Old English Poetry

7 września 2013

09:54

Classification of Old English Poetry:

• Heroic,

• Elegiac,

• Religious,

• Gnomic (Charms & Riddles)

• Knowledge is fragmentary,

• What is left? 30.000 lines

• One of the earliest and richest literatures in Europe,

• Survived Christianisaton,

• Anonymous,

• Preserved in four manuscripts:

• The Beowulf Manuscript - preserved in British Library

• The Junius Manuscripts - housed at Bodleian Library in Oxford, contains religious poetry,

• The Exeter book - housed at Exeter Cathedral library, contains elegies, riddles, religious poems,

• The Vercelli Book - contains homilies, housed in Vercelli' in Italy.

 

HEROIC POETRY - (epic) a long, narrative, in high style, recounting the deeds of legendary or historical hero. The hero is protected by gods, performs superhuman exploits, often saves nations, eg. Beowulf, "The Battle of Maldon"

 

BEOWULF:

• 8th century, 3182 lines, unknown author

• The main character is a warrior,

• It takes place in Denmark,

• There are two nations: Geats (Sweden) and Danes (Danmark)

• Beowulf comes to Denmark to rescue king Hrothgar from the attack of Grendel and his mother. Fifty years later he becomes a king of Geats, kills the monster but is mortally wounded and dies.

• Characters:

• Beowulf - a perfect hero, has three conflicts: with Grendel, with him sother and a dragon, he is strong and brave, loyal, courteous, brave, proud, Hrothgar helps him to become a wise man, he becomes a king and rules for 50 years, the last fight with dragon is deadly, his funeral - buried with treasue in a barrow overlooking the sea.

• Grendel - he is an offspring of Cain - embodiment of evil, one of three monsters, his monstruous apperance is terryfying, he was exiled to the swamlands, he feels like a outcast, he is agressive because of being lonely,

• Hrothgar - ruler of Danes, accepts Beowulf's help in fighting with Grendel, all his servants obeyed him, he gave Beowulf an advice how to be a wise man.

• Symbols:

• Mead-Hall - it provides light, warmth, food, drink, singing and revelry, it is a safe place for warriors returning from battles, a place for community, where traditions were preserved, stories were told and reputation was spread.

 

"THE BATTLE OF MALDON"

• 991,

• England vs. Vikings,

• If the English pay them a tribute, they will leave them alone in peace,

• England wants to fight,

• English commander is compared to Roland, he dies in the battle,

• It's not a documentary epic, but to show right and wrong behaviour - how to die gloriously and how to sacrifice

 

ELEGIAC POETRY - old English/Anglo - Saxon elegies - a group of short poems, most of which are preserved in the Exeter Book and share:

1. Tone - of personal lament, separation,

2. Voice - of a person in first narrator,

3. A subject matter long considered ELEGIAC - the loss of worldly goods, glory or human companionship

The poem expresses the experience and feelings of the first-person narrator who has undergone or is undergoing hardship and misfortunes; it has got dramatic monologs (usually by men), all elegies are anonymous, without titles, now they are titled by editors.

 

OLD ENGLISH ELEGIES:

• Heroic - "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer"

• Love elegies - "Wulf and Eadwacer", "The Wife's Complaint", “Husband’s Message”

• Other - "Deor's lament", "The Ruin"

DEOR'S LAMENT - a scop describes a history of men and comments it, a scop was his lord's favourite poet, but was deprived of his position, but he thinks that all evil will pass one day.

 

THE RUIN - no first-person narration, describes the devastation of a place, not a suffering of a person, ancient buildings are described, they were made of stone very skilfully, magnificent buildings were once full of people, but now they are decaying.

 

WULF AND EADWACER - enigmatic poem, very few female voices, many questions unanswered, it is rather a riddle than elegy - but it was unacceptable in this period, a lady is speaking - the wulf is her lover and Eadwacer is her husband; she feels miserable.

 

THE WIFE'S COMPLAINT - a speaker is a woman, she laments because of seperation with her husband, he is also very miserable because he was not accepted by her family.

 

THE HUSBAND'S MESSAGE - a speaker is a piece of wood (worship of trees), a husband of a woman had to go on exile and he sent a message to his wife to join him so that thay could be together, he believes he will be reunited with her, the elegy is very melancholic.

 

THE WANDERER - the finest of all elegies, a lament of solitary man who was once happy; the death of his lord seems to be the worst thing in the world to him, the suffering can be somewhat remedied by god, the motive there was UBI SUNT (Where are they?)

• Heroic elegy or lament,

• 115 lines,

• Unknown author,

• Tells the story of the hardship of life,

• Gloomy style, stoicism,

• Characters:

1. Wanderer - tired because of being exiled, he wonders through the sea alone, he is sad because he lost his king and comrades, he learned that the value of mankind is priceless, he missed his lord and wanted to seek for another one, he is deprived of all goods that he had when his lord was alive, he constantly comes back to his young age, even a dream does not make his soul feel calmer, he doesn't think rationally, the waves of the sea seem to him to be his comrades,

• He thinks that a wise man should be: MODERATE, EXPERIENCED, STRONG, THOUGHTFUL

• The symbol of decay: the contrast between destroyed and brand-new buildings, transient nature of things, all passes away.

• UBI SUNT - where are they all? The wanderer asks lots of questions full f despair, deep sadness.

• All things are just for a while,

• The elements of nature destroy all memories,

• Bad weather conditions symbolise the anger of God,

• The Wanderer looks for the new home which is Heaven (God is his new king)

• We don't know if he finds consolation

2. God - compared to the fortress, ever-lasting, conrasted with decaying world.

 

THE SEAFARER - a monolog of old sailor who is fascinated by the sea, he has got very conflicting feelings: suffering from the cold and the passion of the sea, a poem can be seen as a dialog of a sailor and a young man, alteration of feelings.

RELIGIOUS POETRY

 CAEDMON - a story of a man covered in "Ecclesiastical History of English People" by Venerable Bede,

(731). Bede tells the story of Caedmon and the origins of his poetic inspiration. Caedmon was an ignorant about poetry, but he changed by influence of God.

 

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD - religious poem, 156 lines, composed in 7th or 8th century, dream vision,

• It tells the story of Crucifixion from the perspective of the Cross

• The poet uses the rhetorical device of PROSOPOPEIA in which an inanimate object is given the power of speech.

• It combines a Christian subject with the heroic code of conduct

• Characters:

• A man who sees the cross - he saw it in a dream, he looked at it for a long time, it appeared to him very beautiful and bright because of gold and jewellery, he was terrified and sad because of his sins, the cross spoke to him.

• The Cross - it used to be a normal, ordinary tree, which was hewed and cut into pieces, then the tree was remade into a Cross, it was Jesus, who became his king (a warrior). He couldn't refuse to help him die, he had to stay straight as a servant, the cross had feelings as the normal person (horrified, terrored), but he was proud of the fact that he held a king. He experienced lots of suffer, but he couldn't refuse. After Jesus' death the Cross was left dirty and alone, the body was put into the grave made of stones. After some time the cross was found by the followers of Christ and was made a symbol of Christianity. It gives health to people and wants them to know the story of the Cross. The cross predicts the end of the world and that people should not feel fear because of words of Christ.

• After the vision a man starts crying,

• He worships the cross and Christ,

• He is looking forward to going to Heaven,

• He is happy that he believed in Christ.

DREAM VISION - a poem in which the poet presents himself as falling asleep. In his dreams he sees a person who explains him the vision.

OLD ENGLISH POEMS:

1. CUCKOO SONG - it is a poem about spring' coming, which is called REVERDIE, all about nature, animals and their children, it is a one of the last preserved songs from 14th century, it is based on French poetry.

2. A SACRED LULLABY - a speaker is a Virgin Mary, a mother of Jesus Christ. He cannot sleep, because he's got no clothes and feels cold. He describes his crucifixion and is afraid of it; it's an unusual lullaby full of praise to Mary.

3. I SING OF A MAIDEN - a poem about a Maiden who has got no equal - she is a Virgin and a Mother at the same time; Jesus comes to her as a Holy Spirit to her womb - imperceptible, refreshing as Spring.

4. ADAM LAY YBOUNDEN - Adam is bound to a rope because of his sins and it's all his fault, Eva is here omitted, if the apple hadn't been taken, there wouldn't be possible for Mary to become a queen. The main character is Mary, because all is about her.

5. THE UNQUIET GRAVE - a ballad; a dead girl wants to sleep but a boy keeps sitting and crying. She begs him to leave her alone and allow her to rest.

6. LORD RANDAL - mother asks her son about his whereabouts. He wants to rest, because he is sure of his death. He and his dog were given a poisoned fish. He makes a Testimony - he gives his Treasury to his mother and sisters but to his love he gives hell and fire (he's broken-hearted) INCREMENTAL REPETITION - a new element is added each time the new stanza begins - it becomes more interesting.

7. THE THREE RAVENS - ravens want to eat a breakfast and they see a warrior laying under a tree. They want to eat him, but he is protected by his warriors and lover (animals).

 

ALLITERATION - a figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words are repeated; can have a similar function as rhyme, it is an essential metrical scheme in Old English; used to organise a poetry.

"From a friendless founded, feeble…" - Beowulf

"fairfield full of folk found…" - The Vision of Piers Plowman

• In later poetry used for particular purpose,

• Tongue twisters.

 

ALLITERATIVE METRE/VERSE (Caesura) - poetry in which alliteration rather than rhyme is the chief principle of repetition. The key to old English metre is the pause in the middle of the line (CAESURA) which devides the line into two half-lines (MEDIAL CAESURA). Each half-line consists of the phrase with two stressed and two or more unstressed syllables. This means that the basis of the metre is stress or accent, not the quantity nor the number of syllables (ACCENTUAL METRE)

" 'So the 'lordly wa'rriors || 'lived in gladness

'At 'ease and 'happy || till the 'friend from hell…"

 

KENNING - derives from Old Norse "kenna" (to know, to recognise); it is a compound of two nouns which make a methapor:

• Bone-house - body,

• Battle light - sword

• Heaven's jewelery - stars,

• The sword's play - a battle

• Whale's road - sea.

 

FORMULAS - stock phrases, give formal, traditional character; very often repeated:

• To pay tribute,

• Protector of the people

• Given of rings

 

VARIATION - restatement of the concept; using different words to say one message:

"the lord of the seamen gave swift reply…" - spoke.

Ballads were written because of the belief of relief after writing them - domestic problem.

 

 

Old English Prosody

13 września 2013

10:13

• Originated in Anglo-Saxon invaders,

• There is no evidence that they possessed any prose tradition,

• Developed later than poetry, written in England largely as a result of the Christianisation of Europe.

 

KING ALFRED THE GREAT (849-899)

• Resourceful fighter,

• Defeated Vikings in Wessex (878)

• Recognised in Wessex defences,

• The father of English prose,

• He reconstructed monasteries after Viking destruction,

• He aimed to teach people and re-establish Christian discipline and culture,

• Brought monks to kingdom and reformed education,

• Translated wisdom books from Latin to English,

• His early education was neglected (ability to read as an 12-year-old child),

• Began to learn Latin at the age of 45,

• He surrounded himself by scholars and learned men

• His translations:

• "Pastoral Care" by Pope Gregory the Great

• "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius

• "Ecclesiastical History of English People" by Bede

• "History against the Pagans" by Paulus Orosius.

 

PASTORAL CARE - emphasis of a bishop's duties to teach the clergy and the laity; can be seen as a manual of any ruler

 

THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY - a dialog of Boethus and Lady Philosophy who gives him consolation during his being in prison. The work was written in prison, awaiting for execution.

 

ECCLESSIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH PEOPLE - the history of Christianity in England, development of it after the withdrawal of Roman troops, convention of the English people to Christianity was great civilising step for German tribes; includes the description of Caedmon's poetic inspirations.

 

HISTORY AGAINST THE PAGANS - written by Orosius, Spanish historian and theologian of the 5th century; was written to prove that the introduction of Christianity hadn't made the world worse; Christianity was not to blame for disasters, which were overwhelming the ancient world at that time; adiographic description - two voyages, area of present.

 

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE (C.9TH) - a history written in vernacular, great project, the early part draws on Bede; the West Saxon Chronicle and then records Alfred's resistance to the Danes. Kept up in several monastic centres, until the Conquest and kept at Peterborough until 1154, it used to be the most important work, but the palm is now given to Beowulf.

 

AELFRIC (c. 995 - 1010):

• an English abbot and a prolific writer;

• he wrote "Catholic Homilies", which he wanted to be read by everybody,

• "Lives of Saints", "Latin Grammar", because of which he gained the nickname Grammaticus,

• "The Colloquy" - most important work, simple dialogues intended to teach Latin boys in monastic schools, pupils played the role of people of various professions and they talked to teachers. Common teaching device in monastic schools at that time.

 

WULFSTAN:

• One of the greatest men of Kingdom,

• The Archbishop of York from 1002 - 1023, advisor of kings,

• Politically oriented,

• Drew up the law codes issued in their reigns,

• Interested in laws as a dogma,

 

"SERMO LUPI AD ANGLOS" (The Sermon of the Wulf to the English) - delivered in 1014, Wulfstan takes the pen name of Lupus or Wulf and paints the picture of the horrors brought by the Danish invasion - wrongdoing, betrayal, violence and immortality of every kind. It is filled with desperate sense of the imminence of Doomsday, from the opening statement: "this world is in haste and approaches its end" to the powerful "God help us!" in the end. This is a warning to the audience, before it was too late. The tone is very angry.

 

 

 

Medieval chivarlic romance

13 września 2013

10:28

ROMANCE - originally the term reffers to the story written in French (a romance language); a tale of adventures involving knights on a quest - a journey towards the goal.

• The plot - begins at the noble court, where the knights receive a challenge before setting out on a journey to accomplish a task. They travel, encountering terrible hardships, doing battles, returning to the court to tell stories.

 

LITERARY CONVENTIONS - elements of fantasy and magic (dragons, monsters), basic set pieces, such as the arming of the hero, or the recitations of the names of famous knights.

 

CHIVARLIC ROMANCE - developed in the Middle Ages, succeeded the old heroic poems, such as Beowulf or chanson de geste ("song of deeds"), celebrates the code of civilised behaviour called chivarly.

 

CHIVARLY - derives from "chevalier" - a knight, refers to the code of behaviour: piety, virtue, prowess, loyalty, glory, honour, fearlessness.

 

THREE ASPECTS OF CHIVARLY

1. Chivarly in relation to knight's countrymen - mercy, protection of weak and poor,

2. Chvarly in relation to God - faith,

3. Chivarly in relation to women - obeying the rules of courtly love.

 

COURTLY LOVE - a new conception originated from France and based on set of rules:

• Service - the lover is the servant,

• Idealisation of women - the concept of the lady - beautiful, but passive; that's why love was unfulfilled.

• Love is a secret - outside of marriage,

• Love is an ennobling force - it motivates the knight's actions, stimulates virtue and was "a fountain of all good things"

 

CLASSIFICATION OF MEDIEVAL ROMANCE:

• The matter of France - Stories about Charlemagne and his knights,

• The matter of Rome - stories about Athenes, Troy (full of marvels)

• The matter of Britain - Arthurian Romance.

 

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT:

• The elements of plot: the Beheading Game, The Temptation, The Exchanging of Winnings.

• Story starts in New Year's Eve in Camelot, people are having a feast, which is interrupted by arrival of Green Knight,

• He suggest having The Beheading Game and wants somebody to cut his head. The brave man who do it, will experience the same in the following year.

• Firstly nobody wants to do it, but later King Arthur is a volunteer. Sir Gawain replaces him, because he is ready to sacrifice for the king.

• The head of Green Knight is being cut.

• A year passes, Sir Gawain needs to receive a blow, but he departs in spite of being discouraged by others.

• He has no choice, so he travels in winter, all by himself and he reaches a castle.

• Sir Gawain stays there for three days.

• The lord of the castle, Sir Bertilack suggests having a game: The Exchanging of Winnings.

First day - Bertilack hunts a deer, Gawain is given a kiss from Lady Bertilack

Second day - Bertilack hunts a boar, but Gawain is given two kisses from Bertilack's wife.

Third day - Bertilack - a fox, Gawain - three kisses and a green girdle.

• When the lady offers Gawain a magic girdle, the dominant issue is the "problematic conflict between two knightly virtues - courtesy, which requires that he should respond to Lady's advances, and truth, which requires being loyal to the host.

• All what happend between Lady Bertilack and Gawain must stay top secret.

• Then, it turns out that lord Bertilack was Green Knight. Gawain receives three blows, and the third one hurts him slightly.

• At the ending of the feast in Camelot, all want to wear green girdles as a symbol of honour.

 

 

 

Geoffrey Chaucer

• French was spoken in the court, but also Latin and English (lower class language), lots of English poets wote in French, but Chaucer began to write in English, which began to be a language of poetry.

13 września 2013

10:56

• 1343 - 1400

• Called the father of English poetry,

• He elevated Middle English to the level of poetic language and helped to establish the London dialect,

• Introduced French forms into English language - DREAM VISIONS

• He travelled a lot, so he tried to introduce another culture into English

• He was born in London in a middle-class family, his fathr was a wine merchant,

• He was married to Phillipa Roet - lady-in-waiting in the queen's household,

• He had 3 or 4 children,

• Buried in Westminster Abbey in The poet's Corner.

• His jobs:

Government official,

Served under three kings: Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV.

A diplomat,

Controler of customs,

Member of Parliament,

Clerk of the king's works

• Very active man, he met noble people,

• He traveled to France, Spain, Italy,

• He met Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch,

• Very warmthly person,

• His carieer:

The French period (1343 - 1372) - "The Book of the Duchess"

The Italian period (1372 - 1385) - "The House of Fame", "The Parliament of Fowls", "Troilus and Criseyde", "the Legend of Good Women"

The English period (1385 - 1400) - "The Canterbury Tales" based on Boccaccio's "Decameron"

He translated about 1/3 of the "Roman de la rose" - alegoric French poem of love

 

French and Italian period

13 września 2013

11:19

THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS - the earliest work of Chaucer, a form of dream vision, written to commemorate the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster and the wife of John of Gaunt. The poet falls asleep and finds himself in his chamber. He is led to a wood and meets a person in black, who says him that his love will die. Then, the poet describes himself the embodiment of sorrow.

 

THE HOUSE OF FAME - a dream vision, presents Fame as a capricious goddess, deceptive nature of Fame, the poet is led by an eagle to Goddess Fame. She decides to accept or reject the willing to different group of people. People who are famous not always deserve it.

 

THE PARLIAMENT OF FOWLS – dream vision, the action takes place on St. Valentine's Day, the birds discuss the nature of love. They must choose their partner and the noble birds have to begin, which turns out to be extremely difficult. Chaucer tries to make courtly love ridiculous.

 

TROILUS AND CRISEYDE - chivarlic romance based on Italian "Il Filostrato" which takes place during Troyan War. Troilus, one of the sons of Priam falls in love with Criseyde, a young widow, but he is to shy to act. After the help of Pandarus (a go-between, friend of their uncle), they become a couple. Unfortunately they must separated, because Troilus has to go to Greek Camp. Criseyde falls in love with another man and Troilus dies in the battle.

 

THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN - a work, which says that sometimes men are also unfaithful and not only women are guilty of breaking the relationship.

 

 

English period

13 września 2013

12:08

THE CANTERBURY TALES - a collection of 24 stories told by pilgrims traveling to Canterbury to pray for Thomas Becket.

• Chaucer tells how he joined in the Tabard Inn, Southwork, thanks to a company of pilgrims.

• Canterbury Tales are FRAME NARRATIVE (konstrukcja ramowa) - a pilgrimage provides occasion to gathering groups, pilgrims argue, interrupt one another or comment a tales.

• The contest - pilgrims take part in a competition. They were allowed to tell 2 stories each on the way to Canterbury and back.

• Chaucer's plan was to write 120 stories but the work was incomplete - he wrote only 29 stories

• Inspiration - "Decameron"

• General Prologue is an estates satire (representatives of different classes are portrayed with satiric emphasis)

• Canterbury Tales are preserved in 50 manuscripts, but "The Ellesmere Manuscript" is the most beautiful.

 

DECAMERON

THE CANTERBURY TALES

Ten elegant young ladies and gentlemen, accompanied by their servants, journey from villa to villa through the countryside around Florence to avoid the plague then raging the city. They amuse themselves by telling tales. Each in turn serves as leader for a day and sets the subject of that day's tales. After two weeks' journey and ten days of storytelling exactly one hundred tales have been told and the party returns to Florence.

Like Boccaccio, Chaucer uses a journey as the occasion for a collection of tales told by the travellers. Chaucer's pilgrims, however, represent a wide range of social levels, ages and occupations. They are gathered not by a prior agreement but by mere chance. They have little in common except the goal of their pilgrimage.

 

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE

• Spring, people go to pilgrimages then,

• Pilgrims are also palmers,

• They pray for Thomas Becket and have chance to meet (the poet is one of the pilgrims)

• Characters:

  1. A KNIGHT - a noble man who rode to pagan and Christian lands for a crusade, there is a list of places included (the longer the list, the most noble knight he will be); he is very experienced, but dressed in not very fashionable way (discoloured and dusty clothes). He had just returned from a voyage and immediately went to the pilgrimage. He is an embodiment of ideal.

  2. A SQUIRE - KNIGHT'S SON - seems to be very handsome, 20 years old, not very experienced, but promising to be a good knight, he was once in love, that's why he's dressed fashionably. He is very gifted as well (dance, writing poems, playing flute). He was so in love that he didn't sleep at all. He was serving meat his father.

  3. YEOMAN - a servant not bound to any land, a forester who is very good in his job.

  4. PRIORESS - known as Madame Eglentine (fashionable name which means "a rose"), she spoke French, had good manners, paid attention to appearances. Chaucer describes her appearance, we don't know much about how she performed her duties. She fed her dogs, which was very kind of her, but she broke the rules. She came from good family, maybe she was raised to be courtly lady, not a prioress. She had a brooch with a saying "Love conquers all"

 

THE PARDONER'S TALE

• The statement in Latin at the beginning of a tale tells the story short

• Characters:

  1. PARDONER - greedy, cunning, he earns money by selling fake relicts and pardons and is very encouraging in this. He tells the story (A SERMON) which is an exemplum (describes a moral)

• THE STORY OF THE PARDONER:

• The story illustrates a moral, which is more important than describing the evil of 7 deadly sins,

• There are three men sitting in a pub and they see a funeral of their friend

• They were drunk so they decided to kill The Death

• They seek for him or her when an old man tells them that Death is under a tree.

• Actually it was money which they desired so much, that they killed themselves by coming up with an intrigue with poisoned wine.

 

THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE:

• A fairytale (belongs to folk literature and is part of the oral tradition) - A narrative in prose about the fortunes and misfortunes of a hero or heroine, who experienced various adventures of a more or less supernatural kind and live happily ever after.

• Magic, charms, disguise and spells are some of the major ingredients of such stories,

• Chaucer tells the story of an Arthurian knight and a loathly lady.

 

THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE:

• An animal fable - a brief tale in verse or prose that conveys a moral lesson, usually by giving human speech and manners to animals,

• Animals and birds speak and behave like human beings in a short tale illustrating some moral points.

• Chaucer describes a cock (Chantieleer) and his wife (Pertelote) discussing the meaning of dreams.

 

THE MILLER'S TALE:

• The main characters: John (a carpenter), Alison (his wife), Nicolas (an Oxford student), Absolom (a vilage dandy)

• FABLIEU (PL. FABLIAUX) - A humorous short story in verse, Simple and straightforward style, Real, familiar settings, Characters are ordinary people, The fablieu presents a lively image of everyday life among middle and lower classes, The standard plot has an older and slow-witted husband whose young and beautiful wife has an affair with a clever young man, often a student)

 

THE KNIGHT'S TALE:

• Chivarlic romance,

• Chaucer describes two knights (Articile&Palamon) in love with the same woman (Emily)

 

THE FRANKLIN'S TALE:

• The main characters: Arveragus (knight), Dorigen (his wife), Aurelius (a squire in love with Dorigen.

• They are married but a man must go for earn his reputation in England

• When he's away, Aurelius falls in love with Dorigen,

• She promised to love him if he removes all rocks from Brittany (which supposed to be impossible)

• A knight does it with help of magic,

• Husband comes back and is surprised that she's with another man,

• It ends happily - she comes back to her husband

 

THE PARSON'S TALE:

• A treatise - a formal work with systematic examination of a subject and its principles.

A Bretony lay - short lyric or narrative poem of Arthurian legend and other subject from Breton folklore.

 

Tales	Short descriptions
The Knight’s Tale	The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas.
The Miller’s Tale	It is a vulgar, ribald, and satirical fabliau, The Miller's Tale has religious commentary that may be a response to the corruption of the Catholic Church in 14th century Europe.
The Nun’s Priests Tale	It is a beast fable. This tale is in many ways a return to the ground, a return to basics. We start with a poor widow, and a dusty yard. the tale keeps emphasizing anality and bottoms - in Chaunticleer’s two examples of dreams-coming-true, a dung cart and a breaking ship’s “bottom” are the hinge of the story, and Pertelote’s advice to Chaunticleer is to take some “laxatyf” to clear out his humours
The Pardoner’s Tale	The story is about three drunken men who wanted to find and kill Death. They searched it at Oak tree, but they found gold and forgot about quest. In the morning they took straw’s and the youngest took the smallest and eventually was sent to buy some food and wine. The other two made a plot to kill the young one, but the young also put poison into wine and food. They killed the young man, and died because of poisoned food and wine. All of them met Death.
The Second Nun’s Tale	Told by a nun concerned only with spiritual matters, this tale tells the story of Saint Cecilia. Like many of the tales told by the pilgrims, The Second Nun's tale incorporates elements from Dante.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale	One of King Arthur’s knights rapes a woman, which is punishable by death. With the help of other knights king decides to let queen do with him whatever she wants, and so queen sends him to search what women wants. On his way he meets old hag to whom he promise to do whatever she wants and she goes with him and tells what women really want (sovereignty over their husbands) and knight has to marry old woman. While night in marriage bed he complains about his fate, but woman gave choice to him whether he wants to have ugly, but faithful wife or beautiful and unfaithful. In the end they live together happily till the end of their days.
The Monk’s Tale	The form of tragedy depicted in The Monk's Tale is "the medieval idea that the protagonist is victim rather than hero, raised up and then cast down by the workings of Fortune." The text, despite the Monk's insistence upon a strict, homogeneous definition of tragedy, presents as equally tragic tales that diverge in content, tone, and form massively. Chaucer may be undermining the Monk's literary dogma and overly-strict generic classifications.
The Franklin’s Tale	It focuses on issues of providence, truth, generosity and gentillesse in human relationships.
The Parson’s Tale	The subject of the parson's "tale" (or rather, treatise) is penitence. It may thus be taken as containing inferential criticism of the behavior and character of humanity detectible in all the other pilgrims, knight included. Chaucer himself claims to be swayed by the plea for penitence, since he follows the Parson's Tale with a Retraction (the conceit which appears to have been the intended close to the entire cycle) in which he personally asks forgiveness for any offenses he may have caused

The Genres of The Canterbury Tales:

1. Chivalric romance: “The Knight’s Tale”

2. Fabliaux: “The Miller’s Tale”

3. Animal fables: “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”

4. Exempla: “The Pardoner’s Tale”

5. Saints lives: “The Second Nun’s Tale”

6. A fairy tale: “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”

7. A tragedy: “The Monk’s Tale”

8. A Breton lay: “The Franklin’s Tale”

9. A moral treatise in prose: “The Parson’s Tale”

 

Medieval Drama

13 września 2013

13:38

• It started in church (IN 10-14TH CENTURY)

• Drama built into the Mass

• Set to music,

• Written in Latin

• Included tropes (verbal or musical embellishment of liturgy)

 

LITURGICAL DRAMA - speciments: "Visit to the Sepulchre" with "whom do you seek?" trope; describes the visit of 3 Marys to the empty tomb of Christ. It was staged in churches. Later it moved to streets (performed by ordinary people not professional artists)

MYSTERY PLAYS (14-16 TH CENTURY)

• Performed by local trade guilds or mysteries on Corpus Christi Day

• Composed in cycles (48 individual plays or pageants)

• Composed in vernacular

• "The York Cycle" - 48 episodes

• "The Chester Cycle" - 25 episodes

• Presented biblical events from creation to Doomsday

• Each episode was devoted to one guild.

• Staging: in streets, mobile stages moving from station to station, living pictures, posed scenes without movement, each year different play was performed.

 

THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY:

• The main characters: three shepherds, Mak (the sheep-stealer)

• Shepherds complained about their hardships and poverty,

• One of the sheep is missing, and they think that Mak stole it.

• He stole it to feed his family (he denies)

• The sheep is compared to Christ.

 

MIRACLE PLAYS (Saints' Plays)

• Described the lives and miracles of individual saints and martyrs,

• Emphasis on miraculous convention from sin to grace and on the intervention of saints in the lives of people.

• Examples: "Miracle of Our Lady", "Conversion of St. Paul", "Mary Magdalene"

 

MORALITY PLAYS

• Composed individually,

• 1000 - 3000 lines,

• Originated in sermon literature,

• Composed in vernacular,

• Examples: "The Pride of Wife", "The Castle of Perseverance", "Wisdom", "Mankind", "Everyman"

• Thematic concerns:

• Moral instruction through dramatic action

• Dramatised the progress of a Christians life from innocence to sin, from sin to repentance and salvation,

• Based on the theme of battle between good and evil for the possession of human soul (PSYCHOMACHY)

• Main characters:

• The figures of all men,

• Personification of abstract ideas:

• Events: death, confession

• Human features: Beauty, Strength, Lechery

• Human categories: Good Deeds, Fellowship.

• The characters are divided into the figures of good or evil. The fight for the soul of a human.

 

EVERYMAN (1485 - 1500)

• 1485 - 1500,

• The archetypical, didactic morality play based on a Dutch play,

• Concerns man's preparation for death,

• It contains Dance of Death motif,

• Uses allegorical characters,

• All are equal in the face of death,

• The plot:

Introduction is given by a Messenger: being a sinner is always disastrous,

God speaks - all people are bad and he is disappointed, because they don't feel fear to God. They even forgot the Decalogue. Jesus sacrificed his body for nothing, because people commit too many deadly sins, they do not differentiate between good and bad. They are going to be monsters soon, so he calls for Death.

Death speaks - (s)he is a servant of God, and is appointed by him to go to Everyman and force him to go on pilgrimage. Death will do everything for God, so (s)he agrees. Everyone who is evil is going to be thrown to hell.

• The meeting of Everyman - he is surprised that God thinks of him. Everyman needs reckoning, but he's afraid of it. Unfortunately people must obey death (equality). Death wants everyman to go to the journey and take a book of count with him. He feels that he's not ready, but he has to go.

• Companions of Everyman - Good Deeds, Knowledge (asks him to put the Garment of Sorrow, which symbolises the fact of being a sinner), Beauty, Discretion, Strength, Five Wits.

• Everyone promises to keep him company

• Everyman wants to give all his money to poor people and he wants to receive holly sacraments and ointment.

• The most important is extreme unction, thanks to this, Good Deeds will be strengthened,

• All companions go with Everyman to the grave, but don't want to go further,

• Beauty, Strength, Discretion and 5 Wits go away

• Only internal virtues (Knowledge and Good Deeds) stay with him.

 

 

ALLEGORY - a story in verse or prose with double meaning (primary, surface and literal vs. secondary, under-the-surface, symbolic. The story is understood in two levels.

• Allegory in "Everyman" - literal (a journey of a man), allegorical (duties of the Christian and the way to achieve salvation)

 

 

 

 

The poets of Alliterative Revival

13 września 2013

18:04

• Individuals were writing alliterative verses, but none of manuscripts survived

• Alliterative verse was abandoned in favour of rhyme (showing independence)

• Sudden appearance of large number of written works in English alliterative verse during the last third of the 14th century

• Poets: the Gawain poet, William Langland

• They breathe new life into the traditional native English form inherited from the Anglo-Saxons

• POEMS:

• Written by clerical and well educated poets

• Share themes of high moral seriousness and use northern and western English dialects

• Were works of provincial poets, living far from Chaucer's cosmopolitan London.

 

ALLITERATIVE VS. COURTLY POETRY What distinguishes the poetry of these kind?

• Alliteration,

• Rich description of natural settings,

• Vivid, realistic details,

• Themes of moral seriousness

THE GAWAIN POET:

• Living in 14th century,

• Area of Northern Midlands,

• 4 poems: "Gawain", "Pearl", "Purity", "Patience"

 

METRICAL FORM OF Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

/-/-|/-/- → two half lines are connected by alliteration

 

"BOB AND WHEEL" - the long lines do not rhyme with each other, however they are organised in stanzas of fifteen or twenty five lines, and each stanza concludes with the construction known as "bob and wheel" (ABABA) - more elaborate than the French poetry.

• Its function: summary of a stanza, fulfil moments of suspense, serve as transitions to the next scene, provide relief from heavy alliterative long lines.

 

"THE PEARL"

• An alegorical dream vision with traits of an elegy,

• The poet laments the loss of a pearl - his daughter called Margaret

• Methaphorical disappearence of a pearl symbolises the loss of two-year-old daughter,

• He keeps coming to her burial and mourns,

• He goes to the garden and has got a strange dream, he is carried in strange country, full of rocks and cristals, unusual light is seen,

• Pearls are on the ground and the man comes to the river, but there is no brigde

• Then he sees a beautiful girl with the crown made of pearls on her head, whom he recognises, but cannot speak or move,

• She comes towards him and he thinks that these are the pearls which he sought,

• A dialog between a girl and the narrator: she provides consolation to his soul, he becomes happy instead of lamenting,

• He cannot understand how 2-year-old girl could become a queen of pearl,

• The girl tells him a parable → all workers from the vineyard were given the same amount of money, although they were working longer or shorter - the last shall be the first and first should be the last

• The parable symbolises why a daughter became a queen of heaven - she was clean and hadn't got the first sin

• Innocence is symbolised by a pearl - a perfection

• The poem glorifies purity and perfection,

• It is elaborated in terms of the structure:

• Twelve sections containing 5 stanzas, with the exeption of section 15, which has six stanzas

• The last stanza is indeed linked to the first by concatenation or over-lapping repetition - a link word used in section is the last line of all five stanzas

• Circular design.

 

WILLIAM LANGLAND:

• Born about 10 years before Chaucer (1332-1400),

• Educated in monastery,

• Theological education,

• He became a clerk, having married early, could not take more tha minor order,

• Lived in London for many years,

• Possibly was poorer than Chaucer, lived even in poverty,

• Earned money by singing in a chantry or by copying legal documents

 

"THE VISION OF PIERS PLOWMAN"

• Exists in more than 50 manuscripts,

• We divide the text on A, B, C versions,

• The author spent a lot of time reversing his work,

• Was very living text, widely read throughout the 15th century to 16th century,

• It was a very popular text.

• A dream vision,

• The poet falls asleep on Marvern Hills,

• He sees The Tower of Truth (God), The Dungeon of Falsehood (Devil) and a plain full of people the world of men), all kinds of people, all social classes,

• Then a poet sees the lady called Holy Church, who explains the vision to him - the faith without work means nothing, only love or charity leads to heaven

• Didactic purpose of the poem

• "The confession of 7 deadly sins" - example of allegory. Pride (Lady Peacock) , Lechery (Lady with goat), Envy (angry and wrinkled man), Anger (a nun) , Avarice (a coat), Gluttony (a drunker), Sloth (lazy person) - all are agents, who describe themselves and act out of nature

 

 

 

Medieval prosody

14 września 2013

17:55

RELIGIOUS PROSE:

• 13th century "Manual for anchoress"

• Explained the different aspects of religious rule and devotional conduct

• Addressed to 3 sisters (they must choose the way of life)

• Gave rise in 14th century mysterial writing

 

MYSTICAL WRITING:

• Julian of Norwich (1343 - 1413/1427)

• Name after the cathedral, where she lived

• She first wrote book in English

• Finest English spiritual writer

• "Revelations of Divine Love" - oldest book written by a woman at the age of 30 (13 May 1373), she was ill and was given visions which she wrote down - vision of the Passion of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary; she wrote it down after 20 years.

 

SECULAR PROSE:

• Sir John Mandeville,

• 14t author of "The travels of Sir John Mandeville"

• Written in Norman French

• Translated into English and Latin

• Describes travels through Jerusalem, Egypt, Turkistan, India and China

 

FEMALE WRITTING:

• Margery Kempe (1373 - 1440)

• Religious mystic whose autobiography is one of the earliest in English literature,

• Daughter of a mayor of Lynn

• Married John Kempe in 1393

• Had 14 children,

• She was on lots of pilgrimages

• "The Book of Margery Kempe" - the first autobiography written in English; after having 14 children she had a conversion and wrote a confessional testament; she was illiterate and dictated her book to clerks.

 

THE PASTON LETTERS:

• Correspondence of 15th century Norfolk family

• Written in 1422 - 1509

• Story of a family on their make

• Life of three generations of the family

 

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE:

• Sir Thomas Malory - "The Death of Arthur" (1470)

• the knight of the realm,

• fought in the siege of Calais in 1436, later elected to Parliament

• 20 years in prison, there he wrote his first great work of literary prose

• Printed by William Caxton, the first English printer in 1485

• The story of Arthur and the knights of The Round Table, beginning with Arthur's conception and birth to his death at the hands of his bastard son Mordred.

 

 

 

Renaissance

7 października 2013

08:52

 

Medieval vs Modern: a caution

1. The Middle Ages was said to be an ignorant, backward, narrow, and superstitious period. By contrast, the Renaissance was extolled an learned, civilized, broadminded, progressive, enlightened and free-thinking.

2. In fact in the spheres of ideas the Renaissance did not represent a complete break with the medieval past but many ideas about a man and the universe which were held in the Middle Ages were still held in the fifteenth century.

3. The new ideas of the Renaissance took their place alongside them.

 

When it was born?

• Had its beginnings in 14th century Italy,

• In England - 16th century and was first applied to arts - a rebirth

• In 19th century its meaning was extended and now refers to a general cultural renewal in western Europe - a renewal of values and artistic styles of classical antiquity.

 

Features of the Renaissance:

• The introduction of humanist culture

• The expansion of the knowledge and the rebirth of classical studies ('The New Learning')

• The end of the domination of the Catholic Church and the beginning of the Reformation,

• The birth of the national identity.

 

HUMANIST:

• A student of humanities (humanity, literature)

• A lower of more human letters,

• An admirer of classical models derived from antiquity,

• A writer such models.

• He was a scholar or a teacher.

 

DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HUMANISM:

• The scholarly - you can write a scholarly and recover in it a classical text,

• The stylistic aspect - write stylistics

• Literary criticism

• The ethical - the highest idea of Roman thoughts,

• Positively secular (świecki) - the replacement put from universe to the human.

• The acceptance of human values and life [it was seen as a value in itself]

 

MAN AND HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• A humanist placed great emphasis upon:

• The dignity of men,

• Development of talent and skills (they admired arts, architects, political leaders, scientists and other individuals)

• Abilities and accomplishments of human beings,

• Education.

 

HUMANISM IN ARTS:

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) - a painter, an anatomist, a scientist, an inventor

• Michelangelo Buonarotti - (1475-1564) a sculptor, an architect, a painter, a poet.

 

Michelangelo Bounarotti's 'David': a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture.

The Creation of Adam

 

HUMANIST IN LITERATURE:

• A man described as a crown of creation,

• A man is a piece of work, infinite in faculties, the paragon of animals,

• Underlined theme of ambition seen in Marlowe's 'Dr Faustus', Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'.

 

NEW SCHOLARSHIP:

• Refers to revival of Greek and Latin,

• Rebirth of classical studies,

• Great respect was paid to literature and culture of Antiquity,

• Translation was made in Greek,

• The study of Greek was introduced in England,

• Imitating of classics was regarded as the ideal of artistic creativity.

 

'I FIND NO PIECE':

• A speaker is in love and feels like being in prison,

• Maybe the lady does not know about his feelings,

• He desires and fears at the same time,

• He feels so happy because of being in love,

• She seems the whole world to him,

• He's imprisoned by a lady.

• A lover is a prisoner at the mercy of a lady - a popular convention of sonnets,

• The lady neither lets him go nor die

• He hates himself for being in love,

• He's got contradictory feelings - oxymoron

• It doesn't refers to court of Henry VIII

• It is a translation of Petrarch poet.

 

'WHOSO LIST TO HUNT':

• Who wishes to hunt?

• They want to find a hind,

• For him the hunt is over and gives reasons why.

• He was tired because of working so hard to hunt.

• He's at the very end of the group of hunting

• He cannot stop thinking about a deer even he has no chance to haunt a deer.

• All he catches is a wind (meaning nothing)

• He gives a piece of advice how to hunt:

• A deer has a graven with diamonds

• She is owned by Ceasar, and they should not touch her.

• Hunters are men who want to win a love of a lady (a hind)

• A hind is Anne Boleyn, a wife of Henry VIII

• Hunting with the king was not for everyone. It's for a selected few.

• Thomas Wyatt didn't want to be accused of treason.

 

THEY FLEE FROM ME:

• A women run away from a man,

• Women are animals, they were tame, but they deserted from him,

• A woman didn't want to be associated with a man because he lost the favours of being king's companion

• Women are continuously changing

• Love is described as events from the court

 

HENRY HOWARD 'Love that doth reign...'

• A fight between love and the poet,

• He's imprisoned by love,

• Love who is victory often puts a banner on his face - he blushes,

• When he stays in front of a lady, she firstly smiled, but after some time, she becomes angry,

• Love escapes to his heart,

• He attempts not to show his love again

• Even though being rejected he thinks that death because of love is sweet,

• Interesting in terms of stylistics.

 

PHILIP SIDNEY 'From Antrophel and Stella'

• Pleasure might cause that a lady reads a poem and falls with love with a writer

• He searches for proper words in other writings,

• He reads other poetry to be inspired, but cannot come up with an idea to write a poetry,

• The writers block - who to write?

• Inspiration is a nature's child not education,

• He has read so many poems that he cannot write anything that is his own,

• The poem is like a baby who the poet wants give birth to

• A muse tells him to look in the heart and write,

• The role of a poet was to appeal to a lady.

 

EDMUND SPENCER 'From Amoretti'

• He desires to be a poem read by his beloved,

• The image of a lady: she seems to by ideal, her hands have power to kill, he has got beautiful eyes, but can or cannot look at him if she wants to,

• He's a prisoner of a lady, the only purpose of a poem is to make a lady happy

 

MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE:

• Combined the life of action with the life of contemplation,

• A man, who was both courtly and learned,

• Both a 'perfect gentle-knight' (like the knight of Chaucer) and a scholar and poet

• A 'complete man' or a 'well-rounded man'

• An individual who, in addition to participating actively in the affairs of public life, possessed knowledge of and skill in many subject areas,

• A man of many talents who lived life to the fullest.

 

• Sir Philip Sidney,

• Francis Bacon who had declared: 'I have taken all knowledge to be a province'

• Desiderius Erasmus 9taught Greek at Cambridge)

• Sir Thomas Moore.

 

 

SIR THOMAS MOORE - one of the most attractive spirit of the reign of Henry VIII, educated in law at Oxford, served as sheriff and Member of Parliament for London, treasurer under Henry VIII, speaker of the House of Commons and in 1529 became Lord Chancellor of England, a position second only to that of king. A statesman with vast experience in the everyday political life of the English nation and a humanist, opposed Henry VIII's claim to be regarded as head of the Church, he beheaded in 1535.

• He encouraged education,

• he believed in equal opportunities between men and women in terms of education.

• His daughter Margaret More was one of the most educated women in that time.

• Her story is told in John Guy's 'A daughter's Love'.

 

• 'Utopia' - 1516, a description of a perfect country, it was inspired by Moore's meeting with a Portuguese sailor who had sailed with Amerigo Vespucci on the last of three of his four voyages. Literally the title of the book which is Greek means 'nowhere' or 'no place'. In the island people are spending their time by doing good deeds to one another. They want to do something for a country and develop the country. Everyone does three things: works, prays and studies. There's no division of labour. Six hours a day was devoted to work, and the rest of time was free (attending lectures, educating mind and spirit). The sick are carefully treated, all wear identical clothes except from those who are married or single. The wrongdoers are not executed, but do something good for the society. The island is against war, because they knew the danger of it. If there is any need to fight, let's hire barbarians, not to do it ourselves. Was written and published in Latin, but was reprinted many times in English.

 

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

• Began in 1517 with Martin's Luther's attack on the Church's corruption

• His followers - the Protestants broke with the doctrine of the Church,

• Europe divided into states either Catholic or Protestant

 

THE PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANTISM:

• Rejection of the Pope, as a spiritual leader,

• The rejection of the authority of a Church ant its priests to mediate between human beings and God,

• Emphasis on a personal, individual connection with God,

• The only authority on religious matters was the Bible.

 

THE LITERARY CONSEQUENCES OF REFORMATION:

• The Bible was translated into national languages in order to be easily read.

• The King James' version of a Bible which was published in 1611, and was considered the most authoritary,

• The Bible provided inspiration for poets and was a source of symbols used in the literary works.

 

The birth of national identity:

• The growth of the nation state - connected with the division of Christianity into Catholic and protestant forms,

• European countries were organised into self-contained states,

• National feeling came to the fore,

• Resulted in competitive exploration of the world,

• An increasing importance of national languages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Renaissance in England (1485-1660)

21 października 2013

08:58

 

THE DIVISION INTO FOUR DISTRICT AGES:

• The Tudor Period (1485 - 1603), including the Elizabethan Age (1558 - 1603) - regarded as the most fruitful in the English literature, period of Shakespeare, sonnets, courtly poetry, poems created on the praise of Elisabeth, a topic of poetry is love

• The Jacobean Age (1603 - 1625) - the most prominent contribution was king's James Bible; many volumes produced in terms of religion; metaphysical and cavalier poetry, religious matters, interruption between God and men, connected with knowledge.

• The Caroline Age (1625 - 1649)

• The Commonwealth Period (or Puritan Interregnum) (1649 - 1660) - literature before, in, and after The Civil War; political works were published.

Sir Thomas Wyatt - Tudor Period

Henry Howard Tudor Period

Sir Philip Sidney the Elizabethan Age

Edmund Spenser the Elizabethan Age

Christopher Marlowe the Elizabethan Age

Sir Walter Raleigh the Elizabethan Age

William Shakespeare Elizabethan Age

John Donne Jacobean period

George Herbert Jacobean period

 

THE ELISABETHAN AGE:

• The translations of classical works into English,

• Italianism - influence of Italian poetry, Petrarch.

• Patriotic Exaltation - consciousness of English strength, patriotic pride in being English,

• The High Conception of Poetry - poet is like a diviner, superior, poet is a monarch of poetry

• The Spirit of Independence - rejection of strict rules in 16th and 17th century

• The Spirit of Adventure - physical adventures in discovering the world, intellectual adventures in rediscovering Greek, literary adventures in new ways of writing, experimenting with the forms.

 

THE MAIN TRENDS IN LITERATURE:

• Petrarchism - the imitation of Petrarch's style

• Pastoralism - idealisation of lives of shepherds in poetry.

Examples: Spencer's 'Shepherd's Calendar', Sidney's 'Arcadia', Marlowe's 'The Passionate Shepherd to his love'

 

THE LITERARY GENRES OF ENGLISH RENAISSANCE:

• Lyric poetry, particularly the sonnets - poetry of Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare

• Prose - 'The defence of poesy' by Sidney

• Elizabethan drama - plays of Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and others.

 

LYRIC POETRY - Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard.

• They were both courtiers of Henry VIII,

• Literary innovators,

• Admired and imitated foreign, especially Italian, poetry

• Wyatt - spent a lot of time travelling, the king had him imprisoned

• Howard - brilliant soldier, his parents were descended from English Kings, he aspired to great things, he was imprisoned and executed at the age of 30, managed to change the nature of English poetry.

• They introduced sonnets to England from Italy,

• Howard introduced blank verse - unrhymed iambic pentameter (related to the natural speech of English language)

• Both poets produced other works, but they were not printed or distributed,

• They had no ambition to be known as publishers, they would rather be a courtiers to compose sonnets, courtly poetry,

• Poets were printed after their death.

 

SONGS AND SONETTES / TOTTEL'S MISCELLANY (1557)

• THE FIRST ANTHOLOGY of English poetry,

• Consisted of 271 poems, none of which had ever been printed before,

• Comprised mostly the works of Wyatt and Howard,

• Is regarded the most important English poetic collection in the 16the century and inaugurated a long series of poetic anthologies in Elizabethan England.

• Tottel changed the poetry a lot, which we cannot approve nowadays, and that's why it has got a bad reputation.

 

 

EDMUND SPENCER ''Sonnet LXXV''

• Ability of love to transcend all boundaries,

• A man writes his lover's name on the sand in order to be remembered forever, but the name is washed by water,

• He tries to do it again, but it does not succeed,

• A female voice says him that he works in vain to make her immortal,

• Death cannot extinguish love,

• A comparison between a sea and death, he tries to convey the sense of immortal death while talking about sea,

• A play of words 'in vain' and 'vain' - he tries to do something that he cannot, his effort is futile,

• Finally he wants to make her immortal in the poetry - ETERNISING CONCEIT.

 

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ''The Passionate Shepherd to His Love''

• A man asks a girl to be his lover,

• They are going to enjoy life full of pleasure,

• He's not a shepherd, he distances himself from them,

• Life of shepherds is poor, and in this poem all hardships of life are omitted,

• Actually a man is very rich and is going to buy everything the lady wants,

• He wants to appeal to the lady,

• A girl may be lured, or may believe him,

• The future is not mentioned, it's only here and now.

 

SIR WALTER RALEGH ''Answer to Marlowe''

• A woman is going to be his lover under certain conditions,

• Lots of poems were written as answers to Marlowe,

• All promises and assuring of goods are not important for the lady,

• If it was always like that, then she would be his lover,

• Those goods are not important for her future,

• He cannot stop the time, that's why he's a liar.

 

SIR WALTER RALEGH ''On the Life of Man''

• life is like a theatre performance,

• A poem written in a very Elizabethan style,

• Our happiness lasts as long as the interval during the play,

• We were prepared for life in our mother's womb, which is here similar to tiring-houses,

• God is the spectator of our performance, he judges us and check who makes mistakes in ''the play'',

• When we die, our performance is over,

• We die in all the seriousness, it's not a joke.

 

Sir Philip Sidney - 1554 - 1589, a soldier and statesman of very high birth, he studied in Oxford, appointed governor of Flushing (a fortress in the Netherlands), he was mortally wounded in the battle against the Spanish, buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

• He was idealised by English, was considered a perfect gentleman, embodiment of knighthood,

• When lying wounded, he gave his water to another wounded soldier, saying: 'thy necessity it yet a greater than mine'.

• Can be considered the renaissance man - he could do different things, not only poetry,

• Was connected with many important people,

HIS WORKS:

• 'The countess of Pemborke's Arcadia (1590, 1593) - considered as the most important piece of work before the 18th century, it is a romance, described as the entertainment for friends and family, public ideas, modelled on French and Italian romances. It tells the story of two princes, who have many interesting adventures. It might be compared to Shakespeare's comedies. All ends well, it has very nice plot.

• 'Astrophel and Stella' (1591) - the 1st collection of sonnets in English, Elisabethan sequence of sonnets, there are more than 100 sonnets, of various kinds, the title comes from Stella, which means 'the star' and Astrophel means 'the star lover', or PHEL - Philip Sidney, an author plays the role of a lover of Stella.

• 'The Apology for Poetry (1595) or The Defence of Poesy - one of the earliest critical essay in English literature, it is a defence against those who tried to underline their value. Poetry is just a fiction, we should not treat is as real. The poet does not affirm anything, he is not to give us facts of life.

  • Poetry as imitation - the main purpose of poetry is to teach and delight, it imitates reality, a poem is a speaking picture,

  • Didactic purpose - moving, delighting and teaching. Poetry is profitable because it teaches delightfully to move us to action. The poet creates pictures, that are metaphorical.

  • A picture of a philosopher and historian - the philosopher gives us a rule, a precept, we learn only abstract ideas from him. We need an example of behaviour which is given by a historian.

  • Imaginative literature is better than pictorial. The poetry is a teacher of virtue. The poet is a monarch. The main purpose of poetry is to make live attractive. If people read poetry of heroism, justice or other examples, which are not abstract, they become more virtue. Poetry is to instil the proper behaviour, moral rules which are combined with delight.

  • Poetry has its role, a goal to make people better. The poet is a kind of prophet, superior and the poetry works in the theme of imagination.

  • The role of poetry is to combine the moral teaching with aesthetic pleasure (docere et delectare).

 

Edmund Spencer (1552 - 1599) - he regarded himself as a poet, he became known as ''the poets' poet'', because lots of poets were studying his poetry as an art and craft. He attended Cambridge University, from which he received the B.A and M.A degrees, served as personal secretary to the Earl of Leicester, favourite of Queen Elisabeth, from 1580 he lived in Ireland. He based this poetry on chivalric poetry.

• The Faerie Queen - about 33,000 lines, a romantic or chivalric epic with marvels, knights, ladies, battles, tournaments, dragons, giants, demons, dwarfs, enchantments. A deeper significance of a story. His main purpose is moral teaching, which is stated in one of letters in this work. First 6 books there are heroes and heroines that exemplify such virtues like: superhuman powers, holiness. The Faerie Queen is a very faraway hero, but presents the picture of Queen Elisabeth I. He puts into practice the spirit of The Apology for Poetry.

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet XVIII'': (Shall I compare thee to a summer day?)

• A lady is more beautiful than summer,

• Positive connotations,

• summer is always too hot, too short - never perfect,

• Everything connected with summer passes away, but the beauty of a lady does not,

• Summer is deprived of its beauty, but the lady isn't,

• Even death won't take her beauty away from her,

• The lady is more stable than summer,

• The poem will make her immortal, she will last forever.

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet CXVI'' (Let me not to the marriage of true minds...)

• One of the most famous love poem in English,

• There are no reasons why people shouldn't marry each other,

• Love isn't true, when it undergoes certain changes,

• Even if there's a change involved, love should not change,

• Love is like a guiding star to lost ships,

• The value of love cannot be measured,

• Love should endure till the last day of our life,

• Even the age and the loss of beauty, should not change love,

• People unfortunately tend to love in this way, when there are some changes, they also change their feelings,

• If the poet is wrong, all his works must be considered lies, and he's not William Shakespeare anymore, and no man ever truly loved.

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet CXXX'' (My mistress' eyes are nothing like a sun)

• A lady cannot be compared to the sun, or coral, or snow, or wires, because this would suggest that she's not ideal,

• A girl cannot be conventionally compared to the nature,

• Women shouldn't be misrepresented by ridiculous comparisons,

• The comparison to the nature is worn out,

• That's why his lady and his love is unique, unusual => the lady isn't compared to the nature, like the convention of other poets said.

 

 

 

 

 

The Development of sonnet in England

4 listopada 2013

08:48

 

SONNET - from Italian ''sonnetto'' - little sound or song, a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns.

 

The Petrarchan sonnet - sonnets to Laura, his ''Canzoniere'' with 317 sonnets in a narrative sequences set a European fashion, they were based on courtly love conventions, the poet addressed the praised the lady and describes love using several oxymoronic phrases and images, Laura is described by conventional - the way how courtly lady was always presented, as ideal, unfulfilled love. The poet lover described himself as humbled lover, burning with desire and then freezing. The love is hopeless, but his sonnets are interesting because of:

• Elaborate metaphors [Petrarchan conceits],

• Strict structure, oxymorons.

 

OXYMORON - literary figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory words, terms are combined to create a rhetorical effect by paradoxical means: war is peace, cruel kindness.

 

• This figure was often used in the middle ages, and in English poetry to describe love.

 

THOMAS WYATT:

• Introduced the sonnets form from Italy to England,

• Translated sonnets of Petrarch,

• He used Petrarch conventions of

  • courtly love,

  • the lamenting lover,

  • the hard-hearted and cruel mistress.

• His later sonnets he begins to discard the convention of courtly love,

• He introduces other topics (personal or political)

 

''I find no peace'':

• Ideas of sonnets are always expressed in 14 lines,

• Organised into two, three or four parts,

• Octave - 8 lines ABBA, ABBA

• Sestet - 6 lines, CDD, CEE,

• The last two lines will be treated as a separate part,

• Formal organisation, logical organisation,

• At the beginning of Sestet it will be a TURN, a sign of emotional shift, counterarguments

 

HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY:

• His sonnets were more popular than Wyatt's,

• He introduced some changes into English sonnets' construction:

• The rhyming scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

• Adopts a more detached stance: he is more of an observer than an involved lover,

• Often shapes poems as tributes: to Wyatt, to his comrade-in-arms, or to the king.

• Occasional poetry,

• He introduced blank verse.

 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SONNET CYCLES:

• Sonnet cycles - sequences of sonnets, presenting the story of a love affair in all its stages,

• Sir Philip Sidney's ''Astrophel and Stella'' (1591) - the firsts English sonnet cycle that appeared in print, a collection of 108 sonnets,

• 1595 - Spencer's ''Amoretti'' appeared - a loosely arranged sequence of 88 sonnets on courtship,

• Started in England the fashion for writing similar sequences.

 

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY:

• Author of the first sonnet sequence,

• Describes moments in the love of Starlover (Astrophill) for Star (Stella),

• Phil is Sidney's name and Stella is modelled on Penelope Devereux.

• He writes also about poetry, imagination - self-referential.

 ''Astrophel and Stella''

• Rhyme pattern: abab, abab, cdcd, ee.

• 3 Quatrains - 4 lines and a couplet - 2 lines,

 

THE SPENCERIAN SONNET:

• Acquired more meditative and narrative tone,

• Rhyme pattern: abab, bcbcb, cdcd, ee.

• Spencer abandons a convention of courtly love, and follows a slightly medieval conception in his treatment of the love theme,

• He showed the triumph of virtuous courtship leading to betrothal and marriage,

• Lots of conventional model of writing

 

William Shakespeare

4 listopada 2013

09:22

• His sonnets sequence appeared in 1609,

• There are 154 sonnets, 36 plays

• Their speaker is male, and their chief subject is love,

• The rest remains speculation: who is the person speaking, is he a character or dramatist himself? Who is a man and a lady?

• The most personal expression of his live

• He paid attention to the seasons of a year, time.

• First 126 sonnets are addressed to a man.

 

THE SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET:

• 3 quatrains, 1 couplet,

• VOLTA (turn) - very subtle shift from describing the transitory of thought,

• Iambic pentameter,

• Rhyming pattern: abab, cdcd, efef, gg,

• Final couplet was always a very strong, personal and powerful statement.

 

THE MOVIE - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

• The eldest son of John Shakespeare (glove maker), who enabled him to education,

• 1564 - his date of birth,

• While the plague of the bubonic he was able not to become ill.

• Attended the Local Grammar School [7 years of literary studies], he studied Latin, literature, but it's not sure according to the critics.

• 1578 - he left studies and worked to support the family [5 brothers and sisters]

• What he did, is unsure - butcher or a teacher,

• Married Ann Hathaway (1582) - nothing more is known about the marriage

• Susanna was his first child, Hamlet and Juliet - the twins

• 1586 - he abandoned Stratford upon Avon, leaving Ann and their children,

• After the marriage there is a big gap about the knowledge of Shakespeare - ''lost years''

• He may have joined the company of players, but it's not certain => theatre was expanding, and developing in London, so that's why there are such assumptions that Shakespeare may have been an actor, or printer's playwright,

• He may have given a tuition to younger children,

• after 1590s he produced lots of plays.

• Shakespeare's boys

• Sonnets - they are autobiographical poems, it covers themes of love, companionship, relationship with a man probably, last sonnets were about a woman who he loves, desires, idealises. They may be psychological document about Shakespeare.

• 154 sonnets

• 1594 - 1603 - he joined Chamble's Man, where he worked for the rest of his live

• Ben Johnson - his rival in playwright also didn't have a University education => it's not necessary to have such a good education to write genius poems or dramas. In this period he wrote the most popular tragedies:

• Midsummer's Night Dream,

 

Sonnets

5 listopada 2013

16:45

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet XVIII'': (Shall I compare thee to a summer day?)

• A lady is more beautiful than summer,

• Positive connotations,

• summer is always too hot, too short - never perfect,

• Everything connected with summer passes away, but the beauty of a lady does not,

• Summer is deprived of its beauty, but the lady isn't,

• Even death won't her beauty away from her,

• The lady is more moderate than summer,

• The poem will make her immortal, she will last forever.

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet CXVI'' (Let me not to the marriage of true minds...)

• One of the most famous love poem in English,

• There are no reasons why people shouldn't marry each other,

• Love isn't true, when it undergoes certain changes,

• Even if there's a change involved, love should not change,

• Love is like a guiding star to lost ships,

• The value of love cannot be measured,

• Love should endure till the last day of our life,

• Even the age and the loss of beauty, should not change love,

• People unfortunately tend to love in this way, when there are some changes, they also change their feelings,

• If the poet is wrong, all his works must be considered lies, and he's not William Shakespeare anymore, and no man ever truly loved.

 

William Shakespeare ''Sonnet CXXX'' (My mistress' eyes are nothing like a sun)

• A lady cannot be compared to the sun, or coral, or snow, or wires, because this would suggest that she's not ideal,

• A girl cannot be conventionally compared to the nature,

• Women shouldn't be misrepresented by ridiculous comparisons,

• The comparison to the nature is worn out,

• That's why his lady and his love is unique, unusual => the lady isn't compared to the nature, like the convention of other poets said.

 

 

 

Macbeth

5 listopada 2013

16:45

 

• All misfortunes are caused by fortune and fate,

• Characters are responsible for their actions,

• Each of characters have evil features

 

WITCHES:

• Powers of darkness,

• Fate,

• Their language is strange, they speak in paradoxes,

• They are prophets,

• They want to talk to Macbeth and tell him about his future,

• Devils,

• Banquo says that they tempt them, they should not believe them, it may be a trap,

• They can know Macbeth's nature,

• The timing of appearing witches is perfect,

 

 

MACBETH:

• Brave in battlefield of Scotland vs. Norway,

• Is going to be promoted,

• Should be happy about the prophecy, which turned out to be true, but he is sad and anxious,

• He doesn't believe that he can be a king, when Duncan is still alive,

• Two parts of the prophecy are already fulfilled, so he becomes more trusting towards witches,

• Wants to murder a king, he is free in choice,

 

BANQUO:

• Is more detached, not so excited, not so passionate,

• Stoical attitude,

• Witches might not tell true,

 

LADY MACBETH:

• She is afraid of Macbeth's nature,

• Her role is to encourage Macbeth and to make him sure of his actions,

• The golden round is the only desire for them, they don't know actually why they want to rule the country,

• She wants to be deprived of her feminity,

• She wants to be cruel,

 

 

The Shakespearian tragedy

2 grudnia 2013

09:03

 

Andrew Cecil Bradley - (1851 - 1935) the was an English literary scholar, best remembered for his work on the Shakespeare entitled Shakespearean Tragedy (1904).

 

THE ESSENCE OF TRAGEDY:

• The substance of tragedy, nature of tragic aspect of life, tragic conceptions or conception of tragedy.

 

Medieval Concept of tragedy:

• In the middle ages is was a tragedy of fate,

• A story about the fall of man from fortune to misery,

• Describes a total reversal of fortune, coming upon a happy and apparently secure man who 'stood in high degree' - was probably a knight, and then he was thrown off the wheel of Fortune.

• It made people feel that man is blind and helpless, the plaything of Fortune - a power appears to smile on him for a while, and then suddenly strikes him down in the pride.

• He could not be happy, because he knew that he will be miserable one day, it was better to be sad than happy.

 

Renaissance concept of a tragedy:

• Tragedy of character

• Tragic events proceed mainly from actions of men,

• The centre of the tragedy may be said to lie in action issuing from character,

• In this sense the hero himself contributes to the disaster which leads to his death,

• The calamities and catastrophe follow inevitably from the deeds of man, and the main source of these deeds is character.

 

The Shakespearean hero:

• He is usually a man (not a woman) of noble rank (a king, prince, leader of state)

• He creates or is put into, a difficult situation which he must try to resolve,

• A combination of bad luck and bad decisions lead to his death,

• A man from a noble birth who falls from a position of honour and respect due to a flaw in his character.

• ''No play at the end of which the hero remains alive is, in the fool Shakespearean sense, a tragedy''(Bradley)

 

Other elements:

• abnormal conditions of mind - insanity, sleep-walking, hallucinations,

• The supernatural - ghosts, witches, who have supernatural knowledge, they reflect the human mind, thoughts, subconscious.

• 'chance' or 'accident' often have an important influence at some point of the action.

 

Macbeth:

• Shakespeare's source - Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland

• In this collections of historical essays, Shakespeare read about the real life Macbeth, who reigned as a king of Scotland from 1040 to 1057

• The real Macbeth gained the throne with the help of other noblemen who were dissatisfied with Kind Duncan, a young and ineffective man,

• Shakespeare also read bout king Duff, who was murdered.

 

MACBETH AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT - scholars believe Shakespeare may have been drawn to the story of King Duff because similar events that were happening in his own time - the Gunpowder Plot (1605).

 

Later sonnets

30 listopada 2013

16:41

LATER SONNETS:

• In the 17th century religion gradually replaced love as the primary subject of the sonnet.

• With time, poets were tired of conventional views of love, so they started to write poetry on other topics.

 

JOHN DONNE (1573 - 1631)

• The first to express and fully develop the potential of the form for the expression of religious faith

• His Holly Sonnets (1608 - 1610) explore his obsession with death and salvation.

• Changed the face of sonnets in several ways:

His sonnets focus on religious topic

He experiments with form and structure - many of his poems do not follow the traditional division octave - sestet division

His sonnets dignify the genre - the sonnet becomes a forum for intense religious sentiments.

• Man’s love to God, instead to a lady.

• They are more appealing than other sonnets, uniquely ,metaphysical

 

JOHN MILTON (1608 - 1674)

• He revived the form

• Adopted Petrarchan rhyme scheme, but rejected the traditional Petarchan themes,

• Turned to topics as personal themes:

  • His blindness,

  • The death of his wife,

  • Public or occasional themes - Civil War of England, religious prosecution or political protests,

  • Heroic themes in praise of famous men (the development unique to Milton)

 

 

Elizabethan Theatre

9 grudnia 2013

08:51

 

Elizabethan playwrights:

• Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1583) - the son of the shoemaker, and the brilliant student (he won a scholarship to the King's school in Canterbury and Corpus Christ College in Cambridge - it was given to future priests); after receiving his BA and MA he became a spy for the government (secret service).

  • The father of English Tragedy, author of the greatest tragedies

  • One of his most important themes was ambition,

  • Tamburlaine the Great(1587-88) - he introduces a villain hero, overcome with political ambition.

  • The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1588-92) - he depicts the ambition of an intellectual kind, retelling the story from the medieval legend about the search for ultimate knowledge. It recalls the tradition of morality plays.

  • The Jew of Malta - (1592)a representative revenge tragedy about a Jew wronged by Christians, who plots a series of crimes avenging himself in his enemies.

  • He is known for the establishment of the blank verse

  • Marlowe's mighty lines - he established blank verse as the staple medium for later Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic writing. His mighty lines refer to blank verse with its new vigour, force and fire to suit his heroic themes.

  • Marlowe's mysterious death - he died in thirty in a dagger fight in a tavern. His death is shrouded in mystery and one of the theories has it that he didn't die at all. With the help of his powerful friends he staged his own death and fled the country to escape the execution. To make money he continued writing plays under the name of William Shakespeare.

• Ben Johnson (1572 - 1637) - a man of enormous learning, a soldier of Flanders, an actor, the author of realistic comedies, which are the most important.

  • Every Man in His Humour - a comedy which inaugurated the school of realistic comedy. It is a comedy of humour - a special type of realistic comedy that was developed in the closing years if the sixteenth century. It described characters whose actions were ruled by a particular passion, trait, disposition of humour. Human character is explained by the influence of particular humour:

    • the dominance of blood - sanguine; the element which ruled them was air, the planet was Jupiter.

    • The dominance of choler - choleric; water, Moon.

    • The dominance of melancholy - melancholic; Fire, Mars

    • The dominance of phlegm - phlegmatic; Earth, Saturn.

  • Basically the comedy of humour was a psychological interpretation of character and personality. It shows a tendency to subordinate everything to development of character.

  • Other plays by Jonson - Volpone - a satirical comedy, it satirizes the lust for wealth, a play of uncomfortable cynicism and bitterness. The Alchemist - satirizes swindlers who exploit the foolish by tempting them with riches.

• John Lyly (1554 - 1606) - best known for books called Euphuse - highly sophisticated language (euphuistic language or style), it has two features: elaborate sentence structure and wealth of ornament including proverbs, incidents from history and poetry. It was at the height of popularity in the 1580s.

• Thomas Kyd (1558 - 1594)

  • The Spanish Tragedy - one of the earliest plays based on blood-revenge to be performed on the English stage. Probably it was acted during the 16th century than any other English play. It contains a motif of ghosts but also a personified spirit of Revenge, giving the play framework that involves supernatural forces and the working of fate. The protagonist struggles to achieve justice through their own actions. Hieronimo's desire for vengeance is in a very real sense a passion for justice.

• William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

 

UNIVERSITY WITS - it refers to university-educated playwrights, noted for their erudition and clever language. They graduated from Oxford or Cambridge and then turned to playwright to make a living, writing for both popular theatre and more sophisticated audience. Examples: John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene.

 

PERFORMANCES - travelling acting companies - they roamed the land and performed in halls of great houses, Inns of Court and inn-yards (max. Capacity - 500 people). There were certain problems connected with this type of staging like: the reputation of vagabonds, the public disorders (fights, drunk men), the opposition of Puritans (they disliked any kind of entertainment including plays), dangerous in terms of the plague (encouraged the spread of the disease - lots of people gathered together).

ELIZABETHAN ACTING TROUPES - in order to gain the protection and social acceptance, acting companies begun to seek the sponsorship of noblemen and royalty in the late 16th century. These sponsors showed their support to the acting companies by giving them their name, and thus Elizabethan Acting Troupes were formed. Examples: Lord Chamberlain's Men (Shakespeare was connected with them), The King's Men.

ELISABETHAN PLAYHOUSES - the first theatre was built in 1578 by James Burbage and called ''The Theatre''. It was built outside the boundary of the City. It facilitated its development. At the end of Elizabethan period there were 11 theatres developed. There were public and private houses.

• Public houses - open amphitheatres, capable of holding 2000 - 3000 people, roofed stage supported by columns, unroofed space - a yard surrounding the stage on three sides. The yard cots less, the gallery more. The audience of public theatres were made up of all classes of people. Public performances took place in the afternoon, beginning at 3 o'clock, and lasted for 2 hours, because of limited artificial lightning. The beginning was announced by hoisting a flag. Examples: ''The Rose'' (1587), ''The Swan'' (1595), ''The Globe'' (1599), ''The Fortune'' (1600), ''The Red Bull'' (1604)

• Private playhouses - they were smaller (seating about 500 people at best), it was completely enclosed, roofed, the first was opened in 1576 ''Blackfriars's Theatre'' (built on the grounds of former monastery). Could be used throughout the year. It was charged more for the show (2 to 26 pennies; public theatres: 1 - 3 pennies). It was much more convenient, the lightening was provided. The more you paid, the more comfortable it was. Going to private playhouses was a form of showing off.

 

Metaphysical poetry (17th century)

16 grudnia 2013

09:23

 

The 17th century in England is the century of revolution.

• Political conflicts: The English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the interregnum, the restoration of monarchy, the Glorious Revolution.

• Religious conflicts: nearly half of the books published in England between 1600 - 1640 were about religious matter.

• Ideological conflicts: new ideas, which had been coming into England throughout the 16th century, now began to enter at greater speed and with a greater force. One of the proponents of new ideas was Francis Bacon .

 

FRANCIS BACON - politician, philosopher, essayist, scientists, ''I have taken all knowledge to be my province'', passionate in scientific experiments. His achievements:

• Introduced the use of inductive methods of reasoning - from observation to generalisation, focus on observation and experiment

• Redefined the function of knowledge: the aim of knowledge is to have control over nature and man's environment for ''the relief of man's estate''.

• The improvement of conditions of human living.

• He wanted to liberate science from theology.

• He was the first to popularize the idea of scientific progress,

• He encouraged the view that knowledge was not to be something to be sought from ancient authorities, but something to be achieved by thought and observation.  

Schools of poetry:

• Metaphysical poetry,

• Cavalier poetry

 

Metaphysical poets:

• John Donne - (1572 - 1631) the founder of metaphysical school of poetry, a courtier, a lawyer (an Oxford Graduate), a priest, born and raised in Roman Catholic when it was illegal to be Catholic in England. He decided to embrace Anglican faith; ordained a priest, became Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, which was very important position.

  • Donne's preaching - In 1623 Donne wrote a series of meditations prompted by a serious illness. The most famous of these Meditation XVII, which gave the title to E. Hemingway's For whom the bell tolls. ''No man is an Island'', ''Every man is a part of the continent'' - if a man dies, it affects him, because he is a part of mankind. Don't ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you. An author may not realise that a bell tolls for him - can be not aware of death.

  • His poetry (Metaphysical poetry in general) - learned, passionate, argumentative, intellectual, often resembles a puzzle to be solved by the reader, makes use of ingenious imagery and puzzling conceits (surprising comparisons), rejects Elizabethan love conventions, witty - intelligence, hilarious, deeply religious and deeply sensual.

• George Herbert - born into a respected Welsh family, a Cambridge graduate, a public orator, an Anglican priest: all his poems have religious subjects, he is known as ''Holly Mr. Herbert'' - the saint of the Metaphysical school''.

  • His works - ''The Temple'' (1633) - a collection of Herbert's poems published after the poet's death. The poem refers to the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and his soul, before he could subjects himself to the will of Jesus, his master. The poem imitates the architectural style of churches through both the meaning of the words and their visual layout - PATTERN POETRY.

  • Pattern poetry - a kind of poem has its lines arranged to represent the physical objects, or to suggest action/motion, mood/feeling, but usually shape and the motion. Geometric figures are common; other shapes are wings, egg, spear (Cuddon 651).

    • 'The Altar'

    • 'Easter wings'

• Andrew Marvell - (1621 - 1678) - a poet and the politician, Member of the House of Commons, in his poetry he satirized the British court and parliament, his most celebrated lyric is ''To His Coy Mistress''. - a variation of the Carpe Diem theme.

  • ''Time's winged chariot...'' - time as a warrior

 

CAVALIER POETRY - the group of poets associated with Charles 1^st and his son. Their goal was to write poems what sound like elegant conversation; they use direct and colloquial language and write casual, affectionate poetry, they accept the ideal of the Renaissance gentleman who is at once:

• a lover,

• a soldier,

• a man of affairs,

• a musician,

• a poet, but a pattern of Christian chivarly.

 

CAVALIER POETRY VS. METAPHYSICAL POETRY

• Cavalier poets avoid the subject of religion,

• They do not explore the depths of human soul,

• They treat life and poetic convention in a carefree, nonchalant way,

• For them life is to be enjoyed and poetry should celebrate life,

• Their poetry celebrates the minor pleasures of life.

 

CAVALIER POETS:

1. Ben Jonson - dramatist and poet; he wrote ''Masks'' - elaborate production involving engineers, actors, musicians, his attitude to writing was different from Shakespeare - he wanted to publish his works, known as ''Works''. He used this term to give a value to poems. In his view poetry was equal to any other branches of knowledge. He was a literary dictator in London - he was admired by so called ''The Tribe of Ben'' or ''The Sons of Ben''. They helped him when he needed. He was buried in Westminster Abbey near Chaucer.

2. Sir John Suckling - another of the followers of Ben Jonson; he paid attention more on gambling than poetry. His poetry is very light-hearted, carefree, cheerful.

3. Richard Lovelace - a more serious poet than those others, he was attractive and handsome, conneser of music, horses, graduated from Oxford University, he fought bravely for the king, he was imprisoned by Puritans, the last years of his life were spent by wandering through the streets of London.

4. Robert Herrick - Cambridge Graduate, he was born in merchant family, he is similar to Herbert. After graduating, he spent 10 years in London. He was established a priest - which he treated as exile. After some time he accepted it. He wrote a book called: ''Hesperides'' - based on classical mythology, it is a collective name for the sisters who lived in the garden full of fresh things. He borrowed a lot from classics. He was able to write in Latin and he also took inspiration from it.

 

 

 

John Milton (1574 - 1608)

20 stycznia 2014

09:13

 

1. His early poetic works show Milton's classical learning:

• A conventional ode 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity' - 1629, ''Mask''

• A pair of poems: 'L'Allegro' (the merry man) and 'Il Penseroso' (the meditative man) (c. 1631 - 34)

• Two masques 'Comus' (1634) and Lycidas (1637)

2. Pamphlets in English and Latin

• Areopagitica (1644) - an oration for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England.

• Four successive treatises advocating divorce,

• A number of sonnets.

 

HIS PRINCIPLES:

He imitated classics, human action is influenced by divine plans, ground style - only a language of supreme beauty was going to be suitable to his works; psychological penetration - taking us inside the soul of the protagonist.

 

John Milton's ''ON HIS BLINDNESS'' - 17th century sonnets, very personal, it is one of the poems which were dictated to his daughter, when he lost his vision. He asks how can he serve to God by writing poetry when he is blind. He was given the talent, but couldn't really use it. The service is not the point. God doesn't want us to serve him, because there are thousands who serve him. God desires only to stand and wait. God wants our hearts to be obedient. If he takes something away from us, we should accept it - and then we serve him best.

 

PARADISE LOST - written in 1658-65, published in 1667; a great epic poem in English meant in the words of Milton himself 'to justify the ways of God to men'. It is a biblical story of Creation, of the fall of the Angels and the Fall of Man finishing with the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It is told in blank verse. He united the Bible with the classics. Human is able to grasp the divinity. It was all dictated, as he lost his sight.

Epic conventions:

• Subjects matter - epic is concerned with the origins: the founding of the city or a nation (the hero and his descendants)

• Epic design - the immense scope of the epic

• Epic action - includes appropriately elevated, heroic deeds (even Satan performs epic deeds - he is a hero)

• The grandeur of epic - deals with the many areas of life, has a strong sense of history and the diversity of human cultures, presents not only the foundation events of a nation, but of the whole world, encyclopaedic scope (religion, literature, history and geography); interweaves the human world with the gods (classical influence).

• Epic style:

• The opening - opening invocation, that calls the Muse for inspiration, announces the theme of the epic. Milton calls up the Holy Spirit - the heavenly muse - for aid.

• The Starting point - the action starts in the middle of the narrative. Paradise Lost begins with the fallen angels, newly ejected from Heaven.

• The elevated style: diction and syntax (they become complex when they contain the number of clauses) Latinate diction - words of Latin origin; complex sentences.

• Epic similes: comparisons extended over a number of lines ('the fallen angels compared to the plague of locusts')

• classical allusions: messengers (in Milton's epic this role is taken by angels) and lists (the countries seen from the highest point in Paradise Lost) are important features.

 

 NA PIERWSZYM TERMINIE 2014:

3 zadania byly:

• 1 za 22 pkt forma abcd, pytania typu jak nazywal sie autor Piersa Plowmana, o kenning, o jakies szczegoly z teatru elzbietanskiego (o teatry jakie byly : owalne, utrzymywaly sie z public admissions, byly poza teytorium londynu, wszystkie powyzej - wszystkie powyżej jest poprawne), ile versów jest Beowulfa, ile Shakespeare napisał plays, itd itp.

• 2 zad za 20 pkt po 5 pytan opisowych, np cechy metaphysical poetry, rozwoj sonetu w Anglii, kim byl krol Alfred, co to morality play a co to mystery play. i Chaucer - wymienic jego 4 utwory w tym 3 dream vision

• 3 zad to 6 fragmentow z tekstow, tak jak na kolosie. podac autora, epoke i tytul. 3 zad za 18 pkt bylo i fragmenty z Gawaina, Canterbury Tales: Pardoner's Tale, Szekspir sonet 130, The Collar Herberta i sonet I z Amoretti, The Wanderer