
AFTER THE RESTORATION
• SENSUAL PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD
• HESPERIDES
• NOBLE NUMBERS
ANDREW MARVELL
(1621-1678)
• RELATED TO THE CAVALIER POETS
• THE SON OF A YORKSHIRE CALVINIST
CLERGYMAN
• CONVERTED TEMPORARILY TO CATHOLICISM
• WITH THE PURITANS – AS LATIN SECRETARY
TO CROMWELL
• AN MP FOR HULL
• A PATRIOT, A SATIRIST, A PROSE-WRITER
• HIS LYRIC POETRY ADMIRED BY ELIOT